[FM17] - Moneyball - RandoEFC goes globetrotting again!

[RandoEFC+]

Time for a mid-season update - could be a lengthy one this...

Summer 2019 - Transfer Window

This was a busy transfer window, which I didn't really want it to be but a lot of players have made noises about leaving following the club's spectacular failure to bounce straight back up following the 2017-18 relegation from the First Division. This is the first window where I've had a positive net spend since the start of my career, but I'm happy that the players I have brought in will improve the squad, reduce the average age, and be sold for a profit in the future if they outgrow Rayo Vallecano.

Outs

Javier Pulido (Right winger, 26, key player) to Eibar for £2.4m (rising to £3.2m) - Pulido was one of the best players in the squad I inherited, but I also have Latyr Mendy and Ibrahima Sidibé who are in the top 5 or so in terms of ability and both of them can also play in Pulido's favoured position of M/AM (R). That's a good fee to bring in as well.

Martín (Goalkeeper, 29, first team) to Sampdoria for £950k - Martín was number one goalkeeper when I took over but he kicked up such a fuss about leaving when the transfer window wasn't open that I dropped him for young Jhon Zambrano who did a fine job at the end of last season so I cashed in on Martín for almost a million pounds.

Francisco Javier Garrido (Left/Centre back, 25, first team) to Atletico Pamplona for £725k (rising to £975k) - I wasn't so keen on letting Garrido go as he was a good option in two places across the back line, but he wanted to leave and he wasn't a guaranteed starter so again, I cashed in.

José Antonio (Striker, 29, backup) to Zaragoza for £350k - This was a bit of a weird one. Like Martín, he seemed to be a first choice player when I took over and was angling for a move back to the top flight, which he eventually got as Zaragoza were promoted at the end of last season, but unlike Martín, his stats and reports don't look nearly good enough to even get in my first team let alone play in the division above. A small fee for a meh player suits me.

Bruno Márquez (Right back, 30, backup) to Cordóba for £70k (rising to £84k) - third choice right back, surplus to retirements and the wrong side of 30, see ya.

Emmanuel Yomby (Defensive midfielder, 29, backup) to Girona for £68k - similarly, surplus to requirements and not getting any younger.

Alberto Campillo (Defensive midfielder, 34, backup) to Pandurii for £60k - If a Romanian side want to give me money for a 34 year old who I don't need I'm not going to argue.

I also released and loaned out a seemingly never-ending supply of youngsters, but to summarise the outgoings, a couple of good players to replace but mostly getting rid of some of the dead wood that were probably the reason we were so far off the top of the Second Division last season. I promoted José Ruiz, 20 years old from Vallecano B, to help reinforce the midfield options slightly, but otherwise it was into the transfer market to try and fill those gaps and build a side good enough to challenge for promotion.

 

Ins

Rafael Reis (Midfielder, 21, key player) from Atlético Madrid for £2m (rising to £2.2m) - This is a relatively sizeable fee for me, so I spent a lot of time weighing this one up, but Reis is a Portugal under 21 international and rated by my scouts as already being good enough for First Division football. He can play as DM, CM or AMC, and has room to develop so eventually I took the plunge on this one.

Luis Marciano (Centre back, 20, first team) from Benfica for £1.1m (rising to £1.3m) - Another Portuguese under 21 signing, I'm very pleased with the fee on this one as another centre half ready for first team football at this level but also with room to develop.

Jorge Álvarez (Left back, 25, key player) from Elche for £825k (rising to £1.1m) - My first signing of the summer. Elche were relegated at the end of last season and I've been able to plunder two of their best players for reduced fees as a result.

David Olcina (Centre back, 23, first team) from Elche for £675k (rising to £750k) - Probably the third choice centre half behind Marciano and the incumbent Rubén Iglesias but a good deal for a player who can probably sit on the bench if and when we get promoted too.

Julián Presa (Goalkeeper, 21, first team) from Sporting Gijon for £650k - Really happy with this one too, already good enough to be our number one goalkeeper and should hopefully develop with us into a top flight stopper.

Joseph Omoregie (Striker, 22, rotation) from Southampton for £190k - A nice fee thanks to Southampton being an affiliate of ours. He has good potential and while I'm not convinced he will fulfill that for some reason, I'm happy with him as an option for this season and sure if he doesn't cut it in the future I can sell him for more than we've paid.

Joao Ferreira (Goalkeeper, 19, backup) from Boavista for £180k - Another Portuguese youngster with mega potential. I've no doubt that one or two of Presa, Zambrano and Ferreira will want to leave in the future but for now this one will serve as our third goalkeeper and hopefully develop nicely in the mean time.

Amadou Ndoye (Left winger, 22, rotation) from Real San Sebastián for £105k - Brought in to add depth on our left hand side, has the potential to become a first team player.

Javier Roldán (Striker, 29, first team) on a free transfer - This one breaks my usual rule of never signing over-25s but his agent offered him on a free transfer and my scouts rated him as a very good signing for the Spanish Second Division. He is capped three times by Spain and had a somewhat decent record at his last club Cagliari.

José López (Centre back, 22, backup) on loan from Espanyol - Brought in as backup late in the window after Eugenio Gutiérrez demanded a loan move away as I couldn't promise him regular starts.

Not much needed to summarise that, I'm happy with the squad for the coming season and even happier about the potential of these players.

 

August/September 2019

I've combined the first two months as August only saw a couple of matches. Our start to the season was a train wreck and to be honest almost drove me to giving up on the game. Despite having good morale, tactical familiarity etc. going into the first game we lost at home to newly-promoted Ponferrada in what seemed to be pretty inexplicable fashion. This was followed by a visit to Tarragona, where we were poor, but Omoregie's first goal for the club put us ahead in the 90th minute. Obviously I switch to Contain for injury time but the players have no common sense and all but three of them go forward for a 94th minute corner as they usually would, it gets cleared, my goalkeeper inexplicably rushes out of his goal to see the Tarragona cross fly about 10 yards over his head and leaving their forward an open goal to equalise. We were also shite against Almería so that's two home games, two defeats. Logronés, also newly-promoted, hold us to a 1-1 draw and we need a penalty to get on the scoresheet despite having over 20 shots and 9 on target.

