Project Bilbao

Good to see this get going, good luck chief!

Thanks Dan, you'll see I'm off to a decent start!
-------

Preseason and August 2013


This preseason, I tried 3 things I don't normally do:
1 - I played LOADS of games, I normally only play 5 or 6.
2 - I played some very very poor teams, all mainly local with just Arsenal as a tester (which turned out very well as you'll see.) My reasoning for this is basically experimental, it allowed my team to get used to our formations (I rotated between 3 versions of the one shown) and also morale, keen players will be well aware of the strength that good morale can give your team
3 - I played some home games, normally I only play one marquee friendly at home but as I was playing local teams I figured it barely matters.

Team News
Sadly, my first choice striker Aduriz was injured in the Arsenal win and so this fellow has stepped up to the plate and is performing:


If he continues to perform as he is, I may be obliged to keep him in there. The fact he's so young in comparison to 32 year old Adruiz means that he still has room to grow and develop with Herrera, Muniain and the other youngsters that I want to keep around.

August 2013
So did my experimental preseason work?


I'd say so! The first game was fantastic, we went out to attack Elche from the off and it clearly paid dividends. Herrera was exceptional, clearly justifying the intense interest in him all around Europe.

Against Getafe I'd have hoped for better, but salvaging a point after a poor start isn't too shabby.

Finally that fantastic counter-attacking win again Madrid really was special, Hererra once again coming to the fore and silencing one of his potential suitors with an outstanding performance.

These 3 games sit up TOP OF THE LEAGUE by the fine margin that is goal difference.

Transfers
It was tricky, but we managed to keep hold of both Hererra and Muniain who both had bids come in for them. Hererra was subject to bids from Napoli, Juve, AC and Atlético Madrid whilst Muniain had bids from Real and Man United. None of the bids were even close to the value of either player and miles away from their release clauses which I am happy to hold out for (both £40m)

In Basque news, Inigo Martinez made a £22m move that you wouldn't be too surprised to see in real life this summer


I'll be keeping an eye on his progress

Excellent start buddy!

Great win over Atletico Madrid chum.

Pretty good start to the season

Great start here man!!

KIU

George, Shedender, Johno and K3V0 - thanks for the kind words, it hasn't gone quite so well in the past few games but I agree it was a good start!

Thanks for reading

-----


As you can see from results alone, right up until the Almeria game everything was going really well. Then all of a sudden we forgot how to score! Granada and their team of loanees appear to be the surprise package for the year so far and they became the first club to take all three points away from San Memes. The losses did coincide with Benat getting injured, a player who's importance I really underestimated in the team. Aduriz returned from injury to set us back to winning ways and wasted no time in setting the record straight, scoring after 20 seconds (a new club record.) The loss to Madrid was probably to be expected, we didn't give a great account of ourselves but I can't be too disappointed, more just pleased not to be hammered due to the poor form we were in.


The league looks better than I had hoped, we appear to be in a battle with our local rivals Sociedad and Osasuna for the final Champions League spot, with Granada joining the big dogs miles ahead of the rest. Atletico Madrid are amazingly down in 14th position after a poor start, thankfully I managed to get that early win against them and will only have to play them once whilst they're in-form!

In other news, Iker Muniain has really disappointed me with his performances. The transfer rumours have begun again for both he and Herrera and it may be time to take the opportunity to make big bucks on Iker. I realise that is going back on my first post about him, but I really can't seem to get him playing whereas Herrera is flying!

I'm starting to think that my formation doesn't have much longevity in it, our poor form and style of play is starting to get caught out, despite having the highest passing success rate in the league we aren't actually producing much in the way of chances. Watch this space.

honestly I think if you sell Iker , you will never find a decent replacement for him. He's still young, this is your first season, wait for him. And what can you do with all that money anyway, Sociedad will never sell you Griezmann

Ander Herrera is one of my favourite FM players.

