So not a complaint about the game, really.
My first save on FM17 proper was with Lokomotiv Moscow but I didn't get far before I decided I wanted to try some other clubs. I ended up giving Bournemouth a look, debating between them and Burnley. Start up the new save. Get 3m Euros to spend, which isn't a ton. Spend a bunch of time creating a short list of promising young players (realizing the true wonderkids are not gonna come to Bournemouth in the first season or two), deciding which staff to get rid of, making offers for new staff, etc.
First Continue after the meeting with the chairman, Liverpool makes a 15m Euro offer for Max Gradel. He's my starting left winger, a really solid player, but he's 28. I mull. I try negotiate. They offer 25m, structured and locked. Now I have a conundrum. I accept. Then I reconsider and go back to the previous save point. When they offer again, I negotiate to 20m Euros up front, 17m over 36 months, and another couple million of add ons. 42m Euros in total. I end up with something like 26m to play with. I'm dreaming of how I will spend this largess.
But when I start looking, the reality hits me. Now Gradel isn't a great player. But he's a good one. Clearly Prem caliber. Fast. Can play on both wings. An Ivorian international so ACN will be an issue. My ideal winger is more of a wide midfielder type but its hard to find one of those that also has the attacking prowess of Gradel who isn't already at a big club. Prem-caliber wingers just aren't easy to find. Wingers with potential, sure. Loads of them. And scouting them, most reports said not interested in a move to Bournemouth. There are several players in the squad who can play at left wing, including my starting right winger Ibe. But none of them off the dynamism of Gradel. I ended up beating out PSG (!?!) for a young Serbian winger from Partizan, the guy who looks like this versions Zivkovic. Scout report said he'd get a Work Permit on appeal. Just kidding! No Work Permit. The Serbian DC who isn't up to Prem standards but looks to have some solid potential... same thing.
Besides the two WP failures, I brought in a bunch of other players to build depth. An 18 year old DM from Real Sociedad, a striker I didn't need (Preciado), another right winger (Bentacur), a young MC from Scandinavia... But still didn't address my left wing, get a good defensive DM (the Serbian center back was supposed to provide cover there), or a proper depth (rather than developmental) center back. And now I'm regretting all of it.
I ended up closing out of that save and looking at a possible save in Germany with Koln, or maybe Werder Bremen. I've enjoyed saves in Germany. No work permits to worry about, plenty of domestic talent which isn't horribly over-priced, and you usually get decent money to spend. I'm also mulling going back to the point I had saved at where I had just done the chairman meeting. I could reject the offer for Gradel and look to sell him in the summer of 2017. Use the smaller amount of money that Bournmouth starts with to get a DC and maybe 2 developmental players.
