RCDM: Osiris, Bennu and Rebirth On The Wing

I begin this article, likely my last of FM22, with a tenuous link between an Egyptian Newgen and two Ancient Egyptian Deities.

The first link is clear - they are both of Egyptian origin. The second is where some creative leap is required: Mostafa Gabr has been trained to play on the wing - Bennu is the ancient Egyptian deity symbolised in the form of a grey heron - a winged animal. The third link is where things begin to tie together as Bennu was a symbol of rebirth, closely associated with Osiris who was the god of resurrection among many other things (and the father of Horus, the falcon headed but I’ll not try and stretch a further link in here).

In the summary of my last season, I mentioned finding the key in Gio Reyna. One player who was also vital in the successes of that campaign was loaned wideman Pedro Camara. His contribution of 13 goals and 11 assists from his Winger-Attack role was undeniably so crucial to the way the team played.

Alas, loans can never truly be relied on, and Pedro Camara returned to his parent club (Man UFC) before being sold on to Newcastle United.

A replacement was needed but with little of great interest on the transfer market, I turned to a player who had thus far failed to really meet expectations since his signing. I didn’t initially have him marked down for a wide playing role but he could just fit the bill. Could it be time for a rebirth for Mostafa Gabr? (Tenuous link justified)

Pedro Camara was a pretty good winger for me at the level Mallorca were at. He was fast enough, could dribble and cross. While his finishing attribute was hardly anything to write home about, his other attributes meant that he was usually in the right place at the right time to have a decent chance at goal. Not to mention the loan deal we had him on was an absolute steal with £2.9k per week wages!

In my eighth season he finished with 13 goals and 11 assists in 39(4 apperances across all competitions.

I signed Mostafa Gabr in my sixth season as a 19-year-old with lots of promise. Initially I imagine that he would slot into a central midfield role for me but he just never seemed to get going in that position. 6 goals and 2 assists in his 16 appearances in Season Six sounds good but was heavily inflated by early fixtures against lower league opposition in the Spanish Cup. In the Seventh Season it was a return of 2 goals and 3 assists in 38 appearances. By January of the Eighth Season he had 3 goals and 3 assists in 16 appearances but was more often than not a substitute for me.

I allowed Gabr to leave on a sixth month loan to Feyenoord where he amassed 8 goals and 5 assists in 21 appearances as he recorded a 7.4 average rating while helping them to a Europa Conference League Final victory.

As pre-season for Season Nine came round, I had a choice to make with regards to replacing Pedro Camara. So, I turned to Mostafa Gabr. Having all the right attributes in the right places I decided he should be given one last go at it - and he repaid my faith in abundance.

Gabr took to his new role really well as he finished the season with 19 goals and 13 assists in 45 appearances - surpassing the standards set by Pedro Camara last season. This is despite suffering a calf strain in the early part of the season that was to see him sidelined for almost the entire month of September.

There were only two first team signings over the whole season for Mallorca and they were both reactive to departures.

Bulgarian behemoth centre back Yasen Dimitrov left for Manchester City in a £27.5m deal - two years after signing from Ludogorets for £4.2m. Osvaldo Katiavala sadly couldn’t follow the same redemption arc as Gabr and he left for Fenerbahce in a £27m move - significant profit on the £1.6m paid to Pacos Ferreira in 2025. Goalkeeper Sergio Rico moved on to Al-Wahda (UAE) for £2m and Frank Priso’s £7m relause clause was activated by SC Freiburg after two and half seasons with us.

A special mention goes to Danilo Cataldi who returned to Italy with Venezia at the age of 35. Cataldi cost just £2.2m back in 2022 and paid that back and more with his goals and assists from set pieces. 200 league appearances for Mallorca and he leaves the club as favoured personnel.

Coming in was Vilmos Jakab - a Hungarian wonderkid - for a joint equal club record fee of £21m from Zebre (soon to be Juventus again). Jakab is 6’5” and can play centrally or on the right of defence and also in that defensive midfield role. Jakab finished the season with 45 appearances - 5 goals and 2 assists.

Also coming in was Strahinja Bojovic for £6.25m from Red Star (Belgrade). An exciting Serbian prospect (now our third young Serbian in the squad) at centre back who is very capable of the ball playing defender role. He managed 22 appearances with 2 goals this season.

We dominated our group in the Europa League, winning 5 of the 6 games before heavily rotating in the last with qualification already secured. We came up against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Second Knockout Round and carried a decent result out of the first leg. The game plan unravelled within 10 minutes of the second leg as we found ourselves three goals down. Gio Reyna pulled one back but despite our best efforts the result was gone from us and it finished 4-2 on aggregate to Frankfurt.

