May The Fürth Be With You – I

May 30, 2020 Madd FM

  Part I – Under the Influence ☘️☘️   For a small country on the edge of Europe that has had limited success on the global footballing stage (more to follow), Ireland has had quite a substantial influence on football globally and similar to how one can find an Irish pub in most cities around the world, so too can we see an Irish theme on a multitude of football teams and regions across the globe – largely based on the fact that the Irish have a deep history of emigration and relocating overseas during events such as the Great Irish Famine, British Rule and both World Wars I and II.     Closer to home we know that teams such as Celtic, Hibernian and St. Mirren all have Irish roots in terms of their origins, largely based on Irish communities in Scotland as well as a strong Catholic presence which contributed to the founding and development of these teams in their infancy. The Irish roots spread even further than neighbouring Scotland however – a quick trip over to Holland and one would discover that Ajax‘s first ever Manager was Irishman Jack Kirwan, who after successful playing spells at Everton, Tottenham and Chelsea went on to lead the club to the Dutch top flight for the first time in 1911 – his biggest legacy arguably being that upon promotion his side had to change their jersey to prevent a clash with Sparta Rotterdam, and so the famous red & white Ajax strip was born.   Move South and you will again find an Irish connection to football, this time in the North of Spain. U.D. Salamanca were founded by a group of Irish students (see below) all the way back in 1907 and the club went on to contest at Copa Del Rey and La Liga level all the way until the club was dissolved in 2013. Further afield in Chile, one can find the amazingly named O’Higgins Fútbol Club, named after Chilean independence leader Bernardo O’Higgins whose father was born in Sligo, Ireland. Founded in 1955, the club has gone on to play at the top tier of Chilean football winning the Primera Division for the first time in 2014.   U.D. Salamanca Irish founding players (Credit: irishsliceofmadrid.com)   Staying in South America, we also see a strong Irish influence across the domestic leagues in Argentina; Boca Juniors earliest days as a football club were shaped by Irishman Paddy McCarthy who coached the team in their first ever game in 1905, a 4-0 win – the rest as we know is history. Another one of the most successful clubs in Argentine history, Vélez Sársfield are named after prominent lawyer and politician Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield whose grandfather originally emigrated to Argentina from Ireland in the middle of the 18th Century. George “Jorgé” Sarsfield is most certainly not the most well known Irishman to rise to prominence in Argentina however; that mantle rests with Admiral William Brown, who after initially emigrating to the United States as a child before finding his way South became one of the country’s biggest war heroes – so much so that there are four Argentine football clubs named after him in the form of Club Almirante Brown, Club Atlético Almirante Brown, Brown Athletic Club and Club Social y Atlético Guillermo Brown.   The Irish Effect ⚽   Fürth things First   What’s all this got to do with the city of Fürth in Germany? Well, technically nothing 🤷‍♂️. As I was trawling through the annals of both Irish footballers abroad as well as combing through the various playable leagues and teams in Football Manager, a specific football team’s logo and kits caught my eye for obvious reasons: Randomly, Greuther Fürth who currently play in Bundesliga 2 in Germany have a shamrock embedded in their club badge and needless to say this Irish writer was quite exciteable at first glance in terms of potential #narrative. Unfortunately this excitement was quickly cut short when further research unearthed that the shamrock in the club’s logo is taken from the city of Fürth’s Coat of Arms – the origin of which is unclear but according to Wikipedia “the trefoil probably represents the three powers responsible for Fürth during the Middle Ages as well as being a symbol of the Trinity.”   WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT.   Despite appearing to have a distinct Irish connection both in their badge and their jerseys (writer’s note: source one online asap), it appears there is absolutely no Irish connection to the club whatsoever – therefore it’s time we gave them one:       Normally if you asked me to make something more Irish I would just add whiskey to it – however in this case, the Irish influence comes in the form of our new Chairman Niall Quinn who completes a fictional takeover of the club courtesy of a quick switch in the Football Manager 2020 Editor. You might remember something similar happened back in 2006 when Quinn brokered a deal to take over Sunderland, whereby he became Chairman of the club, hired Roy Keane as Manager and the club brought in a multitude of Irish internationals including the likes of Anthony Stokes, David Connolly, Liam Miller, Paul McShane, Roy O’Donovan, Ian Harte and Andy Reid. While we won’t be restricting ourselves to Irish players only (I’m not completely mad), we will indeed be having a similar Irish influence on the club mainly through player and staff additions, friendly tours and affiliations with Irish clubs, trying to push for as many Irish youth candidates as possible and as is the usual case in my saves, reaching a point where we have an Irish Manager (aka me) in the hotseat at both Greuther Fürth and the Ireland National Team. We will not be making any adjustments to the club’s finances, transfer budget or wage budget therefore we will take over at Greuther Fürth exactly as they are at the start of any FM20 save with the exception of Niall Quinn replacing Fred Hofler as Chairman.     What We Know About Greuther Fürth   Located in the city of Fürth (population 127,748) in the Northern Bavaria region of Germany – you just know they have cracking beer there Last appeared in the Bundesliga in the 2012/2013 season after winning the 2. Bundesliga the year before, however the club was relegated in their first season back in the top flight and have been playing in the second tier ever since Nicknamed the “Kleeblätter” (cloverleaves), the club play their home games at Sportpark Ronhof Thomas Sommer, capacity 18,000 Current key players include Maximilian Wittek, Paul Seguin, Julian Green, Havard Nielsen and Branimir Hrgota (more on these later) Closest rivals are FC Nürnberg, with matches between both sides known as the “Frankenderby“ Notable former players include Gerald Asamoah, Jorg Albertz, Ralph Hasenhüttl, Tim Sparv, Tom Trybull, Johannes Geis, Baba Rahman and @FridayNightFM‘s favourite Champ Man legend Nii Lamptey.     The Irish Revolution   Naturally the first place to start is our backroom team – myself and Niall alone aren’t enough to kickstart the Irish revolution, and while a lot of non-playing personnel are initially reluctant to pack up and leave for pastures new in Southern Germany, we managed to bring in an almost full contingent of backroom staff from the Emerald Isle (Kevin Hunt gets a pass considering he is a really good scout and spent 10 years playing in the Irish league).     There you have it – I was going to continue and talk about playing squad, tactics and transfers however we get a phone call from Niall Quinn advising there is an urgent staff meeting at this location:    If we can’t go to the pub in real life then you can be damn sure fictional me will be found at the only Irish bar in our new home town of Fürth – the Irish Cottage Pub. Let the craic begin. MaddFM.   As always, thanks for reading – thoughts, likes, hates, shares and feedback are always welcome either below or on the Twitter. More to follow in a few days 👌.    

FM Game of Thrones

May 14, 2020 Madd FM

  5 Teams to Overthrow in Football Manager   We’re well used to certain teams dominating their domestic kingdoms in modern-day football. The likes of Celtic (8 in a row), PSG (6 of last 7), Bayern Munich (7 in a row) and Juventus (8 in a row) have all been annihilating their enemies for many years now to the point where it has become almost guaranteed that they will win their domestic league each year, thus ensuring their dominance ever increases due to the repeat annual financial reward that comes with silverware and European qualification. The only thing that can stand in their way? Football Manager. Here are 5 “Fight for the Throne” challenges where the objective is simple – overthrow the King, dethrone the supreme ruler from their ivory tower by knocking them off their perch and putting an end to their spell of dominance once and for all so that a new ruler can rise from the ashes and reign supreme over their footballing dynasty.   1. Austria – Red Bull Salzburg (6 years flying) Though not one of the most prolonged spells of dominance reigning supreme for 6 seasons straight in the Austrian Bundesliga, Red Bull Salburg are arguably one of the most difficult teams to overthrow in a single nation primarily based on the fact that they are by far the richest and most exclusive club in the country. The sponsorship of Red Bull combined with the recent success of former players such as Erling Braut Håland, Sadio Mané and Takumi Minamino combined with current stars like Domenik Szoboszlai and Maximilian Wöber mean that Salzburg are now the destination of choice for most players in Austria and abroad. David Alaba’s former club Austria Vienna last won the league in 2013 while teams such as Sturm Graz and Rapid Vienna have had a taste of Champions League football in the past before the Red Bull revolution. Do you have what it takes to clip the wings of Red Bull Salzburg?   Writer’s suggestion: LASK Linz are a relatively unknown entity outside of Austria and haven’t win the league since 1963, but after finishing second last season they were actually top of the Austrian Bundesliga prior to the Covid-19 pandemic along with playing Europa League football. With one of the best young goalkeepers in the league in Alexander Schlager there may just be a foundation on which to build a new empire in Austria.     2. Bulgaria – Ludogorets (8 years straight – LUDOcris) Hristo Stoichkov, Dimitar Berbatov, Nina Dobrev – we love Bulgaria. Defying all odds at World Cup 1994 to finish 4th after defeating World Champions Germany in the Quarter Final only to lost 2-1 at the hands of Roberto Baggio in the Semi-Final, Bulgaria have a proud and proven football reputation on the International stage. Unfortunately the same cannot be said at club level – despite the fact that Ludogorets have won the league for the past 8 consecutive seasons and are clearly the dominant force in Bulgarian football, they have only reached the group stages of the Champions League twice in their history and became the first Bulgarian side to pick up points at this stage back in 2015 in a 1-1 draw with Basel. Perhaps it’s time someone else had a turn?   Writer’s suggestion: While the two Sofia teams (Levski and CSKA) offer attractive competitive options, Botev Plovdiv provide a really interesting challenge in that they have (1) excellent youth facilities and (2) one of the best players in the Parva Liga in Todor Nedelev. Having not won the Bulgarian league since England last won a World Cup and having never qualified for Europe in their history, what are you waiting for?     3. Wales – The New Saints (8 years saintly) Who? You may remember The New Saints from such famed occasions as Liverpool vs Total Network Solutions in 2005 after the reigning Champions League winners played against the Welsh side for a place in the 2006 Champions League Group Stages due to the fact that Liverpool failed to qualify via the Premier League (needless to say they’ve changed their name since). While the top two superpowers of Welsh football play in the English league (yes I just called Cardiff and Swansea superpowers), let’s not forget there is a ferociously competitive league in Wales that has been conquered 8 times in a row by TNS to date. Considering TNS have never reached the Champions League group stages, perhaps it’s time to knock them off the Welsh mantle and come up with your own solutions to Welsh domestic football?   Writer’s suggestion: the other more well known Welsh teams are Connah’s Quay or Bala Town who also flirted with European qualification at one point, however it’s hard not to look past Barry Town if only for the Gavin & Stacey references alone (putting on a Welsh accent is also mandatory).     4. Belarus – BATE Borisov (lucky 13) That’s right – BATE Borisov have reigned supreme in the Belarusian league for 13 seasons straight. The last time another team were victorious in the Vyšejšaja Liha, the iPhone didn’t even exist yet and Twitter was only known as the sound a bird makes. Notable events for the club in recent history have been Aleksandr Hleb and victories over Bayern and Roma in the Champions League – doth this club have no equal?   Writer’s suggestion: if you are a true CM/FM fan, one cannot look past Dinamo Minsk purely due to the fact that they are the club who produced none other than CM legend Maxim Tsigalko (or Maksim Tsyhalka as he is known in the motherland). If that’s not #narrative enough…     5. Cyprus – APOEL (7th heaven) You may need to use a custom database to activate the Cypriot league in FM20, however in doing so you can take on the unique challenge of battling APOEL for control of the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, who have been bulldozing the Cypriot First Division for seven years straight without interruption. As if being able to name your save “Cyprus Hill” isn’t inspiration enough!   Writer’s suggestion: in taking over Anorthosi, you would be following in the footsteps of one of the maddest footballers to ever grace the Premier League. Ex-Newcastle and Wolves forward Temuri Ketsbaia is currently in the hotseat, dare you start the save by overthrowing him and proceeding to dethrone APOEL and conquering Cyprus?     There you have it – if you are looking for a new save or are in need of a serious challenge in which your mission is to perform a coup d’etat and dethrone the champions of that league, then hopefully this will give you inspiration to continue your quest for glory. Be sure to tweet @WeStreamFM if you choose to follow this path and let us know your progress. Remember:     Thanks for reading,   MaddFM.  

Looking out for #1

May 10, 2020 Madd FM

  Signing, developing and deploying Goalkeepers in Football Manager     Note from the author: I wrote this article for The Byline, Football Manager’s official online blog platform – below is the original version, with the condensed version available on the Football Manager website here. “Most kids dream of scoring the perfect goal. I’ve always dreamed of stopping it” Iker Casillas Goalkeepers can sometimes get a bad rap in football, and indeed they seldom seem to get as much recognition or praise within the Football Manager universe as perhaps they could and/or should from us virtual managers across the globe. Goalkeeper is arguably one of the most important positions on the pitch when you think about their individual contribution and influence on a game, but ask yourself – how much energy and attention to you give them when it comes to their development and training in Football Manager? Does your work stop once you’ve signed the right man? How many Goalkeeping wonderkids have we seen down through the years?   Join me as we delve into what goes into developing a top quality goalkeeper in Football Manager – analysing how to go about signing them, training and developing them to their full potential and most importantly deploying them successfully in a game situation so that you can be sure you are getting the most out of this position and overall ensuring that your own stopper develops in to Goalkeeper #1 rather than Public Enemy #1.   Part I – Signing Goalkeepers in Football Manager   Sooner or later most of us end up bringing in our own goalkeeper in a save rather than relying on the existing candidates to do the job – there’s something about making that call and bringing in your own man that makes it far more satisfying as we look to make our mark and put our stamp on the club that has been fortunate enough to be selected for undoubted greatness and FM world domination. We have seen many real-life examples in the past where clubs at the highest levels have struggled to replace a Goalkeeper that has been Number 1 at the club for a prolonged period, so much so that some teams have had to make multiple signings year-on-year before the right player/fit is found. But why is it so difficult? What is it that makes signing a long-term top quality goalkeeper such a challenge in the modern era? Let’s take a look at the key factors to consider when signing a keeper in Football Manager. Position It’s not just about signing a Goalkeeper. The modern game has evolved and we now have different types of Goalkeeper depending on formation and tactical style – Football Manager give us the option of deploying a Goalkeeper or a Sweeper Keeper therefore it’s essential to know what you plan to implement before taking to the transfer market. Whether you plan to use a standard or Sweeper Keeper, it’s important to factor that in when we start scouting candidates to ensure you find one that can play and own the position as well as that #1 jersey. The Player Report section will give an indication of a Goalkeeper’s best position and playing style – useful to note that FM classifies keepers has having one of two styles: Shot Stopper or Distributor which can further help decide where your keeper’s strengths lie. 2. Attributes In earlier versions of FM it was a lot simpler to identify a top quality goalkeeper, mainly as there were less attributes and factors to consider (this author only ever cared about “Handling” for about 10 years straight). Nowadays there are a lot more defining characteristics to differentiate goalkeepers and while it is obviously essential to have players who score highly in the Goalkeeping attributes department, it is equally important to consider the key Physical and Mental attributes that make for a strong goalkeeper – these are actually highlighted in game when looking at a player’s attribute screen but are often overlooked in favour of their goalkeeping attributes: Agility – “reflects how well a player can start, stop and move in different directions at varying levels of speed both on and off the ball” Anticipation – “reflects the player’s ability to predict and react to events going on around them” Concentration – “reflects the player’s mental focus and attention to detail on an event-by-event basis” Decisions – “reflects the player’s ability to make the correct choice both with and without the ball” Positioning – “reflects the ability of a player to read a defensive situation and position themselves accordingly” These are just the main key attributes you should look for in a Goalkeeper, however if you are looking for more in a #1 e.g. a Sweeper Keeper or a player that can be more influential / instrumental in initiating moves or counter attacks then you’ll need to ensure your top transfer target also possesses the following: Sweeper Keeper Distributor Acceleration Kicking Decisions Throwing Composure Vision Rushing Out Technique First Touch Decisions Bravery Passing 3. Player Traits (Preferred Player Moves) Not to be underestimated even for Goalkeepers – when you think about it, Goalkeepers are the one player who often have the most time on the ball compared to any other player on the pitch, so it’s important to both understand and seek out what it is you want them to do with it! Goalkeepers in Football Manager offer a number of different PPM’s including: Tries to Play Way Out of Trouble (rather than safety first / no nonsense clearances) Uses Long Throw to Start Counter Attacks (often a deadly secret weapon for teams playing this strategy) Avoids using Weaker Foot (uses stronger foot even if situation would suit use of other foot) Gets Crowd Going (essential) Winds Up Opponents (advantageous)   4. Backup / Third Choice Keepers If you are one of those that doesn’t name a keeper on your bench then look away now. Both your backup and/or third choice keeper can have essential roles to play in your squad, even if they don’t partake in a single minute of competitive football. Second in Command Your backup should be your future #1 – the player you are grooming to take over between the sticks should your current first choice keeper move on or be poached, or even get injured or lack fitness etc. This goalkeeper can be learning from your first choice keeper week in week out as well as getting first team football in cup games or games against lower opposition, and needs to be ready at a moment’s notice therefore it’s important to be strategic when it comes to signing a backup stopper. Set Pieces Alternatively and if you are content that your current #1 will be wearing the gloves for many years to come – why not make the most of that first substitute spot by signing a backup keeper who is a penalty expert? We have seen it happen more and more frequently where real life managers have controversially withdrawn a keeper after 120 minutes in favour of bringing on a keeper who is more skilled or experienced in penalty situations – why not have your own penalty specialist on the bench just in case? There isn’t yet a “Penalty Saving” attribute in FM (note to self: suggest on SI forum) however having a keeper with strong Decisions, Anticipation and Composure will do no harm in maximising your chances in a shoot-out situation (as well as a bit of “Winds Up Opponents” for good measure). Third Choice With regard to Third Choice – it’s simple, don’t waste the opportunity to bring in an older statesman; an experienced Senior or International goalkeeper who is content not to play games but equally will have a huge influence your squad through mentoring and leadership as well as (usually) sitting high up the Squad Dynamics pyramid. We have seen many clubs using this recruitment strategy to fill that third choice keeper spot, and the benefits can be far greater than merely filling a home-grown slot in your squad registration.   5. Age vs Prime We always argue that age is just a number – but not necessarily when it comes to Goalkeepers. Most of us have a fondness for signing and developing squads of wonderkids and youth prospects, often refusing to sign players over a certain age either due to the Board’s or your own Club Vision. This is usually par for the course in FM, however remember that Goalkeepers will generally hit their prime a lot later than an outfield player; while a 19 or 20 year old Striker can bag 25 goals a season, a Goalkeeper at that age has not even come close to maturing as a player and most Goalkeepers play their best football aged 30 and above. The same players are retiring far later than in previous years, therefore don’t fall into the trap that your Goalkeeper needs to be a wonderkid or hot prospect in order to take that #1 spot.   Part II – Developing Goalkeepers in Football Manager   Many of us will stop there once the right man is signed. Why spend time focusing on goalkeeper training and development when you can be optimising your long throw-ins or enhancing your wonderkid Striker’s movement in the final third? It’s simple – if you neglect your goalkeeper, you will be punished. We have all seen those now infamous keeper mistakes, unjustifiably kicking the ball straight to the opposition and having moments of madness where they fold under pressure and commit howlers for all to see. Believe it or not this happens in real-life as well as in FM, however there are steps you can take to try and reduce these as well as ensure your goalkeeper continuously improves as a player and get as much out of this position as possible. Playing Time Pathway Never underestimate the impact this has on your younger goalkeepers who so badly crave and require first-team football in order to develop and mature into a quality stopper. When we sign Wonderkids we often tend to only loan them out at an extremely young age and then attempt to blood them in the first team as soon as possible; remember, Goalkeepers reach their prime a lot later than outfield players and if they aren’t going to feature in the first XI then loaning them out for first team football is an absolute fundamental part of developing their Physical, Mental and Technical attributes. Alternatively and again as we see frequently in real life – playing your youth keepers in Cup games is a sure way to drive their development and ensure they are improving by getting exposure to higher levels of first team football. FM20 introduced different types of Keeper Role when it comes to signing and offering new contracts to Goalkeepers be it First Choice, Cup Keeper, Breakthrough Prospect or just plain Backup – this not only sets expectations with the player but also lays out a clear pathway for their development. Just make sure you live up to this and deliver on your promises! 2. Goalkeeping Coaches It goes without saying that you should sign specialised Goalkeeping Coaches with the highest coaching attributes possible in the Goalkeeping department, however keep conscious of the fact that there are 3 Goalkeeper Coaching attributes for a reason. Some coaches will naturally be more experienced/specialised at Shot Stopping, Distribution or Handling therefore you don’t need to get hung up on trying to sign a coach who has 20 for all three! If you are looking to improve your keeper’s distribution then that coach should also have good Technical coaching attribute also; if Shot Stopping is your priority then perhaps a coach with high Tactical coaching can help train your keeper to get in the best position possible and also improve their 1 v 1 ability; Handling focuses on Ball Handling as well as Aerial Reach, Command of Area and Communication therefore it will do no harm to…

We Are United – 9

May 09, 2020 Madd FM

This is the ninth post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     Today’s post is all about this man:     If you’ve followed this blog from the beginning (go back and catch up, I’ll wait) – you’ll know that one of the objectives of this save in addition to restoring Newcastle to the pinnacle of English football (without Saudi cash) is to also recreate history on Tyneside by signing players that emulate or replicate previous Newcastle legends who left a legacy with the Geordie faithful. To date we have so far completed the following:   Position Legend Nationality FM20 Version GK Shay Given Irish Gavin Bazunu RB Warren Barton English Max Aarons LB TBD TBD TBD DC Philippe Albert Belgian Zinho Vanheusden DC TBD TBD TBD MR Nolberto Solano Peruvian Christian Benevente ML TBD TBD TBD MC TBD TBD TBD MC Temuri Ketsbaia Georgian Valeri Qazaishvili STC Faustino Asprilla Colombian Alfredo Morelos STC TBD TBD TBD   As you can see we still have some gaps to fill and today we will do exactly that; ladies and gentleman I give you David Ginola:     David Désiré Marc Ginola (yes that’s his full name) signed for Newcastle in the summer of 1995, a year after becoming persona-non-grata in France following a mistake which led to Bulgaria scoring the goal that stopped France qualifying for World Cup 1994. He became a crucial part of Newcastle’s most successful Premier League side, whereby they famously finished second in consecutive seasons and it was only the departure of Kevin Keegan that led to Ginola’s departure to Tottenham following a breakdown in relations with new manager Kenny Dalglish. Despite that, Ginola is still firmly a fan favourite on Tyneside and although he went on to play for Spurs, Aston Villa and Everton it was at Newcastle where English fans clearly saw his best work.     As is standard process in this blog series, we take to an earlier version of Championship Manager to give us the tools with which to go out and find the next David Ginola.     Creativity (i.e. Vision), Flair, Passing, Set Pieces, Technique – the man was quite literally gifted, we may have a tough task on our hands trying to find an FM20 player to emulate “Le Magnifique” within our price range and interest level (writer’s note: cool the man crush).     Aside from Dmitri Payet who would need to reconsider retirement should we deem him a person of interest, the most promising result is real-life Lyon player Florent Da Silva who ticks all the Ginola boxes including having an absolute masterpiece of a haircut. Newcastle fans will literally be reeling in the years seeing this lad on the turf at St. James Park if we can make a deal happen. The kicker? Tottenham have already beaten us to it, having already signed him at the beginning of last season for £9 million and the lad hasn’t even kicked a ball for them yet. Naturally when we make our bid they only ask for £64 million (exactly 25.6 times the price Newcastle paid for Ginola), so instead we go for the loan option in the hope that they will hopefully forget he is any good and let him go for about half of that at the end of the season.     Sometimes one just isn’t enough though and a for me a loan deal isn’t enough to get him in our “Replicas” XI. If Da Silva has a decent season for us it will make it increasingly difficult to persuade Tottenham to let him go, so we returned to France to continue scouring through the leagues until we came across another youth prospect in the same mould as Monsieur Ginola. It’s takes £5m to convince Lyon to part with Bradley Barcola who looks like he could be the real deal based on his physical and technical attributes – I’m thinking Ginola meets Saint- Maiximin and potentially a whole new type of player on that left hand side.       A New Season   I could be called stubborn for how we’ve approached this transfer window (Writer’s note: of course you’re stubborn you’re Irish). Based on the fact that we spent heavily in the last two summer transfer windows, have bought a lot of players by only paying 50% up front with the rest spread over the next 2-3 seasons, and also looking at the age and potential of our current squad – we make two decisions with regards to transfers in this window: No marquee signings We will turn a profit in terms of transfer revenue With our finances still taking a hit every year due to installments for signings like Aarons and Szoboszlai, it’s time that we give something back to Chairman Blower in the form of adding back to our bank balance, and for the first time in this series we bring in more through player sales than we’ve spent on incoming transfers. £23.5 million is earned through the sales of Sean Longstaff (West Ham) and Paul Dummett (Sheffield Wednesday) while we ourselves only spend £17.5m in total which is pittance for the Premier League in 2022.     Needless to say this is a somewhat risky transfer policy – I am banking on all of our younger players and previous signings to come good this season, with the likes of Bazunu, Vanheusden, Szoboszlai, Reyna and Esposito all ranging from 18-22 years old and playing regular first team football. If not – well, another difficult season could like ahead based on what our rivals (if you can call them that) have been up to during the transfer window…..no pressure there then……       Foreign Policy   As you can see – we add a couple of interesting names to the side via the additions of American George Bello to cover at LB and Keisuke Miura who is an 18 year old promising Attacking Midfielder from Japan. Not only are both very good players, they also might help us to expand our market reach further afield and it will be interesting to see if we observe a financial benefit of these signings through shirt sales in the USA and Japan etc. Miura fails to obtain a work permit but we sign him anyway and immediately loan him out in the hope that we can score a work permit for him further down the line…more on this later!     Saturday 30th August 2022 – In Game 💻     It’s the start of a new season here at St. James Park as Newcastle get ready to host Watford in the opening game of the 2022/2023 Premier League season. The visitors defied all expectations last season by finishing in 5th place last season, while Newcastle will look to improve on their 11th place finish if they are to meet the demands and expectations of the Toon Army faithful. Watford have been the far busier of these two sides during the summer transfer window, spending over £80 million on the likes of Emile Smith Rowe (Arsenal – £34.5m), Brandon Williams (Man United – £20.5m), Joe Willock (Arsenal – £15.25m) and Javier Montero (Atletico Madrid – £9.75m) while Newcastle have had their quietest ever window, their most expensive summer signing being George Bello at Left Back who isn’t expected to start today. Will home advantage be enough for his young Newcastle side or will this rejuvenated Watford team that will play Europa League football this season have too much in the tank for the Geordies?   Teams       A fantastic win to kick off the season which inspires us to go on and win our first three games in a row – picking up a smashing 5-1 win over Crystal Palace before beating Arsenal 2-1 in front of a packed St. James Park stadium. It tool Liverpool to end this run, whereby we nearly held them only to succumb to a Sadio Mane header late in the second half, and then Southampton capitalised on this hangover to beat us 2-0 in St. Marys.     After 5 games in our third season at Newcastle, we sit in 5th place and this writer is feeling somewhat positive and a little less sh*t at this game than in previous posts. That’s the dream right?     Thanks for reading, MaddFM.   Don’t forget to hit the Follow button below as well as leave some thoughts and feedback!  

Football Manager – Day One

May 09, 2020 Madd FM

  Note from the author: I wrote this article for The Byline, Football Manager’s official online blog platform – below is the original version, with the condensed version available on the Football Manager website here.   10 things you need to do before hitting that Continue button..   If you’re like me and usually take around 4 hours before hitting Continue after starting a new save, then you more than likely have Day One of FM nailed down by now. A combination of attempted perfectionism, OCD and general new save obsession means that days and weeks can pass before we reach our first league game..and I’m ok with it!   If you are not as inclined to spend hours deciding which U18 Physios and Set Piece routines you will need in your first season, then it’s important to remember that Day One in FM can be critical in terms of ensuring you get the right things done from the very beginning and avoid being slow off the mark when it comes to sorting out your teams, tactics, player/staff recruitment and financial situation right from the moment you name your new career file before saving for the first time.   Here are 10 essentials that every player should remember when starting a new save in Football Manager:   1. Engage the Board   This might be an obvious one, but being fully aware of how much room to manoeuvre you have with your Transfer/Wage Budgets has a huge impact on player recruitment before you kick off a new season. Older versions of FM didn’t offer as much flexibility in terms of how you use your Chairman’s coveted cash however now as Managers, we have much more scope to squeeze every last penny and maximise our transfer and recruitment activity in modern day FM. Amending the budgets, asking for more and ensuring you are getting maximum revenue from player sales will all contribute to a better cash and bank balance as you commence your empire at the club.     2. Friendlies for Cash   Most effective if you are managing a lower league club, but high-profile friendlies are a sure way to boost your finances during pre-season. When managing at League 1 or League 2 level, its possible to almost double or treble your bank balance by simply inviting a few of the big boys down for a kick about – you might sacrifice a bit of morale by getting a hiding, but it’s an excellent smash and grab technique to bring in some extra badly needed cash with which to bolster your squad.     3. Check Scouting Knowledge   This is almost too easy to overlook especially if you are new to the game – when you go to do a player search, the default setting for your scouting range/budget is limited to domestic or nearby nations/players meaning any search you perform will only produce players from that area!     This can easily be amended on the Player Search screen and can be expanded to widen your search parameters, or reduced if you’re in the business of saving funds!!     Sidenote – when looking for “Interested” players that would join your club, don’t forget you can change the interest level and potentially identify some additional players that are willing to join you if the price is right!     4. Club Philosophy   “The Manager knows the type of football they like to play up there”. Never underestimate a club’s football philosophy, especially in Football Manager. Reality would suggest that it’s the Manager, Coach and Players that dictate the style, tempo and tactic employed, however we must accept that this is a game built from lines of code and data in order to simulate reality. You can quickly learn a club’s preferred formation and playing style at the Add Manager screen and also after you select your club – it’s always good to think about putting your own stamp on the club’s playing philosophy but it’s no harm paying heed to this while you settle into the hotseat to ensure a smooth transition and pick up points asap.       5. Check Contracts and Release Clauses   This can be vital – whether you’re an elite club or lower league minnows, securing your prize assets and tying them down to long term contracts (with no release clauses) should be one of your first actions when taking the helm at a new club. One click of that Continue button and suddenly a sniff of interest from a bigger club has your best player unsettled and throwing his toys out of the pram pushing for a move. They say retaining your best employees is far more important and cost effective than hiring new ones – Football Manager is no exception.       This not only unsettles the player and leads to the inevitable demise of your working relationship – if they are in any way influential it won’t be long before they turn the whole team against you so get that contract signed asap!     A quick amendment to your squad screen will allow you to view and sort your squad by contract expiry and/or release clause to ensure you have the chance to retain these players if desired.   6. Team Report – All Positions   If you don’t necessarily know all your players and/or what formation to use – let the squad decide!! Checking the Team Report is common, but be sure to view “All Positions” to see where you have quality and depth and where you need to strengthen. You might not realise that you already have an unknown 4 star player in your rankings, allowing you to focus your budget and energies on other more important parts of the field.     7. Bargain Hunting   The usual tricks are extremely effective – checking the Transfer List, Loan List and Expired/Expiring Contracts list always reveal some top-quality signings regardless of club or stature. However, there are a couple of additional techniques you can use to go even further down the FM bargain rabbit-hole and potentially pick up a gem for an absolute steal. Minimum Fee Release Clauses are a fantastic way of finding players at reduced cost especially as some leagues (e.g. La Liga) require all clubs to insert a Minimum Fee Release Clause in player contracts, hence why the likes of Messi and Suarez have €500m+ clauses that no-one in their right mind would trigger. However if you are lucky and know what you are looking for, you can often find a quality player whose release clause is close to or even lower than their actual value in FM. Some examples below to get you started.     8. Mind over Matter   Football Manager requires strategy, intelligence, determination and at times extreme mental strength and resolve. Naturally the game also favours these attributes in players and staff in the game, so it’s worth taking this into account when signing players especially Wonderkids and Hot Prospects that have the potential to go all the way but are never guaranteed – attributes such as Determination and Decisions are essential however you cannot underestimate the importance of the Personality and Media Description values on a player’s profile. Even the most talented youngster can fail to meet their potential if they don’t have the mental strength to go with it.   A simple amendment to the Player Search filters and columns can help to narrow down on players that have both the talent and mentality to succeed and therefore are worth splashing your chairman’s precious cash for their signature.       9. Staff & Facilities   There is always a settling in period when joining a new club so you might as well shake things up – backroom staff play a key part in the success of any save and many FM players ignore this at the start in favour of transfers and rapidly clicking their way through pre-season etc. It’s essential from a training and scouting perspective to have the best staff in place to maximise your player development and recruitment early on – not to mention if you wait 3 months before signing new staff it can again unsettle things after you’ve already just passed through the honeymoon period! Bearing in mind the update on your first Youth Intake now comes earlier than previous versions, now is the time to get the right staff and best possible youth facilities / recruitment in place.   And of course, as per #1 above – always ask for more 😏     10. Enjoy it!   We all play FM for different reason, but for me the main enjoyment comes from picking the right club with the right level of challenge and finding as many ways possible to connect with and enjoy the save – whether it’s taking over your favourite club, resurrecting a fallen giant, lower-league mediocrity, global journeyman domination, content creation or playing a network save with your mates – giving your save a name, targets/goals, connecting with specific players/staff, comparing to the same club in real life and always quitting while you’re ahead (the session not the job 😄) mean that you’ll always be hungry for more, and FM can certainly provide as it has done and will continue to do for many many years. As the tagline goes – You Decide the Story.   Cheers, MaddFM.

What if…Thierry Henry never handballed?

May 09, 2020 Madd FM

  2009 is known in history for many landmark events – Global Recession, the release of Avatar, the death of Michael Jackson, Obama becomes the first ever African-American President of the United States, Somali Pirates attempt to hijack a cargo ship commanded by Captain Richard Phillips, Swine Flu, Miracle on the Hudson – suffice to say a lot happened in a world where Instagram didn’t exist yet and a 17 year old Neymar was was getting ready to make his debut for Santos in Brazil.   If you are Irish (or just an advocate of justice) – then you will also remember 2009 as the year that one of the greatest sporting travesties in history occurred which has gone down in infamy as one of the biggest sporting miscarriages of justice the world has ever seen.      18th November 2009 – World Cup Playoff Leg 2 – Paris, France    After winning the game 1-0 on the night courtesy of a goal from #WeStreamFM Wonderkid Hall of Fame inductee Robbie Keane, Ireland went up against France in extra-time at Stade de France with the World Cup 2010 playoff tie all square at 1-1 on aggregate. Having lost the first leg in Dublin to a Nicolas Anelka finish, Ireland had exceeded all expectations in the second leg by not only holding the French scoreless on their own turf, but also by winning the game and bringing Les Bleus to extra-time as both teams fought for a place at World Cup 2010 in South Africa.   Ireland more than held their own until the 12th minute of extra-time when a free-kick whipped in by Florent Malouda was controversially controlled and handled by Thierry Henry at the back post, resulting in William Gallas heading home a winner to put the French through to the World Cup finals, sending Ireland home both empty handed and outraged at the official’s decision to allow the goal to stand. To this day, Irish fans are still incensed by the decision, unaided by the fact that Henry admitted to handling the ball after the game had finished and needless to say he probably hasn’t shown his face in an Irish pub since the infamous incident occurred.     “Born on a wave of tears, righteous indignation and flat Guinness, thousands of dejected Irish football fans were arriving home from Paris today to a country united in fury and mourning over its controversial ejection from the World Cup finals next summer.” The Guardian, November 2009.     But what if it never happened? What if Henry wasn’t in that exact place at that exact time, if William Gallas had stayed back like he should have or if Darren Gibson hadn’t committed the foul which resulted in Florent Malouda’s free-kick in the first place? What if none of it ever happened? There’s only one way to find out:     World Cup 2010, South Africa     It’s June 2010 and the Irish team have just landed in Cape Town after qualifying for the World Cup for the first time since 2002, immediately hit by a wave of humidity and strange horn type noises that Damien Duff misinterprets as some kind of wild animal unleashed by the local football contingent. “Vuvuzelas lads” says John O’Shea, although his Waterford (South of Ireland) accent makes it sound like he’s had one too many Gin & Tonics on the 14 hour flight over. Understandable considering he watched Shakira’s “Waka Waka” World Cup song on repeat for the entire duration of the flight, regretting that it was his former Man United team mate Gerard Pique who got in there before him.     The Irish have (fictionally) qualified for the World Cup for only the fourth time in their history, heroics of USA 94 and heartbreak of Japan & Korea 2002 firmly behind them. Hopes are high in the camp, particularly with France missing out on qualification. “Pity” thinks Richard Dunne, lovely bunch of lads they are especially your man up front.     Ireland have been drawn in a challenging but equally qualifiable group alongside the Netherlands, Nigeria and Australia who are spearheaded by a man the Irish FA once attempted to change allegiances due to his Irish heritage, Tim Cahill. Having said that they have also tried the same with Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane and Kevin Nolan in the past but to no avail (let’s not even mention the Declan Rice saga), however English Goalkeeper Andrew Lonergan finds himself in the final 23 man squad as 3rd choice keeper – I wonder should someone tell him he will pushing for the title with Liverpool in 10 years?     The Dutch are natural favourites to top the group, boasting the likes of Van Persie, Robben, Sneijder and Van Der Vaart in their ranks who in real life led them all the way to the final back in 2010. Nigeria will be no rollover especially with the power and pace of Obafemi Martins and Chinedu Obasi up front, not to mention the steel of Joseph Yobo and Jon Obi Mikel in their Central Defence/Midfield area. Can this mixed bag of Irish Premier League regulars and Championship misfits help Ireland exceed their best ever quarter final finish 20 years ago at Italia ’90? (#OleOle).   Goalkeepers: Shay Given (Man City), Colin Doyle (Birmingham), Andrew Lonergan (Preston) Defenders: John O’Shea (Man Utd), Andy O’Brien (Newcastle), Richard Dunne (Aston Villa), Stephen Ward (Wolves), Stephen Kelly (Fulham), Seamus Coleman (Everton), Chris McCann (Burnley) Midfielders: Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Keith Andrews (Birmingham), Steven Reid (Blackburn Rovers), Aiden McGeady (Celtic), Damien Duff (Fulham), Stephen Hunt (Hull City), Liam Lawrence (Stoke), Darren Gibson (Man Utd) Forwards: Robbie Keane (Tottenham), Kevin Doyle (Wolves), Leon Best (Newcastle), Shane Long (Reading)   Now this is 10 years ago…Seamus Coleman has just turned 21 years old and no-one knows he is the best right back in the world yet (yes I just said that); Shay Given is 34 and wishes he never left the bright lights of Newcastle, while James McCarthy isn’t even old enough to drink in South Africa. Ireland’s hopes will lie with Robbie Keane and Damien Duff again just as they did 8 years ago in Japan and South Korea.     Tuesday 15th June 2010 – Greenpoint Stadium, Cape Town. Ireland vs Nigeria – World Cup 2010 Group G     It was Nigeria who started strongest, with early chances falling for both Obafemi Martins and Chinedu Obasi. The latter has actually signed for Barcelona within this FM universe so take from that what you will. After being previously caught in a tug of war between Man Utd and Chelsea Jon Obi Mikel is pulling the strings in midfield, but his Irish counterpart Glenn Whelan looks more than capable of handling him in the Ireland engine room.   Nigeria are starting to get their groove on when the unthinkable happens – a throw-in in the Ireland half leads so some quick passing from the Ireland team, before Keith Andrews threads a ball through to Robbie Keane whose finishing as always is unquestionable…GOAL FOR IRELAND!!!!!     Irish fans don’t know how to react – elation, apprehension, excitement and fear all come in a wave at once and even the vuvuzelas can’t drown out the celebrations despite the fact that we are only 9 minutes into this epic encounter. Fully not used to being ahead so early on and having to defend a lead (see Ireland vs France, Euro 2016 Quarter Final for further info) – can the boys in green hang on to claim a precious win against the Nigerians?     A never-doubted rock-solid performance from Richard Dunne and Andy O’Brien lead to Ireland picking up all 3 points in Cape Town, while over in Durban there has been late drama as Arjen Robben’s 95th minute goal puts Holland 2-1 up against Australia before ex-Newcastle and Rangers defender Craig Moore heads home a 97th minute equaliser for the Socceroos, causing absolute scenes with the Aussie fans who jump higher than a kangaroo on a trampoline with joy. Ireland are top of Group G after Game 1 of the World Cup!     Sunday 20th June 2010 – Free State Stadium, Bloemfontain Holland vs Ireland – World Cup 2010 Group G   Needless to say a much tougher encounter is on the cards in our next game as we face Holland who as we know went on to the final of this tournament only to narrowly lose to Spain in extra time. Luckily for us, Wesley Sneijder is out injured for the rest of the tournament, his place taken by Nigel De Jong who has less fond memories of that final due to the red card earned which gave Spain the upper hand. Unfortunately Damien Duff is also out through injury as Ireland make two changes, Stephen Hunt replacing him and Steven Reid taking the place of Keith Andrews in midfield.     Is the word deja-vu French or Dutch?? De Jong almosts lasts the full game without getting sent off until he is given his marching orders on 93 minutes, clearly frustrated by another given which was Shay in the Irish goals who managed to produce a string of saves to earn Ireland a clean sheet and a valuable point against one of the tournament favourites. Over in Pretoria, Nigeria have been the Aussies 2-1 and somehow we’ve managed to stay top of the group despite only scoring one one goal in two games – it’s an absolute tactical masterclass (writer’s note: pffftt).       Friday 25th June 2010 – Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg. Ireland vs Australia – World Cup 2010 Group G   You’d have to be confident against Australia. Aside from a 31 year old Harry Kewell who is currently plying his trade at Galatasaray along with our brother from another mother Tim Cahill, they haven’t got a lot to offer and never has an Ireland team had such an opportunity to progress to the last 16 of a major tournament. Fosters anyone?     With Duff still out injured and Whelan suspended, Hunt keeps his place and Darren Gibson makes his first appearance of the tournament. No silly tackles Darren yeah? (thankfully he’s not driving over here either). we assign him to look after Cahill, while hopefully Harry Kewell can be kept quiet so we can send him packing to the bright lights of the Turkish Super Lig.     It almost went perfectly, Ireland defending admirably although the same could be said for Australia right up until Kevin Doyle opened the scoring on 64 mins. We brought on James McCarthy and Stephen Ward to try and see out the game however Mark Bresciano equalised on 77 minutes to earn a point for the Australians – we can get over that though, WE’VE QUALIFIED FOR THE LAST 16!! Our 5 points mean we have a chance of finishing top of the group depending on how things ended over in Ellis Park just 15 mins down the road..     It’s a shock result for the Dutch as Nigeria romp home to a 3-1 victory, meaning Holland fail to win a game and actually finish bottom of the group on goal difference! Unfortunately Taye Taiwo’s 79th minute penalty means we finish second and therefore get a potentially harder draw in the next round.       Tuesday 29th June 2010 – Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane. Ireland vs Cameroon – World Cup 2010 Last 16   The shock results didn’t stop at Nigeria beating Holland as over in Port Elizabeth, World Cup favourites have been beaten 1-0 by Cameroon and this coupled with a 0-0 draw against Honduras in their second game means they are knocked out of Group H. Had they qualified they would be our next opponents and we would surely be on the next flight home; instead we now face an in-form Cameroon who topped their group led by that man Samuel Eto’o – he will…

