Reviving sleeping giants: AS Saint-Étienne

[Linecoigne1998]

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Hello everyone and welcome back to another one of my stories! It's been a while since my last one and following the incredible success of my "Die Werkself: the rebuilding job" story, I've decided to come back and get into yet another story for this year's FM. To be completely honest with you, my interest with the game had kind of died off in the last couple of months with new games coming out on other platforms and that interest being taken elsewhere, but I recently started a personal Alex Ferguson challenge save with Southampton which really got me into the game again.

So you might wonder, "why Saint-Étienne?" and the answer can be broken down a couple of ways:

1. I've really wanted to start a story in France as I'm French myself but also feel like it would be a great challenge to try and dethrone PSG domestically and overtake them as the French powerhouse in Europe.
   
2. I feel like this has the potential to be turned into somewhat of a series where whenever I finish one part of the series (basically revive a sleeping giant), I run a vote to see which other sleeping giant you guys would want me to revive next and this could go on until FM19 comes out if I stay motivated enough to do it.
   
3. Playing the game for fun with any team is definitely great, but it's been a while since I've set myself rules to make things more challenging and more interesting to read as well.
   

Rules:

Challenge	Requirement	Completed
Les Verts back on top	Win the league at least 3 times in a row	YES - champions in: 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22
A new French powerhouse in Europe	Go further than any other French club in Europe for 3 seasons in a row	YES - CL champions in: 2021/2022 2022/2023 2023/2024
Francexit	Can't permanently sign more than 3 foreign (non-European) players per season	YES
Qui ne saute pas n'est pas français!	At least over 50% of the squad must have the French nationality at the end of every season	YES

As you can see, some of the challenges I've set myself will not only take time but will also keep the story interesting since I won't be able to just go and sign all the foreign wonderkids in the game and wait for them to grow and will have to keep a majority of the squad French (or with French nationality) to really make Saint-Étienne a FRENCH powerhouse. If you have any suggestions for other challenges I should add or replace, let me know! And without further ado, let's get started and I hope you enjoy!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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Team introduction and pre-season

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I've undoubtedly arrived at a club with a LOT of history but that hasn't performed in the last couple of decades. Saint-Étienne saw their arch rivals Lyon win the league for 7 years in a row between 2001/02 and 2007/08 and finish above them for the last few decades as well, so there's clearly a lot of room for growth here. I've not been blessed with an incredibly talented side either, and let's just say the board isn't looking like they're going to make my job any easier. Getting Les Verts back on top could take a while.

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In terms of squad depth, it looks like we have a lot in this team but unfortunately, most of the depth isn't exactly quality depth. Some of our top players are only here on loan which could prove to be a problem and with just under 60% of the squad being French, I'm going to have to bring in a couple of French players to at least be able to stay on track with that challenge. Most of the players are still away on holiday and with pre-season not starting for a couple of weeks, I'm going to also have to wait to be able to make any potential signings to strengthen the team or at least build some depth.

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As you can see, I've definitely not been given a lot of room to make any new signings other than free agents, and most of them either want ridiculous wages or just don't want to play for the club. With an 8th place finish in the league last season, we also have no European football which is definitely going to hamper any chances of potential signings we'll have. At least we have quite a few games in pre-season to really evaluate the team and where we need depth or strengthening but this could prove to be a much tougher task than I thought.

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So there it is, 6 games against some lower league French teams and a Belgian team, that's what I'm going to have to base any signings on. On paper, we should smash every single one of these teams at least 3-0 or 4-0 but you never know in football, especially in friendly matches when motivation levels are always low. I'll update you again later with any new signings and at the end of pre-season, when I have a better grasp on where I'll be taking this club.

 

[halleluja]

Hi
was about to start a Saint Etienne save this week myself so I will definitely monitor your progress. Waiting for your squad assessment and possible transfers. Good luck

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Hi
was about to start a Saint Etienne save this week myself so I will definitely monitor your progress. Waiting for your squad assessment and possible transfers. Good luck

Good to hear, good luck to you as well, the transfer budget is definitely going to make it hard to stay competitive against a team like PSG!

 

[Sammuthegreat]

Looks like a good challenge, I'll be following! Not enough French footie on this forum.

Challenge idea - 5 players produced by your academy in the first team squad? Maybe 3 players produced by your academy in the national squad?

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Looks like a good challenge, I'll be following! Not enough French footie on this forum.