An edgy result against Navalcarnero and a solid performance against Celta Vigo led us into a Spanish Cup quarter final with Barcelona. It was a dominant performance to sweep Barcelona aside 2-0.

We struggled against an in-form Sevilla in the first leg of the semi-final then almost threw it away immediately in the second leg by going two goals down after 7 minutes! Mostafa Gabr led the fight back with an incredible hattrick to put us close. Gabr was almost the fairy tale hero with a fourth, but it was ruled out by VAR for offside. Out on away goals - which are apparently still a thing in Spain.

Spanish Super Cup Champions! Amazing! Sociedad (San Sebastian) were battling for the title all season but put-up little fight as we blitzed by them in the semi-final.

Barcelona in the final seemed like a tough ask but we were the better side over 90 minutes despite it ending goalless. Martin Piro’s 93rd minute lead was cancelled out in the 109th minute leading us into penalties. It went all the way to sudden death before Mallorca won it 6-5 on penalties! Vamos!

The La Liga title fight was the closest it has been during this save with just 6 points separating 1st and 5th.

It was a rollercoaster start to the season for us, beginning with a 7-2 demolition of Espanyol before being immediately humbled by Sociedad. Over the next month Valencia and Zaragoza also took maximum points from us.

That kick us into an incredible run of 21 league games without a loss! The cycle was broken by consecutive losses to Barcelona and Bilbao before finishing the season with six wins from the final eight games.

We finished as the highest scorers in the league with 97 goals and 38 goals conceded made us the fifth best team defensively.

23 year old goalkeeper Nikola Simic made the most appearances with 52 across the season. 49 goals conceded and 23 clean sheets.

Gio Reyna finished with the most assists on 21, Mostafa Gabr (as mentioned) got 13 and Johnathan Frohlich set up 12 for his teammates.

Johnathan Frohlich was our top scorer with 25 goals, Mostafa Gabr was the next highest scorer with 19 goals and Sebastian Banguera had 17 goals despite playing second fiddle to Frohlich and Vidovic.

Below is how we lined up for this season - with my chosen Best XI. It is the basis for how I plan to play in FM23 with a lot of focus on the Raumdeuter getting into those dangerous positions and being clinical in front of goal.

With 9 seasons gone, it’s time to call an end to this save. With two Spanish Cups and a Spanish Super Cup, how does this rate among my millions of Mallorca saves down the year? Pretty high, honestly. I’ve been more successful in previous editions, but I feel like I really got a good feel for this tactic rather than just having a fumble and falling into something that works.

I always feel that my saves tend to end just as I get a really exciting team together. We have an average age of 22 years old with 14 current internationals in the squad. I’d love to see how this side would do over the next 4-5 years as they develop. Could they break the Barcelona/Madrid dominance in La Liga? Probably not under my leadership in fairness…

Now, it’s time to take a break and think about getting ready for FM23!

RCDM: Finding The Key 🗝️

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?

RCDM: The Pitfalls of Success

Once again, it’s been a while since I’ve updated on this save. To turn Ian Malcolm’s (Jurassic Park) quote on its head: “life gets in the way”. Playing time has taken a severe hit over the last few months because work has become so busy - but that’s not something I’ll ever complain about.

This post is a bumper double season update. I’ve become so accustomed to the struggles of my FM saves that once I seem to crack the code, the game somehow becomes less desirable to write about. Blogs about successful FM saves are very much in their abundance in the FMsphere that it becomes boring to read about yet another trophy laden story. In the same vein, it’s hard to work up a lot of enthusiasm in writing about them too, at least it is for me. However, this doesn’t for one second mean that I’ve stopped enjoying playing my game.

SEASON SIX - 2026/27

The previous season’s 7th place finish granted me a place in the UEFA Europa Conference League. For a club on our trajectory, this wasn’t something to be sniffed at, unlike how some bigger clubs or fans may view it in real life. We entered in the League Path Fourth Qualifying Round and faced Brondby IF of Denmark. a 6-1 aggregate win propelled Mallorca into Group B along with LASK (Austria), Slavia Prague (Czech Republic) and AEK Larnacas (Cyprus).

It wasn’t the easy ride that I expected it to be: a 1-1 draw at home to LASK set us off on an uneven footing. Slavia made us work to claim a 3-2 away win before we finally found a comfortable victory 2-0 at home to Larnacas. Our return fixtures were 0-0, 2-2 and 1-1 draws against Larnacas, Slavia Prague and LASK respectively. It was hard going but we qualified as second place in our group with LASK taking top spot.