We Are United – 8

May 04, 2020 Madd FM

This is the eighth post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     Tuesday 1st February 2022 – In Game 💻   If it was Dry January that led us to picking up 5 wins and two draws then it must have pissed Guinness all over February and March…although that would be a far more enjoyable black & white sight than our performances on-field during this period.     I’m starting to wonder if I’m just really sh*t at this game. We started February ok with a spirited draw with League Champions Liverpool – bear in mind they are on course to win their third consecutive league title. However 1-1 seemed to be the result of choice on Tyneside as we enjoyed four of them over the two months; add getting KO’d from the FA Cup at home to Man Utd and not even Alfredo Morelos‘ first goal in 13 games could cheer us up as we finally picked up a win on the day after St. Patrick’s Day (only relevant because this blog started on St. Patrick’s Day 2020 IRL).   On a more positive note, we reach the end of March which is arguably the best part of the season in the Football Manager calendar and the time that all of us look forward to most: Youth Intake 🔥🔥.   Before a fresh new class of academy players arrive at the club, let’s do a quick reflection on the development of last year’s intake and also on some of the steps we have taken to (1) increase the quality of youth player being produced at the club and (2) what we have done to further develop these players since, so we can decide which of these may be featuring in the first team squad in the very near future.   1. Setting up for Success     Getting the proverbial “Golden Generation” is a state of mind. When we think about Golden Generations, the mind leans towards some of the more renowned generations in World Football – the Class of ’92 (Beckham, Scholes & co.), West Ham in 2001 (Ferdinand, Lampard, Carrick & Joe Cole) or more recently Ajax in 2019 where a group of kids including De Ligt, De Jong and Van De Beek almost went all the way to the Champions League final.     This doesn’t happen in Football Manager.   If you are lucky enough to see those two words in-game, then it usually means you’re likely to be given a handful of really strong prospects (closer to 3 or 4 than a full wonderkid XI) who will either develop towards the first team or alternatively bring in a few pounds later down the line if picked up by another club. There are a few things you can do to help increase your chances of getting a decent youth intake – some are fairly standard but are absolute essentials to maximise your youth academy output:   Youth Category Rating 💹 When we arrived at the club we were landed with the news that Mike Ashley and his cronies had managed to reduce the club’s Youth Category rating to 3…we might as well send them down to Sunderland to develop. This made correcting and restoring our Youth Category an absolute priority goal for the save, and by persistently plaguing the board to increase our staff members and invest in our youth structure, we successfully righted this wrong and are back among the top tier of English youth academies (and rightly so).     Youth Facilities ⚽ If you can raise a bit of cash and aren’t in the habit of squandering it in the transfer market, then it’s an extremely worthy investment to convince the Chairman to spend it on improving Youth Facilities at the club rather than on transfer or wage budgets. This has a natural influence on the quality and long term success of academy graduates and is crucial to build a world class youth academy, especially if you are basing your long term of your save success on the youth conveyor belt at your club.     Backroom Staff 🤼 Never underestimate the influence your backroom staff have in shaping the development of your youth players. It’s not just about having coaches with a good “Working with Youngsters” attribute; it’s important to have a spread of expertise in key areas which are all pivotal in enhancing your players’ potential: Technical Coaching (Dennis Bergkamp) Motivation & Man Management (Allan Stewart) Level of Discipline (Mark Chamberlain) Tactical (Alberto Ensinas) Defending/Attacking (Kevin O’Connor/Dirk Kuyt) Equally, bringing in a decent Head of Youth Development naturally influences the quality of your youth recruitment and development so it’s essential to recruit well for this role. Judging Player Ability and Potential as well as Working with Youngsters are the key attributes to focus on when hiring a HoYD – in our case, as we wanted to lean towards more Irish staff we went for former Ireland and Wimbledon midfielder Jon Goodman who I also remember meeting as a kid all the way back in 1995/1996 when The Dons welcomed Man Utd to Selhurst Park.     It’s not just about coaching. It’s vital to also focus on physical development, ensuring you have quality in terms of Physios, Sports Scientists and Fitness Coaches. Medical staff aren’t just there to treat injuries; they also contribute towards preventing them. What you want is strong able bodied players coming through with solid stamina and natural fitness as well as limited proneness to injuries and match fitness issues; how else can you develop players with these traits and attributes without hiring all of the above?     Finally, scouts that have the ability to expertly Judge Player Potential are also essential and somewhere where I realise we can also improve. Remember, newgens have to be found somewhere; having a quality scouting setup with scouts that can pick out a player can only contribute positively to your youth intake as you hope to unearth the next FM wonderkid. Someone once found Cherno Samba right?     2. Ongoing Development   After your intake comes through, it doesn’t end there. It’s essential to ensure you are proactively developing these players and doing your utmost to maximise that potential, while equally ensuring they are given enough time and support to get on the path to greatness. It’s not always easy to know for sure just how much your input contributes to their development, however in general you usually get what you put in when it comes to Football Manager. Doing something can be costly, but doing nothing will cost a lot more! Here are a few things that we implement to ensure real-time continuous development and improvement in our Youth Academy: Take Control of Individual Training – don’t be lazy! There are some things you just shouldn’t leave to your Assistant – youth development is far too important to delegate. Mentoring – a lot of FM players feel this has become ineffective or takes too long to achieve tangible results, however the best thing I can say about mentoring is that bringing an inexperienced youth player together with a resolute or highly determined senior member of the team can be invaluable to enhance the player’s personality and mental attributes and these are essential for a player to ascent through the ranks and become a top player in-game. Promote to U23’s as soon as a player turns 18 – even though they are still eligible for the U18s, it’s important to expose them at the next level to aid their physical, mental and technical development Loan Deals (over 18’s only) – I will only ever allow a player leave to go out on loan after they turn 18; this is to ensure they are all going through the standard mental and physical routine at an early age before going on to improve technically and positionally through first team football at another club. It’s also essential to only loan out when you know they will be first team regulars, otherwise they might has well hang back in the reserve leagues knowing first team football is guaranteed week on week. I’m hopeful last year’s intake (where we did indeed see those two magic words) has produced a few real quality youth prospects for us to develop towards the first team, as we have 2-3 players that are developing nicely on track towards first team football and have already been attracting bids from rival clubs like Everton, Wolves and Leicester.   Last Year’s “Golden Generation”   Tuesday 22nd March 2020 📅   There’s a knock on the door and Jonny Goodman enters, the culmination of his entire year’s work summed up in one portfolio which he places tentatively on the Manager’s desk. After last year’s successful intake, he appears apprehensive this time round following his earlier update that our two top prospects hail from Canada and Latvia respectively. “Not exactly two footballing strongholds are they Jon?” we asked, but he assures me that his intel is solid. How can you not trust a man with a name like that? #GoodMan     The first player profile in the gospel according to Jon is that of Nikita Pallo, whom one of our scouts with a fondness for Eastern Europeans spotted while on a routine mission in Liepaja, Latvia (Population: 68,945). Nothing suspicious about that however there’s no time to think about it once we see that we have a Latvian Attacking Midfielder on our hands with the following Media Comparison:   Now if you followed football around the turn of the century and/or ever played yourself a bit of CM01/02, you’ll know that Marians Pahars lit up the Premier League for Southampton, and in that iteration of Champ Man he regularly secured a move to the likes of Man United or Arsenal scoring 15-20 goals a season from the AMC position. Pahars is famously known for scoring a Perfect Hat-trick in his first trial match for Southampton upon which an £800,000 fee was immediately agreed with Skonto Riga making him the first ever Latvian to play in the Premier League; if Pallo turns out to be even half the player Pahars was we could have a bolt of lightning on our hands.     Jonny G also sings the praises of 16 year old 6″4 Welsh Striker Tom Williams who he describes as “Peter Crouch with touch”, as well as Canadian midfielder Donaire Douglas who I’m convinced has arrived thinking we are an Ice Hockey team judging by his Determination and Work Rate. I’m more interested in Irish winger Greg Barrett who aside from having a glorious head of hair looks like he could be a potential Irish international in the future.   2022 Youth Intake   I digress – back to business, after 30 games we sit in a very mediocre 11th place, 11 points behind 10th place Tottenham meaning a Top 10 finish is all but ruled out. Our mission for the remaining 8 games is simple:   🛑 If Burnley finish above us I’ll resign 🛑     I’m not even joking – Burnley have a team of hackers and senior citizens compared the squad we have, therefore if the gods of FM decide they are better than us then I’ll happily walk away from this side and let Joe Kinnear take the reigns from here – he’s well connected you know.       It seems the players aren’t that bothered either – with the exception of Sebastiano Esposito who finally starts to find some consistent goal-scoring form, it’s a month of below-par performances and I’m beginning to think that actually this squad will be better off without us. Chris Hughton messages to say I should download LinkedIn while Jon Goodman is actually pricing flights to Latvia for himself – with 3 games to go we are level on points…

We Are United – 7

Apr 23, 2020 Madd FM

This is the seventh post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     If I were to choose an appropriate song to describe the following post that ensues, it would most likely be “We Used to be Friends” by Dandy Warhols.   We started the 2021/2022 season with a narrow 1-0 defeat against League Champions Liverpool, I say narrow because of the scoreline and not based on their 41 shots on goal versus our single attempt (which wasn’t even on target). Newcastle fans are feeling optimistic about this season – signings like Patrick Schick, Giovanni Reyna, Max Aarons and Sebastiano Esposito echo years gone by on Tyneside, scenes that haven’t been seen since the Entertainer days of the Kevin Keegan era.   The season started brilliantly. 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat leave us flying high in 6th place after 7 games, the highlight being a comeback from 2-1 down to beat Brighton 5-2 in front of a packed St. James Park. New signings Esposito, Schick, Reyna and Aarons all get off the mark and suddenly Toon fans are dreaming of Champions League football (Writer’s note: it’s only October lads).       Now I know what you’re thinking – meh, nothing special about this save. Plenty of cash for signings, FM wonderkids, game is too easy – I probably would have agreed with you…       We picked up a win against Norwich in October, before a 6-1 battering at the hands of Antonio Conte’s Manchester City sets of a chain reaction of outstandingly mediocre to poor performances from literally every player on the field. The goals dry up, we concede 9 goals in two games and all of a sudden we are the Premier League whipping boys dropping from 6th in October to 13th place by the end of December. Christmas at the MaddFM household is a sombre one, with The Chronicle, Newcastle Herald and Newcastle Echo all calling for the the Manager to be fired before we enter 2022…sacked at Christmas ring any bells? (Christmas pun fully intended)       Chairman Blower (loving that name) must read the papers as we are summoned into a Board Meeting to discuss the team’s current performance. We sit outside the board room considering our options….the reality is we have completely new team with an average age of just 23; we are playing a tactic that means we play pristine tiki-taka football, but are still refining it as it’s producing very little end product; our top scorer is only 18 years old and is torn between becoming a Toon legend and hitting the clubs with Gavin Harris; and finally, the amount of mistakes we have made (writer’s note: it’s your tactics mate) have resulted in us missing chance after chance and conceding the most ridiculous goals the Premier League has ever seen. Will they buy my bullshit?     So, for the second time in two seasons we narrowly avoid losing our job..there can not be a third. It’s time to shake things up (again) to inject some life into this team.   New Year, New Us?   First things first – we are leaking goals…big time….defensively I still feel we have a solid back 4 in Max Aarons, Kristoffer Ajer, Zinho Vanheusden and Aaron Martín, while Ismael Bennacer has a 90% Tackles Won ratio playing in the Ball Winning Midfielder role. What can we change?   1. Goalkeeper   I’ve heard Doop repeatedly say on the 5* Pod about “not being a great scorer of goals, but a scorer of great goals” and I think a similar logic applies to Martin Dubravka in this save. The Czech stopper makes some outrageous saves in FM, but he just doesn’t make enough of them – conceding frequently in 1v1 situations and particularly struggling with long shots from outside the box. If you rewind back to the beginning of this save, one of our missions was to sign the next Shay Given and we did exactly that – after spending the first half of the season on loan at Blackpool, we recall Gavin Bazunu back to Tyneside and even though he is still only 18 years old, it’s time to take a gamble on him in the biggest league in the world.     2. Defensive Approach Having grown up in an era whereby Jack Charlton’s “Put ’em under pressure” philosophy was legendary among Irish football fans, I’ve always emphasised a “More Urgent” Pressing Intensity whereby we are always looking to press our opponents, close them down aggressively and as Jack would say “Put ’em under pressure” for 90 mins in the hope that we can break down their rhythm and regain possession or commence a counter attack.   This doesn’t work in FM..   I have found that any attempt by my defenders to close a player down means they leave acres of space behind them, and I have conceded countless goals due to balls over the top and/or opposition wingers getting in behind my full backs. Take the example below where our Left Back Aaron Martin gets caught out not once but twice wherein he has pressed too urgently (and pathetically) and allowed Man City’s wide players (Walker and Bernardo Silva) to capitalise on the resulting space left behind him:     I realised that although I had set my defenders to play a low line to try and prevent balls over the top, I had both the team’s and my individual defenders pressing intensity set to more urgent so that’s the first thing we change in order to maintain a lower line, absorb pressure once they arrive in the final third and eradicate the amount of goals conceded behind the defensive line.     3. Defensive Coach   Who knows how effective coaches are in FM – we all spend hours building the best backroom staff possible every year, however at times I am not always convinced on how much of a difference it makes! Either way, it makes me feel better to know that we have a strong defensive coach in our ranks, and that’s exactly what we went for:     4. Bad Juju   With the likes of Vanheusden, Ajer and Schar in the squad, there hasn’t been much room for Jamal Lascelles to feature despite still being Club Captain and actually having decent defensive attributes. Unfortunately the result of this is that he has become quite discontent at not getting any game time, and had a fantastic tantrum after we turned down a £4.7m bid from Crystal Palace for his services – so much so that he managed to temporarily turn the whole dressing room against me due to the fact that he is the most influential player in the squad. In the end we settled for a £5.75m bid from Zurich and we say goodbye in the hope that we can restore some morale and positive atmosphere in the dressing room.     5. Tactic Switch   For the third time in this series, we are going to do a tactic overhaul. After starting with a 5-3-2 WB formation before reverting to a 4-3-1-2 Narrow (both of which brought some decent football into the team) – I finally accept that the two-striker formation (see Post #3 for more info) simply hasn’t been effective for us and in 20 games our three Strikers (Schick, Esposito and Morelos) have managed just 12 goals between them. I am at the point where a jersey is being wasted on a second striker due to the lack of impact, so to shake things up we switch to a 4-4-1-1 bringing the likes of Allan Saint–Maximin and Christian Benevente back in the side to make more use of space out wide as well as provide support due to our low lying full-backs. I am keen to retain Giovanni Reyna in the Shadow Striker role between midfield and attack, therefore we sacrifice a Striker spot to facilitate it:     Crunch Time We now move on to the million dollar question….will all of these changes make any difference in helping us keep our job or has the proverbial horse bolted already? 🐴       ABOUT F*CKING TIME LADS!! We finally end the worst streak in the club’s history in a 3-1 home win against Leeds, and suddenly there is a spark of hope beginning to ignite at St. James Park. After scraping a 1-0 against Vanarama side Woking in the FA Cup Third Round, we have back to back wins and Manager MaddFM challenges his side to kick on and turn the season around. Does this young team have what it takes?     Unbeaten! 5 wins and 2 draws in January, and out of nowhere we look like a quality side – we concede late to draw with Man United before putting in our best performance of the season against Chelsea in the FA Cup 4th round where we batter them 4-1 at home. I would have said this result was the highlight of the month and of this remarkable turnaround, however..     We finish January in 11th place in the league, and with 13 games left to play we might just have an outside chance of getting European football next season. Whatever happens, for the first time this season – WE ARE UNITED.     Thanks for reading, feel free to share thoughts or comments below and be sure to check out WeStreamFM.com for more great blogs and FM content! Cheers, MaddFM (Paul).  

Ten “Keep your Wonderkid” FM Challenges

Apr 14, 2020 Madd FM

  Erling Braut Håland, Francisco Trincao, Joao Felix – we’ve seen it all too often where clubs in the modern football era are simply unable to retain their prize assets, and the Football Manager universe is no exception. Once a player’s head has been turned, it can be next to impossible for their employers to keep them at the club and some teams have even built this into their philosophy whereby they have become a conveyor belt for young talent by which they develop extremely talented high potential players with the specific intention of cashing in on them later down the line (think Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb, FC Porto etc). Other clubs have battled furiously to keep their top talent in the past however usually a combination of money, agents, ambition and reality means that they are more often than not fighting a losing battle to keep hold of their youth talent in the modern era.   What to do about it? Here are 10 “Keep your Wonderkid” challenges in Football Manager where the main objective is to hang on to a club’s most talented wonderkid and build a team around them as you start your empire in a new save.   1. Bologna – Emanuel Vignato   Signed from Chievo in January 2020 and subsequently loaned back for the rest of the season, Vignato returns to the Bologna side at the end of Season 1 in FM and at just 18 years old already shows bags of potential either as a Winger or Attacking Midfielder. Can you hold off outside interest and guide the “Rossoblù” to glory in Italy with Vignato spearheading the attack?     2. Stade Rennais F.C. – Eduardo Camavinga   Already known for producing talent such as Ousmane Dembélé and Sylvain Wiltord, Stade Rennais are no strangers to losing their prize assets to the more elite clubs in Europe. At just 16 years old at the beginning of FM20, Eduardo Camavinga is usually no exception and is more often than not snapped up by one of the European giants within the first season or two. His attributes and personality mean that he develops into one of the best playmakers in the game – imagine what you could do with Rennes if you built a team around him?     3. Brescia – Sandro Tonali   You could argue that Sandro Tonali is more well known to FM fans than Brescia themselves, however the club are no strangers to producing world class midfield talent down through the years with players such as Andrea Pirlo and Marek Hamsik all coming through the Brescia academy system. I have yet to see Sandro Tonali stay at the club past the second season in FM – if one could overcome that challenge then Tonali could arguably be the driving force in returning Brescia to the heights of Italian and European football. Can you resist the offers?     4. Norwich – Max Aarons   It’s not often we see a Wonderkid in FM who plays as a Right Back. Norwich have catapulted between the Premier League and Championship on numerous occasions over the last 20 years – keeping a player of Aarons’ quality would lay the foundation for bringing long awaited success back to Carrow Road – let’s be having you? (Writer’s note: more Delia references please)     5. Vasco Da Gama – Talles Magno   If you prefer managing further afield and/or managing in a different league outside of Europe – here’s one that might suit those of you looking for a new challenge. Talles Magno is as good a 16 year old youth prospect as you will find in FM, and this is usually reflected in a big money move to one of the top European sides within a couple of seasons. Naturally comfortable on either wing or up front, if you manage to keep him in Brazil then there is no doubt he will light up the league and help bring much needed silverware back to the club – the question is can you convince him to stay?     6. Red Bull Salzberg – Dominik Szoboszlai   Salzberg fans are still mourning the loss of Erling Håland however they can take plenty of solace in the fact that the future is still extremely bright at the Red Bull Arena with a player like Szoboszlai in their ranks. Already highly coveted by a host of top European clubs in real life, there is little doubt that one could build an entire team around the Hungarian if outside influence can be resisted.     7. Velez Sarsfield – Thiago Almada   Keeping with the theme of managing outside the larger European leagues – Velez Sarsfield present an enticing challenge not only to retain their most valuable asset in Thiago Almada, but also as it’s almost a decade since the club last won the league in Argentina. Would succeeding in the first challenge lead to success in the latter?     8. Birmingham – Jude Bellingham   Jude Bellingham turns 16 just at the start of FM20 and not only is he the most exciting prospect to come out of Birmingham for years, he is arguably the most exciting prospect to come out of England since a certain 16 year old Striker came on the scene on Merseyside a few years back. Birmingham have had mixed fortunes over the past number of seasons, and tying down Bellingham to a long term future at the club could surely be the catalyst in propelling the club back to the upper echelons of English football – reckon you can persuade him that the club can match his ambitions?     9. FC Porto – Fabio Silva   Granted Porto are former European Champions, however it’s a long time since the club competed with the bigger elite European sides and they have only managed to win the league once in the past six seasons (Benfica picking up the other five titles). Despite the fact that he is only 16 at the start of FM20, Fabio Silva is already well known both in and out of FM circles; if he lives up to his potential and can be kept at Estádio do Dragão then Porto fans could expect to see a spell of dominance and trophy success as a result of his goals and undoubted quality.     10. Olympique Lyonnais – Rayan Cherki   Lyon are a big club, huge in fact and have enjoyed their fair share of success at both domestic and European level over the past 20 years. When the going was good they were the best team in France winning 7 titles in a row, however it’s now over 10 years since the club last tasted the league trophy since the emergence of PSG’s unrivalled dominance in Ligue 1. At just 15 years old when starting a new save, it’s fair to say Cherki is one for the future in the game however if the right players and foundations are laid at Lyon in advance of Cherki’s impending arrival to first team football, then competing with and overthrowing PSG might actually become a reality if he develops and lives up to his potential.     Of course – keeping these players at their clubs is a big ask, especially with the increasing financial dominance of the major clubs combined with enhanced agent influence in the game – not to mention when the board decide to intervene and accept bids on your behalf! (yeah thanks boss). Here are a couple of tips to help you ward off any potential bids and succeed in the battle to retain your prized asset at the club:   1. Get that contract signed. It’s been said before and we can say it again – keeping existing employees is far more valuable and cost effective than hiring new ones, and if we apply the same logic to Football Manager then it is worth spending a little extra cash in wages in order to get that signature and keep renewing it regularly to ward off outside interest. They don’t call it a loyalty fee for nothing.   2. Minimum Fee Release Clause. If he has one, make sure it’s high. If not, the last thing you want is your board accepting a bid or fee that you haven’t sanctioned as manager. Setting a really high release fee means that at the very least you won’t lose the player for a fraction of his true worth, and also it helps to deter offers which don’t realistically meet the player’s true value. You might have to spend a bit extra in wages, but if that gets them to agree to a monster release fee then you can be confident of him sticking around for the long haul.   3. Sack the agent. This isn’t always an option, but if the opportunity presents itself it’s always worth asking the player to sack their agent if he/she are touting them to other clubs and making noise etc. The option usually appears after a bid has been made or if a new contract has been requested – you know what’s best for the lad, why would he need an agent?   4. Sign / Develop Favoured Personnel . If a player has some favoured staff members, bring them in to sweeten him up – brother, father, next-door neighbour, having them on board can help the player to lay down some roots and commit his long term future to the club. If he hasn’t yet got any, then it’s worth focusing on trying to become a favoured staff member for that player – usually achieved by giving them more playing time, praising training and match performances, helping them to win an International Cap and/or having positive interactions with the player. If you become best mates why would he ever leave?   5. Fulfil your promises. Whether it’s playing time, cup games, loaning them out, offering a contract or improving specific player or staff roles, always ensure to live up to your promises so the player has no reason to lose faith in you. Trust is key, even in a Football Manager simulation game based on data and dots on a screen.   Tempted by any of the above? Go for it! A lot of FM20 playing time left, if you have been struggling to get into a save or it’s time for a new challenge then hopefully one of the above can give you some food for thought as well as presenting a real and potentially difficult challenge to overcome..also there’s a good chance these players will move on in real life before long, so the sooner you get there the sooner you can prevent it from happening!   Thanks for reading, MaddFM.  

We Are United – 6

Apr 11, 2020 Madd FM

This is the sixth post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     1st April 2021 – In Game 💻   If the Football Manager end-of-season run-in was a gif, it would look something like this:     After showing vast improvements both defensively and offensively and starting to display a much improved solidity and familiarity with our new Vertical Tiki-Taka system, it all pretty much unravelled as we entered the last 8 games of the season. When we last left off we were in 14th place in the league with an outside chance of reaching the Top 10 if we could somehow manage to pick up 5 or 6 wins in our final 8 games. What actually transpired was this:     This writer is usually quite adept at finding blame for our misfortunes, however at this point I will have to accept that perhaps we could have done more particularly in terms of individual training, tactical instructions and in hindsight signing a bit more quality at the beginning of the season which we may have sacrificed in our efforts to recreate history/nostalgia on Tyneside by signing players based on some previous Newcastle icons from the last 25 years. Needless to say we won’t overly be changing this (I am that stubborn) and will continue to recreate history based on former Toon heroes (more to come!) – however we should probably ensure we are bringing in additional quality as we definitely lacked in depth as the season progressed.   By the end of the 2020/2021 season (our first as Newcastle Manager), the table looks like this:     Overall thoughts? Not great. 10 games won, only 44 goals scored and one of the worst defensive records in the division – I would like to say we are playing like the entertainers with the old “score more than you” philosophy however the reality is we haven’t been been that impressive on the attacking front either and this will be our main focus for next season. Liverpool defended their title, while it was a disappointing season for both Man City and Spurs who were pipped by Everton and Bournemouth respectively.     On a positive note – by and large our signings have been decent. Benavente and Qazaishvili have proved to be useful squad players just like their ex-Newcastle counterparts (Solano and Ketsbaia), while Vanheusden (the next Philippe Albert) continued to improve all season. Alfredo “I wish he was Asprilla” Morelos finished Top Scorer with a measly 12 goals in the league, while even 18 year old Gavin Bazunu who was signed to become the next Shay Given featured in 5 games while Dubravka was injured. Outside of those – Dominik Szoboszlai has cemented his place in the Mezzala role, still only 19 and while not shining has plenty of room to improve this season. Kristoffer Ajer has shown glimpses of quality featuring at both Centre Back and Centre Midfield (including that peach of a winner vs Leeds which was our Goal of the Season), while Jay Stansfield got a run towards the end of the season due to injuries scoring after scoring his first goal for the club against Aston Villa in the league. A bit too soon to decide whether he can be the next Alan Shearer – to be decided later. Overall our quest to recreate history has been enjoyable and somewhat successful, time to make it official:     YOUTH INTAKE In my first post I mentioned that one of our main objectives is to do what Newcastle haven’t done well since the days of Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne – produce some top quality local talent and bring them up through the ranks at St. James Park. Upon arrival at St. James Park you may remember us being presented with the news that Newcastle’s Youth Category had been dropped from a 1 to a 3 leaving a lot to be desired, however we put a big focus on this by pressuring the board to improve both our rating and facilities, as well as by recruiting a whole new Management team for our underage setup. The result?         Initial advice on our Youth Intake was promising – the words “Golden Generation” are indeed mentioned by our HoYD Jon Goodman, however the very mention of this usually leads to hopes getting up and subsequently smashed to pieces – we take with a pinch of salt and in the end while it is not actually a Golden Generation, our first intake produces a couple of really promising Youth Prospects. Regrettably our best candidate Steve Coulson (can I call him “Agent”?) is from Hartlepool and not Newcastle, however he has bags of potential and within a few weeks is already drumming up outside interest from the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd, Leicester and Wolves – not on this writer’s watch! Kevin Bolton and the wonderfully named Jerondy Howell don’t look half bad either.   2021 Youth Intake     New Season, New Us   As the saying goes – “Make hay while the sun shines” – what follows next is exactly that.   We mentioned I am not the most patient when it comes to underperformers as illustrated by the offloading of Joelinton for a measly £12m (i.e. at a loss of £22m). We decide that it’s time to give a few others similar treatment as we undertake a major squad overhaul while the lads are away on holiday….let’s begin.   Outs 👋👋   I had tried to sell Miguel Almiron to Club América in Mexico back in January after accepting a £15m bid, he has been shite all year with the exception of the last game of the season where he scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Southampton. In hindsight I am thankful that Chairman Mark Blower vetoed the transfer on the grounds that it wasn’t enough for him – this time around, no sooner do we offer him out that Leicester submit a £26m bid which needless to say is more than acceptable for all involved. Sorry Miggy but you just haven’t cut the cheese this season.     Isaac Hayden departs for Leeds in a remarkabe £18m deal, clearly they have plenty of cash after surviving their first year back in the Premier League. He is followed out the door by Emil Krafth who joins newly promoted Birmingham for £6m, as well as Matty Longstaff (Norwich £3.7m – turns out he’s not that good in FM) and Matt Ritchie who for some reason is wanted by Ukranian side Zorya Luhansk (£3.1m) – he won’t be alone at least, as Zorya also sign Britt Assombalonga because why wouldn’t they.   Ins 🔥🔥   With 100% of that Transfer Revenue put towards our Transfer Budget, we are able to add the bones of £50m to our already generous transfer budget of £55m handed over by Chairman Blower (has a nice ring to it right? :D). What would you do with over £100m to spend?       Patrick Schick arrives from Roma for £16m as we look to solve our goalscoring issues – echoes of Michael Owen and Patrick Kluivert here in terms of falling from grace to the North East of England however at just 25 we are hopeful his best years are ahead of him. If not, then we will look to Italian Wonderkid Sebastian Esposito who we’ve somehow managed to land for £18m from Inter – perhaps the Italian clubs are a bit strapped for cash following Coronavirus but we are happy to give it to them!     In midfield – with the departure of Almiron and Hayden we need to bring in both a Defensive and an Attacking Midfield option; enter Ismael Bennacer from Milan (£30m) who I hadn’t realised was at Arsenal as a youth player (his attributes are outrageous), and the highly rated Giovanni Reyna from Dortmund who is a steal for just £10m with his contract up at the end of the season. I knew this kid was the son of former Rangers, Sunderland and Man City player Claudio Reyna however I hadn’t realised that he was actually born in England until I spotted he has declared for them in FM – based on this our new side-mission will be to get him in the England team in time for the next World Cup in 2022 (writer’s note: ambitious given he is still only 18).     Of course, none of these signings are part of our recreating history project so let’s see what we can do there. We need Full-Backs; Pedro Porro returns to Man City after a decent loan spell, Ritchie and Krafth have left permanently and Dummett is average at the best of times. I start pondering previous Newcastle full-backs that have succeeded on Tyneside in the past (it didn’t take too long), with names like Beresford, Hughes, Carr, Janmaat, Santon, Debuchy and Domi all popping through my head – none of those really left much of a legacy at St. James Park, however two others do come to mind that were fan favourites and it’s decided that these are the two we need to replicate:   Barton (CM9798) and Enrique (FM10)   Warren Barton became the most expensive defender in English football when Newcastle signed him for £4m from Wimbledon in 1995 and although his career never flourished apart from a few England caps, he is arguably one of the best Right-Backs to have worn the black & white jersey; on the other side, not many will disagree that Jose Enrique was our strongest Left-Back in modern times and Newcastle fans were devastated when he left to join Liverpool despite the £7m transfer fee. So, we need an English Right-Back and a Spanish Left-Back – shouldn’t be too difficult?     We had already tried to sign Max Aarons at the start of the save, with the deal falling through at the last minute as Norwich went through a board takeover – back we went and agreed an even better deal this time around (£30m – 50% up front) and he arrives to fill the right back slot. Finding a decent Spanish Left-Back was a bit trickier – we toyed with the idea of signing the likes of Ruben Duarte (Alaves) and Javier Montero (Atletico Madrid) but once Aaron Martín showed he was interested, it was no contest and thus completes the left and right back positions in our Icons/Replicas First XI.       So – we’ve spent over £120m and brought in over £50m in player sales – let’s do a drive by some of the other clubs to see how this compares.     Dembele, Icardi, Belotti, Bentancur, Aouar – did I mention we already had defensive issues? 😨   Onwards and Upwards   Squad overhaul – complete! Just as we are preparing for the league opener in which we have managed to draw Liverpool away from home, we receive a timely piece of advice from the In-Game tips that show as we progress from day to day:     If this is the case then we have most certainly upset the balance and rhythm of the team, our squad looks a lot different but in this writer’s opinion a lot healthier and stronger than last season – of course our first test would have to be against the reigning champions on their own turf 🤦‍♂️.       Liverpool vs Newcastle United – Anfield, 7th August 2021     The day is upon us – our first league game in Season 2 at Newcastle, after spending £125m during the summer transfer window. We conceded 7 goals against the PL Champions last season losing 4-0 at home and 3-0 away – surely it can’t get any worse. Liverpool have a much of the same squad as in real life, with the…

We Are United – 5

Apr 09, 2020 Madd FM

This is the fifth post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     30th January 2021 – In Game 💻   If patience was a Manager attribute in FM, then I would have 0/20.     12 league starts, 9 sub appearances – 1 goal, 2 assists. Joelinton has not produced the goods on Tyneside this season, and surprisingly our “Temur Ketsbaia” replica Valeri Qazaishvili has been the one who has stepped up to the plate and grabbed a few goals in his absence, picking up 5 goals in 11 appearances to add to Alfredo Morelos 8 goals in 23. We spoke a lot about Striker partnerships back in Part 3 and these lads have pushed €40m flop Joelinton to the bench since before Christmas so we decided to offload him and put the £12m cash to much better use – more on that in a bit.   Speaking of cash – our esteemed (well he’s not Mike Ashley) Chairman Mark Blower seems to be in the festive spirit as he offers us the opportunity to revise our initial expectations this season – at the start our only option was aiming to avoid relegation, however it seems we have convinced the board that we are capable of more and as such we are able to increase our transfer budget from £16m to £20m meaning if we do things right, we could have close to £30m to play with this January transfer window….this writer feels a few signings may be impending 👀.     On the topic of signings – Zinho Vanheusden, the man we brought in last summer to be the next Philippe Albert (see Part 1 if you’re wondering why all the 90’s Newcastle references) has been really impressive – the 20 year old has kept Jamal Lascelles out of the squad and alongside Fabian Schar has given us an extra layer of steel and quality in transitioning from defence to attack. Both are Ball Playing Defenders with decent Technique and Passing, and each have also gotten on the scoresheet this season with Vanheusden picking up 2 goals so far in Set Piece situations – can’t wait until we play Man Utd.       When we signed Vanheusden we tipped him to lead the back line for Belgium at the next World Cup – the FM Gods clearly feel the same, don’t they say good things come in threes?          Did I Stutter?   When we last left off, we were just finding form at the end of 2020 following a major tactical revamp towards a more narrow Tiki-Taki style of play – this continued into January where we picked up 4 wins from 7 including wins in both the 3rd and 4th rounds of the FA Cup.     Granted we kept 3 clean sheets but two of them were in the cup and that won’t hold up in court. We have been very erratic and have stuttered our way through a few games not including the trouncing we got at Leicester. Since changing from 3 at the back to a flat back 4 we have conceded twice as many goals, so just as we focused on our attacking contingent in my last post, now it’s time to sort ourselves out defensively and find out where we have gaps and where we can improve.   We want three main things from our defensive players, in particular our central defensive pairing:   Right place at right time – we need intelligent players that don’t get caught out of position; too many goals have been conceded by getting caught behind the opposition striker and leaving Dubravka completely exposed (key attributes: Anticipation, Positioning, Decisions) Strong in the air – both defensively and offensively, we need to dominate the aerial battles both from opposition goal kicks as well as balls over the top and of course on our own set pieces where we can offer an attacking threat in the air (key attributes: Heading, Jumping Reach, Height) Can play a bit – our Centre Halves/Defensive Midfield seem to be in posession a lot, and with this vertical Tiki-Taka style they will be essential for us to regain posession and starting subequent counter attacks and build-up play through quality ball distribution (key attributes: Passing, Vision, Technique, First Touch).    Here’s where we stand currently in terms of our defensive backbone:     ✔️ No major issues with Tackling, Heading, Marking and Strength, Bravery etc. ❌ Lacking most of the attributes listed above to meet our 3 defensive objectives – poor Vision, Passing, Anticipation, First Touch and Technique.   So – with some additional money available from our revised budget combined with funds raised from the sales of Joelinton, Karl Darlow (Hull) and Dwight Gayle (Charlton) – all we need to do is find a technically astute defensive player who is tall, intelligent, good with a pass and strong in the air. Easy right?       Ok we haven’t really unearthed a gem here and Ajer is a well-known and unsurprising signing for a club of our stature – however looking at our shortcomings and where we need to improve, he is exactly what we need to fulfil our counter offensive strategy as well as help tighten up and solidify our defensive unit, and for me is an absolute steal at £20.5 million (50% up front).     Now – there are things you love to see and things that define why literally millions of us love this beautiful football simulation game:     Granted we started him in midfield and conceded two against Leeds at home, but on his debut Ajer steps up on 55 minutes and smashes home a 30 yard screamer to bag all three points in front of a packed St. James Park crowd…SCENES!!   As we arrive at the end of the January Transfer Window, I can’t help but be concerned that our only backup Striker is that man Andy Carroll. Fair enough he won us the game away to Salford in the FA Cup Third Round however he definitely doesn’t cut it in this league and with £10m in the bank I decide that we will try to locate a young, English Striker with bags of potential to whom we can give some time from the bench this season. It’s inconceivable to even consider looking for the next Alan Shearer already, however it’s nice to dream….     It takes the full £10 million to convince Fulham to let go of Jay Stansfield, an 18 year old 4 1/2 star Striker from Exeter whose attributes combined with his determined personality make him a potentially electric Striking option in 1 or 2 seasons to come. Already receiving plaudits in real life for his performances for Fulham U18’s, our mission will be to see him develop and succeed quite a bit sooner in our current FM20 universe. Time will tell!   I briefly wondered if maybe my spending has been a bit too extravagent for the club, obviously getting further and further from reality albeit we live in a Mike Ashley-free world at present. My mind was quickly changed however..     Progress or deja-vu?   We set out to achieve an improved defensive record in a month that sees us face Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea away from home – not forgetting that the latter two have just spent a combined £120m on two players in the transfer window. Nicolo Zaniolo has also just overtaken Neymar as the most valuable player in the game (£99m). Do we stand a chance?     I think we did alright! Aside from conceding three at Man City, we managed two clean sheets, lost to an 88th minute winner by Everton at Man United (confused?) and in the end we took Chelsea close. All in all we are starting to gel and improve tactically and if we are lucky (writer’s note: we aren’t), a late surge of form might just put us in contention for a Top 10 finish.     We approach the end of March at that can only mean one thing – Youth Intake 🔥👀.   Thanks for reading, MaddFM.  

