Having seen the masterclass of Pep's 2-3-5 for Bayern, other managers have started to take note. The world is fascinated by this refreshing take on tactics, and slowly but surely more managers begin to put the same tactic in place. With some subtle encouragement from the FA's, excited by the idea of fast attacking football, soon the whole world is converted. Everyone is using the 2-3-5. But has the footballing scene changed for the better? Will there be the intense matches everyone craves, or will there be a global tactical disaster?
  
^{Same old note /footballmanagergames note to say this was originally posted over here but everything posted there will be below. If you want pictures and graphs and formatting, feel free to swing by the site. Or not. I'm not overly bothered either way.}
Another simple experiment. The setup for this one is every manager gets the 2-3-5 set as their favourite formation, and the "fits players to favourite formation" characteristic ticked. The idea is that goals will be scored, ideally as many as possible. I've heard many times about how football is dull, and the crazy ideas to resuscitate it. This is my (joke) attempt, lets put the focus on attack, and remove any inclination to defend whatsoever.
You may be wondering "why 2-3-5?" or "why not just remove all defenders?". The quick answer is, 2-3-5 is the most attacking formation you can mass-assign managers. Outside of that I'd have to assign each teams formation individually, and that won't work on the scale or time frame I'm looking to do. Plus, I'm halving the number of defenders in a game, is that not enough?
Let's crack on. How many goals will be scored? Will teams fall apart? Will strikers become the new president for countries worldwide? There's only one way to find out...
  

2014/15

Title Winners: Man City
Cup Winners: FA - Arsenal, League - Arsenal
Average Goals: 97.25
The season opens with Man City battering Everton 4-1, and to be honest, that's weak compared to what's about to come. City top the table thanks to scoring a whopping 139 goals, setting a new record for the Premier League. Sunderland ship to me with 127 to finish last. Despite all the goals, top scorer isn't exactly a high number, with only 29, and the Man City top scorer sitting at 26 (Aguero). We do get a very young goalscorer, which naturally comes from Arsenal, as Michael Palezevic finds the net in a 5-3 extravaganza with Swansea. The biggest positional surprise is Newcastle finishing in 5th, but that's not important.
Elsewhere the same effect is being seen. Not much change in the big names of the world, just way more goals in every match. Barcelona match their points record of 100 but do so by scoring 153 goals, averaging just over 4 a game. This obviously leads to Messi being top scorer. Both the goal records in Continental competitions are broken, with Tottenham managing to take the record for both goals scored and conceded at the same time.
  

2015/16

Title Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA - Liverpool, League - Everton
Average Goals: 98.8
The same old ridiculously high scoring comes around again, this time with an ever so slightly higher average per team. Chelsea get close to City's record, but can only manage 135, whilst Falcao does break 30 goals this time round. Leeds somehow manage to concede more than Sunderland, shipping 130 goals to give them a nice -67 goal difference.
The biggest striker signings are Mario Gomez and Falcao for United, but as of right now there isn't a flood of strikers going around. Fullbacks, however, are universally unhappy, and we're a short step away from the WBFBU (Wing-Back, Full-Back Union) having an all out revolt. Spurs sell Eriksen and buy Moussa Sissoko... fuck.
Real Madrid attempt to buy Lacazette to fix their scoring hopes, and it does lead them to 152 goals. Unfortunately, they lose out 8-7 on aggregate to Barcelona, with both teams finishing on 91 points. Liverpool claim the top scorers ever for the Champions league with 61, but then get smashed 9-3 by Man United, to also gain the most conceded title. That's going to hurt for a while.
Euro 2016 sees the third title in a row for Spain as they scored 26 goals culminating in a thrilling 4-3 final victory over England. Lukaku also took over Platini's incredible record, scoring 11 goals in 6 games. The tournament gets lauded as the most successful ever. No-one questions whether it's due to the fact that defenders have mysteriously stopped playing.
  

2016/17

Title Winners: Man United
Cup Winners: FA - Chelsea, League - Man City
Average Goals: 100.4
Chelsea do manage to beat City's goalscoring record, setting the new bar at 140 goals. Bizarrely Oscar manages more assists (23) than their top scorers, Costa and Benteke (21), so clearly the Chelsea philosophy is to share it around. Spurs get another record to their name, although ideally, they'd be on the other end of the 7-4 goal-fest. It had to be Newcastle they lost too though, didn't it... Middlesbrough find themselves at the bottom of the table despite scoring 83 goals, which has to be some sort of record.
The first signs of weird transfers creep in, as City spend £50M to bring in both Pione Sisto and Ayoze Perez. Meanwhile Dorlan Pabon somehow earns himself a £17M price tag on his way to Villa. Don't get me wrong, they're alright but I'm not sure any of them can claim to be worth that. Still, that's better than training Cesar Azpilicueta into an accomplished striker. It's a unique approach from Jose considering Cesar has 5 finishing.
Taking a quick look at the Championship, 4 teams have managed to get themselves non 2-3-5 Managers. All 4 teams finish in the bottom 5. I don't want to say I've revolutionised football, but clearly something's going right. The normal tactics can't survive the overload they're facing.
The Champions League sees an all English duel between Arsenal and Chelsea. I decided to give this one a watch and well... 4-4 at half time, 8-8 at full time, and then 18-year-old Palezevic scoring the winner in extra time for Arsenal. Classic doesn't quite describe it.
  

2017/18

Title Winners: Man City
Cup Winners: FA - Man City, League - Man United
Average Goals: 102.55
Players keep scoring, and for some unknown reason the average goal count keeps gently rising. Maybe managers have committed to the idea, and are now refining how best to use the 2-3-5. West Brom go for a goals galore season, taking the biggest loss before finally breaking the highest scoring game record with an 8-4 over Huddersfield.
For a lot of teams, the immediate striker problem has ended, as each team has crammed enough goalscorers into the squad. Transfer focus has now turned to getting the best Wingers, Midfielders and Centrebacks money can buy. City buy Greizmann, United grab Hojbjerg and Villa somehow manage to snap up Tielemans. But no-one buys full backs. Never buy full backs.
Think of two teams that would not have a problem using 2-3-5. If you said Real Madrid and Barcelona you'd be right. If you said any other team, shh I'm trying to segue here. With BBR and MSN getting even more chance to shine, both teams net a new record of 158 goals in the league. The further top that, MSN claim the top three top scorer spots, scoring a combined total of 100 league goals. As if Messi needed more ammunition for a Ballon d'Or.
World Cup time swings around once again, and there's a nice amount of goals to keep things exciting. The total falls at 335, over double the 2014 edition, at an average of over 10 goals per team or 5.23 per game. Only 6 teams don't use the 2-3-5 thanks to regen managers, those being the African teams and Australia. Their games still end up high scoring affairs, but only Cameroon escape their group before defeat in the first knockout. The tournament culminates in a Brazil - England final which proves to be an epic ding-dong affair, from which Brazil arise 6-4 victors.
  

2018/19

Title Winners: Arsenal
Cup Winners: FA - Man City, League - Man City
Average Goals: 102.55
Arsenal take their turn at the top and do so in spectacular fashion by securing the biggest win ever in Premier League history thanks to an 11-0 victory over Cardiff. The Welsh team suffer throughout the season, and end bottom of the table with 132 conceded.
United go crazy in their hunt for new strikers, signing Lukaku, Martial and Fierro all in one go. In the Championship, Leicester join the non-2-3-5 ranks. They scrape 12th thanks to signings like Monreal, Sagna, Montolivo and McGeady.
I hate to keep going back to Spain, but that's where all the action is happening. Real Madrid break their own scoring record with an insane 172 goals. That's an average of 4.5 per game... They also only concede 71 throughout the season, meaning they earn a goal difference of 101 to go with their point total of 100. None of their players even managed to get top scorer...
  

2019/20

Title Winners: Liverpool
Cup Winners: FA - Liverpool, League - Man United
Average Goals: 101.05
Despite their new top 3 netting an impressive combined total of 81, United were way off the pace of Liverpool. The scousers became the fifth team in 5 years to take the English title, in what has been 5 fantastic years of football. Outside of that most things remain the same in this new era of football.
The Champions League sees an unprecedented 5 players equal as top scorer. Orjuela, Ronaldo, Aboubakar, Barbosa and Falcao all score 10 goals, with Ronaldo taking the Golden Boot for doing it in only 9 games.
England qualify for Euro 2020 with a record of 52 goals in their 10 games and then breeze their way to yet another final. It's defeat again though, as France amend their re-life woes to win the final 5-3. Iceland manage to make their mark on the tournament yet again. This time it's for conceding 17 goals in 3 games as they lose 4-1, 5-1 and 8-0 to Ireland, Germany and France. A bit less of a fairytale.
  

