Football DNA

Mar 20, 2019 Madd FM

  🎵 Suggested listening 🎵 :   “Father & Son” – Cat Stevens “Born this Way” – Lady Gaga “My Perfect Cousin” – The Undertones   There is a child in the world who’s father is Sergio Aguero; his Grandfather is Diego Maradona; and his Godfather is none other than Lionel Messi. No pressure there son. When Brooklyn Beckham was born, bookies were giving 1000-1 odds that he would play for England before he could even walk (down to 66-1 by the time he was 3). In 1992, crane driver Eddie Kirkland bet £100 that his then 11 year old son Chris would play for England one day, and that bet netted him £10,000 in 2006 when Chris came on as a sub in a friendly against Greece. The same happened for Harry Wilson‘s grandfather (an electrical contractor) after a 16 year old Harry made his debut for Wales in 2013, earning his grandfather a cool £125,000 from a £50 bet (2,500-1) that he made when Harry was a toddler back in 2000. This poses the question – are footballers born or made? Can football and DNA be linked in this way? Is the child of a successful footballer destined to follow in his father’s footsteps? Do we give a sh*t? In this article, we will explore the possibility of whether we can realistically connect football ability to DNA and genealogy. We will look at players whose immediate ancestry have also succeeded in the football world, and compare some current players to their respective heritage and origins by looking at each in the context of the CM/FM World, in the hope that we will produce some interesting results and potentially a brand new save idea now that we are halfway through FM19.   Born and not made? 🔥   “It’s in his blood” … “Runs in the family” … “Takes after his old man” … “Gets it from his mother” – phrases all of us have probably heard at some point in our lives. Without getting overly scientific and into the biology of it all, we know that people naturally inherit certain traits, characteristics, habits and tendencies from their parents…and history would suggest that this also applies to talent and skill, particularly in football where we have seen many successful fathers, sons, siblings, relations etc all play and succeed at the highest levels within the game. This does not necessarily mean that the child of a successful player is guaranteed to be as talented or successful as their mother or father etc – but it would certainly seem that a combination of their genes and their early exposure & natural ability to take to the talent/sport of their parent at an early age does lead to a somewhat pre-destined path to success in that field, and later we will explore some examples of where this has clearly been evident/not so evident within the football/FM universe. Before we proceed to test out our theories, I will first use two non-football examples of where I feel we see a clear contrast between the concepts of “Born” and “Made” talent – not that these will be specifically exclusive to each example, but research and general opinion seems to suggest that one of these is considered to be a natural “born” talent, while the other has reached the pinnacle of their sport by working towards it through endless hours of practice and lessons from the moment they were old enough to play, and therefore a more “made” talent based on that context.   Ronnie O’Sullivan Ronnie O’Sullivan is considered to be the most naturally gifted snooker player of all time, so much so that snooker legend Steve Davis once said that he has “never seen anybody who looks as at one with the table as Ronnie. It’s the epitome of someone born to play the game.” This is not to say that O’Sullivan hasn’t worked as hard as anyone else and doesn’t put in 6-8 hours of practice a day – but rather that his approach and natural talent and technique are clearly illustrated every time he comes to the table, and it is this natural talent that puts him at the top of his field ahead of the chasing pack. Years spent in snooker clubs with his dad (he had his first century aged 10) led him to becoming the youngest player to win the Masters (aged 19 and 69 days) and he has since broken records for the most maximum breaks in a competition (13) as well as holding the record for the fastest 147 ever. But what is it that makes O’Sullivan so good and more so what distinguishes him as a natural born snooker player? O’Sullivan himself is quoted as saying “I think most people think I was born with a cue in my hand and that when I get on the table it’s all a piece of cake…but that’s not the reality. I have to work hard.” This is very true – any sportsman or athlete at the top of their game does have to work hard in order to reach the peak of their own discipline – however it is O’Sullivan’s natural ability and talent that have made him the best; in a sport where every player trains and practices for hours and players are starting younger and younger every year, O’Sullivan’s inherent instinctual ability is what differentiates him from the rest and the main reason why snooker commentators and enthusiasts alike constantly refer to him as a “born snooker player” and the most naturally talented to ever hold a queue. Even when not 100% on top of his form, O’Sullivan has shown the ability to literally switch it back on and play shots that few players have and will ever be able to pull off. So powerful is his natural talent and ability that, as his former manager Jason Francis acknowledges regarding O’Sullivan’s one year career break back in 2012 – “I can’t think of any other sport where a world champion can literally put his feet up for a year and come back and still win it” This is an absolute testament to the fact that O’Sullivan is the closest thing you can find to a naturally born talent. Rory McIlroy Let’s not for a minute dispute that Rory McIlroy is not one of the greatest talents to ever embrace the game, nor that he hasn’t potentially inherited his undeniable skill and natural ability from his father who himself was a scratch golfer at one point. However, for the purposes of this comparison, I look at McIlroy as someone whose skill and ability developed at an incredibly young age through hours upon hours of practice, lessons, dedication and work rate (starting to sound more like FM now 😌). At the age of just 2 or 3 McIlroy was rarely seen without a miniature golf club in his hand, so much so that he was known to bring it to bed with him at night such was his love for the game at that age. For most kids this would usualy have been a phase or hobby however it ws clear that McIlroy clearly had an unmistakable aptitude and potential for the game – to the point where both his father and mother worked a number of extra jobs in order to fund Rory’s golf lessons, education and development. Rory started and continued golf lessons from a very young age and eventually left school at age 16 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional golfer.   McIlroy turned Pro at age 17 and the rest as we know is history – for the past 10 years McIlroy has won tournaments and trophies across the globe however it is clear that he continues to have to work extremely hard not just technically but also physically and mentally in order to maintain and improve his form. When Rory first embarked on the tour he was a short, skinny guy from the North of Ireland whose hair was the only thing bulky about him – however a rigorous and publicly shared training routine has seen a huge change in his physique and strength, thus enabling him to hit the ball further and compete with the biggest hitting players on the tour. Mentally, we have seen Rory go through a number of transitions in terms of his professional and personal life, whereby we have seen changes to his caddy and coaches at different times and this also has impacted his game. Technically, Rory was always considered to have one of the best swings on the tour however he has continually worked on changing and adapting his swing which again has seen divergences in his form and consistency. All of the above in no way takes away from the fact that Rory is a rare and unique talent, however what we can see is that in order to get where he is today and to continue to meet his own goals and exceed expectations, he has had to put in a huge amount of work, practice and training and for that reason I see him as a slightly more “made” talent due to the hugely impressive amount of time and effort he has put in to become one of the world’s best golfers.   Enough non-football talk! Apologies for going on a bit of a tangent there however I feel that the above examples give us a good base with which to think about how some individuals are born with certain talents and how others can become equally talented through dedication, perseverance and hard-work. This sets us up nicely to start thinking about Football DNA and consider how football ability and skill often appear to be passed from generation to generation; in order for us to analyse this and put it to the test, we will look at examples of where we have seen successful footballers whose fathers/sons also succeeded at the highest level, as well as look at cases where we can clearly see that football seems to “run in the family”. Like Father, Like Son We have seen a number of players emerge over the years whose fathers were also extremely successful within the game, and in this section we will analyse players who not only have footballing parentage but also have developed and succeeded in the exact same position.   Peter and Kasper Schmeichel Arguably one of the more iconic father & son duos of the modern era, Peter and Kasper Schmeichel are the perfect example of what we are calling Football DNA and how the son of a successful footballer has not only followed exactly in his father’s footsteps by playing in the same position and league as his old man, but also a successful illustration of how to step out of your famous father’s shadow and completely earn your own right as one of the top keepers in the Premier League as well as your own country. While a common stereotype is that it can be very challenging to carry that name on the back of your shirt particularly when you play in the same position as your more successful father, Kasper rose above the early hype and pressure to become the #1 keeper for Denmark as well as being a key figure in Leicester’s remarkable Premier League winning side in 2016. Interestingly, while Peter enjoyed most of his success at Manchester United, it was at Manchester City that Kasper kicked off his career, where he stayed for 5 years before successful stints at Notts County and Leeds led to his move to Leicester City in 2011 where he was signed for a third time by former England Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, and from then on has held the #1 jersey for both club and country. How do they compare? Obviously Peter was the more successful of the pair, however Kasper has more than held his own in proving himself to be a world class goalkeeper and…

About Me

Mar 20, 2019 Madd FM

  Quite simply – I am a football / Football Manager mad fan from the West of Ireland, I’ve been playing FM since the CM2 days and have bought the new version every year since. I am also a lifelong Newcastle United fan (7 year old me has a lot to answer for), far easier watching them in the game than in real life and I have spent years managing them through thick and thin within the FM world (as well as watching them struggle in real life 😩).   Recreating that famous celebration aged 10 (spot the Newcastle fan) Taking #NUFC to new heights   My obsession with Football Management simulation games all started with Sensible World of Soccer (1995/1996), which was literally light years ahead of its time in terms of detail and global team/player information. In Sensible Soccer I found something that was lacking for me in other football games I had played up to that point – not only could you pick the team and control tactics/ substitutes etc, but here was a game where you could also buy and sell players; actual transfers with monetary amounts and negotiation between clubs! For me it was a revelation, a complete change of scene and an opportunity to apply a lot more thought and insight to football simulation in addition to being able to play games and control teams.     However, as time progressed I found myself wanting more in the game, more competition and challenges and overall more reality in which to thrive as a (simulated) football manager. The confines of the game meant that only the user’s team developed and improved with time, however other teams would not do the same (i.e. they would not buy or sell players themselves unless I bought/exchanged from them), and this meant that the game would become somewhat static around you from season to season – enter Championship Manager!! I discovered the game by chance at a friends birthday (aged 9 or 10), and after a long period of negotiating (which involved swapping SWOS for CM2) I brought the game home, never returned it and the rest as we know is history…I have bought, played and obsessed over every version of the game since and here I sit writing about it with the same enthusiasm I held all those years ago.     My introduction to the Football Manager online community came through FMWEC, where I was fortunate to be selected to participate in the first ever Football Manager World E-Sports Championship (organised by the legends at Bidstack). I managed to top my group of this epic 64 man competition winning 3 games out of 3, eventually crashing out to @AccessEuphoria in the last 16. It was here that I met 63 other FM fanatics many of whom are huge contributors to the FM community, and I also had the privilege of meeting arguably the greatest CM/FM Wonderkid of all time, the legend that is Cherno Samba (@samgerfc) – an FM milestone that was only topped by a visit to the Sports Interactive offices at the end of 2018, the home of Football Manager.   FMWEC 2019     Since then the only way has been up – I was fortunate to be asked to join the @5StarPotential team, initially as Head of Blogging for 5StarPotential.com and subsequently hanging around long enough to establish a full time spot on the 5 Star Potential podcast, the longest running weekly Football Manager podcast in the world! We are still going strong having recently celebrated 5 years of the podcast and recording our 250th episode where we were graced with the presence of none other than Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive.     I have been fortunate to visit the Sports Interactive studios on multiple occasions as well as writing various Football Manager articles for their official website The Byline – great to not only see the home of where the game is made, but also meeting some of the amazing people who make it what it is each and every year.     My FM blogging continues here on MaddFM.com, 5StarPotential.com and occasionally on Football Manager’s The Byline, while I also stream every now and again on Twitch and you can of course hear my voice most Mondays on the pod – each year brings a new challenge where I attempt to build an epic story and adventure heavily reliant on as much puns and wordplay as one can fit into an FM narrative 😍.     One thing is for sure – while the football might not be great, the narrative always prevails – as does my addiction to FM save-inspired kit shopping 😅    