Challenge idea - 5 players produced by your academy in the first team squad? Maybe 3 players produced by your academy in the national squad?

Definitely an interesting idea! I could potentially replace the French nationality majority challenge with this one to be honest, I think I'll see how things went at the end of the first season!
Agree about French stories though, never seem to see many on here. I'm having trouble again with uploading pictures now so taking a bit longer to put out the next update, I don't know if it's just happening to me or everyone else but hopefully will manage to find a way to get them to appear when typing up posts soon...

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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Transfers and pre-season results

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Our first piece of business was a departure and Tannane is the player who's had to leave to provide us with some funds for arrivals. The 23-year old wasn't in my plans for next season and I have better options on the wings as well, so the €1.9 million in addition to some expectations tweaking now gives us about €8 million to spend on new players this transfer window.

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The first signing of the season for us is Chuma, a 20-year old Spanish striker who's coming in on a free contract as a backup to Beric and our other potential strikers for this season. Thanks to our scouting team, it seems like he's a very promising youngster who could become a great source of profit if a big club comes in for him if he performs well. Regardless, not having to spend any money for him means he's a great piece of business and I'm excited to see how he performs in pre-season.

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Our next signing was a Nantes centre-back who once again looks very promising for his age. He's already a somewhat decent player and the €2.7 million fee for him means once again we're getting a great deal if he ends up performing. He'll probably be a backup to the likes of Perrin, Subotic and Theophile-Catherine but could definitely play during pre-season and cup matches and who knows, could become a starter if he plays well.

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Our most expensive transfer of this window is yet another youngster and unfortunately, one who'll go back on loan to his club Sochaux as part of the deal. He also looks like a great youngster who can grow immensely and the only reason I know that for sure is that the likes of Arsenal, Monaco, Manchester City and Tottenham were after him. To get him for ourselves is a huge coup and I can only hope that the moment he comes back from his loan he can provide for the club.

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A very successful pre-season other than the 2 draws we got against some lower-league teams and despite conceding in basically every game we played, we're looking good offensively which definitely gives me hope ahead of our opener against Nice in Ligue 1 in early August. We have a couple of days to rest and figure out which team is going to be the best team to put out against them and hopefully we'll manage to get a decent result to start off the season well. The 4-2-3-1 wide seems to be my best bet with this team considering the players I have at my disposal so let's see where this goes and how this changes later on in the season.

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Our title odds aren't looking great obviously and 2 of our 4 opening games are against teams predicted to finish much higher up than us, so it definitely won't be an easy start to the season, especially considering the kind of signings we could make. I'm hopeful these youngsters will improve and get better but when I look at PSG spending ridiculous amounts on new players like €222 million on Neymar, it definitely doesn't compare. Next update, August 2017!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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August 2017: first encounter with the beast

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What an opening match from the lads! Two early goals basically got us the win and our main goalscorer Beric even got on the scoresheet early in the second half as well. A fantastic start to our season which will definitely boost our confidence going forward. With a match against PSG at the end of the month, we need to do everything we can to get going and really go into that game extremely confident and maybe get a draw at the Parc des Princes.

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An extremely disappointing second game. We came back very quickly after going a goal down extremely quickly and despite our efforts, Caen come away with the 3 points. It's still early in the season so it's not such a big deal but we absolutely need to be doing better in the next few games if we want to go on and hopefully qualify for Europe this season.

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Now that's more like it! Offensively, it's fair to say we've been nothing short of incredible. Our defensive work is left to be desired for sure but a 6-1 win in our third game just before our "first encounter with the beast" that is PSG is a great way to prepare for that. We were a goal down for about 15 minutes but managed to get in front before halftime and the rest is history. Absolutely fantastic result for us and now, here's to hoping for a good result against PSG!

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I guess in a way, this really did go as planned... A very, very heavy defeat to take but that's the gap between teams looking to get European football and PSG. A terrible loss but definitely not unsurprising, now it's all about pushing on and keeping our head up and hope to get better results in the next few games now. It's definitely not a bad start with 2 wins from 4 games, but we could've definitely avoided the Caen defeat earlier this month.

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I guess this table really shows that the way teams perform early on doesn't usually shape their season does it? PSG only in 3rd, Monaco in 4th, Guingamp top and Marseille down in 17th. 8th for us isn't the best but it's definitely not the worst either and if we keep up our good work, I can definitely see us continuing to grow and getting good results. It'll all be about the points we get outside of the PSG games at this point, and now that we've got that out of the way, we can focus on our next few games.