Not knowing what the fuck was going on with my team, the Mirandés cup game almost scaled new heights of Football Manager AIDs. We utterly dominate but can only find the net once from our 19 shots this time. Then 87th minute, bam, first highlight that starts in our half since kick-off, free kick lumped into the area, goalmouth scramble, 1-1. If we'd have gone on to lose this penalty shootout, like I say, I probably would have sacked this one off for a while, but we scraped through.

In an attempt to fix our desperate performances though, I changed my tactic and actually looked online for one. I was apprehensive about it because no downloaded tactics have worked very well for me on this version but this one suits my team really well, a pretty normal 4-3-3 with the following roles:

GK - Goalkeeper (Defend)

DR and DL - Complete Wing Backs (Attack)

2x DC - Central Defender (Defend)

DMC - Half Back (Defend)

2x MC - Central Midfielder (Attack)

AMR & AML - Inside Forward (Attack)

ST - False Nine (Support)

Link here if you get interested after reading the rest of the results: 4-1-2-3 Darren

Anyway, it was very satisfying to get our first league win of the season over my old club, lifting us out of the relegation zone and burying them further in it, which we backed up with Reis inspiring victories over Córdoba and high-flying Llagostera.

 

October 2019

I usually tend to turn my nose up at older players in this save but 34 year old Rinus Vink is in the form of his life, scoring 6 goals in 4 appearances from out wide, helping us to some convincing victories in the process. The battering of Málaga carries us into the 4th Round of the Spanish Cup, allowing us to hit the board's minimum expectations for that competition, while another 8 points in the league carry us back into playoff contention where we belong. I remain surprised at just how effective this new tactic is at keeping the opposition out when both full backs and both central midfielders are committed to attacking duties.

 

November 2019

Amadou Ndoye's first goal for the club earns us a third consecutive draw as we fail to repeat last month's 4-0 hammering of Málaga. The rest of the month is spot on though. Mirandés actually led at our place, prompting me to make an angry first half substitution which paid off, Roldán leading us to victory on his return from injury with a repeat performance earning us three more points at Cádiz. Lugo are dealt with comfortably at home too.

Elsewhere in the table, note that Granada have conceded just three times in fifteen games. Meanwhile at the other end, Valladolid's form hasn't improved and they have now sacked the manager they replaced me with, finding themselves in the same relegation battle I rescued them from three years ago.

 

December 2019

A busy and successful month here in the face of a much more challenging timetable. First we go to league leaders Granada and teach them a lesson, or at least half of one, twatting them all over the pitch and leading 2-0 at half time. A good tackle from Dino Mohammed fell to one of their players early in the second half who had the goal at his mercy, got one back, and they used this momentum to dominate the second half and claw it back to 2-2 late on, only for Ndoye to sneak the victory for us at the death. Next up was Valencia, who were in absolutely tragic form when they came to us, and got punished accordingly. This 4-0 loss was followed by another 4-0 loss to Alavés in the top flight before their manager was sacked. Newly-promoted Toledo were in playoff contention before we played them and proved hard to break down but we got through eventually. Next up was U. Murcia, relegated last season. We were pretty poor here and deserved to trail 1-0 until a flurry of goals, clinically taken by Vink and Sidibé turned the match on its head with U. Murcia's late second goal not enough to stop us moving to the top of the table ahead of Granada who now seem to have lost their shit.

Following 4-0 losses to us and Alavés and the sacking of their manager, Valencia were then twatted 5-0 by Villarreal as their season spirals out of control. A weakened Vallecano side comfortably progresses to the next round of the cup with Roldán scoring an early header to eliminate any lingering doubt about the outcome of the tie. We won't go into the short summer break on top of the league after all though, as our 18 game unbeaten run is finally ended by mid-table Racing Santander in a manner that I find pretty hard to accept but hey-ho. Overall, I can have no complaints about the first half of this campaign.

[RandoEFC+]

The second half of this season took fucking ages (at least that means I didn't get sacked), and this update is probably going to be longer than I'd liked again but fuck it, here's the second half of the 2019-2020 season for Rayo Vallecano.

Transfer Window - January 2020

I'm not going to lie, this transfer window threw a massive curve ball our way with the loss of no less than four first team players. We managed to replace them at a profit though, and I don't think we've suffered more than a minor dip in quality as a result. Here are the transfers of note:

 

Outgoings

Dino Mohammed (Midfielder, 28, First Team) to Sporting Gijon for £1.6m - probably could have held out for more here but Mohammed wanted to move to the First Division this window so I didn't stand in his way.

José Antonio Cano (Left Back, 31, Backup) to Granada for £120k - our third choice left back but still a good player, good enough for one of our promotion rivals, but no need to keep him around.

Sergio Álvarez (Right Back, 27, Backup) on loan to Zaragoza - with Angel Luis nailing down the right back role for us, both backups Álvarez and Simon wanted to leave. Álvarez agreed this loan deal first to top flight relegation strugglers Zaragoza so he left and Francisco Simon sticks around as second choice right back.

Josu Martinez (Defensive Midfielder, 31, Rotation) to Oviedo for £400k - Martinez is a decent option to rotate in and out of midfield, but having just turned 31, £400,000 is a great deal for us and I decided to let him go.

Antonio Serra (Defensive Midfielder, 23, Key Player) to Las Palmas for £3.4m - this one pissed me off to be honest, as promotion rivals Las Palmas activate the £3.4m release clause for our club captain on deadline day leaving us in the lurch. We offered Serra a new contract after they came in but he chose to leave.

Rubén Iglesias (Centre Back, 30, First Team) to Atlético Pamplona for £1m - our mainstay in centre half, but I was happy enough with our strength in depth to let him go for another chunk of money. Age and preventing a kick off for denying him a move to the top flight were also factors in this decision.

Latyr Mendy (Forward, 23, First Team) to Atlético Pamplona for £2.3m (rising to £2.8m) - Mendy was our top scorer last season but after his injury has struggled to find form so far this year, just 4 goals in 18 appearances. It's a great financial deal for us and I think we can get along fine without him. The downside is that Serra, Iglesias and Mendy all left on deadline day which caused a bit of a panic sorting replacements.

 

Incomings

Óscar Freitas (Midfielder, 24, Rotation) from Elche for £850k - our third sub-one-million signing from relegated Elche to go with Jorge Alvarez and David Olcina in the summer. This one is a replacement for the outgoing Dino Mohammed.

