I've been toying with starting a new game on FM17 for a while now, after having massive success on a long term save at Sheffield United. I tried a few different clubs; Chelsea where I won the treble in the first season, Juventus where my star players all decided they wanted to move to bigger clubs, and then Barcelona where I dominated the league in 2016/17, before becoming disillusioned with player wage demands and trying to find the next big thing.
This lead me to searching for clubs with a good youth system already in place, and outside of their nation's top league in able for me to focus on player development a lot more. With France producing some fantastic young footballers at the minute, the end destination was FC Sochaux.
The academy has produced several notable talents, such as Yannick Stopyra, El-Hadji Diouf, Jérémy Ménez, Bernard Genghini and Benoît Pedretti, among others, so I am really excited to see what sort of talent comes through during this save. I will be focussing on bringing players through the Academy as much as possible, and try to limit the number of first team signings I make each season to enable us to develop from within. The major worry will be keeping hold of the players we have at our disposal for as long as possible, and ensuring we make good money on those that we do sell. I am starting the game with first window budgets disabled, so at least we will have a good run until the January window to assess the squad and keep our players.
One concern off the bat is that we already have five loan players at the club, and that is now the limit for the season. I don't want us to focus on loanees, but without a doubt there will be a time where we need to bring someone in as cover, or to add a spark to the side. I had originally lined up Kasey Palmer (Chelsea) and Gedion Zelalem (Arsenal) as potential loan targets, but with the five already done and dusted, they will have to be shelved.
We have a 20,000 capacity stadium, and we are predicted to finish 10th by the bookies. However, overall feel from the board is to avoid relegation. If we can get anywhere near the top three this season, that would be fantastic, but it will be all about focussing on getting the players out on the pitch as much as possible and hopefully see them develop.
I'll be updating this thread at the end of each game month, so I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reading.
This lead me to searching for clubs with a good youth system already in place, and outside of their nation's top league in able for me to focus on player development a lot more. With France producing some fantastic young footballers at the minute, the end destination was FC Sochaux.
The academy has produced several notable talents, such as Yannick Stopyra, El-Hadji Diouf, Jérémy Ménez, Bernard Genghini and Benoît Pedretti, among others, so I am really excited to see what sort of talent comes through during this save. I will be focussing on bringing players through the Academy as much as possible, and try to limit the number of first team signings I make each season to enable us to develop from within. The major worry will be keeping hold of the players we have at our disposal for as long as possible, and ensuring we make good money on those that we do sell. I am starting the game with first window budgets disabled, so at least we will have a good run until the January window to assess the squad and keep our players.
One concern off the bat is that we already have five loan players at the club, and that is now the limit for the season. I don't want us to focus on loanees, but without a doubt there will be a time where we need to bring someone in as cover, or to add a spark to the side. I had originally lined up Kasey Palmer (Chelsea) and Gedion Zelalem (Arsenal) as potential loan targets, but with the five already done and dusted, they will have to be shelved.
We have a 20,000 capacity stadium, and we are predicted to finish 10th by the bookies. However, overall feel from the board is to avoid relegation. If we can get anywhere near the top three this season, that would be fantastic, but it will be all about focussing on getting the players out on the pitch as much as possible and hopefully see them develop.
I'll be updating this thread at the end of each game month, so I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reading.