In the first knockout round Portuguese side Estrela da Amadora SAD (their name, not a comment on my feelings towards them) held us to a scoreless draw in the first leg with a first minute Christian Vergara goal the deciding factor in the second leg. We were drawn with old pals LASK in the second knockout round and it was a much improved performance as Mallorca went through with an 8-1 aggregate win. Antwerp arrived at the Quarter Final stage and were duly sent on their way as we progressed 3-1 over two legs.

Yes, the draws had perhaps been kind to us, however, I still rejoiced at making a semi-final of a European competition at the first time of asking! Sadly, Aston Villa were too strong for us over two legs. Rafa Mir may not have set the English Premier League alight, but he was inspired in this tie as his two goals helped the Villains to a 3-1 aggregate score line to see them through to the Final. A final they went on to win at a canter with a 3-0 win over Spartak Moscow.

We’d been on the cusp of glory before in the Copa del Rey but 2027 was finally the year we brought the Cup back to Palma - 24 years on before the club’s first Spanish Cup victory.

Again, I am happy to concede that the draw was kind to us up to the point of our progression to the semi final. Faced with Barcelona, I was ready to just accept this as another good cup run. Barcelona’s 4-2 at the Son Moix in the first leg didn’t do us any many favours.

The team bounced back in incredible fashion, recording a 4-0 victory over Barcelona in their own grounds. I couldn’t believe it as I sat and watched goal after goal fire in!

Real Madrid were the masters of our destiny in last year’s Copa final. And, of course, their cup win was the very reason we ended up in European competition this season. You rarely go into a match against Real confident of getting anything. With 23 minutes gone we were 2-0 up and I still didn’t feel in any way comfortable, Alexander Juhl’s goal for Madrid on the half hour mark could have been the beginning of a massive comeback but we held out resolutely in our defence. Yerry Mina and a late, late showing from 1Gabriel Vidovic putting the cherry on top of the cake… 4-1 to Mallorca, Copa del Rey Champions 2026/27!

All I can say is, thank goodness for the Copa del Rey success! We finished 7 points worse off than last season which led to an 8th place finish. The CdR success being secured our European football for the following season.

Things started promisingly with back-to-back wins before we went on a three-game losing streak. Another two wins to round off September gave me some false hope before we went two whole months without a win - 2 draws and 6 defeats through October and November.

A switch to 4-1-4-1 DM saw a revival of form with 3 wins from 3 in December before a rollercoaster January that yielded 8 points from a potential 15. The bad form returned as we again embarked on a winless run that stretched to seven games. Another tactical switch back to our 4-2-3-1 helped us return to winning ways against Bilbao and Real Madrid. Sevilla, Barcelona and Levante took maximum points from us before we rounded off the season with wins over Tenerife, Cádiz and Valladolid.

Truthfully, I was just glad to get this season over as we flipped from sublime to ridiculous at the drop of a hat.

In keeping with the brief update, I’ll restrict the transfer update for this season. Pre-season we lost Nnamdi Collins to Real Madrid for £16.75m - he had been signed for just £1.1m from Dortmund and started to break into the first team in the second half of the season before. We also sold long term first choice goalkeeper Dominik Grief to Espanyol for £2m.Pietro Pellegri departed for Osasuna (Atlético Pamplona) for £5m having never really made the grade for us. We made just two signings in the summer with Pedro Camara coming in on loan from Manchester United while Sergio Rico was signed for £3.5m from Valencia.

In January, promising youngster Alejandro Reina was sold to Rosario Central for £5.75m - a move we were pushed to allow happen as he threatened to run down his contract because I decided to try and give him a run in the first team rather than loan him out to a fourth division side… Joshua Zirkzee moved on to Eintracht Frankfurt for £4m and another promising academy graduate Adama Sabally moved to Newcastle for £6m. Coming in was Shola Shoretire - another winger on loan from Manchester United. We also went back to our unofficial parent club Bayern to bring in Emmanuel Awono - a solid ball player in the midfield. The two permanent signings were at opposite ends of the spectrum: the experience of Diego Carlos was a shrewd short-term signing for £200k while Mostafa Gabr is most definitely a player I can see developing over the longer term.

