Football Manager 2020

[Nath182]

19 hours ago, villa4europe said:

almada is such a cheap easy buy and great for pretty much every team I've played about with on it (even my top the hall of fame attempt with PSG he was a starter)

on my first villa save I got Esposito on loan as soon as he signed his pro contract with an obligation to buy at the end of the season, top scorer in the PL as a 17 year old kid, don't think I've ever bought pellegri before but he was mental on a save I had on last years game

I like stuff like Esposito scoring the penalty Lukaku let him take, I would say he is one of the current wonderkids that I feel like I know thanks to FM (Szoboszlai being the other one) I've tried other strikers such as silva and zirkee but I always seem to come back to Esposito (also tried Lautaro Martinez on a few saves, I cannot get a tune out of him at all)

I've just finished my 4th season with Villa and Almada was excellent, unfortunately he demanded to leave so sold him for £103m to Chelsea in the Jan window. Currently got Esposito but it seems every top team want to buy him so expect him to leave this summer  

[Villaphan04]

So halfway through the January transfer window and have brought in 7 on loan:

Felix Nmecha from Man City 

Lukas Mai & Christian Früchtl from Bayern

Felix Götze from Augsburg

Jamie Shackleton, Leif Davis, & Robbie Gotts from Leeds. 

I might look at one or two more, but I will say I'm very surprised that the clubs are letting me loan them as I'm a Serie C team. Most of them are on two-year loans and hopefully might be able to buy some of them depending on promotion to Serie B/A. 

[Hornso]

Summer transfer just slammed shut in my 2nd season at Villa. Here's my main deals:

INS:

Nick Pope - 15m (17m) - From relegated Burnley. Tried to get McNeil as well but they wanted 60m plus.
Bobby Adekanye - 6m - From Lazio
Janik Haberer - Free - Augsberg
Thiago Almada - 8.5m - Velez
Deyovaisio Zeefuik - 3.6m - Groningen
Felipe Cruz - Benfica B - 950k
Matty Longstaff - Newcastle - 24m
Matej Kovar - Manchester United - 500k (U/23 keeper after cleaning house and only have Pope & Mvongo)
Dennis Praet - Loan - Leicester

OUTS:

Henri Lansbury - Swansea - Free
Borja Baston - CSKA - Free
Matija Sarkic - Napoli - 325k + 25% of next sale
Ahmed Elmohamady - Brondby - 1m
Lovre Kalinic - Krasnodar - 3.7m (4.5m)
Jed Steer - Famalicao - 675k
Trezeguet - Stuttgart - 10.25m + 25% of next sale
Keinan Davis - Lincoln - 875k
James Bree - Luton - 85k
Scott Hogan - Swansea - Loan with 7.25m buy clause after 20 apps

Started with two wins followed by two defeats to Arsenal & Liverpool. Bloody Liverpool after winning the league last season with 101 points only went out and bought Haaland. Plus Chelsea (still with Kepa) bought Oblak from Atletico and then Sancho from Dortmund!

 

[Mjvilla]

 

2 and a half seasons in and good progress made. Finished 7th second season and qualified for euro cup 2. Didn't know that was a thing. Half way through the third season and challenging 5th but not quite consistent enough to hit top 4 yet. Dominating games but not taking chances. 30 shots, 15 on target, 4 CCC home to Norwich. Lost 1-0 from their 7 shots and 3 on target. 

I have 

Farinez (GK), Victor Gomez (RB), Mings (CB), soyuncu (CB), poulsen (lb), Orel Mangala (DMC), mcginn (cm), Grealish (cm), francisco truncao (AML), Harry Wilson (AMR), Esposito (SC)  with the likes of dougluiz, Konsa, Louie Barry, greenwood, trezeguet, Vallejo, Devan, abouchabaka, guilbert and a few others in the squad. Very exciting squad with the RB position the one I want to sort out the most. Victor Gomez hasn't done well and guilbert is ok. 

Leicester got relegated with an incredible squad and have sold most of the good players. I managed to pluck soyuncu and was 10 million away from maddison. They lost tielemans, schmeichel, chilwell, Pereira, praet, maddison, Barnes amongst others that I can't remember. Incredible really. Looking at this season's table west ham and Everton are in trouble. Hoping for similar fire sales there to help me out.

[Nath182]

41 minutes ago, Mjvilla said:

 

2 and a half seasons in and good progress made. Finished 7th second season and qualified for euro cup 2. Didn't know that was a thing. Half way through the third season and challenging 5th but not quite consistent enough to hit top 4 yet. Dominating games but not taking chances. 30 shots, 15 on target, 4 CCC home to Norwich. Lost 1-0 from their 7 shots and 3 on target. 

