Most of you opening this story are fully expecting to see some sort of football career in Rome, going by the title, but that's not the case. In fact, this is a career story involving Getafe Club de Futbol - a Spanish professional football club based in Getafe which is a city in the community of Madrid.
The club currently plays it's football in La Liga, the top tier in Spain, and the 16,500 capacity Estadio Coliseum is their home. It's an open air stadium which was inaugrated in 1998 and seats 14,400 with the remaining capacity made up from standing. It's frequently a sell out for their local games against giants of Spanish football Real and Atletico Madrid, but attendances can vary outside of these games. So that is task number 1 of this save - bring an entertaining brand of football to Getafe that the fans want to see, in order to steal some of those fans away from the 'bigger' local clubs.
In terms of the history of Getafe FC, they were founded in 1946 and then refounded in 1983, with the club playing in the top tier for the first time in 2004. They've played only one season outside of La Liga since (in 2016/17), so have firmly cemented themselves amongst Spain's best. Despite that, it's fair to say they mainly make up the numbers in the highest division, finishing in the bottom half for 11 of those seasons and only finishing in the top 8 on three occasions, never above 5th. Task number 2 - Break into the top 4 in La Liga.
Getafe have a very dusty old trophy cabinet with no major trophies in it at all, although they have reached the Copa del Rey final back in 2007 and 2008 losing to Sevilla and Valencia on those occasions. Task number 3 - win the Copa del Rey.
As well as choosing Getafe for my career mode for their stadium name, I did have another motive. I really like their home shirt, whilst their 2nd and 3rd kits are also decent looking kits. I mean, you have to look good when you're playing good football right!
And the facilities I'll be kicking things off with are not too shabby either, but there is room to improve them over time. Task number 4 - improve facilities to world class level to compete with elite clubs.
Now Getafe's owner is actually listed as a legend at the club and his story is inspiring. Angel Torres Sanchez is a Spanish businessman who lost his father to a road accident at the age of 14, and he was orphaned at 18. He initially worked as a mechanic in Getafe, when he lost his job whilst striking. He was then fired from a factory in Fuenlabrada in solidarity with another employee whose service was also terminated. In the 1980's, he made his name in the construction industry during a boom in the expansion of Madrid's commuter towns and sold off his interests in order to invest in bars, bingo halls and nightclubs across Getafe. It was in 2002 that he convinced by the town's mayor to purchase the football club. Task number 5 - become a club legend like Torres.
The longer term task 6 of this career is to overthrow the dominance of Barcelona and Real Madrid, two powerhouses of world football. They've won 20 of the last 25 La Liga titles between them, but before I can even lay a glove on them I'll have to better the likes of Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Villarreal, Sevilla and Valencia...no easy task in itself!
The other thing that is going to make it incredibly hard to overcome the top teams in the country is the La Liga salary cap. Ours currently sits at £500k per week and each team's is calculated by their turnover/income year on year. So the likes of Barca and Real Madrid who bring in so much more money than all the other teams in the league are well positioned to stay at the top of Spanish football as their massive wage budgets give them the opportunities to sign much better players than everyone else. However, I don't see this as a negative...I see it as all part of the challenge, so let's get on our way.
As I meet my squad, I am pleased to see an abundance of Spanish talent in the ranks and only 7 players across the first team are not of the home nationality. This is something I'd love to continue through my career and although I won't exclusively sign Spanish players, I will look to bring through Spanish youth. I am quick to notice that I do have a bunch of players at mixed stages of their careers, with six players under 21 and six over 30 years old. Going by my assistant manager's initial star ratings, we seem to be pretty strong across the defensive half of the pitch but could be lacking talent particularly in attacking midfield.
We might be struggling for creativity, but what we do have is a decent striker in Borja Mayoral. In fact, my assistant rates the ex Real Madrid forward as the best player in the squad. He did only bag 8 goals in 35 league games last season though and I'll be trying to get a better return out of him than that, assuming I can hold on to him as Saudi club Al-Nassr are sniffing around him.
Now I might have a lack of creative options out wide in midfield, but through the middle, we do have Luis Milla. The 29 year old Spaniard is a player to build a team around for the first couple of seasons at least.
