Day One

The first order of business for Iván was a full staff clear out in which almost every contract for the coaching and medical team were mutually terminated and contracts were offered out for replacements, the same happened with the U19 squad and the managers were replaced for both the B and C squads respectfully. Next up was the tactics, having committed to a tiki-taka style of play during his time as a youth coach Iván kept up that style of play and committed once to playing the style of football he grew up watching, and the style of play he wants to teach to the future generation of Spanish football.

After is tactics were set up the squad was evaluated and a first 11 was settled on however with star midfielder Kirian declared medically unavailable for the first 2 months of the season Enzo Loiodice will be stepping up during his absence, Manu Fuster will also have to step up with his main competition for the left wing position Sandro out injured for the vast majority of the season with a torn medial meniscus. Some of the younger talent to look out for throughout the course of the season include holding midfielder Iñaki González, centre half Juanma Herzog, and on loan Estanis Pedrola who will provide backup across the front 3. With the staff and tactics sorted out and the squad evaluated, next on the agenda was to meet to media. A press conference was called at the Estadio de Gran Canaria in which 5 journalists were in attendance, Diego Soro of The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Football Express, Mario Parlato of OneFootball, Àngel Fabra of Sphera Sports, Àngel Cervantes of The Spanish Football Free Press, and Santiago Benítez of The Spanish Football Express. During this press conference Iván Calderón once again stated his intention to develop talent through the clubs own academy as opposed to sourcing talent from elsewhere, he also expressed his desire to take this club to the very top and expressed his admiration of the clubs fans and urged them to buy into the project he wants to build. Iván also took the time to arrange a meeting with the squad to introduce himself and have the chance to chat with the players who seemed to respond positively to what he had to say and seemed to buy into the project.

The Appointment

“In a surprising twist, UD Las Palmas have promoted Iván Calderón to first‑team manager after his extraordinary season with the U19s. The decision has stunned many outside the club, but within the walls of Gran Canaria there is a firm belief that Calderón represents the identity and future Las Palmas desperately need. Only time will tell if this bold gamble pays off.” - MARCA

“Iván has earned this opportunity through his work, his ideas, and his commitment to our philosophy. We believe he is the right person to lead Las Palmas into a new era built on identity, youth, and ambition.” - Miguel Ángel Ramírez, President of UD Las Palmas

Iván Calderón

The date is March 14th 1993 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and young couple Manuel Calderón and Elena Rodríguez have just given birth to their only son Iván. From a young age Iván was always fascinated by football and regularly attended CD Tenerife matches as a kid with his father. Iván knew that when he grew up he was going to be a footballer, and he wasn't the only one, he was a naturally gifted player and by the time he turned 11 he had joined the academy of the very club he grew up watching. He excelled in the CD Tenerife academy due to the discipline and determination he gained from his father and by the time he turned 18 he was a regular starter for the B team and despite his excellence in the middle of the park he could never quite break into the first team. During his time at Tenerife he developed somewhat of a reputation for coaching players whilst on the pitch - a natural ability he gained from his mother who was a primary school teacher. In 2014 he moved to UD San Sebastián de los Reyes in mainland Spain where he was a top player in the lower divisions, from there he moved to Cultural Leonesa in 2017 and CD Mirandés in 2020. throughout his career he seemed to always have knee problems, the worst of this occurring at CD Mirandés where he spent a lot of time with the U19 squad during his rehab where he became a mentor to the younger players and almost a sort of coach to them. As his knee got worse and worse and the fact he never got a chance to play at the level he knew he was capable of he made the decision to cut his career short at the age of 29 in 2022. This wasn't the end of his story however as Mirandés took notice of his ability to teach and decided to hire him as an academy coach where he excelled and the academy saw an improvement in quality immediately. In 2023 he decided to leave his job at Mirandés and moved back home to Tenerife, a gamble which paid off as CD Tenerife decided to hire him as the head coach of their U17 team for the 2023-24 season and this is where Iván Calderón's story really kicks off. During his time as the U17 head coach he developed a clear philosophy of playing high possession Tiki-Taka football, a playstyle that Spain became synonymous with as they used it to win 3 consecutive International tournaments between 2008 and 2012. For the 2024-25 season he made the bold and controversial decision to leave his boyhood club to become the head coach of the U19 team at their fiercest rivals UD Las Palmas. His U19's team hit the ground running under his coaching and after a fantastic season Iván Calderón led them to the Group 6 title - beating out CD Tenerife's own U19 team by 9 points in an invincible season. During this 2024-25 season the first team at Las Palmas struggled, losing 4-0 to second division side Elche in the Round of 32 and winning only 8 league fixtures on their way to a majorly disappointing 19th place finish in La Liga. This poor season left the board at Las Palmas in a difficult situation, they wanted a new identity, they wanted a focus on youth, and they wanted someone to take charge and impose that identity for the foreseeable future which left them thinking… they didn't want a big name for the sake of hiring a big name, they wanted a man that could build a team sourcing from the club's academy for years to come… and they didn't have to look far.

Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge

I'm sure we're all aware of the SAF challenge by now and I've started a couple of them myself in the past, I lost an fm21 save file of one with West Ham and abandoned one on fm24 which I documented on this website but with less saves to focus on this year I'm finally committing to one, last time I got Crystal Palace and that wouldn't have been bad this time around however unfortunately I wasn't that lucky, as you'll have seen when you clicked on this, we got Wolves this time around… the team bottom of the prem and 6 points below 19th place Burnley, but without further ado, here are the rules.

Rules

Take over the club 19th in the table on November 6th - SAF took over Man Utd on November 6th when they 21st (League is no longer 22 teams hence why I'm taking over the club in 19th who are second bottom in the table)

Stay at that club - SAF was at United for 26 years and never managed elsewhere in England

No transfers with your direct rivals - whether that be selling, buying, or loaning players

No more than 11 signings per season and only 8 of those signings can play for the first team that season

Must have at least 1 homegrown player in every matchday squad however it is encouraged to promote as many youth players as possible

Must promote at least 1 youth academy player to the first team each season, once again the more the merrier in this aspect 

Goals

The main goals of the challenge are as follows…

Win a Domestic Cup within 4 seasons - SAF won his first cup in the 89/90 season beating Crystal Palace 1-0 in the FA Cup Final replay

Win a League title within 7 seasons - SAF won his first title in the inaugural Premier League season in 92/93

Win a League and Cup double within 8 seasons - SAF won his first double in the 93/94 season

Win the League, Cup, and Champions League within 13 seasons - SAF won the first ever treble in English football history in the 98/99 season

All Ferguson's Trophies at Old Trafford

Premier League (13x)

FA Cup (5x)

League Cup (4x)

Community Shield (10x)

Champions League (2x)

Europa League (1x) - Replacing Cup Winners Cup

Super Cup (1x)

Club World Cup (2x) - One replacing Intercontinental Cup

I will be attempting to win all of these trophies and will keep track on a spreadsheet which will be shown at the end of each season

November 6th

As previously mentioned we will be managing Wolves, but here is the table on November 6th:

If only Fulham had conceded 3 more goals and we could've gotten one of the more exciting teams in the Premier League, but it's fine, I don't mind a challenge and this is certainly bound to be one. Taking charge of Wolves will be the 34 year old Steven MacDonald, who, after retiring at the end of the 2024-25 season has been given his first big break in management with a struggling team and lofty objectives.

On the topic of objectives, the club are demanding a mid-table finish and require us to be competitive in the FA Cup having been eliminated from the Carabao Cup before Steven's arrival. The supporters are significantly less demanding as they wish to simply remain in the league, which is a lot easier than jumping up to mid-table but ultimately the board has the final say so we know what we need to do.