I have 

Farinez (GK), Victor Gomez (RB), Mings (CB), soyuncu (CB), poulsen (lb), Orel Mangala (DMC), mcginn (cm), Grealish (cm), francisco truncao (AML), Harry Wilson (AMR), Esposito (SC)  with the likes of dougluiz, Konsa, Louie Barry, greenwood, trezeguet, Vallejo, Devan, abouchabaka, guilbert and a few others in the squad. Very exciting squad with the RB position the one I want to sort out the most. Victor Gomez hasn't done well and guilbert is ok. 

Leicester got relegated with an incredible squad and have sold most of the good players. I managed to pluck soyuncu and was 10 million away from maddison. They lost tielemans, schmeichel, chilwell, Pereira, praet, maddison, Barnes amongst others that I can't remember. Incredible really. Looking at this season's table west ham and Everton are in trouble. Hoping for similar fire sales there to help me out.

Is that Mason Greenwood from United? Nice squad there! I still struggle with right back, Guilbert was never very good for me. Davide Calabria from Milan has been an OK replacement but behind him I've got nothing.

I'm about to start my 5th season, managed to get Esposito to sign a new deal as no one came in with an offer for him and was coming into the last year of his deal. Also signed Alessio Riccardi from Roma, Dayot Upamecano from RB Leipzig, Chris Mepham from Bournemouth and Brahim Diaz from Real. 

[Mjvilla]

1 hour ago, Nath182 said:

Is that Mason Greenwood from United? Nice squad there! I still struggle with right back, Guilbert was never very good for me. Davide Calabria from Milan has been an OK replacement but behind him I've got nothing.

I'm about to start my 5th season, managed to get Esposito to sign a new deal as no one came in with an offer for him and was coming into the last year of his deal. Also signed Alessio Riccardi from Roma, Dayot Upamecano from RB Leipzig, Chris Mepham from Bournemouth and Brahim Diaz from Real. 

Yeah, mason greenwood. He's only on loan otherwise he would be a starter. Rather develop the players I own.

Upamecano is about to go for £70million to chelsea on my save so you'll have done well to get him.

Have you had any decent intakes? I've had a poor and a mediocre. And the preview of the latest intake is mediocre again. Despite improvements to youth coaching and recruitment and facilities!! Annoying me a bit.

 

[Nath182]

12 minutes ago, Mjvilla said:

Yeah, mason greenwood. He's only on loan otherwise he would be a starter. Rather develop the players I own.

Upamecano is about to go for £70million to chelsea on my save so you'll have done well to get him.

Have you had any decent intakes? I've had a poor and a mediocre. And the preview of the latest intake is mediocre again. Despite improvements to youth coaching and recruitment and facilities!! Annoying me a bit.

 

Ah ok, was wondering as Greenwood is a machine on my save. Yeah agree with you on that, best to develop your own players.

Think I paid about £50m for Upamecano as he was transfer listed.

I've had nothing in the way of youth intakes, haven't brought anyone through from our own academy at all. I've managed to persuade the board to invest in Youth recruitment and Youth Facilities too recently so hopefully will improve in the future. Randomly Jacob and Aaron Ramsey have both sold recently for around £16m each, couldn't believe it!

 

[Pembers]

Not sure if this has been mentioned here before but someone imported the FM 07 database into FM2020 so everything is as it was in the 06/07 season, you can play a villa save with the likes of Melberg, Laursen, Bouma, Barry, Petrov, Djemba-Djemba, Angel.

It's interesting looking at the youth teams and seeing who the game thought was and wasn't going to make it back then, pretty much every player who did actually end up playing in the Villa first team is rated as terrible and i'd never even heard of a couple of the players who they gave 4/5 star potential.

If you want to play it search 2006 07 DB on the steam workshop and it has instructions for how to set it up.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Pembers

[Hornso]

I forgot to mention I signed a 17yr old Uruguayan striker Matias Arezo as my scouts said "Sign at any price". Anyone played with him and know if he's any good? Striker I think is my major weakpoint and Esposito hasn't come up on my scouting radar at all. He seems to be the consensus choice around here. 

Anyway Arezo is joining in January.

[Nath182]

9 hours ago, Hornso said:

I forgot to mention I signed a 17yr old Uruguayan striker Matias Arezo as my scouts said "Sign at any price". Anyone played with him and know if he's any good? Striker I think is my major weakpoint and Esposito hasn't come up on my scouting radar at all. He seems to be the consensus choice around here. 