5 Star Potential

Mar 20, 2019 Madd FM

    I am currently 20% of 5 Star Potential, the longest running weekly Football Manager podcast on Earth. Every Monday you can listen to myself, @FridayNightFM, @Nerdphonic, @FMDoop and @DaveAzzopardi talk through various topics about Football Manager as well as giving updates on our own saves, adding to our Wonderkid Hall of Fame and of course usually a quiz at the end that gets me in trouble. It is available on iTunes, Spotify and most other popular podcast apps and platforms with a new podcast every week.   I am also Head of Blogging for our website http://www.5StarPotential.com where you can find all of our latest Football Manager content, including some general interest pieces I’ve written below 👇.    Latest Article  

DMC or not DMC, that is the question

Mar 20, 2019 Madd FM

    I wrote this article as a guest author for WeStreamFM.com about the importance of having a good DMC both in FM and in real life. Really chuffed with the feedback received, I enjoyed writing it as much as I did learning a lot of stuff I didn’t even know about the role myself. I hope you enjoy reading it, please feel free to comment and follow my blog below or else hit me up on Twitter if you have any thoughts, questions or feedback 🤜🤛. Cheers, MaddFM.   🎵 Suggested tune: “It’s like That – Run DMC ft Jason Nevins” (1997)     Anchor Man; Holding Midfielder; Destroyer; Half Back; Ball Winning Midfielder; Brick Shithouse; Volante de Marca, Trinco, Volante de Concención – there have been many different names and types of Defensive Midfielder applied over the past 100 years in the football universe, and although at times it hasn’t suited every strategy, it is clear that some of the most successful teams in history have reaped the benefits of deploying a more defensive minded player in the middle of the park, not only providing cover at the back but also enabling and empowering more creative or attack-minded players to thrive with the resulting freedom and support that the role continues to offer at the highest levels of world football. They aren’t pretty; they don’t score, they rarely get assists, your kid probably wouldn’t ask for their name on the back of a shirt; but yet – when executed effectively, a top Defensive Midfielder or Anchor Man can completely change and influence a game, and can be the difference between success and failure, between victory and defeat, between one point and three, and in the case of a few notable icons of the role in recent history – almost the difference between life and death as was the case when Roy met Alf a few years back 😷. But what is it that makes this role so pivotal in the beautiful game? (both in real life and of course in the Football Manager world). In this article, we will delve in to some of the most influential and effective DMC’s that have ever graced the turf and in turn analyse the attributes that are crucial in order to successfully utilise the Defensive Midfielder role in Football Manager. We will look at some of the top DMC’s and prospects within FM19 and how they compare to previous legends of the game, as well as conduct a few FM experiments to explore the various roles a DMC has to offer and in turn formulate what we would call the “perfect” Defensive Midfielder. I write this not as an expert or someone who has mastered using a DMC (although I have always found it to be highly effective in the FM world), but as a big admirer and advocate of the role and the impact it can have when embarking on a new save adventure.   DMC: Origins🔎   I have read a lot about the history of the Defensive Midfielder (some great reference articles and literature at the bottom of this post), and how it kicked off all the way back at the turn of the 20th century where it was evidently developed in Italian football and subsequently adopted by some of the stronger South American international teams for success on the global stage. Without going in to too much history or detail, it is argued that the first real adaptation or implementation of a defensive midfielder or half back was put forward by Vittorio Pozzo who coached the Italy national team in the 1920’s & 30’s. Largely influenced by his time studying in Manchester and the emergence of the “W-M” tactic implemented by the great Herbert Chapman of Arsenal legend, Pozzo’s “Metodo” system is credited as being the first to really utilise a “Centromediano o Centrosostegno” (Centre Half Back), which placed an additional defensive player ahead of two more static full backs therefore giving his team more superiority in the middle of the park and allowing wide players to get forward when in possession or attacking with the ball. This strategy was also utilised by the then most dominant International team of the era who won the first ever World Cup using this system – the Uruguay national team, who’s defensive strength allowed them to win back to back Gold Medals in the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games before taking home the first World Cup trophy in 1930 beating rivals Argentina in a 4-2 thriller played in front of 93,000 fans. An interesting piece of football trivia legend also occurred in this game, whereby a dispute over the match ball led to FIFA ruling that the Argentinians could choose their own ball for the first half (wherein they were 2-1 up at half time) before switching to the Uruguayan’s ball for the second half when the Uruguayans proved too powerful winning the game 4-2 overall, and were presented with the World Cup trophy by a gentleman by the name of Jules Rimet. Let’s just pause for a moment to appreciate the tools that these teams had at their disposal with which to ply their trade at the time:   DMC’s (according to FM)   As mentioned above, Football Manager offers a number of options when deploying a Defensive Midfielder, breaking it down in to different roles depending on the strategy, tactic and individual player being utilised. Below is a summary of FM’s view on the different types of DMC available (focusing on the more defensive roles rather than playmaking etc):     Notable DMC’s 📰   The Defensive Midfielder role became more prominent in English football in later decades, primarily in the 1960’s with the emergence of the “Destroyer” ball winning midfielder through the likes of Nobby Stiles and Billy Bremner who still to this day are renowned not only for their tough tackling “hard man” approach but also the value they each contributed to their title winning teams by nullifying the opposition’s attacking threats and enabling more technical and creative players to advance higher up the field and dictate the game. Bremner was instrumental in Leeds’ spell of dominance whereby he captained the side to the First Division, FA Cup, League Cup and final of the European Cup in 1975, and Leeds took full advantage of his aggression and tackling ability in deploying him in a more defensive role alongside Johnny Giles. Stiles on the other hand, was a more composed and tenacious ball winning midfielder which allowed more skilled players such as Bobby Charlton and George Best to take full advantage and avail of the attacking freedom they were given as a result of Stiles positioning between the defence and midfield – it was this defensive awareness and ability to take players out of the game that was crucial in England’s World Cup win in 1966 where Stiles played in every match and most notably marked the famous Eusebio out of the game in the Semi-Final versus Portugal. Evolution 🌍   As football progressed and skill/technique became more prevalent and essential in the game, the DMC role also began evolve – not necessarily losing the “hard man” approach, but more so adding an enhanced level of footballing grace and prowess to the role whereby the Half Back or Ball Winning Midfielder evolved towards a more Defensive Midfielder / Ball Carrier type of player who was not only responsible for winning the ball and breaking down play, but also participating in and often initiating the subsequent counter attack that resulted from dispossessing the opposition. During the late 80’s and early 90’s and the re-emergence of a number of powerhouse clubs from mainland Europe, teams such as Ajax, A.C. Milan and Bayern Munich thrived on the implementation of a deep lying defensive / holding midfielder. Frank Rijkaard epitomised this role for both Ajax and Milan, whereby he was effectively converted from Centre Half to one of the best Defensive Midfielders of his generation wherein he won Euro 88 with Holland, three European Cups, 6 domestic league titles and amassed 73 international caps across two World Cups and two European Championships. Similarly, Lothar Matthaus also frequently made this transition from Sweeper to Holding Midfielder for both club and country, and is regarded as one of the greatest defensive players of all time with two records to his name; ( i ) playing in the most World Cup Finals matches ever (25), and (ii) being the most capped German International of all time. His ability to move between the roles of Sweeper and Holding Midfielder were instrumental in Germany’s 1990 World Cup victory and allowed him to continue playing at the highest level for almost 20 years. Even at 35 the guy was still a monster DM.   A relatively dry spell on the International stage for Brazil (having not won a World Cup since the iconic team of 1970) finally came to an end in World Cup 1994 in the USA, and it was here that Brazil displayed a resilient steel and spine to their squad that had been missing for many years – largely led by their Captain and Anchor Man Dunga, who alongside Mauro Silva served as the defensive backbone of the side which enabled them to neutralise their opponents attacking threat and in turn advance on their opponents through the likes of Romario and Bebeto. Dunga’s leadership, composure, anticipation and tendency not to dive into tackles made him an extremely effective DMC for Brazil and earned him 91 caps for his country.   It was also around this time that a young tenacious Irish midfielder was making a name for himself at Manchester United after completing a then British record transfer fee of £3.75m from Nottingham Forest, and clearly stating his intent on competing with and ultimately replacing Bryan Robson and Paul Ince in the heart of the Red Devils midfield. Roy Keane was instantly recognizable for his aggression and fearlessness in the tackle – usually preferring to go to ground as opposed to Dunga’s timed anticipated approach. This, combined with his ability to read the game and his quick pass & move approach, gave a new meaning and value to the role of a DMC for Man Utd and the Republic of Ireland for whom he earned 67 International caps and eventually captained for most of his international career (let’s not mention Saipan) . While his temperament was (and still is) questionable at times, there is no denying that Keane’s role as a combative Ball Winning Midfielder was instrumental during Man Utd’s spell of dominance throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s – again, in the same regard as Rijkaard and Matthaus, this allowed more creative players such as Scholes, Ince, Sharpe, Beckham and Giggs to play much further up the field as well as giving full backs Gary Neville and Denis Irwin the freedom to push on when attacking knowing that Keane would be there to support and cover on the break. He was immense in this role for more than 10 years for both club and country and is often hailed as one of the best defensive midfielders of all time – not bad for a small lad from Cork in the South of Ireland.   We mentioned how the evolved DMC moved away from that of Hard Man Destroyer / Half Back towards a more influential and rounded Deep Lying DM responsible for both winning back the ball as well as initiating repossession and subsequent counter attacking football, and few were better at this than French World Cup winning Captain Didier Deschamps who excelled in this role for both Juventus and France during a time in which both teams were dominating at both domestic and international level. While Eric Cantona mockingly referred to Deschamps as a “water carrier” for the team (i.e. there to provide the ball to more talented players), the reality was that Deschamp’s high work rate, vision, intelligence and leadership made…