Develops into a world class playmaker,

sanka - I am keen to keep a hold of him if I'm honest as he's one of the main players I planned to build my team around. I just feel that at this stage it may be hard to keep hold of him. Signing Greizmann is a long way away I reckon, the likes of PSG etc are already onto him anyways, I don't see any of the current wave of 'big' basque players joining us

Poe - yeah he's fast becoming one of mine! Banging the goals in and must have assisted the ones he hasn't scored. He's everywhere

Pretty decent results until Almeria game Who is Granada manager?

What role are you playing Iker in? IF?

Johno - results were going well until then you're right, I'll do an update over the next day or so and you'll see that the shaky form has continued! Iker is playing as an IF but I'm actually looking to move him further forward as a striker/wide forward as we keep picking up injuries in that department and I think he could do a job. Granada are managed by Lucas Alcaraz, their manager IRL who is a bit of a club hero having played there before and managed them about 20 years ago too

Form isn't hurrendous mate thats for sure, keep at it, I take it champions league football is yourmain aim?

I really wonder if you manage to achieve top 4 in La liga, with the money you receive, will you be able to buy a world class basque like Griezmann or Martinez

Dan - it didn't get much better though, that's for sure. Tinkering a little bit with my tactic to see how I can develop it to yes, hopefully reach the Champions League!

sanka - I'd doubt it if I'm honest, Matinez has jumped to Barca already and the Premier League big boys are sniffing around Greizmann already. Add the Prem clubs to the likely inflated fee I'd be subjected to (due to being a rival) and I don't think I'll get too far. Any monies received will most likely be used to tie down what I have (namely my core of Hererra, Laporte, Susaeta, Iker and Iturraspe) and invest in the next gen as 16 year old Spaniards are proving costly!

Should have an update for you all later tonight

Very excited to see some of the players to come through your youth academy in the coming years!

samboo92 - me too mate! You'll see I've added a couple prospects in January too
----------


For some reason, I thought our results were a lot worse than they actually were, the two games we lost aren't much to be ashamed about as Atletico are starting to climb and Barca are...well, they're Barca. It was frustrating to go out of the cup, especially as we didn't actually lose a game against this season's form team, we grabbed ourselves a vital win at Sociedad, strengthening our grip on 4th place and the 3 draws, which were all curiously 2-2 showed we're not lacking in goals, just stopping them! The Rayo draw actually lead to something that (for me) has been a rarity in FM:



Our league form hasn't been the best or the worst but luckily the teams around us have have been fairly poor, giving us the chance to catch up to 3rd place and accelerate away from 5th. I'd love to clinch that 3rd spot as I believe it means we enter the Champions League at the group stage as opposed to qualifiers which really can be a lottery.

January Transfer Window


Satrustegui joins us from Osasuna for £400k, mainly as cover for Balaralarlalzeniga or whatever he's called. Bloody Basque names.

We also signed two 16 year old Spaniards, set to join in the summer. These two players are potentially our Herrera and Benat of the future, costing a combined £3m we have Sebas and Jose Garcia (simple names were a factor)

Still doing well mate! Very close for 3rd would be great to get a automatic group stage place! Good young signings too

Going well here man.

Champions League football would be massive and I'm sure help you build for the future!!

KIU

Xabi Alonso always goes to Bilbao in my last couple of saves when he is 35+. played till he was 39 in one of my saves and still finished with 12 assists and 5 goals in his last season. The Guy oozes class. Good Luck with this I couldn't handle this challenge personally lol.

what roles do your strikers toquero and aduriz have?

George - thanks mate, 3rd would be excellent but I fear it might set the bar too high for the following season. The two young lads look great, plenty more where that came from in the summer window I'm sure.

K3V0 - thanks man. I think the money would certainly help us. The club are still paying off the stadium and looking to improve other facilities so I'm not sure how much of it I'll see

DarylDoyle1888 - I would love the same to happen here mate, he would fit perfectly into the holding role in my side. Thanks

sanka - Aduriz start as a target man, I chance it to that around about the Barca game and he started to score a bit more regularly. Toquero just going in as a like for like replacement for Iker on the wing, if he does go up top I tend to set him as a poacher

-------



Well, didn't we make a meal out of that! The end of the season started with 2 good win's against two struggling giants in Valencia and Malaga, we even managed a fantastic draw with Real Madrid before stumbling at Osasuna...then the flu bug hit! My first experience of this in FM, my keeper Iraizoz caught flu and I accidentally selected to leave it to the physio. Within 4 days we had lost Benat, Aduriz, Iker, Herrera and Beleleleelezniga to flu and had to face the strongest team in the league with half a team. The 3-0 scoreline could have been a lot worse on the grounds that I had a two 16 year olds on the field and infact we were even unlucky as we had a goal disallowed that I'm not 100% sure was offside and ended up with 10 men as a player was injured after i made my 3rd sub, that is essentially what cost us the 2 late goals.