Anyway Arezo is joining in January.

Arezo is really good, never signed him myself but I'm on a few FM Facebook groups and seen him turn into a really decent player.

[villa4europe]

9 hours ago, Hornso said:

I forgot to mention I signed a 17yr old Uruguayan striker Matias Arezo as my scouts said "Sign at any price". Anyone played with him and know if he's any good? Striker I think is my major weakpoint and Esposito hasn't come up on my scouting radar at all. He seems to be the consensus choice around here. 

Anyway Arezo is joining in January.

That's why I don't use my scouting assignments 

I do it all manually, never seen arezo though, don't think my game will get a database big enough to have him on it

Start with the u21s and u19s manually scout every player, then systematically go through all of the top leagues top teams plus a selection of world teams with high reputation (boca, River, colo colo etc) do it every summer and every january, I used to look up the regen dates and do it around then so very very rarely you could get one before they signed their pro terms

Edited April 27, 2020 by villa4europe

[Dante_Lockhart]

How much of a handicap do you think it would be to only buy transfer listed players? Maybe add poaching U18 players from other teams too.

Aim to stop my mad spending and to stick with the guys I have / develop the younger guys.

Might add a clause in that if one of my key players gets sold (e.g. Grealish, Mings) then I'm allowed to reinvest that money for a replacement.

[villa4europe]

Playing as villa then I would say substantial (I still don't get any decent youth from them) 

I have to use installments and bonuses to build a team which you obviously can't do, I would extend it to free transfers and minimum buy outs at least but even then you'd still have my main bug bearer with trying to build a Villa team which is work permits 

Also then think you would need a very large database, not that many players get transfer listed on my current game 

[tomav84]

absolutely smashing it with villa on my game...in the year 2036. but i need some advice please people. the board want the best youth system in the country, which i am falling short on, but aside from constantly asking them to improve facilities, youth recruitment etc, what can i do? the u23s win the league every year (no promotions though) and even won the EFL trophy.

[Mjvilla]

I remember why I love and hate this game in equal measures now!!

Semi final, second leg of the Europa League II: 1-1 from the home leg against Sevilla. Start really brightly and hit the post. Then, on 6 minutes, my RB goes and gets sent off for a horror tackle. Go 1-0 down. Hit the post again twice. Make my third and final sub on 75 minutes trying to get back into the game. 76 minutes, Grealish goes off injured so I'm down to 9. Lose 2-0. Absolutely gutted. I think I'd have won the game too. 

But, guaranteed to finish 6th in the third season and possibly 5th (1 game left). But, the vultures are swirling. Orel Mangala has interest from Liverpool and real. With a 44.5m release clause in his contract. He only cost 13.5m so will be 30m profit in 2 years but he's been absolutely massive. 

Small interest in Grealish (Tottenham), trincao (atletico Madrid) and mcginn (Watford and Norwich). I want them all to stay but think I'll lose a couple of them. Means I'll have to start squad building all over again.

How does anyone break the top 4? They just spend ridiculous money all the time and have insane squads. Dissatisfied despite a brilliant season. 

[tomav84]

1 hour ago, Mjvilla said:

I remember why I love and hate this game in equal measures now!!

Semi final, second leg of the Europa League II: 1-1 from the home leg against Sevilla. Start really brightly and hit the post. Then, on 6 minutes, my RB goes and gets sent off for a horror tackle. Go 1-0 down. Hit the post again twice. Make my third and final sub on 75 minutes trying to get back into the game. 76 minutes, Grealish goes off injured so I'm down to 9. Lose 2-0. Absolutely gutted. I think I'd have won the game too. 

But, guaranteed to finish 6th in the third season and possibly 5th (1 game left). But, the vultures are swirling. Orel Mangala has interest from Liverpool and real. With a 44.5m release clause in his contract. He only cost 13.5m so will be 30m profit in 2 years but he's been absolutely massive. 

Small interest in Grealish (Tottenham), trincao (atletico Madrid) and mcginn (Watford and Norwich). I want them all to stay but think I'll lose a couple of them. Means I'll have to start squad building all over again.