We've got a quality left back in Diego Rico as well, who will be bombing on from the back to offer threat down the left side. With an excellent work rate and determination, combined with the ability to whip in a decent cross, I'll be expecting a fair amount of assists from him.
I'm also pretty well covered between the sticks with David Soria as my number 1 keeper. He's been at the club for a few seasons now and is a commanding presence in the team who can give our defence plenty of confidence in the man backing them up.
Talking of the defence, at the heart of it will be Omar Alderete. The Paraguayan international is without doubt my best current option at the club at centre back and I'm hoping with his height, heading and jumping ability he will offer me a threat from set pieces in attack as well.
I do have £4 million to improve the squad, although I'm not sure how good a player that buys you in La Liga if I'm honest and the loan market might be a better bet for me in my first season in charge. However, I might have to skim a bit off that wage bill first as we are currently overspending by more than £10k per week.
There is a possibility I may clash with the fans initially as they want to see a direct style of football and that's not in line with what I've created. Hopefully we can get some results under our belts early on and win them over.
This is the tactic I have come up with, which is solely focused on keeping the ball with a patient approach, keeping the ball and carving out opportunities as we defend as a solid unit and then move forward up the pitch together as one.
My targets as far as the board are concerned are to have Getafe competing in European competition within the next 4-5 years. I love their ambition.
Chapter 2
A Solid Start & Transfer Deadline Day Sees Two Arrive
Saturday 2nd September 2023
Pre season saw us go unbeaten through 6 friendlies and was capped off with a huge 8-0 win against lower league Spanish opposition in La Nurcia. The tactic seems to be working well and the lads have adapted to my style pretty quickly, although the proof will be in the pudding when we start playing competitive games.
Through watching the tactic and trying different tweaks in pre season, I have adapted the tactic ever so slightly. We have changed to an attacking style, focused the play through the middle of the pitch and added counter attack.
My first competitive game of the season will see us host Real Valladolid, a game which we will be slight favourites to win.
And that's probably because they are tipped by the bookies to get relegated this year. As far as we go, mid table obscurity is what is expected and if we can break into the top half it will be an achievement. There is no surprise to see a media dream 11 entirely made up of Real Madrid and Barcelona players....and Samuel Lino (Atletico).
It was a simple case of pure domination in the opening game, winning 3-1 and having over 70% of the possession. I can't quite tell if we were really good, Valladolid were really bad, or a combination of both. Great to see Borja kicking off his season with 2 goals, which means after 1 game he already has 25% of the amount of goals he scored last season!
I've made my first signing of the window as well. My scouting team have been on the lookout for a new centre back for me, not because I am unhappy with my first choice starters, but because I just felt I needed additional cover as I play three at the back. Malang Sarr is the player in amongst all their recommendations that caught my eye as he has some solid enough all round attributes and was available from Lens at a bargain price of just £550k.
Sarr made his debut from the bench in our next game at Valencia and helped us on the way to a very impressive victory. I felt like we could definitely give them a game, but I didn't expect to walk all over them the way we did! An incredible performance!
After demolishing Valencia, I didn't expect us to have any trouble beating Leganes, but this was a local derby and we all know what strange affects that can have on games. Despite the tension of the magnitude of the rivalry, we just about came through it with the 3 points to make it 3 wins from 3.
It's been a great start to the season for Borja Mayoral, with 4 goals in his opening 3 appearances, and that's enough to bag him the first Player Of The Month award.
He does need some competition for his place up front though and that is why I have turned to Atalanta's Malian striker, El Bilal Toure, who joins us on loan for the season. The 22 year old forward signed for Atalanta from Almeria where he scored 7 goals in 21 appearances and the fact he knows La Liga is a plus point and factored in my decision to bring him in. We'll pay 60% of his wages, plus a £40k per month loan fee for the season, with an optional buy clause of £25 million.
Another loan signing that came in on transfer deadline day was Ramon Terrats who will bolster my options in central midfield. We will pay all of his wages throughout the loan period along with a £20k per month loan fee. He joins from Villarreal with a point to prove that he can be a regular player in their lineup.
To make the deals happen, I had to adjust the budgets moving most of our transfer kitty into the wage budget. We also allowed some of our wingers to go out on loan to get them off the wage bill (as I don't use wide midfielders in my formation).
