Live Blogs Football Manager 2017 liveblog

Millership2017-09-20 14:28:18

When Florentino Perez got re-elected as a club President, he injected Real Madrid's finances with 150M euros (the balance was -100M at the time). At the start of the season club received another 150M from TV revenues and sponsorship deals. In July, the board's decided to sit on this money, and my transfer budget was exactly zero euros throughout the whole first half of the season. As the January was approaching, the club balance has lost 50M euros, but the club representatives still gave me a pretty large sum to operate with in the winter transfer window – 160M.

And it still wasn't enough to sign Dybala from Juventus. It wasn't even enough to transfer Morata back from Chelsea. Not to mention to buy Gabriel Barbosa. But, my interest in the former two got them unsettled, Morata even asked his manager to be transfer-listed, and I've managed to return Madrid's prodigal son home for 75M euros.

Speaking of unsettling the players. Manchester City tried to do it again. Now with Asensio. Who is home-grown. And a first-team member. They tried to tempt him with higher wages, but, thankfully, RM is^note with the way I'm spending money on transfers the "still" reservation has to be made able to put a matching offer. But there are issues in FM that can't be resolved with money, and lack of first-team football for a talented player is one of them. Arsenal promised Jesus Vallejo a place in the starting eleven, something I couldn't do, with the abundance of quality centerbacks in the squad, so I let him go for 24M. Vallejo's description after the transfer changed to "World-class centerback".

Having lost a backup club-grown central defender, I quickly managed to find almost exact replacement in Diego Llorente, whom Sevilla somehow managed to sign from me for free last season. He'd got a 21.5M release clause in his contract with the Andalusians, and that was the fee for which another prodigal son was returned home. He's older, but the coaching staff say he's got a bit more potential than Vallejo.

As was planned, I loaned out Achraf and found an even better replacement in Benjamin Henrichs from Leverkusen… for 60M. Another his advantage is that he can proficiently play on any position on our side of the pitch, so, having recalled Martin Odegaard from loan, buying a very talented (or so the scouts said) Polish regen^note a club academy graduate, generated by the game striker Przemyslaw Butenko from Lech Poznan for 3.5M, retraining Meré as a defensive midfielder, my squad finally has enough depth.

New signings performed admirably. Llorente was solid in defense^note when he was on pitch, anyway, and that wasn't too often - he's the fourth-choice CB, Meré even got Varane, and Morata, in turn, got Benzema relegated to the bench by the end of the season. Butenko proved to be able to score against weaker teams, at least – his statistics at the end of the season was 8 matches, 5 goals. Henrichs' attacking skills left much to be desired – while he could successfully find an opening on the flank, his crosses went all over the pitch – but he, too, was solid in defense and at times took Carvajal's place in the starting eleven. The La Liga title was retained.

The Spanish Cup, wasn't. Barcelona (who else?) kicked us out in the quarter-finals, mostly due to Donnarumma's youthful inconsistency. Because of that, halfway through the second half of the season I still was rotating him and Navas on the GK position, and, though late in the season Donnarumma had overcame his problems, it was too late by that time for the Spanish Cup.

The first opponent was Borussia Dortmund, whom we overcame surprisingly effortlessly, 7-2 on aggregate (0-3 on away match).

The quarter- and semifinals could be described as "footballers sending their regards to their former clubs": Ronaldo scored to Man Utd, Pepe to us in the quarterfinals (1-0 at Old Trafford, 4-1 at home), and Ozil to us in the semifinals, which were really fun to watch: Inter beat Juventus 3-1, Arsenal beat us 4-1 at home in the first leg. The latter match, despite the score, was very engaging: I set up a very offensive tactic used mostly against weaker teams, and it worked in the first half: the score was 1-1, Cech and Donnarumma both put up really impressive performances, making 6 or 7 saves each, but then the team couldn't maintain the ferocious tempo, succumbed to tiredness and conceded 3 goals. In the second leg, both ties got overturned: we won 3-0, and went through to the finals on away goals rule, and Juve scored 4 and didn't concede.

I was afraid that the trend would continue and Higuain will score in the Final, but he was injured, and the threat came from (who else?) Dybala, who's made a hat-trick. Juventus won the Champions League 4-3 in a thoroughly deserved victory (2 of our goals were from penalties, and the score does not reflect our performance).

• With Donnarumma performing well, Navas started complaining about the lack of first-team football. If saying "if you keep doing that, I'll sell you" was enough to calm him down the first two times, on the third one he finally requested to be transfer-listed. I guess the love for the club can only last that much. Rajkovic is returning from loan next season, having progressed as a player, so it won't be a problem.
• When playing against Atletico, at one moment, about 60 minutes into the match, the ball possession statistics was 80% in our favor. And Los Colchoneros still have managed to make more shots at goal than us.
• This season, Real Madrid academy provided a rising star for the U19 team, who, according to coaching staff, can surpass Cristiano Ronaldo in quality: Juanjo Garcia. Judging by how his attributes are distributed, he's a poacher, he's got more of Butragueño in him than of Raúl. It will be interesting to watch his development.
• Jorge Meré has successfully finished his tutoring under Sergio Ramos and now has a whopping 20 Determination and the club's captain as his favorite personnel. I just can see them bonding over all the last-second tackles they've made and all the opponents' legs they've broken.
• The La Liga title was decided in a match against Alaves at home. If we'd won, we would pocket the title two games early in the season. Alaves literally parked the bus. Los Vitorianos were competing for the Europa League positions at that stage, sadly that tactic didn't help them much.
• Another disappointment was Granada. They've finished sixth last season, earning the right to play in the Europa League, but got relegated to Segunda this season. On the last place.
• I haven't won the CL, and there are a couple of players whose development I'm interested in, so this game will continue for a couple of seasons at least.