We are United – 4

Apr 04, 2020 Madd FM

This is the fourth post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     25th October 2020 – In Game 💻   The image below pretty much sums up how things have gone so far – back to back good news! So much for all that two-striker partnerships talk 🤦‍♂️.     Uphill Battles  My last post contained three statements/wishes for this save: Pray that Joelinton is better in FM than IRL The future is bright in the North East Don’t jinx it   Update so far? He isn’t. Definitely not the near future. We did.     Our tactic hasn’t been that bad from a defensive perspective – granted we conceded 4 across two away fixtures with Burnley and Bournemouth, however in both games we conceded late trying to equalise which flattered the result for them. From then on we have been tough to break down and our three at the back (Lascelles, Vanheusden and Schar) have actually played quite well considering we are still the team predicted to finish in 17th place this season.     We just can’t score. 4 goals in 10 games makes us the lowest scoring team in the division. A lot of it is down to the fact that Joelinton and Alfredo Morelos between them couldn’t finish their dinner and although we have had and created chances, overall we aren’t creating enough clear cut goal opportunities and as a result our Cross Completion and Converstion Rates rate are among the worst in the Premier League.   Team Stats after 10 Games     Interestingly and without any logical explanation other than Goalkeepers having worldies against us – we somehow are 3rd in terms of Shots on Target Ratio – does this mean that we are doing everything right except scoring? (Writer’s note – no, we just don’t take a lot of shots).     Analysis   Something has to be done and this writer is f*cked if he knows how to fix this. Conversion Rate will be hard to improve considering we can’t change our Strikers who wouldn’t hit water if they were standing on a boat, however we start by doubling their training intensity focus (Final Third) and even put them in a Mentoring group with none other than Andy Carroll – what more do they need?   I feel that we collectively are lacking in the quality required to execute our tactical strategy in two main departments:   1. We are trying to always play wide, distributing the ball down both flanks to wingers or marauding wing backs and then trying to get early crosses in to our prolific pathetic Striking duo, however as evident above our Cross Completion ratio shocking (let’s not mention the FM animation of waiting to be closed down before attempting a cross) 2. Our passing and choice of outlet when advancing always seems really poor – constantly giving the ball away and choosing the wrong options leading Manager MaddFM to continuously demand more and try not to put his fist through the monitor screen.   Step 1   Initially my first action is to create a specific training schedule dedicated towards improving Ball Distribution & Set Piece Delivery, Transition from Defence to Attack, Chance Creation and of course Chance Conversion and goalscoring in the final third. Hopefully our attacking/technical coaches (namely Kevin Sheedy and Dennis Bergkamp) can work some magic here, to be fair it can hardly get any worse.      Step 2     A team is only as good as the sum of it’s parts. We aren’t good enough for what we are trying to do tactically – trying to play with a style and strategy that clearly doesn’t suit our players and more specifically our player attributes, so we will instead try to focus on our strengths and on choosing the right combination of players when it comes to team selection. There’s only one way to do this – it’s spreadsheet time:     I have chosen the attributes which are most important in our quest to become more attacking and effective when creating and converting chances, and then analysed this for every player that makes up our attacking cohort in a match situation – the results are powerful! We can clearly see that individually and collectively we are really poor in the Crossing department, as well as when it comes to Decisions, Finishing and Composure. On the flip side I am surprised at where we stand when it comes to Technique, Dribbling and Off the Ball. The problem with this? Allow me to demonstrate:     1. We are piss poor at Crossing yet I’ve had “Hit Early Crosses” on all season in an attempt to stop seeing the dreaded highlight where they wait to be closed down before attempting a cross.   2. Dribbling is one of our strongest attributes as a team yet I have had “Dribble Less” on since Day 1 in an attempt to play quick passes to get up the field as soon as possible.   3. Off the Ball is collectively high in this team but we don’t maximise Passing into Space and Roaming from Position etc.   Based on this – it’s time for a tactical revamp, slightly earlier than anticipated considering its only October but hopefully it will mean solving a problem now rather than later! I am stubborn enough to want to maintain the two Striker formation, but seeing as we are so bad in the Crossing department we are going to move away from focusing on width and wing-play towards utilising a tighter Tiki-Taka style, whereby we will focus more on carrying the ball forward as a unit and passing into space as we work our way up the pitch. This means we will scrap the use of Wing-Backs and sacrifice having an extra Centre half in exchange for bringing in an additional midfielder to act as a Ball Carrier for the team – it’s worth mentioning that Jonjo Shelvey has been outstanding despite our poor form (see below), so I’m inclined to try and capitalise on this while the going is good. I’m also impressed to see that new signing Christian Benevente is one of our strongest players based on the attribute analysis above, and with Miguel Almiron playing poorly and Allen Saint-Maximin on the long-term injury list, he will step in to the AP role behind our two strikers in the hope that he can bring the creativity needed to help us score a few goals at least.         I have no idea if this will work or make a difference but as we’ve already said once in this blog series…it can hardly get any worse? Only one way to find out..     Ok, positives – in 10 games we had only managed 4 goals in total, so we just almost doubled that in our first game with this new tactic. We had 9 shots on target out of 12 and finished with an 82% pass completion. Valeri Qazaishvili started ahead of Joelinton simply because Joelinton is in my bad books, and he scored a screamer to grab his first goal for the club. Oh, and Alfredo Morelos finally scored albeit in the 92nd minute!     On the downside, we’ve conceded 5 goals – again I think the scoreline flatters them a bit given that they only had 3 clear cut chances, but obviously the change from 3 centre-backs to a flat back-four took it’s toll and we were punished heavily for it. As the saying goes, “We took a lot of positives from the game” and that’s exactly how I feel about it – there’s potential for improvement here for sure (cue the realisation that we have Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City in our next 5 games).   The theme continues – bar getting smashed by Liverpool, things definitely start to improve in the goals department however this new more forward thinking approach leaves us exposed at the back and suddenly we are playing more like Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle did back in the day with a “win by scoring more than you” philosophy. Jorginho’s 95th minute equaliser robs us of a win at home to Chelsea, which sets us on a 4 game losing streak – December sees us start to improve both defensively and offensively as we strike a balance between the two, losing only narrowly to Man City and Crystal Palace before finishing out 2020 with 7 points from a possible 9 following wins over Leicester and Watford. Nice to see some of our new signings also finding the scoresheet!   What have we learned?  Play to your strengths. Our change in tactic and approach has definitely made a difference. We were initially set up to dribble less, pass the ball quicker, attack on the wings and hit early crosses to our Strikers who weren’t converting chances. Our analysis showed that Crossing and Decisions are our worst traits, and that we are stronger in terms of Dribbling, Technique and Movement therefore focusing more on these in our tactical instructions (Dribble More, Pass into Space, Cross Less, Work Ball into Box etc) has led to a substantial improvement in our match stats and results compared to earlier in the season. Remember when were were 20th in the league in terms of Conversion Rate?     By the end of it all, we sit in 15th place at the end of 2020 (which I realise is worse than where we were after 10 games 😆) however we enter 2021 in far superior form than when we started the season leaving me much more confident than I was back in September when we couldn’t buy a goal. In our first 10 games we only scored 4 and conceded 13 – the second 10 games saw us scoring 17 goals but conceding 27…life hasn’t been too rosy in the North East and the honeymoon period certainly didn’t last long! In my next post we will see what we can do about our defensive woes – let’s see if January will bring about any transfer business assuming our new Chairman is still team MaddFM after 20 games played.   Thanks for reading, stay safe and indoors! Cheers, MaddFM.

We Are United – 3

Mar 29, 2020 Madd FM

This is the third post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     Tactic Talk   Kevin Keegan made Newcastle into “The Entertainers”; Ruud Gullit tried to bring “Sexy Football” to the North East; Graeme Souness didn’t really want us playing football at all; Bobby Robson turned St. James Park into a fortress with well organised intelligent football; Rafa made us difficult to beat and took advantage of breaking on the counter and maximising set pieces. Are we forgetting anyone?   It’s early days here on Tyneside however one thing is for sure – in Almiron, Saint-Maximin and Atsu we have bags of pace and flair; with Saint-Maximin, Benavente and Ritchie we have a solid combination of quality wingers and wing backs; in Jonjo Shelvey we have one of the best English passers of the ball and intriguingly, we have some excellent ball playing centre backs (e.g. Schar and Vanheusden) that could potentially play a role in helping us transition play and break on the counter. This writer’s brain is already in overdrive..     The board want to see us play Attacking football, but we aren’t ready for that yet. Even against the newly promoted sides, three points will never be an easy feat therefore the plan is to meet in the middle whereby we will focus on building a balanced Wide Play tactical style, closing down our opponents with a high line and then breaking on the counter with pace primarily down the flanks through our wingers/wing backs, quickly getting supply to our Inside Forwards and/or to the likes of Joelinton or Morelos playing on the shoulder of the opposing back line. Sounds easy right?   Strike Partnerships   With football and life in general on lockdown I’ve found myself watching a lot of classic Premier League games from the 90’s and early 00’s, and in particular it dawned on me that for a long period the most successful teams thrived on having a powerful prolific strike partnership. When Blackburn won the Premier League in 1995, it was mostly down to the 49 goals scored by the Shearer & Sutton partnership. This continued at Newcastle when Shearer arrived, whereby his partnership with Les Ferdinand (49 goals combined) nearly bagged them the title until they fell at the last hurdle. Man United’s dominance in the 1990’s and early 2000’s also relied heavily on Striker duos – evolving from Hughes & Cantona to Cole & Yorke and later Rooney & Van Nistelrooy. Arsenal did it with Bergkamp and Wright/Henry and even Liverpool were a force to be reckoned with due to their Strike partnerships – Fowler & Collymore in the late 90’s and then Heskey and Owen in the early 2000’s, not to mention the more recent successful pairing of Sturridge and Suarez just a few years ago.     I was also intrigued/impressed to see that Newcastle have two of the most prolific partnerships in Premier League history which gives further food for thought as to how we can replicate and emulate the clubs best years in this save.   Partnership Club Year Goals Cole & Beardsley Newcastle 1993/1994 55 Suarez & Sturridge Liverpool 2013/2014 52 Shearer & Sutton Blackburn 1994/1995 49 Shearer & Ferdinand Newcastle 1996/1997 49 Phillips & Quinn Sunderland 1999/2000 44 Fowler & Collymore Liverpool 1995/1996 42 Gudjohnsen & Hasselbaink Chelsea 2001/2002 37 Rooney & van Nistelrooy Man Utd 2005/2006 37 Yorke & Cole Man Utd 1999/2000 35 Henry & Bergkamp Arsenal 2003/2005 34 Premier League Top 10 Striker Partnerships   It would appear that this has somewhat changed in recent years perhaps due to overseas influence and the emergence of what I would call goal-scoring wingers or inside forwards akin to the likes of Salah, Hazard, Sterling, Sanchez and Mané. Having players like these means that a lot of the top sides now tend to lead with one primary Striker (think Firmino at Liverpool, Aguero at City, Kane at Spurs or Lukaku at United). In previous versions of FM I have often gone with 1 striker formations, however looking at Newcastle’s previous Striker duos and seeing as we have footballing nostalgia all over the place in this save it’s decided – we will build a tactic around a two-striker formation. Are Joelinton and Morelos the new Shearer and Ferdinand? (Writer’s note: pray that Joelinton is better in FM than IRL).   FORMATION   In addition to the two-striker obsession, three things are playing on my mind when thinking about tactics: Newcastle actually play pretty well with three at the back IRL We’ve got Fabian Schar in this squad who is known for roaming forward and scoring a few thunderbastards in his time Libero – I’ve heard @CurtyFM talk so much about the Libero on the 5* Potential Podcast that I can’t stray away from it – having never tried it in FM and with the likes of Schar and Vanheusden available, it’s time to experiment.   Great – so now we need a tactic that facilitates 2 Strikers, 3 at the back, width and pace on the flanks and a Libero for good measure…      This is both intriguing and a headache in that it doesn’t facilitate the likes of all our wingers such as Saint Maximin or Atsu, so failing that we will revert to a custom 4-4-2 which allows us to bring in Wingers/Inside Forwards and maintain our 2 Striker partnership.     For our preferred formation to work, our Wing Backs will need to be extremely influential on the game not just defensively but as one of our main attacking outlets with us looking to play the overlap and get early crosses in. Matt Ritchie will be perfect for the Left Wing Back slot however following the sale of DeAndre Yedlin we are only left with Emil Krafth as a natural in that position (and he isn’t very good). With about £20m in the bank following sales of Yedlin, Jacob Murphy, Florian Lejeune and Yoshinori Muto we go back to the Player Search to see who fits the bill (Writer’s note: the next Warren Barton?).     Both Maffeo and Aarons look world class, despite the tempation of saving £20m by signing Maffeo, it’s hard to look past Aarons especially if we actually do want to sign someone to be the next Warren Barton (same nationality and position). We agree terms and the NUFC helicopter is fueled and en-route to Carrow Road when suddenly this happens:       As if Newcastle fans haven’t had enough to deal with regarding their own takeover, the move is cancelled due to the same happening at Norwich and suddenly we are in a predicament; Maffeo won’t enter discussions again following us cancelling previous negotiations – do we look for an alternative or wait until the next window/season to bring in Aarons? We decide on the latter, keeping the funds for future endeavors and instead hit the loan market for the free signing of Pedro Porro (Man City), who can play anywhere on the right hand side of the pitch whether Full Back, Wing Back or Right-Wing. Not a bad comprimise hopefully.     So – we have our objectives, transfers, tactic and nostalgia all in place, let’s do a quick recap on our squad and best XI before we kick off the new 2020/2021 season (remember we have skipped ahead to start fresh following the Steve Bruce/Coronavirus plagued season of 2019/2020.       Season 1 – August   After all that – let’s see how it fared out shall we?       It wasn’t terrible…it just wasn’t…well anything. Hammerings against Leeds and Man United either side of spirited performances against Tottenham and West Ham meant that we had a pretty unremarkable start to the season – the less said about our Cup exit to Sheffield United the better as both teams scored every penalty until our goalkeeper Martin Dubravka heart-breakingly missed our 11th spot-kick to send us out of the League Cup 2nd round.     Now I’m not one to panic but after some uninspirational midfield performances by Matty Longstaff and Isaac Hayden and considering we still have the funds saved following the collapse of the Max Aarons deal, perhaps there’s time to bring in one more player and add some badly needed quality and depth to our midfield. With the board wanting us to sign players under the age of 23 for the first team we initially start looking at a few players such as Jamie Shackleton (Leeds), Mateus Vital (Corinthians) and Ebere Eze (QPR) however we are quickly priced out of moves for most of them. Then we come across this guy:     Not only have we heard of this guy in real life where even recently he has been linked with moves to Arsenal and Inter – he also looks wicked in FM and the icing on the cake is that he appears interested in a move to the club. Our initial bids of £15m and £18m are flat out rejected with no counter offers, however then something wonderful happened which I have never once experienced previously in Football Manager….       GET IN! Mike Ashley’s days are clearly behind us as the board agree to drum up £29 million to sign Dominik Szoboslai from Red Bull Salzburg – this is next level stuff and surely he can help to move this club back to elite levels which Toon fans haven’t seen for more than 25 years now. The future is bright in the North East. (Writers note: don’t f*cking jinx it). Thanks for reading, MaddFM.

We Are United – 2

Mar 20, 2020 Madd FM

This is the second post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     After fast-forwarding to the end of the 2019/2020 season, it’s time to see what state this club is in….17th last season having narrowly avoided relegation; 38 goals scored i.e. one goal per game; a goal difference of -26 overall…Steve Bruce has left some large boots to fill. Before we can even think about signing some players, a major upheaval of the backroom is needed to inject some new life into the dressing room – there are still some staff here that worked with Alan Pardew for crying out loud. We won’t go into too much detail on staff additions, but we’ve managed to bring in an absolute banger of an Assistant Manager in this writer’s humble opinion (writer’s note: not that humble).       Mike Ashley was once quoted as saying “I don’t have the cash to compete with top clubs”, and looking at Newcastle over the past few seasons one would easily be led to think that this isn’t a highly profitable and lucrative club. Now, granted this is a football simulation game but financially all is very much well on Tyneside and we won’t be overly worried about revenue or income during our time here (more so how we spend it).     💰💰💰   Having said that – the gods of FM seem to be in our favour as we commence our empire at St. James Park – news items like these sometimes have to be taken with a pinch of salt and we have been heartbroken previously, however………       Safe to say I’ve never achieved one of my FM goals by the second blog post – however as one of our objectives for this save is to get a takeover or die trying (see here for more detail), the sun is suddenly shining in the North of England – let’s get down to business 😎💻.   Speaking of save objectives (seriously, read them!) – as a lifelong Newcastle fan since the early 90’s and therefore through the better times for Geordie fans, we intend to recreate history on Tyneside not just through victory and success on the field but by reanimating some of the more legendary Newcastle players who not only wore the black and white jersey with pride but left their own memorable stamp and legacy behind with the club and fans alike. Earlier we identified 5 Toon icons whom we will honour and take inspiration from by using them as a basis for our first transfers at the club by trying to identify their modern day counterparts based on their nationality, playing position and FM attributes – here is a reminder of who they are courtesy of some assistance from Championship Manager 97/98 and 01/02 to help us on our way (shout out to @maffyou for supplying us with some quality screenshots), and how we did in terms of finding a modern day FM counterpart for each.   1. Nolberto Solano – AM(R/L) – Peruvian     Criminally underrated by many, Nolberto Solano was tactically and technically outstanding as well as being a set-piece maestro and excellent crosser of the ball. Are we really going to find a Peruvian FM20 version of this legend? Enter Cristian Benavente – a verstatile Attacking Midfielder who although not as strong in terms of crossing and set-pieces, will bring additional speed and flair to the team especially if covering for the likes of Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron and also has outstanding technical and dribbling skills. A bargain for £550K in this writer’s opinion.     2. Philippe Albert – DC – Belgian     Famous for “that goal” against Man. Utd, that photo with Juninho and of course one of the most glorious moustaches the Premier League has ever seen, Philippe Albert was an ever present during Kevin Keegan’s entertainer years as Newcastle Manager, and Belgium hadn’t seen a finer Centre Half until the emergence of one Vincent Kompany a few years back. Can we top that?     At just 20 years old Zinho Vanheusden (can I just call him Millhouse?) looks like he could have a big future at the club, and will arguably be the main character in Belgium’s World Cup 2022 back line with the likes of Toby Alderweireld (31) and Jan Vertonghen (33) not getting any younger. We briefly looked at the likes of Jason Denayer and Leander Dendoncker, however once this guy appeared it was a no-brainer and he will hopefully be worth the £16,000,000 transfer fee (50% paid up front) given to Standard Liege for his signature.   3. Shay Given – GK – Irish     Granted I have included Shay in this list for two reasons – (1) I am Irish and (2) I have already known who I would sign to fill his gloves since early FM19 when I saw the emergence of Gavin Bazunu both in game and in real life as he featured for the Ireland U19 team. This kid oozes class, and the future of Irish football (at least between the posts) looks bright as he looks set to compete with the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool) and Mark Travers (Bournemouth) for that #1 jersey in years to come; there was only one winner in our decision making process and it took £9m (50% up front) to prize him from Manchester City which will either prove to be great value for money or absolute madness on my part. Time will tell!     4. Temur Ketsbaia – AM(RLC) – Georgian     Where to start with this lad…aside from having the ability to absolutely lose it during a goal celebration, Temur Ketsbaia made an instant impact on Tyneside coming from relative obscurity at AEK in Greece to lighting up the Premier League for three seasons at Newcastle at the end of the 1990’s. Never graced with much skill or pace, he knew where the goal was and was known to hit the odd thunderbastard from time to time. Will it even be possible to find such a player from Georgia in modern day FM?     Ok, so we had a slight hiccup in that the whole FM Brexit scenario made it next to impossible to sign a Georgian player. Initially we made moves for Giorgi Kharaishvili and Giorgi Chakvetadze however both moves were cancelled due to Work Permit issues – thankfully we came across Qazaishvili who also holds US citizenship and therefore was able to bluff his way past Boris’s cronies at the border. What I like about this guy is that he is both versatile and has great technical, first touch and dribbling ability – it remains to be seen if he can kick the shit out of an advertising hoarding as well as Ketsbaia #challengeaccepted.   5. Faustino Asprilla – STC – Colombian     Horses, guns, cartwheels and condoms – inbetween all that nonsense, “Tino” became a cult hero on Tyneside, largely helped by a hat-trick scored in a 3-2 victory over Barcelona in the 1997/1998 Champions League. It’s fair to say that there has never been a player like Tino Asprilla since he hung up his boots, and while we were tempted to lean towards the likes of Juan “Cucho” Hernandez and Luis Suarez (not that one) who both have Pace and Flair akin to what Tino was known for, it was impossible not to look past Alfredo Morelos who admittedly is not as creative or flamboyant as Asprilla, however arguably is equally as controversial and temperamental in addition to having bags of talent as a goal-scoring Striker.     And so completes our Famous Five and the start of our mission to recreate history at Newcastle – whether this lot can become as iconic as their predecessors is anyone’s guess, however we will battle on stubbornly in the hope that they can bring some magic and entertainment to this save and bring some well deserved success to the nostalgic Newcastle fans!     Amidst all this chaos, the rumour mill continues to churn:     Once I saw that comment about “reducing the focus on transfer activity” you better believe we accelerated the above signings rapidly, and just as we are coming to the end of our pre-season friendlies the news finally breaks:       WHAT THE ABSOLUTE F*CK….after all our hard work in putting transfer embargos in the FM editor, simming forward to the end of the season, building out our entire backroom staff and then spending hours trying to find a Peruvian Winger and a Georgian Forward…we could be about to lose our job in favour of Quique Sanches Flores who has had more management jobs than he’s had paellas after an afternoon siesta? Surely FM can’t do that to us – we’ve not even played a competitive fixture yet!   We are forced to play two friendlies during our tour of China (10-0 and 8-0 respectively) before finding out our fate…is this the end before we have even begun?       That was a bit too close for comfort! Hopefully our opening league game against Brighton won’t be as close, we will have to wait for my next post to find out where we will also look at the tactic we will employ for the 2020/2021 season as Newcastle Manager. Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback on our transfers below – have I squandered all our budget for the sake of a bit of NUFC nostalgia? 😅 Thanks for reading, MaddFM.

We Are United – 2

Mar 20, 2020 Madd FM

This is the second post in this “We Are United” series with Newcastle United – click here to read from the beginning if you’ve not already done so 👌.     After fast-forwarding to the end of the 2019/2020 season, it’s time to see what state this club is in….17th last season having narrowly avoided relegation; 38 goals scored i.e. one goal per game; a goal difference of -26 overall…Steve Bruce has left some large boots to fill. Before we can even think about signing some players, a major upheaval of the backroom is needed to inject some new life into the dressing room – there are still some staff here that worked with Alan Pardew for crying out loud. We won’t go into too much detail on staff additions, but we’ve managed to bring in an absolute banger of an Assistant Manager in this writer’s humble opinion (writer’s note: not that humble).       Mike Ashley was once quoted as saying “I don’t have the cash to compete with top clubs”, and looking at Newcastle over the past few seasons one would easily be led to think that this isn’t a highly profitable and lucrative club. Now, granted this is a football simulation game but financially all is very much well on Tyneside and we won’t be overly worried about revenue or income during our time here (more so how we spend it).     💰💰💰   Having said that – the gods of FM seem to be in our favour as we commence our empire at St. James Park – news items like these sometimes have to be taken with a pinch of salt and we have been heartbroken previously, however………       Safe to say I’ve never achieved one of my FM goals by the second blog post – however as one of our objectives for this save is to get a takeover or die trying (see here for more detail), the sun is suddenly shining in the North of England – let’s get down to business 😎💻.   Speaking of save objectives (seriously, read them!) – as a lifelong Newcastle fan since the early 90’s and therefore through the better times for Geordie fans, we intend to recreate history on Tyneside not just through victory and success on the field but by reanimating some of the more legendary Newcastle players who not only wore the black and white jersey with pride but left their own memorable stamp and legacy behind with the club and fans alike. Earlier we identified 5 Toon icons whom we will honour and take inspiration from by using them as a basis for our first transfers at the club by trying to identify their modern day counterparts based on their nationality, playing position and FM attributes – here is a reminder of who they are courtesy of some assistance from Championship Manager 97/98 and 01/02 to help us on our way (shout out to @maffyou for supplying us with some quality screenshots), and how we did in terms of finding a modern day FM counterpart for each.   1. Nolberto Solano – AM(R/L) – Peruvian     Criminally underrated by many, Nolberto Solano was tactically and technically outstanding as well as being a set-piece maestro and excellent crosser of the ball. Are we really going to find a Peruvian FM20 version of this legend? Enter Cristian Benavente – a verstatile Attacking Midfielder who although not as strong in terms of crossing and set-pieces, will bring additional speed and flair to the team especially if covering for the likes of Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron and also has outstanding technical and dribbling skills. A bargain for £550K in this writer’s opinion.     2. Philippe Albert – DC – Belgian     Famous for “that goal” against Man. Utd, that photo with Juninho and of course one of the most glorious moustaches the Premier League has ever seen, Philippe Albert was an ever present during Kevin Keegan’s entertainer years as Newcastle Manager, and Belgium hadn’t seen a finer Centre Half until the emergence of one Vincent Kompany a few years back. Can we top that?     At just 20 years old Zinho Vanheusden (can I just call him Millhouse?) looks like he could have a big future at the club, and will arguably be the main character in Belgium’s World Cup 2022 back line with the likes of Toby Alderweireld (31) and Jan Vertonghen (33) not getting any younger. We briefly looked at the likes of Jason Denayer and Leander Dendoncker, however once this guy appeared it was a no-brainer and he will hopefully be worth the £16,000,000 transfer fee (50% paid up front) given to Standard Liege for his signature.   3. Shay Given – GK – Irish     Granted I have included Shay in this list for two reasons – (1) I am Irish and (2) I have already known who I would sign to fill his gloves since early FM19 when I saw the emergence of Gavin Bazunu both in game and in real life as he featured for the Ireland U19 team. This kid oozes class, and the future of Irish football (at least between the posts) looks bright as he looks set to compete with the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool) and Mark Travers (Bournemouth) for that #1 jersey in years to come; there was only one winner in our decision making process and it took £9m (50% up front) to prize him from Manchester City which will either prove to be great value for money or absolute madness on my part. Time will tell!     4. Temur Ketsbaia – AM(RLC) – Georgian     Where to start with this lad…aside from having the ability to absolutely lose it during a goal celebration, Temur Ketsbaia made an instant impact on Tyneside coming from relative obscurity at AEK in Greece to lighting up the Premier League for three seasons at Newcastle at the end of the 1990’s. Never graced with much skill or pace, he knew where the goal was and was known to hit the odd thunderbastard from time to time. Will it even be possible to find such a player from Georgia in modern day FM?     Ok, so we had a slight hiccup in that the whole FM Brexit scenario made it next to impossible to sign a Georgian player. Initially we made moves for Giorgi Kharaishvili and Giorgi Chakvetadze however both moves were cancelled due to Work Permit issues – thankfully we came across Qazaishvili who also holds US citizenship and therefore was able to bluff his way past Boris’s cronies at the border. What I like about this guy is that he is both versatile and has great technical, first touch and dribbling ability – it remains to be seen if he can kick the shit out of an advertising hoarding as well as Ketsbaia #challengeaccepted.   5. Faustino Asprilla – STC – Colombian     Horses, guns, cartwheels and condoms – inbetween all that nonsense, “Tino” became a cult hero on Tyneside, largely helped by a hat-trick scored in a 3-2 victory over Barcelona in the 1997/1998 Champions League. It’s fair to say that there has never been a player like Tino Asprilla since he hung up his boots, and while we were tempted to lean towards the likes of Juan “Cucho” Hernandez and Luis Suarez (not that one) who both have Pace and Flair akin to what Tino was known for, it was impossible not to look past Alfredo Morelos who admittedly is not as creative or flamboyant as Asprilla, however arguably is equally as controversial and temperamental in addition to having bags of talent as a goal-scoring Striker.     And so completes our Famous Five and the start of our mission to recreate history at Newcastle – whether this lot can become as iconic as their predecessors is anyone’s guess, however we will battle on stubbornly in the hope that they can bring some magic and entertainment to this save and bring some well deserved success to the nostalgic Newcastle fans!     Amidst all this chaos, the rumour mill continues to churn:     Once I saw that comment about “reducing the focus on transfer activity” you better believe we accelerated the above signings rapidly, and just as we are coming to the end of our pre-season friendlies the news finally breaks:       WHAT THE ABSOLUTE F*CK….after all our hard work in putting transfer embargos in the FM editor, simming forward to the end of the season, building out our entire backroom staff and then spending hours trying to find a Peruvian Winger and a Georgian Forward…we could be about to lose our job in favour of Quique Sanches Flores who has had more management jobs than he’s had paellas after an afternoon siesta? Surely FM can’t do that to us – we’ve not even played a competitive fixture yet!   We are forced to play two friendlies during our tour of China (10-0 and 8-0 respectively) before finding out our fate…is this the end before we have even begun?       That was a bit too close for comfort! Hopefully our opening league game against Brighton won’t be as close, we will have to wait for my next post to find out where we will also look at the tactic we will employ for the 2020/2021 season as Newcastle Manager. Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback on our transfers below – have I squandered all our budget for the sake of a bit of NUFC nostalgia? 😅 Thanks for reading, MaddFM.

We Are United – 1

Mar 17, 2020 Madd FM

  Real Life – 17th March 2020 ☘️   Unfortunately the world is in turmoil; it’s St. Patrick’s Day and there isn’t an open pub to be found in Ireland; not a tractor or combine harvester to be seen in a rural town’s annual Paddy’s Day parade and this mediocre FM writer/player finds himself on lockdown with little or no choice but to make a long overdue return to FM blogging (writer’s note: no-one thinks it’s long overdue).   Covid-19 has forced our hand and football has ceased to exist for the foreseeable future. At the time of writing, our protagonists Newcastle United (led by the man with the eternal broken nose Steve Bruce) currently sit in 13th position in the Premier League after 29 games played and despite looking likely to avoid relegation, future prospects for a club with arguably one of the best fan bases in the world look bleak and average at best – their immediate future somewhat unknown with global football on ice until further notice. Enter MaddFM and Football Manager 2020 to help us through this difficult period and bring some sort of resumption to normal life in the North-East of England.     My goal for this save is to pick up at the end of the current 2019/2020 season, whereby Steve Bruce has decided to move on to pastures new (i.e. Sunderland or Hull) and Newcastle are again at a crossroads following the departure of a number of shrewd loan signings brought in last January to help the club stave off relegation – Geordie fans bid farewell not only to Bruce but also the likes of Nabil Bentaleb, Danny Rose, Valentin Lazaro and Jetro Willems whose season ended prematurely due to that unfortunate cruciate ligament injury in January.     To bring us to the end of the season in-game and preserve a sense of reality so that we can start fresh with all squads matching real-life football (and a somewhat depleted Newcastle team), I simply added a one-year transfer embargo to all EPL and major clubs in the FM Editor, started a new save using the Irish league (which facilitates a January 2020 start date) and then simmed forward (went on holiday) to the end of the season to see where the gods of Football Manager decided Newcastle deserve to finish by the end of the 2019/2020 season before we take over….shit what if they’ve been relegated? 😧   A season which saw them narrowly avoid relegation on the last day of the season, largely thanks to 15 league goals from none other than goalscorer supremo Joelinton (writer’s note: easy on the sarcasm). There is much to do in order to get this club out of the hole into which Mike Ashley has driven it; takeover or not, it’s time to resurrect this club and return glory to the Toon Army.   I’m also relieved to see that the simulated season hasn’t deviated too far from reality – despite doubts over whether it will ever happen in real-life, Liverpool are finally crowned Champions on the last day of the season finishing a point ahead of Man City, while there are only 3 other Managerial casualties in addition to Steve Bruce. All in all we are ready to kick off a new season as close as can be to how it currently stands IRL. Click here if you would like to download the Editor file used to bring us this far 👍.     1st June 2020 – In Game 💻   We are greeted with fantastic news after returning from holiday – fair play to Mike, Lee and co. for their efforts on this fine achievement, looks like we know what Objective #1 for this save will be 🤔.   It annoys the hell out of me that this club hasn’t really produced many youth prospects over the past few years – the likes of Jackie Milburn, Peter Beardsley, and Paul Gascoigne all began their trade at Newcastle and while recent graduates such as Andy Carroll, Steven Taylor and Shola Ameobi went on to have fairly solid careers at the highest levels, it’s clear we’ve not produced a top local talent for more than a generation therefore that becomes our number one ambition for this save.   Objective #2 is simple yet completely out of our hands – we need a takeover. Whether it happens in our first season or 10 years in, we will manage this club until either we are fired or a new owner finally has Mike Ashley forcibly removed from the club with extreme prejudice.     Our 3rd Objective is one I try to achieve every season – get the Ireland job and manage my own club and country simultaneously. Having failed miserably in FM19 (Mick McCarthy refused to budge after 8 seasons avoiding not one but three “Very Insecure” job status updates), this is a must considering we still have a full 8 months until the release of FM21.     Finally, for Objective #4 we want to recreate history. I have handpicked 5 players from the Newcastle golden era of the late 90’s/ early 00’s whose status and impact on Tyneside were legendary, and our goal is to scout and sign players of a similar mould based on their playing position, nationality and FM attributes (using a little help from earlier versions of CM/FM). These are not necessarily the best Newcastle players of the modern era but ones who were synonymous with the club and left a legacy to behold with the Toon fans long after departing the Magpies.   The Famous Five ⚫⚪   Nolberto Solano – AM(R/L) – Peruvian Philippe Albert – DC – Belgian Shay Given – GK – Irish Temur Ketsbaia – AM(RLC) – Georgian Faustino Asprilla – STC – Colombian   Our mission will be to identify and sign players with the same nationality and positions as each of the above using their attributes from earlier versions of Championship Manager as a guideline for scouting – my next post will be the start of this where we will try to locate the first batch of potential candidates who fit the bill at the beginning of FM20 🔥.   Before we leave, there’s time for one extremely important piece of business as we look to the future at Newcastle United. After being coveted by the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Wolves we manage to tie down Matty Longstaff on a new 3 year contract which will see him stay at the club at least until the end of the 2022/2023 season..next question, is he any good in FM20?     So it begins! A new save and a new story as we settle into isolation and what looks to be a long road ahead both IRL and in FM – here’s hoping that everyone can pull together to collectively get through what is surely unchartered territory with all this Coronavirus madness, and hopefully this FM blog will give some badly needed football entertainment in the absence of the real thing!   Thanks and stay safe 🤘, MaddFM.

Sol’s at the wheel

Dec 28, 2019 Madd FM

  *Note: this post is more suited for Desktop/Laptop reading rather than mobile version; alternatively you can view the desktop version on your mobile device by changing it in your browser settings 👌   If you’ve not already read the prelude to this fictional FM story about Sol Campbell’s adventures at Southend United, then I strongly recommend you do so now so that you can at the very least have some context on the nonsense that follows below before we embark on this new series of lifelong learnings, humorous FM content and a few somewhat tall tales as we prepare to hit continue for the first time in FM20.       📅 Monday 24th June 2019 (in game)   A phone rings…… ((📞)) ((📞))   “ Arry speaking – make it quick I’ve got a Nando’s coming” “HARRYYYYYYYYY!!!! Big Sol here mate, just landed myself the Southend gig – piece of piss to be honest but said I’d give you a holler to see if you have any tips as I’ve told them we’ll be in the PL in 5 seasons (LOL)” “Solly boyyyy!! Crikey how long was I in that jungle for, seems like only yesterday we was lifting the FA Cup together after battering Cardiff! Southend, well mate you know what I’m gonna say….you gotta call the boys – Crouchie, Niko, Jermaine, want me to open a WhatsApp group?” “Crouchie’s retired mate, they’ve got him doing podcasts now..Jermaine is at Rangers the man will do anything for a few soft goals..and Niko, that lad hasn’t been seen since Croatia lost the World Cup final last year” “Are you having a f*cking laugh? I should never have let those twats Ant and Dec lure me down to that sh*thole jungle…I only went coz Ant was on the grog and they said Holly Willoughby would be there” “No joke pal, anyway the board have given me their Club Vision – they only want us to sign young players for the future so I’m thinking you can teach me whatever magic you had back in the day at West Ham when you brought through the likes of Frank, Rio, Joe, Glen and that Carrick lad – how’d you pull that off?” “F*ck the board mate, listen to Arry he knows best – hang on I’ve got Football Manager open here I’ll find you a few gems of free agents…..oh Solly, there’s some beauts here – Paul Konchesky, James Collins, Kenywne Jones…maybe it’s time I come out of retirement, need a Director of Football?” “Sh*t ermmmm….hang on mate I’ve got a call coming through here, better take it. Hello??” “Sol Campbell….it is me, the Special One. I wanted to congratulate you on your new position even though I preferred you as No-Nonsense Centre-Back. Check your phone, Tottenham and Southend have just signed affiliation agreement, so now you will help take some of my not so special reserves on loan to your “Root Sol” and in return Jose gets first pick on any young players you have coming through so you must sign only youth prospects” “Jose, wow I hadn’t heard – I see it now yeah…it’s actually called “Roots Hall” by the way but whatever…forget about loaning me some reserve players, any tips on Media Handling and Press Conferences? I’m told I’ve said a few silly things in the past though I don’t know rightly when..” “Ah yes, your British media they love Jose…it is simple Sol Campbell, you must never ever show weakness…even if you don’t know answer or if you know you are wrong, always believe you are right and tell them same…look at me, I am translator who never played football but have managed all the top clubs..they fire me, I get new job, simples….whether it’s media, board, players, staff it doesn’t matter – if you always believe you are right then everyone else is wrong” “I f*cking love it Jojo – can I call you Jojo? I’m gonna be the most assertive media owning mo-fo they’ve ever seen. Big time “Obrigado” for that mate…right I’ve got Harry on the other line, I’ll put you down for a pre-season friendly and we can do pre-drinks at my gaff. Good luck!” “That was too easy, I’ll have him sacked by Christmas….” “Sorry Harry, that was Jose – turns out Southend and Spurs are now affiliated, I’ll have to listen to that clown until he gets himself thrown out of there as well…where were we?” “No worries mate, been busy here I’ve just spotted Ricardo Fuller is available on a free so I’ve DM’d him on Twitterface” “Emmmm actually I better run Harry, gotta go meet the backroom staff here and prepare for an intra-squad friendly – I’ll catch you again yeah? Cheers.” (Hangs up) “That job will be mine in a month….” 😈   And so with a newfound sense of bravado (which let’s be honest already exists in his own head), Sol Campbell is unveiled as the new Manager of Southend United and sits down to take his first ever Press Conference at Roots Hall Stadium. What could possibly go wrong?     True to his word he brings in his own staff in addition to Hermann Hreidarsson and Andy Cole who of course were brought to Southend by the real life Sol Campbell – have to say I’m pretty happy with these considering we are a League 1 outfit:        Squad review (before)   A quick look at the squad following our intra-squad friendly shows us that we have a lot of gaps to fill. It will take all of Sol’s genius and guile to bring in enough quality to help us ( 1 ) avoid relegation this year and ( 2 ) commence building the Sol Campbell empire at Southend. Our current first team looks something like this (click name to view profile):   Player Position Rating Nathan Bishop GK ⭐⭐⭐ Mark Oxley GK ⭐⭐ Jason Demetriou DR ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Nathan Ralph DL ⭐⭐⭐ Harry Kyprianou DLC ⭐⭐ Joe Shaughnessy DC ⭐⭐⭐ Harry Lennon DC ⭐⭐⭐⭐ John White DRC ⭐⭐ Liam Ridgewell DC ⭐⭐ Mark Milligan DMC ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Timothee Dieng DMC ⭐⭐⭐ Rob Kiernan DMC ⭐⭐ Luke Hyam MC ⭐⭐ Sam Mantom MC ⭐⭐ Ethan Hamilton MC ⭐⭐⭐ Lloyd Ndukwu AMR ⭐⭐⭐ Stephen McLaughlin AML ⭐⭐⭐ Brandon Goodship AMR ⭐⭐ Tom Hopper STC ⭐⭐⭐ Stephen Humphreys STC ⭐⭐⭐ Simon Cox STC ⭐⭐⭐ Definitely not strong enough, with options needed at LB, MC, AML, AMR and up front. Brace yourselves Transfer Window, Sol is here…   Signings Neither I nor Sol himself expected to have much transfer funds to play with for a team whose predicted media position in League 1 is 18th at the start of the season, however after meeting with Club Chairman Ron Martin (interestingly once a member of the 1980 Great Britain Olympic Bobsleigh team) we were unpleasantly surprised to be presented with our initial transfer, scouting and wage budgets:       That being said, after raising close to £200,000 through the sales of Oxley, White and Kiernan along with a few other get rich quick schemes (more on this later) – we were left with around £350,000 to spend after stretching our budget to the max and literally draining Ron of every penny. Time to go shopping (albeit Aldi/Lidl rather than M&S).   Jack Byrne – £240,000 (£120,000 up front)     Versatile Ireland international midfielder and former Man City academy graduate Jack Byrne is our main marquee signing, arriving from Shamrock Rovers in the League of Ireland for a fee of £240,000. I say international – FM has him down as 0 caps however he has since picked up two for Ireland in real life. With limited creativity in the team and with him still only 23 years old, we hope Jack will be our main source of assists and key passes this season and play a pivotal role going forward – nice to see his value shoot up to £875,000 also.      Tyrell Warren (Free Transfer)     Another Manchester graduate but this time from the red side of the city arrives in the form of Tyrell Warren, joining on a free transfer after having failing to land a new deal at Man Utd. Decent attributes all round for a CB and at just 20 years old combined with his ability to play anwhere across the back line should make him a valuable asset to an already vulnerable Southend defence. What does Sol think?     Ousmane Fané (Free Transfer)     Is this guy a great footballer? No. Is he a youth prospect? Not really (though still only 25). However, what this guy will bring to the team helps us in fulfilling one of our original School of Sol Campbell save objectives (you’ve already forgotten them haven’t you). His Strength (18), Work Rate (18), Stamina (18), Aggression (16), Bravery (19) and Natural Fitness (16) will give some much needed steel in our midfield spine..let’s just hope he is able to kick the ball 🤞:      Liam Bossin (Free Transfer)   Quite simply – a bang average Irish goalkeeper brought in as cover since we sold backup keeper Mark Oxley to Dundee. What’s interesting about this lad is that he was actually born in Belgium but qualifies for Ireland via his mother who was born in Tipperary (yes it’s a long way there).     Sol hadn’t much to say about this lad apart from hoping he will mainly be “bossin” the bench and not our goalposts!   Maurice Tinholt (£140,000)   Our final permanent signing is one we are most excited about, as this kid could turn out to be either the real deal as a wonderkid or at least bring us in some serious profit down the line should he turn out to be a decent Striker.     Here’s one for you – for some reason I always decline Press Conferences when I sign a youth player as I figure this doesn’t happen in real life…do you do the same?     Suffice to say we weren’t done there…this is Better Call Sol for crying out loud, after taking advice from Harry and Jose there is no stopping him now. We manage to bring in an additional 4 players on loan that both meet our School of Sol Campbell objectives and are realistic for a club of our stature.   Player Nationality Age Club Fee Jack Byrne IRE 23 Shamrock Rovers £240K Maurice Tinholt NED 16 FC Eppen £140K Tyrell Warren ENG 20 Free Transfer 0 Ousmane Fané FRA 25 Free Transfer 0 Liam Bossin IRE 23 Free Transfer 0 Billy Gilmour SCO 18 Chelsea Loan Leif Davis ENG 19 Leeds United Loan Jamie Yayi Mpie BEL 18 Sampdoria Loan Ragnar Ache GER 20 Sparta Rotterdam Loan Southend United Incoming Transfers 2019/2020   SQUAD REVIEW (after)   Player Position Rating Nathan Bishop GK ⭐⭐⭐ Liam Bossin GK ⭐⭐⭐ Jason Demetriou DR ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Nathan Ralph DL ⭐⭐⭐ Tyrell Warren DRC ⭐⭐⭐ Leif Davis DL ⭐⭐⭐ Joe Shaughnessy DC ⭐⭐⭐ Harry Lennon DC ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mark Milligan DMC ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ousmane Fané DMC ⭐⭐⭐ Timothee Dieng DMC ⭐⭐⭐ Billy Gilmour MC ⭐⭐⭐ Ethan Hamilton MC ⭐⭐⭐ Jack Byrne AMRLC ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jamie Yayi Mpie AMRLC ⭐⭐⭐ Lloyd Ndukwu AMR ⭐⭐⭐ Stephen McLaughlin AML ⭐⭐⭐ Tom Hopper STC ⭐⭐⭐ Stephen Humphreys STC ⭐⭐⭐ Ragnar Ache STC ⭐⭐⭐ Simon Cox STC ⭐⭐⭐   FM20 Learning Section 🎓     To close off this ridiculously long opening blog post (rest assured they won’t all be like this) – one of my favourite FM bloggers @FMWayofLife asked me about my Manager Profile / Reputation that I had set as when creating the Sol Campbell character and whether this could have something to do with players/staff that we can attract to Southend. In FM20 we seem to have the option of signing the likes of Rhian Brewster, James Garner, Brandon Williams and Rafael Camacho all on loan however I felt that this would…