2.1. Return of the King

Mar 18, 2019 Madd FM

Contents : financial analysis (or lack thereof), major squad rebuilding, you can’t win anything with kids, Irish Overseas, La Liga opener, VAR and the Prodigal Son returns 🔥   🎵 Suggested tune: “Without Me – Eminem (Acoustic Cover)” 🎵   It’s official – Los Chicharreros a.k.a. CD Tenerife are back in La Liga Santander. Operation “Roy de los Rovers” is well underway and it’s so far so good for life on the island ☀️⚽. We exceeded our initial objectives and managed to gain promotion at the first time of asking, albeit through a grueling 50 game season that included 4 playoff games to seal our fate…thank f*ck we didn’t go on a decent cup run! While the lads went about their business for the summer break, there was no time to hit the beach for me as an immediate major squad rebuild is of the essence – especially considering the bookies are tipping us for immediate relegation this season: The first piece of good news comes from our good patriarch Senior Miguel Concepcion, who advises that he agrees with my pleas for an upgrade to our training facilities and is going to shell out €1,000,000 over the next 12 months to pimp out our training ground at El Mundialito. The other piece of good news comes in the form of two successful contract renewals. After being linked with a move to Liverpool, 18 year old German CB Yann-Auriel Bisseck dismisses all speculation and signs a new 4 year deal with us that most importantly now has a €20 million release clause compared to the previous €5 million one. You’ll Never Walk Alone is now You Will Never Get This! This also encourages Carles Alena to want to remain at Los Chicharreros for another year, as both he and Barcelona agreed to extend his loan deal for a further season – a great piece of business as good as a new transfer signing, we will need all the La Liga level talent we can get to ensure our survival. Finances💰 Speaking of money – finances are not something I usually spend a whole lot of time on in Football Manager, I usually just focus about Transfer and Wage budgets and let the suits deal with the rest behind the scenes. However my perception has since been changed after reading @FMGrasshopper‘s really insightful and informative article about what he calls “The Glass Ceiling” at his club Lorient, something which I hadn’t considered previously with regard to income mainly due to the fact that the English Premier League (where I traditionally would have managed before) is absolutely flooded with cash while the Spanish League does not offer the same financial windfall. In his article, he analyses how the club struggles to increase it’s income year on year due to the fact that they are already maximising their stadium, sponsorship and TV revenue, and nothing short of European Qualification will significantly increase this. The more I think about it, the more I fear the same could happen here at Tenerife largely due to the fact that we pretty much sold out most of our home games in SD2 last season at Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez (c. 22,284) and Senior Concepcion isn’t yet willing to invest in that side of the infrastructure just yet. Being in La Liga (and hopefully staying there), I would hope that we will be able to increase our TV Revenue and Sponsorship which in turn might help us to convince Miggy to reinvest in the stadium. These were our main income sources last season (excluding Gate Receipts and Season Tickets), so it will be interesting to see what this looks like as our first season in La Liga progresses. The sad reality comes later when we realise we are rock bottom of the commercial income pool – quite literally, we are the lowest earning team in terms of commercial revenue which means I will need to step up the game in terms of how I manage and concentrate on is revenue and finances. Our Glass Ceiling is most certainly a real threat to watch out for – it might not be the biggest but it’s certainly up there (#loveagoodpun). Recruitment Naturally, the change to our league status means a change to our personnel here at Los Chicharreros. Senior Concepcion informs us that we will be given €8.25 million to spend in the transfer window as we embark on our first mission which is La Liga survival. “€8.25 million?!” I exclaim, “sure that will barely cover the cost of a flight over here for anyone that might join us?!“. Miguel is not impressed and advises that I can ask as much as I like but it won’t do any good, so I storm out the door and start taking off my shoes and socks to start counting about how many youth prospects I can afford with that amount of cash. Looks like I can stretch it to around €10 million if I am clever with the budget, so myself and Inigo get the pen and paper out to discuss transfer targets and have a few games of naughts and crosses in between. First in the door is a player we had previously at Blackburn during my first FM19 save – Ademola Lookman arrives from Everton on a season long loan after making just 7 appearances for The Toffees last season. Lookman was emmense during my Championship winning first season at Blackburn where he won both Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year, so I am hoping for more of the same from him as he flies South over the Atlantic Ocean. Next in the door are two youth prospects, one of whom we mentioned in a previous post as we attempt to fill @FMEdmundo‘s recommended objective of signing and developing an Irish youth prospect. First, American midfielder Gedion Zelalem arrives on a free transfer after being released by Arsenal having never played a competitive game for the Senior team, his attributes aren’t too bad for a free signing and hopefully he can build upon his current 3 star potential. 18 yr old half-Irish/half-Swedish Ryan Johansson also joins the club on a season long loan from Bayern Munich, mainly as a way for us to get an in-depth scouting report to see if he would be worth the €7 million they wanted for him initially. Upon arrival however, we see that he has seemingly declared for Sweden over the Republic of Ireland (not another Declan Rice situation!), which is upsetting considering he has apparently declared for the boys in green in real life. Our first fee-paying signing is a somewhat controversial one. After a lot of deliberating and thanks to some reassurance from one of my trusted advisers on Twitter @FMPoacher, we decided to bring in Ruben Semedo from Villareal for what will hopefully be a decent value €1.3m (€700K up front). For those of you not aware, Semedo (a beast in previous FM versions) landed himself in serious hot water after an incident in which he and some friends allegedly tied up and assaulted an individual before they burgled his home – later declaring that they were trying to recover money loaned to the man. Semedo was jailed in 2017 and later released on bail in July 2018. Let me quickly state that this signing in no way condones his actions or behaviour; the reality is that he is quite a decent Centre Back in the game and with my limited budget it was the most logical signing available considering I have yet to sign our main transfer priority: a Striker, and hopefully someone that can contend to be our next Roy de Los Rovers. Next off the plane are not one but two full backs on loan from the German Bundesliga which are definitely badly needed as we have been quite weak in terms of strength and depth in that department. Well known (in FM) right sided German wing back Felix Passlack arrives from Borussia Dortmund on a season long loan after playing 40 games for Norwich in the Championship last season; he is closely followed by Austrian left back Marco Friedl who arrives on loan from Bayern Munich; both players have 4 star potential and have really decent all round attributes, and hopefully they will be good enough for La Liga this season (although wait until you see the La Liga Top Scorer odds that I will show you shortly before making any assumptions about my defence! #thestruggleisreal). So far so good, we’ve managed to bring in 6 players for less than €1 million of our current transfer budget. Inigo is getting antsy with the first game of the season soon approaching, especially considering the fact that we still haven’t found a Striker as yet. With Fernando Coniglio and Nano finishing their loans at the end of last season, we currently only have one first team Striker in the squad in Jose Naranjo so its time to get the skates on and ask Miguel to get the checkbook out again. I must have spent 3 hours scouting strikers….several targets were identified and I had bids accepted for John Guidetti, Kaspar Dolberg, Adalberto Penaranda, Tammy Abraham, Oliver and Divock Origi – all of whom declined to even enter contract negotiations (b*stards), and time was quickly running out for us to find one let alone two strikers to move to Los Chicharreros. Finally we reached a positive outcome when we agreed a deal with Crvena Zvezda to sign 20 year old Serbian wonderkid Dejan Joveljic. Dubbed the next Slobodan Santrac, Joveljic has a long way to go in terms of attributes however hopefully we can develop him here and build on his current 4 star potential. I have seen a few community members mention him on Twitter etc so let’s hope he can bring something to the team! Panic Stations We suddenly find ourselves in a perilous situation – it’s transfer deadline day and we still haven’t found a Striker that we hope will be our main goal-scoring threat this season as we look to ascertain our place in La Liga Santander. Repeat bids for all of the above failed again (Origi chose Southampton while Guidetti opted for Alaves 🤬). Will there be time for CD Tenerife to sign anyone before the transfer window closes?! Admittedly – I panicked; I did something I rarely have ever done in agreeing to pay Sao Paulo €775k per month for Brenner, adding up to around €6.5 – €7 million for the year. Possibly an absolute waste of money, however if we can get 15 goals out of him I feel it will be a small price to pay if it helps us stay up this season. I actually first came across Brenner in @fryman7′s OTBC Youtube series with Norwich City last year in FM18, where he developed nicely and ended up banging in loads of goals for last year’s FMWEC Champion (I recommend checking out his YT channel 👍) Hopefully he can hit the ground running and replicate this form for Los Chicharreros, and looking at his attributes he certainly has the potential to shake things up at this level. So that’s the transfer window done and dust….shit wait, there is still one absolutely banging signing to tell you about! El Retorno del Rey (The Return of the king) We had mentioned before (only once or twice :P) that our current blog/save adventure is entitled “Roy De Los Rovers“, if you haven’t already read why please feel free to check out the full story here. For the shortened version, see below: Roy Makaay, our former scores goals for fun absolutely banging shithouse Striker, returns to the club as a coach for the Tenerife first team. Makaay, having spent the last 6 seasons as a youth coach at Feyenoord, is no stranger to Tenerife having spent two seasons here before moving on to Deportivo La Coruna and later Bayern Munich where he…

