My experience(s)
1. Monaco are infamous for FM2013 (at least pre January update) as having a squad that looks as if it would walk Ligue 2 and yet even with (because of?) quality additions it is a real struggle even coming 3rd and getting promoted.
2. Having had a save pre- January where I experienced the above not only in the first season but in the next seasons as well (on getting promoted I had a squad which was worse than only PSG and yet I still struggled to impose myself against teams much weaker) I decided to start a new one with the January update in order to try to use the experience gained first time round in order to avoid it happening again to me (by eg not buying players en masse - which I did; I bought quite a few but I did it more sensibly and even where they were better than what I had I still mainly used what I had and blooded them in gradually) and to try players I didnt try/rarely tried before such as SASSA and MAUPAY.
3. Well, having finished the first season it still was a real struggle getting promoted (finished third about 12 points behind the leader - EN AVANT GINCAMP (sp)) and at the start I got very near getting sacked (the nearest I have been to it since I first played FM). But it WAS quite an enjoyable save and I was shocked at how easily I managed to win both the Cup and the Coupe de Ligue!
4. The transfer budget is 13.9m and wages are generous. Coupled with that is the very rich chairman who keeps pumping money in the team as well as being supportive to you in buying players so they are an ideal team to build into something formidable relatively quickly. You can try to sell what little deadwood there is but its well neigh impossible in the first season. I used instalments quite heavily as there is no financial danger.
4. The squad:
GKs - Subasic is the best they have but frankly doesnt look very good. Sourzac doesnt have great stats but star-wise he looks promising. So I tried to sell the former but it proved impossible so I sent him to the reserves. He did not complain once. I kept the latter as back up and bought Pierrick Cros for around 4 mil who is quite good (needs some work on distribution mainly). By the second year Sourzac not only did not improve stat-wise but he lost two stars from the four he started with so out he went (sold). His replacement was a french GK I have used before and was pretty happy about: ALI AHAMADA (cost me around 8m including instalments. Bought first January).
FBs/WBs: This is another area where there's loads of decent to great players (the squad has even more GKs than indicated above but have fun trying to shift them even on frees!). However as with most other positions almost all FBs/WBs start out as being 4* potential or more but drastically fall in the second season with little or no attribute change (unless its my training!). Anyways Tzavellas is the best one and by the second season his value shoots up to 6m (26yo at the start). Andrea Raggi (also plays at cb) and Appiah are pretty decent and there's also Layvin Kurzawa who looks like a good prospect till you find yourself in Ligue 1 second season and find he hasnt improved almost at all.
I note here that perhaps my style of playing FM makes me too stict about players - what I do is I play to win stuff from the get go and developing players is not near the top of my priorities - raking in the trophies and cash is!
I bought Romario from Vitoria. I couldnt use him in Ligue 2 as I only could use two non-eu players and those were Ocampos and Sassa but I bought him to use him in the cups and give him one of the 4 non eu slots allowed in Ligue 1. Did the former but when it came to the latter I brought in SCOCCO on a free and DZEKO off the transfer list so Romario had to go on loan.
I also bought KIKO FEMENIA from Barcelona B. The guy is an absolute legend. Cost me 250k which is about a 10th of his real value bearing in mind his stats and performance. Plays at LB/RB and RW.
Christopher Dibon also came in the first preseason dirt cheap (around 500k if memory serves) and was pretty solid at rb/cb whenever called upon (mostly off the bench but never once complained).
Loaned in De Sciglio in the first season who was AWESOME. But I didnt buy him as at the time I had to use the money elsewhere.
N. Clyne (great) and Seb Corchia (legend) eventually got picked off the transfer list ((FM 2013 sure is the most difficult of all but the amount of freebies/transferlisted great players is ridiculous!)
CBs: Wolf starts 4* and is great but 2nd season he goes to 2* and is 32 so despite no drop in actual ability he got sold in the second season (for fear that I would not be able to get anywhere near the 4m I got for him if I let him get older).
Gary Kagelmasher is younger (no spring chicken tho), 4* (drops to 3 second season) and is an absolute legend.
They are both great but other than the abovementioned Raggi there's no decent cover so reinforcements are necessary.
Strandberg came in for 600k first season summer
Brought in J. Ivens on a free (later sold on) and Ashley Williams off the transfer list in the second season and Papastathopoulos (great!) in the third.
DMs: Delvin Dinga is young able and with good potential. If you use him carefully he ll serve you for long, Nampalys Mendy flatters to deceive and is another one of 4* to 2* star no improvement players. You will offload him second season.
Dumont is decent and experienced but I had to sell him third season as he wanted much more than was worth to renew contract and negotiations broke down.
Strandberg can be used here but I brought in Simao, Pizarro, Capoue (transfer list second season), Matuidi (free third season), Nainggollan (transfer list Jan second season).
Loaned Chantome second season also tho he's not really a DM and bought Selnaes for 300k who is also no DM and is better at cm/rw.
CM/AM: Jacob Poulsen and Nacer Barazite are both great and also play at am/wings. I bought in Mistdjo and used the aforementioned Chantome here. I also found Barrada (sp) an awesome stat Algerian playing in Spain in the third season for free and got SCOCCO for free in the third season to use at am/wings. I cant RECOMMEND SCOCCO ENOUGH. HE CAN PLAY AT CF AS WELL AND HAD THE FANS CONFIDENCE BAR TO FULL AFTER ONE FRIENDLY!!!
SASSA was bought in the first season to have as additional cover at CF but half the time he was used very successfully at AM.
Same goes for NEAL MAUPAY who I bought in the first summer. I know how liked this guy is in the forum but after using him at Newcastle in an earlier save where he was great he wasnt so this save.
Valere Germain is also a player they have but I never found out where to use him and sold him second season.