Better Call Sol

Nov 13, 2019 Madd FM

FM19

Nov 13, 2019 Madd FM

Better Call Sol: Prelude

Nov 11, 2019 Madd FM

  “I’m one of the greatest minds in football” Sol Campbell – February 2018     If you are reading this it means that you are most likely a Football Manager or a Sol Campbell enthusiast (or both of course) – either way let me assure you of two things as we start this new FM20 journey:   1. You shall be thoroughly entertained by Sol Campbell’s fictional adventures through FM20 as we take the reigns at Southend United and try to make the Sol Campbell football philosophy a reality.   2. It is quite possible you will learn nothing useful about playing Football Manager (however I’ll give it a try)     Allow me to start this blog by stating that I am actually a big fan of Sol Campbell and Sol, if you’re reading this I promise I mean no offence in what is about to kick off as a series of humourous adventures in the FM20 universe as we take you and Southend United on this journey 😄.   If any of you out there are like me then you will always remember that one player that shares the same birthday as you, and for me it is the man himself who, before he embarked on what has so far been an interesting post-playing career to say the least (more to follow), was widely regarded as one of the finest Centre Halves in the world – so much so that he was selected in the World Cup 2002 All Star Dream Team at Centre Back ahead of the likes of Alessandro Nesta (Italy), Lucio (Brazil) and Thomas Linke (Germany).     Campbell was one of my favourite Defenders, and embodied what I feel are the fundamental attributes and characteristics of a top Central Defender even now in the modern game. Not only was he strong as an ox and powerful in the tackle, he had both pace and aerial ability which made him a formidable rock in defence and one of the key factors in Arsenal‘s unbeaten “Invincibles” season in 2003/2004.   In recent times however, Campbell has been dabbling in the world of Football Management and what better way to celebrate the release of the newest version of Football Manager (FM20) than a save and blog narrative in honour of the big man himself. I give you:     On this day: October 22nd 📅   JFK informs the American public about what became known in history as the “Cuban Missile Crisis” (1962) Henry Ford becomes President of Ford Motor Company (1906); Pope John Paul II is inaugurated as Pope (1977); Thomas Edison perfects the carbonized cotton filament light bulb (1879) Sol Campbell is appointed manager of English League One side Southend United (2019)     Those of you that follow me may have spotted that I had intended on starting my first FM20 blog save with Reading following a successful stint there back in FM06 – however upon hearing this earth-shattering news I felt I had no choice but to roll with the Better Call Sol storyline which partially emerged during my FM19 save with Tenerife, therefore we will now kick off FM20 with Southend United in the hope that we can match and exceed Sol’s undoubted future success at the club and his path to becoming the greatest football manager in the world.      For those of you not aware, Sol Campbell has self-proclaimed himself as “one of the greatest minds in football” and more recently spoke out about the fact that he kept being overlooked for jobs due to the fact that he didn’t have enough managerial experience. His response to this?   “Experience? How do I get experience? Well I need a job to get experience.”   Wise words indeed Sol – anyone who has ever applied for a job knows that experience isn’t everything, and that doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers and scientists the world over have been taking high level positions for centuries without having to worry about experience. It’s common knowledge that only politicians need to have years of expert experience to succeed in their roles….right?     Save Objectives Our objectives (apart from proving to be the greatest mind in football obviously) are simple – I call it the School of Sol Campbell, where our aims for this save are based on famous quotes from or about the main man himself: _____________________ Quote: “I’m one of the greatest minds in football and I’m being wasted because of a lack of experience“ Aim: If Sol doesn’t think experience is necessary for management then it certainly won’t be necessary for this save; our main focus from a recruitment perspective will be on players for the future, only signing young players who will be developed or sold for profit as the Sol regime progresses _____________________ Quote: “If you’re intelligent enough and a quick learner you will learn pretty soon, within two or three games, what the team needs, training-wise, to survive in that league, get better in that league, to get in the play-offs or even win the league.” Aim: On the assumption that we (sadly for Sol) won’t actually know how to win the league after two or three games, our main aim is that we will not make any decisions on tactical style or training until after 3 league fixtures, upon which we will then settle on a tactic, playing style and training schedule for the season. _____________________ Quote: “It’s not like it’s rocket science to run a football club, especially when you get to that level” Aim: To run all aspects of the club, from finances and facilities all the way through to training and youth development. Let the Sol empire begin. _____________________ Quote: “I’m 30 now and in five years’ time I won’t be in this country. That’s definite. Italy looks good to me because it would suit my kind of football. Spain is an option.” Aim: To manage Southend for a minimum of 5 years before looking elsewhere for a job – upon which naturally Italy or Spain will be considered to match our “style of football” which we will develop based on Sol’s ambitions to play in these leagues _____________________ Quote: “Sol Campbell there, using his strength. And that is his strength. His strength.” (Kevin Keegan) Aim: We are going to look to build a team of absolute beasts in the spirit of all things Sol Campbell, starting by looking for the new Sol to fill that Centre Half position and then building a spine based on attributes such as Strength, Aggression, Determination and Natural Fitness. It’s not going to be pretty. _____________________ Quote: “I’m sorry that I’ve got a mind, but don’t be scared of that. That should be something you want at your club” Aim: Develop the highest possible manager media profile by always speaking our mind and being assertive or aggressive where needed. _____________________ Quote: “I’m intelligent enough, it’s not like I played on a fox and dog pitch all my life.” Aim: We will attempt to educate you the reader on this journey of self-discovery on all things football and Football Manager related, using each of Sol’s schemes and adventures to in some way learn a bit more about the beautiful game. After all, it was Sol Aristotle himself that said “There is no great genius without some touch of madness.”     Better Call Sol – Premise   Joe Kinnear was once famously quoted as saying “I can pick up the phone and call any manager in the world” when questioned about his managerial credentials before taking over at Newcastle in 2009, the year before Sol Campbell joined Newcastle on a free transfer where he played under Kinnear’s assistant Chris Hughton. Thankfully Kinnear and Campbell never actually crossed paths at the club, however for the purposes of this blog each episode / blog post will start with Campbell taking a leaf out of Kinnear’s book – seeking the advice of well known members of the football and non-football world as he pursues his quest for managerial greatness, and therefore kicking off a new scheme or plot twist of how Sol will drive success at The Shrimpers. What could go wrong?     Thanks for reading folks, the saga continues next week after the official FM20 has been released! I hope you will enjoy this slightly different twist on a Football Manager blog as much as I hopefully will writing it – please feel free hit the Follow button below and share any thoughts and comments either here or on my Twitter page where you will find all my FM content – remember, interaction and feedback is why we do it! ✍️ Happy FMing, MaddFM.  

7.1. Ahora o Nunca (Now or Never)

Oct 13, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Our Seventh and Final Season as CD Tenerife Manager?   🎵 Suggested Tune: Now or Never – Elvis Presley (Spanish cover) 🎵   With Football Manager 2020 on the horizon and the impending Beta version due any day now, it’s fair to say that this will most likely be our last season at the helm of CD Tenerife (so much so that I have already released my first FM20 Save Reveal here!). 10 real life months, 7 FM seasons, 300+ games played and 30 blog posts later we now find ourselves with one last chance to mount a serious title challenge and hopefully try to become the first non-Barcelona/Madrid team to do so for what is now 21 years as we are in 2024 in our current Tenerife save.     Summer Transfer business   FIrst things first – reinforcements. Our main issue last year which ultimately led to us finishing in a somewhat disappointing 4th place was that we were far too reliant on Fabio Silva to score our goals for us, illustrated clearly by the fact that he played in 37 out of 38 league games, starting 29 and coming on in 8 further matches as a substitute. An interesting statistic emerged from this – in the 14 games in which Fabio Silva scored, we never lost a game – 12 Wins and 2 Draws from games in which he found the net. The flip side of this was that all of the 7 games we lost were games where he didn’t score, along with three scoreless draws which is a pretty clear representation of the “Silva” effect.     Fabio Silva scores: Fabio Silva doesn’t score: Wins 12 11 Draws 2 5 Losses 0 7 The Fabio Silva effect     When he wasn’t on form however, we struggled to get goals and relied on individual performances from midfielders such as Dani Olmo and Mickael Cuisance to get us through games which quite simply was not effective over the course of the season. Based on this, our first order of business is to bring in a Striker to either compliment or compete with Silva for the honour of leading the line and spearheading the Los Chicharreros attack.   Newgen Territory   I’m not sure if it’s me or not but the quality of some of the newgen Strikers this year has been ridiculous – to the point where I fear some realism is being lost due to the fact that in this current save there are 5 or 6 absolute worldies of Strikers that have developed over the past few seasons. Granted we do have a lot of cracking Strikers in real life world football in 2019, the current generation in FM has 5 or 6 Strikers who are simultaneously at Messi/Ronaldo level and for me this is slightly unrealistic in comparison to the real world.   Allow me to demonstrate:               Name Age Club Nationality Value Pepe Gomez 21 Real Madrid Spanish €75m Fraser Sharpe 22 Man City Scotland €54m Guillaume Lefevre 22 Barcelona French €85m Joe Daws 22 Chelsea English €68m Cedric Serrano 22 Man Utd French €115m Gennaro Nocera 22 Man City Italian €81m Ridiculously good     I usually try to avoid splashing out on newgens for the same reason – I prefer the realism of signing actual real-life players rather that ones that are created in-game. However as we enter Season 7 it seems that the only way for us to compete with the likes of Barcelona and the two Madrids is to get with the times and find our own newgen superstar, and unfortunately our Youth Setup / Recruitment has not produced any at this level.. (opens chequebook) 💶     19 year old Serbian newgen Dejan Radakovic signs from Braga on a €56 million deal, much of which is funded by the sale of Lukas Klostermann who simultaneously leaves to join Arsenal for a fee of €35 million. Radakovic looks to have the potential to become an absolute worldie and hopefully he will combine well with Fabio Silva to get the goals we need in order to mount a proper title challenge.     So long, farewell   It’s mixed emotions in the year 2024 in Football Manager – as we say hello to hoards of newgens, wonderkids and hot prospects, we also bid farewell to several footballing legends whose time is now at an end in La Liga, in particular a few from our rivals who have repeatedly broken our hearts over the past 6 seasons:       Building an Army ⚔️         We definitely don’t want to get too carried away yet, but for the first time in my own FM career we have not one but both of the tipped top scorers in the league this season – our combined €111 million pairing of Fabio Silva and Dejan Radakovic are the favourites to top the La Liga scoring charts this season ahead of the likes of Barcelona duo Anthony Martial and Guillaume Lefevre as well as Moussa Dembele of Real Madrid – no mention of Antoine Griezmann who is still banging them in for Atletico but here’s hoping we can prove the bookies right and dominate the goalscoring standings this season.     And so starts the beginning of the end!! For any of you that have been following this save, thank you very much for reading and hopefully enjoying our progress as we have progressed from the depths of Secunda Division to the summit of La Liga. Hopefully this year will reward us for all the pain and suffering endured so far!! 😆 If you haven’t already please hit the Follow button below as well as on Twitter – I have also started streaming recently so feel free to do the same over on Twitch!! My next post will tell all as to whether or not we have a chance at winning the league in our final season – I will also give an update on the Mick McCarthy saga! (if you don’t know what this is about, head on back to the start now :D. Cheers folks, MaddFM aka Paul.

6.4. El Camino: A CD Tenerife Story

Sep 28, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: 4 games to seal our fate or lose everything we have built for the past 6 years in FM19     🎵 Suggested Tune: Black Water – Reuben and the Dark 🎵     In my last post, despite making a resurgence up the league, reaching the Copa Del Rey final, winning two Manager of the Month awards and securing Champions League football for the 4th season in a row at CD Tenerife, our board and chairman Senior Miguel Concepcion appear to have grown impatient at Los Chicharreros – somehow expecting more from us irrespective of how much we have done for the club over the past 6 seasons, bringing them from weekly outings against the likes of Mirandes, Lugo and Albacete to European adventures versus Chelsea, Bayern, Milan and many more.         Now in May 2024, we sit in a precarious position whereby we must get results against Athletic Bilbao (h), Malaga (h), Getafe (a) and finally against Atletico Madrid in the Copa Del Rey final in order to secure our future with CD Tenerife (at least till FM20 comes out 😆). Can Manager @MaddFM rally his team to overcome these last few hurdles and ultimately save his job at Los Chicharreros?       Hurdle 1 – CD Tenerife vs Athletic Bilbao – Sunday 5th May 2024     Despite the notable absences of Xadas and Fabio Silva, we put in a dominant performance and goals from Dani Olmo, Olivier Batista Meier and Jadon Sancho give us a 3-1 win to slightly ease the pressure on Manager @MaddFM.     HURDLE 2 – CD TENERIFE VS Malaga – Monday 13TH MAY 2024     Is the Olmo show again as a brace from the Croatian international helps us to a 2-1 win over Malaga, not overly convincing on paper however we dominated throughout, conceding a late consolation goal which led to a torrent of Demand More abuse from MaddFM on the sideline.     Two wins out of two now for under fire Tenerife means that they are just one point behind 3rd place Atletico Madrid going in to the final game of the season – is there a glimmer of hope that they might yet steal 3rd position and more than likely secure Manager MaddFM‘s fate in the Tenerife hot seat?!       HURDLE 3 – getafe vs CD Tenerife – Sunday 19TH MAY 2024     Just when you think things are going your way and you’re on a roll in this game, something happens which again brings it all crashing down around you and makes you question why it is that you buy and spend endless hours on this beautiful bast*rd of a game year on year. Despite leading on three occasions in this match, Watford flop (damn you Miles) Isaac Success pops up out of nowhere to smash in a 95th minute equaliser for already relegated Getafe in our final game of the season to make it 3-3 and spoil our perfect end of season run-in. What will the board think of this?         This is made even worse by the realisation that Atletico Madrid decided to lose their last game of the season against Real Sociedad meaning we have completely wasted the opportunity to steal 3rd place right from under their noses. We will have to settle for 4th position overall which yes we will take considering how we have performed in the league all season, and the fact that this was our predicted finish point at the start of the season by the Spanish media.       Will this be enough to please Senior Concepcion and his cohorts on the Tenerife board?     Theme Hospital 💉   Let’s not go in to detail about what a cracking game Theme Hospital was, especially as it was the first ever PC game I bought along with Championship Manager 3 after I finished primary school back in 1999. Fast forward to Football Manager 2019 and it feels like we are playing Theme Hospital all over again, as our inbox is suddenly brimming with good news just as we are about to embark on the most important game we’ve had in this save so far – a cup final vs Atletico Madrid.              Copa Del Rey Final CD Tenerife vs Atletico Madrid Saturday 25th May 2024     Holders Atletico Madrid take on 2022 finalists CD Tenerife today in what should be an extremely even fixture after both sides ended their La Liga season neck-and-neck on 79 points apiece, with the Madrid side taking 3rd position based on Head-to-Head results earlier in the year.   Rumour has it that relations between the Tenerife board and Manager MaddFM are at boiling point, with sources saying that only a win will save his job despite qualifying for the Champions League this season – if things aren’t bad enough, Tenerife are without 5 key first team players with Xadas, Bisseck, Cuisance, Rossbach and Dani Olmo all missing out through injury as Tenerife look to claim only their second piece of silverware under MaddFM since winning the Spanish Super Cup back in 2022.      The game kicks off and it’s Tenerife who start the strongest, moving the ball around at pace and dominating the midfield taking full advantage of the absence of Rodri who also misses out through injury. After 3 consecutive attacks, Tenerife win a throw in on the left hand side and this happens:     We hold our lead until half time and look good value for money to go on and win the game, however with 5 first team players out our squad is thin and tired after a long and gruelling season. Atletico come out at half time raring to go, and it’s only a matter of time before they equalise on 65 mins through that man Antoine Griezmann who I’m normally not a fan of despite the fact that he also shares a passion for the best game in the world:       It’s at this point I’m realising that this just isn’t our season – winless September, Champions League drama, Mick McCarthy, job insecurities, multiple injuries, late goals, we’ve had it all ahead of us and just as I am thinking about the fact that we have conceded 3 goals in injury time in our last 3 games (90+3, 90+1 and 90+5) – Antoine Griezmann decides that enough is enough and smashes home a Free Kick in the dying moments of the game. Putain de Merde! 🤬     The End?   4th in the league….Copa Del Rey Runners Up….Champions League Last 16…is that really a bad season for a club of CD Tenerife‘s stature? Our End of Season Awards are held and loanee Olivier Batista Meier is voted as our Fans Player of the Season ahead of Fabio Silva in 2nd and Xadas in 3rd. Might need to make that a permanent signing then. There’s also good news as Perr Schuurs is voted as our Signing of the Season, meaning our decision to “Better Call Sol” proved highly effective when signing a Centre Back in FM!     Despite missing out on Player of the Season, 21 year old Fabio Silva finishes as La Liga Top Scorer with 20 goals which for some reason is the second consevutive season that breaks the record for lowest top scorer – Messrs Ronaldo and Messi are rolling in their fictional FM graves looking at these stats, we can see that for some reason FM does not feel scoring 30+ goals a season should be a common occurrence despite the fact that Messi and Ronaldo did it for years in La Liga:       It’s not all bad for Fabio Silva, who by scoring 20 league goals triggers a €675,000 bonus as well as earning a combined €2.6 million for finishing Top Scorer and making it in to the Team of the Year…who agreed to those clauses?!!!! 🙈     D-Day ⏲️   The dust settles and finally we get the memo that Senior Concepcion and the rest of the Tenerife board are requesting our presence as we are called in to discuss the season’s events and decide on our future as CD Tenerife Manager. Is this where it all ends?         AND IT’S SAVED!!! The board have finally come to their senses and decided that I am in fact the right man for the job, realising how far we have taken the club and giving us time to continue building what we have started.       While we haven’t yet completely dethroned Barcelona or the Madrids from the peak of Spanish football, we are certainly on the right track and with FM20 on the horizon I reckon we have one more season in us in which to finally mount a league title challenge. We have much to do in terms of adding more depth and quality to the squad, but if the board make some funds available (especially as we are now making a profit as per the latest La Liga figures released below), then Season 7 will hopefully turn out to be a cracker for Los Chicharreros and an action filled final year to this Career Save.     And so ends Season 6! Thank you for reading and hopefully enjoying this FM19 save over the past 7 months or so, we have had a turbulent time at Tenerife and hopefully our next and final season will bring the success we’ve craved since starting this save back in February. If you haven’t already, feel free to jump back to our first post where it all began at Tenerife, and don’t forget to follow me here via the Follow button below as well as on Twitter for more FM content and updates. Feedback and Retweets appreciated!! Cheers, MaddFM aka Paul.

6.3. Backfilling or Full Backing?

Sep 21, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: FM Deja-Vu; The Perfect Hat-Trick; Olmo-st there; not Madd just Disappointed; FM Madness and 300 games in Management 👴   🎵 Suggested Tune: Madness – Muse (Acoustic Cover) 🎵   This season was supposed to be about two things – ( 1 ) signing a top class Centre Half (i.e. backfilling) and ( 2 ) mounting a serious title challenge now that we are in our sixth season as Manager of CD Tenerife. Do any of you really think that FM will allow us to meet either of these goals? 😄   Recap   When we last left off, we were 7th at Christmas at the end of 2023 with 12 games played and while this isn’t where we expect to be at this stage, we are still only 5 points off 4th place Villareal and ultimately the tragedy which was our winless September is the main reason we are where we are at this point.     Anyway, enough excuses – we have just rang in the new year and 2024 will hopefully be the year that we fulfill some more of our original save objectives which we laid out back in February 2019 (IRL), especially considering we haven’t a whole lot of FM19 time left now that FM20 is only weeks away!     The year ends and starts in familiar fashion – familiar in that we somehow find ourselves playing the same two teams in five games due to Copa Del Rey and La Liga commitments – Villareal and Bilbao, it’s about to get personal.     A demolition of Villareal in the league isn’t enough to stop us losing in the Copa Del Rey 4th Round Second Leg – thankfully we beat them 4-0 in the first leg which for some reason happened all the way back at the beginning of October. We then proceeded to triple-trounce Athletic Bilbao while most importantly keeping a clean-sheet in all 3 games – backfilling indeed as Perr Schuurs picked up a goal, 3 clean sheets and a man-of-the-match award as we kicked off 2024 with a 100% record. Who said deja-vu was a bad thing?     We emerge from the FM Matrix to continue what turns out to be a perfect month in January – as bad as it is that we (again) had to play 9 games in 4 weeks, we managed to win all 9 games conceding just 3 goals suddenly we find ourselves propelled up to 4th place in the league. This was also topped by an emphatic 4-0 victory over a full-strength Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey Semi Final meaning silverware may actually be on the cards this year! Two words: SQUAD DEPTH 💪💪.       The Perfect Hat-Trick   We’ve all heard of the perfect hat-trick – a header, a left foot shot and a right foot finish all in the same game. All round goal-scoring perfection, it is the ultimate trophy for any prolific striker. Fowler, Aguero, Vialli, Kane, Dzeko, Hasselbaink, Yakubu, Drogba and even Agbonlahor have all scored “perfect” hat-tricks in the Premier League, and even on the European stage we have seen the likes of Ronaldo, Platini, Olic, Lewandowski and Chicharito score what the Germans also call the “lupenreiner” (flawless) hat-trick.   However there are none more famous than arguably the most important, well-known and most high-profile “perfect” hat-trick of all time, which was scored all the way back in 1966 by a man by the name of Sir Geoff Hurst to win the World Cup for England in a 4-2 victory over West Germany.     While not as impactful or significant – it was our star Striker and current Roy De Los Rovers Fabio Silva who scored us our first ever Perfect Hat-Trick in Football Manager (at least that I can remember). After setting up Dani Olmo for our first goal against Granada, Silva then proceeds to score the perfect hat-trick by taking a well placed shot on his left, smashing in a header from Olivier Batista Meier‘s Free Kick and then finishing his own rebound with his right foot to complete the holy trinity of goals in a game.       Silva has certainly taken over the reigns as our Roy De Los Rovers since Brenner’s departure and at just 22 he is an absolute baller of a Striker – if you haven’t already heard of this kid feel free to check out my review of him here in a post which I wrote as a guest author for @WeStreamFM.     Olmo-st there   Up until this point Dani Olmo had been having a relatively quiet start to life in Tenerife following his bargain free transfer in the summer after being released by Real Madrid. From September to Christmas he only picked up 2 goals playing as either an Inside Forward or Shadow Striker, however for some reason he came to life in 2024 and started scoring what can only be described as a host of emphatic goals that greatly contributed towards our surge up the league table.     Goal after goal of absolute belters – what on Earth could be driving this?!    Progress     Between February and March we have 10 league games to play. Disappointingly we draw our first two games in Feb with lowly Espanyol and Eibar, before back-to-back 3-0 wins and then a defeat to Real Madrid which saw us slip back to 5th in the league.     March saw a marked improvement during which we won all 4 games including wins over Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, and after 30 games we find ourselves back in 4th position again, 12 points off leaders Real Madrid but only one point off 2nd – things are heating up!!     Champions League Knockout – Round 1 – 21/02/2024       It’s like for like here at Stamford Bridge as a strong Chelsea team led by Jorge Sampaoli come against arguably MaddFM‘s strongest XI for CD Tenerife with no major injury worries on either side. Chelsea go in to the game as Home favourites, while Tenerife will surely look to exploit this and catch them on the break at every opportunity. Who will reign supreme?     It’s hard to know which is worse – losing the game or it being Jesse Lingard that scored the winner for Chelsea as I am certainly not a fan of his in real life. The reality is that while both teams were evenly matched and despite our best efforts in shoring up our backline with the addition of Perr Schuurs at CB, it was Chelsea’s Central Defensive pairing that made the difference in French compatriots Benjamin Pavard and Samuel Umtiti who bossed the game rendering Fabio Silva null & void for 90 mins.     I hadn’t realised it before but Benjamin Pavard is an absolute beast of a Centre Back in FM – I always thought he was a Right Back based on where he played for France when they won the World Cup but in this game, he is a worldie of a DC.     CHAMPIONS LEAGUE KNOCKOUT – ROUND 2 – 12/03/2024   More FM deja-vu as Chelsea put in yet another outstanding defensive performance – despite our 15 shots on goal, 11 of which were on target, we couldn’t break the deadlock and it was Pavard‘s Newgen defensive partner Danilo Petkovic who picked up the Man of the Match award. So ends our European dream before it even began!!         Full Backing?   April saw us pick up 3 wins, 2 draws and a loss which left us in 4th position after 30 games. Our original league prediction was 4th at the start of the season, so overall it’s not all bad and we are still in with a shout of finishing 2nd or 3rd if results go our way.     We also reach a landmark milestone as Manager of CD Tenerife – if we guess-timate that every game we play takes 5 minutes on average, that’s 25 hours of match play on this version of FM – talk about a hell of lot of hours and of course, unquestionably worth it 😎.     Despite all of this and despite the fact that we have taken Tenerife from the depths of Secunda Division 2 all the way up to the bright lights of the Champions League, as we enter May 2024, Football Manager decides to hit the upper echelons of absolute absurdity.       ARE YOU F*CKING HIGH?! After all we’ve been through, our so called esteemed Patriarch Senior Miguel Concepcion has decided that (potentially) 4th place is not good enough, nor is reaching a Copa Del Rey final which I neglected to mention earlier or even qualifying from what was a hard b*stard of a Champions League group before getting narrowly knocked out by one goal against a top class Chelsea side…THIS IS BULLSHIT REF 🤬. Before now we had been monitoring the Job Security screen to monitor Mick McCarthy‘s status as Ireland Manager (which is still f*cking safe as houses), and suddenly we find ourselves right a the top of the pile as the most insecure of the lot….         Soooo…..after 7 real life months, 6 FM years, 300 games, 30 odd blog posts and over 2000 days in charge, somehow it would appear that we now have 4 games to save our job as Tenerife Manager! Looks like the next post will be an important one 👀.     Thanks for reading folks – this save just keeps on giving 😄. If we keep the job then the save will continue on to Season 7, if not then I might have to start planning for FM20 a little earlier than expected!! As always please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter, don’t forget to hit that Follow button below and retweets are always welcome. Cheers, hopefully the next time we speak I will still be Tenerife Manager! MaddFM aka Paul.

6.2. Madd World

Sep 16, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Late Signings; Slow out the Gate 🐴; Taking the Mick and a Landmark Champions League moment 👀   🎵 Suggested Tune: Mad World – Gary Jules & Curt Smith (Acoustic Version)   When we last left off, all was rosy on the island of Tenerife as we had just added two huge signings to the Los Chicharreros ranks – world class Centre Half Perr Schuurs whom we sourced based on the attributes of our friend Sol Campbell, as well as bargain of the century Dani Olmo who joined on a free transfer after being released from Real Madrid following 5 seasons of loan deals.     Speaking of loan deals – just as the Tenerife fans had accepted that all our transfer dealings were done and were queuing up to get these new names on the back of their shirts – we decide to make not one but two surprise moves in the loan market including one for a familiar face who already spent a season on loan with us a couple of seasons back racking up 11 goals, 8 assists and a 7.29 average rating during 29 appearances for the club:     Mason Mount is also joined by none other than Benjamin Mendy who joins on a season long deal from Manchester City after losing his place to modern day FM legend Alex Grimaldo, while we also manage to renew Olivier Batista Meier’s loan deal after he had a cracking season last year. There is excitement among the Tenerife fans as not only have we managed to bring in a few quality signings, we have also managed to retain all of our key players for the first time having lost the likes of Brenner and Antonio Marin to release clauses previously. Our squad finally looks to have the depth and quality needed to MOUNT a serious challenge this year – will we finally be able to dethrone Barcelona and/or the two Madrids for the league title at our 6th time of asking?       To say we started the season well would be an understatement – 8 goals in two games (including a 4 goal demolition by that man Xadas and 3 in 2 for Fabio Silva) give us back to back opening victories in La Liga, and the fans are already chanting about us winning the league before we’ve barely started it. It’s at this point that the fictional FM gods decide to intervene once again as we then go on a 5 game winless streak during which we can only muster up one measly consolation goal during a 4-1 hammering by Atletico Madrid and are subject to a 3-0 battering by Lyon in the Champions League….seriously, just when you think you’ve figured it all out FM has that uncanny ability to make you question everything you’ve been doing for 6 seasons – actually make that 25+ years of playing this absolute b*stard of a beautiful football game.     October starts on a far more positive note during which a blip against Barcelona is the only blemish on an otherwise perfect month whereby we also pick up back to back wins in both La Liga and in the Champions League – might we actually qualify from our CL group for the first time in the club’s history?     November is almost a carbon copy of October – we manage to win two league games either side of a defeat to Real Madrid, as well as picking up 7 points in the Champions League including a 1-0 win over PSV where new signing Perr Schuurs scored the winner against his old club 🎉🎉. This puts us top of the group on 10 points, which can only mean one thing:       For the first time in our history and most importantly for the first time in this save, we reach the Knockout Round of the Champions League after qualifying from our group and finally we will contend with the elite of European Football – the big question remaining, are we good enough? 👀     Christmas Spirit 🎄 To cap off our excellent Champions League form, we manage to not only beat Bayern away from home to ensure we finish top of the group, but also condemn them to an early exit from the competition as Lyon take second place after beating PSV in the other remaining fixture. Bayern Head Coach Diego Simeone resigns in embarrassment and is swiftly replaced by another contender for personality of the year, Antonio Conte who has enjoyed spells at Man Utd, Barcelona and Juventus since we kicked off this save six FM years ago. Looks like the man can’t stay in the same place for more than two seasons but who are we to judge living the high life on the sunny island of Tenerife 😄☀️.     Two more league wins vs Celta Vigo and Villareal mean we sit in 7th place in La Liga at Christmas, that disappointing run back in September costing us big time as we lie 12 points behind league leaders Atletico Madrid.     Taking the Mick ☘️ Anyone who has been following this save knows that one of my main objectives has been to get the Ireland job once that man Mick McCarthy steps aside either voluntarily or due to poor performance etc. In my last blog post, we had a glimmer of hope with the Irish FAI appearing to be losing patience with Big Mick as their hopes for Euro 2024 lay in tatters following a disastrous start to their qualifying campaign.     Expecting him to get the sack any day now, Tenerife Manager MaddFM eagerly waits in the wings in the hope that Big Mick will emerge from Merrion Square defeated and P45 in hand…..       Obviously not!! That sexy, suave, smooth-talking silver fox b*stard Mick McCarthy has somehow managed to convince them that he is still the right man for the job despite the fact that their hopes of Euro 2024 qualification are in shreds, and it looks like this 64 year old footballing genius will continue at the helm for the Boys in Green for the foreseeable future. Once again the most frequently used GIF of this blog series makes an appearance…      Champions League Knockout Draw – 18th December 2023     Arguably one of the biggest moments in Club Deportivo de Tenerife’s history. Los Chicharreros are boldly going where no Tenerife side have gone before. The Last 16 of the European Champions League. After qualifying from a difficult Champions League group overcoming Bayern Munich, Lyon and PSV, Manager MaddFM knows that there is no easy draw at this stage and they will have to be at their absolute best if they are to advance to the Quarter Finals with the likes of PSG, Barcelona, Man Utd, Liverpool, Man City, Real Madrid and Chelsea all potential opponents in today’s draw.   Let’s cross live to Switzerland where the draw is just about to take place for the 2023/2024 Champions League Knockout Stages:       Tough draw! That’s all for this post, next we will move in to January where we are looking to continue our current form and make a surge up the league table. With FM20 on the horizon, we will continue this save until the beta comes out meaning we probably have another 1-2 seasons to try and finally win La Liga, mount a Champions League challenge and most importantly try and get that pr*ck Mick McCarthy to step aside! If you’ve enjoyed this post feel free to go back to the start of this save and follow our journey to see how we have ended up here – don’t forget to hit the Follow button below and share any thoughts, feedback or retweets etc on Twitter if desired! Cheers, MaddFM aka Paul.

6.1. Better Call Sol

Aug 28, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Save Review; Signing a Defender in Football Manager; Champions League ambitions; Bargain Basement and a glimmer of hope in achieving a save goal 🙏   🎵 Suggested Tune: Better Call Saul – TV Theme Tune   Five FM years ago we kicked off a new adventure on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Our mission: to restore CD Tenerife back to the top tier of Spanish football, surpass their highest ever league finish (5th) and dethrone Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid as the top clubs in Spain.   Although we haven’t won the league yet, we have finished ahead of all three of the clubs above at different times in the past few seasons (2nd, 2nd & 3rd) however if we look at our original save objectives that were laid out back in February, we still have a bit to go before we can sign off on this save in advance of FM20 being released: Objectives cHECK iN Obtain Promotion to La Liga within first 2 seasons ✅ Build a concentrated and extensive team of staff with a particular focus on Youth Coaching and Recruitment ✅ Sign as many Spanish speaking staff members as possible ✅ Develop a strong affiliate network domestically and internationally, both for inbound loan benefits as well as youth development ❌ Minimum of 50% of all incoming transfers will be paid up front ✅ Develop at least one youth prospect or uncapped player to obtain an International Cap for Spain within first 3 seasons ❌ Find our “Roy de los Rovers” – an absolute shithouse of a centre-forward the like of which Los Chicharreros have never seen before ✅ Get the Ireland job and manage both club & country, ensuring qualification for all major tournaments ❌ Sign and develop a young Irish player for the first team and also get him capped by the Republic of Ireland ❌   I think it’s safe to say we have found our Roy De Los Rovers on two occasions now, firstly in Brenner who scored 40 goals for us in one season before having his release clause met by PSG, and subsequently in his replacement Fabio Silva who finished as our top scorer last season despite missing 4-5 months due to injury.       Developing an affiliate network has proven next to impossible, our esteemed Chairman Senior Miguel Concepcion has persistently refused to invest in this for 5 years now, but we will persist and continue asking until either he folds or FM20 comes out. We’ve not even had a player capped for Spain as yet, with development of our Youth Recruitment and Facilities still a slow burner as we continue to have limited finances regardless of the fact that we have had 3 consecutive Champions League qualifications – La Liga prize money is beans compared to Premier League cash moneys!! Our Ireland objectives have also proven difficult, despite our best efforts none of our Irish prospects have developed and while we managed to have a few come through in Youth Intakes (including a false alarm where I thought I finally had a son in Football Manager!), none of them have had any real star quality and we will continue searching until we unearth an Irish gem among the newgen population. Mick McCarthy refuses to budge as Ireland Manager after 6 years at the helm, however the upcoming European Championship qualifiers might rattle a few cages at the FAI HQ in Dublin so it’s eyes emoji in this space 👀.     Signing a Defender in Football Manager     If you’re like me then you will always remember that one player that shares the same birthday as you. For me it was/is the one and only Sol Campbell, who before he was enjoying a disastrous managerial and political career (he once ran to be Mayor of London), was widely regarded as one of the finest Centre Halves in the world so much so that he was selected in the World Cup 2002 All Star Dream Team ahead of the likes of Alessandro Nesta (Italy), Lucio (Brazil) and Thomas Linke (Germany).   Campbell was one of my favourite Defenders, and embodied what I feel are the fundamental attributes and characteristics of a top Central Defender even now in the modern game. Not only was he strong as an ox and powerful in the tackle, he had both pace and aerial ability which made him a formidable rock in defence and one of the key factors in Arsenal‘s unbeaten “Invincibles” season in 2003/2004.   At this point in our save, we have primarily focused on our attacking threat and usually have spent the vast majority of our transfer budget on attacking players such as Jaden Sancho, Mickael Cuisance and Fabio Silva – however we have neglected to spend any real cash on defenders and as such have grown quite thin at the back – our current Centre Back pairing of Yann-Aurel Bisseck and Ruben Semedo cost a combined fee of just €4.7 million which in hindsight has been a bargain considering they have been our first choice Central Defenders for 4 seasons straight helping us to two second place finishes and our recent third place finish last season. Based on this it’s time to bolster the squad and bring in a reinforcement to compete with these two, and to do so we will use a young Sol Campbell from all the way back in Championship Manager 97/98 as our benchmark in signing a Central Defender in Football Manager 2019, taking his strongest attributes as the basis for our player search criteria.     With our transfer budget set quite stringent at just €14 million (largely because we are still paying annual transfer fees for Fabio Silva and Mickael Cuisance), our options are slightly limited however our goal is to scout and identify a young Central Defender with the potential to develop towards First Team football and hopefully progress to similar heights experiences by the big man himself. To do this, our search criteria are as follows: Maximum Player Value: €15 million Maximum Player Age: 25 years old Sol’s Key Attributes: Heading, Marking, Positioning, Strength, Stamina, Tackling, Pace, Determination, Bravery. Options As you can imagine this search brought about varied results. Filtering for 9 attributes is always challenging however in setting the minimum at 12 I am hopeful that we can identify an all-round quality Centre Half with bags of potential to grow and develop if given the chance. One click later (god bless you FM search engine combined with MSI processing speed), we are immediately able to single out five potential candidates that meet our criteria and are both affordable and interested in signing for the club:   1. Malang Sarr Previously linked with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham in real life (LOL), OGC Nice managed to hold on to the young French prodigy in real life however it remains to be seen how long they can continue to do so. Sarr is quality in FM and if we can manage to convince Nice to let him go, he could fit in well alongside Bisseck or Semedo at the heart of the Tenerife Defence. Pros: Tackling, Pace, Determination, Work Rate, Stamina, Resolute Personality Cons: Asking Price, Positioning, Age (not really a youth prospect)   2. Tahj Cruz An American Newgen is always welcome – especially one with unbelievable Pace, Strength, Determination, Positioning and Marking not to mention the guy has “Mercenary” as his Personality description – has this guy killed people? I usually try to avoid signing too many Newgens in order to preserve the realism of Football Manager, however it’s quite tempting to consider making a move to this guy if even for his rapper name alone. Pros: Pace, Determination, Strength, Positioning, Marking Cons: Wage Demands, Bravery, Technical Ability, American (Joke! :P)   3. Perr Schuurs I’ve heard a lot about this guy both in real life and in FM where I have a spotted a few creators snapping him up as a solid reliable defensive option (@blackcaesar_a5 comes to mind). On paper the guy looks awesome – cracking all-round attributes and at 22 I feel he would be ready to walk straight in to the first team – how is he only worth €3.4 million?! Would I be mad not to? Pros: Tackling, Strength, Determination, Agility, Balance, Height, Asking Price Cons: Marking, Heading, Personality, One-Footed   4. Kik Pierie Interestingly Schuurs defensive partner at Ajax also pops up in our search and equally makes his case to be signed by Los Chicharerros! At 22 he is the same age as Schuurs and also offers flexibility in that he can play at both CB and LB – I wonder could I sign the two of them?! 🤔 Pros: Strength, Stamina, Agility, Tackling, Marking Cons: I dunno, there’s just something unremarkable about him..   5. Kevin Danso Before his recent move to Southampton in August 2019, Danso had popped up in media conversation frequently due to the increased media attention on players that have relocated from English football to the Bundesliga (e.g. Jadon Sancho, Ademola Lookman, Reiss Nelson etc). Despite the fact that he is Austrian, Danso started his career at MK Dons around the same time that Dele Alli was kicking off his career there and for some reason I am often drawn towards these types of players who have Premier League or International connections and he might be worth a shout based on his price and Sol Campbell-esque attributes and physical characteristics. Pros: Strength, Bravery, Determination, Heading, Jumping, Balance Cons: Positioning, Asking Price, Age (again not a youth prospect)   As was the case when we were trying to decide on which Striker to sign a while back, we are faced with another difficult transfer dilemma – who would you choose?     Schuurely you can’t be serious?!! 😄     I was extremely close to going for Tahj Cruz however when presented with the choice of newgen or real life player, the realist in me pushed me towards Dutch giant Perr Schuurs who signs a 5 year contract after Tenerife and Ajax agree an €11.25 million deal for his signature. Between Schuurs and Bisseck I reckon we will not only build a wall in defence but also offer a significant threat on set pieces as both are 6’3 and 6’4 respectively. They say this guy is also the man to replace Matthijs De Ligt at Ajax and if he even has half the potential then I think we’ve done a very good bit of business here…he might not look like Sol Campbell but here’s hoping he can defend like him 🔥.     “Oi Sol – do you approve?”     Bargain Basement If €11.25 million is considered to be a bargain for a Centre Back of Schuurs’ quality – hold on to your hats because here comes arguably the biggest coup of the save so far:     If your name is @FridayNightFM then you might be frothing at the mouth over this one – I know Joe is a huge fan of Dani Olmo as mentioned before on the 5 Star Potential podcast, and I’m sure the prospect of picking him up on a free transfer are both equally surprising and mouth-watering! A former Barcelona academy player, Olmo spent 4 seasons in his native Croatia before signing for Real Madrid in 2019 for €7.25m and following two reasonably successful loan spells at Real Betis, Real Madrid bizarrely decided to release him from his contract much to the benefit of Los Chicharreros aka CD Tenerife – the lad’s value shoots up to €65 million the day after joining!       Champions League – Unfinished Business I say unfinished business – the reality is we’ve failed to qualify from our Champions League group for the past two consecutive seasons, therefore our primary European goal this season is to get out of our group and try to go…