1.8. The Playoffs

Mar 10, 2019 Madd FM

Contents: Where will we be playing our football next season? 🎵 Suggested tune: “The Final Countdown – Europe (Spanish Acoustic Version)” Having never really expected to have a realistic shot at promotion, I also never expected that I would be simultaneously fighting for my job at the same time considering we were touted to finish in 9th position at the start of the season! Despite my pleas to Senior Concepcion over some tapas and sangria that 4th place was a more-than-respectable finish, the board are convinced that only promotion will be considered as a worthy achievement in our first season at Los Chicharreros. We now move on to the playoffs where we basically have to start over and have 4 games in order to gain promotion to La Liga and potentially save our job here on the island! It has been a epic season, and regardless of whether we gain promotion I think we can take a lot of positives from our performance, particularly from the younger players that have kept us going and put us in a really good position which we would certainly have taken at the start of the save. Xadas has been immense all season, amassing 16 goals and 13 assists in his 38 starts for Los Chicharreros – surely a candidate for player of the season but time will tell! (the fans voted for him anyway :D). Real Zaragoza‘s 5th place finish (interestingly also where they were touted to finish at the start of the season) means that they will be our opponents in the SD2 Playoff Semi Final, with the first leg taking place at La Romareda. The last time I endured a playoff was managing Gateshead FC back in FM18 in the Vanarama National League after a grueling 46 game season (which sadly we lost to Leyton Orient) so needless to say I am keen to get a win and break the MaddFM playoff curse. Zaragoza have a rich history of developing a lot of Spanish and South American talent, and its only upon researching that we discover the likes of Cafu, David Villa, Fernando Morientes, famous extravagant Paraguayan goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert and one of my all time CM/FM heroes Juan Eduardo Esnaider (my first ever signing on Championship Manager 3!!) all were developed at Real Zaragoza before moving on to enjoy huge success at club and international level. Thankfully their current squad doesn’t boast the same level of talent – although for some reason they fielded almost two completely different sides against us in each leg! There were some international matches taking place (we were again missing our 1st and 2nd choice goalkeepers in Leg 1 as mentioned in my last post) so perhaps this explains it – either way, after winning the first leg 2-0 (Naranjo, Xadas) – it was too little too late for Zaragoza as we then stormed to a 3-1 victory at home in the second leg to take us through to the Secunda Division Playoff Final; our opponents and the only thing between us and top flight football next season: Albacete Balompie. The Playoff Final It’s a sellout at Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez as Tenerife seek to return to La Liga Santander for the first time since the 2001/2002 season when were spearheaded to promotion by a pre-Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Napoli, Real Madrid and Newcastle Rafa Benitez. Tenerife field an almost full strength side with Fernando Coniglio returning up front to lead the line despite going almost 15 full games without scoring. Xadas and Naranjo have been in decent form for Los Chicharreros, who also give a start to 17 year old German Central Defender Yann Aurel Bisseck after impressing when called upon this season. Albacete have a surprisingly decent side, with key player Nestor Susaeta their strongest attacking threat having already clocked up 19 goals and 16 assists this season making him top scorer in the division (not bad for a 34 year old). Arsenic and Arroyo are also solid at the back, and might feel confident against our Attackers today who have been rather goal shy during the second half of the season. Here is how the teams line out this afternoon: Thankfully – goal shy the game was not!! Despite going a goal behind on 10 minutes, a red card for Zoran Arsenic led to two goals in quick succession by Xadas (including a well taken penalty), and Naranjo added a third just before Half Time to make it 3-1 at the break. Albacete attempted to park the bus and succeeded for most of the second half until the unthinkable happened….Fernando Coniglio, on a 15 game goal drought, popped up out of nowhere and smashed home his 11th goal of the season – crazy to think he had scored 10 goals in 21 and will finish with 12 goals in 36 appearances!! Albacete (worryingly) scored a consolation goal on 88 mins and the game finished 4-2 to Los Chicharreros – advantage us for now! The second leg at Estadio Carlos Belmonte started equally disastrously (might have to work on that) with Gentiletti smashing home on 12 minutes for Albacete to make it 4-3 on aggregate, however an own goal from Blas five minutes later levelled the game, and whatever Manager MaddFM said at half time (in his broken Irish/Spanish accent) must have worked as a resilient Tenerife emerged from the dressing rooms to score a well worked team effort which was neatly finished by Box to Box Midfielder Luis Milla on 49 mins to seal promotion for Los Chicharreros – La Liga football next season confirmed!!! So – mission accomplished for Season One! Our original objective was to get promoted within two seasons, I fear that we may be getting promoted slighthly prematurely as our squad is largely a Secunda Division squad (with the exceptions of Marin, Xadas, Bisseck and perhaps Lasso and Naranjo) – major squad rebuild will be required assuming Senior Concepcion is willing to invest some funds during the summer!! Xadas was also deservedly voted as Signing of the Season for SD2, hopefully he can take that form to the next level next season when we face a much tougher level of opposition in the form of Barcelona, the Madrids, Sevilla and Valencia. And that was Season One! Before we leave it there and the lads head off on their holidays, I think now is a good time to have a quick recap on our original objectives and see how we have been progressing after our first year as Manager of CD Tenerife: 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 – Work in Progress🛠️🏗️ 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 ❌ 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❌ 7. Find our “Roy de los Rovers” – an absolute shithouse of a centre-forward the like of which Los Chicharreros have never seen before ❌ Our top scorer wasnt even a Striker – Xadas topped the charts with 16 goals, followed by Coniglio with 12. Much to do here – watch this space! 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 🛠️🏗️ Ryan Nolan‘s impending arrival is a step towards this but I am not convinced he will be good enough and will be aged 20 when he gets here. Ryan Johansson is another option, however he has recently declared for Sweden which might put a furhter spanner in the works!! The most exciting Irish prospect I have come across (thanks to @FMCatenaccio ) is Gavin Bazanu, who is a half Irish / half Nigerian Goalkeeper currently on the books at Manchester City. The chances of us getting him are slim however he will be closely monitored – look at those attributes for a 17 year old: So, overall we aren’t doing to badly and by and large the save is going to plan with La Liga football secured for next season! In other news, the aforementioned Manchester City won the English Premier League, narrowly pipping Tottenham to the title by just a single point – Arsenal and Chelsea take the remaining Champions League spots and somehow Chris Wood finished as Top Scorer with 22 goals; explain that! Despite Liverpool not getting a Champions League spot in the league, they will be in the competition next season after beating Juventus 2-0 in the final, two goals from Bobby Firmino crowning them Champions of Europe. Here in Spain, Real Madrid are the champions of La Liga finishing 3 points ahead of Barcelona and 5 ahead of A. Madrid – dreading the thought of playing them next season! Antoine Griezemann was top scorer on 23 goals ahead of Kevin Gameiro on 21 and Gerard Moreno on 19. And I guess that’s it!! Thanks very much for reading, hopefully you are enjoying following our progress and also the content of this blog – any thoughts or feedback are greatly appreciated so I can continue to improve (please comment below!), and as usual likes, shares and retweets etc are very welcome. Can’t wait to get cracking in to Season 2 in La Liga where I have no doubt the going will be tough and Los Chicharreros will have it all to do in order to survive and compete at the top tier of Spanish football!! For now I will say gracias y buenas noches, and once more leave you with this, our goal of the season from Luis Perez: Cheers – MaddFM.

1.7. El Bueno, El Feo y El Malo (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly)

Mar 10, 2019 Madd FM

Contents: contract negotiations; signing an Irish youth prospect; the Good, the Bad & the Ugly; self-destruct buttons; promotion within our grasp and the return of Los Vengadores 💪 🎵 Suggested tune: “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – Flamenco Version” When we last left off, we were sitting joint top of the Spanish Secunda Division (SD2) with CD Tenerife after a somewhat underwhelming January transfer window (considering we had no funds to spend on players) – level on points with surprise leaders Real Zaragoza and only behind them in 2nd place due to the fact that they beat us earlier in the season which as per the Spanish league rules is more important than goal difference in differentiating teams that are level on points (see my last post for more info on this). Speaking of the transfer window – one deal which we forgot to mention and which is part of one of our key objectives for this save/blog was the signing of Ryan Nolan who will join the club at the end of the season when his contract expires at Inter Milan. As suggested by @FMEdmundo, our objective is to sign at least one Irish youth prospect and develop him in to a first time player and eventually a full Irish international, so hopefully he can help us to fulfill this objective and show the same potential that he is currently displaying at Internazionale in real life (great article about the lad here). Just before the business end of the season is about to kick off, beloved Chairman Miguel Concepcion approaches with an offer to sign a new contract at Los Chicharreros – our current contract is up at the end of the season as is usually the case when starting a new FM save. Due to our current league performance, our expectations have risen significantly with the board now expecting us to win promotion at the first time of asking – they’ve clearly forgotten about our initial media prediction which was to finish in 9th place well outside the playoff spots. Having signed a deal worth €7,500 per week at the start of the season, I think €10,000 per week is a reasonable request – not that its all about the money (unless you are attempting Top Notch FM’s money grabbing journeyman challenge – well worth a read here!) – however we will need a solid contract to afford my new beachside villa on the island andif you don’t ask you don’t get 💰. After some table tennis negotiating, Senior Concepcion agrees to our demands and we sign a 2 year deal that will take us up to the end of the 2020/2021 season. Unfortunately the players didn’t react as positively to this as I did, as February saw us take just 4 points from 4 games, a good win against Numancia overshadowed by poor performances against Almeria (H), Lugo (A) and crucially a home defeat to Deportivo La Coruna at the end of the month. A serious injury to key BBM Luis Milla also didn’t help our cause, with torn calf muscle ruling him out for pretty much the rest of the season. March was slightly better but only just – despite going unbeaten for the whole month, we completely forgot how to score goals and managed to pick up 6 points in 4 games, beating Alcorcon (A) and drawing with Real Zaragoza (H), Real Oviedo and Cadiz (meaning Cadiz also take 4 points from us this season). Unfortunately for us – while we were dropping points all over mainland Spain, league favourites Malaga CD were finding form and decided to go on a 12 match unbeaten run which resulted in them flying up the league, knocking Real Zaragoza off the top and making a clear statement on their intent to return to La Liga via the automatic promotion places. We touted Malaga as pre-season favourites at the start of this blog/save, and it seems now they are finally realising the hype and making a late surge up the league. Speaking of Malaga, it was great to see another member of the FM Community also documenting a save here in Secunda Division 2, with @ManagerDiaryUK currently blogging his own save with Malaga at the moment – really cool to read someone else’s journey at this level (even if it technically makes us enemies) and I highly recommend giving it a read here 👍. In addition to Malaga, Deportivo have also started to find form around this time, and as a result the pressure is on to see who will hold their nerve to obtain an automatic promotion place and who will be left to battle it out in the playoffs. El Bueno, El Feo y El Malo (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) By the end of March we were sitting in 3rd place in SD2, a point behind Deportivo La Coruna in 2nd (I was so into it that I forgot to take screenshots of the league table!) – both of just a few points behind league leaders Malaga. It was here that things began to escalate: El Bueno (The Good) April was a slightly longer month and saw us play five straight league games in a row (not surprising seeing as we had crashed out of the Copa Del Rey on penalties back in October). The good thing about this was that 4 of those games were at home, and not only did we win all 4 but we also picked up a point away at RCD Mallorca who are probably most well known and loved by Barcelona fans due to the fact that they produced/developed both Miguel Angel Nadal and Samuel Eto’o before their respective moves to the Catalan giants. The highlight of this run was an epic hat-trick for Xadas against Cordoba – I probably haven’t mentioned him much but he has been outstanding all season, so far contributing 10 goals and 10 assists to our campaign. The result of this fine run of form in April left us in second place just one point behind league leaders Malaga. EL Feo (THE baD) Naturally it was at this point that FM decided we were doing too well (am I the ony one that has felt that before?!) – not only did our top scorer Fernando Coniglio (who had scored 11 goals up until March) end up going on a 15 match dry spell, the month of May saw us lose all four of our games and most importantly our Home tie against Malaga which effectively was a league decider. Talk about pressing the self-destruct button!! Somehow we only managed to score 4 goals in the whole month which saw us drop down to 4th place – almost certainly out of the automatic promotion places, and with the playoff’s looming it would take another 4 games in order for us to gain promotion to La Liga at the first time of asking. EL Malo (THE Ugly) It was also around this time that things began to get ugly behind the scenes at Los Chicharreros. All that Spanish charm and “looking to the future” contract negotiation talk with Senior Concepcion proved to be quickly forgotten, and suddenly we found ourselves in a highly insecure job situation whereby the board apparently have turned on us and our fate would be decided in our second last game which was an away fixture against Albacete!! As I have said before – if I wasn’t already feeling the heat down here by the Equator, I was certainly feeling it now. We managed a 2-2 draw with Albacete (after going 2 nil up before half time), and Shakespeare himself couldn’t have written a better climax to the tale as our last game of the season (not including the impending playoffs) is the second Canary Islands Derby of the season and the return of Los Vengadores as we welcomed Las Palmas to Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López for what (somehow) could be our last game as manager of CD Tenerife. Los vengadores (the avengers) Although we are sure to finish in the playoff places and still have a great chance to gain promotion to La Liga at the first time of asking, somehow I am fighting for my job as we prepare to welcome UD Las Palmas for the second Canary Islands derby class of the season, and look to gain revenge for our 1-0 defeat earlier in the season. A win would see us potentially take 3rd place meaning a potentially easier playoff draw (as we would meet whoever finished in 6th position) – a defeat could see the board decide to sack their first ever Irish Manager and go it alone in their quest for La Liga promotion. I still have no idea how we are in this situation but we will battle on nonetheless!!! Both teams line out almost identically, and even though Las Palmas have nothing to play for apart from a chance to finish inside the SD2 Top 10, they appear keen to seal Manager @MaddFM‘s fate and put a dent in Tenerife’s promotion aspirations which already have taken a hit with the absences of first and second choice goalkeepers Dani Hernandez and Sondre Rossbach whom are both somehow on international duty with Venezuela and Norway respectively! The game started catastrophically for CD Tenerife, going 0-1 down after 12 minutes thanks to a neat header by Las Palmas CB Cala from a corner delivered by Tana. Set pieces continued to trouble the Los Chicharreros defence, and they found themselves 0-2 down on 21 mins when Cala’s CB partner Aythami rose above the Tenerife defence to smash in a header from another well taken corner by Tana, and a disastrous first half led to an absolute tyrannical half time team talk by MaddFM along with two changes in the form of Antonio Marin and Jose Naranjo – desperate times for the Irishman who’s job could be on the line if the result stays the same. Tenerife started the second half much stronger and the double change appeared to be an inspired one when Marin converted a cross from Naranjo (aided by the chest of goal-shy Fernando Coniglio). Marin and Coniglio combined well again on 80 minutes, this time setting up Naranjo with the equaliser on 80 minutes – could there be a comeback on the cards for CD Tenerife? The game looked like it would finish in a 2-2 draw, however it was not over for Tenerife Attacking Midfielder Borja Lasso who stepped up in the 91st minute to absolutely smash home a 25 yard screamer in the top right hand corner (recommend checking it out below). Absolute scenes at Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López, and Tenerife emerge victorious in what could be the last Canary Islands derby for a while if Los Chicharreros are successful in gaining promotion to La Liga. So, finally a win after going 5 games without one and more importantly, our job is safe even though overall we finish in 4th position which means we advance to the playoffs and the epic saga that has been Season 1 is not over yet!! In my next and final post for Season One I will narrate our journey through the Playoffs where hopefully we will be able continue our “Roy De Los Rovers” fairytale and achieve promotion to La Liga Santander and commence our quest to dethrone Barcelona and the Madrids from the peak of Spanish football. As always, thanks for reading!! Please feel free to comment and provide feedback (especially if you are enjoying the series), Retweets and Likes are of course always appreciated also. Really enjoying this save so far, so much so that I have to slow down just to blog it all :D. Cheers, MaddFM.

