Absolutely. Truest statement. The City's, Bayerns, PSGs, United's, etc will all collect all the good, named players like they are pokemon. And they hold them, or trade them around until they are used up and/or on too high wages to attempt to sign. The only chance you have is to get out there and find the best Wonder kids out there before the big boys find them. Build that super young squad and use them to climb your way into the big boys club. nurture them until you are either playing them all the time, or you can sell them for big money.
January 2032 Been able to rotate my guys enough to float around in all the competitions. The last few weeks in November/December were tough with AFCON. Basically half the squad is pissed about wanting a new contract/wanting a move out. Going to try and find a few younger kids to add to the academy. Spoiler: Youth Intake Preview And this just happened. Spoiler I am having a hard think about going for it. There's a lot of age on the Arsenal roster, so it would be a chance to sell for a lot of money and then re-invest. Just trying to sort out if I want to one club and stick to my beating PSG, or use this as the one move for the save(until I get sacked for being 3rd)
I love the role playing aspect of establishing myself at a small club or a club on hard times and then moving onto a big club for money money and reputation once I’ve gotten them to a great place just helps the game feel more realistic
Arsenal is currently 10th in EPL. 2nd in CL table. They have a almost a million a week expiring in 6 months. Lots of age on the roster overall, but still a lot of quality
if their youth teams are loaded with talent you could bring in to get the old guys out it could be fun my only complaint is sometimes when you move to a big club they want you to sign high reputation players and I’m like no we don’t need that let me cook
Luckily the board would only want top half finish this year. Issue is they want a title in like 2 or 3
Also would comtemplate going and signing a player or two tbh. The ones I'd consider have no long term plans at the current employer so may as well try and help them via transfers
Played a handful of games last night. Won them all, a few were closer than they probably should have been. The entire backroom staff didn't join me for 2 weeks due to work permits . Then a few of the ones I wanted seemed to get left out, so I need to wait another couple weeks to finalize the staff. Not the greatest academy at the moment. Not sure if it's because the senior squad is so good it makes the academy look meh, but we will work on it. I retained the HOYD that was there, because it's Per Mertesacker... The greatest part of the move, is easily this player they signed right before I took over. Spoiler
wow that guy is gonna score so many goals and still frustrate you with the amount of point blank headers he misses
I'm not sure what Arteta was doing, but this team had no business being as bad as they were in the league. The team is a wagon. 16 wins, 3 draws in the 19 matches I've managed. I think I'm too far out to challenge for title, but currently 5th on 62 pts. Liverpool is top with 69, City 2nd at 67. 5 games left. Into the FA Cup Final vs Brighton. Also into CL semifinals vs Madrid. However, the financial side, and squad build will need work going forward.
For when you guys are managing big clubs, how do you go about scouting? After the season I'm going to reset the scouting, and make sure I'm covering/finding as much as I can Everyone is so damn expensive now, so just trying to see how you guys go about it.
depends on strategy I typically refuse to buy players over 25 unless it’s for a depth piece so I use recruitment focuses to focus on that 18-25 range typically Also I will spend hours just scouting the youth teams of teams I know develop good youth talent
So I'm into the first full season at Arsenal. I have cleared a ton of wages over the first summer, and am sitting on 100+ mil in transfer money and like 3+ million in available wages They are/were paying some people just absurd money. Havertz was into the last year of his contract at 475k/w. Bayern came in towards end of August with a 40 mil up front, another 20 to come, and I jumped all over it because I wasn't going to extend him, nor was he wanting to extend. The worst so far is that I have 1 healthy goalkeeper at the club entirely. My backup got hurt on deadline day and I didn't have time to sign anyone. Just need to make it another month.
I cleared out probably close to 2mil in wages in the offseason, the net spend was 48mil(which is almost entirely a transfer that was pre-arranged before I took over), and the club is still just bleeding money during each season. So many 100+/week contracts Just wild stuff. 1 player over 600k/w(Saka) 2 that are 400-450k/w 2 that are 300-350k/w 4 that are 200-250k/w 8 that are 100-200k/w
Player A has a few good games. Player A requests a new contract I tell him no He gets upset, Player B-G runs to say I'm a bad guy. Rinse/Repeat
Player A starts the career with two years on his contract. Fucking Saudis want him and he won’t even entertain resigning because of interest shown. Repeat every time I restart. Player A is Son, Son is Player A, kill me.