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Dijon, Angers, Rennes and Troyes. Dijon and Rennes have been horrendous so far this season, whilst Troyes and Angers have been doing a lot better than many would've expected, so it'll be an interesting month coming up for sure. We've gotten a couple of bad injuries which could definitely hamper our chances at a couple of good results but we'll have to cope with that the best we can. Pictures of the injuries and then, update for September!

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[ninjaskill]

Some good wins to start the season, shame about the PSG result but at least there out the way

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Some good wins to start the season, shame about the PSG result but at least there out the way

Definitely a positive start, if I can get some huge wins like the one against Amiens regularly we're on for a great season!

 

[gfp13]

Been thinking of doing a save as etienne for a while now. Just started a Southampton save and then seen this and it really has me thinking I should be etienne. If I do so I think I will only sign French players. I will be using a target man formation so if anyone has any knowledge of young and tall French strikers that would be great

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Been thinking of doing a save as etienne for a while now. Just started a Southampton save and then seen this and it really has me thinking I should be etienne. If I do so I think I will only sign French players. I will be using a target man formation so if anyone has any knowledge of young and tall French strikers that would be great

Happy to hear I've made you want to start your own save! I'll just warn you though, you're not going to be able to really sign anyone decent in your first season! You'll probably have to be very patient.. good luck though

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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September 2017: urgent changes required!

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So our first game of this month after a 2-week break was against Angers. On paper, we should be winning this game easily. However, that's not how it went... A 2-0 loss at home right after that defeat to PSG really is a kick in the teeth and is making me think that maybe a formation change is in order if we don't want to end up in the relegation zone but the start of next month.

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Funnily enough, these were the two games I said we could struggle with and here we are again. A 3-1 win defeat now makes it 2 wins and 4 losses for the season, putting us down in 13th which is just abysmal. I'm not sure if the system we've been working with just doesn't work that well at all or if it's just the players' confidence that's dropping. With our next game against 19th place Stade Rennais, we really need to get back on track and grab 3 points.

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Well there we go, that's much better! We lose a very important player in Bamba due to an injury unfortunately but we have Hamouma on the bench who can come in and do a job as well, so that's the least of my worries right now. I think this result really does show how open Ligue 1 is right now. We just moved up 6 places in the league and now find ourselves in 7th with just one decent win, so clearly we need to keep those going if we want to continue climbing up the table into the European places. Beric is starting to come alive as well, which is great to see.

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Well then, that whole "getting a good result to keep going up" idea didn't last long. A 1-1 draw with a team now in 5th place is, on paper, really not that bad but that team is Troyes who were just recently promoted and that's just not acceptable. The positive thing is that Hamouma, who's replacing Bamba on the right wing, has performed very well and gets the player of the match award for his troubles. We find ourselves down in 13th again though, and that's not a good sight for me, the board, the players and the fans.

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Marseille are still really struggling, PSG are now imposing their dominance on the league and Monaco are following closely. Lyon also aren't doing the best but they have a game in hand over a couple of teams, so could end up higher up the table. As for me, we're behind two of the three newly promoted teams in Amiens and Troyes, and we really need to do better than that. October is looking kind to use to be honest with you, but the last time I said that was with our September fixtures and we ended up getting just one win from four games...

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Metz and Toulouse are both behind us in the league and once again, we should be winning those games. Montpellier have had a surprisingly good season so far and we'll have to work hard for a result against them for sure but I'm confident we can do it! Finally, we also have a Coupe de la Ligue game against Lorient, who currently sit in 4th in Ligue 2, so clearly also a decent side to come up against. With the board expecting us to reach the 4th round, nothing other than a win is acceptable in that fixture. Next up, the October update!