With a severe lack of English players in the squad it is surprising that we not only have one homegrown player, but rather three, unsurprisingly none of them are English as we have the Irish nationals Matt Doherty (who is out for the next 2-3 weeks) and Nathan Fraser who will be solid bench players and backups for busy schedules, and the Spanish national Hugo Bueno who will provide serious competition to the ever so slightly better David Møller Wolfe. With one of the best academies in the league we shouldn't have to worry about the youth quotas which is ideal because I like to integrate youth in my normal saves anyway.

The squad on paper isn't as bad as the game and real life would suggest with the star players being;

Brazilian Midfielder André:

Colombian midfielder Jhon Arias:

And Cameroonian wingback Jackson Tchatchoua:

With the objective of mid table being difficult enough with Wolves start to the season I will be using a 5-back system for the remainder of season one with the goal of changing to a 4-back system for season two after a full pre season to work on it, here is the shape and roles that will be used for season one:

Before I go off and play out November I thought I would show the fixtures we will (probably not) be looking forward to during our first month in charge starting with an away day to London to play Chelsea in two days time:

As you can see Wolves have already played out a 1-1 draw with Fulham so we only have three games this month as we hope to get off to a flying start with the Old Gold.

Updates will be every in-game month

December 2023

We're back after a lengthy break from the save, but we are back nonetheless. December was a rough one but before we get into the good stuff a new contract was handed out to Jeffrey Schlupp who's contract was up at the end of the year, he signed a 3-year deal with a possible one year extension however this was only given out so he can be sold in the summer with a higher market value.

Before we get into the games the FA Cup Third Round draw took place and we will be facing…

Newcastle. Not the easiest opponent considering they're in a very close title fight with Manchester City however if they continue to be occupied with that then maybe, just maybe we can snatch a win from them.

Now onto the games, as it's December it was a very busy month which consisted of 7 games, all of which were in the Premier League. 

Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace

The first of those games being an away trip to Nottingham to play a struggling Forest side in a bid to stretch the clubs unbeaten run to 6 games. It was Anthony Elanga who opened the scoring for Forest, with a first time shot from the middle of the box, who held onto that lead at half-time and unfortunately we couldn't put up enough of a fight to grab an equaliser and we lost 1-0 to end the unbeaten streak and hand me my first loss as Palace manager after only 4 games.

Crystal Palace v Burnley

The second game of the month saw us return to Selhurst Park to face newly promoted and relegation threatened side Burnley. This game was a lot more comfortable as Odsonne Edouard rounded the ball past two defenders after Eze's pass and slotted home to open the scoring in 65th minute, Edouard doubled his tally in the 82nd minute with a tap in from very close range after a low driven cross from Schlupp, Eze added his second assist in the match from a free kick where he passed to Rak-Sakyi on the edge of the box who then scored a great goal in the 88th minute before Schlupp slotted home from a tight angleafter a well worked moved with an assist from Riedewald a minute later to see us run out as 4-0 winners.

Aston Villa v Crystal Palace

The third game of the month saw us travel to Birmingham to face Aston Villa who were flying high in the Champions League places. The game looked to end up being a pretty exciting 0-0 draw however Jacob Ramsey assured that wouldn't be the case when he tapped in Pau Torres' nod on after a Zaniolo free kick, it looked to be offside however VAR disagreed meaning that Villa had found a winner in the 96th minute to hand us a second defeat in three games.

Wolves v Crystal Palace

We were on the road again a week later to face bottom of the table Wolves (albeit with a game in hand), hoping to return to winning ways. Despite looking like the better team Wolves defended incredibly well meaning that all they needed was Pablo Sarabia to tuck home Bellegarde's cutback in 68th minute to hand us consecutive 1-0 loses on the road. This match saw Eze forced off early, this injury thankfully wasn't serious and he didn't miss a match but it did affect the outcome of this match which could've saw us gain three points as opposed to zero.