That poor run nearly cost us, but whoever drew up the fixtures is an absolute wizard as it meant we faced a straight face-off with our rivals Sociedad and thankfully came through it to grab 3rd place by leapfrogging them.

Onwards and Upwards!

Great news for both me and the club in that I've signed a new deal and all of our facilities are going to be upgraded. I hope to keep our facilities at the very best level as that's the only way our prospects can fully develop and grow, thus the only way I can be a real success.

Speaking of prospects, meet our newest batch:


Casado is the pick of an average bunch, all players with 2 1/2* or more raitings have been signed.

Here's to the future

Great work on coming 3rd!

You're doing well in the league Good to see the board upgrading the facilities

Screenshot of Casado?

George - Thanks mate, I was very pleased with it, especially considering our poor form in the run in

Johno - Thanks mate, I'm glad to see it happening too! Here's Casado:

Show Spoiler

_________________________

Pre-Season 2014

Plenty of goals once again, this year playing a few more competitive games, showing in the fact that we drew with Monaco and THE FALCON. We beat Arsenal again which is a good sign of our continued quality, hopefully if we come across them in the Champions League we can keep our 100% record!

Transfers

All of the players we've brought in are actually youth players and so nothing to sing about yet! It's an interesting method of management in that I won't know the successes of my business for a good 5-10 years. Here are a few of the players that could be big for us in the future:


Crespi is probably my favourite as I know how hard it is to find a quality holding midfielder, regardless of this Basque rule, so to find one within it is magical


I want this fella to become my club record scorer, I have no idea why but I like to set stupid targets like this. 251 is the current record to beat, set by Telmo Zarra back in the 1950's. Much like 'Keepa' (my future keeper), I'd like to give him a name...any suggestions?

Most importantly, we kept hold of everybody we wanted to! Once again, Iker and Herrera were subject to interest from both home and abroad, the advantage I have here is that every player really seems to love the club and makes them quite reluctant to leave. I do expect that battle to get harder!

Nice signings! And well done on keeping Muniain and Ander.... Chelsea snatched Ander from me after they meet his release clause in my second season!

Sears - I was pleased to keep hold of them, but as I mentioned, that will only get harder!
---------------

The Line Up

The line up remains largely unchanged to the start of last year, the differences being San Jose coming in for Gurpegi at the back and Muniain replacing the ageing Aduriz up top with Ibai Gomez slotting into his left wing role. The rationale behind these changes are; A - Gurpegi is getting on and I see San Jose as a future skipper in a long term partnership with Laporte, B - Ibai comes in after an impressive pre-season (he's also a set piece beast) and C - Aduriz will be used as an impact player as he had really dipped due to his age, Iker was the next best option and hopefully it will liven him up a bit.

The Results

Playing 3 poor teams to start the season saw us take 6 points...I'd have liked 9! In the Celta game both of my forward changes (Iker and Ibai) grabbed goals, leaving me feel like a temporary mastermind. The Almeria game left me feeling a little different, we weren't outplayed but we were poor and only Aduriz could break the Almeria back 5 late in the game...stubborn old git. Finally, against Levante, Iker got himself back on the scoresheet along with our skipper-to-be in a 4-2 win. We face a few big games in September so it was for the best that we picked up these points.

The Champions League Group Draw

F*ck me sideways

Pretty good start to the season the group isn't actually bad I think Leverkusen and Shakhtar can be beatable.

The best of the rest in La Liga there bud, good achievement in your first season!!

KIU

is this still alive?