Up the Swans!

So with my FM19 Worldwide Journeyman coming to an end, its time to get stuck in to FM20.

I'm not sure how long-term this save will be. My plans originally were to wait until an English Leagues pack is made available and do a "Hometown Hero" kinda save, but for now a save with my Swans will do! It's been a fair while since I did a long-term Swansea save, but that doesn't affect me knowing what to expect from the boys and the club's financial situation.

For those interested, this will be the game's set-up:



So without further introduction, let's get stuck into it!

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"So with the club enduring what might be one of the more turbulent spells in its recent history, things were shaken up even more prior to the start of the season, with Steve Cooper leaving South Wales before seeing a competitive game. In to replace him is relative unknown Swansea City fan Adam Rhys Knight, who comes in on a one-year deal."



"Knight will be judged on his ability to meet a set of board requirements and stick with the club's long-term plans. It is believed that he will be tasked with building a youthful squad capable of playing "the Swansea way" - possession dominant, attacking football. With the club's finances dwindling, Knight will be tasked with the development of youngsters through the club's own Landore Training Facility. It is widely believed that the club is setting its heart on reaching the Sky Bet Championship Playoffs at a minimum this season, which Knight is sure to be judged on."



"With a majority of the club's business having been conducted whilst Cooper was still in charge, Knight was left with no funds to bring players in and no space in the wage budget to sign unattached players. His attention would appear to be focused towards bringing in young, talented players on loan whilst shifting on some of the older, high-earners. It is reported that a number of players signed during the Swans' Premier League days are available for transfer, namely Kris Nordfelt, Andre Ayew, Tom Carroll and Jeff Montero."





"The first signing of the Knight-era is young Spanish attacker Tofol Montiel, who will be joining the club from Serie A side Fiorentina for the season. It is unknown whether Tofol will be thrown straight into the first-team, but over the course of the season the youngster will certainly feature for the new manager."



"Following this, Knight's second signing is Dylan Levitt from Manchester United. The Welshman returns to Wales for the season, and it is believed that he will be a squad player behind the likes of Celina in-behind the striker."





"It has been announced that Swedish goalkeeper Kristoffer Nordfeldt will be leaving South Wales. With Woodman and Mulder in the squad, it is believed that Knight wanted to get the Swede's reported £20K a week wages off of the books as the club looks to operate well within it's means."



"With Deadline Day coming towards its end, Swansea City and Burnley have reached an agreement for the transfer of Ghanaian attacker Andre Ayew. The Swans will receive £10million in total from the deal, but more to the point, will get Ayew's £80k per week salary off of the books, with it being reported to have accounted for around 20% of the team's total wage expenditure."





Having now overseen a painful first window, this is the likely tactical set up going in to the season - personnel subject to change on game-day!

I think this will be the best way of bringing the life back to the Liberty. Whilst the Summer window was entirely underwhelming, I was prepared for this. I came into the job knowing that we didn't have the money to do much, if anything, and so the squad will have to remain this way for the season.





I left the pre-season to my assistant, and whilst some of the opposition we faced wasn't stellar, we did manage some good results. In particularly a 6-1 win to Genoa certainly highlighted a lot of positives, with the only negative being a loss to the Reserves (???).



November 2019!

Good luck! Interested to see how Levitt does for you, he was the standout performer on his real life United debut vs. Astana recently - despite the result.