Crystal Palace v Chelsea

We returned home on Christmas-Eve-Eve for our first London Derby of the month when Chelsea visited us in what turned out to be a thriller of a match. Chelsea were 1-0 up half time after Nicolas Jackson's first time strike in the 17th minute. Cole Palmer doubled Chelsea's advantage in the 65th minute after a well worked goal and when it looked like we were down and out Nathaniel Clyne gave us hope in the 83rd minute with a tap-in following a free kick and the game was level at 2-2 only two minutes later after a composed finish from Olise after the ball ricocheted around in the Chelsea penalty area. We wouldn't stay level for long though as Nicolas Jackson scored his second of the match with a nice finish after a long ball over the top in the 96th minute to make it 3-2 Chelsea and break our hearts, handing us a third consecutive defeat.

Everton v Crystal Palace

Game 6 saw us visit 9th place Everton at Goodison Park. A shove from Olise in the 11th minute gave Everton a penalty which Dominic Calvert-Lewin slotted home. We received our own stroke of luck however as an Ebere Eze corner struck the arm of Dwight McNeil, that luck was very short lived however as the resulting penalty was hit straight down the middle, directly at Pickford. Our luck went from bad to worse in the 38th minute as a wild challenge from behind meant that Munoz seen red and we were down to 10. Youngster Owen Barker added Everton's second from a corner in the 68th minute which brought the end to an action packed Boxing Day matchup as we were handed yet another defeat.

Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur

Our seventh and final match of December saw Spurs travel south to face us in our second London Derby of the month. Timo Werner opened the scoring with a header from the six yard box in the 39th minute to give Tottenham the lead. Edouard scored once again to tie things up with a tap-in after a well worked move in the first half stoppage time, this meant we headed into the break level at 1-1. In the 79th minute Son Heung-Min inevitably scored a goal of his own with a tap-in to give Spurs a 2-1 lead and that would be the score at full time meaning we've now lost five on the bounce and six out of our last seven. In the 95th minute Jesurun Rak-Sakyi was forced off through injury meaning he could be out for up to two weeks.

After what can only be described as a horrendous month which saw us gain a grand total of three whole points, we've obviously plummeted down the table and are lucky to be outside of the relegation zone by three goal difference meaning the table looks like this

To shed some light on an awful month we did receive our first youth intake preview and it looks as though we could be looking at a potential golden generation which would be incredibly helpful for the academy promotions and homegrown player rules.

December is over and we all know the old cliche “New Year, New Me”, but we really need a new us as we head into January and look to find some form again with some tough matches coming up.

November 2023

Well then, the rest of November has come and gone, and what a month it has been. First things first though, some staff vacancies had to be filled, so let's introduce the newest members of the backroom team

Kolo Toure - Coach

Samuel Corsi - Set Piece Coach

Mark Rudd - Performance Analyst

Callum Frost - Technical Director

Mel Johnson - Scout

Bojan Krkic - Scout

Arron Lujan - Scout

Soren Lerby - Scout

Samuele Melotto - Recruitment Analyst

Darragh Connolly - Sports Scientist

With contracts expiring at the end of the year I triggered the 1-year extension clause of 5 players, some of whom will look to be sold in the summer and a couple who could look to try and force themselves into the first team in a few years

With the boring stuff out of the way, we had 3 matches in November the first of which was a home game on the day of my hiring.

Crystal Palace v Luton

It was a surprisingly tough game against fellow relegation-threatened side Luton Town which was a very even match looking at the stats, as well as the scoreline as the game finished 1-1. Substitute Adam Wharton opened his account for the club in the 76th minute and a win looked certain before a poorly defended ball over the top saw Tahith Chong control the ball well and slot it home in the 88th to earn Luton a point. This match also saw the return of Michael Olise after he had an injury that saw him on the sidelines from the start of the season until now.

Fulham v Crystal Palace

Our 2nd match of the month was an away trip to another relegation-threatened team and fellow Londoners in Fulham, this match was a lot less tough and saw us leave Craven Cottage with all 3 points as a dominant display earned us a 4-1 victory on the road. An Odsonne Edouard masterclass scoring twice in the 37th minute and a penalty 4 minutes into the second half, as well as a quickfire double with goals from Michael Olise in the 71st minute and Chris Richards in the 73rd minute, was more than enough to bring all three points home despite Armando Broja's consolation goal in the 79th minute.