5.5. Five Years Later

Aug 18, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: April Fools; the Rabona; Gold or Silva; a late surge; Attempted Thievery and the end of our 5th Season as CD Tenerife Manager 👴🏻   🎵 Suggested Tune: Five Years – David Bowie (Acoustic Version) 🎵   So here we are, after almost 5 FM years which have included promotion to La Liga, a Copa Del Rey Final, Two League Runner-Up finishes, a Europa League Final and 25 blog posts, we approach the end of our fifth season as Manager of CD Tenerife during which we have played close to 250 games spending over €250m on players along the way.   Status Update Last we heard, Los Chicharreros aka CD Tenerife were sitting in 4th place in La Liga level on points with Real Madrid and one point behind Barcelona who occupy 2nd place – both of those teams have made a rapid ascent up the table after disappointing starts and are putting serious pressure on our Champions League aspirations! Atletico Madrid are 9 points clear at the top of the league and look like they will be strong enough to win the title for the first time in 10 years making them the first team to take the trophy away from Real and Barca since then. Can Tenerife make a late push for an automatic Champions League place?     Atletico Madrid vs CD Tenerife – 1st April 2023     Teams A. Madrid: Rulli, N. Semedo, S. Savic, D. Godin, Y. Gerhardt, Saul, R. Sanches, C. Pavon, Koke (c), A. Correa, A. Griezmann Tenerife: S. Rossbach, F. Norrestrand, Y. Bisseck (c), R. Semedo, L. Klostermann, Xadas, T. Delaney, L. Tousart, J. Sancho, M. Cuisance, A. Idah   14 Mins….THE ATLETICO FANS ARE SILENCED!!! Cuisance plays the ball to Xadas who whips a dangerous ball across the Madrid penalty area, and it’s Jadon Sancho who arrives at the back post to smash it in the back of the net! Absolute scenes in the away end of Metropolitano de Madrid.     24 Mins….ABSOLUTE GENIUS!! Xadas works his way in to the box and (perhaps unnecessarily) does a cheeky rabona flick which falls beautifully into the path of Thomas Delaney who makes no mistake to make it 2-0 to Tenerife!! Los Chicharreros fans are ecstatic!!     Now I know what you’re thinking….FM is too easy; formation/tactic must be overpowered; Xadas is an FM ringer; at this point I am thinking the same – have we come too far in too short a period of time and therefore has the current FM universe we are living in become too unrealistic with CD Tenerife beating league leaders Atletico Madrid 2-0 away from home?     I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS! (eternally grateful John McEnroe). Granted we conceded just before half time and it was 2-1 at the break, however on comes little known (for me anyway) Israeli Forward Manor Solomon who equalises on 74 minutes and then snatches a 91st minute winner for Los Colchoneros…if the Home fans were silent before, safe to say the whole place erupted as they march towards their 11th ever La Liga title, leaving us as the red-faced April Fools as we head back to the island with our tails between our legs. There will be no day off tomorrow!!   Choc-a-Bloc I’ve vowed to stop giving out sh*t about FIFA due to several rants in my previous posts – however once again the aftermath of the 2022 Winter World Cup in Qatar means we have to squash 8 games in to 4 weeks during the month of April. A trip to Milan following our disappointment in Madrid brings a 3-1 drubbing at the hands of our old nemesis AC Milan who as we know beat us in last year’s Europa Cup final – sadly we can only muster up a 1-1 draw at home which means our European adventure quickly comes to an end at the Quarter final stages. Thankfully this combined with an absolute bollocking during a team meeting seems to inspire the lads, as we proceed to win back to back league games – there are also goals for Adam Idah and Dejan Joveljic who we had highlighted in my last post due to a lack of goals and quality finishing – has our new training approach actually worked?!! 😲 (see previous post for details on this).     Gold or Silva Amidst all of this fixture chaos, there’s a rap on the door and our trusty Assistant Manager Inigo Idiakez bursts in the door with Head Physio Gary Lewin being dragged in behind him…I’m bracing myself for terrible news, like Xadas has broken his ankle trying a double rabona or Jadon Sancho has hurt his back carrying England (😆), however the glint in Inigo’s eye tell me something positive is afoot….     Needless to say my reaction was this:     We gave him a run with the u23s and then brought him on as a sub in the Deportivo game, and even though he is only at around 80% match fitness there’s no time to waste in getting him back in the team as Real Madrid and Barcelona continue try to force us out of the Top 3 – he starts against Celta Vigo in the league away from home, and the kid obviously has a lot of lost ground to make up as this happens:     Despite the game finishing in a draw, Silva plays 70 minutes unscathed after scoring a brace and there’s a storm brewing in Tenerife as we prepare for our last 5 fixtures. Somehow our next game is the reverse leg of the Celta Vigo fixture which I’ve not seen before (we will blame FIFA again because why the f*ck wouldn’t we?) – and it’s complete deja vu as the boy Silva again bags a brace in a 4-1 win in front of our own fans. Talk about back with a bang! This is followed up with a well-earned 2-1 win over Bilbao who dropped out of the running a while back, thankfully so as both Barcelona and Real Madrid continue to keep winning and its now a three-horse race for second place in La Liga.     a Late Surge ⚡ Three games to seal our fate. The draw against Vigo allows Barcelona to go 2 points clear in 2nd place and 4 points ahead of us, therefore it’s between ourselves and Real Madrid to seal third position which would be a drop from our Runners-Up position last year however overall, a pretty good finish for this young Tenerife side after five years under Manager MaddFM.     Fortune might favour the bold as we have the easier run in on paper with two home games to play, while they will travel to the Nou Camp hopefully knowing that anything but victory will see them finish outside the top 3 for the first time since the 2003/2004 season (assuming we win all our games!)   Tenerife fixtures (left) vs Real Madrid fixtures (right) Round 1 🥊 No change… Round 2 🥊🥊 Anything we can do they can do better….. Round 3 🥊🥊🥊 F*CKING GET IN!!!!!!!!!   FORCA BARCELONA!!!! He might be on his way to Bayern on loan in real life however it’s Philippe Coutinho who has sealed third place for us by scoring the winning goal against Real Madrid, our 3-1 win over Villareal means that we finish in 3rd position in La Liga and therefore have successfully dethroned Real Madrid and condemned them to 4th place as hoped.     A cracking end to our 5th season at Tenerife and although we haven’t challenged for the title as planned, our young team (average age 24) has shown bags of character and potential especially with the injuries picked up – hopefully we can make a few signings during the summer and take this team to the next level, FM20 is still a long way off so Roy De Los Rovers will continue until we either lift the title or until the beta drops!!!   🚨 Intruder Alert 🚨 Just as we are preparing to depart for the summer break, we receive not one but two unwanted approaches from a certain oil-rich French club – first PSG attempt to poach Mickael Cuisance who only joined at the start of this season and contributed 4 goals and 7 assists during the campaign, and after being politely told to go f*ck themselves they then return with a measly €53 million bid for Jadon Sancho who himself scored 5 goals and provided 6 assists despite having several injuries which meant he only played 26 league games.       Needless to say we tell Manager Joachim Low to get the hell off our island and go back to what we all know he does best:     And that’s it for Season 5! Since taking over back in January (IRL) we have guided the club from the depths of Spanish Secunda Division (SD2) right up towards the summit of Spanish football to do battle with the big boys in Barcelona and the two Madrids. My next post will review our progress against our original save objectives – if you’ve not seen these, feel free to go back in time to the start of this save where we kicked of this save 25 posts back!! We will also do another scouting feature this time looking at how we go about searching for a Centre Half after previously posting about Scouting a Striker in Football Manager. As always thanks for reading – thoughts, comments and retweets are appreciated and don’t forget to hit the Follow button below to stay tuned for more FM blog updates 🤘. Cheers & thanks, MaddFM aka Paul.  

5.4. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Aug 18, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Cause & Effect – Chance Creation vs Chance Conversion in Football Manager; (and there’s also a humdinger of a debut for a new arrival 🔥🔥)   🎵 Suggested Tune 🎵 : Tubthumping (I get knocked down) – Chumbawumba Acoustic Cover   Recap After enjoying back-to-back runners-up finishes in La Liga in our last two seasons at CD Tenerife, things haven’t been so rosy on the island for Los Chicharreros as they continue their quest to dethrone Barcelona and the two Madrids from the summit of Spanish football. At the end of my last post, we were sitting in third place in La Liga after 20 games however we are already 11 points behind leaders Atletico Madrid. As a result we moved quickly in the January transfer window despite having no available cash to spend, bringing in two loan signings in the form of Olivier Batista Meier (FC Bayern) and Matt Smith (Man City) who both join the club until the end of the season. The bad news is that we are still without our star striker and record signing Fabio Silva who is currently out for 2-3 months with a broken leg – safe to say we are facing an uphill battle in our quest to win La Liga for the first time in the club’s history ⛰️.     We handed OBM (it’s just easier) his debut against Getafe at Home in our first game in February, naturally expecting to win but equally apprehensive due to our persistent lack of goals since Silva picked up that injury back in November. As we are strong favourites and have just come off the back of playing 9 games in 4 weeks during January, we go with a slightly rotated first X1 however we stick with our Control-Possession based 4-4-1-1 tactic which we discussed in detail back in Season 3 if you wish to explore it further. Young summer signing Screve Kitoko starts alongside Semedo in Central Defence, while there are also starts for Rodrygo on the left and Carles Alena moves forward in to the Shadow Striker position behind Adam Idah up top in the lone Striker role.     If it was a day to make a name for themselves then they certainly took their chance; Adam Idah opened the scoring on 26 minutes after a clever ball through from Carles Alena, and our lead was doubled on 34 mins when Alena picked up his second assist playing in Danish midfielder Thomas Delaney for his first ever goal for the club. Half time instructions with a 2-0 lead at Home are rarely over-complicated, where the players are advised not to get complacent and retain their two goal advantage – this must have hit home with OBM more so than anyone else, as during the second half he decides to do this…twice 🔥🔥:     This cracking start to the month is followed up with a 1-0 home win over Lyon which sadly isn’t enough to keep us in the Champions League as we fail to qualify and therefore make the familiar transition from CL to Europa League football for the third consecutive season. This also coincides with what can only be described as a clear lack of firepower for the next few weeks – back to back league draws and an easy win over Leganes are followed by a 2-0 defeat at Barcelona and then we struggle to pick up 2 wins from our next 4 league games – we can clearly see a pattern emerging as a lack of goals means that we continue to hover around 3rd/4th position and the league title is rapidly vanishing out of sight as Athletico continue to dominate at the top of the table. The only positive came in the form of a 4-1 hammering of Hertha BSC which sees us progress to the Europa League Quarter Final – interestingly only 1 leg needed due to the World Cup being on during Christmas as confirmed in the SI forums!     Cause & Effect – Chance Creation vs Chance Conversion It was at this point I began to dive deeper into our current form and apparent lack of goals and execution in the absence our main Striker. I felt that we were still creating as many chances and overall playing as well as we have previously in any other season, however ultimately we just aren’t scoring enough and it was time to investigate as to where things are going wrong and what could be done to make amends…are our Strikers simply not good enough?   To analyse this I looked back on 7 games that we played in October (when Fabio Silva was fit) versus the 7 games we played during February – the focus of this analysis was to review the quality and frequency of chances created versus our overall conversion and output, and safe to say it is clear that our final product took a substantial hit in the second half of the season as we observe a significant decrease in goals and chances converted:     If we look closely – we can clearly see that we experienced a major drop in terms of Goals Scored, Shots on Target and Clear Cut Chances on average per game – so much so that we have been scoring one less goal per game with two less shots and 1 less clear cut chance in each fixture.     We didn’t have a huge change in the number of points earned overall, but there is a clear decrease in our quality in terms of our finishing and final ball. This led me to then review our training as previously we have been very focused on Possession, Passing and Chance Creation however I now know that I need to put a much greater emphasis on the final third, both in terms of Team Training where I have now added more Shooting and Chance Conversion modules to our Weekly Schedule, as well as on an Individual basis where I have instructed our stronger Attacking coaches to focus heavily on tactical and technical coaching, with the likes of Adam Idah and Dejan Joveljic being put on Individual regimes to improve their own Final Third and Shooting ability.     Summary Will this work? Only time will tell – having been guilty of ( 1 ) being too focused on possession, passing and ball distribution and ( 2 ) being far too over-reliant on star striker Fabio Silva, I am hopeful that the increased focus on Attacking in the Final Third and Chance Conversion will directly enhance our productivity and overall output in terms of goals and goal-scoring opportunities.   If it doesn’t work? Well, there is always this to bring a sigh of relief to the island of Tenerife as we approach the end of March 2023….   Thanks for reading!! Thoughts and feedback are always appreciated as are likes and retweets, please be sure to hit the Follow button below and check out my Twitter page for more blog updates and FM content! My next post will reveal whether we were able to get back to goalscoring form and hopefully make a push for the title with Fabio Silva due to return in April – watch this space!! Cheers, MaddFM.

5.3. Hail Hydra?

Aug 04, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Headless Chickens; World Cup effect; More Fixture Chaos; Positive Reinforcement(s), and we say goodbye to a true FM Legend 👑   🎵 Suggested Tune: Avengers Theme Tune – Spanish Guitar version   The legend of the Lernaean Hydra is that if you cut off one of it’s heads, two more will grow back in it’s place therefore rendering it virtually indestructible in Greek mythology. After losing record signing Fabio Silva to a broken leg in November 2022, we will have to hope for a similar mythological rebirth in the form of backup strikers Adam Idah and Dejan Joveljic, whom we need now more than ever to step up to the plate if we are to fulfill our save goal of dethroning Barcelona and the two Madrids from the pinnacle of Spanish football.   Last we heard, MaddFM‘s CD Tenerife were sitting in 3rd place in La Liga after 15 games as we entered November 2022 for the start of a completely unwanted and unjustified two month Winter Break caused by FIFA’s masterpiece that is the scheduling of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Despite having already played against Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, our 4 league defeats have come against lowly opposition in the form of Getafe, Real Betis, Sevilla and Espanyol therefore while we are playing well against bigger teams, there is much to be done against the rest of the pack if we are to have any chance of league success this season.   In case you missed it – below is our current squad that we have built since taking over almost 5 FM years ago: Goalkeepers: Sondre Rossbach (Denmark), David Babalola (Spain) Defenders: Lukas Klostermann (Germany), Frederik Norrestrand (Denmark), Jordi Grasa (Spain), Ruben Duarte (Spain), Yann-Aurel Bisseck (Germany), Ruben Semedo (Portugal), Screve Kitoko (Germany) Midfielders: Thomas Delaney (Denmark), Carles Alena (Spain), Lucas Tousart (France), Predrag Blazic (Serbia), Mickael Cuisance (France), Xadas (Portugal), Jadon Sancho (England), Pedro Luis Acosta (Spain) Forwards: Fabio Silva (Portugal), Adam Idah (Ireland), Dejan Joveljic (Serbia), Rodrygo (Brazil) World Cup 2022 in words Unsurprisingly Ireland failed to qualify for the World Cup however much to our disappointment, Mick McCarthy was deemed to have done a good job and keeps his position as Ireland Manager (one of our save objectives is to obtain the Ireland job but Big Mick ain’t going nowhere 😠). One man who didn’t do a good job however was waistcoast enthusiast Gareth Southgate, who failed to get England in to the finals after finishing 3rd in their qualification group behind Switzerland and Russia in what was arguably one of the easier groups in the qualification stages. Southgate resigned after their last qualifier vs Cyprus and was swiftly replaced by none other than Sean Dyche whose latest great achievement was bringing Burnley to 13th in the Premier League 👀.   In short – the UK & Ireland’s hopes and dreams lie with Scotland who are drawn in a group with Spain, Japan and Cameroon, and heroic victories over the latter two meant that they finished in 2nd place in their group to join Nigeria, Italy, Mexico, Romania, France, Canada, Spain, Paraguay, USA, Argentina, Holland, Belgium, Uruguay, Croatia and Brazil in the last 16 of the Qatar World Cup. Biggest surprise of the group stages is that Canada pipped Portugal to qualify from Group C while Germany crash out of Group E behind Paraguay and USA – I guess the heat and/or conditions in the Middle East must have been an issue for everyone except FIFA’s bank manager.     Scotland’s dreams were shattered by holders France in a 3-1 defeat, who advance to the Quarter Finals where they face Italy in the only all-European tie of the round. Nigeria advance past Romania to face Spain who just about beat Canada by 1-0; Uruguay brushed off neighbours Paraguay to progress and face the Dutch who beat Croatia in the last 16, while the tie of the round saw Brazil emerge comfortable 2-0 winners against rivals Argentina, and will now play Belgium in the last Quarter Final fixture.   There’s a huge shock in the last 8 as Nigeria knock out one of the competition favourites Spain on penalties, meaning they become the first African nation ever to reach the World Cup Semi Finals and will face Brazil who are comfortable winners over Belgium winning 3-1. Favourites France succumb to a 2-1 defeat to Italy, who will meet Holland after they beat Uruguay in a repeat of the 2010 Semi Final.   No surprises this time around – wins for both Brazil and Italy mean that we will have a repeat of that infamous 1994 World Cup final and perhaps some redemption for @FMTrequartista‘s beloved Roberto Baggio who famously missed the decisive penalty to hand victory to the Brazilians. Finally, after a few weeks of limited beer and partying due to Qatar’s strict drinking laws combined with temperatures of close to 40 degrees throughout the tournament, the World Cup Final saw Italy take on Brazil at the Khalifa International Stadium (c. 68,030). Clearly the previous weeks have taken their toll as both sides see out a 0-0 stalemate which also saw Roberto Firmino sent off after just 13 minutes for a silly two-footed tackle. Despite Lorenzo Insigne missing the first penalty for Italy, crucial misses from Eder Militao and Gerson meant that it was 35 year old Italian stalwart Leonardo Bonucci who scored the winning penalty for Italy and it was indeed redemption for the Azurri led by former Fiorentina, Inter and Lazio manager Stefano Pioli.     2022 seems to be the year of the veteran as 35 year old Edinson Cavani wins the Golden Boot with 6 goals for Uruguay, and an altogether forgettable tournament comes to an end in Qatar and the rest of the footballing world are left to pick up the pieces as we attempt to reignite our league campaign in January following two months of non-competitive football. Total Gridlock 🔒 Well thank you FIFA – if it wasn’t bad enough that we spent the last two months playing meaningless friendlies (which bizarrely included a game against Chelsea for Eden Hazard’s testimonial), our reward is that we have 10 FIXTURES in the month of January alone. Cue a busy month for our physio team as we prepare for games across 3 competitions.     We open 2023 with a Copa Del Rey win over Rayo Vallecano, followed by a hard fought away win in our last Champions League game against Dinamo Kiev which sadly isn’t enough for us to qualify having suffered back to back defeats against Juventus as well as Benfica in our opening game – that means we will again contest the Europa League after losing in the final to Milan last season, however we will have to do so without first choice Left Back Jordi Grasa who picked up a broken foot in the Ukraine – what did I say!   We then play Bilbao not once but twice in a row, firstly in the league where we pick up a vital 2-0 Home win, and then somehow 4 days later in the same fixture and stadium we are trounced 0-4 in the Copa Del Rey – one less competition to worry about I guess! 9 points from 5 more league games means that we stay in 3rd place after 20 odd games – the bad news is that our hopes for Adam Idah and Dejan Joveljic to step up and make names for themselves have somewhat faded as they only manage 3 goals between them over the 10 games, and April can’t come quick enough for the return of star striker Fabio Silva.   Reinforcements Naturally with all this fixture congestion, our squad was starting to look a bit stretched in terms of fatigue and match fitness. With little or no money in the bank, we turn to the loan market where we bring in one familiar face along with an exciting prospect who I have observed in a few other FM Creator’s saves that will hopefully bring some flair and creativity to the side as we look to ignite the second half of our season. Matt Smith returns to the club on loan from Manchester City having spent a full year with us in 2021/2022 where he picked up 5 goals and 3 assists in 32 appearances as a Box to Box midfielder. Smith is quality in the game and has outrageous technical, defensive and attacking attributes making him a perfect all-round midfielder.     Also landing on the sunny island of Tenerife is German Winger Oliver Batista Meier, who joins us on a 6 month loan from Bayern Munich to give much needed competition to Xadas and Sancho on the wings. I first saw Batista during a live stream by @Lexphonix who had him at Schalke, and more recently observed @FMEadster calling him his favourite FM19 player after bringing him in on loan at Anzhi Makhachkala.     Farewell to an FM Legend It’s mixed emotions at Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez – as the arrival of two new players brings excitement among the Los Chicharreros fans, we are then shocked by the news that arguably the greatest FM Coach of all time has decided to retire from the game.     If you have somehow never heard of Phil Cannon, allow me to briefly repeat myself after already profiling him back when I signed him at the start of this save. In real life, Phil Cannon has been in charge of Academies at both Blackburn Rovers and Everton, and was a key part of the development of a number of well known players including Wayne Rooney, Jack Rodwell, Dan Gosling, Grant Hanley, David Raya and Jack O’Connell. It is in Football Manager however that Cannon is more well known, and FM players have been signing Cannon as an Assistant Manager, Coach or Head of Youth Development for almost 10 years in the game due to his outrageous coaching attributes – in fact, if you have signed and appreciated Cannon in the past please drop a #Cannon 👍 on my Twitter post for this blog article as a mark of respect for the big man 👊.     Thanks for reading! My next post will take us up to the end of the 2022/2023 season (our 5th as Tenerife Manager) to see if we can mount a serious league challenge and finally surpass one of the big three at the top of La Liga – will Fabio Silva be the same player he was after that horrific leg break? Please hit the Follow button to keep updated on the next post which will be out next week – Likes, Comments and Retweets are also appreciated on Twitter if you are that way inclined 🤘. Cheers, MaddFM.

5.2. Wheel of Fortune

Jul 10, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: FIFA corruption, 200 Games in Management and “Have You Been Injured in an Accident that wasn’t your fault?”   🎵 Suggested Tune: Get Lucky – Daft Punk (Spanish Acoustic Version)   New Look Squad August 2022 – CD Tenerife have strengthened their squad by no fewer than 9 players, spending €134m (including add-ons and future fees) and perhaps most importantly retaining the services of key players that were linked with moves this summer including Rossbach (Man Utd), Xadas (Arsenal) and Sancho (Real Madrid). Manager MaddFM is clearly stating his intentions here as he builds a youthful team that is now packed with quality, pace and flair throughout.     Can the team that finished as runners-up for the past two seasons in a row go one better this year and become only the third team to dethrone Barcelona and Real Madrid from the pinnacle of Spanish football over the past 20 years? The bookies don’t seem to think so as we are predicted to finish in 5th place for the season ahead – they have got it wrong for 5 seasons straight now so why disappoint them? 😄 Early Start Pre-season doesn’t seem to last long as our first competitive game in the Spanish Super Cup Final is planned for 24th July – has Football Manager been smoking something?! This is further enhanced by the fact that when our fixture list is released, we have only 1 game scheduled between 1st November and 31st December 2022 – what the f*ck is going on? I was a button click away from the Sports Interactive Bugs Forum until of course it finally dawns on me that 2022 is the year of the World Cup in Qatar which will run during our Winter for the first time ever, and two thoughts come into my head upon the realisation that we will soon be going 2 months without playing a competitive game: 1. Fair play to Sports Interactive – as realism goes, this game is on the money as usual in terms of reflecting real-life (let’s see how Brexit turns out 😄) 2. You have to hand it to FIFA – for a bunch of the most corrupt b*stards in sport, they stuck to their guns and will succeed in screwing over the vast majority of world football just to line their pockets with some sweet sweet oil money Silverware at last? By the time we are prematurely lining out against Barcelona in the Super Cup on 24th July, our record signing Fabio Silva hasn’t even joined the club yet, therefore we go with a slightly new look squad giving debuts to Rodrygo, Cuisance and Blazic against an outrageous Barcelona side that features new signings such as Amadou Diawara, Dele Alli and Richarlison. To add further insult, there is no place in the Barcelona first XI for former Tenerife wonderkid Antonio Marin who has to make do with the bench today. They say revenge is a dish best served cold however July in Sevilla is certainly no cold shoulder especially when Barcelona are in town. We go with a 4-4-1-1 Counter Attack style with the objective of frustrating Barcelona and catching them on the break, and this strategy seems to do the trick as we emerge victorious courtesy of an 11th minute goal from Captain Yann-Aurel Bisseck – after which we spent most of the game on the back foot however our defence held strong and Barcelona struggled to create any clear chances on the day. Spanish Super Cup Champions for 2022!! 🎉     Counter Attack has been extremely effective for us throughout this save, I initially wrote about back in Season 3 and since then we have continued to benefit from a quick Direct Counter Attack strategy when playing against superior teams or playing away from home. It was only after we finished Top of La Liga in terms of Away form last season that I realised just how successful it has been for us, therefore I wrote a separate piece for @WeStreamFM on how we implement it both tactically and in terms of key player attributes needed – feel free to check it out via the link below 200 Games in Management The 2022/2023 season (our 6th as Tenerife Manager) kicks off with my 200th game in Management since this save kicked off all the way back in January 2019; not only that, but it is also another episode of the Canary Islands derby as we welcome Las Palmas to Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez. A 3-0 Home win kicks off our season on a high, and despite a blip against Getafe we pick up 4 consecutive wins to put us second in the league by the end of September, during which new boy Fabio Silva picks up 3 goals including a brace during a 4-1 thrashing of Real Madrid (see my previous post for a player report on this kid – not a Newgen!). As you can see, at this point our Champions League group has also been drawn and it’s a tough one as we must overcome Juventus, Benfica and Dinamo Kiev if we are to progress to the knockout stages for the first time in our history following disappointment in the last two seasons where we never made it past the group stages. September sees us pick up two wins out of three as we lose our opener away to Benfica before picking up Home wins against Benfica (again?) and Dinamo Kiev. Have you been injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault? October is absolute chaos. Firstly, again thanks to the boy scouts at FIFA we manage to have 8 fixtures scheduled in 27 days, 5 of which take place over the course of an 11 day period which includes back to back clashes against Champions Atletico Madrid and Italian giants Juventus in the Champions League. The good news is that Fabio Silva is absolutely smashing it in his first season at Los Chicharreros, picking up 8 goals in 11 games as we prepare for the unavoidable winter break caused by the World Cup in Qatar. All is going well up to this point, and our last league game before the break is a Home tie against Valencia where we expect to pick up 3 points to put us in 2nd place going in to the prolonged winter period. What could go wrong??? A strong challenge from my new arch-nemesis Ferro (who incidentally is also Portugese) results in a Broken Leg for 20 year old top scorer and record signing Fabio Silva, with our Head Physio Gary Lewin estimating he will be out for anything between 4 and 6 months, basically the majority of the season!! This is an absolute disaster to our league ambitions and we will now have to rely on Adam Idah, Dejan Joveljic and Rodrygo to score the goals we need if we are to compete in both the League and in Europe knowing that we still have a tough away trip to Turin where Juventus will be looking to beat us for the second time in the group stages. So, as the World Cup gets underway (which poor Fabio Silva misses out on with Portugal achieving qualification), it’s mixed emotions at CD Tenerife as we sit in Third Place in La Liga after 16 games, 10 points behind leaders Atletico Madrid. The good news is that both Barcelona and Real Madrid are struggling in 6th and 8th position respectively, and when we return for our next post we will have a look at how this disgracefully organised World Cup has gone as well as see how the squad react without Wonderkid Fabio Silva leading the line for Los Chicharreros. Thanks for reading!! If you haven’t already, please feel free to read back on how we have arrived here and catch up on our journey so far. Hit the Follow button below to keep posted for new blog updates – thoughts and retweets are also appreciated on Twitter! Cheers, MaddFM.

5.1. Resurrección

Jun 30, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Life after Brenner; Minimum Fee Release Clauses; Stolen Youth; Learning Lessons and Scouting a Striker in Football Manager 🔥   🎵 Suggested Tune: I Am The Resurrection – Stone Roses (Acoustic Cover)   In the last 12 months we have lost two of our star players to release clauses, with Antonio Marin moving to Barcelona for €20 million followed by the recent sale of Brenner to PSG for €60 million. In both cases, the release fees were limited by agents and as soon as their new clubs showed an interest, both players were unwilling to negotiate new contracts and as such moved on. As is the case in real life, Player/Agent power unfortunately has prevailed and if you are ever managing in Spain my only advice is: Pay a few extra quid a week and bump up that Minimum Fee Release Clause 💰.   Recap Let’s do a very brief recap on our progress in this save so far to date: If you haven’t already read my last post (which was an absolute tragedy), I recommend hopping back quickly as there is a spoiler alert imminent! After finishing second in La Liga and losing not one but two finals in the Europa League and Copa Del Rey respectively, our top scorer Brenner (42 goals!) left for the bright lights of PSG after having his €60m Minimum Fee Release clause activated. This means that we are on the lookout for our new #RoyDeLosRovers and while we were devastated to lose Brenner, it’s always 🔥🔥 going shopping with a deep transfer budget. Let the scouting begin!!   Scouting a Striker in football manager In real life, give me Alan Shearer any day – partially because I am a Newcastle fan and partially because as all round goalscoring class and thunderblasts go, there weren’t many better than the man who still to this day has scored the most Premier League goals in history – a league that has since seen the likes of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Sergio Aguero. Shearer was the very definition of an out-and-out goalscorer, with arguably the best Finishing and Shooting ability ever to grace the Premier League; it’s almost a crime that he never won a major trophy in his outstanding career and as heroes go, Alan Shearer has long been one of mine.     In today’s game however and more importantly in FM19, I believe that attributes such as Pace, Off the Ball, Technique and First Touch are even more important for the modern day Striker particularly when we look at the level of Defenders playing currently, whereby Pace and Movement have become equally important for Centre Backs which we have seen through the likes of Raphael Varane and Virgil Van Dijk, therefore our search for our new #RoyDeLosRovers shithouse goal machine will be based on this type of Striker more so than a powerhouse forward.   Options Despite the fact that we finished second last season, we are still a relatively small club that struggle to attract the top top talent in the game and cannot compete with the likes of Barcelona and the Madrids in terms of transfer fees and wage budget etc. Granted our transfer budget is around €64m however the reality is that Barcelona and Real Madrid spent €172m and €110m respectively on new players this season alone. Based on our current budget and on the players that appear interested in joining the club, below are our Top 5 candidates to replace Brenner and potentially become our new Roy De Los Rovers: 1. Divock Origi With 13 goals in 35 games for Wolves last season following a €40m move last year, Origi would bring the Pace, Movement and Work Rate needed to replace Brenner in the same role. Admittedly he has won me over following his and Liverpool’s recent Champions League heroics in real life, however he is quality in the game and while he appears very interested in joining, his asking price may be a potential stumbling block if we are to have any budget remaining to bolster our squad depth.   2. Jean-Kevin Augustin As speed and movement go this guy certainly fits the bill; he hasn’t yet proven to be as strong a goalscorer and in fact hasn’t even broken double-digits for RBL in the past 4 seasons, however with 9 goals in 22 appearances he is both a cheap and potentially explosive option to bring to La Liga.   3. Ryan Cassidy I really like the look of this lad, and it’s an absolute belter of a bonus that he is Irish as well and scored 12 league goals in 35 appearances for Watford last season. He is arguably the best Irish player I’ve seen in FM for years, and his Dribbling, First Touch and Technique attributes are outrageous for a wee lad from the Emerald Isle. Gonna be hard not to sign this lad even though we already have his compatriot Adam Idah in our ranks ☘️.   4. Fabio Silva I’ve previously reported on this kid in my “Dubbed the Next” article which I wrote for WeStreamFM.com, as he is touted as the “next Eusebio” at the start of FM19. Praise indeed for any 16 year old however in real life he is already being recongnised as having huge talent and potential, so much so that even the guys at Football Manager/Sports Interactive were tweeting about him signing a new 3 year deal for FC Porto after scoring 33 goals in 39 appearances for their U19 side. In-game and in the year 2022, he has just turned 20 years old after completing his first full season for Porto, scoring 14 goals in 27 appearances – his potential is off the charts, not to mention his Pace (16), Off the Ball (16), Technique (17), Agility (17) and Finishing (15). He will command a much larger fee but f*ck me if we were to get this one over the line.   5. Alfredo Morelos This guy seems to keep popping up every now and again both IRL for his disciplinary issues as well as in the FM world where I have seen a number of Content Creators speak very highly of him as a goalscorer and all round Striker option. His attributes are exactly what we are looking for in terms of Pace, Off the Ball, Finishing, Work Rate etc and again offers a very reasonably priced option for Brenner’s replacement having scored 14 goals in 22 games for Rangers last season.   How the hell do we pick from these?! Roy De Los Rovers V2.0 After much deliberation, we decide to smash our transfer record and bring in Fabio Silva for a fee of €55 million (€35m up front). It’s a gamble in that we are blowing most of our budget on a 20 year old with one season under his belt, however looking at his attributes and potential I am certain he will become an absolute superstar and I am confident that this guy will be our Roy De Los Rovers for years to come. We are literally breaking the bank to get him, however it’s worth it knowing that he also comes in with a €151m Minimum Fee Release clause which I don’t expect any club to meet in the near future (or at least I f*cking hope not). That deal leaves us with around €35m in the bank, which we spend extremely well IMHO as we bring in not one but three world class players from the Bundesliga to add a new dimension of quality to our squad. Mickael Cuisance arrives from Borussia Monchengladbach for a fee of €40m (€20m up front), followed by Lukas Klostermann who arrives on a €30m deal from Bayern (€15m up front), and finally the man who should be Irish Thomas Delaney, who we manage to bring in on a free transfer from Wolfsburg after his contract expired. These three are joined by a couple of hot prospects both permanently and on loan – we bring in a couple of Newgens in the form of Screve Kitoko and Predrag Blazic, as well as a few traditional loan signings including Carles Alena for his 5th season on loan at the club, Rodrygo on loan from Real Madrid, and Frederik Norrestrand returns on loan from Liverpool for his third spell on the island. All in all we’ve done some serious business bringing in 9 players, and the fans are already starting to forget Brenner’s name as they watch these high quality youngsters arrive on the island to begin training for the 2022/2023 season. Finally after an extremely busy transfer window, our squad is now taking shape as follows: Goalkeepers: Sondre Rossbach (Denmark), David Babalola (Spain) Defenders: Lukas Klostermann (Germany), Frederik Norrestrand (Denmark), Jordi Grasa (Spain), Ruben Duarte (Spain), Yann-Aurel Bisseck (Germany), Ruben Semedo (Portugal), Screve Kitoko (Germany) Midfielders: Thomas Delaney (Denmark), Carles Alena (Spain), Lucas Tousart (France), Predrag Blazic (Serbia), Mickael Cuisance (France), Xadas (Portugal), Jadon Sancho (England), Pedro Luis Acosta (Spain) Forwards: Fabio Silva (Portugal), Adam Idah (Ireland), Dejan Joveljic (Serbia), Rodrygo (Brazil)   As you can probably tell – our squad is extremely young, and I am conscious that Thomas Delaney is our only player over 30 which means we might have a task on our hands here due to lack of leadership and experience. Sir Alex has already proven that you can win with kids, however time will tell if we can repeat that considering the average age of our squad is just 22 years old versus a league average of 27. Stolen Youth Last season we got so excited about nearly getting a son in Football Manager (see here for more info) that I completely missed the fact that we had a couple of absolute wonderkids come through the ranks. I had spotted potential in a couple of players but didn’t once think to act on it or do anything outside of the ordinary when it comes to our youth players…….I was wrong. As if we hadn’t endured enough hardship in losing Marin and Brenner to Release Clauses, out of nowhere we received double bids from Barcelona for not one but two of our newest youth prospects on the last day of the transfer window – Central Defender Mustapha Hermach and Attacking Midfielder Airam Medina, both of whom have the potential to graduate towards the first team within a couple of years particularly Hermach who looks a beast at just 16 years old. Despite my best efforts to warn off Barcelona, they were persistent as f*ck and I knew we were in trouble looking at both these kids’ release fees (€2.1m for Hermach and €5.25m for Medina). Hermach’s fee was met straight away and we were powerless to stop him leaving, however Barcelona’s offer for Medina was €1m short of his release fee therefore, knowing they would end up meeting his value, I went back with a counter-offer of €5m which included a Buy Back Price of €10m – not much consolation however at least if he turns out to be the GOAT we have an option to bring him home on the cheap!! Suddenly we were saying goodbye to two of our hottest prospects, and if I hadn’t already learned my lesson before it’s learned now – 🚨 RELEASE FEE 🚨 RELEASE FEE 🚨 RELEASE FEE 🚨. Thanks for reading as always, hopefully you’re still enjoying FM19 now that we are gone past the half-way point – if not, I recommend to keep reading a few blogs and consuming FM content for some inspiration! My next post will give an update on how life after Brenner is going as well as capturing our 200th game as Tenerife Manager and the first half of Season 5 – really enjoying this save and hopefully you have been too, if you haven’t already please feel free to read back from the start of this journey to find out more about the…

