Monday morning rant is probably going to get long, so apologies in advance. Probably more explanation than rant. I know anyone who does LLM has probably run into much worse situations than this.
One of my last and favorite FM17 saves with Pumas in Mexico. I started watching and following the league, so figured I would try in FM and loved it. Pumas are a really big club, huge stadium, solid squad, great facilities, and good finances. Got some great newgens, including a rightback who started from day one and ended up going to Manchester United for 25m after 18 months. Played in the World Club Cup a couple of times and even won it once (suck it, Real Madrid). Had way more money than I bothered to spend. Had a solid Mexican core, some real nice young talent, and supplemented it with some solid players from Argentina that I got for bargain prices. Good times.
Didn't settle on a first save with FM18, so I figured I would check out Mexico again. On a whim, tried out Lobos BUAP. Another university club, but basically the worst side in the Liga MX. They got promoted last season and really don't have the quality, the facilities, or the money to be competitive. So expectations are they will get relegated. Three quarters of their first team are on loan from other Liga MX clubs (not an exaggeration) and many of those who are under contract to the club are well over 30. In reality, Lobos have finished mid-table for the Aperatura, while Pumas have finished bottom (relegation is based on average points over 3 seasons, so Pumas won't get relegated). Gave me hope.
The club started with a bit over a million in the bank, a transfer budget of 150K, and expectations of not to get too badly outclassed. Not even "avoid relegation". The transfer budget wasn't enough to bring anyone who could be an immediate upgrade (getting players from Europe is unlikely so its mostly looking at Mexico and South America) and anyone on a free that would be worthwhile simply wasn't interested in joining, even if I could afford them. I did sign veteran Colombian defender Oswaldo Mosquera, giving my center back pairing an average of like 35 years old. I tried to get Ze Roberto (yes, that one) who is still an excellent player despite being 42 years old but he wanted a big signing bonus and I couldn't afford it. I came up with a bit of a plan - try to scour Mexico and the US for some newgens right at the start and give them a bit of time through the season. Hopefully get a decent transfer budget for the second season, which can be used to reinforce the squad, again looking to South America for some solid vets. Much like reality, Argentina makes for a nice shopping in that regard. I use the "Add Players to Active Teams" trick, so there are always some first-day newgens to go after. Its become much harder and more expensive to sign them to contracts, but the United States remains prime hunting ground, because there are loads of youth academy style clubs where they are amateurs so they will still sign and its almost always compensation free. I found about 5 American player and 1 Canadian. But most didn't join immediately due to age (not 18 yet) and only 1 of them is close to being able to play right away. Also found a few Mexican youngsters at second division and below. While I couldn't sign them on compensation deals, I was able to negotiate relatively low fees for them.
So we do well through the season. Not only avoid the bottom but make the playoffs in both the Aperatura and Closura. The side over-performs to talent a bit. The star is that 18 year old American DM who I have playing as a Segundo Volante. He scores almost 20 goals total, despite being below the level of the squad as a whole to start with. My mediocre Mexican striker does well and he's been called up to the Mexico squad for the World Cup. I started out playing more conservatively than I usually do, since the squad lacks pace and technical quality. The squad honestly lacks a LOT. But we perform reasonably well and I slowly adjust to more my usually style. The big problem thru the season is losing money. We have tiny sponsorship deals, our individual TV deal is miniscule, and while our attendance is solid (over 10K per match), that's still lowest in the league and tickets are cheap so its not bringing in tons of money. We hit the negatives before Christmas and end the season about 2.5m in the red. The board injects some money near the end of the Closura - like 100K. That helped loads - thanks guys. My big hope was the expiring sponsorship deals in June - got some pretty huge ones with Pumas, and while Lobos are a much smaller club, the club's reputation went up notably through the season. Finally reach that point and....
...****....
After the new sponsorship deals and the league money, we are still 500K in the hole. I am thinking of trying to sell some players, but none have real significant value and I currently retain 0% of sales, so we are kind boned and didn't really progress as a club despite doing well in the first season...
I finished my FMing last night by starting up a save with Pumas. But this morning, continuing with Lobos somehow felt more appealing. I have decent prospects at a number of positions now, but few are ready for significant match time yet. Besides the American DM, I had an American DC that got a few matches and a 17 year old Mexican right winger who over-performed to skill level quite significant and is progressing massively because of that. I can't really count on too many other young players overplaying their skill level so most will be rotation and depth talent. Leaves me in need of a leftback, rightback, DM, MC, and GK. I spent some time this morning trolling through South American clubs, looking for transfer listed players. Lots of bargains - solid players for a couple hundred K. But too pricey. Found a serviceable Brazilian LB for 37K, but that will use up most of my budget. So going to be stuck looking for frees. The wage bill will be less because the youth player are generally on lesser deals than the veteran players that were on loan. Should be playing in the CONCACAF Champions League, which doesn't bring in significant money but its something. Some Mexican clubs also play in the Copa Libertadores which is more money and more interesting, but have a feeling it will be the CONCACAF for us.
/sorta rant