2020/21

Title Winners: Man United
Cup Winners: FA - West Ham, League - Arsenal
Average Goals: 102.7 (Only 2-3-5 teams: 104.1)
Liverpool continue their free-scoring, taking the biggest win and highest score of the season on the way to a new record of 147 goals in 38 matches. To compliment that Middlesborough concede 147 goals to earn a GD of -84 and a ticket to the Championship.
Hull become the first team in the Premier League to use a formation other than 2-3-5 as an un-brainwashed Rickie Lambert takes charge. Robertson and Jenkinson rejoice as the chosen fullbacks, but a 4-1-2-3 is only enough for 15th.
Over in Germany Bayern finally break the scoring record with 132 goals in 34 games as Lewandowski continues to fire them in. Considering the shorter league length, that's actually a better rate than Liverpool's record, but it holds no flame to what's happening in Spain
  

2021/22

Title Winners: Arsenal
Cup Winners: FA - Middlesbrough, League - Everton
Average Goals: 95.8 (Only 2-3-5 teams: 99.2)
Crystal Palace bring in Neal Ardley, which brings the total of different formations in the league up to 3, and the average goals in the league down to the lowest point since the change. Hull persist with their crazy 4 defenders and it costs them dearly with relegation and the lowest number of goals scored for a team since 2013/14. Arsenal take back the title, but it's Championship Middlesbrough winning the FA Cup which rustles some feathers.
Serie A gets its first new title winner in over 10 years, as Napoli manage to break the Juventus spell. The Italian league is managing to hold up its defensive reputation despite the major shift in tactics. It's averaging 82.9 goals a team even with the non 2-3-5 teams removed. Messi is stopped from earning his 12th Ballon d'Or by Eden Hazard, and with the Argentinian midget getting older, that may be his last shot. Newcastle meanwhile, score 79 goals in the Euro Cup as they win the entire tournament. I mean they score 26 goals in qualifying, but still.
World Cup year means more chances for some high scoring international football. Argentina and South Korea set new continent records by scoring 82 goals in their 18 qualifying games, but Italy manages to top them both by scoring 50 from their 10 games. It proves to be a sign of things to come, as the Italians ride all the way to the title, beating Argentina 4-3 in the final. Berardi takes top scorer, scoring 8 to go with his 15 from qualifying.
  

2022/23

Title Winners: Man City
Cup Winners: FA - Man United, League - Newcastle
Average Goals: 93.5 (Only 2-3-5 teams: 98.8)
Reading and Swansea join the formation revolt, although it's still stuck to the bottom half of the table. Things seem to have slowed down, with Man City scoring just 125 goals on the way to their title. I don't want to point fingers but the new formations are dragging football back to the dark ages.
Things are Spain are returning back to the normal boring days even quicker, with 7 teams now breaking the formation. The highest profile is Atletico, who score a measly 85 goals on their way to 3rd. Breaking things didn't help so they should go back to the new way and stop ruining my experiment.
  

2023/24

Title Winners: Man City
Cup Winners: FA - Man City, League - Man United
Average Goals: 92.9 (Only 2-3-5 teams: 98.7)
Man City become the first time in 9 years to retain the title, as all the trophies head to Manchester. The formation revolt is halted briefly as the 3 teams are struggling to keep their heads above relegation, and so find themselves rotated with the Championship sides on a regular basis.
The Liga BBVA title finally breaks away from the big 2. An Andrea Belotti led Valencia side is the team to do it, thanks to an impressive 92 points and 130 goals. Atletico fall to 8th, so resort to bringing back a manager from the school of 2-3-5.
On the international scene, things are still going up. Both goal records are broken at Euro 2024, one by each of the teams in the final. Croatia bumble their way through by outscoring their opponents, setting a record for goals conceded. France meanwhile smash everyone in their path, including Croatia, to take their second Euros in a row, scoring 29 goals along the way.
  

So what next?

Well, it's clear to me where things are going. 2-3-5 has proven a sweeping success, but the ever expanding core of managers that use 3 or more defenders is slowly taking back over. How about we speed things up and see if it ever gets back to "normal" levels?
But quickly before that... I noticed some interesting lineups as players got retrained, or lesser known players rose to prominence. Harry Kane takes age in his stride to become a relaxed central midfielder, whilst certain fullbacks like Carvajal and Jonathan Silva chose the centre back route. On a more interesting note, Markovic, Otamendi and Azpilicueta find themselves retrained as strikers, regardless of the fact they can't hit a barn door. In the transfer window I laughed at the Sisto/Perez pair, but they teamed up with underdog Bonazzoli sensationally. Jovic and Vietto far outperform their usual level, but FM legends Berardi and Fierro steal the show with an even more exceptional level of performance.

2024-2030

To be honest the most exciting thing to happen league-wise is QPR finishing 2nd one year. The usual suspects take the league titles, although we do get the first team to win with a formation other than 2-3-5, that being Liverpool in 2029/30.
All across Europe scores are falling lower and lower, with teams falling way short of any records. Average goals in the Premier League now sits at 81 per team, with 2-3-5 teams averaging above 90 still. Both figures remain way above the usual average of 58, but the decline is evident.
Further afield things remain very much as were. Palermo attempt to take the challenge to Juventus with a title win right at the end of the era, but that's the only power change to make note of. PSG take 3 Champions League titles in 4 years, as Guardiola sets out to prove he can do it with any team. Aston Villa meanwhile take a Euro Cup victory in 2028, despite being in a relegation battle throughout.
World Cup 2026 in Mexico sees a massive shock, as the cup stays put somehow. Carlos Fierro leads the Mexicans to a 3-1 victory over Italy in the final, sending Mexico City into raptures. Euro 2028 and Gold Cup 2025 both result in unlikely winners, as Denmark beat Romania, and Trinidad & Tobago beat Guatemala in the respective finals.
Several players retire having set international records, including Messi (110 for Argentina), Neymar (122 for Brazil), Muller (120 for Germany) and Berardi (93 for Italy). Messi and Ronaldo also leave behind club records, having set them at 542 and 446 respectively.
  

2030-35

Fulham establish themselves as a top 4 team, but most of the silverware goes to Man United. At this point only 5 teams in the Premier League remain using the 2-3-5, those being Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Palace and Millwall. Goal average falls to below 75, signalling that the era will have completely ended in around 5-10 years.
The rest of Europe shows similar signs with Germany having 4 2-3-5 teams and Italy just 2. The top 4 of La Liga (Valencia and Athletic as the other 2) have formed some sort of pact. They're all still using the overload formation, and are maintaining a sizeable gap to the rest of the table with it.
The two World Cup editions follow a very similar script. Both finals fall between South American giants Brazil and Argentina, with the winner scoring 4 goals each time. Brazil take the 2030 edition 4-3, before Argentina avenge the defeat with a 4-1 victory in 2034.
We've reached a point where some surprisingly era-defining players are retiring. Carlos Fierro retires with a world record 147 goals in 162 international caps. Palezevic also retires, having spent his entire career at Arsenal, claiming 302 goals from 449 league games.
  

2035-40

Red continues its domination of England, with Arsenal, Liverpool and United as the only title winners since 2027. Chelsea and City spend a couple of years as the only 2-3-5 teams before both lose their managers. Luckily Villas-Boas signs for United, making them the one and only 2-3-5 team from 2038/39 onwards. With no more bottom-half teams using 2-3-5, the goal averages get a little skewed. The overall average drops to 65, whilst the 2-3-5 number rises to 107 with only United to account for.
Outside of the Premier League, Shaun Derry (Barcelona), Luca Vigiani (PSG) and Ronny Deila (England) remain the only users of the best formation. Vigiani takes 2 German titles with Wolfsburg before moving to PSG where he takes every trophy France has. Derry leaves from City to Barcelona in 2038 having won a Champions League, whilst Delia manages to continue the mediocrity of England.
In 2038, Italy takes it's 6th World Cup title thanks to an assured 3-1 victory over Portugal. Not much else happens, the world seems a very boring place without thousands of goals scored every game.
  

2040-45

The last guardians of the 2-3-5 leave the game. Derry leaves Barcelona for Schalke, where he experiments with the old/new/realistic ways of 4 defenders for a few years before retiring. Vigiani adds a few hundred more trophies to his cabinet before also retiring at PSG. Deila leaves England in Jamie Vardy's hands after an unsuccessful Euro 2040. Meanwhile in the Premier League, Villas-Boas goes out with a bang, taking 1 Champions League and two Premier League titles in his final three years. And with his retirement, an era of football is closed.
In terms of actual results, United's run of three trophies in a row is ended by the first blue team win in 20 attempts, as Man City take a title home. Brentford somehow spend some time at the top, finishing in 3rd at one point to earn themselves some Champions League football. Unfortunately their first foray earns them a group with Real Madrid, Porto and Zenit, so they do well to come out 3rd. Villa meanwhile have fully established themselves as a top 6 team.
Elsewhere Dortmund, Wolfsburg and Schalke team up to dump Bayern out the top 3. Serie A sees three teams finish on identical points in 2044/45, but results between teams sees the highest GD get 3rd and the lowest 1st. Empoli meanwhile win a Europa League trophy, including an impressive win over Arsenal in the final, and wins over Benevento and Nottingham Forest in knockout rounds.
In the World Cup 2046 Portugal edition, the hosts manage to make it all the way to their second final in a row. This time its Argentina in their way with a 3-2 victory. Portugal can't catch a break.
  

2045-50

A final update to see where the dust has settled, but mostly to end things on a round number. The north keeps the battle for the Premier League in house, sharing between both Manchester clubs and Liverpool. Chelsea have fallen to obscurity, replaced by the miraculous recovery of Nottingham Forest. The historic club relive their glory days with a Premier League win and a couple of Champions League appearances. Both attempts provide great runs, ending in a Semi-Final to Juventus and a Quarter-Final to Inter Milan.
Schalke and Wolfsburg share the Bundesliga titles, Juventus fight off Empoli and Inter for all 5 Serie A wins, and in La Liga, Mallorca and Espanyol try to establish themselves at the top. Espanyol only manage a top 3 finish, but Mallorca claim a sensational title victory. In the Champions League, Juventus try their best to relieve the glory days with a 9-4 victory over Wolfsburg in 2046/47. I swear both are using "normal" formations too.
On the international scene Portugal manage to take their second Euro title in a row, perhaps foreshadowing the real future (although I doubt it, Eder or not). Brazil beat Argentina to prevent their rivals taking a 4th Copa America in a row. World Cup 2050 gives German yet another title to add to their collection. More importantly though, Jamie Vardy brings the World Cup home for England in 2046 with a 2-1 win over Spain. JAMIE VARDY'S HAVIN' A PARTY.
  