1.6. Trouble in Paradise ☀️

Feb 26, 2019 Madd FM

Contents: Canary Islands Derby, transfer window antics, goalkeeping howlers, training analysis, first ever youth intake (newgens! 🔥) and quite simply – the goal of the season . 🎵 Suggested tune: “Dick Dale & Del Tones – Misrlou“🎵 In the last post we discussed the Canary Islands Derby against UD Las Palmas. The history books state that Las Palmas have historically been the more successful team in this fixture winning 29 out of 64 games played versus our measly 14, so the plan was to gain revenge and defend our legacy in this epic clash. Both teams come in to the game in polar opposite form – Tenerife arrive in Gran Canaria following back to back victories against Rayo Majadhondra and Albacete, while Las Palmas have lost their last 3 league games to Cadiz, Real Zaragoza and Deportivo La Coruna. Despite being away from home and without the injured Mauro Dos Santos and Borja Lasso, Tenerife are considered favourites for what will hopefully be an epic clash at Estadio de Gran Canaria. Sadly – epic the clash was not! Despite making what I considered to be an inspirational team talk to the lads coupled with what I hoped would be an effective tactic away from home (more to follow) – we absolutely bottled it on the day and despite having far more shots on target and slightly more possession throughout the game, we failed to make our chances count and David Timor’s 67th minute goal condemned us to a 1-0 defeat in our first ever Canary Islands Derby. Disaster!! Sadly our first Canary Islands Derby ends in defeat and Las Palmas take home the bragging rights as we depart for our return flight to Tenerife – we welcome them back to Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López in the final game of the season on 9th June 2019 where hopefully we can put things right and restore ourselves as the pride of the Islas Canarias. Training A few people had asked me about training and I have read a lot of blogs / articles about different approaches and training methods. Training is something which I have traditionally left to the Assistant Manager however with the changes to Training in FM19 I have tried to be more hands on with training schedules as well as with Individual Training and Mentoring. With regard to training schedules – I have tried to keep this relatively simple and focus on the type of football we wish to play this season. I broke this up mainly in terms of assigning a schedule depending on who we are playing each week, and then dividing the week up in to specific units to cover tactics, technical skills, defending, transition, attacking etc. @FMSamo‘s training article was an excellent analysis of how you can adopt a similar type of approach, whereby training is broken down in to units and cycles (check out his article here) – our training schedule is something akin to this but instead of fortnightly cycles, it changes depending on whether we are Home or Away and/or due to face weaker or stronger opposition. We usually adopt a more forceful Gegenpress style in games where I feel we are the favourite, and a quicker Direct Counter Attack style away from home where we expect a tougher challenge (which they all are at this level): Most people will have also read @Cleon‘s excellent piece about the new Training feature in FM19 – what I really like about this is that it talks about tactical familiarity and dynamic match preparation, which is basically what we are trying to achieve at Tenerife by building training schedules based on the tactics we employ, and then adapting the training units depending on who our opponents are each week. Again, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of these (and I am certainly no expert!), but as this article eludes to – there isn’t really a right or wrong approach to training, and it’s all down to what suits you and how you want your team to play. I definitely recommending reading the full article which you can find here. What’s also interesting about the new FM19 training feature is training ratings – it is evidently clear that some players seem to excel in training over others, and the challenge (in my opinion) is to try and target players in order to boost their training ratings. This for me is probably the best way to measure training effectiveness – what’s interesting about this save is that it has constantly been our new signings that have trained consistently at the higher levels; whether that is down to the fact that I have signed them, their age or that I have really focused on integrating them in to the squad through mentoring is still unclear, but nevertheless the results are there and now the challenge is to try and have the same impact on the rest of the squad. Transfer Window Shenanigans The fixture against UD Las Palmas also coincided with the reopening of the January Transfer Window in Spain which finally saw 22 year old Norwegian Goalkeeper Sondre Rossbach complete his much anticipated move from Odds Ballklubb for a fee of €1.1m (€650k up front), after being recommended by @daveazzopardi on the 5 Star Potential podcast. He looks like a really decent keeper all round, still only 22 and hopefully he can develop and live up to his 4 star potential here at Los Chicharreros. This move comes at a good time for two reasons, both of which are our current Goalkeeper Dani Hernandez who is a 33 year old Venezuela International. Hernandez showed himself to be quite competent in the first half of the season, however recently and in true FM fashion he has made quite a few costly errors that have cost us games and more importantly points in our quest to return to La Liga: To add fuel to the fire, Hernandez has also been linked with a move to promotion chasing rivals Real Zaragoza, who we initially didn’t consider as a title contender however their recent form has pushed them up in to the Top 4. Whether he goes or not remains to be seen however we expect that Rossbach will be an extremely efficient replacement if called upon. Unfortunately we have no transfer budget to work with during this window after the arrival of Rossbach, which means our main goal for the month is to try and hold on to all our players if we are to have a realistic chance of getting promoted this season. The most challenging part of this is that all player contracts in Spanish football must legally have a Minimum Fee Release Clause (Buy Out Clause), which is fine if you can set it at €500m as Real Madrid did with Gareth Bale (see here for some interesting reading) however here in Secunda Division 2, clauses are much more reasonable meaning there is a constant fear that your best players can be snapped up without the manager having any say in the matter. This combined with the fact that our board now only give us 50% of all incoming transfer revenue will make it a nervous few weeks for the rest of January. In other news – while all is quiet on the transfer window front in SD2, the same cannot be said with regards to Manager Movements in this league where a number of high profile appointments have been made for this level. January saw Las Palmas replace Paco Herrera with former Sevilla, Tottenham and R. Madrid boss Juande Ramos; Granada replaced Diego Martinez with previously mentioned former Tenerife manager Pepe Mel and Sporting Gijon sacked Gregorio Manzano in favour of former Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest afficionado Aitor Karanka. The defeat at Las Palmas led to mixed form for Los Chicharreros for the rest of January, with Tenerife needing an own goal to beat Elche CF away before being held to a scoreless draw at home to Gimnastic de Tarragona meaning they took 4 points from us this year! This rollercoaster of form means that we sit in 2nd place in the third week of January, level on points with top of the table (and surprise package) Real Zaragoza – an interesting point to note here (and something I fondly remember debating with @FM_Guru88 in an online league previously) is that Goal Difference is not the determining factor if teams are level on points, but rather it is based on Head to Head form. Zaragoza’s 2-0 home win over us back in October means that they pip us for 1st place despite our slightly superior goal difference – definitely a change to what we are used to in the EPL and good to know going forward! The one piece of positive news to come the end of the month was that both Dani Hernandez and Mauro Dos Santos decided to stay at Tenerife at least until the end of the season….oh, and this: GOAL OF THE SEASON CONTENDER Having gone a goal down on the brink of half time, Tenerife had to dig deep in order to get back in to the game against a strong Albacete side who have been performing far above their original media prediction of 18th and are currently sitting comfortably in the playoff zone. Carlos Alena equalised for Los Chicherroros with a calmly taken penalty on 71 minutes, before Right Back Luis Perez wins the game for Tenerife with a glorious perfectly taken strike from 30 yards out: 🌍⚽ Around the World⚽🌍 At this point, lets have a quick look at what is happening around the other main European leagues now that the transfer window has closed and we approach the business end of the season. Tottenham sit at the top of the English Premier League after 24 games, just 2 points ahead of London neighbours Chelsea – it looks like a standard season of FM disappointment for some of the more high profile strikers in the PL, with Aubameyang leading the goalscoring charts on 15 goals ahead of Chris Wood and Callum WIlson on 14 and 12 respectively. Keeping an eye on my own team Newcastle – not only are they echoing real life performances and sitting in 14th place at the end of January, they also look to have secured the signing of the transfer window in Nicolo Zaniolo from Fiorentina for what could be a bargain transfer fee of €5.5 million. Also echoing real life are the number of manager departures in the Premier League with 4 dismissals having already occurred at the time of writing – most interestingly the arrivals of Marcelo Bielsa at West Ham and AVB at Wolves. Real Madrid currently occupy top spot in La Liga on 45 points, level with arch-rivals Atletico Madrid and only 1 point ahead of Catalan giants Barcelona. Youth Intake Thanks for reading so far! Before we finish, it is worth mentioning that we just had our first intake of youth players in the squad which means our first batch of newgens here at Los Chicharreros. We haven’t yet made a huge impact on youth training, recruitment and facilities at the club apart from hiring a new Head of Youth Recruitment (Domingo Grau) and boosting our Youth Coaching team by adding former World Cup winner Bixente Lizarazu and former Celtic, Barcelona and Man Utd Striker Henrik Larsson to the coaching ranks (focusing on Spanish speaking former players where possible as per our objectives) – however I was hopeful that we might be able to unearth one or two youngsters whom we could start to try and develop right away as we build our Roy De Los Rovers project. The reality was that overall the intake was fairly average, however one player in particular stood out in the form of Yeray Padrón who at age 15 has decent attributes for a DMC (looking at Positioning, Agression, Tackling and Bravery) and hopefully is someone we can push on and develop in the coming months…