Pedro López (Defensive Midfielder, 23, Key Player) from Málaga for £1.9m (rising to £2.4m) - essentially my replacement for Antonio Serra. Coach reports already suggest he's one of our best players which at 23 and at that price is pretty sound.

Pedro Miguel Lopes Sousa (Centre Back, 19, First Team) from Benfica for £700k (rising to £1m) - yet another Portuguese player joins the squad, this one to replace Iglesias in defence. He's almost as good as him already with the potential to be better and an age reduction of 11 years so happy with this.

Adrián Nuno (Midfielder, 23, Rotation) from Lugo for £1.1m - Another young midfielder to bolster our options in that area in the absence of Mohammed, Martinez and Serra.

Alberto Luis (Forward, 21, Rotation) from Barcelona for £1.5m (rising to £1.7m) - A replacement for Mendy, Luis will be rotated with the likes of Vink and Sidibé in the short term but with 4.5* potential ability is a really exciting prospect for the long term.

 

Overall, I'm very happy with the changes to the squad in the long term but not so happy that we've had such an overhaul mid-season. The quality should still be there to maintain a promotion challenge, and this should be the last really busy transfer window for a while, but I'm concerned about the disruption of losing captain Serra (who is replaced in his role by Rafael Reis) and centre half Iglesias and how that might affect us on the pitch.

 

Results to come in a few minutes...

[RandoEFC+]

January 2020

What the fuck is this actual scheduling AIDs in the Spanish Cup/Copa del Rey? Is it really necessary to play all of the fifth round, quarter final and semi final games in six consecutive Wednesdays then take three months off before the final? Ridiculous. Anyway, we start the month with a pretty frustrating draw at Girona, before facing First Division Real San Sebastian in the Spanish Cup 5th Round. Surprisingly, we give them the business, their away goal the only blot on our performance.

Reis scores in back to back league games to help us to another six points either side of our second leg against Real San Sebastian. Roldán's early header cancels out their away goal with Vink killing the tie before half time. Our opponents get a couple of late goals back, but we've still battered them 6-3 on aggregate and go through to face Atletico Madrid in the quarter finals.

Our illustrious visitors, the defending Champions League winners, take an early 2-0 lead at our place in the first leg, but we fight back with Freitas' deflected shot turning the tie on 29 minutes. Vink takes his Spanish Cup goal tally into double figures with a second half brace before centre back Marciano gave us a two goal cushion to take to the away leg. Apparently we can't hold onto our 1-0 lead over Tarragona who have now done the double over us, but we can go to Atleti and finish an emphatic 5-2 aggregate win off with Vink, weeks away from his 35th birthday, on the scoresheet again. We're into the Copa del Rey semis! Looks like I forgot to screenshot the league table this time.

 

February 2020

A return to form in the league sees us defeat Logronés 3-0, Alberto Luis amongst the goalscorers on his debut for the club, but it doesn't last long as we take disappointing defeats to Almería and Cordoba throughout the month who both languish in the bottom half. We do at least manage to complete a league double over Valladolid but we've now slipped to five points behind Granada in the promotion chase.

The obvious highlight of the month is our Copa del Rey semi final success over defending champions Celta Vigo. Freitas opens his Vallecano account with a 15 minute hat-trick in the first half of the first leg to give us lift off, with three early goals in the away leg killing Vigo's hopes of a turnaround in a chaotic 5-3 win, littered with defensive and goalkeeping errors on both sides. This mental run, which saw us scrape by Mirandés in our first game before dismantling four top flight opponents in a row over two legs, takes us to the Spanish Cup Final against Real Madrid in May.

 

March 2020

With the distraction of the workload-doubling Spanish Cup on the back burner for now, we see an upturn in our fortunes come our way in the league, starting with a 3-0 win away at 4th placed Llagostera. Sidibé has returned from injury with style and Vink is scoring penalties for fun, but I still can't put my finger on the random defeats to shit teams like Huesca. The previously invincible Granada lose their last two games allowing us to close the gap to the automatic promotion spots to two points.

 

April 2020

Our worst patch of the season sees our automatic promotion hopes pretty much up in flames now. An unforgivable capitulation at Mirandés sees us blow a two goal lead by conceding twice in the last five minutes, before we surrender our lead to Las Palmas after taking the lead in their back yard. More points pissed away as Málaga also come from behind to beat us 2-1, leaving us with just 1 point from three consecutive games where we'd taken the lead. A late flurry of goals from Ndoye and Luis see a brief return to form against Cádiz, but in form Granada outplay us on our own patch to end a disappointing month for us in a game that we could have lost by more.

 

May/June 2020

Only one game in June to finish the season so these are combined into a single list. Looks like I also forgot to snap the league table before the playoffs and I can't post that now without giving away the playoff results. This is a pretty good month for us, a solid win at Lugo followed by a disappointing loss at Toledo who hadn't won in about 10 games before this one. With the outside possibility of us even slipping out of the playoffs creeping in, I'm happy enough with a rare goalless draw against league leader U. Murcia, but a superb second half performance against Racing Santander moves us back up to 3rd place and pretty much allays those fears.

It is good preparation for our Spanish Cup Final date with Real Madrid, where we ended up getting outclassed unsurprisingly. Neither team had a shot on target in the first half, and actually we seemed to get closer to forming real chances, but Madrid took the lead early in the second half after upping the ante, before Ndoye picks up a silly red card for us following a two-footed challenge on their right back. We threw players forward anyway in the closing stages and ended up getting done for a second goal on the break. Oh well, runners up is pretty decent at the moment.

Finally we finish off with a couple of wins against Girona and Numantia. Three league wins on the bounce and four consecutive clean sheets should help us carry good momentum into the playoffs. Las Palmas, Málaga and Tarragona will join us, all three of them also winning their last two regular season games.

 

Playoffs

This tie was stressful as fuck. Tarragona appeared to have Peter Schmeichel in goal for the first leg, making a series of ridiculous saves before they really took the game by the scruff of the neck, coming from behind twice to win 3-2. While I was pissed off at losing to Tarragona for a third time this season, the away goals were a big positive and eventually saw us through the tie. We dominated the second leg but I was convinced after López failed to kill the tie from the penalty spot late on that some good old FM centre back having a stroke AIDs was about to occur and see Tarragona win it at the death, but we held out and made it to the Playoff Final.