Success or failure?

I... don't know? I mean the original aim was to spice up the league with goals so I guess in that regards we can cause it a resounding Success. There was a good 5 seasons or so of glory years which were incredibly entertaining to watch before things started to fall back to normal. 29 seasons with at least 1 attacking team isn't bad going though.
  

The state of the world

Spain

Very little surprise in the early title winners, with Barcelona and Real Madrid taking it all. The biggest shock is Atletico falling to mid table so quickly. From the mid 20's Valencia join the party taking a large handful of titles to establish themselves at the top. Mallorca attempt to join in the 40's, but a single title is all they get out of it.

Italy

Juventus dominate as expected, dropping one title between 2015 and 2029. Roma and AC Milan try to provide a consist challenge, whilst Palermo, Empoli and Torino provide a fun rotation of dark horse. Palermo are the only one of the three to ever take a title, once in 2030 and another in 2036. Napoli fall from grace heavily, dropping to Serie C by the late 40's.

Germany

The first half of the era goes to Bayern, with Dortmund and Leverkusen fighting over what's left. From 2030 onwards things get competitive, with Wolfsburg putting up enough fight to talk half the titles. Schalke replace Leverkusen in the fight for 3rd. The surprise packages are Koln (yay) and Paderborn grabbing one 3rd place each.

France

With all the money in the world, and the world clearly valuing the ability to purchase attackers, PSG win all but two titles. I can't say as I'm surprised. Monaco and Lyon take a single title each, but content themselves with battling for second.

Portugal

Admittedly the Portuguese (and the French) league wasn't loaded, which may explain the uncompetitiveness. But still, Benfica and Porto take all but 1 title, that going to Sporting. To make it worse, a team outside those three only appears in the top 3 twice in the entire time, as Braga take a couple of 3rd places.

Europe

Most of the biggest Europe results and/or shocks were covered previously. With no forced shift in power, the Champions League remains as is. The Europa League harbours a couple of surprises, with Empoli, Hertha, Hamburg, Palermo and Villa all taking titles. Nottingham Forest, QPR, Genoa and Swansea all make a final, but fall at the final hurdle.

International

Again, the big news stories have already been covered. Some lesser covered stories: Zambia take two African Cup of Nations, Costa Rica win as many Gold Cups as the USA, France and Portugal both take 3 Euro trophies and all but 1 Copa America goes to Brazil or Argentina. The last part is the least surprising, with the new found importance of goal scorers. The biggest World Cup shock award goes to Mexico, who manage to surprise their home fans by taking home the top prize.
(I forgot to do the regens this time. Sorry to the person who requested that way back. I have a couple from 2035, a load from 2050, and retirement career numbers that I can share if anyone wants to see them)
  

One final test

Let's go a little bit further... let's give everyone a 1-1-5-3. I want one defender in their to maintain a tiny grain of realism, after that its 3 strikers, 5 in behind and a lone central midfielder. This actually took a lot of effort to do, because 2-3-5 is the "craziest" formation you can assign to managers. So instead I had to take control of every single Premier League club, set their formation and then holiday through. It better be worth it...
... and it so is. This time the season kicks off with Arsenal beating Man City 8-7, and once again it pales in comparison to results that come later. The records for the biggest win and highest scoring game get set at 17-3 and 15-11 respectively, results which are by no means anomalies. The season the culminates in United, Chelsea and City all sitting on 83 points, with United taking the title thanks to their 97 GD. This comes from their 358 goals scored (the record), through Falcao (79) and Van Persie (75).
Both United strikers fall short of top scorer though, which goes to Danny Welbeck. The Arsenal striker notched 84 goals in his 38 league games, to lead his team to 4th behind the leading trio with 81 points. 5th place goes to Newcastle on 80 points, support by Riviere setting a new record for assists with 74. One of the greatest seasons I have ever seen on Football Manager, even without the goal frenzy. The top 5 sat within a point of each other with two games to play, leading to an incredible run in.
At the other end of the table, Villa, Burnley and Sunderland were the teams to suffer the drop. Burnley took the crown for "most battered", setting the record for goals conceded (373) and lowest GD (-117). As an interesting aside, the goals scored/conceded records page broke very early on, with numbers over 255 being ignored.
Europe went about as badly as can be expected, considering all other teams are still playing "sensible" football. In the Europa League Spurs manage a 10-3 victory in qualifying, but fail to advance from their group. Meanwhile Everton suffer a 21-5 defeat in their Europa group to Dynamo Kiev. The Champions League proves even worse, with Liverpool losing every single game, and Man City conceded 47 goals. This includes a 14-2 loss against Feyenoord, and a 19-2 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid. Chelsea are the only team to advance in any way but get stopped short with a 14-8 beaten by Leverkusen in the first knockouts.
The two English cups go to Championship teams, as even Norwich and Watford are able to handily beat every Premier League team that's chucked at them. That's mainly because there are no defenders to stop them, but that's not the point.
This is the biggest summary I've ever done for an extra test, but there's so much to talk about its worth it. Broken records galore, interesting results every week, and absolute chaos all round. My only regret is that I can't take this experiment further, or expand it wider. Considering how fun the 2-3-5 was, 1-1-5-3 on the same scale would have been a blast. A mild warning though, this doesn't hold up to usual tactics in the same way the 2-3-5 does. Don't actually try and use it, it'll fail miserably.
  

Final thoughts

I'm not going to say I fixed football by doing this but... nah I fixed it. FIFA take note. Encourage or enforce a 2-3-5 system and you'll get cracking matches like a 9-8 Champions League final and 150 goal seasons for some teams. If you think Messi was scoring a lot now... But on a serious note, it's amazing how crazy this made games. Very few deficits were too big to save, goals came from everywhere, and I found myself watching a lot more games than usual in these. Plus the non 2-3-5 teams didn't exactly smash the 2-3-5 teams so it's clearly viable in FM if you do it right. I'd very much consider giving this scenario a go if you want things to have a little more spice in them.
Away from the topic, this one is late. Very very late. If you want a bit more of an in-depth explanation then look here: link. But the short version is: life got busy, and 3 experiments fell apart. I hope this one proved as interesting as the previous now that it's out there. As I mentioned previously it was a lot of fun to watch, and I hope that shows.
Comments, either positive, negative or overly neutral, are always welcome, so shoot them my way.
Thank you for reading, hopefully next time won't be as long a wait.
  
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Having conquered all there is to conquer in Europe, Real Madrid and Barcelona are looking for new battlegrounds. South America is too tradition based to allow a new team to barge in whilst Asia and Africa don’t have the global pull that Europe’s elite crave. That leaves North America, and the one league that doesn’t shy away from wealthy investors, the MLS. With a few well-placed cash packages, and some clever usage of the rules, Barcelona replaces New England Revolution, and Real Madrid replaces San Jose, including shipping all players and staff to the new setups. Despite the extensive financial restrictions in place, can the European giants take over North America in the same way they did Europe?
 
(Yes this is a exactly the same as I just submitted before. However the title looked dreadfully thanks to wonky caps, so here it is but fixed. If you upvoted the last one, THANK YOU!)
^{Again this can be read over on my site at https://www.whatifgaming.co.uk/barcelona-real-madrid-moved-mls/ with a few pictures of certain in-game things, and better formatting. But as usual everything there is identical to here, so don't feel forced to leave this post.}
 
This is quite a simple one. Unfortunately I’ve been incredibly busy, and have only had remote access to my PC for the last two weeks so haven’t had much time to come up with a better experiment. So this weeks will be quite a simple test, sorry! Hopefully it still provides a vaguely interesting read though, and I promise I have some more complicated things lined up for the future.
Essentially it’s dumping both Real Madrid and Barcelona in the MLS. I considered moving the entire teams, but without re-creating the league structure the whole thing breaks as the rules are very fragile. Instead I replaced every setting, player and staff member of the two teams I deemed replaceable, the Revolution and San Jose, obviously one from each East and West to keep things interesting. This does mean that the “real” Real Madrid and Barcelona still exist, so there’s the extra bonus of “What if… Real Madrid and Barcelona lost all their players”. I’m sure that’ll make some Atletico fans happy.
The early seasons will be busy, simply because there are so many little moving parts. It should smooth out a bit later on though, so hopefully you can keep on-board. Will the Spanish giants sink or swim? Will Messi and Ronaldo stay loyal to their employers? Time to find out…
 
 

2014

The first year is a stupidly busy one. As in, holiday a month at a time to keep on top of things busy. With both teams having around 50 players each, there's some serious offloading to be doing. How about we break it down a little:

USA

Barcelona USA: League - Final, Cup - Fourth Round
Real Madrid USA: League - Winner, Cup - Final
Winners: League - Real Madrid USA, Cup - New York Red Bulls
Barcelona manage to keep Messi, Neymar, Rakitic, Pedro, Busquets, Pique, Alba, Mathieu and Iniesta on their roster, whilst everyone else gets offloaded. Kansas steal Sandro in the draft, Rafinha goes to LA Galaxy, but the biggest shock is Xavi getting drafted to Portland. Suarez (Man City), Mascherano (PSG), Bravo (Red Bull Brasil), ter Stegen (Spartak Moscow) and Alves (Palmeiras) all see their time at Barcelona come to an end, and head back out the US. Only one player goes the other way, with Brad Knighton joining the legendary ranks from Dallas. For whatever stupid reason, the supporters pressure Luis Enrique into leaving, apparently preferring Bruce Arena to lead them to glory. If that's not the stupidest replacement ever, I'll be surprised.
Real Madrid keep hold of fewer stars, with only Ronaldo, Modric, Benzema, Illarramendi, Arbeloa and James opting to stay. Only one of their "bigger names" gets redrafted, as Varane joins Sandro at Kansas. Bale (Arsenal... fuck sake), Ramos, Casillas (Krasnodar), Pepe (Man United), Coentrao (CSKA), Khedira (Real Madrid), Isco and Navas (Brentford... er ok?) all leave for brighter horizons. Only one player comes in, bizarrely from Barcelona, as youngster Adrian Ortola makes the unforgivable switch. Come May, he's joined by Marc Bartra, whilst Ramos and Isco find themselves re-signed. I'm not sure why they didn't just stay, but then I don't fully understand the MLS so...
Both teams perform about as you'd expect, with enough stars to blitz their way through the league, leading to a final between the giants. Real Madrid carry on their stunning league form, where 77 points saw them win the Supporters Shield, and beat their rivals to the title. Messi easily takes player of the season, with 17 MOTM's, 25 goals, 12 assists and an average of 8.51. As Opta Sports would say, stunning.