SEASON SEVEN - 2027/28

We were granted a place in the Spanish Supercopa mini tournament thanks to our Copa del Rey victory last season. We were promptly turfed out following a 3-0 defeat to Valencia in our semi-final fixture. Moving on…

Speaking of the Copa del Rey - we made it to the Semi-Final once again but after a first leg defeat to Barcelona, we couldn’t repeat our heroics of the previous season.

I was very disappointed with our showing the the Europa League group stage. While I expected Leicester to be too strong for us, I did anticipate getting a lot more from Estrela da Amadora and Vitesse than the 6 points we ended the group with. A third-place finish resigned us to a drop down to the Europa Conference League knockout stages.

It was in the Europa Conference League that we finally found our form. Once again, you might say the draw was somewhat kind to us. Turkish Superlig Goztepe and League of Ireland side Shamrock Rovers were both set aside despite our poor second leg showings in each tie.

We progressed past Braga of Portugal thanks to penalties after 1-0 home victories for either side. Chelsea proved that one step too far as they struck us down 6-3 over two legs - I’ve now faced three English teams over six legs losing 100% of those games.

And so, with the morale boost of having reached three semi-finals through the season (the Supercopa counts…) we go on with the update of the league.

We suffered defeat just four times in the league before the winter break - Getafe, Barcelona, Valencia and Villarreal the victors in those occasions. We, largely, did what was necessary against the smaller teams but most importantly we managed to take significant points from those who would be challenging around us - with draws against the likes of Sevilla, Sociedad and Atlético Madrid.

If the first half of the season went well then, the second half went very well indeed. We only succumbed to defeat three times as the remainder of the season played out - again bested by Barcelona but strangely this time also by Zaragoza and Almería. Draws for the second time this season with Real Madrid, Sevilla and Atlético Madrid along with those important wins against “lower” sides helped us to exceed our expectations for the season.

An incredible third place finish will see Mallorca play Champions League football next season!

One significant departure this season as Yerry Mina becomes the latest Mallorca player to threaten to run down their contract, as such he leaves for Sassuolo in a deal worth £2.8m - It may be a net transfer loss of £7.2m but I definitely think we got our worth out of him with those 102 league appearances over three seasons on the island.

Feeling that the club is on solid ground in the immediate term, I’ve started to look towards the future and signing some good potential. Sebastián Piro is more than able with both feet and can play anywhere along the back. He’s also in the 6foot+ club so gets a massive tick on my defensive criteria list. £6m was the fee from River Plate - he also benefits from being a dual Italian national so will be counted as EU for registration purposes. Yasen Dimitrov is a 6-foot 6-inch behemoth centre back and well worth the £4.2m paid to Ludogorets.

Adrián Sosa is the second River Plate signing and also cost £6m. Flair, First Touch, Technique… he has massive potential to become an absolute dreamboat in the midfield for us. Sebastián Banguera is the last signing of the season, the Colombian forward was just £1.4m from América de Cali (Hi Mike!) but due to our 3 non-EU limit he was loaned out to Kawasaki Frontale in Japan for the season - 15 goals in 12 appearances there!

Qualifying for the Champions League is a very ‘make us or break us’ moment. I’ve switched the focus largely toward getting a young team who can grow and develop into something special, and I just hope that the Champions League qualification isn’t a step too soon because a bad campaign could seriously knock morale and throw the rest of the season off course.

I reckon I’ve probably got another two (maybe three at a push) seasons left in this save. With a solitary Copa del Rey win in the cabinet thus far, I’d at least like to see us add in another one before we’re knocking at the door of FM23.

RCDM: ¡Hala Madrid!

Once again, the title of this blog post is not a typo. We have a lot to be thankful to Real Madrid for. I have returned Mallorca to European football for the first time since the 2002/03 season. This was, in large part, thanks to Real Madrid’s succes in the Copa del Rey meaning that the final European qualification place extended down to 7th place in the league.

I’ve done the classic FM blogger thing and I sit down to write this update a number of weeks after completing the season. Real life work has been busy and I’ve had to rumble through the memory bank to summon up the emotions I felt as this season progressed.

THE BEST SEASON YET

It’s undoubtedly been my best season to date in the save. Continuing with my successful 4-2-3-1 that I introduced last year, we got off to a relatively successful start in the season. Consistency was the struggle once more, our impressive start couldn’t be maintained and we made our way through the peaks and troughs of the season.

The season really began to turn after the winter break with a few wins in the early rounds of Copa del Rey managing to help us build confidence. As it happens we made it all the way to the Semi Final before falling to a 4-2 aggregate loss to our eventual heroes Real Madrid.