 

That's right bitches. The first leg saw one of the worst displays of finishing I've ever seen on this game as we can only manage to find the net once with Omoregie's header out of about 12 shots, and that only an equaliser after Las Palmas obviously score the first time they get out of their half. Captain Rafael Reis restores the lead in the second half, we fuck it up again, but Alberto Luis puts us ahead and we actually manage to make it stick. With a goal advantage and three away goals in the bank, the second leg is surprisingly not too sweaty as we create the much better chances again, but aren't punished for our wastefulness as Las Palmas can't even find the goal to level the tie on aggregate, let alone the extra one they'd need to make up for our away goal, we're fucking promoted! Note that our former captain Antonio Serra picks up a booking and a ticket to another season in the Second Division having turned down his new contract at Vallecano in January in favour of a move to Las Palmas. Kudos to my young squad and 22 year old captain for not getting done over by the "Playing Nervously" virus in this massive tie.

 

Targets

Win promotion to the Spanish First Division (1/1).

Sell three players that I have bought for a profit (0/3).

Like I did with Valladolid, we've achieved the footballing target in the first full season by winning promotion to the top flight, albeit through the play-offs. Before I move on to bigger challenges, I'll have to see a few of my young signings grow up and move on to bigger things for big money, so for the next couple of seasons I'll stick to the Moneyball principles and see what we can do in the top flight, hopefully without getting relegated back to the Second Division! I think we'll be fine though having already got partially stuck into the transfer window this summer.

[Dan+]

 totally agree about the Spanish schedule. It's absolutely ridiculous. I've never seen anything like it. I thought it was a glitch on the game when I managed in Spain but they really do cram their January a silly amount. Don't think we can really complain about our schedule in England if you measure it against that.

Congrats on promotion. Did very well to see it through given the cup distractions (there's more weight to this argument in Spain!) and losing many key players at a shitty time. I went up in a very similar style as Las Palmas manager when I was in charge there and it's a stressful, albeit hugely satisfying system when you beat it.

Now the fun really begins. Maintain those fundamentals and climb the pyramid.

[RandoEFC+]

ON WE GO...

Transfer Window - Summer 2020

The post-promotion transfer window, is there anything better on Football Manager when your scouting page suddenly opens up in the light of a bunch of your previously unrealistic transfer targets are suddenly interested in joining your team? We had some serious fun this transfer window and I grow increasingly happy that this squad is good enough to compete in the top flight for years to come.

 

Outs

Ibrahima Sidibé (Winger, 27, First Team) to Young Boys for £3.9m - Sidibé has been an important player over the course of my first season and a half at Vallecano but by no means indispensable. He actually requested a transfer late last season when automatic promotion became mathematically impossible for us, the game deeming that as me "breaking my promise" to get us promoted last season even though we did it through the playoffs. That's some good dollar to replace an unhappy player.

Josué Crespo (Winger, 17, Hot Prospect) to Atletico Madrid for £1.1m - One of our youth players. Atleti met the release clause and he chose their contract offer over mine so see ya. He was at least a couple of years from our first team so not really upset about this one. As he joined the club as a youth product while I was manager I'm counting this as one of my three sell-ons that have made a profit for the club.

Francisco Simón (Right Back, 30, Backup) to Astra Giurgiu for £400k - Simón has been unhappy with his role as a backup for a while, and although he was a good option last season, his age, role, happiness and doubtful ability to cut it in the top flight make this a no-brainer and he's off to Romania.

Sergio Álvarez (Right Back, 27, Backup) to Valladolid for £275k (rising to £350k) - After being loaned out last season, Álvarez now leaves permanently to join my old club. Again, a decent option in the Second Division but not worth a place in the squad this season.

Eugenio Gutiérrez (Centre Back, 25, Backup) to Valladolid on a Free Transfer - Spent last season out on loan, which I agreed to reluctantly at the time, but he didn't pull up many trees and agreed an end of contract move before I really bothered to consider renewing his deal with us for another year.

Miguel Alarcón (Defensive Midfielder, 17, Backup) on loan to Mallorca - Promoted from Vallecano B late last season, Alarcón did a good job in a smattering of first team appearances, but isn't ready to continue that process in the top flight yet so will spend a year on loan at Second Division Mallorca.

Álvaro Blanco (Right Back, 18, Backup) on loan to Cadiz - Basically see exactly what I said about Alarcón. Blanco is rated as a future top flight full back and made some impressive appearances last season while Simón was sulking. Another season in the Second Division for you.

Joao Ferreira (Goalkeeper, 20, Backup) on loan to Logrones - A third first team squad player spending a season out on loan. Of our three young goalkeepers he's the third best right now but with the greatest potential. He requested a loan to get some first team football so he's in the Second Division too this year.

 

Ins

Xavier Duenas (Right Back, 24, First Team) from Vigo for £5.25m (rising to £6m) - I've tried to sign Duenas at least once before but he chose to go to First Division Vigo where he has since fallen out of favour. The fee is the biggest I've paid but with a release clause of £22m, there is significant resale value in this one and he's ready made for a club of our level to contend with Angel Luis for the right back spot.

Alberto Marín (Centre Back, 22, First Team) from Las Palmas for £4m (rising to £4.6m) - I've paid more than I hoped here, but in a bid to improve our defensive options with a pacey centre half to suit our high line which is susceptible to counter attacks, we've brought in a new hopefully first choice centre back for years to come.

Hernán Lucero (Attacking Midfielder, 23, Key Player) from Getafe for £1.1m (rising to £1.6m) - With Getafe one of the sides relegated from the top flight last season, Lucero was one of several players happy to move on and therefore available at a reduced price. This is a great deal for us given the age and potential of this Argentine who I will be playing as a false nine despite his "natural" position being attacking midfield.

Daniel Mauro (Attacking Midfielder, 18, First Team) from Alianza for £750k - An early reward for my more detailed approach towards global scouting in the past few months. This Peruvian teenager was available for direct approach and moves to Spain already rated as a First Division player at the age of just 18 and for a compensation fee of less than £1m. He will have to adapt to the role of central midfielder in my system though.

Abylaikhan Bakhtiiarov (Midfielder, 18, Hot Prospect) from Ordabasy for £450k - Another gem this time hidden in Kazakhstan. He has the potential to compete in the Spanish First Division but is a long way short of that for now so is loaned back immediately to his former club to continue his development.