Spain

The actual Catalans begin their rebuild by signing Ruben Pardo, Pablo Insua, Lucas Anderson, Natxo Monreal and Andrew Ayew. It's not quite the all-star team they had before, and it shows with a slow start to the league
Over in Madrid, there are a few more slightly "star" signings, as Cristian Benteke takes a shot at the big time, alongside Murillo, Camarasa, Moisander and Figueiras. Khedira does re-join, so clearly you can't keep him away from long. Completely unlike real life.
 
 

2015

USA

Barcelona USA: League - Semi-Final, Cup - Fourth Round
Real Madrid USA: League - Winner, Cup - Fourth Round
Winners: League - Real Madrid USA, Cup - Kansas
The facade is beginning to fall, and Barcelona are losing their stars. The Premier League comes in to raid, as Neymar (Chelsea), Busquets (Arsenal), Pique (Liverpool), Rakitic (Man United) and Messi (Man United) head for more competitive shores. The fees are low though, with the MLS clearly degrading players' values. Messi and Rakitic go for a combined £18.2M, which is the bargain of the millenium. Iniesta also leaves to Roma, whilst NYCFC pluck Pedro and Mathieu in the new team draft. Bizarrely, they then give Pedro straight back in a trade. For absolutely nothing in return. The MLS confuses me more with every passing day. Song, Pedro, Alba and Deulofeu are the biggest names still left, and they can only scrape Barcelona into the playoff semi finals.
A similar plight strikes Real Madrid, as Carvajal (Arsenal), Modric (Man United), Marcelona (Juventus), James (Man City), Kroos (Liverpool), Isco (Juventus), Jese (Real Madrid) and Ronaldo (Man City) all depart. At least the Ronaldo/Messi matchup will come to head in the Manchester derby, so that's a nice little fantasy. Albeit with Ronaldo at the wrong team. Again the fees are low, with Man City paying a measly £17.5M for Ronnie and James. Illarramendi gets drafted into NYCFC, and then makes the slightly odd choice to become an American national. I guess that's one way to become a legend. Benzema, Casemiro and Cheryshev stick around, and are joined by Xavi who is poached for £180K and a few draft picks. Who'd have thought Xavi would ever be in a Madrid shirt (well actually a San Jose shirt).
In the league Real Madrid see much more success, as Ronaldo starts them off well before leaving, momentum which is carried through all the way to another title.

Spain

Barcelona: League - 5th, Cup - 5th Round
Real Madrid: League - 6th, Cup - 5th Round
Winners: League - Atletico, Cup - Atletico
The European leagues have their first set of results, and it seems the rebuild isn't enough for the gutted Spanish pair as neither qualifies for the Champions League for the first time since 1996. The spare slots, after the obvious Atletico domination go to Valencia, Sevilla and Espanyol. Barcelona get Luis Enrique back in as manager, so clearly him managing there is meant to be. Real Madrid continue the signing spree in order to improve, this time Clasie, Pratto and Vela are the big time signings at the Bernebeu. Not quite the same as Bale, that's for sure.

Other

Outside the breaking worlds of Spain and America, Shakhtar make an incredible Champions League run and make it all the way to the final, only to get beaten out by Chelsea on penalties. See what happens when you remove the big teams? Exciting things happen.
  

2016

USA

Barcelona USA: League - Semi Final, Cup - Semi Final
Real Madrid USA: League - Wild Card, Cup - Fourth Round
Winners: League - Toronto, Cup - Portland
Without the killer instinct of their legends, Barcelona have settled into a "close but not quite close enough" routine, as they make two semi-finals. It's made worse by losing more of the very few stars they have, as Alba (Liverpool), Denis Suarez (Sevilla), Tello (Porto) and Deulofeu (Valencia) all take that as their cue to leave. Only Pedro and Song remain, although they do get joined by the Mathieu, who NYCFC graciously give back. They also sign Roland Lamah, but I'm not sure that actually helps in any way.
Real Madrid go from top to barely scraping the playoffs, probably not helped by the fact they fail to sign a single player. Bartra finally works out that he's been fooled, and signs for the "real" Real Madrid for a surprisingly large figure of £10.75M. Ramos also departs, to Man United, whilst Illarramendi isn't even tempted by the lure of his new home country, and heads to West Ham. The previous titles do mean a shot at the North American Champions League, which sees them impressively run all the way to the final. Monterrey put them firmly back in their place with a 6-3 beating, and says not this time U.S.A.
Toronto show the newbies how it's done, with Giovinco and Gilberto tearing into the MLS and easing the Canadians to a convincing title.

Spain

Barcelona: League - 7th, Cup - Quarter Final
Real Madrid: League - 4th, Cup - 5th Round
Winners: League - Atletico, Cup - Valencia
Having not actually signed that many players so far, Barcelona get their chequebook out to bring in a whole host of players, including Besic, Bazoer, Bailly, Cartabia, Mallo, Pareji, Fernando, Bernat, Chicharito and Tachtsidis. Unfortunately even the uneducated know that that's not exactly an inspiring choice of signings, and 7th is all they get from their spending.
Alongside the signing of Bartra, Real Madrid actually make a big name signing in an attempt to win the fans back, spending a huge £48M to grab Zivkovic from AC Milan. Whatever it did it worked, as they force themselves back into the Champions League.
Atletico cement their place as by far the best Spanish team, holding an 18 point margin over Sevilla and Valencia by the end of the season. Down in the Europa League, neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid do anything of note. In any normal season you'd expect them to dominate that tournament, but this is clearly no normal season.

Other

There is a minor surprise in Europe however, as Wolfsburg manage to take a Champions League title. Despite having almost every good player from Real Madrid and Barcelona divided between them, the English teams put up way less of a fight than you'd expect. Even in the league it hasn't shaped things massively, with neither Messi nor Ronaldo winning a title since signing, and Arsenal finishing 10th despite having the best Welshman in existence.
Euro 2016 sees shocks all round. The final ends up being between Switzerland and Croatia, a pair you'd never guess even if you tried. Croatia are the victorious team, taking a comfortable 3-0 victory in the end. England fall to the eventual winners in the first knockout round, with Spain losing to Switzerland in the same fashion. Peru win the Copa America, I've not much to add other than the fact I find that pretty neat.
  

2017

USA

Barcelona USA: League - Semi Final, Cup - Quarter Final
Real Madrid USA: League - Final, Cup - Fourth Round
Winners: League - NYCFC, Cup - Columbus
Another star (if you can call him that) heads away from Barcelona, as even Udinese is more attractive than the MLS for Alex Song. Once again it's by no means a bad season for the ex-Catalans, but it's not what you'd call dominating by any stretch. And they're still not buying anyone. Having qualified for the NACL, a disappointing exit at the group stages is all that's managed, as Montreal get the best of them.
Having performed way below what I'd expect for probably the best striker in the league, Benzema leaves Real Madrid for Napoli, whilst Asensio heads to the sunny greyness of Reading, leaving Cheryshev to take the mantle of Real Madrid's star player. They do actually spend some money though, bringing in Ruben Duarte from Espanyol for a cool £3.2M. This year grants yet another MLS cup final, this time resulting in a loss, but it's the utter embarrassment in the group stages of the NACL at the hands of Saprissa that probably sticks in the mind the most.

Spain

Barcelona: League - 5th, Cup - Fifth round
Real Madrid: League - 7th, Cup - Semi Final
Winners: League - Atletico, Cup - Real Sociedad
Not much to say about Barcelona, as they offload Lucas Anderson and Mario in order to make space for Danilo and Mikel San Jose. It's still not enough to re-join Europe's elite though, so they'll have to try again next season.
In the natural Real Madrid way, the spending continues, as the signings of Ruben Blanco, Ayoze Perez, Marcos Alonso, Janmaat, Douglas and Trigueros run up a bill of £77M. Money isn't everything in football though, and this season goes down as an utter failure. Only 7th in the league, as well as falling in the semi-finals of both the Spanish Cup and the Europa League leaves Los Blancos empty handed. And that's without mentioning the fact they finished behind Olympiakos in their Champions League group to get to the Europa League.
There's no surprise in the Spanish title department, but a top four including Espanyol and Real Sociedad adds some flavour. Although flavour is perhaps not what the Spanish league needs right now, as even Atletico winning the Champions League cannot stop Spain slipping behind Italy and England in the League rankings. It seems without backup, Atletico are fighting a losing battle.
  