Despite upping our wage budget, we are still miles off the top three wage spenders in the league, with Barcelona and Real Madrid both spending at least 6 times what we spend!!
Chapter 3 Real and Barca's League And We're All Just Playing In It Sunday 22nd October 2023
Real Sociedad were definitely going to provide our biggest test in the league so far this year. However, the game did result in another 3 points for us! Our first goal came with a stroke of luck as Diego Rico crossed in from the left side and the ball ricocheted off Elustondo and into the back of his own net. This left Sociedad chasing the game and as they threw men forward, we were able to catch them on the counter attack for Juanmi to seal the win in stoppage time with his 3rd goal of the season.
That leaves only two teams in La Liga with 100% records after the opening four games, us and Real Madrid. And we go to the Bernabeau next!
Well there is a massive gulf in class between the two sides at this stage and we were ripped apart by a certain Kylian Mbappe who we simply couldn't deal with. Ouch, this result will hurt, but will now be a test of character to see how my lads react for me.
What a way to bounce back from our first defeat! We absolutely batter Real Betis, making full use of our set pieces scoring three times from corners. Great result!
Unfortunately, we couldn't back it up with a win at Villarreal. However, we didn't do ourselves an injustice here and arguably deserved something from the game. We can take the positives from this and move on.
We are a very different proposition at home than we are away, and we proved that by smashing 6 goals past Espanyol in our next match. An unbelievable effort from the lads and again a great way to bounce back immediately from defeat. Borja picked up his first hat trick of the season as he was unstoppable up top!
After a performance like that, it's no surprise that five of our players made the team of the week!
We hadn't yet drawn a game this season, but that has now changed as we finish up 2-2 at Alaves. Twice, our right back Allan Nyom gave us the lead, but both times we let is slip and have to settle for a single point.
The squad disappeared off for the October international break (well 5 of them did anyway), with the highlight being Borja getting his first cap for Spain at the age of 27!
Scoring 7 goals in 6 appearances so far this season and appearing on the international stage is raising Borja's stock across Europe and I might just have to fend off some interest in the January transfer window as Newcastle, Liverpool and Al-Nassr have all been scouting our front man.
He couldn't do the business for us against Las Palmas though as we record our worst result of the season so far. This is absolutely a game I'd have expected us to win and to not even really compete throughout was bitterly disappointing.
Despite that defeat, we do remain 3rd in the league though and things are still pretty positive, assuming we can rebound from that defeat OK. But already looking at the points tallys, it would seem this is Real Madrid and Barcelona's league and we're all just playing in it.
Chapter 4
An Incredibly Tight Bottom Half
Sunday 31st December 2023
We kick off this chapter with some bad news as I lose my keeper for up to 5 weeks.
Now if you're looking for a team that has made a disappointing start to the league campaign, then look no further than Athletic Bilbao who came into our game in 12th. And we piled on the misery for them, inflicting another defeat on them here.
From Athletic to Atletico, but this time the result wasn't in our favour as we were turned over by probably the 3rd best team in the country. Again, no shame in this defeat and we put up a decent fight.
It was an absolute goal fest against Sevilla, but one I am pleased to say we came out on the right end of. Borja bagged his second hat trick of the season as he led the line superbly, whilst Allan Nyom again scored from that right wing back position and he has now returned 4 goals from his 7 appearances this season.
To say I am getting the best out of Borja would be an understatement as he is averaging a goal a game so far this season and looks well on course to return his best goal tally in his entire career.
We've had a tough run of fixtures against some of the better sides in the league of late, but we now have five games coming up where we won't play any side in the top 8, so it's an opportunity to hopefully string together some more positive results.
We didn't kick off that run very well though as we can only manage a 0-0 draw with Mallorca who, in all honesty, played us off the park.
Much, much better against Osasuna and a comfortable victory. Our match against Real Vallecano had been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and the extra time we had to prepare for this one seems to have worked in our favour.
A solid defensive performance was the foundation for us earning a decent point away at Girona. Not an amazing game for either set of fans to watch though.