David Martin (Winger, 23, First Team) from Liverpool on a Free Transfer - A real end of contract coup for us. This Nigerian/English winger will make a solid replacement for Ibrahima Sidibé at a tidy profit for us.

 

Typing this up now the transfer window was busier than it seemed at the time but I couldn't be much happier with my squad at this stage. There are now just a handful of players left who are significantly older than mid-20s in the first team and most of these already have players below them ready to step into their place in the team. For the immediate future, I have two full line-ups that I'm happy are good enough for the top flight so it's all looking pretty rosy. Time for the season to start.

 

August 2020

So apparently when one team wins the league and the cup, the other team in the Super Cup is the Spanish Cup runners-up, in this case Rayo Vallecano. We lose 3-0 on aggregate, not too bad, and lose 3-0 again when we have the pleasure of beginning our league campaign at the Bernabeu. With that shit out of the way, captain Rafael Reis and youngster Meca who spent last season on loan at Logrones and came back ready to be promoted from Vallecano B, get our home campaign off to a winning start.

 

September 2020

As I suspected/feared, this season is going to have a touch of chaos about it. Leganés was the biggest frustration of the month as we lost a 2-0 lead and ended up scraping a draw with a late equaliser. New signings Martin, Lucero and Mauro are already making their presence felt going forward but our very open and attacking style is leaving us exposed and seeing many goals at both ends. The end result is us winning three of our first six though and sitting 5th at this early stage of the campaign.

 

October 2020

Yeah, we're doing absolutely fine here. Getting into the bottom three of twenty clubs takes some real bad runs of results and while we're wildly inconsistent, if we carry on like this there will be no threat of going back down. Luis' late winner against our fellow high-flyers Levante is the highlight of the month and while we've cut down on the goals conceded we're still yet to notch a clean sheet this season.

 

November 2020

A really sloppy home defeat to U. Murcia is the first really concerning result of the season, but we bounce back with Reis, our young club captain in sparkling form this season, bagging a late winner in our mid-table clash with Real San Sebastian. Granada got promoted with us and are only a few points behind us in the table, also enjoying their time in the top flight, didn't enjoy our visit where Roldán, who has usurped the misfiring Lucero up front for the time being, scoring his first of the season in a game that finally saw us keep a clean sheet at the 13th attempt. Sevilla's early goal is enough to end this month with a loss though we were unlucky not to get back into it.

 

December 2020

19 year old Roberto Meca is establishing himself as a first team regular amid interest from Lyon, Napoli and other European giants, his away goal key in handing us momentum in our Spanish Cup tie against Granada. Captain Reis continues his fine form and is now our top goalscorer from central midfield, another 4-0 win on the road and a few more clean sheets for us. The only real blot on this month before the winter break is the crazy 5-3 defeat away to 3rd-placed Espanyol, a game in which we were overwhelmed having led 3-2 at half-time.

 

Overall, we're having a very strong first season back in the top flight and only a truly desperate run in the second half of the campaign will see us sucked into a relegation fight. We're only three points off a European spot actually, so if we can find a bit more consistency then you never know what we could achieve.

In the last few weeks I've turned down interviews at Valencia, Atletico Pamplona, Real San Sebastian, Werder Bremen and Gelsenkirchen, before signing a three-year contract extension at Rayo Vallecano. Obviously I have chosen not to move on from the club until I've hit my two targets. Getting promoted was one of them so that's ticked off and I need to sell on two more players at a profit to hit my second target. It wouldn't be much of a Moneyball save anyway if I moved on after less than two years.

[RandoEFC+]

Transfer Window - January 2021

Nothing to report in this transfer window, a few youthies loaned out, otherwise we didn't do any business in or out.

 

January 2021

A difficult start to the new year saw us pasted by Atleti before going down 2-0 at Sevilla in the next round of the Copa del Rey, a defeat that consigned us to elimination on away goals despite our 3-1 win in the return leg. A 3-1 win over Valencia, who were shockingly rooted to the bottom of the table, marked the midpoint of the season before my best result of this save came as we absolutely twatted Real Madrid 4-0. A win over Leganés and David Martin's fourth goalscoring appearance in a row to earn us a draw at Real Hispalis leaves us in a potential Europa League spot after a busy month.

 

February 2021

I'm really not keen on these 5-3 goalfests but the tactic gets us wins so I'm too afraid to tweak it too much. As a newly-promoted side though, I guess you have to accept you're going to have to take your medicine and lose away home a few times. Lucero's dramatic late winner allows us to complete a league double over Sporting Gijon but a home draw with struggling Alavés is a bit disappointing and also sees David Martin's run of scoring in seven consecutive games come to an end. Not bad for a free transfer.

 

March 2021

A couple of pretty dire losses at the beginning of March but a solid 2-0 win at ten man U. Murcia marks the beginning of a turning tide, and we backed this up with a perfect away performance at Levante in a race for seventh six-pointer. Espanyol and Atletico Madrid have nailed down the top four spots behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, but after that it's anyone's game between 5th and 10th with only eight games remaining.

 

April 2021

We romp past Real San Sebastian and Granada, before a huge win at Sevilla takes us to the dizzying heights of 5th place, three points clear of the next closest European qualification hopefuls, David Martin's sensational 30 yard winner named Goal of the Week. However, disappointing losses against Deportivo La Coruna and Athletic Club reminds me that I'm playing Football Manager and if the game wants to spawn a few "oh look they have an unexplained free kick... oh look one of their players went down nowhere near the ball... oh look they got a penalty for it and they've scored" moments it will. Oh well, can't expect a winning streak like we were on to carry on much longer, but the Bilbao loss is the one that's really shafted us as they're way down in 15th.

 

May 2021

It's crunch time and we face two of the top four in the last three games unfortunately. We deserved at least a point from Atletico but five minutes of mental defending from us saw them go from 1-1 to 3-1 and put the game beyond our reach. A classic game against Espanyol ends in our favour, Omoregie scoring his first top flight goal in the absence of Lucero, who missed the end of the season with a broken ankle. This leaves us knowing that a win at 17th placed Valencia is enough to guarantee a spot in next season's Europa League but it isn't to be. In fact, a draw would have been enough, with Sevilla, Villarreal and Celta Vigo all losing as well on the final day, but of all clubs it's Barcelona who shaft us by letting Real Hispalis come from behind to claim a 1-1 draw. If Barcelona had beaten them, we'd have got in even having lost the last game but the season ends in a bitter-sweet manner and we miss out by a single point. With four losses in the last five games after sitting a comfortable fifth in sight of the finish line, the FM end of season curse strikes again ( @Dan).