The 5-2 win over Levante was the game which secured our 7th place finish at their and Atlético Madrid’s expense.

TRANSFER BUSINESS

Summer 2025

We continued to rely quite heavily on loan signings in this season, although it was perhaps not quite as bad as in previous years.

Bruno Méndez and Luka Romero returned for their third consecutive seasons on loan with Mallorca. Bruno has been a dependable first teamer for us but will not be returning next season as he has now agreed a pre-contract deal with Ajax, despite our best efforts to keep him at Son Moix. Luka Romero pushed himself into a first team place for us, starting 42 games over the course of the season. Lazio want to give him a chance in the first team, however, I won’t rule out making a move for him if this doesn’t work out.

Jonathan Fröhlich returned for a second season on loan from our unofficial parent club Bayern. 44 starts and 15 goals from his position as AML is a great return for us.

The final loanee of the season is Tunisian midfielder Hannibal from Manchester United. Although noted as a natural central midfielder, I made the decision to play him as a Winger in the AMR slot. It’s a role he has all the necessary attributes for and he performed admirably. Only 5 assists but 7 goals and a 7.00 average rating in his 29 starts.

I made three permanent signings in this window - promising attacking midfielder Osvaldo Katiavala joined from Pacos de Ferreira for £1.6m. At 6’3” he is exactly the sort of player I am looking for to help boost our advantage from set pieces.

Two experienced players also entered the fray. £1.7m was paid to Lazio for the services of Serge Aurier who was a very able back up for Bruno Méndez. £1.3m to Monaco for Wissam Ben Yedder seemed like good business. He played the role of super sub on a few occasions but was never expected to be much more at 35 years old.

The biggest departure of note in this summer was Shane Duffy who refused to extend his contract and subsequently returned to England to join Blackburn on a free. Also heading that way was promising left back Emmanuel Kalu - an academy graduate in my first season.

Winter 2026

Unbelievably there was no notable transfer business in this winter winter. None whatsoever… strange.

THE BIG HITTERS IN A SUCCESSFUL SEASON

Goalkeeper Dominik Grief made the most appearances with 45 starts, conceding 62 goals but managing to keep 19 clean sheets.

Gabriel Vidovic was our top goalscorer with 19 goals in his 32 appearances. Jonathan Fröhlich was second with 15 goals while Luka Romero came third with 9.

Luke Romero headed up the assists chart with 9 assists, leading from Jonathan Fröhlich’s 8. In joint third place was emerging talent Andreu Barba and set piece maestro Danilo Cataldi on 6 assists each.

2026 NXGN AWARD UPDATE

It’s now become almost common place to see a Mallorca name or two in this list. 2026 offers you a full four!

20 year old Colombian centre back has really grown into his role at the club since his £1.5m arrival from Atlético Nacional - which upon reflection feels like daylight robbery on our part. He becomes the first Mallorca winner of the NxGn award.

Future Son Moix captain Andreu Barba makes it to number 4 on the list. The Sa Pobla born midfielder made 24 appearances this season, creating 5 goals for his teammates.

Argentina/Italy dual national Alejandro Reina comes in at number 5 on the list. After spending last season on loan at La Nucía, he returned to Mallorca to make a total of 13 appearances. At 17 years old, he’ll push for more involvement next season.

Adama Sabally is the last Mallorca name on the list. At 36th in the list, this is an indication of how raw he is as a talent. The 17 year old Gambian centreback has a lot to learn but has shown a lot of promise on loan at Racing Club de Ferrol in La Liga 2 this season - he made 32 appearances.

EUROPE BOUND

It may be a while before there is another update from this save as real life business is beginning to take over. It’s a strange point in the save too, I need to see this Mallorca side grow to becoming a club that can compete in Europe while maintaining the domestic race for future European qualification. All the while on a meagre budget by relative standards.

This is a transition I generally struggle with. No doubt there will have to be tactical tweaks along with some shrewd transfer business.

RCDM: The Wings of Change

No, that is not a typo. This post is about how I transformed the fortunes of my fourth season with Mallorca with a complete tactical switch. Again.

It’s unbelievable to talk about finishing a fourth season when there was a point during this FM22 cycle (and indeed this very save) where I feared I’d never reach that long with a single club again. Things were trickling along but if I wanted to push my Mallorca into the higher reaches of the league then change would be needed.

BALANCING STABILITY V VIRILITY

This may well be the first time anyone has ever used virility in the context of a FM tactic. I mean it in the very definition of the word - I wanted something that had energy and real drive. Showing strength in attack.