 

[gfp13]

Really enjoying reading this and I will be using your season/results as a measuring stick of where I should be at... having had a look over the squad I’m really light in the striker department, especially since I’m using a target man... bleric will be okay for now but with me slowly fading out the non-French players he will need to be replaced on my long journey of taking etienne back to the top of French football. Hoping to hang onto diousse for a while for him to develop and bring in a nice fee

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Really enjoying reading this and I will be using your season/results as a measuring stick of where I should be at... having had a look over the squad I’m really light in the striker department, especially since I’m using a target man... bleric will be okay for now but with me slowly fading out the non-French players he will need to be replaced on my long journey of taking etienne back to the top of French football. Hoping to hang onto diousse for a while for him to develop and bring in a nice fee

Really glad to hear you're enjoying it so far, there are definitely a couple of players with some nice potential that can bring in a lot of money later down the years which will be really useful. You should take a look at some of the players that are out on loan like Lecroix and Diony. Both of them are doing really well in my save out on loan and once they come back if I decide to not use them they can bring in a nice amount of money for next season!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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October 2017: building up some form

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We got off to a great start in October with a really good 3-1 win against Metz. I have to say, I was a little worried about this game purely because we did so badly against some of the teams in the lower half of the table earlier in the season, but clearly we finally found some form and we're now 3 games unbeaten, which is great to see. We're still conceding basically a goal a game, which isn't good but if we can outscore our opponents, we'll win (brought out my inner Michael Owen there).

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Now this was supposed to be our big game of the month. Montpellier have been doing incredibly well and were on the back of a 4-1 win against Nice, one of the better sides in the league. Granted, Nice have started the season off really badly but they're a good side regardless and this game against Montpellier worried me. What was the point?! We absolutely smashed them! Beric once again scores his second hat-trick of the season and becomes one of the top scorers in the league. With 10 goals in 10 games, he's right up there with the likes of Cavani (who has 17 goals in 10 games, 4 of which are against us...).

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I lined up a bit of a backup team for this cup game expecting the worst, but we go out 3-1 winners, at home once again, and go through to the next round. Considering how important Cabella has been for this team since the start of the season, I can only pray we make up the funds necessary to get him at the end of the season or find a decent replacement for him! He's been absolutely incredible and continues his great run of form, with Bamba performing well on his return from injury as well.

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That makes it 4 wins from 4 this month! Incredible run of form with Cabella scoring yet again and sneaking into the top goalscorer charts as well as the assists charts! A good result away from home as well, since we were struggling away for the last couple of games. We're now up in 7th after 3 wins in a row in the league and 5 matches unbeaten and are just 3 points from second place Angers (Angers?! are you kidding me).

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If PSG weren't as good as they were, Cabella would definitely be in the run in for player of the year. If he keeps this form up, I can really see us finishing in European places this season already, which would be incredible considering the last couple of seasons Saint-Étienne have had. We have some huge games coming up next, mainly against our absolute arch rival Olympique Lyonnais, and if we win against them and other results go our way, we could sneak up into the top 3!

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Lyon are by far our toughest game of November. Bordeaux and Lille will also be tough games considering they're just below the mid-table, and Strasbourg, especially at home, should be 3 guaranteed points. Last time I said that, it didn't go too well so let's hope they don't decide to wake up and play well against us! Up next, the November results!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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November 2017: fighting for Europe

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The first news we got this month was injury news, and for one of our starters as well! He'll be out for 3-4 months, thankfully we have Dioussé on the bench who can come in and do a job, he also has a lot of potential and is a lot younger as well so it should be for the best.

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Cabella, who's been absolutely terrific so far this season, finally gets some recognition and wins player of the month for October as well, things are looking good for us! Beric comes in 3rd for the award as well, so it's very clear now that Cabella and Beric are the anchors of this team down the middle and should absolutely be starting every game now.

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Absolutely devastating. We've been working so hard in the last couple of games to get to a point where we could beat the likes of Lyon and we go on and lose. At home as well! To make matters worse, our starting left-back in M'Bengue is now injured for 2-3 weeks which is just even more devastating. It was a very tight game to be fair, but Lyon were the better finishers and we lose at home for the first time in a while. We can just move on now and focus on the Lille and Bordeaux games, because those will be very tough as well and we need points now that we've lost out on 3 today. One thing's for sure, we will be coming roaring for the return leg in Lyon next time we face them!

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The expectation from the board for the Coupe de la Ligue was to get to the 4th round and we've done just that and that might be as far as we go. On paper, Guingamp definitely aren't one of the top teams in France but they've been incredible so far this season and I'm worried we might lose to them, especially away from home. Considering we definitely won't win Ligue 1, it would be amazing to put a great cup run together and I just hope it'll be in this competition!

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A fantastic result away from home, scoring 4 goals as well! Cabella is still on fire, our defence definitely isn't but it's getting better. I believe we actually have a better attack than PSG at this point in the season, but have the 17th worst defence in the league, so I guess we know what we have to improve on in the next couple of months! Winning 4-2 against Lille away is a great result and we now move on to Strasbourg, one of the worst teams in the league this season; hopefully 3 guaranteed points.