 

Having met my "on the pitch" target by achieving promotion in the first full season, and now having played through some of the summer and sold a few players, I've also met my "off the pitch" target of selling on three players I have brought to the club for a profit. With this now being the case, any offers that come in from bigger clubs or other leagues are fair game. However, I won't leave Vallecano by applying for other jobs while I'm still in post. If I get offered interviews anyway I'll go. If not I'll just not renew my contract then apply for jobs as a free agent. There is no rush to leave the club though, it's only been two full seasons and this save is based around building a club up so in reality I'd probably do another year, it depends what else comes along. In exciting news though, the board have begun construction on a new stadium that will be owned by the club which isn't currently the case. All of our training, youth, recruitment etc. have been upgraded or are in the process of being done so the club should be able to stabilise as a First Division mainstay before long, with or without me.

[RandoEFC+]

Think I'm reviving this save. See where things go.

[RandoEFC+]

35 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Brexit FC shit?

It's still there but for some reason running really slowly. Fancied getting hands on but can't be arsed with a new game. Brexit FC's story will continue at some point.

[RandoEFC+]

Here we go then...

Transfer Window - Summer 2021

This transfer window saw me sell on my third and fourth profitable players which fulfills both of the targets I set myself when taking over Rayo Vallecano. This means that from now, while I'm not looking to leave, I will probably move on to a new challenge when I get the right offer, perhaps a Sevilla or a similar club from France, England, Italy or Germany. However, with the club in the process of building a new stadium and upgrading the facilities and a really good, young side at my disposal, I'm also tempted to stick around and see if we can get into Europe in the next few seasons. The start of this season took place several months ago in terms of real life but I've just reached mid-season this weekend.

 

Players Out

David Martin (24 year old winger) to Newcastle for £11m. One of our best players last season, his only season with the club, with 12 goals in 31 games. Laughing all the way to the bank here after we picked him up from Liverpool on a free transfer last summer. Serious moneyballing.

Pedro Mateo (18 year old attacker) to Arsenal for £2.5m. Young star with potential who had two decent loan spells in the Spanish third tier but never kicked a ball for the first team.

Pedro Seoane (19 year old midfielder) to Lazio for £1.1m. Been knocking on the door of the first team squad since I joined but never really kicked on. Lazio see something in him and I'm not turning down that money for a B team player.

Juan Manuel Morales (20 year old centre back) to Atletico Pamplona for £975k. Came through the youth system but was only a 5th or 6th choice centre half and never made an appearance. Very tidy fee for us and he heads off to the Second Division.

Alexis Cruz (19 year old striker) to Granada for £675k. Another youth product who was on my radar but not really developing at a rapid rate so I'll take the cash.

David Olcina (25 year old centre back) to Granada for £500k. Really solid for us during our promotion season but didn't have the quality to step up to the top flight. Actually made a slight loss on this one but recouped most of the fee.

Christian Morales (19 year old left wing back) to Cadiz for £450k. Another okay youth product worth moving on for decent money as he's not likely to break into the side.

Oliver Ibanez (16 year old left winger) to Athletic Bilbao for £425k. Promising youngster, wanted to leave, I'll probably have left Rayo before I have to even think about him competing for a first team slot.

Angel Martinez (17 year old attacking midfielder) to Real San Sebastian for £375k. Wow, that's around £6.5m overall for youth team players who have barely made an appearance, nice.

Javier Roldan (31 year old striker) to Cadiz for £375k. Did well for us in our promotion season and had his moments in our first season in the top flight but ultimately isn't good enough for this level. Signed on a free so another nice little profit.

 

Players In

Rolando Pauillon (19 year old centre back) from Racing Club for £5m (potentially rising to £5.5m). Really exciting young centre back with lots of potential to take Olcina's place as our fourth centre back, though he's good enough to be higher than that in the pecking order early on.

Jawad Amrani (25 year old left winger) from Atletico Pamplona for £4m. Amrani was a beast for me at Valladolid before he left, and fits in perfectly as the left inside forward in my tactic. £4m is a decent price if he can rediscover his form from the past.

Antoni Carmona (24 year old forward) from Atletico Pamplona for £2.9m. Taken advantage of a relegation release clause here. Carmona replaces Roldan in the squad as the main competition for Hernan Lucero in the False Nine role.

Rafik Ben Saida (20 year old forward) from ES Tunis for £120k (potentially rising to £220k). Bit of an investment this one. Don't think he's good enough to become a first teamer for us but good resale potential as he should become a First Division squad player or a leading Second Division player.

 

So there we have it. A profit of around £8m thanks to the sale of David Martin. He is replaced by Amrani in the squad, where I like to have two players for each position who are fairly similar in quality. Pauillon and Carmona are clear upgrades on Olcina and Roldan so while there are only three real additions to the squad it should be an overall upgrade. Onto the football.

 

August/September 2021

Okay so not the best start to the season. While this was months ago in real life, I do remember getting back-to-back gut punches in the opening games. While Carmona's debut strike against Villarreal looks like a late equaliser, it wasn't. That goal put us 3-2 up only for us to concede an equaliser. The trip to Barcelona was a dour game where they scored a controversial late winning goal. The rest of the month isn't particularly commentworthy, while we were unlucky once or twice, this still isn't a very good start.

 

October 2021

We have life! Lucero gets back to slapping around bottom half La Liga defences with 7 goals in 3 matches. After a pair of comfortable home wins, Zaragoza threaten a "proper FM" against us, taking the lead when one of their strikers runs into Luis Marciano's clearance and accidentally gives them the lead, but we didn't give up and spawned the injury time own goal decider. While Real Madrid have had a gash start to the season, our defeat at the Bernabeu is totally predictable. Ndoye's first goal of the season after a good run in the side earns us a point against Espanyol. Levante and Villarreal are currently the top two sides in the league table because, reasons I guess.

 

November 2021

A quiet month due to the international break. The win at Bilbao is a significant upset but we're good value for our 2-1 comeback win at struggling Valencia. The 2-0 home defeat to Real Hispalis is a huge disappointment as we fluff the chance to put together a perfect month against a side below us in the table. Still, we're now huddled in the warm bosom of mid-table, vastly improving on our leaky defensive form of last season so far. Any thoughts of a relegation fight resulting from our poor start to the campaign have subsided, for now at least.