My 4-3-1-2 that I’ve previously talked about served me well as a stop-gap to shore up the defensive end but, as the numbers show, it was barely effective in an attacking sense. I’d always set out in this year’s game to play with widemen and so I made the move to a 4-2-3-1.

I’d say it’s far from the finished article but it’s been effective so far. I like to work with simple concepts: a steady back four providing support on the left but stability on the right. A playmaker and a bit of an all-rounder in the middle, a winger on the right as an outlet, an Enganche who links the midfield with the attack and a striker and Raumdeuter to get themselves in the mix.

The Enganche is described as a creator, is it necessary with a DLP behind him? I’ll assess that over the longer term and see. This is the first time I’ve ever experimented with a Raumdeuter and I have to say I’m delighted by the dynamism his movement provides.

The switch was made just around the conclusion of the January transfer window and it yielded positive results. Just 3 losses in the 17 games it was deployed in. I trialled it in a fixture with Barcelona and salvaged a 1-1 draw - the encouraging shoots of progress were clear to see. I reverted to 4-3-1-2 for the next game and found myself 2-0 down after 52 minutes at which point I switched to 4-2-3-1 and romped back to an emphatic 3-2 win over Huesca.

We managed just 1 clean sheet over this period so it is fair to say there is still work to be done however I’m starting to think that may be more of a personnel change needed that any drastic tinkering with the set up.

For the third season running we started off incredibly slow - failing to mark down a win in our first six games of the campaign despite facing some relatively favourable opposition.

Things improved markedly as we then went on a run of just 3 losses in the next 12 league games. We had to grind it out at times but certainly were beginning to look a lot more impressive. If only we hadn’t started so poorly we would have seen ourselves challenging a lot higher up the table, alas there is no room for regret here.

A poor showing in the Copa del Rey was to see us bow out in the third round against Betis, leaving us to concentrate fully on the league with top half a near certainty and European qualification a distinct possibility.

February, March and April yielded a incredible run of games with the heavy loss to Valencia the only real blot on our copy book. The final month of the season was not an easy fixture list in any way, the Sociedad and Sevilla results putting us very much on the back foot in search of 7th place and that elusive Europa Conference League place.

Yet, we went into the final day with a glimmer of hope. A win against Atléti would see us leapfrog them and steal the spot from under their noses. Luis Suárez’s fifth minute opener had us in a hole until loanee Lovro Zvonarek’s 27th minute equaliser restored the hope. We had the chances but Lady Luck did not smile down upon us and so we finished the season in a more than respectable 8th position.

Again, considering how we began the season we should be thankful we even made it that high up the table.

MIXING YOUTH AND EXPERIENCE

It’s not enough to just rely on either kids or older heads. I felt that I needed a good mix of both and through the two transfer windows this season I think I achieved a good balance.

Summer 2024

Liverpool’s Bruno Méndez returned on loan for another season and cemented his place as my first choice right back. 37 appearances, a goal and an assist with a 7.07 average rating. Some would perhaps expect more goal contributions from their wing backs but Méndez’s main responsibility was, unbelievably in this modern football age, to defend!

Take Kubo was back for his third season in four years with us. He ended up becoming my first pick at AMC and showed his worth with 8 goals and 7 assists.

It was another year at Son Moix for Luka Romero, still happily playing the squad player role. He only made 9 starts this season but 21 appearances from the bench. He laid on 4 assists in those appearances.

It’s hard to imagine getting a stable squad with so many loanees but that’s what we have achieved as Lovro Zvonarek is another one who came back. He ended the season as my right winger, his 7 goals and 8 assists in 39 appearances showing his real worth to this team. Sadly he has now agreed a move to Inter Milan in the summer so we’ll have a hard task getting him back for another year.

Jonathan Fröhlich became my latest loan signing from de facto feeder club Bayern Munich. In my initial set up, I couldn’t really find a place for him in the front two but the switch to 4-2-3-1 allowed him to take up the AML Raumdeuter role to great effect. 11 goals and 6 assists in 33 appearances.

£8.5m was the fee required to pull Yerry Mina back to Spanish football. His eye watering £85k wages were a significant sticking point for me but I ultimately decided to take the hit, seeing him as a strong option in the short-medium term in defence. He scored 3 goals through the season, perhaps not as prolific from set pieces as I thought he’d be but it’s something to work on.