4.5. Bottle or Treble

Jun 30, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Challenging on all fronts, European dreams, fixture carnage, hitting the bottle hard and getting kicked in the nuts by Football Manager.       🎵 Suggested Tune: Message in a Bottle – The Police (Spanish Acoustic Version)   April 2022 CD Tenerife are embarking on our biggest ever end of season run-in; 2nd in La Liga with 7 games to go, 5 points behind Barcelona but with THREE games in hand; Qualified for the Europa League Semi-Final where we will play former Premier League Champions Liverpool, and have reached the final of the Copa Del Rey where we will face league leaders Barcelona in our first bid for silverware since winning the Secunda Division back in 2019. Can we keep our bottle and stay in contention for not one but three trophies in just our 4th season in charge of Los Chicharreros?         The Spanish word for treble is “triplicar”, and while everyone on the island is thinking it, not one member of Los Chicharreros dares to mention it out loud as we prepare to welcome English giants Liverpool to Tenerife.     Here’s how we line out against Liverpool where we need to make the most of Home advantage knowing that a difficult return leg in Anfield awaits.     We go with our 4-4-1-1 formation using a Gegenpress style strategy – our focus is to press high and expose Liverpool on the flanks where there will hopefully be space caused by high pressing Wingers/Inside Fowards and also by their attacking wing backs in Benjamin Henrichs and Alex Telles. We will implement a direct passing style to move the ball up the field as quick as possible for Brenner to do what he does best. Liverpool will kick us off here in Tenerife…     WHAT A START FOR TENERIFE WHO TAKE THE LEAD AFTER JUST 22 SECONDS 🔥🔥!! Xadas makes a darting run on the counter and plays an outstanding ball to Brenner, who smashes it home to make it 1-0 and one of the quickest goals ever scored in Europa League history. Tenerife couldn’t have wished for a better start! I was wrong , they could and did – just three minutes later a corner from Xadas is headed back across the box by Brenner and Jadon Sancho is there to head the ball past Bizot in the Liverpool goal – after just 4 minutes Tenerife are 2-0 up and look to be coasting through to the final! We continue to dominate the first half, and somehow we are 4-0 to the good when the half-time whistle blows – Brenner completing a first half hat-trick to bring his tally to 38 goals in all competitions. From there we switch to a more possession based strategy to simply contain and frustrate Liverpool, and the game looks set to finish 4-0 until Sadio Mane gives Livepool a glimmer of hope with a 90th minute consolation goal – advantage Tenerife after Leg 1 of the Europa League Semi-Final.     Total Gridlock Whatever way FM has simulated our fixtures, the month of May is absolute chaos in terms of our fixture schedule. We find ourselves with 4 fixtures in a week and 7 in just over 2 weeks, a lot of rotation will be needed not to mention that we also somehow have 4 away league fixtures in a row.     Unfortunately the “European hangover” proves too much to handle – we pick up back to back 1-1 draws against Granada and Alaves in the league followed by a disappointing defeat at Bilbao where the only highlight was Brenner’s 40th goal of the season, and suddenly it’s advantage Barcelona in La Liga who are 1 point ahead with two games to play. Before that however, we have our 2nd leg Semi-Final clash with Liverpool in Anfield where we know that if we at least can score a goal then the Europa League final should be waiting.     We live dangerously, and in the end a goal from Brenner just before half-time gives us a 5-4 aggregate victory as Liverpool win 3-1 on the night – almost a bottle job but not quite!   In the other Smi Final fixture, despite holding them to a 0-0 draw in the first leg, Borussia Monchengladbach are trounced 5-0 by Milan in the 2nd leg and it’s the seven-time European Champions who will meet Tenerife in the final which will be played at Villa Park on 18th May 2022.     One Bottle.. 🍾 Thankfully we don’t suffer the same European hangover this time around, and we pick up back-to-back wins against Malaga and Villareal in La Liga. Unfortunately so too do Barcelona, and the league goes down to the wire with the Catalan giants one point clear on the final day of the season. We travel to Celta Vigo knowing that only a win will keep our title hopes alive, however we also know that we will need a miracle from Malaga at the Nou Camp to actually hand us the title.       Of course, neither of the above happen – on the last day of the season we completely bottle our chances and end up losing 2-0, while over in the Nou Camp the celebrations are well underway as Barcelona beat Malaga 3-1 to finally reclaim the title from Real Madrid who have won it for the past 3 years running. The only good news is that Real Madrid’s defeat in the Madrid derby paves the way for Bilbao to finish 3rd and it’s the year of the underdog surely as we finally start to see a gap between the Galacticos and Catalans at the summit of Spanish football.     Two BOTTLEs.. 🍾 🍾   La Liga runners-up Tenerife are looking to make history in their first ever European Cup final, taking on Italian heavyweights AC Milan who despite having won the European Champions League on seven occasions have never actually won the Europa League previously. Both teams name a strong first XI, however Tenerife will be without key man Jadon Sancho who misses out through injury.     Tenerife were explosive in their Semi-Final first leg against Liverpool, however it’s Milan who are quickest out of the traps and take a 1-0 lead on 11 mins thanks to well known FM wonderkid Andrei Ivan, whose lead is soon doubled on 19 mins through Samu Castillejo and it’s all falling apart for Tenerife here in Birmingham who are 2-0 down at half time. Manager MaddFM brings on Mason Mount in place of Lucas Tousart, and it looks to be an inspired change as the England midfielder wins a penalty on 50 minutes which is calmly converted by the ever composed Xadas – however Milan respond just three minutes later via Ivan’s second goal to wrap up the game, and sadly for Tenerife they hold on to win the game 3-1 and it;s another disappointment for Los Chicharreros who will fly home to Tenerife empty handed but with their heads held high having defeated the odds to reach the final.   THREE BOTTLES.. 🍾 🍾 🍾 So far we have bottled the league and the Europa League final, can things get any worse for Tenerife this year??     They can and do – Xadas‘ opening goal on 14 mins is cancelled out by Martial’s 34 minute equaliser, and both teams are evenly matched at half-time by a scoreline of 1-1. Tenerife look strong in the second half, however lady luck is not yet finished with Los Chicharreros who have to endure Xadas missing a penalty on 46 minutes followed by a disallowed goal from Captain Yann-Aurel Bisseck on 76 minutes, and the game finishes 1-1 despite Tenerife dominating. Extra time follows, however it’s another stalemate and the 2021/2022 season will be capped off with a penalty shootout here in the Copa Del Rey final between League Champions Barcelona and League Runners Up Tenerife live at Estadio Olimpico de Sevilla.     ..Floor   So, after starting this blog post with a potential treble on the cards and our best chance of silverware to date – we finish the season as La Liga, Europa League and Copa Del Rey Runners-Up which we would have been more than happy with at the start of the season however it’s still hard to take after coming so close to actually winning one of the three competitions. Overall it’s been a highly successful season, reaching two cup finals and finishing 2nd in the league for the second year in a row – not to mention the fact that we officially found our #RoyDeLosRovers in the form of Brenner who scored 42 goals in all competitions, 30 of which were in the league making him Top Scorer in the competition ahead of Patrick Schick and Diego Costa and earning him Player of the Season for the year.         Two things happen at this point – suddenly there is interest in Brenner from a host of top European teams, and when I go to offer him a new contract he advises he is not willing to sign one due to the interest shown.     All of a sudden the alarm bells are ringing as bids are submitted around the €40m mark, especially considering the kid has a €60m release clause which was as high as we could get from his bollocks of an agent when he signed last year. Surely none of them will match it?!       Just when we had finally found our Roy De Los Rovers, his head is turned by oil rich PSG and we are literally powerless to stop him – within two clicks of the mouse, Brenner is a PSG player and we are back to square one in our Roy De Los Rovers quest. Here we go again!!!   Thanks for reading!! Due to work commitments and the recent hot weather we had a bit of an FM hiatus, however it’s great to be back and in my next post we will be on the hunt for a new Striker now that Brenner has f*cked off and we have a pile of cash in the bank to spend. If you have any scouting suggestions please post them in the comments section below, or else feel free to shout me up on Twitter here – retweets are also appreciated and don’t forget to also subscribe below 👍. Cheers, watch out for a new post in a few days! MaddFM aka Paul.

Counter Attack – FM Style

Jun 13, 2019 Madd FM

    Q. “You got the victory today despite only having 38% possession. Was that part of your plan, to allow the opposition to have the majority of the ball and then look to catch them on the counter attack?”   A. “We had a plan coming in to the match just as we would any fixture. That’s all I’m prepared to say on the matter.”   Jose Mourinho once famously said “‘If you don’t play Counter-Attack then it’s because you are stupid“. A bit extreme from the Portuguese legend but then again we would expect no less from a man of Jose’s notoriety. However, I believe what he meant by this is that, if your team is not set up to break on the counter and catch the opposition off guard after possession is won, you are missing a golden opportunity to not only score goals but ultimately break teams down by absorbing pressure and waiting for the perfect moment to break with pace and punish the opposition accordingly. In FM terms, this is generally referred to as Direct or Fluid Counter Attack Style. This style is one of the main and most effective strategies I have incorporated in my current Tenerife save, whereby our game plan against superior opponents is to close down the opposition in our own half, regain possession of the ball and subsequently turn defence into attack by breaking on the counter via pace on the wings and a quick direct passing style to get the ball forward as soon as possible. Having started off FM19 in the La Liga Secunda Division (SD2), the price of gaining promotion and climbing up towards the higher echelons of La Liga is that we were often the inferior team over the first two or three seasons and as such we had to adapt when playing stronger teams, particularly when playing away from home where we were often the outside bet to win or draw the game.   The Formation We generally go with a 4-1-4-1 Wide formation when playing away from home or when up against stronger opposition – the objective of this tactic is to absorb pressure and allow our opponents to have most of the possession until they enter our own half, upon which we then close down immediately to win back the ball and break forward on the counter. By packing/overloading the centre of the pitch with three midfielders, we aim to nullify the opposition’s attacks by narrowing the space and forcing them out wide where we have hard-working wide players and fast full-backs that have strong Tackling, Anticipation, Positioning and Acceleration, and therefore are used to win back the ball and release accordingly.     The Strategy As mentioned above, the objective of this strategy is to soak up pressure, regain possession and convert defence to attack as quickly as possible by moving the ball up the field at speed and catching teams on the break by playing the ball in to space and being clinical with our finishing. When I think about what this should look like in a match situation and envisage how I want us to successfully implement a Counter-Attack strategy in Football Manager,  I picture that epic Wayne Rooney tackle & assist in the MLS recently where he tracks back, closes down his man, makes the tackle and then gets the ball back up the field as quickly as possible in order to catch their opponents on the break – resulting in an awesome goal to win them the game in the dying moments:     To implement this, our Team Instructions are set up as follows:                     The Result While the above outlines the intentions of this strategy, it’s important to ask the question – does this actually work? Is Counter-Attack football effective in Football Manager? We have just finished our fourth season as Tenerife manager, and for most of the season we went with a Counter-Attacking style for all of our away games and fixtures against superior opponents (on paper) – I didn’t realise until the season ended, but in addition to finishing 2nd in La Liga we also had the best away record for the whole season, even better than Champions Real Madrid:     I won’t claim that it works on every single occasion, however this strategy led to some cracking results including away wins over Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Roma as well as a smashing 6-3 Home win over Real Madrid where despite having much less possession, we stuck to our plan of breaking them down, absorbing pressure and being far more clinical in front of goal by taking our chances and punishing them on the break:         To cap things off, our piece de resistance was scoring an almost mirror image of that Wayne Rooney assist above whereby Lookman (on loan from Everton) tracks back to make a perfectly timed tackle, and then pumps the ball forward at pace into the path of the onrushing Joveljic who smashes home an 85th minute winner – this epitomises our Counter Attack strategy and is exactly what we set out to achieve when using this tactical style.       Thanks for reading, hopefully you found some of this useful and applicable to your own save wherever you are in the FM world! Feel free to share thoughts, feedback or questions either on Twitter or via my own blog any time – thanks again and good luck for the rest of FM19!! Cheers, MaddFM.

4.4. Viva La Vida

Jun 01, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: An offer we can refuse; an old friend returns; schedule shenanigans; going Madd; Winning Streak; Eurovision; luck of the Irish and getting a Son in Football Manager (or not 😅)   🎵 Suggested Tune: Viva La Vida – Coldplay (Spanish Guitars Version)   The year is 2022, and CD Tenerife are second in La Liga after 16 games having just crashed out of the Champions League Group stages and will now contest the Europa League after finishing 3rd in Group G. Victory over Real Sociedad also means that Tenerife advance to the 5th round of the Copa Del Rey, meaning that we will be competing on all fronts during the second half season – a challenge considering we have a squad of 22 players with an average age of just 23 years old.     Having just lost Antonio Marin to Barcelona after they met his €20 million release clause and with Gedion Zelalem also leaving for Swansea in a €2.2 million deal (not bad for a lad we signed on a free 3 years back), there is cash in the bank and it’s time to see if we can find a few bargains in the January Sales/Transfer Window.   Our first move is a welcome one – after failing to bring back Carles Alena for a fourth season on loan from Barcelona in the summer, the Catalan giants agree to loan him out this time around due to lack of game time and he will be a welcome addition to our midfield with the likes of Matt Smith and Lucas Tousart showing signs of fatigue over the busy winter period.     We also bolster our defensive depth by adding Ruben Duarte who comes in on a €3.6m transfer from Alaves – 18 year old Jordi Grasa will still be first choice at Left Back but Duarte will offer healthy competition in that department. We also bring in cover at Right Back in the form of Danish Wonderkid Frederik Norrestrand who signs on loan from Liverpool until the end of the season – this kid is definitely worth scouting: he has 17 Tackling, 17 Acceleration and 16 Pace, what a player he might turn out to be.       On the pitch, January starts off busy – back to victories against Marbella in the Copa Del Rey 5th Round set us up for a Quarter Final clash with Celta Vigo, with both legs scheduled either side of playing them in the league meaning we will play them three times in a row, All of a sudden January looks crazy with 9 fixtures scheduled in the month – it’s a very good month for Los Chicharreros though, as we pick up 9 wins out of 9 including 3 wins over Vigo and a cracking away win against league leaders Athletic Bilbao in the Copa Del Rey Semi Final First Leg – it’s also a belter of a month for our main hitman Brenner, who racks up 10 goals in the month propelling him to the top of the league scoring charts – Happy New Year!!     Despite this incredible spell of good form, we still find ourselves 3 points behind Barcelona who are also winning all around them – by the end of January we are still in 2nd place, 7 points ahead of Real Madrid and looking in a strong position at this stage of the season.     More Ireland to the Island ☘️☘️ With a few Euros in the account and some transfer budget remaining, we decide that despite Brenner’s unbelievable goalscoring form, we will bolster our ranks with a backup Striker who can potentially also be retrained as an Inside Forward to cover the gap left by Antonio Marin’s transfer to Barcelona. One player which we mentioned in a previous post was Irish International Striker Adam Idah, who starts the game as a Norwich player and moved to Leeds in 2020 in this save – a few words with our esteemed Chairman Senior Miguel Concepcion convinces him to part with €7 million for Idah’s signature and the half Irish/half Nigerian forward joins us just in time before the transfer window closes – another Irishman is welcomed on the island of Tenerife 🍺     In the game the lad looks dangerous with 17 Pace, 14 Finishing, 13 Off the Ball and 16 Acceleration – in real life he is already an Irish U-21 international who has been linked with a move to Manchester United, and it will be interesting to see if he features for Norwich in the Premier League next season after they gained promotion by winning the Championship this year.     February brings four noteworthy events – one is a record number of games won in a row where we pick up 12 games on the trot, which keeps us in second place as we keep the pressure on league leaders Barcelona;     Our 2nd gift in February is that Copa Del Rey Semi Final 2nd leg against Bilbao – after going 2-1 ahead in the first leg, we welcome Bilbao to Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez for the return leg and it’s ends in an extremely comfortable 3-0 victory – setting us up nicely for our first ever Copa Del Rey Final against Barcelona on Saturday 21st May 2022.     3rd item on the agenda for February is our Europa League debut with two victories against Dynamo Kiev – Mount and Brenner bagging a couple of goals as well as a debut goal for that man Adam Idah.     Finally, the month that keeps on giving comes to an end as we unfortunately reach the end of our winning streak as we lose two in a row against Valencia and Real Madrid respectively, making it advantage Barcelona in La Liga.     “YOU’VE GOT MAIL” A while back we received an offer to interview for the Liverpool job – this time Roman Abramovic is the one making advances as we are invited to interview for the Chelsea role. Seeing as I am in the middle of trying to negotiate a new contract with Senior Concepcion this can only help our case – unexpectedly however, we are actually offered the job and suddenly I am tempted considering the offer as I look at them in 5th place in the Premier League with a squad that includes Andrea Belotti, Gelson Martins, Benjamin Pavard, Samuel Umtiti and Ruben Neves.     In the end we turn down the offer – we still have work here to do in Tenerife, plus we have yet to fulfill our main objective which is to dethrone Barcelona and Real Madrid from the pinnacle of Spanish football.     Getting a Son in Football Manager March arrives and with it comes our annual Youth Intake. Our last few haven’t been great, therefore my hopes are not overly high however as I browse through the latest batch of Newgens I’m stumped to see the following:     HOLY SHIT – HAVE WE GOT A SON IN FOOTBALL MANAGER IN JUST OUR 5TH EVER INTAKE?!!!     I fear it may be too good to be true – if your Irish geography isn’t up to scratch – Mullingar is a small town in the middle of Ireland that is most famous for being the homeplace of One Direction’s Niall Horan. Unfortunately – it is not the home of Tenerife Manager MaddFM, and straight away I get the feeling that something might be up here as my own birth place is set to Galway.     Sadly I am right – while 15-year-old Tony Madden is in fact from Ireland and we share the same surname and nationality, it is clear that he is not in fact my FM son based on both his birthplace and also his list of favourite personnel which regretfully doesn’t have me listed as his father – devastating!       Being honest – getting a son in Football Manager is something which until this year I hadn’t really thought about or read into, thinking that this would only occur if you have managed for 10 or 20 years consecutively at the same club or something – however it popped up on my radar in recent months and I have read a few articles and insights in to how it works – read on if you aren’t too familiar with it!   Seemingly the only criteria for getting a son in Football Manager is that your Manager must be over the age of 35 in the game – some forums online have mentioned that you must stay at the same club for 10+ years in order to have a chance however apparently this is not the case, and there is something like a 1 in 10,000 chance of it happening in-game. It can happen with every fresh youth intake which usually takes pace in February or March each year, so the next time you have an intake come up be sure to look out for your future offspring!! I spotted @KeysieRensie managed to have two sons within one save (must have powerful FM swimmers), and a few FM’ers have even taken to reloading the game repeatedly until it happens (for example @WorktheSpace did it on Stream once a while back here) – however for the purposes of blogging, gameplay and my own sanity we will not be doing the same here and instead we will take Tony under our wing for the time being and see if we can develop him.   Read more about getting a son in Football Manager below: FootballManagerBlog (@official_FMB): “How to Get a Son in Football Manager” Sports Interactive Forum: “Getting a Son in Regen Intake” Sports Interactive Forum: “The Mystery of Having a Son” March/April March and April are all about two things – 1. the Europa League and 2. Brenner. We narrowly advance to the Europa League Quarter Final winning 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate draw with Schalke 04 over the two legs, which sets us up for a tricky Quarter Final clash with AS Roma who boast the likes of Kostas Manolas, Bryan Cristante, Cengiz Ünder and Justin Kluivert in their ranks – surprisingly they prove to be far easier to overturn than Schalke as we dominate both legs and go through 5-0 on aggregate, putting us through to our first ever European Semi-Final; more on that later. In between all of this, we also pick up 8 straight victories in La Liga, the highlight being a 2-0 win over League leaders Barcelona which is one of the few games that Brenner doesn’t score in, the Brazilian Striker has now taken his season tally above 30 in all competitions scoring 13 goals in as many games in the last two months.     As we come enter May and the final stages of the season, the Title Race is well and truly on – with 7 games to go we sit in 2nd place, 5 points behind Barcelona but with 3 games in hand. For the first time so far in this save, winning the league seems a realistic possibility.     I don’t know if it was all this father and son nonsense or whether Tenerife’s forward march in all competitions has Manager MaddFM on edge, but we can clearly see a Jurgen Klopp-esque passion emerging on the sidelines for Los Chicharreros: Europa League Semi-Final Draw We are live for the Semi-Final Draw of the 2022 Europa League where four teams remain in the battle for silverware in this historic competition. 3 time winners Liverpool will be hot favourites after winning the Premier League last season, and will be disappointed not to be competing for Champions League glory after an unexpected exit after the group stages; the same could be said for Tenerife who also left the Champions League prematurely, as they compete to reach their first every European Final. Borussia…

4.3. High, Dry & Release Clauses

May 27, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: 01 October 2021 – Top of the League, 2/2 in the Champions League…what could go wrong?   🎵 Suggested Tune: El Lele de los Van Van – High and Dry (feat. Radiohead)     When we last left off, we had just won Manager of the Month for September and despite picking up our first defeat of the season at Valencia, we are top of the league and have picked up two wins from two in our Champions League group against Dortmund and Zenit St. Petersburg respectively. Mason Mount has been on fire with 7 goals already, and our main man Brenner has started to find form as the team begins to gel and look a force to be reckoned with at this level.       October kicks off smoothly as we pick up wins against Osasuna and Villareal, with Brenner netting his 7th and Mount picking up his 8th goal of the season. These lads are looking formidable with Brenner in the Advanced Forward role and Mount just behind him as a Shadow Striker – well complimented by on-loan DLP Matt Smith from Man City who looks solid as a rock, and Lucas Tousart who adds a more defensive steel to the midfield. Not to mentioned record signing Jadon Sancho has picked up 6 assists already to date!   El Hipo (Hiccup) Usually when things are too good to be true it’s usually because they are – just when we look almost unbeatable and the islanders of Tenerife are already dreaming of Champions League success and winning the double, our fixture list brings us to Portugal for a tough away fixture to our Iberian neighbours Benfica – who let’s not forget recently handed us €35 million for Odsonne Edouard, and he has repaid them by already scoring 8 goals for them in Liga NOS. We manage to keep “Eddy” quiet for 90 mins but unfortunately we are equally quiet, and a 10th minute strike by Emil Forsberg is enough to condemn us to our first Champions League defeat in Group G. “Smug Portuguese bastards” Inigo says as we board our flight back to the island, we’ll get our revenge at home in a few weeks. That result inspires three wins on the bounce making it 5 in a row – we manage to score 12 goals including doubles for Sancho, Xadas and Joveljic, the highlight being a 4-1 drubbing of Athletic Bilbao. Our league form is ridiculous despite having a blip in the Champions League, and it’s clear that we will probably need a much stronger squad in terms of depth and quality if we are to compete in all competitions…with January not that far away, our esteemed patriarch Senior Miguel Concepcion might be getting another knock on the door for that precious checkbook of his. Ten games in and we are still top of the league! We level on points with Barcelona, literally ahead by the skin of our teeth seeing as we have yet to play them and of course, the La Liga rule for when teams are level on points is based on Head to Head rather than Goal Difference which is always challenging for any FM players out there that are used to Goal Difference and Goals Scored being the distinguishing factor in the league. Winter Wonderland If the above league table illustrates the high point of our season so far – what comes next is considerably our dry spell – not so much in the league where we pick up two more wins to keep us top of the table, but either side of those where we find ourselves up against it versus Benfica and Dortmund in the return fixtures of Group G in the Champions League. Benfica hold us to a 0-0 stalemate on home soil here at Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez, leaving it all for us to do in this group as we prepare for a tough away trip in Germany where we will come up against Dortmund and the famous “Yellow Wall” who will be equally keen to gain revenge for our earlier 2-0 victory. Not only does our former on-loan Left Back Felix Passlack score a penalty against us, our current on-loan defender Svetozar Markovic also decides to put one in the back of our net with a marvelously calamitous own goal to cap a series of unfortunate events for us in Germany, which not only leaves us 3rd in our group but also knocks us out of the Champions League as that own goal gives Dortmund a better Head to Head record against us!! Regardless of the outcome in our last game against Zenit, we scratch our heads on the flight home wondering how we have managed to be top of La Liga by the end of November, yet have gotten ourselves dumped out of the Champions League after just 5 games (and after winning the first two!). Of course the timing of this implosion couldn’t come at a better time as we get straight in to match preparation for our next fixture which all of a sudden is our most important game this season so far – the small feat of a trip to the Nou Camp as we line-up to face Catalan giants Barcelona who are literally breathing down our necks in second place and clearly chomping at the bit this season following last year’s disappointing 4th place finish. They have every reason to feel confident as well having spent over €300 million (!!!) in the past two seasons, and on paper their squad is ridiculous – can we really beat this team to the league title?! Despite Xadas pegging back instantly following a Yann-Aurel Bisseck own goal, the quality of 34 year olds Messi and Suarez is too strong and Barcelona leap frog us to go top of the league going in to December with a 3-1 win – FELIZ NAVIDAD BASTARDOS!! (Inigo’s words, not mine 😆). ’tis the season..? Bouncing back seems to be our thing as we smash Real Sociedad 3-0 in San Sebastian. We advance to the Copa Del Rey 5th Round courtesy of a Hat-Trick from forgotten man Dejan Joveljic who for some reason reminds me of a young Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez both in looks and playing style, and because of that I seem to play him in the exact same role he had when he was at Man Utd – usually bringing him on as a Poacher but rarely starting him as I don’t feel he is strong enough to lead the line as a Lone Striker. We follow that up with a 3-0 win against Malaga (Brenner (2) & Sancho) and then beat Zenit St. Petersburg 1-0 with a second string team as we already know that we have been eliminated from the Champions league. The good news is that we will at least get to continue our European adventures in the Europa League however it’s not much consolation after we had started so well in Group G and somehow finished like this:   All of a sudden it’s Christmas and while the island rings out with cheers of Feliz Navidad, we’ve really gone from High to Dry as we finish the year 2021 with two boring draws in La Liga – another stalemate this time against Real Betis is followed up by a 1-1 draw with Espanyol, and we really seem to struggle with the amount of games we have had to play considering our relatively small and inexperienced squad. Happy f*cking Christmas 🎄 In all the Christmas excitement and Champions League carry-on, we’ve had an absolute ‘mare in the transfer market before the window has barely opened. In case you weren’t aware – Spanish clubs have to include a Minimum Fee Release Clause in every contract offer, which gives players and agents far more power when it comes to contract negotiations. Little do I know, we’ve still got Antonio Marin on a contract he signed at the start of last season which includes a €20 million release clause – just as we recover from our fourth Christmas on the island, there’s a knock and the door and Inigo passes us this message:     When we renewed his contract the lad was only 19 and we thought nothing of agreeing to a €20 million release clause, not expecting anyone to pay it any time soon – I WAS WRONG 😩. We are literally powerless to stop it – the board have to accept it, the kid isn’t gonna say no to a move to the Nou Camp and within 3 clicks Antonio Marin agrees to sign for Barcelona and is en-route to Catalonia to be paraded in front of “Los Cules”; so long and thanks for all the assists!!   What more can we say – f*ck release clauses! January will be an interesting month as we look to strengthen our squad, especially now that we’ve lost Marin and only have Sancho and Xadas as our wide options – hopefully by the time you read my next post we will have a few new faces in and can close the gap on Barca at the top of La Liga!! Thanks for reading as always – please hit Follow below to stay updated on our progress, or drop me a follow, comment or retweet on Twitter at your leisure! Take it easy 👍, MaddFM aka Paul.

4.2. Discovering Europe

May 23, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Start as you mean to go on; Mount Everest; Champions League Debut; Half Time Team Talks; Breaking Mad; Capital Punishment and it ain’t even October yet 😏   🎵 Suggested Tune: Sweet Dreams – Eurythmics (Spanish Acoustic Version) Aside from the fact that that b*stard Odsonne Edouard has already scored as many goals for Benfica in a month as he did for us in the whole of last season, things are going pretty well on the island of Tenerife; the sun is shining, beaches are golden, birds are singing, and most importantly Los Chicharreros aka CD Tenerife are flying high in La Liga after finishing in second place last year and gaining automatic Champions League qualification for the first time in the club’s history. We have just won our opening game of the 2021/2022 campaign against Levante, and our young squad are buzzing to kick on what will hopefully be another cracking season at Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez. Our second game comes in the form of what was expected to be a tough away fixture against Sevilla, who have struggled since we joined them in La Liga 2 seasons ago but nonetheless always have a decent squad capable of nullifying our attack and punishing us in their own ground.   I couldn’t have been more wrong; the tallest mountain in the world is Mount Everest, however on the day it was Mason Mount who stood head and shoulders above everyone and was virtually unplayable scoring a 21 minute hat-trick, putting us 3-0 ahead in the first half with 15 minutes still to play. We went in with our 4-1-2-2-1 Counter Attacking formation (which we discuss in detail here) and gave debuts to Jordi Grasa and Lucas Tousart, but it was Mount (already capped by England after 18 appearances for Chelsea last season) who absolutely stole the show and after just two games the 23 year old is Top Scorer in La Liga with 4 goals to his name.   This performance earns Mason Mount a closer look into what makes him such a good player in the game, so we will have a quick glance at his attributes and personality/player traits to analyse what his strengths are and how we can utilise there during his loan spell here:     First thing to note are his Acceleration and Dribbling skills (15) which are clearly illustrated in his second goal above where he cleans two defenders before calmly slotting the ball past Sergio Rico in the Sevilla goal. This kid can take on a defender and run with the ball at pace, which will make him a dangerous AP or Shadow Striker depending on our tactic and when we play him. It’s also interesting to note that his Technique and First Touch are quite high which will be essential if we decide to make him one of our primary attacking outlets and have him carry the ball to distribute and fashion chances for both himself and other players around him. From a goalscoring perspective, the lad has 15 Composure and 14 Finishing – no problem in front of goal then. Finally it’s interesting to see that one of his PPM’s is Arriving Late in Opponent’s Area – if we again watch the goals above, we can see that two of them arose as a result of him making runs in to the box and arriving during or just after the initial piece of attacking play. Overall conclusion: You would think that that hat-trick was a fluke or that he couldn’t possible keep up a goalscoring record like that playing as an AP or Shadow Striker – I certainly did, expecting Brenner to take the season by the balls horns and start banging in a few goals in search of our #RoyDeLosRovers title – however he manages to score again in our next game at home to Deportivo and already has 5 goals to his name by the time we are preparing for our first ever Champions League Group Game. Our opponents – a little known German side by the name of Borussia Dortmund.     Dortmund have made the 3,779km journey South for what will be a challenging clash against Champions League debutants CD Tenerife. Los Chicharerros start with their trusted 4-4-1-1 formation (which we detail here) and look to implement a Gegenpress strategy to make life difficult for Dortmund and potentially expose a gap in their defence or catch them on the break where possible. Tenerife have a full squad to choose from aside from last season’s Spanish Player of the Year Xadas who misses out with an ankle injury. Dortmund are also close to full strength with the absence of Swiss International Manuel Akanji their only cause for concern heading in to this fixture (he looks like a serious CB if anyone reading this is about to start a new save 🔥). We start nervously and both sides appear reluctant to take any risks – Max Gomez is clearly the danger man for Dortmund operating in the Target Man role but Bisseck and Semedo are both equally large units and appear comfortable in dealing with balls played in to his feet; Marco Reus appears to be switching wings repeatedly with Jacob Bruun Larsen and it will be interesting to see if they try to put more pressure on 18 year old Left Back Jordi Grasa playing in his first ever European game. It’s even-stevens for the majority of the first half until Jordi Grasa receives the ball wide on the left and delivers a long ball across the Dortmund box whch goes over the heads of Mount and Brenner but Inside Forward Francisco Trincao is there to smash it in the back of the net to make it 1-0 to Tenerife…GOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Half Time team talks are a funny one; I feel like I try to say the right thing in order to get a positive reaction from the team rather than saying what I actually want to – giving instructions for the sake of making them all green rather than actually speaking my mind; I guess as it’s a game, we need to adapt to what will work in the game itself, and usually my approach is as follows: The players are warned not to get complacent – we are winning but the game has been fairly even and we’ve been far from our best, not to mention Dortmund are a quality side who still have Rodrygo, Gotze and Vagnoman on their subs bench. The game restarts and my words of wisdom seem to have worked – our back line is solid as a rock and Rossbach makes a string of saves to deny Dortmund an equaliser, but it’s Grasa who steals the show making a number of key tackles and passes in addition to his earlier assist. He earns a 7.4 as we hold on for the win and our first ever victory in the European Champions League. Incidentally we also break another record for Los Chicharreros – since upgrading our stadium, the game against Dortmund was not only our first ever win in the European Champions League but also our highest gate receipt in the club’s history – not bad for a small outfit from the Canary Islands 😎 Capital Punishment Unfortunately for the lads there is no day off training after that – our next two games are against not one but both of the Madrids; first up is a tough away tie against Atletico Madrid, whom we managed to pip last season to second place in La Liga – that is followed by a Home clash with the defending champions Real Madrid. The good news is that neither side have strengthened much since last season apart from Atletico’s €34 million signing of Yannick Gerhardt from Wolfsburg, so hopefully our young side can cause a lot of trouble on what are definitely older teams both with an average first team squad age of 27 years old versus our own 23 year old average. TROUBLE IS OUR MIDDLE NAME! ⚡ Despite Atletico (led by Jurgen Klopp) taking the lead on 5 minutes and going ahead again on 77 mins through that bollocks Diego Costa, we manage to pull back level twice during the game through yet another goal from Mason Mount, and finally a first league goal for Brenner with a well taken penalty. We are all set to go home with a well earned draw in the Spanish Capital when our substitute and current primary hot prospect Pedro Luis Acosta receives a pass on the edge of the area from Sancho and decides to do this:   ABSOLUTE SCENES in Madrid, Tenerife have not only come from behind twice in this game but have snatched a late winner with well taken finish by 17 year old Pedro Luis Acosta – what a day for this young lad.   One Madrid Down, One to Go Had enough yet?? Despite just a three day gap since our victory over Atletico, we then welcome La Liga Champions Real Madrid to Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopes and despite some tired legs and bodies, we are more than ready to ruin the Galactico’s day….. How it happened, we may never know. We went into the game with our 4-4-1-1 Gegenpress formation, and in spite of us losing our early lead that we earned courtesy of Antonio Marin and despite going behind twice again in the second half, we manage to pull it back to 3-3 on 63 mins with Marin getting his second, and from there we take the absolute piss – Brenner also scores his second, Xadas makes it five and that man again Mason Mount getting his 7th goal in 6 games with the last kick of the game on 95 mins to make it 6-3 in total. Both sets of fans are still in shock as the final whistle goes, and after a 9 goal thriller it’s Tenerife who are victorious and send Real Madrid back to the Capital with their tails between their legs. La Liga doesn’t disappoint!!   (PAUSE FOR BREATH) .. wow!! talk about a phenomenal few weeks for Los Chicharreros – after five games in La Liga we somehow find ourselves top of the league, 3 points clear of Barcelona in second who will be looking to improve on last years disappointing 4th place finish.     We finish the month with a league game against Valencia away from home which ends in our first defeat of the season (and rightly so considering the fatigue in the squad following the last three games), however it’s enough to keep us at the top of the league. We also pick up our second Champions League Group win on the road as we beat Zenit St. Petersburg 2-0 over in Russia – Brenner is starting to move up a gear and I am feeling good about his prospects as our next #RoyDeLosRovers. Naturally the media are on the blower asking if we think we can continue our good form and stay in the top spot – we politely request them to feck right off in our now famous half Spanish / half Irish dialect and of course graciously accept the Manager of the Month award for September….Muchos Gracias!!!   As my good friend Porky Pig would say – that’s all folks! Thanks for reading, my next update with illustrate our run up to Christmas as well as our performance in the Champions League – spoiler alert, everything doesn’t go as rosy as the above and reality certainly kicks in just in time for another rendition of Feliz Navidad. If you have enjoyed reading this or have any feedback please Follow and Comment below or else you can do the same on my Twitter page here – likes and retweets are always welcome. Don’t forget to hit the menu above if you would like to jump back in time to where this save began – it’s…

4.1. La Vida Loca

May 20, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Pre-Season Hangover; Objectives Check; Huge Transfer Decisions; a Marquee Signing; Loan Rangers; New Look Squad and our first ever Champions League Group Draw 🔥   🎵 Suggested Tune: “Livin’ La Vida Loca – Ricky Martin (Spanish Version)“   Recap: the year is 2021; we have just finished second in La Liga; our highest league position in the history of the club; automatic European Champions League qualification in the bag; Xadas has been crowned Spanish Player of the Year; nobody here gives a shit about Brexit; things are going well here on the island of Tenerife, celebrations still ongoing the like of which have never been seen before. Before we know it, we have partied all the way through the summer break and suddenly Pre-Season is upon us and with that it’s back to reality for Manager MaddFM and Los Chicharreros. Check Point 🚧 Some 12 blog posts back we laid out our objectives for this save and now is as good a time as any to do a quick review of where we are versus our original ambitions over 3 FM years ago: Obtain Promotion to La Liga within first 2 seasons ✅ Build a concentrated and extensive team of staff with a particular focus on Youth Coaching and Recruitment ✅ Sign as many Spanish speaking staff members as possible ✅ Develop a strong affiliate network domestically and internationally, both for inbound loan benefits as well as youth development ❌ Minimum of 50% of all incoming transfers will be paid up front ✅ Develop at least one youth prospect or uncapped player to obtain an International Cap for Spain within first 3 seasons ❌ Find our “Roy de los Rovers” – an absolute shithouse of a centre-forward the like of which Los Chicharreros have never seen before 🛠️ Get the Ireland job and manage both club & country, ensuring qualification for all major tournaments ❌ Sign and develop a young Irish player for the first team and also get him capped by the Republic of Ireland ❌ Overall I’d say we are about halfway there – we didn’t manage to develop a Spanish international as yet however we have a couple of prospects that have the potential to play the part, newgen Pedro Luis Acosta currently our best bet at present whose technical attributes are as good as I’ve seen for an 18 year old. I’m also disappointed we haven’t managed to achieve either of my Irish objectives as yet – Mick McCarthy is still holding on to the Ireland job after guiding them to the Last 16 of Euro 2020, while we still haven’t found an Irish prospect that we can develop to the first team squad and push for an Ireland cap. On that note though – I have to say that that there is some serious Irish talent out there that have been developed by other clubs already, and a number of these are already in the Ireland squad namely Gavin Bazanu (Man City) who we mentioned earlier in this blog, Luke O’Leary (Burnley), Adam Idah (Norwich) and Ryan Cassidy (Watford) all of whom I would have in this Tenerife squad and I feel I may have missed the boat a few years back due to lack of scouting for the Irish ☘️🙈. And of course – we haven’t yet found our #RoyDeLosRovers shithouse goal-machine Striker just yet, but more on that later 👀. Transfer Drama Did we have a cracking season last time round? Yes. How many of our squad were in on loan? 6️⃣…….. The bonus of getting players in on loan is that you get to reap the benefits of bringing in top quality players (who otherwise might not be inclined to want to join on a permanent transfer) without having to pay through the roof for the salaries they demand. For years FM players have had epic success with loan signings and last season was no different for us. HOWEVER – the downside of this is that these players do eventually return to their parent clubs, and often refuse to return meaning that each season they will more than likely need to be replaced either permanently or via other loan signings depending on availability. In our case – SIX of our first team last season will return to their clubs and early signs suggest that none of them either want or will be allowed to return on loan again next season.   Name Position Parent Club Mykola Matviyenko DL/WBL Benfica Fagner DR/WBR Liverpool Danilo Pereira DMC FC Porto Sandro Tonali CM/DLP Juventus Carles Alena MC/AMC Barcelona Ademola Lookman ML/AML Everton   With a budget stretching to €25m (yep that’s all!), it’s shopping time: Summer Transfers Our first big signing is one for the future and one which I have huge hopes for in terms of developing a young Spanish prospect to break in to the National Team. 18 year old Left Back Jordi Grasa joins from Athletic Bilbao for a fee of €8m (50% up front), as we finally hope to secure a permanent signing after two seasons of loan players in this position (Friedl and Matvienko). Next we decide to raid the loan market again, not one but 4 times as we look to increase our squad in both quality and depth knowing we have a lot of league, cup and European games next season. Mason Mount comes in on a season long loan from Chelsea to add some real quality and flair to our midfield, looking forward to trying him out in a Shadow Striker role behind Brenner. He is joined by Vyacheslav Karavaev from Porto, who looks to be a quality RB/RWB and still only 24 years of age. Svetozar Markovic (who we had scouted previously) arrives on loan from PSG to give us a backup option at Centre Back and the door is barely closed behind him as Francesco Trincao also arrives on a season long loan from West Ham to add some badly needed technique and flair now that Lookman has returned to Everton. All in all four very decent signings who will all be pushing for first team football in August. Executive Decision & a Marquee Signing At this point I’m suddenly made aware that there seems to be a lot of interest in Odsonne Edouard lately who really didn’t play well for us last season; I feel he lacks the pace needed for La Liga and judging by the level of clubs interested in him (Bournemouth, Fulham, Athletico Madrid & Benfica) I may be tempted to let him go and use the funds to bring in a few top class more senior first team players to the side. An offer of €35 million from Benfica eventually turns my head and it’s impossible to turn down having paid just €22 million for him this time last year. The offer is too good to refuse (sorry @NowAndThenFM :D) so we accept knowing that 70% of it (and not a penny more) will go straight towards our transfer budget. The question is: what will we do with it??? 💵 This is arguably the biggest signing of the save so far, not just based on transfer fee but in terms of demonstrating the type of player we are now able to attract as well as sending a signal of our intentions for next season. With Ademola Lookman returning to Everton, we are slightly short on that left hand side with only Antonio Marin a natural in that position, so Sancho should bring some firepower and creativity on that side and will hopefully be worth the 75% of our transfer fee spent!! (€20m up front & €20m over 3 years) Interestingly – the sale of Edouard is the highest player sale in the club’s history…the previous record sale before him was none other than the man, the myth, the legend and the inspiration behind this save…Senior Roy Makaay, when he was sold to Deportivo La Coruna all the way back in 1999 for a hefty €9 million. DMC or not DMC? A while back I wrote a post for @WeStreamFM about DMC’s and the importance/effectiveness of having a strong player in this position. While I was doing my research in identifying a selection of the best DMC’s in the game depending on what level of club/league you are in, one player that kept popping up was Lucas Tousart of Lyon who by no means is a superstar however based on his attributes, PPM’s and value being within our price range I decide to bite the bullet and the Frenchman arrives at Los Chicharraros for a fee of €20m (€10m up front). Again, with Danilo Pereira having returned to Porto we have a gap in this position and Tousart should hopefully slot in nicely. Those three signings combined basically swallow up the rest of our transfer budget, however we have time for one more signing which I am really pleased with in the form of Matt Smith who comes in on a season long loan from Manchester City. Having failed repeatedly to bring Carles Alena back in for a 4th season on loan from Barcelona, we struggled to find a more creative midfield player for that Deep Lying Playmaker role however Smith looks extremely promising and I am quietly excited at the prospect of Smith and Mount playing ahead of Tousart in a completely new look midfield for Tenerife this season. Soooo after a hectic couple of months, our summer transfer activity and squad rebuild is as complete and our budget is depleted. Six loan signings left us before the summer, and six more take their place along with a few really decent permanent signings that I’m pretty happy with. Not one of these players are above 25 which will keep our average age well below the La Liga average, will be interesting to see how dynamics and influence/leadership (or lackthereof) will impact us this season. Champions League Group Draw – 26/08/2021 For the first time in our history, Tenerife are in the Group Stages of the UEFA Champions League. Islanders have dreamt of this moment for years and every man, woman, child, dog and goat on the island watch anxiously to see who we will be up against in the greatest football club competition in the world. They should be anxious – we are seeded 4th meaning we can be drawn against any and all of the big guns in Europe, however we are confident that we can match any team at this level on our day. Dream Draw Nightmare Draw Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS) Bayern Munich (GER) Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) Manchester United (ENG) Schalke 04 (GER) Inter Milan (ITA) Tenerife (ESP) Tenerife (ESP) Join us live below for the 2021/2022 UEFA Champions League Group Draw, brought to you by MaddFM.home.blog. UNBELIEVABLE JEFF!! Of all the Top Seeded teams we manage to draw Zenit St. Petersburg in Group G, not a guaranteed win by any means especially with a tough trip to Russia ahead, but definitely preferable than a trip to Manchester City or Juventus. Dortmund are drawn as second seeds, not quite the team they used to be due to player sales but they will be our biggest fear in this group – while Benfica complete the draw as 3rd seeds thus giving us what I feel will be a very challenging but overall quite a positive draw for the Champions League Group Stages. Season 4 – Preview & Pre-Season Round-Up So, in a pre-season which has seen us bring in 11 new faces and said goodbye to 6 loan signings and two first team regulars, it’s a new feel and a new look first 11 for Los Chicharreros as we head in to the unknown with what I feel is a stronger and more talented squad. If Brenner can pick up where he left off and get decent supply from the likes of Xadas, Mount and Sancho then we will be able to threaten any defence in…

