Finally started all over again, and just spent 5 hours in the initial transfer window to tweak the squad. It really took forever, with numerous transfers going on at the same time, loads of clauses affecting my transfer budget, and it also forced me into selling some players at pretty low prices.
But it all paid off in the end, and I ended up with this squad:
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Midfield looks especially strong, with the likes of Lucas, Gerrard, Verratti and Hughes. Will probably have to rotate a bit to give them all sufficient playing time. Kept Joe Allen for depth as he's on fairly low wages and provides decent backup for Lucas.
In defence I also bolstered with Shaw and De Sciglio, who will get a fair amount of playing time along with Johnson. Enrique as backup, since I couldn't offload him and might just come in handy anyway. Also bought Balanta, arguably one of the biggest talents in the game. He'll rotate with Agger and Sakho, with Kelly providing additional depth. For emergencies I'm able to recall Wisdom from loan.
As for attack I ended up selling both Suarez and Sturridge. Suarez was planned, but had to sell Sturridge cheap to allow new signings. Brought in Gaitan for AMR IF, who can also play AML. Same goes for Sterling and Moses, and also Vela can play on both sides. With Suarez and Sturridge out and Aspas on loan, it's Vela, Fierro and Zivkovic who will be fighting for the striker position. Hopefully Vela can live up to his great poacher attributes, as both Fierro and especially Zivkovic are still young and might vary in performances.
Transfer window:
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I had to choose title challenge for the best budgets, but even with that I still had to sell Sturridge for a measly ?7.5m, Henderson for ?4m, and rid myself of Reina and Skrtel. As you can see from the screenshot my transfer budget is now at ?0, though I still have ?80K p/w excess wage.
All in all pretty happy with the window, especially considering how hard it was to balance it all out. Had transfers cancelled several times due to lack of funds, and had to act fast and sell players below half their value (Henderson and Sturridge) to make the ends meet. But I landed some big talents who will hopefully dominate for years to come, meaning I can strengthen with just one or two big signings next summer if all goes well.
Almost feels like I won a title already, even though I still haven't played a single Premier League match yet.
