Ciao, welcome back!

Last season could have ended up in heartbreak if we didn’t qualify for the Champions League. Luckily, the FM gods were on our side this time and we’re through for another season of European football.

In this post, I will be talking about our summer transfer business, promoting youth players to first team, and player’s pathway to the first team.

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Summer Transfer Window

Transfers Out

We sold a total of 13 players for a total of £68m, breaking the club record that from last season. The most notable transfers were, Ben Brereton Díaz to Hertha (£32m), Finn Becker to RB Leipzig (£24m) and Luca Ghiringhelli to Benevento (£1.1m). We also loaned out a few youngsters and unwanted players.

Transfers In

We brought in 6 players for a total of £23m. Two players for the first team and four for the U20s. We somewhat continued with our original recruitment policy, four out of the six players are Chilean, one German (from St. Pauli), one Korean (not St. Pauli).

First Team

Joan Cruz was main target to replace Finn Becker as our CM(A), he joined from Colo Colo (£700k). It wasn’t until I tried to register him that I realized that I fucked up again and forgot that I can only sign one foreign player per season so I wouldn’t be able to register him, that worst part is that he won’t join another club on loan 🙄. I now had to look for a replacement. That replacement is Woo-yeong Jeong, who joins from Freiburg (£14.75m). He comes in on a three year deal with a £30m release clause.

Under-20s

Sebastian Rubio – Colo Colo (£100k), Pablo Peralta – Universidad Católica (£350k) joined the club straight from Chile and will spend two years in Madrid with Rayo Vallecano. Lukas Berhmann has been one of my main target for the last two years, he comes in from St. Pauli (£5.5m), my scouts love him, he will spend the season on loan. Carlos Cortés – Malmö FF (£1.5m) is half Chilean and will spend stay at the club.

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Player Promotions and Pathway

Promotions

Here are the eight players that have been promoted to the first team. Some of these players came from the intakes and the rest came in within the first two seasons at the club.

Defenders: Dani Degli Esposti (18), Guiseppe Paderno (18), Gerald Brandt (18), Lorenzo Carrara (18)
Midfielders: Ljubiša Dragićević (18, Samunel Utaka (18), David Peréz (20)
Forwards: Matteo De Rossi (17)

Pathway

I was beginning to get frustrated with my transfer dealings early on the save as I wasn’t able to give the youth team players as much game time as I wanted. We currently have 8 of youth players in the first team. There are 15 players in the U20s and another 5-7 in the U18s that have great potential of making into the first team. So I needed to be more realistic about the chances of them one day playing for the first team.

I decided that I was not going to get in the way of any youth player if they really wanted a move away and I was not going to block any transfer for any first team player regardless of which player it was, as long as the offer was within their value range. Youth team players who are not ready for first team football will continue to develop at superb facilities with the best youth coaches in the country. The ones who are knocking for some first team minutes but can’t make into the team will be loaned out for further development. I will then reassess next offseason to see where they fit into the team.

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First Team

At the end of last season, I decided that I would be making room in the first team in order to promote several youth players. Our average age went down from 25 to 22, the goal is to maintain that number in the next couple of seasons. The first team will include 24 players for the season, as usual some youth team players might make appearances depending on injuries and fatigue.

Goalkeepers:

Defenders:

Rightbacks


Centerbacks




Leftbacks

Midfielders:

Defensive Midfielders


Central Midfielders

Forwards:

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I wanted to keep this post as short as I could. Next post, I will do my best to summarize the entire 2024/2025 season. (wish me luck)

As always, thanks for taking the time!
Best,
José