2018

USA

Barcelona USA: League - 20th, Cup - Fourth Round
Real Madrid USA: League - 13th, Cup - Third Round
Winners: League - Toronto, Cup - Portland
Mathieu finally leaves on a free to Young Boys, and apparently he was the only thing keeping Barcelona together as his departure leads to a dead last finish. The captaincy is given a 20 year old regen, despite Pedro still being at the club, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies hand them a 3-0 beating in the cup. The wheels have fallen off the wagon for Barcelona and the world agrees, with the team now having the 14th best reputation in the league, and the 14th best average squad ability.
Maybe it's the rivalry that keeps them both going, but Barcelona's demise sees Real Madrid also finish out the playoffs. Xavi abandons ship on a free to Dinamo, whilst Ruben Duarte rates Burnley as a better team to play for. When you're beaten by Burnley, you know you have a problem. They are also bested by a non-MLS team in the cup, this time Sacremento Republic. Despite all that, Real Madrid have the best squad in the league, and the best reputation by far. As in 8100 compared to a second place of 6800 (out of 10,000), a number which doesn't seem to drop regardless of what performance.
Toronto take the title once again, with the pairing of Gilberto and Giovinco doing the business to keep the Canadians as easily the most consistent team. The North American Champions League also gets its first U.S. winner since 2000, as Portland take a stunning win. Surprisingly, Toronto and Portland are doing way better than the two ex-Spanish teams.

Spain

Barcelona: League - 3rd, Cup - Semi Final
Real Madrid: League - 4th, Cup - Final
Winners: League - Valencia, Cup - Atletico
Barcelona upgrade Bailly and Besic for Fischer, Iniguez and Rajkovic, whilst Real Madrid add Rafinha, Bellerin and Olinga to their collection. As is reflected in the results, both teams have fallen into a scrap with Valencia for 2nd, 3rd and 4th in both reputation and squad ability, with Atletico enjoying the top in both. It is however a much better season for both, with top 4 finishes in both league and cup indicating a rise back to the top may well be on the cards. Despite their superiority, Atletico's reign is broken by Valencia, demoting Spain's best team to 2nd.
Messi finally wins his first title with United.

Other

World Cup 2018 sees more international shocks. Firstly Spain fail to qualify altogether, managing to finish behind both France and Ireland in their qualifying group. Clearly the loss of their stars is hurting. On the other side of the scale, England somehow find themselves in the final, where the put old demons to bed and beat Italy on penalties. The world is very upside down.
  

2019

USA

Barcelona USA: League - 12th, Cup - No Entry
Real Madrid USA: League - 15th, Cup - Fouth Round
Winners: League - Portland, Cup - Portland
No need to split the two USA teams up, because they can both be summarised by one statement: they suck. Both fail to qualify for the playoffs, and the cup performances are just as bad. They've fallen into just average MLS teams. Portland have cracked the domination thing alongside Toronto, and take a double. Barcelona show a minor glimpse of positivity to get to the NACL quarters, but then snuff out all hope by losing.

Spain

Barcelona: League - 3rd, Cup - Quarter Final
Real Madrid: League - 5th, Cup - Fifth Round
Winners: League - Atletico, Cup - Celta Vigo
Barcelona sign Benteke on a free (yes from Real Madrid), and add Hector Herrera to their team, but it's not even close to being enough to challenge in Europe, as they lose out to West Ham and Benfica in the Champions League, and then fall to Copenhagen in the Europa knockouts. They do manage to finish 3rd, so earn another try at building their European reputation back up.
Real Madrid suffer a year of heavy defeats. First they fall 10-2 to Atletico in the Spanish cup, and then 6-1 to Juventus in the first knockout round of the Champions League, before rounding out the year with a lowly 5th place finish. With the defence clearly needing to be fixed they ship out Bartra to City and bring in Phil Jones from Tottenham for the exact same price tag of £37M, whilst also bringing in Porsan-Clemente. I'm not convinced either of those will have the desired effect.
Atletico take their title back, and do so with some style, winning by a 19 point margin over rivals Valencia. Espanyol meanwhile have gone from the lofty heights of the Champions League to relegation, a sharp return to reality.

Other

Man United win their second Champions League in a row, with Messi getting back to the dominance he's used to, whilst Ronaldo finally get his first title with Man City.
On the international scene, U.S.A. have yet to win a Gold Cup since the experiment started, so clearly having two extra perfect academies does very little. Although saying that, the MLS team's facilities are already ranked very high so two new teams isn't exactly adding much.
  

2020

USA

Barcelona USA: League - 19th, Cup - Third Round
Real Madrid USA: League - 12th, Cup - Final
Winners: League - Toronto, Cup - Portland
Despite Barcelona signing a £2.4M regen, they still really suck. As in, probably worse than New England Revolution level of sucking. Real Madrid are slightly better but not exactly a bright spark. Cheryshev finally departs, leaving only Casemiro as a recognisable name left. Oh and Ancelotti. The two MLS titles were apparently enough to keep him in a job forever, so he remains by far the best coach in the league. I feel like maybe someone chained him to the furniture. Toronto and Portland are still doing what I was aiming for the Spanish pair to do.

Spain

Barcelona: League - 6th, Cup - Fifth Round
Real Madrid: League - 7th, Cup - Semi Final
Winners: League - Atletico, Cup - Malaga
The real pair do slightly better, although considering starting expectations maybe that's not quite true. Barcelona finish bottom in a Champions League group of Juventus, Metalist and Copenhagen, a result which can only be described as fucking awful. The apparent solution is to sell Ayew and bring in Belfodil. Real Madrid are not much brighter, getting dumped out of the Europa League in the first knockout round by Lorient. For whatever reason they're refusing to sign anyone good, despite having a reasonably strong reputation. Both finish outside the top 3 once again, so no Champions League for another year.
Atletico are still taking clear victories in the league, although this time Celta Vigo are the lead chasing team, having built up a little legacy after their cup win last time round. It's also safe to say Atletico are carrying the Spanish coefficient by themselves, just about keeping up with France and Germany thanks to another Champions League title.

Other

Arsenal win the Premier League title (ugh), which means the 5 teams that snapped up BarcaDrid talent have won a title at least once. Tottenham didn't get anyone in the fire sale, so they don't count.
I'm not really sure why but the killing of Real Madrid and Barcelona has really hurt Spain, despite me not touching the two clubs facility levels at all. They manage to qualify for the big tournament this time round, but once again are absolutely rubbish, and finish bottom of a group with Holland, Austria and Italy. Germany takes the overall title with an utter dismantling of Portugal in the final, running out 4-1 victors.
 
 

Well... what now?

Things have already plateaued, everyone of note has left the two new American teams, and as such they're not exactly setting the world alight with their performances. The Spanish pair are slowly catching back up to Atletico but that alone isn't enough to make me want to write a summary every year, so how about we kick off the customary speeding up slightly earlier than usual to see where this goes?
  

2021 to 2024

USA

Barcelona USA are still performing incredibly awfully, so despite Real Madrid USA reaching the playoffs 3 out of the 4 years, the ex-Catalans only manage it once. Real Madrid do manage to convert one of those into an MLS title, whilst Barcelona offer up a single measly US Cup in 2023. It should be noted that the 2022 US Cup final was between Sacramento Republic and Pittsburgh Riverhounds, meaning they both somehow came out on top of their entire MLS crew. Pedro gets traded to Orlando, which clearly doesn't suit him as he retires after just 1 season. Both teams sign no-one interesting, or even slightly good.
Columbus become relatively strong alongside Portland, but it's Real Salt Lake who become the next team to win a Champions League, deposing America in the final.
Oh and Ancelotti finally retires from managing Real Madrid USA after 9 years. You have to hand it to him, he stuck out the course. He gets replaced with Dominic Kinnear, who very quickly gets sacked. Brad Friedel ends 2024 as manager.

Spain

Atletico continue to take every single La Liga title on offer, but Real Real Madrid, and Real Barcelona start to make the top 3 on a more consistent basis. Real Madrid even take home two Spanish cups, which apparently requires them to beat Barcelona in the final to happen. Hojbjerg, Mustafi, Montoya and Cerri all head to the Bernabeu, whilst Barcelona, despite signing Oztunali, Bruma, Dybala and Busquets, regularly sell more than they buy.

Other

All 4 Champions League trophies are shared equally between Arsenal and PSG, whilst all but one Golden Ball goes to Hazard. England + PSG are by far the dominant world forces at this time.
Some of the bigger names in football start retiring, albeit not necessarily in normal ways. Rooney sees out his days at Bolton, Bale spends a couple of years at Burnley, Di Maria heads to Celtic, whilst Pepe has stints at Wigan, Latina and Ascoli. Way to end your careers on a high guys.
USA are still seeing no improvement on the world stage, watching Jamaica take both Gold Cup titles, and going out at the Group Stages of World Cup 2022. Australia somehow beat Italy and Portugal to ride all the way to the final, but just get pipped by Belgium 2-1. Yes, I do mean Australia and not Austria.
 
 

2025 to 2029

USA

Real Madrid USA maintain their strong form, finishing in the top 3 in 4 out of the 5 seasons, as well as taking both cups in 2028. Columbus are the only team to really consistently outpace them. Barcelona start to suck slightly less, maintaining top 10 finishes in every season, including losing to Real Madrid in the 2028 MLS Cup final, and taking their own title in 2025 after just scraping into the wild card round. Neither team is spending money, or looks like starting, so I'm just going to stop mentioning it anymore. I don't even know what they're doing with their cash; both teams have a balance of about a billion.