1.5. Spanish Omelette for Christmas?

Feb 24, 2019 Madd FM

Contents: an obscure 90’s legend, Los Vengadores (The Avengers), a dream debut for a 17 year old, comical free kick taking, Irish youth prospects and of course some festive Christmas cheer. 🎵 Suggested tune: “Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano“🎵 They say if you want to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs – that pretty much sums up the first few months of our first season at Los Chicharreros a.k.a. CD Tenerife. Our fantastic 6-1 win in the opening game of the Secunda Division was quickly forgotten about with a 0-1 defeat away to Gimnastic de Tarragona – a team from the Catalonia region predicted to finish 17th in the league at the start of the season. If I wasn’t already feeling the heat in Tenerife, I was feeling it now! While I would love to blame it on the fact that they had Luis Suarez playing for them (albeit a different Luis Suarez to the one we all know and loathe), it was a 91st minute goal that condemned us to an earlier-than-expected first defeat of the season. On the topic of media predictions, I am conscious that we haven’t yet analysed any of our competition in this league – particularly looking at who we expect to be our main rivals in our quest for promotion to La Liga, so allow me to do an extremely brief overview of those that I expect to be challenging with come the end of the season: Malaga CF – having just been relegated to Secunda Division after finishing bottom of La Liga last season IRL, Malaga are the odds on favourite to bounce back up at the first time of asking having spent the past ten successive seasons in the top tier of Spanish football – even finishing 4th in 2012 and reaching the quarter-final of the UEFA Champions League after topping a group that contained Italian giants AC Milan, before narrowly being knocked out by Dortmund 3-2 after a 0-0 draw in the first leg. Not only are Malaga renowned for producing top quality talent and developing a number of players who went on to succeed at the highest level – Saviola, Hierro, Isco, Cazorla, Demichelis and Monreal to name a few (as well as my current Newcastle hero Salomon Rondon) – they probably hold one of the stronger squads in the league this year including familiar names such as Dani Pacheco (formerly of Barcelona & Liverpool), Javi Ontiveros, Alex Mula (wanted by Chelsea and Newcastle as we speak) and Alfred N’Diaye who fans of English football will remember had spells at Sunderland, Hull City and Wolves. Fully expect they will be challenging come the end of the season – watch this space. Deportivo La Coruna – another cracking team during the 90’s with FM and real-life legends such as Bebeto, Diego Tristan, Djalminha, Coloccini, Mauro Silva, Valeron, our blog patriarch Roy Makaay and a pre-Barcelona Rivaldo – Deportivo are another example of a fallen giant who will surely be in contention for the promotion places at the end of season. Despite Diego Rolan currently out on loan at Alaves, they look strong with players such as Valencia graduate Fede Cartabia, 4 star ability Borja Valle, former R. Madrid midfielder Pedro Mosquera and new signing Pablo Hernandez from Leeds who has picked up 4 goals and 3 assists in his first 6 matches. UD Las Palmas – our main rivals who we will face in the Canary Islands derby for the first time since 2015, Las Palmas also look like they will challenge to bounce back to La Liga after last year’s relegation disappointment. Slightly less renowned for producing world class talent (although they did have former Everton Striker Vinny Samways for a 6 year stint in the late 90s – WTF?!) – they definitely have the quality to mount a serious challenge this year with Sergio Araujo their main goal threat and arguably one of the best strikers in the league this season. Las Palmas have won 29 of the 64 derbies previously compared to our 14 wins so we will certainly have some avenging to do in a few months time. Apologies, I’ve literally gone completely off topic – back on point we go. Following our shock defeat in Game 2, we then went on an absolute bender of good form – going 6 games unbeaten where we picked up 5 wins (including a victory in the Copa Del Rey 2nd Round vs Cueta FC) and a draw against a decent Almeria side who had Pogba in their starting eleven (thankfully Florentin, not Paul). The highlight of this run was not only beating promotion rivals Deportivo away from home at Estadio Riazor, but the winning goal which came in true FM fashion: By the end of September we were joint top of the league with surprise package CD Lugo, and even better still receiving the Manager of the Month award for our troubles: That run came to an end at home to Cadiz (where our favourite FM legend Cherno Samba spent a couple of seasons back in 2004-2006), which then opened the floodgates to 3 straight defeats in total with subsequent losses to Real Zaragoza (away) and Almeria again proving to be our bogey team knocking us out of the Copa Del Rey on penalties much earlier than planned in the 3rd round. A series of aggressive and assertive rants/tyrades to the lads during this period seemed to do the trick to get us back on track however, as we then went on an absolute belter of a run winning a record 7 games in a row which propelled us back to the top of the league by the end of November and another Manager of the Month award in the back pocket: The highlight of this and one of the most rewarding moments for a “Football Manager Football Manager” (how else do you describe yourself? 😋) was the unexpected early debut of our 17 year old newly signed German CB Yann-Aurel Bisseck, who not only started in a 2-0 away win at Extremadura due to injuries, but also bagged a brace with two spectacular headed goals from set pieces – both delivered by Xadas. Speaking of youngsters (and with the January transfer window approaching) – as well as some of our objectives being to develop young talent and to one day manage the Republic of Ireland national team (much to @Shrewnaldo‘s disbelief 😆), a suggestion from @FMEdmundo was also to try and sign/develop a young Irish player at Los Chicharreros seeing as Tenerife do of course have an Irish Manager ☘️☘️). Let the research commence! So far I have identified two potential targets below to help achieve this objective (two Ryans in fact) – Ryan Johansson of Bayern Munich who was born in Luxembourg to Swedish and Irish parents, and Ryan Nolan of Inter Milan who became only the fourth ever Irishman to play in Italy after Paddy Sloan, Liam Brady and Robbie Keane. Time will tell if we can attract either of them and whether they will develop into Irish legends – hopefully we can at least avoid a Declan Rice situation with both of them in the near future 🙊. By Christmas, the Spanish Omelette is cooking pretty well with us sitting joint top of the league with Real Zaragoza and the league table looking as follows: In my next post we will have the first Canary Islands derby against Las Palmas, along with analysis of training and tactics used so far, a review of all the Ins and Outs of the January Transfer window and we will take a look at progress across the other main European leagues and competitions as we move towards the business end of the season. Thanks for reading as always! Thoughts, feedback and retweets are always appreciated – feel free to drop some comments below if you are enjoying this blog! Forca Los Chicharreros!! MaddFM.