 

December 2021

A bit of a frustrating month in the league. Atleti are extremely fortunate to come away from our place with 3 points and had their goalkeeper to thank for keeping us out. We made amends with a comfortable win against Getafe, but squander the lead twice at Sporting Gijon who were winless in five and had no right to be fighting back against us after our decent run of form. Defensive fragilities resurfacing between this loss and the ridiculous tie with Real San Sebastian which ends 8-5 to us on aggregate. For some reason the two-legged ties of the Spanish Cup have consistently thrown up stupid scorelines like this and I don't know why, but it was pleasing to get through this tie comfortably in the end, as I rotated a lot of players through the starting lineup in both matches. Further up, Barcelona have finally dislodged Levante from their weird reign at the top of the table.

 

A short winter break now before the league returns and the transfer window opens. Some of our key players (Duenas, Marin, Lucero) have had their heads turned by clubs playing in Europe, and in typical Football Manager fashion, when I told them I believe they can earn European qualification with us if they work hard, the game has taken that as a "Promise" that we will qualify for Europe (the Champions League in one case FFS) THIS SEASON. Thanks for that FM, can't wait to deal with that revolt at the end of the season.

 

On the job front, I've actually been offered several interviews by other Spanish clubs - Coruna, Valencia and Real San Sebastian (it's really starting to bother me why the names of Spanish clubs are so weird) - but I just don't see what they have to offer me that's worth abandoning a squad that is pretty much mine now. I was also offered an interview by Koln in Germany which I thought about for a moment because their standing in the Bundesliga is higher than ours in Spain, but I decided to hang on and wait.

 

I was also weirdly linked to the Manchester City job. Looks like Guardiola won 4 titles in 5 years there but got sacked because they're about 8th this season. Didn't apply for it or get offered an interview so whatever. I think that would be a ridiculous step up considering my CV reads "lost in playoffs with Valladolid, sacked by Valladolid, promoted via playoffs with Vallecano, Spanish cup finalists with Vallecano, survived one season in top flight with Vallecano". Also Man City isn't really a moneyball project, but I can't turn down top clubs forever can I? I suppose the challenge there would be to succeed while still making a transfer profit and pumping the extra money into upgrading facilities, stadium etc.

 

Anyway, still at Vallecano for now but could be on the move at any time if the right offer comes in.

[RandoEFC+]

 

Amazing.

[RandoEFC+]

Some more regular updates here as it helps my motivation.

Transfer Window - January 2022

Players Out

Jorge Alvarez (Left back, 28) to Las Palmas for £3.6m (rising to £4.3m) - an absolute mad profit here, as Alvarez, who joined for £900k two and a half seasons ago, has generally played second fiddle in the left back slot to Adrian Platero. Another peach of a transfer from a moneyball perspective.

 

Players In

Damian Noguera (Left back, 18) from Danubio for £775k - I was hoping to find a replacement for Alvarez a bit further through his development but Noguera has the potential to be a great player for us and will spend the second half of this season learning the Complete Wing Back role while Platero continues to act as the first choice left-back. Another exciting signing from South America, this one.

 

January 2022

The traditional month of madness in Spain as weekly league games are supplemented by weekly cup games for those teams continuing their progress in the competition. This January can only be described as a series of excellent performances by just about every player in my squad. Unbeaten in all 9 matches, with a couple of thumping league wins and a particularly impressive 2-1 success at Sevilla. Two very close cup ties see us steal through to the last 4 of the Spanish Cup with Amrani finally breaking his Vallecano duck with the only goal over the two legs in the quarter-final against Celta Vigo, sending us through in particularly satisfying fashion. Even league leaders Barcelona can't ruin our unbeatable January when they visit on the last day.

Delighted with that, as we're now into the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup where Real Madrid and Barcelona have both been eliminated already. Barcelona beat Madrid in the round of 16, before incredibly losing 4-0 at home to our semi-final opponents Sporting Gijon to lose 4-3 on aggregate in the quarter-final. Ridiculous. In the league, we're flirting with European qualification now after our impressive run of form and even find ourselves within just four points of the last Champions League spot.

The only downside is that we've picked up a significant number of injuries, including a three-month layoff for left-back Adrian Platero, meaning that his slot in the team will be occupied either by right-back Angel Luis, or 18 year old Damian Noguera.

Lots to be excited about.

[RandoEFC+]

Yes, because this just happens doesn't it Sports Interactive?

[RandoEFC+]

February 2022

I absolutely hate this part of the season, but aside from our calamitous collapse against Sporting Gijon that saw us miss out on a place in the final of the Copa del Rey, and a 3-0 loss at Granada where we gave away two penalties and conceded a header from a corner, we handled things quite well. A comeback win at Levante is the highlight of February, and briefly saw us flirt with a top four position before Granada ended our 8-game unbeaten run in La Liga. European qualification is very much on the cards though.

 

March 2022

An okay month as we defeated Deportivo, were unlucky not to get something out of the derby with Real Madrid, and took a very creditable point away at Espanyol who are hovering just above us in the league table. Eight games to go and we're still clinging onto a European place, provided that Atletico Madrid beat Gijon in the cup final.

 

April 2022

Eurgh, our worst spell for months here as top scorer Lucero and his understudy Carmona are looking a bit goal-shy. Bilbao absolutely robbed us with a 93rd minute winner at our place, and we were unable to turn our dominance into three points over the eventually-relegated Valencia. The two away defeats were just not great performances but we finally get some revenge on Sporting Gijon with a second-half flurry that scores us a vital, and ultimately decisive, three points in our chase for a EURO Cup spot.

 

May 2022

The Gijon result galvanises the side to two dominant victories against Getafe and Celta Vigo. With the help of some results elsewhere, we go into the last day knowing that we've secured 7th place, as despite Gijon's win and our loss to Real 'San Sebastian', our results against Sporting Gijon and superior goal difference sees us keep the position. When Atletico Madrid beat Sporting Gijon in the Copa del Rey final after extra time, our place in the EURO Cup for 2022-23 is confirmed.

 

Season Summary

Despite the capitulation in the cup semi-final, this season has seen us look a much more solid side and concede much fewer goals than we did last season. Our league position has improved by just one place compared to last season, but the difference is decisive in that it sends us into European competition next year. Oh how I can't wait to juggle League, Cup and European commitments next January-February.