Spain

The La Liga giants are back, and it's Real Madrid that break first blood, taking the title in 2025. Interestingly all 5 titles in this time go to different teams, with Malaga, Valencia, Barcelona and Atletico also taking one each. At this point it's safe that Barcelona and Real Madrid are back on par with Atletico and Valencia. Barcelona have also finally found their chequebook, spending upwards of £60M in almost every season, including recruiting a youngster called Zidane (he turned out to be a bit shit though).

Other

West Ham manage to break the dominance of the big 5 and secure a couple of good performances, followed by a title win. Well done London FC.
In this edition of odd retirements, Reus spends his last year at Munchen Lions, James also goes to Celtic, and Icardi gets his retirement funded at Guangzhou.
Spain takes the World title this time, beating Germany to confirm they are back to fighting form. U.S.A. does finally add another Gold Cup to their collection, beating Mexico to restore the natural order of things.
 
 

2030 to 2034

USA

Real Madrid USA are still racking up the top 3 finishes, and have probably become the MLS' best team. They convert their form into doubles in both the MLS cup and the US Cup, so maybe this is as close to domination as we're going to get? Barcelona USA meanwhile remember their tradition, and go back to being terrible. Real Madrid USA do decide to splash a little bit of cash, and built themselves a 96,000 seater stadium in the more US friendly location of LA. Originally, they call in the R. Madrid USA stadium, that's what happens when your team has no soul kids.
U.S.A. isn't really figuring in the NACL at this point, so the leagues quality clearly hasn't risen. However America (the Mexican one) certainly are there, and take 7 of the last 9 titles. Maybe I changed the wrong numbers in the editor.

Spain

Spanish Real Madrid hit a bit of a lull, maybe neither can live whilst the other survives. Whilst the rest of the Spanish elite share titles between them, Los Blancos barely keep themselves in it, falling out of the Champions League qualification a couple of times. Even massive spending doesn't fix the dip in form.

Other

Having been on the slide for a while, Tottenham finally sink and get relegated from the Premier League. I linger on restarting the whole thing for a moment, before realising I'm far too lazy to do that.
Sterling quits the game having set the record for both club and country appearances, 666 and 176 respectively. Eriksen heads home for a small stint at Copenhagen, Shaw holidays at Catania for a year, and Koke spends two years at Reading without making a single appearance before deciding to actually retire.
Simeone also retires as Atletico manager, having won them a huge 38 titles in his time there. I think it's safe to say he's their greatest ever manager.
The first World Cup in 2030 sees an odd if not vaguely understandable final, with Belgium beating Turkey 3-2. I'm less convinced about the 2034 edition though, as Colombia beat Australia in the semi-final, before both teams win their respective "finals" 2-1, over Holland and Brazil respectively. The idea of Australia beating Brazil is all wrong, let alone in a third place playoff...
 
 

2035 to 2039

USA

Maybe they're spending too much time with their Spanish American rivals, because Real Madrid USA's form starts to drop. They still make consistent playoffs, but not in the dominant top 3 style as before, and their only MLS cup comes at the start of the era. Barcelona USA manage a high of 11th in the five seasons. DC United have taken over as "the" team, taking 3 Supporters Shields, although they convert a grand total of zero into MLS Cups.
Real Madrid do lose their legendary manager in Greg Vanney. Having taken over from a sacked Friedel in 2026, Vanney took Los Blancos to 4 league wins in 11 years, but retires in 2037. The fickle management then sacks every following manager after just a year.

Spain

Things are still very much competitive, but the recent dominators in Atletico have fallen of the pace a little. They manage a single top 3 finish, whilst Real Madrid move back up to scrap it out with the other 2 for titles. Barcelona do win themselves a Champions League title, a rather solitary one for the Spanish league, so it's definitely all stations normal.

Other

A few last names to retire before you'll have no idea who I'm on about: Odegaard spends a single glory year at Barcelona before quitting, whilst Scuffet manages to go his entire career at Udinese. France's new top goal scorer, Audren also leaves the game, having scored 126 goals in 162 caps.
England suffer the mental anguish of just missing out on a World Cup, losing 3-2 to Spain in the final.
 
 

2040 to 2044

USA

Having been dreadful Barcelona USA make a slow climb back up, even achieving a 3rd place finish in 2043. They then customarily finish 18th in 2044. Real Madrid USA develop the consistency of a yo-yo, seemingly unable to be bad or good for two years in a row. No silverware for either means it's a particularly dry spell though. Houston shows them how it's done by taking a triple of MLS Cup titles in a row. Barcelona USA do take note of their rivals new stadium and decide to 1-down them, by building a tiny 43,000 stadium in New York. Again, they opt for the "Barcelona USA Stadium", as apparently the only club legend Emanoel is not important enough to get a stadium name.

Spain

Real Madrid start to come back much stronger, taking the first two titles, before finishing behind Valencia in 2nd for the next three. Towards the end they do lose long term manager Antonio Candreva to Chelsea, having won them 3 titles in 10 years. Barcelona are left somewhat chasing down in 3rd place for the entire period.

Other

Over in Portugal (didn't expect some news from there did you), Porto win their first title since 2013. Yup since I started this game, Porto haven't won the title once until now. I didn't even think that was possible.
England's record goal scorer, with a surname you wouldn't be used to added the description "legendary" too, retires. Le Fondre managed an impressive 112 goals in 156 appearances, and wasn't far short of breaking Sterling's cap record.
Despite losing their top scorer, England still make it all the way to the final of the World Cup, setting them in a matchup against Italy. This time they do come out on top, with a comfortable 3-1 win. If you're wondering why I haven't mentioned the U.S at all, it's because they've done nothing of note. They make it to the knockouts for only the second time since the experiment started, but get shut out by Greece. They do claim their 2nd Gold Cup in 16 attempts, so that's something... right?
 
 

2045 to 2050

USA

Real Madrid trade over the yo-yo title to Barcelona, who alternate between finishing in and out of the playoffs every year. The best result they convert this into is a defeat to Colorado in the final. San Madrid come off much better, with a string of top 5 finishes they manage to turn into 1 MLS Cup. Barcelona do somehow win two US Cup titles in a row, probably the biggest amount of success this team has seen.
New York Red Bulls rotate into being the newest top team, winning 3 supporters shields, 1 MLS Cup, 1 US Cup AND 1 NACL in 5 years. Maybe it'll be Barcelona's turn eventually.

Spain

Sevilla add themselves to the battle at the top, taking a couple of top 3 finishes and a title. Outside of that it's still the same battle as before, although with Real Madrid demonstrating a fantastic ability to finish second.

Other

Aston Villa deploy a stealth tactic, and proceed to win the Premier League despite having been particularly average for every season previously.
Southampton meanwhile have never finished higher than 3rd in the league. Despite that, they claim a historic Champions League win in 2049, beating Bayern in the final. Who needs the league anyway.
Over in the World Cup, things get back to realism after Englands win, with the current world champions failing to even qualify. The final instead is fought between France and Argentina, with Argentina running out 3-1 winners. A single tear rolls down Messi's cheek.
In the final Gold Cup of this test, U.S.A. take the chance to grab themselves one last trophy with a victory over Costa Rica. Personally though, the biggest surprise is Guadeloupe coming third. They're not even a FIFA ranked nation.
A minor note: having joined Shakhtar as manager in 2019, Karadeniz finally retires in 2045. I only mention this as he completely breaks the medal table, having claimed every Ukranian League, Cup and Super Cup in his time there. That's 77 trophies, but I suppose that happens when the league isn't loaded.
 
 

The result?

Well in terms of actually changing the world permanently, or even in a way that's significant, I think this one is an absolute failure. The combination of rules and league reputation means that even that starts as far superior can't build a legacy in the MLS. Whether that's a good thing is up for debate, but I guess it keeps things interesting.
As for Spain, it went about as I expected. A minor dip which allows Atletico to take everything, whilst eventually the big two get back to their usual ways. Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was how average the signings were to start with, and how all the major players flocked to the Premier League. They may be different on later versions with England knocked down a peg or two, but in 2015 they're certainly the strongest force.
 
 

The state of the world

England

The early scrappy years make way for Man City dominance, with 12 of the 14 titles from 2021 onwards heading to the Etihad. Their Manchester neighbours take over for a little, and probably become the stronger team from the mid 30's, with City chasing close behind. Chelsea are there or there abouts pretty much every season, but only take 2 titles the entire time. And we'll not talk about Tottenham...

Germany

As can be expected, Bayern win the most titles, although it's not as simple as it sometimes is. Dortmund and Wolfsburg put up a fight through, with Wolfsburg taking 6 titles in a row in the late 30's. By the late 40's Dortmund have fallen apart, and spend a year in the 2. Bundesliga to lick their wounds.

Italy

I'll confess I actually forgot to load Italy, so this might not have been as competitive as I'd have hoped. Juventus claim the biggest haul of trophies by far, with a little smattering of AC Milan throughout, and a competitive period for Inter Milan from 2035 to 2045.

France

Perhaps the only surprising thing is France is how few titles PSG dropped. 3 is the number, 2 to Lille and 1 to Marseille. Only 3 titles from the whole time not won. Lyon and Lille put up something resembling competition, but it's really not much more than throwing a wet sponge.

Portugal

I've run a lot of tests, and I've never come across a situation where Porto have been so trophy-less. One single solitary title in 2041, in fact Maritimo win as many titles as they do. To make it even worse, they very consistently make the top 3. Just without winning ever. Benfica win the most titles, but are preventing from getting into any rhythm by Braga and Sporting.