Celta Vigo are 18th in the league and struggling and we battered their goal for a full 90 minutes. We only managed to score a single goal though as Mauro Arambarri nets for the first time this season. Luckily, it was enough to secure the points.
That's five games without losing now, but more impressive is the four clean sheets in a row.
That was our final league game of 2023 and we will finish the calendar year in 6th position, although we do have 1 or 2 games in hand over the sides above us. The biggest surprise is seeing Athletic Bilbao and Valencia right down in the relegation battle. However, things are very tight in the bottom half of the table with just 5 points seperating 9th and 19th.
It wasn't our final match of the calendar year though as we still had the first round of the Copa del Rey to play and we'd drawn Alfaro, minnows from the lower leagues. Despite the gulf in class between the two squads, we still made ****** hard work of getting through though.
Chapter 5
Eyes Set On European Football
Sunday 28th January 2024
We returned from the Christmas break with an excellent win over Valencia. We've completed the double over them this season and that is a great achievement for us and hopefully this result will see us pick up in 2024 where we left off last year.
I may have a situation developing with top goalscorer, Borja. Al-Nassr came in with an offer of £40 million for him which I rejected, but that his ****** him off and now he is edging for the move. It might be a case of extracting as much as I can during this window as I can for him and letting him leave the club :-(
Even though there is a little unrest with him, I still opted to start Borja against Valladolid and I'm pleased to see him maintain his professionalism as he turned in a good performance and scored too.
That game did see us register another clean sheet and that's now 7 in a row which is a new club record.
However, I have now lost one of my most experienced centre backs as Djene Dakonam has left the club to join Al Taawoun. The 33 year old had already decided to leave the club at the end of his contract at the end of the season, so I thought it was better to move him on now and get at least some sort of fee for him rather than allow him to leave on a free. We bagged £3.5 million which isn't bad for a player with 6 months left on their deal and 33 years old.
In the Copa del Rey, we had once again drawn a side from the lower league and just as we did in the first round, we made hard work of it to get past them, leaving it extremely late to score the two goals that saw us through.
One of our star players, Diego Rico, will unfortunately be leaving the club at the end of the season when his contract expires. I tried to keep him, but we just couldn't compete with Newcastle's offer who have almost quadrupled his current wages.
And I have lost another of our wing backs, but with immediate effect and again there wasn't much I could do about it. Juan Iglesias had a minimum fee release clause in his contract of £17.25 million and Atletico Madrid have activated it. Again, I tried to convince him to stay but his mind was already made up with the lure of a bigger club with a bigger reputation than us.
It does put some money into the transfer kitty for me to play with though and now allows me to dip my toes into the January transfer window myself.
Before I had time to start making move in the transfer market, we had an away day at the Nou Camp to contend with. It was a game that saw us concede for the first time in 9 games in all competitions as we fall to a defeat here, which was probably expected in all honesty.
It was then that I made my first signing of the January window as Sean Longstaff comes in from Newcastle on a permanent deal. This might seem underwhelming but I managed to pick him up for a mere £1.6 million and his work rate through the centre of the pitch is second to none. This transfer reminds me a little of Scott McTominay going to Napoli and I hope it pays off in the same way that one has.
Longstaff went straight into the starting lineup for our Copa del Ray clash with Eldense. Again, we'd drawn a lower league side in the cup and after two lacklustre performances in the competition so far, I wanted us to show a bit more in this one and I told the lads as such in our pre-match team talk. They clearly listened to me as we came firing out of the blocks and were 2-0 up inside the first 6 minutes. As it turned out, they were the only two goals of the game and although it would have been nice to score a few more, we are at least safely through to the next round.
The biggest shock of the third round was Barcelona being knocked out by Linares. Their fans will be abolutely furious!
Back in the league, it was derby day against Leganes and even though we were reduced to 10 men in the 40th minute, we still managed to swing the game in our favour. It was an ill tempered affair with the sending off for us and a penalty given away by them (which should have been punished with at least a yellow card as well) but I'm glad to see us come through it with all 3 points.
We remain nicely embedded in the top 4 after 21 games and could rise to 3rd if we win our game in hand. It's the nice 13 point gap that we have back to Mallorca in 8th that pleases me most though as we look to earn some form of European football through our final league position this year.
