In this save with FC Basel my aim is to take this team, dominant in their own domestic league, to the dizzy heights of Champions League glory.
In order to do this I'm going to have to try and consistently reach the group stages of the Champions League, that's my minimum expectation every season. This will provide us with a good income, and should raise our profile in Europe. This in turn should allow us to be able to attract a high standard of players to the team. Pair this with our excellent youth training facilities and extensive youth recruitment will hopefully become a recipe for success.
Facilities
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I asked the board if they could improve our youth facilities, one of the main philosophies of the club was to develop our own players, so the board were happy to oblige and give me what I wanted.
I also wanted the board to buy the stadium, this saves us £2.5m per year and will hopefully allow us to further improve our financial stance in the coming years.
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Transfers In
At the time of writing this post I'm getting towards the end of my first season at the club. I won't give any spoilers about what has happened over the season so far, but with only 8 games to go both transfer windows have been and gone so I'll go through the in's and out's for both in this post.
André S(C) £1.4m from Atlético Mineiro
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At the start of the game I wanted to add a little more depth to my attacking options. As you'll see when I show the tactics that I'm using although I'm only playing with a lone striker with one of my two strikers at the start being preferred as an inside forward it left me only with a single striker so André came in and added that much needed depth and has so far been worth the money spent to bring him in.
Lucas AM(R)/M(R) £1.1m from Real Madrid
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I wanted to play with some attacking inside forwards and I felt this was something that was really lacking at the club and Lucas was offered to me by his agent. He was transfer listed at Real Madrid, my scouts raved about him and he was available for the measly price of £1.1m I could not refuse it especially with his small wage demands and bought him in. Nothing really stands out to me stats wise but he has a lot of good stats, if only a few outstanding but he has been one of my players of the season so far.
Matías Kranevitte DM/M(C) £5.25M from River Plate
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Kranevitte was my only winter signing, I wanted a holding midfielder so that I was able to tweak my tactic slightly and sure up the defense a little. I scouted him and was massively impressed by those mental stats for a young player. His price tag was a little more than I perhaps wanted to play but most of that will be spent over the next 48 months so as long as he is a success for a few seasons to come, and I think he will be, then it'll be a decent transfer which will help us defensively especially against bigger European sides.
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Transfers Out
Zdravko Kuzmanovic M(C)/DM £2.9m to Girondins Bordeaux
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There was only really one notable transfer out of the club and that is Kuzmanovic. Yes he is a similar player to Kranevitte, however he prefers to play in a more typical central midfield role and not a defensive role. He also picked up a long term injury at the start of the game for about 4 months. He would have been one of my better midfielders if he didn't get injured but he just didn't get back into the side after coming back from injury and he wanted to leave. He never really made it into the team for us so we won't miss him.
There were some other minor outgoings during the two transfer windows but none that were of any real impact to the team. Mainly ageing players, or younger players who weren't going to break into the team.
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Tactics
I've been using 2 tactics through the season, although for the latter half I've only really used the one.
This has been my main tactic since Kranevitte signed around halfway through the season.
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Although I'm only playing with a lone striker, Kakitani out on the left has also been getting in on the goals whilst Lucas has been the main source of assists out on the right. Before this tactic was using an attacking midfielder but the choice to drop them back to a more defensive role which is now occupied by Kranevitte has worked well, it's tightened up the defense which I think will be crucial for European campaigns in the future.
My other tactic which I used early on during the season was this:
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This was a much more attacking formation than the one I'm using now and I haven't really gone back to it since moving to my current one. There were never any issues scoring goals with this tactic but it wasn't quite what I was looking for defensively which is why I much prefer using the 4-1-2-2-1 formation I am now.
That's all for now, like I said I'm really close to the end of the season so I'll do a season update once the season is over.
In order to do this I'm going to have to try and consistently reach the group stages of the Champions League, that's my minimum expectation every season. This will provide us with a good income, and should raise our profile in Europe. This in turn should allow us to be able to attract a high standard of players to the team. Pair this with our excellent youth training facilities and extensive youth recruitment will hopefully become a recipe for success.
***
Facilities
I asked the board if they could improve our youth facilities, one of the main philosophies of the club was to develop our own players, so the board were happy to oblige and give me what I wanted.
I also wanted the board to buy the stadium, this saves us £2.5m per year and will hopefully allow us to further improve our financial stance in the coming years.
***
Transfers InAt the time of writing this post I'm getting towards the end of my first season at the club. I won't give any spoilers about what has happened over the season so far, but with only 8 games to go both transfer windows have been and gone so I'll go through the in's and out's for both in this post.
André S(C) £1.4m from Atlético Mineiro
At the start of the game I wanted to add a little more depth to my attacking options. As you'll see when I show the tactics that I'm using although I'm only playing with a lone striker with one of my two strikers at the start being preferred as an inside forward it left me only with a single striker so André came in and added that much needed depth and has so far been worth the money spent to bring him in.
Lucas AM(R)/M(R) £1.1m from Real Madrid
I wanted to play with some attacking inside forwards and I felt this was something that was really lacking at the club and Lucas was offered to me by his agent. He was transfer listed at Real Madrid, my scouts raved about him and he was available for the measly price of £1.1m I could not refuse it especially with his small wage demands and bought him in. Nothing really stands out to me stats wise but he has a lot of good stats, if only a few outstanding but he has been one of my players of the season so far.
Matías Kranevitte DM/M(C) £5.25M from River Plate
Kranevitte was my only winter signing, I wanted a holding midfielder so that I was able to tweak my tactic slightly and sure up the defense a little. I scouted him and was massively impressed by those mental stats for a young player. His price tag was a little more than I perhaps wanted to play but most of that will be spent over the next 48 months so as long as he is a success for a few seasons to come, and I think he will be, then it'll be a decent transfer which will help us defensively especially against bigger European sides.
Transfers Out Zdravko Kuzmanovic M(C)/DM £2.9m to Girondins Bordeaux
There was only really one notable transfer out of the club and that is Kuzmanovic. Yes he is a similar player to Kranevitte, however he prefers to play in a more typical central midfield role and not a defensive role. He also picked up a long term injury at the start of the game for about 4 months. He would have been one of my better midfielders if he didn't get injured but he just didn't get back into the side after coming back from injury and he wanted to leave. He never really made it into the team for us so we won't miss him.
There were some other minor outgoings during the two transfer windows but none that were of any real impact to the team. Mainly ageing players, or younger players who weren't going to break into the team.
***
Tactics
I've been using 2 tactics through the season, although for the latter half I've only really used the one.
This has been my main tactic since Kranevitte signed around halfway through the season.
Although I'm only playing with a lone striker, Kakitani out on the left has also been getting in on the goals whilst Lucas has been the main source of assists out on the right. Before this tactic was using an attacking midfielder but the choice to drop them back to a more defensive role which is now occupied by Kranevitte has worked well, it's tightened up the defense which I think will be crucial for European campaigns in the future.
My other tactic which I used early on during the season was this:
This was a much more attacking formation than the one I'm using now and I haven't really gone back to it since moving to my current one. There were never any issues scoring goals with this tactic but it wasn't quite what I was looking for defensively which is why I much prefer using the 4-1-2-2-1 formation I am now.
***
That's all for now, like I said I'm really close to the end of the season so I'll do a season update once the season is over.
First Round vs Yverdon 
vs 
Luca Zuffi
vs 
vs 
vs 
vs 
vs 
Vs 
H 
Xhaka
vs 
0-1
Benfica
FC Basel
AS Roma
Rapid Wien
2-2
De Sanctis