Mexico

I added Mexico with the idea of keeping the NACL competitive. It didn't work. Club America proceeded to take 15 titles, whilst even Universidad de Guadalajara won 5, more than the entirety of the U.S.A. The league was slightly more mixed, with more winners than I can list, but once again it was America and U. de G

Europe

Arsenal and PSG dominate the Champions League in the twenties. Man United take 3 titles in the 30's, and Napoli do the same in the 40's. Southampton are probably the oddest winner, but as usual there's no real pattern. In the Europa League Mainz take a really early title in 2019, but it's Q.P.R. winning two trophies in 2037 and 2042 that really takes the cake.

International

Despite Australia breaking the World Cup several times, they don't actually dominate the Asian Cup, winning just two trophies. Morocco emulate Egypt to take a triple of AFCON titles in the 40's, whilst every Copa America, apart from the 2016 edition, goes to either Argentina or Brazil.

Players

Last time there was a request to see some of the regens that come up throughout the came. So I present to you, 30 of the best players throughout this save: Imgur Album There are 3 real players in there: Pogba, Tielemans and Odegaard, but they become three of the best in the world so had to be included. Credits go to players like Odegaard and Mihajlovic who stay at Southampton and Swansea throughout, despite winning absolutely nothing for it. PSG hoard a huge number of very talented players, and at the end of the save have the two best strikers in the world in the form of Jabardo and Camara. It's almost unfair.
 
 

Final thoughts

I'm afraid this one has no extra crazy test. I considered a few things, but I couldn't come up with something that would be even slightly unpredictable. More teams in the MLS would see the same happen, and removing the rules of the league would cause the two to dominate easily. Also I have almost no time with which to do more tests, which is probably the biggest factor.
So I hope this was interesting in some way. As with all my works I feel like it's a bit all over the place and badly organised, but I hope that doesn't come across as so when read. This one feels especially bad, what with my work situation and the hectic last two weeks. Wordpress is listing this article's readability as "the lowest", so that's always a good sign.
Feedback, comments, suggestions, scathing criticism, all are welcome as usual. I've received some great comments in the past, both constructive and positive, so keep them coming.
Thanks for reading, see you next time. Or not, whatever takes your fancy.
To /footballmanagergames: If the first two count as a schedule, then this one is late, which I apologise for. I've enjoyed the comments and discussions I've had with the last two, so keep them coming, same with any requests for extra details. Well done for making it this far through it though, and I appreciate you reading this!
 
Fancy carrying on from where this ended? Go to this link to download the save: Download
 
Missed my last experiment? Look here

From Bristol to Berlin
Sup, all the way through to February in this one, aren't you lucky.
October 2022
Growth Report:

• Acampora 79 (+2) McDonnell 78 (+2) Saint-Maximim 74 (+2)
• Kennedy 78 (+1) Rico Moreno 83 (+1) M. Fernandez 73 (+3)
• Al Mukhtar 82 (+1) Brown 76 (+1) Shinnie 73 (-1)

League hasn't really offered up much of a challenge thus far, and I am weirdly hoping that changes - the lack of competition is boring! Well, I guess back to back titles would be nice.
Results:

• A vs Southampton, W 3-0 (Pyzdrowski 2, McCarthy) - Targett's red card early opened up Southampton early, and we took a dominating win.
• H vs Derby, W 4-1 (Kenney, Pyzdrowski 2, Tschauner) - We allowed ourselves to get over confident and cocky, eventually slipping up and letting Derby in for a goal.
• H vs PSG, W 1-0 (Tschauner) - German midfielder stole a win, when we weren't looking likely to get the draw.
• A vs West Bromwich Albion, W 1-0 (Al Mukhtar) - We were given a good run for our money for a change, though Albion never looked like winning it. In the end we managed to get the win through Algerian Shafy.
• H vs West Bromwich Albion, W 3-0 (Ince 2, Kennedy) - The cup squad didn't allowed West Brom to settle in Bristol, and we ended the game far better off than the league match.
• H vs Manchester United, W 1-0 (Tschauner) - Tsch is on a fantastic streak, and we actually managed to beat United in the league! It helped that we injured Muller early I suppose.

10 for 10, that's how we look in the league right now, and also boast the best attack and defence in the league to boot. We may not be the most exciting side to watch, but we are simple and cut-throat. We hold a 6 point lead over Liverpool already, and we are likely to extend that yet.
Diego Costa leads the goals for the recovering Chelsea, the Spaniard with 8 goals.
There are four players on four assists at this point, as there is still no give on who will take it in the end.
Sommer leads the clean sheets, with 7 to his name at this point.
November 2022
Growth Report:

• NONE

Given the way the league has gone, we are not really feeling the heat of a fairly busy month. We actually play Liverpool, which means that if things continue in this manner, we have a strong chance of a three point extension.
Results:

• A vs PSV, W 2-0 (McCarthy, Solanke) - Surprisingly easy win in the Champions League, goals coming midway through each half.
• News Kane is returned, though he will have to settle for the bench after Pyzdrowski's fine form.
• A vs Newcastle United, W 4-2 (Moreno 3, Pyzdrowski) - Rico tore Newcastle apart and then some, as we were unfortunate with the way Ayoze Perez received bouncy balls to double up.
• H vs Fulham, W 5-0 (Dier, Pyzdrowski 2, Shaw, McCarthy) - Very impressive and dominating, Fulham didn't stand a chance.
• A vs Liverpool, W 2-1 (Kane, Heffernan) - Kane seals all three points with a late goal on his return to the first team.
• A vs PSG, D 2-2 (Ince, Dier) - Ince levels up late on, after PSG had come from behind to lead 2-1, a point earned is welcome though we are already through regardless.
• H vs Swansea, W 2-0 (Donsah, Pyzdrowski) - Another comfortable, but not dominating, victory.
• A vs Chelsea, L 2-1 (Bastos) - Cup squad gave a good run, but in the end Chelsea's first team knocked us out of the Capital One Cup.

The month ended on a sour note after that cup elimination, still it'll be one less competition clogging up the calender and we can focus on on continuing this league domination that has seen us establish a massive 11 point lead over Liverpool.
Costa and Muller now share the top scoring spot, both with 10 for the season this far.
Sanchez and Barkley are the assist leaders, each with 5 for their teams so far.
Sommer leads the clean sheets with 9 playing behind our far more impressive defence.
December 2022
Growth Report:

• McCarthy 81 (+1)
• Tembe 78 (+1)

6 more league games and the last of our group stage games fixtures in Champions League football is what separates us from January and a complete domination in the league.
Results:

• A vs Stoke City, W 3-0 (Ince, Kane, Shaw) - English treble, we are comfortably beyond what has been a strong stoke side.
• H vs Udinese, D 0-0 - We didn't even need to show up today, and we still woulda got the draw.
• A vs Arsenal, W 2-1 (Pyzdrowski, Kane) - Kane is slowly playing himself back into form, another winner here today.
• H vs Aston Villa, W 3-1 (Kane 3) - An early red for Villa had us plain sailing for much of the game, as Kane fired in a hat trick to seal the win. Villa did hit back late however, as once again we got ahead of ourselves.
• H vs Leeds United, W 2-0 (Soares, Heffernan) - We were absolutely awful, and yet still took all three points at home, amazing.
• A vs Leicester City, W 1-0 (Kane) - Leicester seemed to just abandon football within 10 minutes, they finished the game with 7 yellow cards and one red in an awful fixture.
• A vs Swansea, W 1-0 (Rico Moreno) - Rico's goal early on was all we needed, as we make it to the end of the year with a perfect record in the league.

So, 20 games down, 60 points earned with 49 goals scored and only 8 conceded, we are absolutely tearing the league apart at this point. We even have a 17 point lead to boot, we are so far ahead it's almost boring, but winning is fun so I can let them off.
Muller continues to lead the goals charts with 14 goals for United.
Sanchez is tied with Harry Kane on assists charts, both players managing 6 so far.
Sommer is the only keeper in double figures for clean sheets, his 13 leading the charts for Golden Gloves.
January 2023
Growth Report:

• Tschauner 85 (+2) Saint-Maximim 75 (+2)
• Pyzdrowski 84 (+1) M. Fernandez 74 (+4)
• Acampora 80 (+3)

So we'll open with a hell of a transfer window, we had signings and departures. None of which were planned, all of which are amazing.
Outgoings
It all started with the departure of two flops as South American central defender Coetzee made the switch to Leeds for £2.8m, and Brown went on to Arsenal in a £5.5m seal.
Two youth players left as M. Fernandez will spend the remaining months at Leicester on loan and Pyzdrowski departed for PSG in a £100m switch.
Yes, Tristan our American youth starlet was sold for £100m to PSG, it hurts to talk about so I won't say too much about it.
Incomings
Things started with no intentions of big transfers, there was money in the bank and I wanted to make a couple of changes.
The first to come in was Watmore a man who wanted me in the past but has been plying his trade with Bayern of late, Kane's physical's were decline after his injury and I wanted a new striker. We traded Kane and £18m for Duncan's services.
And then 37 year old Cristiano Ronaldo wanted out of Madrid, and I wasn't about to reject the legend. He's old but still gold, we managed to seal a £4.2m deal for him, he's content with a rotation role and we are hoping that his quite mesmerising abilities will get us crucial goals at crucial times.
Then Pyzdrowski departed and I panicked.
I signed two replacements for him, as Felipe Anderson signed for Lazio in a £23m switch, he's a wonderful addition and someone who brings a similar set of skills to the role - though perhaps some more flair.
He was followed shortly by England's 21 year old sensation Luer of Everton, the kid has the potential to be the next special thing from England, and we paid top money for his name. a £35m price tag.
We had plenty of money left over, and I wanted another truly world class central defender to partner Heffernan. And so we raided Real Madrid again, this time stealing French international Varane in a £30m switch.
That ended our window spree, a total in excess £200m was spent in deals involving our club and we are hoping we don't regret any of them. Though I already miss Tristan. I regret that deal.
If the first half of this season is anything to go by however, we are not really going to need Tristan anyway.. I reckon I could play Logan in LAM and still score a hat trick. Amazing.
Results:

• H vs Liverpool, D 1-1 (Pyzdrowski) - I'm shocked, the seasons first dropped points! We really shoulda lost to be honest.
• A vs Bournemouth, W 1-0 (Moreno) - Single goal was all it took to seal it.
• H vs Leicester City, W 3-0 (Watmore 2, Pyzdrowski) - Duncan's Debut Double Drowns Dismal Foxes.
• A vs Sunderland, W 3-2 (Pyzdrowski, McCarthy 2) - Defence has an odd day were they didn't do much wrong, but when they did it ended up in the net, still we came out winners after Eoin's wonderful double.
• News Pyzdrowksi is sent off, and the transfer merry-go-round started. We also had a transfer request from Tschauner as I feared the wheels were coming off.
• A vs Spurs, D 0-0 - Donsah saw red early on as the off field nerves are starting to be reflected as frustration on the pitch, we switched to a defensive stance as we held on to remain unbeaten.
• H vs Burnley, W 2-0 (Heffernan, Tschauner) - Heffers plays a rare midfield game and scores, as Tsch continues to give his all despite transfer request.

