Season 2 – Life In The Second Division
So, after a successful campaign in our first season, we come into season 2 with the aim of avoiding relegation… but who wants to play a season of FM just hoping you don’t get relegated. I’ve set myself the target of a top half finish, full well knowing anything near that will be seen as a success with the board.
So as July 1
st comes around, we’re expected to finish 12
th already in the predictions so it’s definitely looking pretty positive for hitting our goals. No players in the dream eleven as expected and out best rated player is well down the list so there is some work to do!
An issue I came up against that I haven’t had before was the exodus of staff who left when their contracts ended. In previous saves they move onto month-to-month contracts so I just expected them to do the same here. But as all the contracts ended, they all seemed to move on so now I’ve been left with this. I’ll probably fill a few positions in the scouting department then get really stuck into it after the window.
Transfer Business
Now here’s what you all come here for… the Transfers!
After the board added an additional £33K into the wage budget and I moved all £623K of the transfer budget across for the new season I decided to go shopping early with a couple of pre contract deals.
Joe Lumley came in highly rated and with no real sign of a second choice as well as a reasonably low wage of £4200 I thought this was a good deal. I realised pretty quickly with the promotion came a ridiculous jump in wage demands so it did throw a bit of a spanner in the works for the deals this summer.
Diego Reyes comes in as out best player by a fair distance at centre back, and is probably the best player at the club now too. It really was a position I wanted to upgrade to fill the spot alongside Morgalla.
Ben Osborn was the final pre-contract player who can play a variety of positions in the midfield. The plan is play him CM and with the ever-changing formations during the game he’ll fit this role nicely.
Arial Mendy on a Free and Henry Lawrence on loan from Chelsea are the 2 finishing pieces in our back line, at least that’s what I thought they would be…. You’ll know what I mean in a minute. They both are reasonably big upgrades at the back and mean our starters from last year still provide great depth in the whole back line.
After Pablo Rodrigues wasn’t allowed to come back on loan and Tardelli aging like ive never seen before after his injury I really had a massive whole to fill up top. So, I headed to the loan market once again…
Bosilj and Ferguson come in as arguably our two best Strikers in the team, both being able to play Advanced Forward and Pressing Forward. I will be staying loyal to Skenderovic though after his exploits last season. But these two signing, Bosilj on just £1300 a week and no wages at all for Ferguson meant they were no brainers in my eyes. Hopefully with a bit of youth in and around the team up top we should have 3 pretty lethal strikers in the squad this season.
I filled out the final positions with Dina Ebimbe on loan from Frankfurt, another low cost of just £400 a week. He fills squad depth in the centre of the midfield but with quite high potential may become a key player for us as the season progresses. We also have Haydon Roberts on loan from Brighton. He can play anywhere across the back line, at least thats my plan for him. Ill be keeping him on the bench for the times i need him. He's the type of player i love to have in each save every season without a doubt!
And then our deadline day free transfer...
I really didn’t need to make this move at all, but who can resist a 40-year-old Daniel Alves sitting there in the shadows asking for just £625 per week and can play in pretty much every position on the pitch. This is the first transfer I can genuinely see my buying the shirt of in the coming weeks. I don’t really know what else to say on this one apart from ITS DANNY ALVES!
You can see all the profiles below here...








In terms of transfers out, the most notable was Otegui after his contract clause was triggered after playing 5 games and I wasn’t expecting him to be there. So, I shipped him out as soon as a I could for £575K. Moll was the only other noticeable player to leave as the 32-year-old was falling off a cliff edge with his stats so I cashed in for just £155K when I could.
I also have lined up deals for both Lakicevic and Tardelli to leave so I can get their wages off the wage bill (which I am currently over). They are both ageing players and with the depth ive brought in already it made sense to get a bit of extra money in now whilst I could.
The Squad
So, with all that here’s how the squad looks now!
(You’ll see ive already got a couple of games in but ill come to that in the next post at the end of December!)
So now its time to push on and get to the January window! I’m not sure if you can tell but the speed, I’m playing this right now is immense, I’m really enjoying the whole process so will continue to push on!
See you all in December!