Career - Removing the PSG monopoly

I have 4 main aims for this career:

Recreate Monaco's 2016/17 successes - in the Champions League and Ligue 1

Overthrow PSG - though I expect this to be longer term

Win the Champions League - Very much longer term

Have a bit of fun writing a careers update

Please Note - I am not great at the game as I have only played since 2019. If you see any glaring errors, please let me know about them

The Squad we inherited is as follows:

GK - Alexander NUBEL

GK - Thomas DIDILLON

NUBEL will be my 1st choice keeper and DIDILLON's only chance of getting minutes is an injury for NUBEL or cup games.

Both players are on loan, NUBEL from BAYERN and DIDILLON from CERCLE BRUGGES, our affiliate club.

DC - Benoit BADIASHILE

DC - Axel DISASI

DC - Guillermo MARIPAN

BADIASHILE is the best centre back by a mile and DISASI will line up alongside him. I will look to sell MARIPAN at the end of the season as he doesn't justify his high wages and he's simply not good enough.

DL - CAIO HENRIQUE

DL - Malang SARR

DL - Ismail JAKOBS

JAKOBS already has major interest from a few clubs and I'm expecting offers for him before the season begins.

SARR is on loan from CHELSEA and looks very good but is also very expensive, so I don't think his stay will become permanent

CIAO HENRIQUE is my best option at left back, but there is interest from MILAN, FIORENTINA, VILLAREAL, and many others, so I will struggle to keep him at the club at the end of the season, but hopefully will get good money for him.

DR - Ruben AGUILAR

DR - VANDERSON

AGUILAR will start but has good competition for his spot from VANDERSON. AGUILAR is at the peak of his potential at 29 and VANDERSON is only 21.

DM - Mohamed CAMARA

DM - Youssouf FOFANA

DM - Eliot MATAZO

DM - JEAN LUCAS

All look like solid players, MATAZO is a young prospect who I promoted from the 2nd team as he's good enough to play for us now, but will mainly be on the bench.

FOFANA will be a struggle to keep as there is major interest from MAN UTD so I'm expecting offers in January. JEAN LUCAS already has good offers so he's gone too

AM - Alexandr GOLOVIN

AM - Takumi MINAMINO

AM - Maghnes AKLIOUCHE

GOLOVIN is a top, top player and AKLIOUCHE is a youth player I promoted. MINAMINO came in from LIVERPOOL and will play here instead of LW, for reasons you'll see. We don't have very good depth here, especially since the plan is for AKLIOUCHE to go out on loan for his development next season so I will look to the transfer window to strengthen.

LW - Willem GEUBBELS

LW - Krépin DIATTA

Neither are really what I'm looking for in this position and NANTES wanted to make GEUBBEL's loan permanent so I let them. DIATTA also has interest from other clubs.

RW - Gelson MARTINS

RW - Breel EMBOLO

Both are solid RW options, and EMBOLO can also play CF which is good.

CF - Wissam BEN YEDDER

CF - Kevin VOLLAND

CF - Myron BOADU

BOADU will become first choice in a couple of seasons as he looks very promising. BEN YEDDER is good but is already in decline and ageing. VOLLAND is very interested in pursuing a move to DORTMUND, and they will meet the 15 Million price tag easily so I don't think he will even play a game for us.

Here are the transfers I have made at the start of the season:

All these players are U23 as that's one of the club vision objectives, and who doesn't love a wonderkid?

LW - Andreas SCHJELDERUP

with GEUBBELS and likely DIATTA both leaving, I needed a lot more cover at LW so SCHJELDERUP makes perfect sense (if you're wondering, the player I exchanged for him was in my U19 squad with low potential). He's an 18 year old wonderkid with very high potential who, crucially for me, can play in 2 positions:

LW/DL - Nicola ZALEWSKI

this is a very useful signing for me, he can play any position on that left hand side. He (like SCHJELDERUP) has a high ceiling but already looks like a decent player.

AM - Julen JON GUERRERO

another young player, but he needs a bit of development, so I think I will loan him out in January. Also my first deadline day signing in FM23, the new updated graphics look really good.

Here are the players I sold:

The only player here that I wasn't expecting to sell was DIATTA but even then, he's only a bench player and has been replaced. The reasons for these transfers are above, in the squad list.

Season 1 - August 2022 update

Depending on how much time and how many matches I have in a month, I'll do monthly updates. Here's how August 2022 went:

A largely positive month overall, which saw us qualify for the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE group stage.

It was a very good start as we dominated RANGERS in the first leg, BEN YEDDER scoring 2 and EMBOLO getting a header on his debut.

The second didn't go as well but our first leg dominance sent us through to the playoff finals. For some reason, the defence decided to mark everyone except MORELOS who took full advantage of this scoring 2 well worked goals, but what mattered was that we were through.

Our CHAMPIONS LEAGUE journey didn't end there, as we faced PSV, with a win securing a spot in the group stages.

In a cagey affair, the main man BEN YEDDER scored two well worked goals, to cancel out SAIBARI's earlier strike.

The second leg was enough to secure us group stage football and send PSV to the EUROPA LEAGUE. But the boys put in a poor performance, and were lucky to come away with a win on the day, GELSON MARTINS got the only goal.

In Ligue 1 we didn't get the start we wanted in a 2-2 draw against STRASBOURG but kick started a good run of form with a win against RENNES.

SCHJELDERUP scored his first goal for us with a lovely close range finish and BADISHILE scored a header. Unfortunately, despite having 63% possession, we threw it away in the second half as they were clinical with their finishing and AJOURQUE picked up MOTM.

In an infuriating game in which we dominated, MINAMINO got his first for the club, but former NICE man GOUIRI scored a belter from outside the box. Minutes later, BADIASHILE scored another towering header off a corner to win it for us. The game wasn't done there though, as we tried to time waste, VANDERSON picked up his second yellow and earned himself an early bath.

Next up, we faced RC LENS, a team we were expected to beat comfortably.

It wasn't the best performance, but it was enough to gain the 3 points as EMBOLO picked up another goal to add to his tally.

Our next 2 fixtures were PSG and TROYES.

We never expected to beat them, and MBAPPE, our record sale, got a goal in a poor match for us. He also picked up MOTM.

We needed to bounce back with a win or risk dipping into a run of poor form. This next match put us up against TROYES who we fully expected to beat.

This was the best performance I could've asked for as we hammered them. CAMARA tried his luck from long range, and a GK error meant he had his first of the season. BOADU, who is very quick, was finding all kinds of space behind their poorly drilled back line, and with 16 finishing, he was always going to punish them, scoring 4 goals to kickstart his campaign. GOLOVIN rounded it off with a tap in.

August was overall very successful and we ticked a club vision milestone off in qualifying for the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE group stage. We go again in September.