3.4. El Season Finale

May 19, 2019 Madd FM

Contents: the Battle for Second Place begins as we stand on the brink of Champions League Qualification for the first time in the club’s history.   🎵 Suggested Tune: “In the End – Linkin Park” (Spanish Acoustic Version)   Technically we are still in the Title Race. With 5 games to go we are a point clear in second position, albeit a significant 5 points behind league leaders Real Madrid with the same number of games played. Atletico Madrid are breathing down our necks in third place, while Barcelona will be disappointed to find themselves four points behind us in 4th position. It’s all to play for as we commence the end of season run in and the final furlong of La Liga Santander 2020/2021.     Our run in is trickier than it looks with three tough away fixtures against Real Betis, high flying Levante and finally Athletic Bilbao on the last day of the season which is as hard an away fixture as you will find in this competition. In between those are Home ties against Malaga and Granada which we absolutely expect to take full points from – therefore our overall goal for these 5 games is to win at least 4 and potentially draw one assuming we are put to the test away from home.   21/04/2021 Real Betis vs CD Tenerife   Betis will be disappointed to find themselves in the bottom half of the table with players such as Dani Olmo, William Carvalho, Mohamed Elneny and Marc Bartra in their ranks. We know they won’t be doing us any favours however we start strongly with a goal on 15 minutes from that man Brenner, what a hero he is turning out to be. Our lead lasts just 18 minutes however before Mohamed Elneny equalises for Betis on 33 mins, and the score is 1-1 as we head in to the dressing rooms at Half Time. The good news is that Atletico are 1-0 down to Levante which would see them go level on points with eachother and add further fuel to the fire in the quest for CL qualification. A couple of half time tweaks and changes seem to do the trick and goals from youngster Pedro Luis Acosta and backup LB Hector Hernandez seal the three points for us which puts us 4 points clear of Atletico who ended up losing to Levante!!   24/04/2021 CD Tenerife vs Levante   Next it’s our turn to take on Levante who (apart from ourselves) have been the surprise package this season so far – largely thanks to their 18 year old wonderkid Pepe Gomez (dubbed the new Raul) who has scored 22 goals in the league to date – the “Wnt” beside his name tells me that Real Madrid are sniffing around. We start the game with a 4-4-1-1 Gegenpress knowing we need to score a few goals with that kid on the field, and it’s a good start as we go 1-0 up thanks to a neat finish from Carles Alena who is about to finish his third season on loan with us. We’ll never afford him on a permanent transfer but I’m happy to keep bringing him in on loan without having to pay all his wages!! Just as I prepare for our half time team talk, the kid Pepe Gomez pops up out of nowhere and smashes the ball in to the back of the net to make it 1-1 at the break, and unfortunately that’s how the game finishes as we drop points much sooner than we would have hoped in these last 5 games of the season! Atletico have gone and beaten Real Betis 3-0 so now only a point separates us again; the good news is Real Madrid had a stalemate with Espanyol, which means the league is still within our grasp even if we don’t expect to win it!   02/05/2021 Malaga vs CD Tenerife   Having held us to a 0-0 draw in our stadium earlier in the season, we expect a difficult trip to Malaga who themselves are in danger of relegation should results not go their way, sitting just 3 points clear of the relegation zone. The game certainly started difficultly as we find ourselves 1-0 down inside 20 minutes thanks to a goal by Gabriel Barbosa who is on loan from Inter. This prompts a series of aggressive shouts and demanding more by an angry Irishman on the sideline, and it seems to do the trick when Ademola Lookman equalises on 27 minutes. Suddenly the game does a U-turn and a quickfire brace from Brenner gives us a 1-3 lead at the break. “Don’t get complacent” he says .. “I have faith in you to get out there and make the difference”; the players love that shit, and not only do we go out and dominate the second half, we pick up our highest league win ever as Lookman picks up a hat-trick and Antonio Marin grabs a goal just before the final whistle – final score: Meanwhile in Madrid, Atletico keep the pressure on us by beating Real Vallecano by 2-1 and it’s still all to play for with two games to go.   09/05/2021 CD Tenerife vs Granada   Athletico Madrid have beaten Bilbao in the early fixture, therefore the pressure is on us as we face another over-achieving side in Granada as they look to secure Europa League qualification. Carles Alena shows us that pressure is for tyres however, as he puts us 1-0 up inside 2 minutes to score our fastest goal of the season. At Home this should be a comfortable win however anything can happen knowing what’s at stake (which either way will literally be the highest league finish in the club’s history). I’ll expect a statue if we can pull this off. Brenner clearly loves scoring on the brink of half time to put us 2-0 up at the break, however that feared complacency creeps its way on to the field as we allow Sergi Guardiola (no relation) to make it 2-1 on 53 minutes. Always a dangerous score, not forgetting that we have the youngest team in the league however we manage to put the game to bed via a cracking volley from Sandro Tonali on 64 minutes. Real Madrid have beaten Levante to seal the La Liga title for the third year in a row; technically we can still finish level on points with them however as they beat us earlier in the season, their Head-to-Head record against us means that we can’t catch them. This means that we will now go in to our last game of the season vs Athletico Bilbao battling for second place in La Liga, just one point clear of Atletico Madrid who play Granada in their last game of the season. Win and we make history; lose or draw and someone else will be writing it for us…. Season Finale Here’s how the two teams line up for today’s end of season encounter: Tenerife fans will look on in the hope that their team can continue their good form and pick up all three points today against a Bilbao side that are looking to secure a Top 10 finish and potentially finish in 8th position this season – disappointing by their own standards, but looking at the performances of teams like Tenerife, Levante and Granada the level of competition has increased year on year in La Liga. Los Chicharreros will also be anxiously keeping an eye on the score between Granada and Atletico Madrid knowing that if the latter win and Tenerife fail to do the same, they will have to settle for third place which you would certainly agree they would have taken at the start of the season! The game kicks off and Tenerife look up for it right from the go. Los Chicharreros win a corner on 5 minutes, Fagner swings it in and it’s a GOALLLLLLL!!! On loan Italian Midfielder Sandro Tonali is completely unmarked and smashes a header into the back of the net – absolute scenes in Bilbao for the away fans!! Bilbao look dangerous on the ball but the Tenerife back 4 have been solid all season and are able to deal with everything thrown at them. Half-time arrives and it’s Tenerife who are still in second place as things stand despite Atletico holding a 2-1 lead over Granada. Things couldn’t be tighter with just one point separating the sides and Los Chicharreros know that a Bilbao equaliser will drop them back to third place in La Liga. Our team-talk is simple – don’t get complacent, it ain’t over till it’s over; no fat ladies singing yet etc etc. The lads look motivated and determined as they get ready to head out through the tunnel for the most important 45 mins of our season. The second half kicks off and Bilbao are looking a lot more confident on the ball now as they have nothing to lose. They create 3 or 4 chances in a row and have numerous shots on goal however they fail to hit the target repeatedly, and there are multiple sighs of relief from the Tenerife fans. That is, until the 75th minute when a mistake by Fagner allows Bilbao to counter and suddenly the ball is in the back of the Tenerife net!! Tenerife fans have their heads in their hands knowing that Atletico Madrid are still 2-1 to the good. BUT WAIT – THE REFEREE HAS RULED IT OFFSIDE!! Unbelievable scenes here as it appears the linesman’s flag has gone up – goalscorer Hervias was a mile onside, but it looks like the flag has gone up against Inaki Williams who had strayed into an offside position and therefore is deemed to be interfering with play…let’s take a closer look: As the ball strikes Hervias’ head (we can just see it below the “v” in his name) – Williams is arguably a fraction offside behind Matvienko and the officials have decided that as he is between the ball and the goalkeeper, he interferes with play and the goal is ruled out for offside. Can’t say I agree with the decision, but Tenerife fans will take it and they still hang on to that coveted second position. The match continues…. Free kick to Tenerife! It’s been an outstanding season for Xadas – the Portuguese star has scored 18 goals and had 13 assists in all competitions for Tenerife this season, and is one of the bookies favourites to pick up the La Liga Player of the Year award. We have seen him score from this range already this season..can he do it now when it matters most? GOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!! Xadas sends the Tenerife fans in to ruptures and that’s surely it for Los Chicharreros who are now 2-0 to the good with just 14 minutes remaining. Atletico Madrid still lead in Granada but it looks like it will be Tenerife’s day as the final whistle approaches….news has just emerged that Rodri has just made it 3-1 to A. Madrid, but it’s too little too late as the referee blows his whistle here in Bilbao and Tenerife have made history by finishing second in La Liga for the first time ever!! It’s been an incredible season for Los Chicharerros, with some outstanding performances from the likes of Rossbach, Bisseck, Xadas, Lookman, Brenner and everyone else that has made this an unforgettable season for the club who just 3 years ago were languishing around mid-table in the Spanish Secunda Division. Let’s take a look at the final league positions which confirm Tenerife’s second place finish and subsequent qualification to the European Champions League for the first time in their history. And that’s it for the 2020/2021 season! An outstanding year for the likes of Tenerife, Levante, Deportivo La Coruna and Granada who have all exceeded pre-season expectations and enjoyed an incredible campaign this year; disappointment for the likes of Sevilla,…

3.3. Winter Came ⚔️

May 18, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Enhancing our Artillery; Stretching our Resources; a new King in Town; Future Generations; Undefeated in Battle; Experience in Youth; Overseas Interest and the Art of War   🎵 Suggested Tune: “Game of Thrones Theme – Barcelona Guitar Trio” 🎵   A hero Returns In my last post, we had just entered the year 2021 holding on to 4th place in La Liga, despite the fact that our much hoped for goal-machine and saviour Odsonne “Eddy” Eduoard had so far only managed to rack up 3 goals in 15 games for Los Chicharrerors since his club record €22 million transfer from Celtic back in August. Not quite the Roy De Los Rovers shithouse Striker we have been hoping for even though it is still early days in his Tenerife Career. Our esteemed Chairman has just left my office after a positive meeting in which he confirmed our transfer budget has been increased to €7.25m, so the question is – do we wait and hope that Eduoard can kick on and give us the goals we will need to maintain our hopes of a Champions League qualification spot, or do we bite the bullet and bring in reinforcements?     We go with the latter; last season (our first in La Liga following promotion from SD2), we had Brazilian Wonderkid Brenner in on loan from Sao Paulo and the boy notched up 12 goals to help us finish in a very respectable 8th place – however when we tried to resign him back in August, he indicated he wasn’t interested in signing permanently. Now that the January transfer window is open I return to have a look at him and see that he still has a Foreign Club Release Fee of €13.75 million, therefore it’s time to perform some transfer window heroics to see if we can bump up our transfer budget in an effort to seal his signature and provide Eddy with some much needed competition and support to lead the line for Los Chicharreros. Stretching the Budget Years of FM have taught me that it’s always possible to squeeze every last penny by carefully balancing and stretching the wage/transfer budget. If we are to afford Brenner’s release fee, we will need to not only drive in some transfer revenue but also reduce our wage expenses in order to maximise how much we can allocate towards our overall Transfer Budget. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I can only give three recommendations: Take a risk – sometimes in order to catch the big fish, you have to ignore the smaller ones and stay focused on the big prize; this might mean selling some first team players who are strong enough to make your starting XI in order to bring in that extra level of star quality that can be the difference between success and failure; a gamble, yes – but if it pays off, worth it No time for sentiment – it’s easy to stay attached to players that have been with you since the start of a save, especially in cases like mine where they have helped you gain promotion and progress up the leagues; sadly in order to progress, we will have to cash in on some of these guys and hope there is no bad blood or karma if and when we face them again 😀 Don’t panic – January is a long month; rather than accepting lower bids early in the month don’t be afraid to hold out for a good offer; remember, other clubs will be equally keen to complete signings before the window closes! Based on this, we spend the month of January touting a few players around and end up taking a huge gamble by selling 3 of our first team squad in order to scrape together the funds to afford Brenner’s transfer fee and wages: We make €4m of pure profit for the wonderfully named Lorenzo Dickmann, who we had signed on a free transfer back in the summer and hasn’t quite managed to break in to the first team. Regretfully it is also time to say goodbye to what was basically our core midfield during our successful promotion to La Liga; Borja Lasso and Luis Milla leave for Espanyol and Malaga respectfully for a combined fee of €6.1 million – with both players approaching 30 and now that we have the likes of Danilo Pereira, Carles Alena and Sandro Tonali (even through all are on loan!), the time is right to cash in and with the board still giving us 85% of Transfer Revenue, we manage to get the funds needed and Brenner arrives at the club to hopefully give us the goals we will need to have a chance at Champions League qualification. The Next Generation Who else remembers that Spice Girls TV ad? 🔥   I recently wrote an article for WeStreamFM.com which looked at a selection of the more memorable FM Media Comparisons over the last 10 years as well as pinpointing some of the top FM19 prospects that have already been compared to previous footballing legends (click here to have a read of it later 🤘). During our January Transfer Window adventures, I came across what can only be described as the future generation of superstars within this save as we encounter 5 incredible prospects/newgens that have all been Dubbed/Touted as the next (Insert Football Legend Here) and therefore make it straight on to the Los Chicharreros shortlist for next season (assuming we have any cash left 😆):   To Battle ⚔️ Our first two games in January clearly proved why we needed to bring in reinforcements and most importantly some goalscoring prowess as we lost 0-1 to Levante and struggle to a scoreless draw at Home against Athletic Bilbao. We pick up our first win of 2021 against Granada and follow up with a spirited 2-2 draw versus Real Madrid, and then cap off the month with another scoreless draw at Espanyol. Enter Brenner…not only does he score on his debut during a 3-0 win in the reverse fixture of the Canary Islands derby, he picks up 3 goals in his first 5 games (during which we also manage a 2-1 victory over Barcelona), and this in turn is the catalyst for a rejuvenated Tenerife side that proceeds to go on a 5 game winning streak. By the end of March we are looking confident in 3rd place just 5 points off the lead and somehow 3 points clear of Barcelona in 5th position; 8 games away from securing Champions League qualification in just our 3rd season as Manager of CD Tenerife! By this point Brenner has already notched up 6 goals in 9 appearances while Odsonne Eduoard manages just one solitary goal in the same period and has to make do with the substitutes bench throughout (remember, we spent €22 million on him 😩). Brenner‘s fine form is a testament not only of his quality but that Alex Ferguson was of course right: you can win with kids. With an average age of 23 (versus La Liga average of 27), some of these lads are far beyond their years and the performances of the likes of Bisseck (20), Xadas (23), Tonali (19), Lookman (23) and Brenner (21) have been pivotal in our surge to those critical European spots, and our 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid clearly illustrates the same so much so that FM even acknowledges the effort of Los Chicharreros youthful but equally talented squad. the aRT OF WAR – dominactics My last post talked a lot about our Counter Attacking strategy, and how we attempt to overcome opponents away from home or opponents that are potentially stronger and more likely to have more possessions against us. During this spell of dominance however, we began to take more control of games and exert a more aggressive and dominating tactic which focuses on retaining the ball, playing rapid quick-fire football and controlling the game by carrying the ball forward as a unit and being patient until we find a gap in our opponent’s defences which can be exposed. Positive Mentality – this is essential in order to approach the game as the stronger team and move the ball around the pitch both quickly and confidently Short passing to feet – to ensure ball retention and implement a pass & move strategy, allowing us to ferry the ball up the field and take advantage of players such as Alena, Xadas and Tonali who have exceptional First Touch and Technique attributes Work Ball Into Box – using Brenner as our main outlet leading the line and channeling the ball through our midfield and via a Shadow Striker just behind Brenner, this complements our Positive mentality enabling us to probe the opposition defence and play intelligent balls into Brenner whose Off the Ball and Work Rate get him into regular goal-scoring positions Higher Tempo – goes without saying; with the pace and flair we have in this young team, in order to dominate our opponents we start the game at a very high tempo when moving the ball forward and catching teams on the break Using a 4-4-1-1 formation, this facilitates a more possession based strategy that allows us to quickly move the ball forward linking midfield to attack and control the game with a fairly structured and airtight formation. Playing short balls to feet and using short kick-outs whereby we play the ball out of defence ensures we don’t give away too much possession and enables us to get men behind the ball for a quick build via fast intelligent passing and movement (or at least that’s plan anyway :D). Running Unbeaten We enter April full of high hopes and dreams of Champions League qualification. I am almost thankful that we are held to a 2-2 draw at Home to Real Vallecano, which in some ways might be a blessing to help prevent us from getting too carried away at this vital stage of the season. This reality check leads to 4 straight victories in a row making us 12 games unbeaten, and with Atletico Madrid picking up 4 draws in the same month (possibly due to the fact that they had two Champions League Quarter Final ties in between) – we suddenly find ourselves beyond our wildest dreams occupying 2nd position in La Liga Santander and potentially just 5 games away from automatic Champions League qualification!! Real Madrid have been the standout team this year and almost have the league wrapped up being 5 points clear, while our squad of talented youngsters are unbelievably 1 point clear of A.Madrid in 3rd and 4 points clear of Barcelona in 4th. Can we hold on and finish the season on a high?! You’ve Got Mail This fine spell of form seems to be getting noticed overseas as well, as we receive an approach from Liverpool regarding the Manager role recently vacated by Jurgen Klopp who was sacked due to their poor league position. It’s tempting but I am keen to finish what I have started here (we haven’t yet found our Roy De Los Rovers!) so I decline the interview; funnily enough, the job is given to Diego Simeone, and he is replaced at Atletico Madrid by none other than Jurgen Klopp who doesn’t enjoy much of a break unemployed :D. So, after 33 games we are clinging on to 2nd place and Champions League football beckons as we enter the final month of the season. Technically we can still win the league of course however that would rely on a complete self-destruction by Real Madrid which is highly unlikely! My next post will capture the Season Finale where all will be revealed; can we really finish 2nd in the League in just our third season as CD Tenerife Manager?? Hit the follow button below to find out later this week, you can also keep posted on Twitter for updates where feedback and retweets are…

3.2. Counter Attack Loco

May 05, 2019 Madd FM

  Contents: Implementing a Counter Attacking tactic; 100 games in management; a series of fortunate events; scraping the financial barrel and the first top flight Canary Islands Derby for 20 years 🔥.   🎵 Suggested tune: “Come a Little Bit Closer” – Jay & The Americans 🎵   After tasting defeat to Real Madrid in our opening game of our third season as Tenerife Manager (our second in La Liga), we managed to bounce back in style with a solid 2-0 victory over Espanyol at home in Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López, and with the dust still settling it was then time for the first La Liga Canary Islands Derby in almost 20 years now that Las Palmas gained promotion and join us in the top tier of Spanish football.     Let’s have a quick look at the Tenerife squad today, where we have opted for a 4-1-2-2-1 Direct Counter Attacking tactic where our game plan is to close down and regain possession in our own half and subsequently turn defence into attack via pace and quality on the wings in the form of Xadas and Antonio Marin, with Odsonne Edouard in an Advanced Forward role looking to get on the end of crosses and long balls forward into space.   4-1-2-2-1 Direct Counter Attack Aside from the fact our entire midfield trio are all here on loan (which will be slightly alarming come the end of the season if they all have to be replaced!) – this is by and large one of my two main tactics which we implement here at Los Chicharreros. I generally implement a fast direct Counter Attack in games where I feel we will not have the most possession as well as in a lot of away games where I feel the opposition may be stronger or more likely to come at us as the Home team. The objective is to effectively soak up pressure and win the ball back in our own half, and then convert defense to attack as quickly as possible by moving the ball up the field at speed and catching teams on the break by playing the ball in to space and being clinical with our finishing. When I envisage it in my head, I picture that Wayne Rooney tackle & assist in the MLS recently where he tracks back, closes down his man, makes the tackle and then gets the ball back up the field as quickly as he can in order to catch their opponents on the break:   To implement this, our tactic and strategy is formulated as follows:   Using a DMC or Anchor Man (Danilo Pereira) to win back the ball and play neat passes to a Box-to-Box Midfielder or Advanced Playmaker ahead of him who are technically more astute and can deliver cross-field passes with pinpoint accuracy; Alena in the AP role has 17 Passing, 17 Technique, 18 First Touch and 15 for Vision, while Tonali gives us 16 Passing, 16 Vision and 15 for both First Touch and Technique – between both of them they offer serious quality on the break when it comes to delivering long passes out wide to our onrushing Wingers / Inside Forwards Focus Play Down Both Flanks – as per the above, using our midfield trio to get involved in winning the ball back and initiating counter attacks from our own half means that we should be able to create space out wide and distribute cross field balls to either flank where our Wingers/Inside Forwards can capitalise and run at defenders High Tempo – looking at our opposition it is clear that we have superior pace and speed within the team, meaning we should be able to attack on the break and expose them at the back with runs from the likes of Marin, Lookman and Xadas. Again, we are trying to be explosive on the break once possession is won, therefore we try to maintain a high tempo and pace as soon as we convert defense into attack Direct Passing Into Space – once the ball is won, the goal is to move the ball up the field as fast as possible; I generally instruct one of our wide-men to have very little defensive duties, so that they are available to push forward away from their man and be an outlet for long passes on the break where they can run in to space and either cross from wide or cut inside on goal Attacking Width (Wide) – playing Marin and Xadas as Inside Forwards, the objective here is to have them hug the line when breaking forward using space and width available before cutting in at speed to either get a shot on goal or create chances for Edouard up front Absorbing Pressure & Closing Down – with a flat back 4 and a DMC ahead of them, we don’t mind not having possession and inviting the Home team to come at us with the expectation that we can then close them down in our own half, regain possession, pump the ball forward to our wide players (or Edouard up top) and ultimately win the game by being more clinical in front of goal and taking our chances Breaking from the back – with quality Full Backs that have decent attributes in terms of first touch, dribbling and passing we use quick kick-outs / goalkeeper distribution to break from the back also, where they can turn and find our midfielders or wide players in space to get the ball forward as soon as possible Result Most importantly; does it work? In this match which is always going to a tough derby away from home, despite having less possession we manage to soak up a lot of pressure for most of the game before catching our break in the 85th minute when we win the ball in our own half and then pump the ball up past their last line of defence allowing Joveljic in space to put it away with a well-taken finish – almost mirroring that Wayne Rooney assist and perfectly illustrating our strategy when we are on the road or playing a difficult fixture where we aren’t necessarily favourites. We go on to win the game 2-1 and our reign as Kings of the Canary Island Derby continues for another few months at least.   Progress We continue to utilise this Counter Attack strategy for all our away games, and the results are extremely positive as we take advantage of our ability to soak up pressure and hit teams on the break. Between September and December we win 5 out of 7 games away from home (with narrow defeats to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid), and it’s interesting to review the statistical analysis across these games where we can see ourselves dominating despite having less possession on average (just 46%) and being away from home; the fact that we have become quite solid at the back combined with our chance creation and conversion figures means that we are clinical when we do have the ball even if we spend large periods of the game without possession. 100 Games Later Unknown to myself, we suddenly find ourselves playing my 100th game as CD Tenerife Manager – considering I play every game on Extended Highlights with replays on, I estimate that this accounts for approx. 1200 minutes or 20 hours of my life in 2019 so far and that’s just matchplay alone 😆 Its a good day all around, not only because we beat Alaves 1-0 but also because Odsonne Edouard bangs in his first competitive goal for the club and hopefully this is the start of something big for our #RoyDeLosRovers project.   By Christmas we find ourselves performing above expectations and after 20 odd games we sit happily in 4th position just 6 points off leaders Barcelona.   Despite a blip in October where we only picked up one win in four games, November sees us win 4/4 scoring 13 goals and only conceding two – two more wins in December (after getting embarrassingly destroyed in the Copa Del Rey 4th round bu Huesca) put us unexpectedly in the Champions League qualifying places as we prepare to ring in the new year and say goodbye to 2020 (a year in which Germany beat France in the European Championship condemning them to two successive Euro Final defeats). The downside of this good run? Alarmingly Odsonne Edouard has only picked up 3 goals in 14 games and so far does not look to be the #RoyDeLosRovers shithouse Striker we needed him to be. With January beckoning, it could be crunch time if we are to maintain our good form and push for a CL qualifying spot….it might be time to check if Senior Concepcion will be get the checkbook out again 👀. SHOW ME THE MONEY! Speaking of finances – the end of the year also brings an update on our current financial situation now that we are firmly established as a La Liga club. Our overall balance looks extremely healthy, mainly due to the increased TV revenues as well as a small increase in gate receipts due to our stadium expansion from 22,000 to 26,000. Sounds great? For Tenerife, yes we are performing really well and have been intelligently expanding year on year in terms of our income and expenditure, keeping tight wage budget and spreading out some transfer fees across 3 seasons rather than taking a hit right away; on the grand scheme of things however, we are still one of the smallest clubs in La Liga based on our overall income – literally making a fraction of what the top 4 clubs earn, and well below the average for everyone else outside the Top 4. So to summarise – after more than 100 games and now that we have completed half of our third season at CD Tenerife, I think it’s fair to say that we are performing well above expectations, mainly due to the fact that we have become so solid at the back as well as the fact that we have signed really well when it comes to loan signings without carrying the burden of high wages and bonuses. As we enter in to January, I am just about to start checking the Transfer and Loan lists when Senior Concepcion’s hot assistant knocks on the door and hands me this piece of good news:     Of course this won’t change the world but will definitely help us strengthen the squad during the transfer window if we are to seriously contend for an unlikely Champions League spot – better pick up the phone and tell Inigo and Keke that it’s shopping time 💰💰.   Thanks for reading! After a two week break from playing we are officially back in this save and somehow in the hunt for a Champions League place in our third season! Feel free to hit the Menu above to catch up on the evolution of this Roy De Los Rovers journey, it’s no Game of Thrones so each season only has a few posts in each one 😌. As always please feel free to follow and comment below, retweets and thoughts on Twitter are also much appreciated. My next post will be out later this week where we will see if we can do any magic in January as well as trying to maintain our Top 4 position – long way to go yet 😅. Thanks, MaddFM (Paul).

“Dubbed the next…” – the FM Crystal Ball

Apr 28, 2019 Madd FM

    🎵 Suggested tune: “Que Sera Sera (What will be will be)” – Doris Day 🎵   Football Manager has always been famous for predicting the footballing future, and for recognising a young player’s potential long before the real life football community catches on or makes a move – so much so that a number of well known clubs and managers have taken to actually playing/utilising the game in order to ensure they are up to date with the highest potential and most sought after wonderkids that SI continue to identify through their outstanding scouting network and wide range of researchers and contacts all over the globe.   One of my favourite features of Football Manager is to scout and find wonderkids / hidden gems who are “Dubbed“, “Touted” or “Labelled” as the next {Insert Football Legend name here}. While this doesn’t always mean that the player is guaranteed to rise to stardom and become an absolute superstar, I’ve always enjoyed unearthing a top youth prospect that has the potential to reach the ability of an already well known footballing icon – not only does it give an indication of the type of player they may aspire to be, it is also a great way of connecting the FM alternate universe to real life football which for me is the reason I have played the game relentlessly for over 20 years now since that fateful day when I swapped my copy of Sensible World of Soccer 95/96 for a copy of Championship Manager 2 with a mate at aged 10, and to this day have never returned it to him 😆.     The addition of FM19 to my Steam library not only means another 1000+ hours of trawling through random European and South American U-19 squads in the hope of finding a never-seen-before wonderkid – it also completes a 10 year collection of Football Manager games on Steam (the older ones are still piled up in boxes on my desk), and as such I think it is fitting to look at a selection of the best and most interesting Football Manager media comparisons between FM 2009 and FM 2019 and analyse where SI have either hit the nail on the head or had a swing and a miss when it comes to predicting the future and dubbing/touting a youth prospect as the next big thing. In this article we will look at 10 of the more memorable FM Media Comparisons over the past 10 years and analyse how accurate they were now that most of those players are either in their prime or have reached the pinnacle of their careers, comparing them to the legends whose footsteps they were touted to follow in and evaluating FM’s Media Prediction ability by rating each comparison on a 1-5 star scale. We will then compile a list of 10 of the hottest youth prospects in FM19 that have come out of the FM Crystal Ball who are already branded with a Media Comparison at the start of the game, and are dubbed/touted as a future footballing legend.   10 years of Media Comparisons   1. Chris Smalling – “Dubbed the new Rio Ferdinand” (FM2009)   In January 2010, Sir Alex Ferguson beat Arsenal to the signing of 20 year old highly rated England U21 defender Chris Smalling from Fulham for a fee reported to be in the region of £7 million – roughly 14 months after the release of Football Manager 2009 in which the game had an 18 year old Smalling “Dubbed as the new Rio Ferdinand” while he was still playing in the Fulham Reserve side, an interesting comparison considering the two ended up playing side-by-side in real life during United’s title winning campaign the following season. Rio on the other hand, has not once but twice broken the record as the most expensive defender in history after his £18 million and £30 million moves to Leeds and Man Utd respectively; needless to say Smalling would have big shoes to fill (no pun intended 😋).     How do they compare? In order to compare the two we will look at each player in FM terms by comparing both players at their peak. Smalling, currently 29 years old is arguably in his prime now in FM19 and we will therefore measure him against a 29 year old Rio Ferdinand which requires us to go back to FM2009 to get a like-for-like comparison:   FM Media Comparison Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐★   Overall, FM didn’t do a bad job in predicting Chris Smalling’s inevitable rise to the pinnacle of English and International football – it’s fair to say he is not at the same level as Ferdinand in terms of football ability and defensive solidarity and overall Ferdinand is certainly the stronger of the two, however as FM predictions go this was definitely one of the more accurate and we will give it 4 stars on the MaddFM Media Comparison scale 😎.   2. Connor Wickham – “Dubbed the New Alan Shearer” (FM2010)     There are arguably not many boots that would be bigger to fill than those of Alan Shearer, particularly for a young English Striker that spent four seasons on the red side of the Tyne-Wear derby. Before that however, Football Manager 2010 predicted that it would be 16 year old Connor Wickham who would fill those boots and become the new Alan Shearer, and despite playing at Premiership level (on and off) for the past 8 or 9 seasons, it hasn’t quite happened for Wickham who currently plies his trade for Crystal Palace in the Premier League. Shearer on the other hand is one of the best Strikers to have graced the Premier league, and was prolific at both domestic and international level for close to 15 years scoring 379 career goals in 734 appearances.   HOW DO THEY COMPARE? It’s easy to forget that Wickham is still only 26 years of age, and certainly has a whole lot of football ahead of him. In FM terms he is not a bad target man based on his attributes, however unfortunately he does not come close to Shearer’s ability or achievements and this is one of FM’s more unsuccessful attempts to predict the footballing future in-game.   FM Media Comparison Rating: ⭐⭐★ ★ ★   Even though he still has plenty of years of football ahead of him, Wickham is still a long way off reaching the ability and goal-scoring heights of Alan Shearer, therefore we are giving a two-star rating to this media prediction.   3. Marco Verratti – “Could be the next Andrea Pirlo” (FM2011)   Football Manager 2011 told us that a 17 year old youth prospect at Pescara had the potential to become one of the greatest Italian midfielders of all time by tipping Marco Verratti to become the next Andrea Pirlo – high praise indeed for a player who was only 2 years old when Pirlo made his Serie A debut for Brescia in 1995. Verratti showed signs of incredible talent from a very young age, and hasn’t failed to live up to his potential whereby at the age of 20 he was already playing Champions League and International football for PSG and Italy respectively. While Pirlo has almost enjoyed unparralleled success during his time at Milan and Italy, Verratti has also shone at the top level and as media predictions go this was one of FM’s finer attempts at looking in to the crystal ball and picking out a youth prospect destined for success on the big stage.   HOW DO THEY COMPARE? Pretty close! In terms of ability, there is not a lot between the two from an FM perspective, with Pirlo narrowly edging it and rightly so based on his overall contribution year on year for both Milan and Italy over the years. Verratti has a long way to go to replicate Pirlo’s achievements and honours gained however this is one prediction that FM can be proud of and hopefully Verratti can push on to emulate some of Pirlo’s achievements for both club and country.   FM Media Comparison Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐   Five stars may sound generous, but if you think about it and look back at all of the occasions where we have seen the best FM youth prospects fail to live up to the hype surrounding them – SI were fairly on the ball when their researchers spotted 17 year old Verratti’s potential and dubbed him the next big thing in Italian football, therefore we will give them 5/5 for a top effort.   4. Sean McGinty – “Touted as the next Mick McCarthy” (FM2010)   Who?? My thoughts exactly…but when FM2010 came out, it seems that the SI researchers saw something special in 15 year old Irish teenager Sean McGinty, so much so that they labelled him as the next Mick McCarthy who was one of the best defenders of his generation during the 1980s.     How do they compare?   McGinty was part of United’s FA Youth Cup winning side in 2011 alongside the likes of Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Michael & Will Keane, Sam Johnstone and Ravel Morrison – however he never managed to make the grade at United and struggled to make the transition to professional football. Following multiple loan spells, he eventually ended up playing lower league football at Aldershot and Torquay before signing for Partick Thistle in 2018. McCarthy on the other hand, played at the highest level for both club and country and sadly McGinty never lived up to his potential as a teenager in FM2010.   FM Media Comparison Rating: ⭐★★★★   Unfortunately for McGinty this was a complete swing and a miss for FM Media Comparisons and he never managed to fulfil his potential as is so common in modern day football.   5. Jonjo Shelvey – “Dubbed the new Glenn Hoddle” (FM2012)     I had previously seen a 16 year old Jonjo Shelvey compared to Michael Carrick in FM2009, however it was in FM2012 that we began to see Jonjo Shelvey announce himself on both the FM stage and IRL also, so much so that he was touted by FM researchers as the “next Glenn Hoddle” within the game. Bearing in mind that I am a 32 year old Irishman, I never really had the opportunity or cause to see Glenn Hoddle play live during his prime and my main introduction to Hoddle was when he managed England in the 1998 World Cup finals (as well as all that Eileen Drewery nonsense :P). However I have since learned that not only was Hoddle a talented midfielder and fully-fledged England international, but that he was also one of the most technically and tactically astute players of his generation and an absolute powerhouse of a midfielder during the 70’s and 80’s. Were SI on to something here in comparing a young Shelvey to Hoddle?     HOW DO THEY COMPARE? Slightly biased being a Newcastle fan, but in terms of midfield style and looking at the attributes where both players are strongest – I reckon that it’s a fairly close comparison overall; Shelvey is of course nowhere near Hoddle in his prime however the two are very similar and I think that FM did a decent job in tipping Shelvey to emulate Hoddle’s creative and forceful playing style.     FM Media Comparison Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ★★   Perhaps Shelvey should give Eileen Drewery a call? 😋   6. Dani Pacheco – “Touted as the next David Villa” (FM2010)   Around the time that Rafa Benitez was building a Spanish revolution at Liverpool following their earlier Champions League successes, a young Spaniard was just signing professional terms at Anfield following successful youth spells at both Malaga and Barcelona. Such was his goalscoring prowess that Dani Pacheco was nicknamed “El Asesino” (The Assasin) by his team mates at Barcelona, which led to a high profile move to Liverpool and therefore a…

Rules

Apr 14, 2019 Madd FM

  Fixtures Each team plays each other twice, Home and Away – both games are played in the same sitting. The first scheduled Home team hosts the match and is responsible for the following: Contacting your opponent to agree on a suitable date and time to play Hosting the match Saving a copy of the game when finished Taking a screenshot of final Player Ratings screen which shows Match Score, Goals Scored and/or any Red Cards given Posting result and screenshot in discord group results channel At least 2 games per week must be played by each team up to a maximum of 5 matches per month   Matches All matches will be played on Football Manager Touch 2019 using Versus mode Home team hosts each match and is responsible for adding/inviting opponent via Steam – opponent can also join by selecting “Join Online League” and locating the server being hosted by Home opponent. Use “League” format and choose “Play Each Team 2 times” as the default format – this will ensure proper Home and Away scheduling of fixtures. If you are not friends with your opponent on Steam, make sure “Allow anyone to join your game” is ticket.   Suspensions If a player is sent off after receiving two yellow cards – suspended for next game If a player is sent off after receiving a straight red card – suspended for next two games   Matchplay Press “Pause” when making a tactical change (shouts and quick subs/change of mentality etc) not included) and message your opponent to advise If game crashes/freezes during match play – take a screenshot of the score and time, restart the match and play the remaining time on the clock. When finished, add the scores from each game to get the final score (e.g. if game crashes when Player A is winning 2-0 after 60 mins, restart the game and play another 30 mins. If replay finishes 2-0 to Player B, overall score is 2-2) If a team has received a red card during the first game (before freezing) – that team must drop that player for the replay and play their substitute goalkeeper in that position for the remaining time. Player that received the red card will also be suspended for the next game. This is the closest we can get to replaying as FM will not allow you to start a game with 10 men.   Results Must be posted in the Results channel by the Home team manager along with screenshot Please include any goal scorers & red cards                                                                           Both players should check the result once posted, any disputes must be settled between the two players              Check out the league table and fixtures here

FMWEC Originals FM19

Apr 14, 2019 Madd FM

  The Draft Rules Table & Fixtures  

Leagues

Apr 14, 2019 Madd FM

  FMWEC Originals FM19 League  

Table & Fixtures

Apr 14, 2019 Madd FM

  Click here to view full league table Fixtures: Click here to view full fixture list   April

The Draft

Apr 14, 2019 Madd FM

  In April 2018, 64 Football Manager players participated in the first ever Football Manager World E-Sports Championship at Insomnia 62, all competing for the £15,000 first prize along with the chance to manage Norwich City Legends against Inter Milan Forever in a fixture that included the likes of Bryan Gunn, Darren Eadie, Efan Ekoku, Jurgen Klinsmann, Javier Zanetti and Francesco Toldo.     That tournament was won by none other than Daniel Fry aka @fryman7, where he narrowly defeated Mario Fontan in the final after a grueling weekend of FM action and was presented with the FMWEC prize by none other than CM/FM legend Cherno Samba.     One year later, 21 guys have gotten together to battle out an FM19 Draft League – rather than everyone having to be online at the same time as is normally the case for a Football Manager online game, the draft was completed using a Google Sheet whereby players took turns to select players in each round. The draft was completed over a 5 day period whereby all 21 managers have built a team of 20 players that each will feel are strong enough to reign supreme at the end of the 40 game competition.     The Draft     The Managers Team Name Manager Social Ajax Remco Heijselaar @fm_lowietje Armour FC Stuart Armour @StuartArmour Bashev FC Branimir Bashev @branimirios Bluemoon FC Chris Thompson n/a Coqueiros FC Henrique Ternes Morasco @TernaoM Dannyball Reserves Matthew Hood @FMTrequartista DANNYBALL UTD Daniel Fry @fryman7 Divok Originals Max Wilson n/a Electric Rev Bruno Vienescu n/a Fontiris FC Mario Fontan @MarioFontan89 Hjorth FC Mathias Hjortjh @FM_Hjorth Ipswich Monstars Chris Bullard @ChrisyBullard JDFC Jacob Dudley n/a JM All-Stars Jim Martin @hotspudman Noobleton FC Chris Rowlands @noobleton Pjanic @ the Disco Paul Madden @MaddFM986 Save Chip FC Lee Reading @leereading6 UCRACDF Alex Cadman @notch_fm VK Wilfried Thomas @Vulrak Westmeath Wanderers Reuben Byrnes @reubtubefm Willian Dollar Baby FC Ben Crouch @Crouch_B   Check out the league rules here!