How does anyone break the top 4? They just spend ridiculous money all the time and have insane squads. Dissatisfied despite a brilliant season. 

it's doable. fend off interest from clubs where theres no release clause. they'll be grumpy for a bit but will calm down once transfer window closed. i kept jack until he got too old and sold him to pompey for a small fee. didnt get that good in my game...never played for england. douglas luiz was probably better in my game

i personally use the FM genie scout. some say cheating...i argue it makes it a level playing field as the top clubs get the highest potential players

[Mjvilla]

1 hour ago, tomav84 said:

it's doable. fend off interest from clubs where theres no release clause. they'll be grumpy for a bit but will calm down once transfer window closed. i kept jack until he got too old and sold him to pompey for a small fee. didnt get that good in my game...never played for england. douglas luiz was probably better in my game

i personally use the FM genie scout. some say cheating...i argue it makes it a level playing field as the top clubs get the highest potential players

Jack has 6 England caps now. I have players with beastly stats:

Harry Wilson (15 assists), trincao (19 goals from left wing), jack ( 8 goals, 9 assists) Esposito (16 goals) and yet I'm only a bit closer to the top 4, in truth I'm miles out.

I tried to sign a young Brazilian, I had a bid of 3.6m rejected with clauses on top of that. Liverpool had a flat bid of 3.2m accepted just a few days later and by the time I got my bid in, he had agreed to join Liverpool. He's now 18, on the verge of their first team squad and has a value of 16m. He's going to be brilliant. He could've been mine. It doesn't seem fair. 

It's not always like that though I must say, I've signed a young Spanish lad and he chose me over Everton and Newcastle. He's going to be brilliant too. 18 and my coaches telling me to promote him to the first team, which I have done for the final few games of the season.

I couldn't bring myself to use genie scout or editor. I wouldn't call it cheating, anyone can play anyway they want, just couldn't do it myself.

 

[villan-scott]

@tomav84 and @Mjvilla

Im enjoying reading about your saves thank you! 

I’ve been playing with Villa since release and I’m now in 2033/34 season after winning everything with them. 

It’s interesting you mention about editors and genie scouts etc. As I have just downloaded the in game editor. Mainly because I signed a £75m German wonderkid centre midfielder who is absolutely class, but has a natural fitness of 5, which I failed to notice when signing him. So thought I’d get the editor and increase this as I was so frustrated. 

The in game editor is good if you can control yourself with it, minor tweaks rather than signing all the world class players for nothing. It’s my first experience using it, and do feel a bit guilty about it, but I’m still really enjoying my save. Edit - I also added custom kits into my game and the away kit is yellow, so could change this with the editor too.

@tomav84 do you have a new stadium yet? I’ve just moved into mine at the start of this season after having VP at 50k capacity for years and years, a larger capacity is certainly helping with the ££!

Edited April 29, 2020 by villan-scott

[Dante_Lockhart]

@villan-scott I have the editor too. I went through a save where I lost control and used it constantly. Someone transfer listed but no interest? Move them to a realistic club for a modest fee and sell on %. Want a player but they're asking ridiculous amounts? Move to me for their value. Want a specific affiliate club? Done.

That save got boring fast so I try not to use it now - Except in certain circumstances (i.e. I signed a class player for a record fee - he had 18 injury proneness which wasn't picked up on during scouting. Dropped it to 8.)

[tomav84]

52 minutes ago, villan-scott said:

@tomav84 and @Mjvilla

Im enjoying reading about your saves thank you! 

I’ve been playing with Villa since release and I’m now in 2033/34 season after winning everything with them. 

It’s interesting you mention about editors and genie scouts etc. As I have just downloaded the in game editor. Mainly because I signed a £75m German wonderkid centre midfielder who is absolutely class, but has a natural fitness of 5, which I failed to notice when signing him. So thought I’d get the editor and increase this as I was so frustrated. 

The in game editor is good if you can control yourself with it, minor tweaks rather than signing all the world class players for nothing. It’s my first experience using it, and do feel a bit guilty about it, but I’m still really enjoying my save. Edit - I also added custom kits into my game and the away kit is yellow, so could change this with the editor too.

@tomav84 do you have a new stadium yet? I’ve just moved into mine at the start of this season after having VP at 50k capacity for years and years, a larger capacity is certainly helping with the ££!

funny i have never once used the editor, but use the genie scout every year. i cannot play the game without it now!

my stadium opened in 2035, 58k capacity...george ramsay stadium (should have been named after me, but whatevs)

it's tough now because i got russians take over after about 5 seasons or something and they piled the money in...problem is they are very demanding. winning the league and the champions league are a requirement. after 6 straight titles i finished 3rd in the league a few seasons back, lost the fa cup final and won the champions league. i still had the perfomance interview at end of season where i was able to save my job...just, but they weren't happy at all with me