Hernan Lucero is the standout player with over 20 goals this season, while Daniel Mauro has come into his own, the Peruvian midfielder now labelled a 'wonderkid' after a lukewarm debut campaign in Spain. Summer signing Rolando Pauillon has already established himself as a top La Liga centre half at the age of 20 and with a number of other exciting young talents dwelling in the squad, the future looks very bright for Vallecano.

As a little sweetener, I was awarded the Manager of the Year accolade for our impressive performance in La Liga.

 

The Off-Season

There were several approaches for my services throughout the summer, and I responded to them in a manner consistent with the point of this save. First, Gladbach interviewed me over their managerial vacancy, and as I'm open to moving on after achieving my targets with Vallecano, I attended the interview, but they went with another candidate. The same thing happened with both Inter and Everton later in the summer, while Nice also approached me for an interview, but this one didn't represent enough of an interesting option for me to attend. After the World Cup, I was also offered the Spain national team job, but declined as international management doesn't interest me in a Moneyball save.

None of these were jobs I applied for, so I haven't upset the Vallecano board too much by being head-hunted. However, none of these vacancies were the right fit for my next move, so I will go into the 2022-23 season without any movement just yet, looking forward to a first European campaign as manager of Rayo.

[RandoEFC+]

Transfer Window - Summer 2022

A quiet transfer window as we don't have much of a need to upgrade the squad due to the ongoing development of so many young players. The big headline of the summer transfer window was the departure of Pedro Lopez to Newcastle, who activated the release clause of our defensive midfielder, forking out £11.75m for his signature. I didn't want Lopez to go as he was one of our best players, but he wanted £90k a week to renew his contract which is double our current highest earner. Also out of the door went Adrian Nuno to Troyes for £1.2m. Nuno had struggled for consistent appearances since we got promote 2 seasons ago and moved on for the benefit of his career. Finally, José Ruiz left the club for £150k after several loan spells and an inability to break into the first team.

Pedro Lopez is replaced as our primary defensive midfielder by 20 year old Miguel Alarcon, our own academy product who was already beginning to make a claim for that position before Lopez left. Jehanamed Antelo, a 21 year old defensive midfielder from Las Palmas signs for £2.4m to provide competition in this position. Also joining from Las Palmas is Franco Fernandez, 24, adding depth to the central midfield position or £1.7m. The squad is also bolstered by the introduction of young right-back Alvaro Blanco and Kazakh midfielder Abylaikhan Bakhtiaarov, who make the step up to the first team squad after impressive loan spells in the Second Division.

Another profitable transfer window without a major hit to the quality we can put on the field. There will be plenty of minutes to go around this season as well with our Europa League commitments starting in July.

 

July/August 2022

The EURO Cup draw is fairly generous to us, and after a stuttering start in Denmark, we make light work of Odense, and subsequently Levski Sofia. Our exertions in the first leg against the Bulgarian side come back to bite us to an extent as Alavés brush us aside at the start of the domestic campaign. The visit of newly-promoted Málaga sees another poor performance in La Liga as we fail to turn one point into three against a side that played more than half of the game with ten men.

The EURO Cup group stage draw looks good for us, as we avoid clubs from the other big five leagues and go into our group as favourites against Dynamo Kiev, Lech Poznan and PAOK despite our third seeding.

Another interview came my way from Olympique Lyonnais, who have surprisingly won the last three Ligue 1 titles ahead of PSG. Again I made my case as it is an attractive option, but again they decided to go another way with their appointment.

 

September 2022

A busy September couldn't have gone much better, though we are somewhat fortunate and have goalkeeper Julian Presa to thank for the point we scoured from our visit to the Bernabeu. A confidence-boosting hammering of Lech Poznan in Poland generates the momentum we need to power past Elche, Vigo and Deportivo La Coruna, before our victory over Dynamo Kiev, which was a lot more hairy than it should have been having led 3-0, leaves things looking very rosy both domestically and in Europe.

[RandoEFC+]

October 2022

A successful September gave way to an okay October, which began in defeat at Sevilla. A convincing 2-0 win over Getafe saw us return to winning ways, before Reis and Ndoye downed PAOK to maintain our 100% record in the Europa League to date. Back to domestic action, Meca rescues a draw with Bilbao after our trip to Greece, before Bakhtiaarov's first senior goal for the club set us on our way to a sensational comeback win at the Nou Camp and briefly sees us set up camp in the Champions League qualification spots, until... What is it about those bastards at Sporting Gijon? An AWOL performance from our back line and defeat see us slip back to 7th place in La Liga at the end of the month.

 

November 2022

Not the best month from us here, beginning with a shocking loss to PAOK in which we conceded the only goal of the game from their only shot, while only 3 of our 26 efforts on goal even hit the target. A credible draw against Atleti restores some pride, but we are thoroughly outclassed in our visit to Sociedad after the international break. The visit of Lech Poznan gives us the opportunity to end our mini-slump, and we do so emphatically, Franco Fernandez and Pedro Miguel Lopes Sousa both notching their first Vallecano goals. This victory guarantees our progress to the knockout rounds as well. A poor end to the month sees struggling Granada peg us back to nick a point at our place after Amrani had given us the lead, before a heavily-rotated side fail to break down third-tier Lleida in the first leg of our Spanish Cup 4th Round clash.

 

December 2022

We have our heads screwed back on for most of December, starting with a comfortable 2-0 win over managerless Villarreal. Already having qualified, we still need a point in Kiev to guarantee our place on top of the group, and we go one better, taking a 2-0 lead before holding on to victory following a Dynamo penalty that got them back into the game. Victory at Levante is impressive following their 5th place finish last season, but an early red card for Duenas and two first half penalties for our opponents means that our trip to Espanyol is one to forget. We finish up before the international break with unconvincing progress in the Spanish Cup, Lopes Sousa's strike enough to see us into the Fifth Round.

This last win proved to be my parting gift to Rayo Vallecano, as after further unsuccessful interviews with AC Milan, Southampton, Marseille and Barcelona, I finally receive an offer from a club appealing enough to bring about the end of my four year spell here. Adios, Rayo. It's truly been an enjoyable time.

[RandoEFC+]

I've properly picked this save back up so I'll update again soon probably with all of this nonsense cancelling real sport.