1.4. Pre-Season, El Transfer Window & League Opener

Feb 17, 2019 Madd FM

Contents: Building an empire, signing a wonderkid, two 90’s legends, abandonment issues, goals galore, last minute transfer window drama and the opening match of the 2019 Secunda Division. 🎵 Suggested tune:  “Escape (Pina Colada song)” – Rupert Holmes 🎵 In my last post, I mentioned that one of my key objectives was to focus heavily on building a top class backroom team, so my first mission as manager of CD Tenerife was to overhaul the existing staff roster and start recruiting right away – bearing in mind that one of the objectives of this save is to hire as many Spanish speaking staff as possible. This proved quite challenging in that I have always traditionally recruited UK and Irish coaches and scouts etc, and the quality of the Spanish speaking staff that were actually interested in joining Los Chicharreros was pretty limited at this stage of our save. Overall, I am pushing for an 80/20 split between Spanish speaking and Non-Spanish speaking backroom staff – time will tell if I can maintain it! La Segundo Entrenador (The Assistant Manager) As I’m sure most of us agree, having a decent Assistant Manager is crucial in this beautiful game (great article about PL assistant managers here). Ignoring the fact that their in-game advice in FM is often b*llocks as well as some of their tactical advice etc, it is still a vital function within the game. My main use of an Assistant Manager is generally for opinions on players (both new and existing) as well as for things like training/team reports and handling tactical briefings – basically a guy with a head on his shoulders that isn’t too vocal or full of sh*t, which can be easier said than done in this game! According to @FMInside, a good Assistant Manager should have decent attributes for Man Management, Judging Player Ability and Judging Player Potential (see the full article here), so I generally try to take that in to account along with good Determination and Adaptability. Bearing in mind that neither me or my FM Manager profile possess Spanish as a listed language, I decided to restrict myself to hiring a Spanish AM and after trawling through the staff database, I was left with two choices for the role: Option 1: Real Betis icon Alfonso Perez – who either side of scoring 57 goals in 152 appearances for Los Verdiblancos also had spells at both Real Madrid and Barcelona (as well as 38 caps for Spain). This guy was so good that Getafe FC named their stadium after him despite having never actually played for them (he was born there). Option 2: Former Southampton and Derby County midfielder Inigo Idiakez – who in addition to being named in the 2004/2005 Championship PFA Team of the Year also suffered the ignominy of missing the winning penalty for Southampton in the 2006/2007 Championship Playoff final, sending his former club Derby County back to the Premier League. Being honest – he deserves the job for that alone! While it was tempting to go for Alfonso (and perhaps a more obvious choice), we decided on the latter and Inigo Idiakez takes up the Assistant Manager role at CD Tenerife, leaving his post as U19 Manager at @Thesammydoda‘s beloved Luton Town FC. With that finally decided (only took around an hour lol #FMtime) – it was then time to build our coaching, medical and scouting teams. Again, this was not an easy mission considering the 80/20 Spanish/Non-Spanish speaking rule – if you are like me though you will be well used to spending hours pouring over lists of players and staff and eventually it all came together just in time for the opening Secunda Division game versus Elche CF (match report & highlights towards the end of this post). Coaching Team – Old vs New Scouting Team – Old vs New Medical Team – Old vs New Let’s also just take a moment of appreciation for the unsung FM legend that is Phil Cannon. I’m pretty sure I have hired him as a Coach or Assistant Manager in every version of FM since FM13, his attributes are out of this world and he must be in the good books of whoever is responsible for Staff attributes over at Sports Interactive 😀 Transfer Activity Right where was I – ah yes, pre-season. Before we look at the schedule and results of all our pre-season friendlies, let’s first take a look at our transfer activity which basically took up about 90% of my FM time since my last post mainly due to the fact that we have a peanuts budget combined with a significant lack of quality player willing to relocate to Tenerife (how bad) to play Secunda Division football. With one of our key objectives being Youth Recruitment, I decided to focus our (limited) budget (starting at approx. €1.5m) on players under the age of 22 – not just for the obvious reasons of value and potential etc but also looking at the average age of the team which is a slightly alarming 28 years old. With 8 of the first team all over 30, it’s doubtful that there will be many contract renewals regardless of whether we get promoted or not, so I’m hoping to gain success with a well balanced combination of first choice youth players combined with age and experience already at the club. First piece of business which I was extremely happy to pull off was the signing of 17 year old Croatian winger Antonio Marin from Dinamo Zagreb for a fee of €1.8m (€900K up front) – this was a coup for both the club and for me personally as I had agreed terms with him for Blackburn in Season 2 of my #ArteEtLabore save only to have Chelsea swoop in at the last minute and have his head turned towards Stamford Bridge – RAGING I was, therefore we are delighted to bring him to Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López where I hope he will become an absolute superstar assuming I can keep him at the club (€5 million minimum fee release clause was unavoidable as is mandatory for all Spanish football contracts – he will be offered a new contract for Christmas that’s for sure). Interestingly, Marin has also been touted as the next Mario Stanic by the experts at Sports Interactive – Stanic was part of a golden generation that helped Croatia finish in 3rd place in their first ever World Cup in 1998, narrowly losing out 2-1 to eventual winners France who needed two goals from one Lillian Thuram to advance to the final. Stanic scored one of his 7 international goals at the tournament in a group game against Jamaica, and was capped 49 times for his country during a career in which he played at the highest club level for Benfica, Club Brugge, Parma and Chelsea. Not a bad comparison for a 17 year old! Speaking of release clauses – while I was busy celebrating the arrival of Marin, Watford swooped out of nowhere to steal what I was hoping would be half of my Central Defensive partnership for the season – they decided to meet Jorge‘s minimum fee release clause of €3.5 million (paid up front at least). This was not at all part of the plan, least of all due to the fact that the board only give me 70% of incoming transfer revenue (luckily up from the 55% offered at the start of the season). Despite trying to offer him a lucrative contact and the promise of a few pints every week on me, his head was also turned and he abandoned the sun, sea & sand of Tenerife for the bright lights of Vicarage Road and the Premier League. Next new face for Los Chicharreros came in the form of well known FM stalwart Xadas for an extremely reasonable €1.4m (€700K up front). I am completely aware that this is probably one of the most common and predictable signings in FM, however having discovered him myself back in FM17 and more recently being reminded to sign him for Blackburn by @FMPoacher during a live stream – it was almost impossible not to sign him considering that he was actually willing to join the club and is affordable in terms of both transfer fee and wages. My final (permanent) summer signing for CD Tenerife is one that could prove to be either a complete disaster (considering I’ve spent the most of my budget on a 17 year old) or what I’m hoping will be an absolutely genius piece of business for the future. That signing is German Central Defender Yann-Aurel Bisseck who arrives on a 4 year contract from FC Koln for a fee of €3.4m (€2m up front). I came across the lad while scavenging among the Bundesliga U-19 leagues, and once the scouts did their business and his attributes & potential became evident, it was a done deal and I have extremely high hopes for him as we look to take Los Chicharreros to the pinnacle of Spanish and European football. Interestingly (and most definitely to my satisfaction having discovered him), I later learned that Bisseck is the youngest ever German player to have played in the Bundesliga – second only to another FM legend, Nuri Sahin. *Sidenote: to add the icing on the cake – after signing Bisseck, I then spotted that this kid is touted as none other than the next Jurgen Kohler, whose name will be known by anyone who watched football during the 1990’s where he had spells at Bayern Munich, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund as well as earning over 100 international caps for Germany. Kohler is a living legend of German football – not only has he played in 3 Fifa World Cups and 3 European Championships (winning one of each in 1990 and 1996 respectively) – he also won two European club titles in very interesting fashion; winning the 1993 UEFA Cup final with Juventus against Borussia Dortmund, and then later winning the 1997 Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund against his old club Juventus in what was a reverse fixture of the 1992 clash. If Bisseck even turns out to be half the player that Jurgen Kohler was, I think that €3.4 million will be an extremely shrewd investment. In addition to the three signings above, I also managed to bring in two established and experienced loan signings in the form of Carles Alena from Barcelona and Joselu from Newcastle United (yes I even surprised myself with that one as a Newcastle fan). I also had Alena at Blackburn, signing him in my second season after getting promoted to the Premier League, he is a fantastic passer of the ball and knows where the goal is from outside the box, and should provide strong competition for Borja Lasso in the Advanced Playmaker role. Joselu was an unexpected signing, both because I wasn’t after a Striker and because I am absolutely not a fan of his in real life. At this level however, I am hoping that he can find a bit of form and provide added strength and depth to the forward line (don’t worry, he is not in my mind to become our sh*thouse Roy de los Rovers striker as per our objectives 😌). Pre-Season Our first season preparation pretty much went as well as we could hope for, despite the fact that we were forced to play a number of friendlies against absolutely rubbish opposition (for affiliate / training camp reasons). Bit of a bug bear of mine that you can’t cancel these types of friendlies, even if they are good for morale etc. We started off with two cracking wins over Independiente and LOSC Lille, winning both by a narrow scoreline of 2-1 which bodes well in terms of endurance and a bit of steel to hold out for the wins. The game against Lille was also an opportunity to watch a couple of players…

1.3. MaddFM takes charge at Tenerife

Feb 03, 2019 Madd FM

🎵 Suggested tune: “La Bamba” – Los Lobos & Gypsy Kings 🎵 Before we even kick off this season, a huge shout out to @TheFMEditor85 who has created the latest updated FM19 database following the recent transfer window – please be sure to follow and check out his content!! This means that we are literally kicking off with a brand new database that was released just two hours ago at the time of writing, and due to the fact that Tenerife had picked up a few players in this window I decided to wait until it had closed before kicking off the new save. It’s official – we are now managing CD Tenerife in the Segunda Division in Spain, taking over from José Luis Oltra who was in his second spell at the club. We sign a 1 year deal worth £6,750 per week – hopefully they threw in a nice penthouse down by the beach too. Hang on – they use Euro in Spain, so a quick preferences change means we will earn €7,500 p/w and speak in Euro going forward. Chairman Miguel Concepcion welcomes us to the club, seems he has made a successful living in transport and television in addition to his 12 years as Chairman of the Chicharreros. He must be in a good mood as he agrees to increase the Wage Budget and allow us sign a few extra physios – I’ll be putting in a few other requests in due course, however as things stand we’ve been given a modest transfer budget of €671K per week along with wage budget of €166.5K based on us aiming to achieve Promotion at the first time asking (as well as reaching the 5th round of the Copa Del Rey). Might as well aim high, there may also be some room to manoeuvre within the budget so I’d better get the calculator out and f̶u̶d̶g̶e̶ crunch some numbers – hoping to bring in some funds through player sales, but at present only 55% of transfer fees are put back in to the transfer budget. Miguel better be in a good mood in our next meeting.. Team Report Not an overly inspiring report from our (for now) Assistant Manager Emilio Isierte – definitely going to be some work to do with this squad. Initial concerns are at RB, DMC and AMR however we will look to strengthen as much as possible in all areas – big squad will be needed, we have to play 42 games in this division in addition to however many Copa Del Rey fixtures we encounter. I suspect loan signings will be essential, hopefully my next post will contain news of a lot of new signings! In terms of current personnel, newest IRL signing Borja Lasso looks arguably our best player on paper – vision, flair, technique, passing and decisions attributes are all pretty strong for this level, makes sense having signed from Sevilla in the real life January Transfer Window. Hoping for a few goals and most imporantly a truckload of assists from this man. We also look pretty strong up front, Naranjo and on-loan Coniglio both look decent – somehow I might end up having to fit all three of these lads in to a formation, potentially a triangle of sorts up top. My potential back line are pretty average, will definitely need reinforcements – pretty happy with Mauro Dos Santos at CB however, his Heading, Marking, Tackling and Positioning attributes should be more than enough at this level. Dani Hernandez is first choice keeper, at 32 and with his attributes he will be first choice this season but more than likely will not keep the jersey beyond that, especially if we perform a miracle and get promoted to La Liga – reckon Messi would love to see him between the sticks! Unfortunately we don’t have much to report in terms of Youth Prospects – our U19 squad is half empty and I am informed that our highest potential youngster is Borja Llarena; the kid has 4 stars but at 19 I am not convinced he will improve beyond a mid table striker – hopefully by recruiting a few youth coaches, improving youth facilities and focusing on recruitment etc will lead to a good youth intake later in the season. Another thing worth mentioning is the Squad Dynamics page – the combined age of my Captain and Vice Captain is 66 years, both Suso and Sanz are a ripe old 33 years of age so Leadership and Teamwork will be on my mind when making any potential signings for the future. Plenty of highly influential players in the squad, but ideally will hope to sign a future Captain during the summer transfer window. Final thing to mention in terms of my initial impressions on the club and squad overall – as a SD1 team, I was surprised to see we don’t have any La Liga parent club affiliates so that will be another focus in the initial stages of the save to try and bring in some decent loan signings without sh*tting on our wage budget. Goals and Objectives 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 Try to sign as many Spanish speaking staff members as possible Develop a stong 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 That’s probably enough analysis and reporting at this point considering its still 9am on Day 1 of the save – in my next post I will discuss tactics, formations and training as well as including a summary of pre-season and all transfer activity, whereby hopefully we will have not only bolstered the squad on all counts but also will have built a quality backroom team. Once again, thanks for reading – please feel free to provide comments and feedback, if you are enjoying the blog please feel free to like, share, retweet and subscribe via the links on the side/bottom of this page! Yours humbly, MaddFM.