Continuing my tradition of going back to former players from previous editions of FM, I made former Atalanta wing back Matteo Ruggeri a Mallorca player for £6m - signed from Udinese. He picked up an injury just a few games into the season but came back strong to finish the year with 26 appearances, 2 goals and 3 assists. More to come from him!

The final signing of the summer was the highest profile one as Ander Herrera made his return to (almost) Spanish shores as a free transfer after his release from PSG. He slotted in eventually as my central midfielder on support before switching with Cataldi to be my deep lying playmaker. And playmake he did! His stats of 2 goals and 5 assists don’t really do justice to the industry he made in the middle of the park.

My hand was forced to making some of the above transfers because of our own summer departures. Matteo Gabbia moved to Real Madrid for £20m, Kang In-Lee went to RB Salzburg for £21.5m and Fahd Moufi to OGC Nice for £2m. Good profit all round and, in truth, the only one I was truly disappointed to lose was Gabbia!

January 2025

A slightly quieter winter transfer window with just two signings and only one major departure of note. Though the two signings made were excellent business.

19 year old Christian Vergara is already an exciting prospect and able to slot into my defensive line alongside Yerry Mina to make a formidable Colombian partnership. He is the long term replacement for Shane Duffy and for just £1.5m from Atlético Nacional, I think that’s an incredible transfer for us.

German defender Nnamdi Collins was a £1.1m signing for Dortmund. I expect him to become a rotational option in the future in defence but for now he was shipped out immediately on loan to Leganés whom he helped to a 3rd place finish in Spain’s second tier.

Pietro Pellegri hasn’t quite done the business I had hoped for and in response to this I’ve allowed him out on a half season loan to Hamburg in the 2.Bundesliga. His 8 goals in 8 appearances there will maybe help his confidence ahead of next season when he returns to us.

THE STATS MIGHT LIE

That is, of course, incorrect. Stats cannot lie however they can be deceptive or not tell the full story. The tactical change mid season has worked wonders for us but they’re only a half season’s proof so far…

Dominik Grief was the highest appearance maker with 41 but in that he conceded 70 goals and kept just 9 clean sheets.

Jonathan Fröhlich and Gabriel Vidovic were joint top scorers on 11 goals matching the tally set by Zirkzee and Buksa last season. Fröhlich had 6 assists while Vidovic had 5.

The most assists went to Danilo Catadli with 10 - his role back as our number one set piece taker proving effective. Lovro Zvonarek’s 8 had him as second highest assister.

LOOKING AHEAD

Once again we were represented in the NxGn Wonderkid shortlist, this time occupying four of the top twenty places. I’m really excited by Andreu Barba and Alejandro Reina who are academy graduates while Vergara is looking like a very smart acquisition indeed.

Going forward the squad is starting to take shape nicely. We obviously need to become less reliant on loan signings as the years go by - case in point my fears about how to replace Lovro Zvonarek as our primary right winger.

I feel that if we are to take the next big step we really need a top quality goalkeeper too. Dominik Grief is the only remnant from my starting squad and perhaps the time has come from change in that regard. Transfer budget and interest obviously a big factor in that decision…

Next season has to see us consolidate our top half finish, if we can manage to start the season strongly enough then Europe should be a big objective.

RCDM: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

The title of this blog suggests progress. Don’t get me wrong, there has been undeniable progress but, for me, it also represents that frustration at seeing our progress held back from its true potential.

Last season we managed to climb our way to 10th in the league but the obvious blemish on our record was the ridiculous number of goals conceded - 77 in La Liga which works out at 2.03 per game. It’s obvious that we’ve made a significant move on this problem as in season three we reduced this figure to 57, which equates to 1.5 goals conceded per game. It’s going in the right direction but there’s obviously still more to be done.

In season two we struggled through the loss of previous loanee Fer Niño’s bag full of goals. Despite this fact we still managed to score 57 in La Liga - 1.5 goals per game. Sadly, this year we struggled once more by scoring just 48 goals - 1.23 per game. It’s clear that where the football gods have given in one area for us, they have taken away in another.

The board were happy for us to avoid a relegation battle in the league but demanded progress to the fourth round of the Copa Del Rey.

I was licking my lips at the opening fixtures, assuming we’d be well positioned after the first five to move on and pursue a top half finish. We ended up winning just 6 points from a possible 15 which included an incredibly frustrating 0-4 reverse to Levante.

The struggles continued until December when we won back to back for the first time this season. January’s hectic schedule threatened to derail any progress but we valiantly fought through claiming 11 points in the league from a possible 24 either side of the winter break while also achieving and surpassing the boards aim in the Copa Del Rey.