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Bamba has been incredible ever since he came back from his injury and that form continues today! A very early goal from him got us ahead and at home against Strasbourg, let's just say we were never going to lose. A 4-1 victory is a great result, yet another goal conceded but we keep on scoring which is incredible. That result gets us up to 5th now, into the Europa League group stage places, so the good news keep coming!

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Our away form, as well as our defence, continues to suffer as we draw 2-2 against Bordeaux in the south of France. It would have been great to finish the month on a high note and win but we stay in 5th with that result, and I'm more than happy with that. Cabella will be in the running for player of the month again for November this time so that's also great to see, and I'm hoping to keep seeing these positive results now until the Christmas break after our game on the 20th of December.

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As I said earlier, we sit in 5th. We're level on points with Nantes, who have been very impressive this season, and just 3 points away from the Champions League places. PSG are obviously still cruising, with just one defeat (in their opening game) in 15 games. Our arch rivals Lyon are also quite high above us but I believe we can catch them if we keep playing well. Marseille, unfortunately for us, have started to get some form back and are now in 14th, 2 points away from the relegation zone.

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The reason why I said unfortunately for us about Marseille earlier, is because we're facing them this month. December is supposed to be a time of joy and happiness with Christmas and New Year's coming up but this will be the absolute opposite for us with an opening game against Nantes, who have been very good this season, then a game against Marseille, one of the top teams in the league, Guingamp in the cup which could be a very good or very bad result for us, Monaco the Ligue 1 holders and finishing off with Guingamp again, who'll either want revenge if we beat them in the cup or just want to rub salt in the wound if they knock us out. Let's pray for the best now, next update will be the December results and a mid-season review to see if any players have to go or if any signings are absolutely necessary.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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December 2017: a well-deserved break

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Just when I was starting to think about the Christmas break and the two weeks off we'd have, the French FA come at me to tell me about the fixture we have right after the break! It never stops. We'll be playing Bastia in the ninth round of the Coupe de France, which is probably one of the easiest fixtures we could've gotten to be honest. The board expects us to get to the 11th round of the competition, and we're basically already in the 10th one. In case you guys don't know, Bastia finished bottom of the league last season and were going to play in Ligue 1 this year but got relegated to the 3rd division for financial reasons, hence why Paris FC is now playing in Ligue 2.

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The first game of the month was a huge one against Nantes, who have been defying expectations this season. When Théophile-Catherine got sent off in the 79th minute (on top of getting injured for a month...), I have to say it looked like we were going to go on and lose 2 points and draw the game, but the fans stayed behind us and we got the win, thanks to our hero Rémy Cabella, who continues to have a stellar season. This is getting us even closer to the Champions League spots now to be honest and with 1st place already going to PSG basically 99.9%, that means we'll have to fight against Lyon and Monaco for one of those spots if we keep our form up.

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This game and the Monaco game were the most worrying for me and look at that! A 2-1 win away from home against Marseille. I think if this result hasn't sealed it, one bad result for Rudi Garcia will get him sacked for sure, as Marseille continue their abysmal form and sit in 15th. But what a result for us! Dioussé got his second goal of the season in the 2nd minute before our beloved captain Loïc Perrin went and made it 2-0 in the first 15 minutes. It was an incredible result for us and despite Thauvin's 25th minute goal, we held on and got the 3 points, keeping us in 4th place and very close to Monaco in 3rd. Coincidently, our next game in Ligue 1? Monaco.

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Bamba requested a new contract before the Marseille game and despite his amazing performances, I have to say I wasn't that keen on giving him one, despite interest from Valencia, Monchengladbach and other big European clubs. After the Marseille game, I just thought "well thank God I promised him a new contract!". He'll be staying with us until 2022, which is huge considering how key he's been so far this season and how promising he still seems to be.

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I knew this would be a tough game but still decided to play more of a reserve team against Guingamp in the cup to rest my key players for the game against Monaco and despite being very, very close, we still got the win and are now in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue! Winning on penalties definitely goes against the whole "resting players for the Monaco game" idea but we're continuing our cup run, which I couldn't be happier about.

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In all my excitement and knowing the board would be in a good mood, I immediately went and asked them if we could improve the youth facilities and they agreed immediately. We'll have to wait a while until we bring out wonder kids from the academy every year but this is a start for sure!