Roy de los Rovers

Feb 03, 2019 Madd FM

While on holiday in Gran Canaria in January 2019 and experiencing a full week away from both my laptop and from Football Manager, I had two sudden realisations – (1) wouldn’t it be great to simply live here and play FM all day and (2) I wonder what it would be like to play/manage here in real life and actually earn a living in football on the Canary Islands. Knowing that I (obviously) will never be able to achieve either of the above IRL, I then got to thinking – why not do a save based here, which at the very least will facilitate the dream of living here and also present a really good challenge in terms of (an attempt at) taking a lower level team to the highest tier of Spanish football. My initial idea was to take over UD Las Palmas (seeing as I was only down the road from there), and somehow convince the missus to accompany me to the stadium for a few photos or a tour if it existed – however I quickly realised that this might mean spending the rest of my holiday (and life) alone so I did a double check and started bouncing ideas around my head while enjoying the hardship of lying on a beach all day. I started to recall on the Championship Manager days from the mid to late 90s, particularly CM2 (which I nicked off a mate in exchange for Sensible World of Soccer 95/96) and CM3 which I remember buying with my confirmation money back in 1999, the first of a long line of CM/FM games that I have since purchased every single year to date. I found myself reminiscing on the some of the classic La Liga players and teams of the late 90s and early 00s, such as the Diego Tristan’s and Djalminha’s of the Deportivo glory days and the Alfonso’s and Denilson’s of Real Betis notoriety – and it was then I remembered a true CM legend who I vividly remember scoring goal after goal against me no matter what club he was at…that man was Dutch Striker Roy Makaay, who was prolific both in the game and in real life where he scored over 150 goals at Deportivo La Coruna and Bayern Munich across 7 seasons. More importantly and as is the main focus of this FM19 blog & my newest Football Manager career venture, it was at Club Deportivo Tenerife that he began to shine on the European Stage following a high profile move from Vitesse Arnhem (whereby he allegedly didn’t even know they were based on an island after turning down a move to Ajax to join them), and it is this that has inspired me to start this new save at CD Tenerife in the Secunda División in Spain, thus providing the inspiration for the title of this blog and career save: “Roy de los Rovers“

Roy de los Rovers

Feb 03, 2019 Madd FM

While on holiday in Gran Canaria in January 2019 and experiencing a full week away from both my laptop and from Football Manager, I had two sudden realisations – (1) wouldn’t it be great to simply live here and play FM all day and (2) I wonder what it would be like to play/manage here in real life and actually earn a living in football on the Canary Islands. Knowing that I (obviously) will never be able to achieve either of the above IRL, I then got to thinking – why not do a save based here, which at the very least will facilitate the dream of living here and also present a really good challenge in terms of (an attempt at) taking a lower level team to the highest tier of Spanish football. My initial idea was to take over UD Las Palmas (seeing as I was only down the road from there), and somehow convince the missus to accompany me to the stadium for a few photos or a tour if it existed – however I quickly realised that this might mean spending the rest of my holiday (and life) alone so I did a double check and started bouncing ideas around my head while enjoying the hardship of lying on a beach all day. I started to recall on the Championship Manager days from the mid to late 90s, particularly CM2 (which I nicked off a mate in exchange for Sensible World of Soccer 95/96) and CM3 which I remember buying with my confirmation money back in 1999, the first of a long line of CM/FM games that I have since purchased every single year to date. I found myself reminiscing on the some of the classic La Liga players and teams of the late 90s and early 00s, such as the Diego Tristan’s and Djalminha’s of the Deportivo glory days and the Alfonso’s and Denilson’s of Real Betis notoriety – and it was then I remembered a true CM legend who I vividly remember scoring goal after goal against me no matter what club he was at…that man was Dutch Striker Roy Makaay, who was prolific both in the game and in real life where he scored over 150 goals at Deportivo La Coruna and Bayern Munich across 7 seasons. More importantly and as is the main focus of this FM19 blog & my newest Football Manager career venture, it was at Club Deportivo Tenerife that he began to shine on the European Stage following a high profile move from Vitesse Arnhem (whereby he allegedly didn’t even know they were based on an island after turning down a move to Ajax to join them), and it is this that has inspired me to start this new save at CD Tenerife in the Secunda División in Spain, thus providing the inspiration for the title of this blog and career save: “Roy de los Rovers“

1.2. CD Tenerife – A History

Jan 28, 2019 Madd FM

🎵 Suggested tune: “Mas Que Nada” – Tamba Trio 🎵 Founded in 1922, Tenerife are a professional Spanish football club playing in the Spanish Segunda Division. Nicknamed “Los Chicharreros”, the club play their home games at Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez (Capacity: 22,824), named after their former club president who instigated the reconstruction of the stadium between 1946 and 1950. Success and trophies have been few and far between at CD Tenerife, with the club enjoying it’s best spell of success during the 1990s where they enjoyed 10 successive seasons in the top tier of Spanish football before being relegated in the 1998/1999 season. Despite a brief return to La Liga in the 2000/2001 season (with promotion masterminded by one Rafael Benitez), the club has languished in the lower levels of Spanish football since, relegated to the third tier of Spanish football in 2011 before returning to the Segunda Division in 2013 where they currently remain in 2019 having finished in 11th place in the 2017/2018 season. Notable Personnel In addition to Rafa Benitez, CD Tenerife have made a number of high profile managerial appointments over the past 30 years (almost as high profile as their latest managerial appointment, @MaddFM986) – most notably througout the 1990’s where they were led by familiar names such as Jupp Heynckes (whose credits include Bayern, R. Madrid, Benfica), Javier Clemente (formerly of Bilbao, Marseille, A. Madrid and Spain), Pepe Mel (Premier League fans will remember his unsuccessful stint at West Brom in 2014) and more recently Joseba Exteberia of Bilbao legendary status who won over 50 caps for Spain from 1997 to 2004. Heynckes, Clemente, Mel Success throughout the 1990s also meant that the islanders were able to attract a lot of talented young players, who later went on to become big names in the game both at club and international level. Arguably one of the most successful and prolific strikers in the club’s history was Juan Antonio Pizzi, who scored 76 goals in 143 games for the club, helping them achieve UEFA Cup qualification in 1995 and finishing as La Liga Top Scorer with 31 goals to his name. This form led him to a high profile transfer to Barcelona where he spent two seasons, as well as earning 22 caps for Spain and scoring 8 goals. Pizzi has since gone on to manage a number of club and international teams, most recently leading Saudi Arabia to the World Cup finals in Russia 2018. Other notable strikers to have graced the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López turf include well known Bosnia International Meho Kodro (transferred from Barcelona in 1996 after being signed by then manager Johan Cruyff) and German World Cup runner-up in 2002 Oliver Neuville, however neither of these were able to reach the same levels of prolificacy as Pizzi, and it wasn’t until the arrival of Roy Makaay that CD Tenerife had found themselves a more powerful goal scorer. One cannot discuss notable former Tenerife players without mentioning arguably one of the best centre midfielders of the 1990s – Argentinian defensive midfielder Fernando Redondo, who played over 100 games for the club before moving on to shine for European giants Real Madrid and A.C. Milan. An elegant deep-lying playmaker who played in front of the defence, Redondo’s main attributes were his creative passing, vision, technique and close control with his left foot, as well as his ability to control the tempo of his team’s play in midfield which led to him signing for Real Madrid for a fee of £3.15m in 1994. Redondo was replaced at Tenerife by another well known centre midfielder – Slavisa Jokanovic, who before his recent managerial spells at Watford and Fulham in the Premier League played over 120 games for CD Tenerife as well as winning 64 caps for the former republic of Yugoslavia. He later left for Deportivo La Coruna and was replaced by another familiar face for Premier League fans – Brazilian midfielder Emerson who joined Tenerife after a successful spell at Middlesbrough where he played alongside the likes of Juninho and Fabrizio Ravanelli. Finally – a more recent familiar face to have come through the ranks at CD Tenerife (and another reason for me to have a more personal affiliation to the club as a Newcastle United fan) is Ayoze Perez, who started his career with Los Chicharerros in 2011 before moving to Newcastle in 2014 for an extremely reasonable sum of £3 million. Perez has been an ever present figure throughout the recent turbulent years of the Mike Ashley era (don’t even get me started), and to date he has made over 150 appearances for the Magpies scoring 33 goals. It is clear from all of the above that despite a lack of trophies and glory for many years, the club is steeped in both history and potential – glimpses of which have been displayed by previous managers and players alike however the goal of this save is to top all previous achievements and bring CD Tenerife to the top of Spanish and European football; starting by rebuilding the current team and staff in order to obtain promotion to La Liga and from there, world domination for “Los Chicharreros”. Hop over to the next post to see our first thoughts and reactions to the Tenerife squad and club set up as well as goals and objectives for this save. Hope you enjoyed the above, much more to come seeing as we haven’t even started the save yet! Feedback is welcome as are any likes, shares, retweets etc – you can also subscribe on the side/bottom of this page to get new post updates. Yours lovingly, MaddFM.

Season 1

Jan 27, 2019 Madd FM

CD Tenerife

Jan 27, 2019 Madd FM

Season 1 1.1. Roy de Los Rovers 1.2. CD Tenerife – A History 1.3. MaddFM takes charge at Tenerife 1.4. Pre-Season, El Transfer Window & League Opener 1.5. Spanish Omelette for Christmas? 1.6. Trouble in Paradise 1.7. El Bueno, El Feo y El Malo (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly) 1.8. The Playoffs Season 2 2.1. Return of the King 2.2. VAR YOU HAVING A LAUGH?! 2.3. Good Copa Bad Copa 2.4. Best Offence is a Good Defence Season 3 3.1. Hey Ho, Vamos! 3.2. Counter Attack Loco 3.3. Winter Came ⚔️ 3.4. El Season Finale SEASON 4 4.1. La Vida Loca 4.2. Discovering Europe 4.3. High, Dry & Release Clauses 4.4. Viva La Vida 4.5. Bottle or Treble SEASON 5 5.1. Resurrección 5.2. Wheel of Fortune 5.3. Hail Hydra? 5.4. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back 5.5. Five Years Later SEASON 6 6.1. Better Call Sol 6.2. Madd World 6.3. Backfilling or Full Backing? 6.4. El Camino: A CD Tenerife Story SEASON 7 7.1. Ahora o Nunca (Now or Never)   FM General interest articles DMC or not DMC, that is the question Football DNA “Dubbed the Next” – the FM Crystal Ball Counter Attack – FM Style

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Jan 26, 2019 Madd FM