Finishing first full season in charge at Arsenal(May 2033) Clinched the title on 2nd to last matchday. I have a chance to set points record on final day. Made it to CL semifinals. Lost to Milan. They have a wild squad right now, lead by Ouedrago. Board decided to give some money back, and the budget is 75 mil with wages at 78.5mil(440k/w available) Odegaard(34), Ramsdale(34), and Gabriel(35) are all expiring contracts. They combined make 780 k/w. I'm going to let both walk I think despite Ode and Ramsdale being willing to take slight wage drops. Feels like as good an opportunity as any to move on from them. I have CM's in house, and would just need to find a GK. Gabriel is going back to Brazil and I barely played him down the stretch. Next summer I have another batch of old guard planning to come off the books. Saka(31), Martinelli(31), Saliba(32), and Simakan(33) combine to make 1.8 mil/week Simakan is going to be gone this summer, and I'm having thoughts about moving Saliba too.
I did this on a save a while back and it’s so convoluted. first few matches were played with guys who were leaving on transfers or frees on July 1, then later matches were played with the new squad
I barely made it through group. Lost to Ajax in first knockout. It’s so weird, no press conferences, no expectations.
I made it 12 seasons into a save with Triglav from the Slovenian 2nd tier and it was such a mystery. I coasted through the Champions League like we were Real Madrid and then lost to City in the CL final something like 5-1. Then in the CWC the same thing happened. My weakling on paper team had no problem with teams all the way to the final and again got destroyed by City, who in the early 2030’s still had Foden, Haaland, and Aké starting
It was also just weird because the squad is in a weird area. I had young guys out on loan that I couldn’t use, and overpaid/expiring contracts I didn’t want to play/keep. So I just let the asst pick and rolled with it.
I let Odegaard walk. So in expiring contracts alone I cleared ~600k. Saliba is entering last season of contract, doesn’t want to re-up, and Saudi is interested. If they bid enough I’m going to take the lumps and just do a rebuild. Saka and Martinelli also entering final seasons. If I let them + Saliba go I’d clear like 1.5mil/week. Saudi clubs interested but not sure if I wanna go complete turnover or not considering board wants me to win the title again
Been rotating the squad to start the season to keep fresh, and in doing so Saka has complained his way into submitting a transfer request because I don't play him 2-3 times a week That's one way for me to clear a couple million a month in wages
I struggle with this anytime I move into a bigger club in a late save With United Garnacho is the highest paid player on the team and I’m letting him walk because he’s ass and complained about his playing time sorry pal is 2034 and I have regens much better than you on a third of your wages
Yea, I've tried to slow roll the roster turnover, but this is the last season I'm going to pay anyone over 300k/w. Saliba, Saka, and Martinelli are all out of contract. I don't have any actual proof, but the games where none of them play usually seem to be successful
Picked this up again after taking a break from Helldivers 2 finally. just finished my third year with United (2034-2035 season) and did a community shield, prem, FA Cup, Champions League Quad. Won 1-0 over AC Milan in the final with a set piece header by a center back in the second minute of stoppage time Felt really good but now I feel like I’ve climbed the mountain. I’m not gonna leave though because there are some elite kids I’ve got in my academy that I’m excited about developing. Wanna win trophies with a team full of homegrown kids some day Felt bad beating Everton 3-1 in the FA Cup final because they lost out on the championship promotion playoffs due to a 12 point deduction from being in Administration. They’re probably dead as a club now.
First time poster in this thread, I’ve played mobile version a bit over the years, but this is the first time getting the full version and playing through. I just got absolutely destroyed by the April Fools windfall prank…holy shit
Well, I backdoored my way into a quadruple with Arsenal . Beat PSG 1-0 in UCL final to finish it off. I changed my tactic to a more direct/very high tempo at end of January and the team took off. I beat City with like 3 to go, then they bottled it on match day 37. Saliba left on a free to Barca. Ramsdale retired. I moved on an aging RB for 60 mil, and brought on that stud I signed at Sochaux because his fee finally dropped down to a reasonable price. Only had one academy kid worth a fuck make it to first team so far. I’m probably going to move on from Per because it’s not working.
Start of 2034 season. Here's the squad as of right now Spoiler -Diaz is the big new signing at RB. I have Duncliffe who's an England international, but it was my worst position IMO, and I had Kayode who was entering last season of contract, and was able to get 60mil for him. -McKenna is the lone first teamer that has come through the academy in my time. He recently made his debut for Bosnia. -Izael Zacharias is an absolute freak, I'll share his profile below. Vizcarra is also very very good. -Maslov and Petrak are two that I signed last year and sent them on lona. Going to likely have them linger with the team and get some sporadic game time. Also likely going to make a move for another CB. Hlebec is a tank, need someone to go with him now that Saliba is gone. Spoiler: Izael