The end of the transfer window and fixtures left us holding all the cards after we strengthened, lost a star and strengthened some more. We may have lost the 100% record after 20 games, but just 2 draws and 22 wins is still fantastic, the 19 point gap that separates us from the rest the symbol of our success.
Muller's 15 goals leads the league.
Sanchez and Tosun share the lead of the assists now, both player on 7 for the season.
Sommer continues to lead the league for clean sheets with 15 for us.
February 2023
Growth Report:

• A. Soares 83 (+1) Tembe 77 (+2)
• Heffernan 85 (+1)
• Kennedy 80 (+2)

4 league games and the round of 16 games in both FA Cup and Champions League competitions as we are looking to continue our path to a shock treble.
Results:

• A vs Derby, W 1-0 (Tschauner) - Some of our stars are still looking to mesh together and this was not a solid display by any means.
• H vs Southampton, W 4-0 (Watmore 3, Varane) - Well hows that for settling in? Duncan on fire, and Varane heads home late.
• H vs Chelsea, D 1-1 (Ince) - Chelsea are really being a pain in my arse this season, a draw forcing us into a replay.
• A vs Porto, W 2-0 (McCarthy 2) - McCarthy doubled up and pretty much established our place in the next round.
• H vs Cardiff, W 2-0 (Watmore, Felipe Anderson) - Two more for newbies, as we are continuing where we left off despite the change in cast.
• A vs Chelsea, D 1-1, L 5-4 Penalties (Watmore) - Duncan had blasted us into a 112th minute lead, just for Costa to striker level on 119. We were then edged out by Chelsea on penalties in frustrating circumstances.

League domination was business as usual for our lads, and we remain solid in Europe. However, Chelsea eliminated us from the FA Cup not long after the Capital One Cup elimination, it's shocking and the 21 point lead we have in the league is little comfort for that.
Muller sits on 18 goals as the leading scorer still.
Sanchez is the sole leader for the assists charts now, his 8 just edging ahead of his competition.
Sommer is the top keeper still, with 17 clean sheets for us.
And so that's that for this one, I'll see you back at the end of the season to see how we took on the remaining league matches and to see if we did well in Europe!
Thanks for reading.
Author's Note
So we are into a part of the career where I am umming and ahhing about it. We will absolutely finish this season, because I want that back-to-back title win.
But the Cups are completely .. well bullshit to be honest, it's like the AI has been toned down for the league but completely ramped up for the cup games so as to stop me rampaging.
It could be that I decide against starting a new season and take you for one last story for FIFA 15. But that depends entirely on how I feel at the end of the season - one more season could still be a swansong.
Cup Crux

Vol.2:Ch.3
Merry Christmas, triple post today, if I can pull the all nighter to put these out!
July/August 2016
So it's a transfer window so I set to work chopping some dead weight and hiring a pair of 3/3 star scouts to fulfil my Youth Academy.
Along with my previously hired scout they will be scouring England, Spain and Mexico for talent this year.
However being able to afford these scouts was not easy, I had only been given £140k to start as well as £550 in wages.
Transfer News
Incomings
We were limited to promoting a trio of youth starlets and signing one free agent in order to add the squad.
First, Maric Riese a 71 overall 16 year old central midfielder from Spain was promoted straight to the bench of the first team, competing directly with Reed for a starting spot he has already pushed Juan Carlos into the reserves. He is a pretty little dribbler with good passing and an excellent long shot.
Next up was Maykel Tshibumbu of Japan, the 17 year old centre forward will be playing second fiddle to Ayoze Perez after pushing Hoban out of the club all together. Physically he is not the best, but his technical stats are all getting high, hopefully he will catch up physically and become a complete forward.
Seyu-Daut Ukra was promoted to play back up at RB as I intended to sell of Aimar. Nothing at all special he has a max potential of 74 and could be a good back up for years to come - assuming he grows up.
Finally we signed young Italian goalkeeper Lungo signed from the free agents. At 66 overall and 18 years old he'll play cup 'keeper behind Blanco. Hopefully he is not too young to not grow.
Outgoings
So we sold off no fewer than seven players, one on loan and six permanent moves as I shifted the players I did not feel were good enough for the top flight challenge I now face.
Banils moved to Tenerife for £130k.
Jordi Pablo moved of to Eibar for £675k, a year after joining on a free.
Young winger original Simon left us for Getafe in a deal worth £475k.
Rios was also gone this year, becoming the second player to join Tenerife for £275k
Two of our players left for England as last years early season star striker Hoban moved to Norwich for £700k, and Aimar moved to Morecambe for £100k.
The final transfer was Fabian being loaned off to Recreativo, he's really not been the player I had hoped for and so I am hoping for a bit of growth to get a return on our £700k investment.
So let's move onto the real part of the season.
Growth Report:

• Bongi 68 (+1) Perez 74 (+1)
• Adama 70 (+1) C.Blanco 73 (+1)
• Pozo 68 (+1) Zelalem 73 (+1)

The board expects me to finish midtable, and that scares me. My side is strong, but I still feel we could get relegated! If they had given me an alright starting budget maybe it would be possible but now I have to hope against hope.
Results:

• A vs Atletico Madrid, D 3-3 (Pozo 2, Perea) - Atleti took us lightly and ended up 3-0 down in 20 minutes, before Mandzukic headed one back just before the break - Atleti had momentum and pulled the other two back in the second half.
• H vs Espanyol, D 2-2 (Pozo 2) - We get a draw courtesy of Pozo's second brace, but we have the right to feel aggrieved as two of our players were left injured in the box without a penalty given.
• Injuries Reed and Perea are now going to miss a month with sprained ankle and knee injuries respectively. Nightmare.
• A vs Real Sociedad, L 2-1 (Pozo) - Disappointing defeat as two identical back post headers by Vela sink us and expose how weak our full back positions are.

The opening month gave us a reality check on just what kind of challenge we are facing - down in 17th I am left hoping the board will be a bit kinder to me if we do fail to finish midtable.
Pozo has had an excellent start to bursting onto the scene with 5 goals scored higher than anyone else, he was subjected to bids of £9m from around Europe - but I want to hold on to him.
Ayoze also shone in our debut month, as he got 4 assists - though it's more of a tale of individuals than the team right now.
There are 5 keepers on 2 clean sheets as there is no defined leader there.
September 2016
Growth Report:

• R.Blanco 69 (+1) A. Perez 75 (+2) U. Lopez 69 (+1)
• Garcia 70 (+1) Adama 71 (+2) Ukra 60 (+1)
• O. Gil 70 (+1) Tshibumbu 67 (+1) Reed 72 (+1)

Now let's take a look at the team, in FUT cards
And now as a break down of the starting XI, maintaining the false 9 shape I adopted after January we line up much the same as we ended last time, but with some growth indicated in their fut cards. So really there wasn't much to type out.
Results:

• H vs Barcelona, W 1-0 (Reed) - Reed returned from his injury lay-off with a quickfire goal, we then parked the bus and frustrated our way to a memorable win.
• A vs Real Vallecano, D 1-1 (Bellerin) - Just days after stunning Barca we let ourselves down with poor finishing.
• News And big news at that, I decided to switch formation up to a modified 523 false 9 formation, dropping Oscar Gil in between the two centre backs and allowing Bellering and Angelino the attacking freedom they seemed to be taking anyway. Hoping that this would at least stop them being liabilities at the back I am hopeful we can press on.
• H vs Villarea, D 1-1 (Riese) - 16 year old introduces himself with excellent long range strike, but just moments later Blanco got beat far too easily at his near post to let us down again.
• A vs Levante, W 1-0 (Tshibumbu) - Luongo made a string of fine saves, including a penalty stop, as Tshi gives the cup squad a win in a rare league run out.

So we definitely had a better month, climbing up into the mid table spot that the board coveted so much - placing 11th as we hope that we can now maintain this form and keep my job for the next season at least.
Pozo failed to find the net in September but his 5 strikes were enough to remain top scorer by one, though others are catching him quickly.
Ayoze has been joined by Mandzukic as the assist leader on 4, as he also failed to provide an increase in numbers.
Diego Alves' impressive 5 clean sheets thus far makes him the top keeper at this point.
So that's post one of this night, see you in December!
Vol.3:Ch.2*