Crystal Palace v Brighton

The third and final match of November was a home match in the fiercest derby in English football… the A23 Derby. In the lead-up to the game, Roberto de Zerbi tried playing some mind games which would later backfire as another dominant performance, this time not replicated in the scoreline saw us run out narrow 1-0 victors. Edouard looked to continue his form from the Fulham game as he stuck the ball in the back of the net inside 15 minutes however the goal was ruled out as he was millimetres offside and the teams went into the half break at 0-0. Early in the second half, Joel Veltman made a stupid tackle which saw him receive a second yellow and saw Brighton down to 10 men. Some more chances came and went before Steele made an awful pass from a goal kick which Ebere Eze intercepted before scoring a screamer from the edge of the box in the 92nd minute giving us all 3 points in an excellent derby day performance.

With November coming to an end here's what the table looked like.

After a good first month that saw us rise from 19th to 14th and only 3 points off United in 7th, could we possibly dare to challenge for the European places already?

After that first month, I earned myself runner-up in the Manager of the Month race to Chelsea's Mauricio Pochettino

This month also saw Adam Wharton and Michael Olise finish 2nd and 3rd in the Young Player of the Month race to another Chelsea man in Cole Palmer

With November now over we have a very busy month ahead of us as we try to rise up the table even more with 7 games in December and some tough games against some top sides. I'll be back with December's update soon.

That will be the main goal realistically however I like the added challenge of trying to win the trophies in the same timescale although it will be challenging, especially trying to win the treble in 13 seasons, I'm banking on the youth intakes and some cheap wonderkids my scouts find, it is a big help that palace have a good academy especially when they had a game the day of November 6th and I would've had fulham had they even drawn that game which was against Luton, I definitely got lucky with the club

Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge

Everyone knows who Sir Alex Ferguson is, he is one of the most successful managers in history and most people's best manager in history, as a Scotsman myself I decided I would take a serious attempt at this challenge after I lost the save file of my FM21 attempt with West Ham, and I thought I'd share it on here so this one will last forever (or at least the memory of it in case I lose the save file again).  But without further ado, here are the rules

Rules

Take over the club 19th in the table on November 6th - SAF took over Man Utd on November 6th when they 21st (League is no longer 22 teams hence why I'm taking over the club in 19th who are second bottom in the table)

Stay at that club - SAF was at United for 26 years and never managed elsewhere in England

No transfers with your direct rivals - whether that be selling, buying, or loaning players

No more than 11 signings per season and only 8 of those signings can play for the first team that season

Must have at least 1 homegrown player in every matchday squad however it is encouraged to promote as many youth players as possible

Must promote at least 1 youth academy player to the first team each season, once again the more the merrier in this aspect 

Goals

The main goals of the challenge are as follows…

Win a Domestic Cup within 4 seasons - SAF won his first cup in the 89/90 season beating Crystal Palace 1-0 in the FA Cup Final replay

Win a League title within 7 seasons - SAF won his first title in the inaugural Premier League season in 92/93

Win a League and Cup double within 8 seasons - SAF won his first double in the 93/94 season

Win the League, Cup, and Champions League within 13 seasons - SAF won the first ever treble in English football history in the 98/99 season

All Ferguson's Trophies at Old Trafford

Premier League (13x)

FA Cup (5x)

League Cup (4x)

Community Shield (10x)

Champions League (2x)

Europa League (1x) - Replacing Cup Winners Cup

Super Cup (1x)

Club World Cup (2x) - One replacing Intercontinental Cup

I will be attempting to win all of these trophies and will keep track on a spreadsheet which will be shown at the end of each season

November 6th

As the clock ticks over to November 6th, this is how the Premier League table looks…

 With the club now confirmed, it was time for the editor's only use for this save

The three formations I decided to use for this save were the following…

4-3-3

4-2-3-1

4-2-4

With the save ready to begin all we have to do now is look at the objectives the board has layed out

The objective of season one is top-half, a bit ambitious but we all need a bit of ambition in our lives.

Updates will be every in-game month