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Just before our big game against Monaco, I had to go and attend the draw for the Coupe de la Ligue quarter-finals and I don't know whether to be happy or not about it. We got Angers, a team who have been absolutely incredible in the league this season considering the expectations from the media earlier in the season, and it'll definitely be a very, very tough game. On the other hand, we lost to them in Ligue 1 earlier this season and I'm hoping this will give the players an incentive to go and grab a win, on top of a place in a cup semi-final.

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Okay now settle down! A 4-0 win against Monaco? I must be dreaming right? Beric somehow always seems to score in those big games and decide to play like one of the best strikers in the world in those games and you know what? I'll take it! We played with 10 men for 40 minutes and didn't conceded a single goal, even scored a 4th one in the second half! What an effort from the lads, and what a huge win this is in the race for Europe! I was thinking at the start of the season if we could reach the Europa League spots, it would be a very successful season but now we're competing for Champions League spots! Absolutely unreal.

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Well, I called it back in late November. The result from the cup game between us a week earlier would dictate how this game would go and considering how close the Coupe de la Ligue match was, I'm guessing they came out blazing knowing that they could win the game as easily as they could lose it. Fair play to them, they played very well at home and despite our away form getting better and better, we couldn't come out on top and go back down to 4th after Monaco's win against Rennes. We've still had an incredible first half to the season and I couldn't be happier, especially because this was a game that could go either way. Now then, let's take a look at how well we'e done exactly in this first half of the season!

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So in terms of individual stats, we have the second top goalscorer in the league in Beric, who has 15 goals in 19 games. That's an incredible return and actually a little over 1/3 of all our goals in the league this season, incredible. Cabella is in second in the assists chart, just behind Neymar and once again showing how incredible he's been this season. His assists definitely aren't what are showing that though. In terms of average rating, which usually helps decide who wins player of the year in most leagues, Cabella is 1st in front of that Neymar guy, you know that Brazilian who recently moved to PSG for a very small fee of €222 million and is now earning about €700,000 a week? Yeah that guy. Cabella is ahead of HIM, in the running for player of the year! Incredible stuff and that just showcases how well we've been doing so far this season.

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As you can see from the league table, we're far from being guaranteed European football since Angers, who have the second Europa League spot, are level on points with us and we're just helped by our ridiculous attack of 49 goals scored, more than PSG. We're just 2 points behind Monaco but 5 points behind our rivals Lyon, and let's just say that the second half of the season is going to be incredibly competitive and tough. Who said the "farmer's league" wasn't competitive, huh?

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Other than Debuchy at right back and Hamouma at right wing, both of whom are only in the team due to injuries and suspensions, this has been our best 11 of the season so far. As you can see, we clearly have some of the best performing players in the league and the team as a whole has been incredible and definitely deserving of a 4th place finish. Now if you remember, the last time something really good happened to us and the board was in a good mood, I did something. Well, I did it again.

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Our transfer budget before I made this request was down to €600,000 due to our previous transfers earlier in the summer transfer window. The board is so happy with how the team and I have done so far that they agreed to give me an additional €4.5 million to spend! It's obviously not a lot of money, but defensively we're lacking quality (which definitely isn't proved by the ratings our defenders have to be honest) and €5 million could go a long way whether we decide to save it for next season or spend it all in January. Personally, I'm tempted to go and spend it and bring in some new players to fight for the Champions League but we'll have to wait and see who's available on the market. After a very intense first half of the season, we now get a well-deserved 2-week break and when we come back, we'll have a lot of work to do, 6 games in just one month in January to be exact, as you can see below. When I come back, you'll get the January update!

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[Sammuthegreat]

Lovely stuff great season so far! It'll be a **** of a job to knock PSG off their perch but give it a few seasons and you can do it - especially with some lovely Champions League funding coming in

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Lovely stuff great season so far! It'll be a **** of a job to knock PSG off their perch but give it a few seasons and you can do it - especially with some lovely Champions League funding coming in

Absolutely! Hey you never know, Monaco did it last season so with a couple of results going our way, we could do some damage! My main worry now is that Cabella will be gone at the end of the season, but hopefully with some money and European football (and none for Marseille), we could get him back! And about the funding you're absolutely right, I think that's where the main gap is I mean, we have a €5 million transfer budget, they probably have about 50 times that!