The under £70m club challenge. Part one - which team should I be?

[falshaw316]

Hello, I have decided to challenge myself and thaught I would make an FM story about it! The basic premise of the challenge is that I will start a brand new game and base my selection using one criteria: the club must be valued at the start of the game at under £70m!

I will base my selection on a number of things:
The squad

• Does this team have a good squad capable of challenging for the league quickly?
• Does the squad have an outstanding player / valuable asset?
• Does the squad have an outstanding young player(s) / wonderkid (such as Sakho at PSG, Paloschi at Parma etc)
• Will I be able to feature a lot of players from the clubs national team? Its not important – I just like to have a lot of my squad playing in the national team.

The clubs potential

• Is the club of a high enough stature to attract players of the quality I want?
• Does the club already pay good wages – this will indicate if I will be limited in the transfer market through not being able to compete with salaries offered by rival teams.
• Is the club in good financial health (ie: do they have a large loan debt)? I want the increased revenue / profit the club generates through my success (hopefully) to go into the squad or facilities – not paying back the bank!
• Does the club have a big stadium? This will help increase revenue (and ultimately let me afford the best players) and may eventually be expanded even further.
• Is the club in the Champions League (to get more money)?
• What are the facilities like? Things such as stadium condition, training facilities and youth academy will be considered here.
• Will I be limited financially by the league? A smaller club in a bigger league (such as Stoke or Athletic Bilbao) may have more potential than a big club in a small league (such as Celtic and Ajax).
• How many Champions League places are there available in that particular league? Some countries have more Champions League places up for grabs than others – for example Scotland and England.
• Does the league have a dominant set of clubs which will be difficult to break? I tend to find La Liga the hardest league to win in the game due to the dominance of Real Madrid / Barcelona who seem impossible to beat and never lose!

So with all these factors in mind, I will look into choosing a club. My minimum aim is to win the league at least 3 times and win the Champions League within 6 seasons.

Rules

• I have to start the game with a club worth £69m or under.
• I am able to pay for a player over a period of time – maximum 12 months. This makes it more challenging as paying over 48 months doesn’t really take much from your transfer kitty. I don’t think it makes much difference over 12 months and it means that most players are bought and paid for by the next “start of season expectations” email.
• I am able to change clubs – but only if the club I move to is worth less than whatever my club is worth at the time of resignation. For example if I start a game with Galatasaray (worth £56m at the start) and raise its value to £80m, then I am only able to move to a club worth £80m or under.
• No editing allowed and using the original patch (10.0.0).

Who to chose (my shortlist)….

• Celtic – Although it is a big club with a good squad, I am not sure if the SPL will generate me enough money to compete in the Champions League.
• Galatasaray – Easily the best squad in the league with lots of Turkish internationals. Also moving into a new stadium soon. However, they are in lots of debt and, as with Celtic, I am not sure how good they will be in the Champions League.
• Ajax – Excellent facilities, Luis Suarez and plenty of good Dutch players on FM10 but I am a bit concerned that bigger teams will find it easy to acquire / unsettle my best players meaning it will take ages to establish a good squad.
• Werder Bremen – The second best squad in Germany with good players in the shape of Ozil and Mertesacker but inferior facilities and earning potential as their rivals.
• West Ham – Lots of potential due to being in the Premier League but heavily in debt and lots if work to do on the squad.
• Schalke – Good players and excellent facilities and stadium but heavily in debt which will affect transfer and wage budgets
• Stuttgart – The only German club other than Bayern who are considered “rich” and have good facilities. There squad is only the 5th best in the league though.

Which team should I be to start my adventure? Remember, I want to win the league 3 times and the Champions League once in 6 seasons!