As my Seasons 6 and 7 update explained, I had Mallorca on a real upward trajectory. European football had come to the shores of Mallorca once again - first it was the UEFA Europa Conference League, then the Europa League itself. For my eighth season in charge, Mallorca would be playing in the UEFA Champions League.
I was building a young squad that could grow into a team capable of maintaining the challenge at the top end of the league. A squad filled with potential is not to be knocked but I felt that I needed someone who was already at that next level. A key to unlocking the potential around him.
Step forward Giovanni Alejandro Reyna…
My best attempt at one of those god-awful garish new signing graphics
It wasn’t a long-planned signing. More of a chance occurrence that I happened to actually be paying attention to a scout report that popped up in my inbox to say that Gio Reyna was transfer listed and available for the very reasonable price of £18.25m. For some odd reason, the American had never really managed to become a nailed-on starter for Borussia Dortmund in this save - which is very surprising when I look at Dortmund’s current midfield and wouldn’t consider either of them to be anywhere near as good.
Reyna came in midway through August and was registered in time for the second league game of the season. The impact was instantaneous with a goal and four assists in a 6-0 rout of Zaragoza. A further two assists followed in the next game (2-1 win over Granada) before a goal and an assist in the 2-1 win away to Atlético Madrid. Two goals and seven assists in his first three games in a Mallorca shirt was a great sign of what was to come. A final tally of 18 assists and 9 goals in 46 appearances across all competitions was a great return - added to his average rating of 7.52 which was the highest ever average rating for any Mallorca player across this save.
Gio Reyna played the role of Mezzala in a three-man midfield. The ability to pick and play those top-quality passes in addition to carrying the ball through the midfield area was a quite clear step up in terms of quality from what I’ve had so far in this save. The value of the player traits, particularly playing on-twos, was evident on so many occasions as the quick passing and movement created so much space and so many chances for us over the course of the season.
As for how the season went generally, I will begin with the Spanish Super Cup. For the second season running we fell at the first hurdle in a competition that I continue to struggle gathering any interest in as shown by the goal scorer being Danilo Cataldi in one of his four starts of the season.
Champions League football for the first time in this save! Or Champions Cup as my game is now calling it - my name-fix needs updated and I truthfully can’t be bothered to do it, sorry but no fox given here. Despite just two wins, we managed to squeeze through in second place in the group thanks to our head-to-head record over Benfica. The final group game was honestly a great watch - all I needed was a draw to ensure a 3rd place finish and a spot in the Europa League, which I was more than happy to take. Sebastian Banguera had other ideas as he popped up in the 93rd minute with a winner to grant us 2nd place.
Facing Liverpool in the first knockout round I didn’t expect much, particularly as they had that T-1000 replica Erling Haaland leading the line. What I got was almost the comeback of a lifetime in the second leg. As the clocked ticked over into the 83rd minute of play we were trailing 4-1 on aggregate. 6 foot 6 inch monster centre back Yasen Dimitrov stepped up twice from corners to head us into an unthinkable position of just needing one more goal to push us through to extra time and then this happened…
With our Champions League campaign ending in an unexpected disappointment, the boys bounced back in style the very next month by securing the second Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey) win under my tenure.
With Gio leading the charge as I mentioned earlier, we came firing out of the starting blocks and finished the months of August and September with a tally of 19 points from a possible 21. October, November and December were sobering months as before we long we went from counting one loss in eight games to the flip side of just three wins in eleven - football can be a cruel game.
We returned from the Winter break in hot form, as we seem to do often. It wasn’t until Sociedad in March that we suffered our first league defeat of 2029 before an April disaster derailed the train somewhat. 1 point from a possible 12 coincided with that defeat to Liverpool and the Spanish Cup victory. The players mustn’t have known if they were commiserating or celebrating.
Resurgent in May, we rounded out the season with a fruitful month in front of goal, but it wasn’t enough to stop a serving of humble pie as we ended the season in 6th place - dropping down to the Europa League for the next season to come.
Sociedad (or Real San Sebastián to the lazy man) were the surprise package of the season. They led the league from Matchday 8 right through to their defeat to eventual champions Barcelona on Matchday 33.
Real Madrid started the season so poorly but managed to turn things around under the tutelage of Zinedine “Third Time Lucky” Zidane. Zidane taking over from Stefano Pioli who lasted just 137 days before being sacked. What really is unbelievable is that I turned down the Madrid job in the summer before they brought in Pioli… oh what could have been!
Ins, Outs and Wage Cap Blunders!
Yes, it’s not only the unfortunate Cules who run into wage cap problems. FM is always a game for learning, and sometimes the things you learn seem so simple that you probably should have thought of them before! I knew that I had to be careful when recruiting new players that I wouldn’t overspend - the wage cap can be ever so slightly restrictive when trying to grow a club. What didn’t occur to me is that one of my biggest problems would be the wage % increased inserted into player contracts! With that in mind I ended up using the January transfer window to loan out two higher earners that weren’t really deserving of their spots in the team - Mostafa Gabr (Egyptian wonderkid) and Osvaldo Katiavala (Portuguese beanpole) saved me a combined total of £59k on the wage bill.
Continuing on the path of bringing in young players to grow into my first team, this season I signed 22 year old Serbian goalkeeper Nikola Simic (£3.7m from Red Star), 18 year old Colombian midfield Jean Henao (£1.1m from Atlético Nacional) and 20 year old Kenyan defender Timothy Juma (£1,3m from Benfica B). All three would be in the first team but available for my B/U19 team to ensure they go the game time they needed.
The three young signings I am most excited about are the following. Martin Piro - discovered by chance on looking at my current right back Sebastian Piro, his brother who also played at River Plate - £5.5m feels like a reasonable fee. Srdan Sreckovic cost just £6.25m from Red Star - already noted as a wonderkid, the 20 year old is versatile but moost often operates in the DM slot for me as a half back. Emmanuel Akuguru was a £3m signing from Bayer Leverkusen, at 5 foot 9 inches he’s not the usual tall leading forward I hope to sign but is developing a nice turn of pace to provide an alternative option in behind.
Winning two Spanish Cups makes me the most successful Mallorca manager in the modern era. Maybe this would be a good time to call an end to the save… or is there a chance we can mount an epic finale?
With Europa League football to play, I feel like this band of potential stars might just come of age in time to push for another European campaign or even a trio of Spanish Cup wins?