Career Basque To Glory

[YungGaffer]

Hello and welcome to "Basque To Glory", a journey I shall travel with hopes to return with success ( and not PSTD ). Now let me explain a few things so we on the same page.

THE TEAM AND WHY

Athletic Club, the fourth most successful football club in Spain, having won 8 La Liga titles and 23 Copa del Rey titles, as well as being one of only three clubs never relegated from La Liga. Sadly for their supporters, the last trophy won was, apart from last seasons Spanish Super Cup, back in 1984.

It's one of the more challenging saves in FM, because you are limited due to the club's transfer policy of only signing players with Basque heritage ( a quick player search will show you how small the number of players you can sign is ). It also forces you to focus on utilizing players you have in the squad to the best of their ability. However Athletic Club have one of the best youth setups in the game, so there will ( hopefully ) be quality prospects to fill your first team. There's no buying any trophies here. I'll need to have a strong squad and an even stronger handle on youth development.

THE MISSION

1st - To win the club's first ever European title

2nd - To win six out of six competitions in a single season, matching Barcelona's 2009 record

3rd - To complete a 1KC 

I'm sure you reading this and saying "Impossible, There's no way", well, you'll just have to stick around to see me prove you wrong! (or I fail and win Vibe's Award "It's The Thought That Counts" ). I seriously hope you enjoy this as it would be a shame to go through all this writing and pain for nothing.

Update soon.

Edited January 21, 2022 by YungGaffer

[Titjes]

Good luck 😉

[Rich]

Good luck mate 😁

[StuartM]

Sounds like a good one, good luck mate!

[broodje kip]

Good luck

[hhooo]

It certainly doesn't seem impossible, but it does seem fun! Good luck

[YungGaffer]

Thanks to you all for wishing me good luck.

For this save, I am literally going to be the current Athletic Club manager, Macrelino Garcia Toral, so don't be suprised when you see his name and not mine. 

[YungGaffer]

Season 1

Expectations

The board wants us to qualify for the Euro Cup. It's about time, this club and its fans haven't heard any European competition anthem in the last 5 years. All we need is a top 6 finish. That should be easy.

Transfers

In

1) Jon Karrikaburu - A wonderkid with well rounded stats to succeed Inaki Williams when he starts to decline. I will also be using him to complete the 1KC. 

2) Urko Gonzalez de Zarate - A young centre back with14 Aerial and good Positioning and Tackling. With the right training, he's gonna be the perfect CB.

Out

Given the fact that every player in Spain must have a release clause in their contract ( I wonder who came up with that genius idea ) and that my signing pool is so small, I am not going to offload any players because I need to assess each players value to the team first and I can't afford to lose players I can't replace.

Mid-season results

After a rocky start to the season, we managed to find our feet and the W's starts pouring in. Also not competing in Europe this season means most of my players are ready to perform when I need them. With my head only focused on the results, I had lost sight of where we stood on the table until I received this

Before I responded, I flew to that League Standings page.

To my surprise, turns out we in on the title race. I knew we were doing good but not THIS good. However, there's something else that I noticed as I look at this screen. Our defensive record is amazing, with only 8 goals conceded in 18 games but we not scoring a lot of goals. I mean only 24 goals scored so far compared to Real Madrid's 40 goals. Something needs to be done about that...

Here's how Karrikaburu looks so far and his goal tally

I mean he's doing well but at this rate, who knows when we'll reach 1000 goals. Compared to at some of the 1KC's I see on here, I don't know if I'm the problem or if I just need to give Karrikaburu some time. *Sigh*

Anyway, Now with the transfer window open, I need to sell some players that we don't need and see if there's any quality player who's contract is expiring or has been transfer listed.

Thanks for reading. Update coming soon 👋