3.1. Hey Ho, Vamos!

Apr 09, 2019 Madd FM

🎵 Suggested tune: “Blitzkrieg Bop” – Ramones (Spanish Acoustic Version)   Join me as we go to town on our squad, blow the load in the transfer window, peak too early in pre-season and go balls deep into our second year in La Liga Santander and our third season as manager of CD Tenerife.     When we last left off, we had just finished in a very respectable 8th position in our first season in La Liga and our second as Tenerife manager, narrowly missing out on a Europa League place even though we definitely aren’t ready for it. The squad that got us there consisted of 5 loan players, all of whom were first team regulars so definitely a major squad rebuild could be required.     Before we take out Senior Concepcion’s chequebook – let’s do a quick review of where we sit currently versus our original save objectives that we set over 2 FM years ago when we kickstarted our career at CD Tenerife:   1. Obtain Promotion to La Liga within first 2 seasons – Complete! ✅   2. Build a concentrated and extensive team of staff with a particular focus on Youth Coaching and Recruitment – Not going well❌ Admittedly I have probably dropped the ball on this one – I was so focused on getting promoted and then suddenly on the verge of Europa League qualification that I put youth recruitment and coaching on the back burner; thankfully beloved Chairman Senior Concepcion has deep pockets and totally gets me – he agrees to invest over €6m on upgrading both our Youth and Training Facilities, therefore I’m earmarking the 2022 Youth Intake to be a good one! 3. Try to sign as many Spanish speaking staff members as possible ✅ 4. Develop a strong affiliate network domestically and internationally, both for inbound loan benefits as well as youth development ❌ Initially the objective here was to find a strong parent club in order to benefit from loans without heavy wage costs – however now that we are quite established in La Liga, it’s time to look at identifying feeder clubs as we hope to build our Youth Recruitment and U-19 squads. Watch this space! 5. Minimum of 50% of all incoming transfers will be paid up front✅ 6. Develop at least one youth prospect or uncapped player to obtain an International Cap for Spain within first 3 seasons❌ As it stands, it doesn’t look like we will meet this objective mainly as we havent developed any youth players following two mediocre youth intakes. Our latest hope is Pedro Luis Acosta, who has 4 star potential after coming through in our last youth intake. Within two months of him signing his new deal, Sevilla come in with a measly offer of €130,000 however we tell them where to stick that and the lad signs a new 3 year contract. Here’s hoping!! 7. Find our “Roy de los Rovers” – an absolute shithouse of a centre-forward the like of which Los Chicharreros have never seen before ❌ Hmmmmm…..see later for more info 🔥🔥   8. Get the Ireland job and manage both club & country, ensuring qualification for all major tournaments ❌ 9. Sign and develop a young Irish player for the first team and also get him capped by the Republic of Ireland – Work in Progress 🛠️🏗️ I still haven’t found what I’m looking for……….   Pre-Season Cash Splashing Unfortunately despite repeat offers, pleas and me even flying from Tenerife to Brazil to try and make the lad see sense – we fail to make last season’s top scorer Brenner a permanent signing after matching his minimum fee release clause of €13.25 million. For whatever reason FM deems necessary, he declines to even enter contract negotiations and ultimately forces us to start looking elsewhere. For the first time in this save/blog adventure however, we do have some money to spend – an increase in sponsorship and TV revenue means we have a budget of €14 million which can be stretched to €18 million if we are smart with our wage budget. It’s time to go shopping!! First in the door is the man we hope will become our Roy De Los Rovers shithouse goalscoring machine of a Centre Forward – Odsonne Edouard, who arrives after we agree a club record €22 million fee (€11 million up front) with Celtic. I came across Eduoard in real life a few months back when he first joined The Bhoys, where he came on as a sub against Aberdeen and basically won them the game single-handedly. I signed him previously in my beta save with Blackburn and he was scoring well in the Premier League, so hopefully he can become our star striker and score the goals that we missed desperately last season – he has scored 35 goals in 62 appearances during his last 3 seasons at Celtic . Naturally this signing ate up the vast majority of our budget, so the rest of our signings are a combination of free and loan players in. First piece of good news is that we managed to extend the loans of both Carles Alena and Ademola Lookman, both of which for me are as good as two permanent signings as both were first team regulars last season. Alena will spend his 3rd season in a row with us (I’ll have to try nab him for a cut-price fee), while Lookman has been immense as an Inside Forward on that left hand side regularly contributing goals and assists. Our loan spree continues with the arrival of not one but two full backs, who arrive in the form of Fagner and Mykola Matvienko from Liverpool and Benfica respectively. Fagner will take up the RB spot recently vacated by Felix Passlack who returns to Dortmund from a season-long loan, while Matvienko will replace Marco Friedl who also returns to Bayern after spending a year with us last season. As if that wasn’t enough – our stature as a La Liga club must be growing fast as we secure the signings of two world class central midfielders, both of whom featured heavily in my “DMC or not DMC” article that I wrote for WeSteamFM.com. Wonderkid Sandro Tonali arrives from Juventus on a season long loan having only just joined them from Brescia for a fee of €12 million, followed by Portuguese international Danilo Pereira who joins us on loan from Liverpool fresh after winning the Premier League last season. Aside from that – we pick up a pretty decent squad player in the fantastically named Lorenzo Dickmann who joins on a free transfer, while the rest of our signings are mainly ones for the future in the form of Cole Palmer (Man City), Harvey Neville (Man Utd – son of our first team coach Phil), Steve Bremner (Coventry) and Lee O’Connor on loan from Man Utd. All in all, a pretty busy and successful transfer window that saw only Jose Naranjo moving the other direction in a €1.5 million move to Alaves. Sadly our transfer activity is still only a drop in the ocean compared to Real Madrid and Barcelona – the gap is still widely prevalent and our mission to dethrone these Spanish giants from the top of Spanish football is most certainly now a marathon and not a sprint. “I love it when a plan comes together” ? After an abundance of chopping, changing, ins and outs we are almost ready for our first game of the season (*spoiler – against Real Madrid, highlights below). I always feel that it is not a good idea to bring in so many new faces and implement that amount of change before the new season, as I believe the game determines that your squad needs time to gel when there is an influx of new players. Unfortunately however, we have no choice and as it stands our squad looks as follows: friendly banter It might be fair to say that pre-season went too well. I take the lads on a tour of the Emerald Isle during which we score 15 goals that include two hat-tricks for new signing Odsonne Eduoard, and we go unbeaten in 8 games which is always a dangerous game in pre-season – if it’s too good to be true then it usually is! Thankfully we go pretty much injury free and as preparations begin for our first league game away to Real Madrid, we are given a quick reality check in the form of the league odds / media predictions which reaffirm Madrid’s superiority and seemingly condemn us to a mediocre 13th place finish…CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. CD Tenerife vs Real Madrid We are live at The Bernabeu for the opening game of the 2020/2021 La Liga season. CD Tenerife have it all to do if they are to overcome defending champions Real Madrid who have added Christian Eriksen, Moussa Dembele and Patrick Schick to their ranks following the high profile departures of Isco and Casemiro to Man Utd and AC Milan respectively. Here is how the teams line out today – Real Madrid hand debuts to Schick and Eriksen while there are also first appearances for Fagner, Matvienko, Danilo Pereira and Odsonne Edouard for Los Chicharreros: The game kicks off and Real Madrid’s dominance is clearly evident, with Gareth Bale opening the scoring on 6 minutes. Tenerife begin to settle in and defend well despite Real Madrid dominating possession and pushing to get a second. The score remains 1-0 at half-time, with Tenerife introducing both Sandro Tonali and Antonio Marin however this more attacking approach exposes the defence and it’s Bale who makes it 2-0 on 65 mins followed by Mateo Kovacic on 67 mins to make it 3-0 to the home side. Not the start manager MaddFM will have had in mind. There is a glimmer of hope as Xadas makes it 3-1 on 72 mins, but that is all Tenerife have in their locker and the game finishes with a victory for Real Madrid. And so begins life in Season 3!! We won’t be too disheartened by an opening day defeat away to the defending champions, and hopefully in my next post we will see what we can do with our newly assembled squad and more importantly whether Odsonne Eduoard will start to show signs that he can be our new Roy De Los Rovers here at CD Tenerife; we also play my 100th game as CD Tenerife Manager and return for the first La Liga Canary islands derby since 2002 now that Las Palmas have joined us in the top tier having gained promotion last season. For now I will leave you with this gem of a news update – love it when FM produces a good’un ❤️ Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it please hit the follow button below, or check me out on Twitter to keep posted on latest content and updates – comments and retweets are of course appreciated. Hit the Menu above for more FM articles as well as the history of this #RoyDeLosRovers save. Cheers, MaddFM aka Paul.

2.4. Best Offence is a Good Defence

Apr 03, 2019 Madd FM

🎵 Suggested tune: “Another Brick in the Wall! – Pink Floyd (Spanish Acoustic Version)   Contents include: getting the runs, from zero to hero, European ambition, defensive training & analysis, the two Phils, a FIFA 03 legend, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ youth intake, Season 2 finale and a glitch in the matrix 🕶️.   Business as Usual Suffice to say that it took a while to recover from our dramatic comeback against Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey Semi Final where we were literally one goal away from our first ever Cup Final after a two-legged ten-goal thriller. After a few ill wishes and broken Irish/Spanish swear words against Luis Suarez , it’s time to get straight back on the horse as we move in to February 2020 and the business end of our first season in La Liga.   With our cracking cup run out of the way, it’s time to focus on the league where after 19 games we sit in 13th place at the end of January. Real Madrid are runaway leaders already 12 points clear at the top, ahead of Atletico in 2nd place and Valencia and a disappointing Barcelona who are level on points in 3rd and 4th respectively. From Zero to Hero After scoring his first goal in over 15 hours of football by bagging a brace against Marbella in the Copa Del Rey 5th Round, on loan Brazilian Striker Brenner bagged 6 goals in total during January and thankfully continued this run of good form through to February where we not only managed to go unbeaten in 5 league games, we also only conceded 1 goal and kept 4 clean sheets to win 4/5 games in the month. Brenner suddenly finds himself as our top scorer with 11 goals in all competitions, which he has managed to score in the last 15 games thus restoring my faith in humanity, Brazilian footballers and my own ability to evaluate player attributes in Football Manager 😆.       February also saw the return of not one but two of our long term injury casualties – Ruben Semedo and Mauro Dos Santos who both would normally be vying for a first team spot in the heart of our defence. This is a welcome return however provides an exceptional selection headache in that one of our first ever signings Yann-Aurel Bisseck has been outstanding in CB and still only 19 years old; this guy is a cert to make his debut for Germany before long and is touted as the next Jurgen Kohler which we discussed earlier in this blog adventure. With Bisseck regularly averaging 7+ ratings, I decided to pair him up with Semedo as I feel they will compliment each other well with Bisseck in his natural CB position and Semedo in the Ball Playing Defender role. On paper Bisseck is slightly slower and less experienced in terms of positioning and mentality compared to Semedo, but his strength and physicality makes up for it and based on our current defensive form they look a steal for a combined fee of €4.7m. In terms of defensive form – well, we have really exceeded our own expectations and while some of this is attributed to Rossbach who has one of the highest clean sheet records in the division (see below for more info), our defensive line has been solid as a rock (“sólido como una roca” as Inigo would say) and our first choice back four of Passlack (RB), Semedo (BPD), Bisseck (CB) and Friedl (LB) have unexpectedly made us one of the top performing defensive units in the league. Between February 1st and April 30th, we only concede 6 goals in 16 games of which we won 10, drew 4 and lost just 2 over the 3 month period. Born to run Naturally I will take credit for all of the above and February’s Manager of the Month award fits in nicely in my beach-side villa on the South of the island. We went on a 7 game unbeaten run and found ourselves climbing steadily up the league – by the end of April we climbed 6 places to 7th position and suddenly we are contending for a Europa League spot!! Phil-harmonic All joking aside – one of our key focus areas and save objectives was to focus on building a really strong and solid team of backroom staff at Los Chicharreros. For some reason I really enjoy scouting for staff and building my own army of coaches, scouts and physios etc – I would have thought I am one of the minority to spend so long on this however I recently read a great post from @TheMezzalaFM where he goes in to fantastic detail about his staff recruitment process; it is almost uncanny how similar our approaches are! (definitely recommend reading it here when you have a few mins to spare – it’s obviously awesome as we are both Irish ☘️☘️). Two of my first recruits at the beginning of the save were Phil Cannon and Phil Neville who were both brought in to focus on defensive training and coaching. Generally our training calendar is structured depending on our opposition and whether we are at home/away, and we dedicate a full day within each weekly schedule to focus on defending as follows: Home/Expect a Win: Defensive Shape, Defending Engaged, Ground Defence Counter Attack/Tough Opposition: Defending Engaged, Aerial Defence, Defending Corners   Football Gaming Royalty 👑 While we’re on the topic of staff – at the beginning of this season, we brought in a former Tenerife legend and the inspiration of this blog Senior Roy Makaay as a first team coach / superhero at Los Chicharreros. After a few words with our beloved Chairman Miguel Concepcion, we managed to squeeze an extra coaching position out of him and the search was on to find an all-rounder who could complement the rest of our coaching team. I started my usual deep-dive through the absolutely immense database of staff and coaching options that FM has to offer, when suddenly a familiar name popped up: It’s been a long time since I played FIFA and I am almost certain that the last time I was actually any good at it was FIFA 2003 – I literally stopped playing once I had my first laptop which came in 2004 when I started college; it was all about FM from that point onwards. For those of you that don’t remember – despite the likes of Edgar Davids, Ryan Giggs and Roberto Carlos appearing on the cover and the game being released when players such as Ronaldinho and Zidane were in their prime, it was Matteo Brighi who for some reason had the highest rating in the game (97) and was undoubtedly the best player in that version (probably the closest FIFA ever came to creating a legend similar to how FM iconised the likes of Cherno Samba and Tonton Zola Moukoko). Brighi never quite lived up to his FIFA 03 ability even though he won the Serie A Young Player of the Year in 2002 (great article about the lad here), however he forged a solid career in the Italian league during which he had spells at Juventus, Parma, Torino and Sassuolo as well as earning 4 caps for Italy. He wasn’t bad in FM that year either 😎 Outside Interest 👀 As if my ego can’t get any bigger – this run of form and consistency that brought us surging up the league also started to be noticed overseas as well as here in Spain. While I would never leave my beloved Los Chicharerros, we had both Southampton and Everton knocking on the door both of whom are still in the Premier League. Everton went so far as to offer us a job interview, however in the end I decided to decline it for fear of impacting morale etc and also, f*ck that we have work to do here. Senior Concepcion was delighted. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ youth intake While all of the above was happening – we had our second ever youth intake. We haven’t been able to improve our youth facilities or allocate much resources towards youth recruitment as yet, however we can already see an improvement on last year and while I wouldn’t call it a Golden Generation, we have one newgen in the form of Pedro Luis Acosta who looks like he could be the real deal; the kid has 4 star potential and at just 16 years old possesses unbelievable finishing, technique and first touch as well has having really good mentals and physicals (18 determination and 15 stamina). With a preferred position of Shadow Striker, it will be really interesting to watch his progress and see if we can develop him either in a #10 role or potentially in to a Roy De Los Rovers shithouse Striker as per our objectives ⚽⚽. Quest for Europe Here we are. Three games to prove everyone wrong, exceed all expectations and through some form of miracle (or maybe I am actually half decent at this game) – qualify for Europe for the first time since 1996, therefore ending a 23 year continental hiatus for Los Chicharreros. Standing in our way – well, see for yourself: First up it’s league champions Real Madrid away, followed by a visit to high flying Malaga who are currently level on points with us and equally hungry to grab that final European spot, and finally we welcome Barcelona to Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López. No pressure lads….. We ALMOST did it … well, we tried our level best anyway. An extremely tight game at the Bernebeu ended in a 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid, Rodrygo joining Diego Costa and Luis Suarez on our list of enemies. The game at Malaga was an absolute belter aside from the fact that it was probably our worst defensive performance of the season – it was 3-3 after just 36 mins and somehow that is how it finished. Finally, we reached our last game of the season at Home to Barcelona, knowing that a win would guarantee us that 7th place finish, anything else would rely on Malaga drawing or losing against already relegated Huesca. It just wasnt meant to be. Huesca were 2-0 after 6 minutes and we were already dreaming of Europa League football next season, however by half time the roles were reversed and it was us losing and Malaga looking like they would overtake us in to 7th position. Tammy Abraham’s 40th minute straight red card didn’t help, and in the end we were our own worst enemy as we lost the game 2-0 and Malaga picked up a draw to finish one point ahead of us. LOOK CLOSELY 👀. It’s times like these that hindsight and karma come in to play…I was so focused on grabbing that 7th position in order to qualify for Europe that I never realised there was a chance no-one would qualify via that position; After getting knocked out of the Copa Del Rey by Barcelona I had naturally assumed they would go on to win it – however, I suddenly realised that their opponents in the final would not be finishing in the Top 7 places in the league (very much on the contrary), and it means that if Barcelona were to be defeated, the Cup Winners would take that final Europa League spot ahead of the team that finished 7th….. Through some kind of divine inspirational miracle – already relegated Real Sociedad managed to come from behind and not only score a last minute equaliser, but to go on and win the game in extra-time and subsequently break Malaga fans hearts by stealing their Europa League qualifying spot by winning the Copa Del Rey. Complete shock at the Bernabeu and all I can think is – THANK F*CK WE DIDN’T FINISH 7th!!!!! END OF SEASON SUMMARY (lets out a sigh of relief).. and that’s Season 2 completed!! Overall – an absolutely kick…

2.3. Good Copa Bad Copa 🏆

Apr 03, 2019 Madd FM

Contents include: Copa Del Rey drama, debut goals, goalkeeping howlers, attempted giant killing, squeaky bum time, reality checks and island pride   🎵 Suggested tune: “Lose Yourself – Eminem (Spanish Acoustic Version)”   In my last post, we had just drawn Atletico Madrid in the Quarter Final of the Copa Del Rey. Not the easiest draw in the world even though they only narrowly beat us 1-0 in the league earlier in the season, however a big performance will be needed in both legs if we are to progress to the next round. Tammy Abraham has literally only arrived in the door on loan from Chelsea and it’s too soon to include him in the match day squad, looks like the lad has a knock anyway and will be out for another week. There is literally no time to waste with the first leg upon us as we welcome Atletico Madrid to Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López.   Tenerife vs Atletico Madrid – Copa Del Rey Quarter Final Leg 1 The game starts and it’s an absolute catastrophe for CD Tenerife as a disastrous error from Goalkeeper Sondre Rossbach gifts a goal to Diego Costa, who needless to say is hungry as ever to make an impact. Not only did we go 1-0 down just minutes in to the game, but I was eating my pre-work breakfast at the time…. Well that’s one way to ruin my corn flakes 🤬 #FM19 #YOUCANNOTBESERIOUS pic.twitter.com/fatdfDQovW — MaddFM (@MaddFM986) March 28, 2019   An instant shout to the lads demanding more seems to have a good impact – on form Brenner gets in to a great position to convert LB Marco Friedl‘s low cross and its 1-1 on 12 minutes. From here the game basically converts to a game of Olympic standard table tennis; Bisseck rises to put us 2-1 up only for Griezmann to equalise just before half time; Milla strikes for Tenerife to make it 3-2 on 55 mins, before Savic manages to level the game on 86 mins meaning Atletico now have 3 away goals in the bank if needed. Then, just when all hope is lost and we are thinking ahead to a really tough game in Madrid, substitute Antonio Marin pops up in the 92nd minute and smashes home the winning goal to give us a 4-3 advantage going in to the 2nd leg. Absolute scenes in Tenerife!!!! See below for highlights of this 7 goal thriller. Only a week separates the first and second legs, during which we have time to beat rivals Malaga 4-2 at home in the league (with another brace from Brazilian loan Striker Brenner), and suddenly we are back in the Spanish capital for the 2nd leg of the Copa Del Rey Quarter final desperately hoping to hold on to our slender 1 goal advantage.   Atletico Madrid vs CD Tenerife – Copa Del Rey Quarter Final Leg 2 It’s deja-vu for Tenerife as they again concede early in the first half with that man Diego Costa putting Atletico ahead on 25 mins. The game stays like that until half time and as things stand Atletico are going through on away goals as is the rule in Spanish football. A change is needed, so Manager MaddFM decides its time for Tammy Abraham to make his debut for Tenerife in place of Naranjo who was poor in the first half. Abraham and Brenner offer bags of pace up front for Tenerife but Atletico are solid at the back and look comfortable in dealing with every ball that comes in to the final third. It looks like Atletico will hold on to progress to the Semi-Final….. 87″ – UNBELIEVABLE!!! Brenner and Abraham combine well in the Atletico box and what a time for debutant Tammy Abraham to score what is surely the goal that puts CD Tenerife through to the Copa Del Rey Semi Final.!   AND THAT’S IT! Somehow against all odds, Tenerife have beaten Atletico Madrid 5-4 on aggregate and have qualified for the Copa Del Rey Semi Final along with Real Sociedad, Atletico Bilbao and Barcelona. No doubt Manager MaddFM will hope to avoid the Catalan giants in the Semi-Final draw which takes place live below!!     No such luck as we draw Barcelona in the Semi Final and have it all to do if we are to reach a cup final for the first time in the club’s history. Bring it on!!   Sin Dolor no hay Gloria (No Pain No Gain)   First dilemma – fresh from his winning debut goal against A. Madrid, we decided to start Tammy Abraham in our next game against Deportivo and within 60 seconds he did this: Sadly we lost that game, however it gives plenty of food for thought for the upcoming huge fixtures ahead. While a cup run is always welcome – somehow we found ourselves playing 9 matches in the month of January alone, 5 of which were against Top 4 sides in Spain. Thankfully our patriarch Senior Concepcion allowed us to recruit a couple of extra physios around Christmas time.   Barcelona vs CD Tenerife – Copa Del Rey Semi Final Leg 1 After a surreal and epic victory in the QF, there is nothing like a good FM reality check to keep things in perspective and bring you back down to Earth with a bang. Not only was there over 95,000 in the stadium versus our average attendance of approx. 22,000 – Barcelona welcomed us to the Nou Camp and absolutely battered the sh*t out of us, scoring two goals either side of half time to win 4-0. This pretty much sums up my post match reaction and the thought of having to play them again in just 6 days time:   CD Tenerife vs Barcelona – Copa Del Rey Semi Final Leg 2 4 goals down…Barcelona are in town…as they say in the movies, it’s not over until it’s over 💪. I’ve been playing Football Management simulation games since the days of Sensible Soccer 95/96 and Championship Manager 2, and what conspires next is one of the craziest and most unexpected games I’ve ever played; Spoiler Alert – we don’t qualify, but f*ck me were we close: Somehow, despite going 0-1 down to a goal from the only man hungrier than Diego Costa, we managed to calmly turn the game around and knock 5 goals past the Catalan giants with goals from Brenner (2), Lasso, Alberto and Xadas – making it 5-5 on aggregate and that one Suarez goal the deciding factor as Barcelona advance to the final on away goals. It was without doubt the best performance we have had in this save so far, and myself, Inigo and Roy were on the sidelines looking like this in front of 22,468 home fans: That’s all for today’s post – as usual, please feel free to read back from the start via the Menu at the top of the page, or by clicking Home above. My next post will contain a full league update and depict our end of season run-in as we attempt to break in to the top half of La Liga. If you are enjoying this blog/save please hit follow below and leave some comments/feedback – you can also keep up to date with my latest content by following me on Twitter – thoughts and retweets always welcome!! Cheers, MaddFM.

The Underutilised Utility Man

Mar 31, 2019 Madd FM

      Versatility; Adaptability; Flexibility – not always the first words or attributes we look for when scouting in Football Manager, however over the years we have seen a number of successful teams benefit hugely from having an effective Utility Man in their squad who can play in multiple positions and cover a number of roles when called upon. Any names come to mind?     More and more games to play each season combined with squad registrations and injuries mean that the Utility Man has become an extremely important addition to the squad, and in the modern game we see an increased need for players to be far more versatile and adaptable than in previous years where player positions were more structured and defined. This is not only the case in real life, but also in Football Manager where it is vital to have players that can suit multiple positions especially when budgets are tight and FM can at times take pleasure in inflicting various levels of injury crises at crucial points in a season.   In this article we will look at the role of the Utility Man and look back on the more successful advocates of the position in recent years; we will analyse how to approach scouting for a utility man as well as on implementing them successfully in the game – we will then use this to look at who are the most effective utility men in the modern era and identify the best Utility Players & prospects in FM20 at both elite and lower league level.   Old School   “There was a period in the late-’80s when Ruud Gullit rivalled Diego Maradona as the world’s best player, and in virtually any position – centre half, winger, centre-midfield or up front. But for injuries, Ruud would’ve achieved even more than he did.” — Ronald Koeman, Holland Manager.     Younger readers might recall Ruud Gullit as a Sky Sports pundit, or that guy with the dreadlocks who used to manage Chelsea and Newcastle for a while. As a Newcastle fan I still remember the notion of “sexy football” that Ruud brought to the North East for a brief period, While this couldn’t quite be maintained as a Manager, Ruud Gullit was an absolute gem of a football player and although different from the traditional Utility Man in that he was often the first name on the teamsheet at the majority of his ex-clubs (Milan, PSV, Sampdoria and Chelsea among his ex employers), he was outstanding in almost every area of the pitch short of being a goalkeeper and this earns him first honorable mention in our Utility Man story.    Slightly older readers will remember that Ruud Gullit was known to play almost anyhere through the middle of the pitch, often switching from Centre Half to Centre Forward during the same 90 minute period while regularly playing as a Sweeper, Defensive Midfielder, Attacking Midfielder and Powerhouse Striker from one week to the next. He featured mostly as a Striker or Attacking Midfielder during his best years having started out as a Central Defender, and again reverted back towards being a Sweeper / Centre Half towards the end of his career when he joined Chelsea and kickstarted the club towards becoming the team it is today. After becoming the most expensive player in the world when he joined Milan from PSV for close to €7 million in 1987 (replacing the late Ray Wilkins who had left for PSG), he picked up back to back European Cups and won the Ballon D’Or for his efforts – widely accepted as the best player in the world at the time; not bad for a Utility Man.     And now for the important question…how good was he in FM? Back when it was Championship Manager – well, see for yourself…..     This is not the first time we have observed Strikers moonlighting as Centre Halves in the past, both in real life and again reflected in CM/FM. Before Chris Sutton was partnered with Alan Shearer which led to Blackburn famously winning the Premier League in 1995, he was signed by Norwich as a Centre Half which thankfully didn’t take long to correct from the perspective of Blackburn fans. He was swiftly converted to Centre Forward at Norwich and scored 25 goals in the 94/95 season which lead to him being signed by Blackburn – the rest as we know is history, he went on to form the prolific SAS partership with Alan Shearer and later found success at both Chelsea and Celtic. Another ex-Norwich Defender/Striker also emerged in the 1990’s by the name of Irishman Gary Doherty, who although not blessed with pace or skill was powerful and strong in the air making him equally effective at either Centre Back or Centre Forward. His career never flourished, but he was a perfect example of a reliable Utility Player that could come on and cover multiple positions when needed.     It’s hard to talk about hybrid defenders/strikers without mentioning one of CM9798’s finest. When one first loaded up this legendary game, you would normally see Manchester United re-signing Dion Dublin from Coventry for at least 5 or 6 million pounds and it rarely took long before he was featuring in the England squad both at Centre Half and at Centre Forward. Though known and remembered by most as a Striker during his time at Man United, Coventry and Aston Villa, Dion Dublin was frequently deployed successfully as a Central Defender, so much so that according to Dublin himself: “I remember when I was marking Wayne Rooney, playing centre-back for Villa, and he told me I was the best centre-back he’d played against.” Whether this is true or not we will never know, however there is no doubt that the likes of Ron Atkinson, Alex Ferguson and Gordon Strachan all rated Dublin highly both for his versatility as well as his strength and goal-scoring ability – there are still those that feel Dublin should have been included in England’s 1998 World Cup squad after finishing joint top scorer in the Premier League alongside Michael Owen and the aforementioned Chris Sutton. If you are one of those, I highly recommend reading “The World According to Championship Manager 97/98” by Dave Black (@CM9798 on Twitter) which brings absolute justice for Dion Dublin on the international stage.     Sticking with CM9798 – this version of the greatest set of games ever played brought to life arguably the most versatile and adaptable Utility Man of all…     Seriously – this guy was the ultimate all rounder and could literally play anywhere outfield on the park…why would you not sign him?     Utility Man Royalty Brace yourselves for (in this writer’s opinion) the best Utility Man of all time both in terms of versatility, skill, technique, leadership and all round footballing pedigree. Luis Enrique was everything you would want from a footballer – he could defend, tackle, pass, dribble, score, assist – it’s little wonder that Barcelona moved quickly to sign him after his contract wasn’t renewed at Real Madrid in 1996, making him part of an exclusive list of players to play for both Spanish giants that also includes Ronaldo, Figo, Hagi and Eto’o to name a few. He went on to become part of title winning sides alongside the likes of Figo, Guardiola, Rivaldo, and Kluivert and eventually captained the Catalan giants from 2001 to 2004 – during his time he went from scoring 18 goals a season to being utilised at full-back, right wing, left wing and in central midfield and so much was his influence and footballing ability that he was named by Pele in his list of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers.     Modern Day It’s fair to say that Sir Alex Ferguson was a clear advocate of the Utility Player and left a legacy in place at Man United whereby players have frequently been deployed in multiple areas outside of their natural position. The likes of Phil Neville, John O’Shea, Quinton Fortune, Alan Smith and even Wayne Rooney all found themselves playing in multiple positions under SAF, while even recently we have seen players such as Daley Blind, Ashley Young and Phil Jones all deployed at multiple positions throughout the season. Other clubs appear to have followed suit where we have seen the likes of Fabian Delph (Man City), James Milner (Liverpool), Victor Moses (Chelsea), Oleksandr Zinchenko (Man CIty), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal) and Matt Ritchie (Newcastle) all evolving into more versatile Utility Players initially to cover injuries but subsequently continuing to operate in multiple positions depending on needs must for their managers. It’s fair to say that this benefits the club in that they are able to maximise their squad usage and ensure they have cover for all positions, however would you say that the “positionless” names above have all had successful international careers? One might argue that being a Utility Man is detrimental to one’s international ambitions as these players don’t often get to prove themselves in specific positions when under the spotlight from International Managers. Would you agree?   Football Manager What good is all of this in FM? As mentioned above – if you are managing on a tight budget, have to operate under certain constraints / squad restrictions or are going through the common FM affliction that is the annual injury crisis, then having a decent Utility Man in your squad offers a number of useful avenues. Not only do you ensure sufficient cover for multiple positions, it also enables you to maximise how you use your bench for games, facilitates squad rotation during a long season, enables you to bring versatility, adaptability and experience to the squad which is important for squad balance, development and mentoring – and finally it usually means you can be smart and efficient from a transfer market perspective as often these kinds of players can command a slightly lower transfer fee than a player specific to one position.   Scouting a Utility Man in FM   Using the Player Search function, it’s pretty easy to identify the more versatile utility type players by searching for those who are competent in multiple areas of the pitch. There are many variations of this and by tweaking these between the various playing positions, you can quickly get a gauge on the best Utility Players in the game regardless of what level you are managing at.     Below are my Top 5 Utility Players at the start of Football Manager 2020.    1. Saul Niguez World-class player who can play at Centre Half or Right Wing, what more could you want?   2. Daniel Wass Even more versatile in FM19, this lad can basically play anywhere across the defence or midfield line, solid as a rock.   3. Christian Kabasele Ever been losing on 89 mins and thrown a Centre Back up top in a desperate attempt to score? Now you can as this man can do both..   4. Kristoffer Ajer A natural at Centre Back, Defensive Midfielder and Central Midfield – he basically is worth three players in any squad. Echoes of Paul McGrath, Lothar Mattheus, Javier Mascherano and Fernandinho all rolled in to one 💪💪💪💪.   5. David Alaba Another player who was even more versatile in earlier versions of FM, David Alaba is the ultimate utility man in that he can do a job almost anywhere on the pitch. His outrageous attributes combined with his ability to play either in central or wide roles mean we can’t not include him in this list.   Top 5 Youth Prospects 🔥 Top 5 Lower League 💰 Konrad Laimer (RBL) Joe Rankin Costello (Blackburn) Dwight McNeil (Burnley) Marcus McGuane (Barcelona B) Pedro Porro (Man City) Henry Lawrence (Chelsea U18) Dejan Kulusevski (Juventus) Wolke Janssens (Sint Truidense) Jacob Bruun Larsen (Hoffenheim) Dujan Sterling (Chelsea U18)   Effectiveness? It it worthwhile splashing out on one of the…

2.2. VAR YOU HAVING A LAUGH?!

Mar 30, 2019 Madd FM

Contents : Deja-VAR, goal droughts, injury crisis, the FM roller coaster, competing with the big boys, a decent cup run and some January Transfer Window desperation along with our first newgen signing!   🎵 Suggested tune: “Under Pressure – Queen Cover (Spanish Guitar)” 🎵   The @AussieFM Podcast recently published an episode about Breaking in to the EPL and how to survive in the higher leagues after getting promoted etc. At the time I thought “Nah not a big deal, I’ve never struggled to stay up”, mainly because I have always traditionally managed in England and the prize pool and subsequent transfer budget for getting promoted is so high that I have never found it too challenging to survive and compete at the higher level upon promotion.   Brace yourself for the statement of the year: Spain is not England. Not only is the money not there, the gap between the top teams in Spain is definitely more substantial than what it is in England, and I feel we will learn this the hard way as the season progresses. When we last left off, we had just narrowly lost our opening game of the 2019/2020 La Liga season against Deportivo by a scoreline of 2-1, with a largely new and youthful squad that I quickly learned would need some time to gel and perform as a unit compared to where we finished off last season.   Not only did we taste defeat in our first game of the league, we also had our first sample of some Spanish VAR tapas with an absolute disgrace of a penalty awarded to the opposition (see my last post to witness this atrocity with your own two eyes). After venting on Twitter, I was happy to crack on and hopefully start to see the team begin to click and improve in our upcoming games against Espanyol and Real Sociedad respectively…..enter VAR again, not once but TWICE more which saw us concede three VAR penalties overall in our first 3 league games of La Liga Santander, in which we lost our first two matches and managed a draw in the third to give us our first point in the top division of Spanish football. Thankfully we had a cup win in between or we may have experienced a monitor smashing akin to one of @CurtyFM‘s infamous FM outbursts. A 4-1 hammering against Athletic Bilbao followed by a 0-0 draw at home to Real Betis meant that we managed to pick up 2 points in 5 games, scoring just 3 goals and leaving us languishing in the relegation zone far earlier than we would have hoped for; Welcome to La Liga Los Chicharreros, those AussieFMPod lads may have had a point… Not only have the goals dried up for the team – our planned star signing goal machine loan striker Brenner has also found life in La Liga to be a barren wasteland in which he has done his utmost to prove he can miss the unmissable and squander sitter after sitter regardless of how much I encourage, praise, warn and cursed the little Brazian b*llocks – in my stubbornness to keep playing him in the hope that he would finally break his dry spell and recreate the form he showed while playing for @fryman7‘s Norwich during FM18, he repaid my persistence by going on a 10 hour goal drought and at this point I feel he couldn’t hit water if he was standing on a boat (although to be fair to the lad, he’s trying 🤦🏽‍♂️). Thankfully we capped off the end of September with our first win of the season away to Celta Vigo to give me some hope that we can compete at this level. A change in fortune That win against Celta Vigo seemed to inspire some form of confidence in to our young squad which incidentally is one of the lowest in the league at 23 years versus the La Liga average of 27. We opened October with an impressive 4-1 win over Levante and ended up winning 5 games out of 5 picking up 3 league wins and 2 victories in the Copa Del Rey to fire us into the 5th round – already two rounds better than last season! This fine run of form propelled us up to the top half of the table and life on the island was going well for all involved ☀️. ALL ABOARD THE FM ROLLER COASTER 🎢 Do you ever feel like the game suddenly decides “Right, you’ve been doing too well so it’s time to f*ck shit up” ? This is precisely what happened in November and December, where the game decided to go completely X-rated on us and f*ck us not once, not twice but three times over just in time for Christmas: 1. Failed to win any of our games between 03/11 and 08/12, picking up 3 points in 6 games 2. During the same period of 6 games, we scored (WAIT FOR IT) – one goal in total thanks to Gedion Zelalem‘s absolute belter of a first goal for the club – this was in a 3-1 second leg cup defeat to Cordoba in which we were thankfully 3-0 up from the first leg. 3. Having earlier stated my satisfaction at having four decent Central Defenders in the squad, FM decided to Rocky Balboa three of them all at once with both Mauro Dos Santos and new signing Ruben Semedo (karma perhaps) picking up long term injuries and Alberto nursing a broken collarbone simultaneously. This meant that we were left with just on natural CB in the form of our star 18 year old German defender Yann-Auriel Bisseck (who I’m happy to say has been developing nicely since being linked with Liverpool last summer) – never mind the fact that we have to play Real Madrid in the last game before Christmas!! Not only that, but the media were also starting to rustle up the MaddFM feathers with rumours that our beloved Chairman Senior Miguel Concepcion would be soon ready to give us the chop and send us on the next Ryanair flight out of Tenerife if things didn’t improve: Needless to say I pretty much spent the festive period like this: Light at the end of the tunnel? Praise be to the FM gods that we were simultaneously enjoying a decent cup run; wins against Sporting Gijon, Cordoba and Marbella meant that we suddenly find ourselves in the Copa Del Rey Quarter Finals alongside the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla. Senior Concepcion doesn’t seem to be making eye contact in the halls but is overheard praising the team’s performance and relishing the thought of reaching a Cup Final for the first time in the club’s history.   Speaking of miracles – a new year sees a new Brenner, who finally scores his first and second goal for Los Chicharreros in the Copa Del Rey 5th round victory over Marbella after going over 15 games without scoring in the famous blue and white Tenerife shirt! He somehow manages to follow this up with his first league goal in a 2-1 defeat to Sevilla, and has 6 goals in 5 games at the time of writing! This form can’t come quick enough as we approach the business end of the season. 🎤 Join us live below for the Copa Del Rey Quarter Final draw – Tenerife Manager @MaddFM will be looking to avoid a tough two-legged draw against the top 4 teams in Spain, and will surely prefer a clash with Real Sociedad or Celta Vigo who they have already taken points from this season: ⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬ No Such Luck!!! It’s CD Tenerife versus Atletico Madrid in the Copa Del Rey Quarter finals, with the first leg due to be played at Estadio Heliodoro Rodriquez Lopez on 15th January 2020 followed by the return leg at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium exactly 1 week later. JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW Despite Brenner’s recent resurgence of goals, we have consistently struggled up front and neither Dejan Joveljic or Jose Naranjo have performed when called upon – therefore we made a second attempt to sign Tammy Abraham on loan from Chelsea and this time he agreed to take the flight south and assist in our quest for La Liga survival. Hopefully he can score the goals we desperately need to push us back up the league and also spur on Brenner, Joveljic and Naranjo to buck up their ideas with the increased competition for the lone Striker role. In other transfer news, Manager @MaddFM has also agreed to sign 17 year old Coventry attacking midfielder Steve Bremner, who will join Los Chicharreros when his contract expires at the end of the season. Bremner comes highly regarded by new Tenerife Chief Scout Keke Duran who has watched him for several weeks now, rating him as a 4 star potential prospect that can play on either the left or right side of midfield. That’s all for now!! Exciting times ahead – in my next post we will have both legs of our Copa Del Rey Quarter Final against Atletico Madrid as well as Tammy Abraham’s debut and hopefully a new youth intake coming soon! Life in La Liga Santander hasn’t been kind to Los Chicharreros, and despite promising performances including extremely narrow defeats to Real Madrid and Sevilla, we currently sit not too comfortably in 13th place, 7 points clear of the relegation zone and just 2 points behind Alaves who occupy 10th position. A lot done, more to do!! Thanks for reading as always – if you haven’t already, feel free to jump back to the start of our Roy De Los Rovers adventure to look at our inspiration for this save as well as goals and objectives etc. You will also find my latest general FM interest blog posts above which I wrote as a guest author for WeStreamFM.com – can’t get enough FM blogs at the moment!! Please feel free to follow and comment below, you can also follow and retweet on Twitter here. Cheers, MaddFM.