The Cup run came to an alarming halt as Levante claimed an 8-1 victory in the Quarter Final, though we would exact our revenge on them two weeks later in the league.

The theme of the season would be how we were consistently inconsistent. It could almost be believed that the results were drawn at random from a magic hat. The most frustrating element of the season was our ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. On five occasions we let a lead slip and went on to lose the game, it was a familiar story in five of of drawn games also… on one occasion even throwing away a 3-0 Half Time lead to draw 3-3.

We finished the season in 11th place, one place lower than last year. Some people may see this as regression but I feel that with our progress on the goals conceded it’s been a good season overall. With a bit more refinement and stability to avoid throwing away points in a stupid way, we could easily achieve a top half finish next year.

HIGH TURNOVER OF PLAYERS

I always try to avoid such a high turnover of playing staff but when you’re trying to take a club up to the next playing level it is unavoidable. It’s something I discussed during my FM21 save with Atalanta and it’s something I see continuing for at least another season or two (assuming I get to that point and beyond).

Summer 2023

I had already agreed to extend the loans of Michaël Cuisance and Aleksander Buksa. Cuisance’s corner taking ability has become such a big way of how we play and I was glad to see it continue into this season as he recorded 14 assists over the year in all competitions. Buksa had found his role as my Target Forward and in addition to his 4 assists and incredible help in building up play, he managed to end the year as joint top scorer on 11 goals.

Lovro Zvonarek was another loan signing from Bayern Munich II and while I initially considered him as a possible Attacking Midfielder, he became a mainstay in my three man midfield as a Central Midfielder on Attack. His ability to carry the ball was incredible and helped in some way to give him 6 assists in addition to his 4 goals.

We welcomed back a familiar face in Takefusa Kubo who Real Madrid eventually decided to loan back to us for the year. Take was initially a back up to Kang-In Lee but ended up usurping his fellow Asian’s place in the side and playing as an Attacking Midfielder. 4 goals and 4 assists was a decent return but it could have been so much more given the countless number of times his long range efforts rattled the opposition crossbar.

Another familiar face is that of Luka Romero - the Argentine prodigy who left Mallorca in the summer of 2021 to sign for Lazio. Romero operated as a squad player for me, only making 2 starts over the whole season but a further 21 appearances from the bench. No goals and no assists but that’s not for the want to trying given his audacious attempts to lob the goalkeeper at literally every opportunity from anywhere within the opposition half. Fair play.

It very much at this point feels like I’m just getting to band back together. And so it continues with the free signings of Gabriel Vidović and Joshua Zirkzee from Bayern after their loans with us concluded. Vidović (a wonderkid) finished the season with 6 goals and 4 assists despite me never really being sure whether I wanted him in central midfield, attacking midfield or up top. Zirkzee is a strange one in that he seems like he has so much to offer but yet only registered 11 goals and 5 assists. It’s a decent return for a club of our stature but I just feel that there’s so much more to come from the Dutchman.

The final signing of the summer was the acquisition of striker Pietro Pellegri on a free following the expiry of his Monaco contract. Pellegri was somewhat unfortunate enough to be kept out of the squad by Buksa but with Buksa’s loan coming to an end he may well see a lot more action in season four. 2 goals and 3 assists in 19 appearances (just 4 starts) was his return for the year.

There were a few summer departures with Antonio Sánchez and Álex Alegría going to Huesca (£1m and £66k respectively), Amath N’Diaye to PSV Eindhoven (£2.2m), Aleksander Trajkovski to Málaga (£47k). Tow players were loaned out for the season with Jordi Mboula to Girona and season one flop Akinkunmi Amoo to Alavés.

Winter 2024

As if the summer spree wasn’t enough, I brought a further four players into the club in January.

Giorgi Mamardashvili was a pre-agreed free signing from Dinamo Tbilisi when his contract ended. He was intended to be back up to Dominik Grief and ended the season with 6 appearances - mostly occasions when I took the huff with Grief conceding at his near post. Conceding 12 goals in his 6 appearances, he was a less than adequate alternative.

Samuel Umtiti had been a free agent since the summer. I tried for him back then but he wasn’t interested. Six months without a club seems to have changed his mind. At just 30 years old, he’s not a bad emergency option to have but he was never able to dislodge my first choice defensive partnership of Duffy and Gabbia.

Tayo Adaramola and Bruno Méndez were deadline day impulse signings on loan from Crystal Palace and Liverpool. We needed cover in the full back positions and in the end Méndez finished the season as my first choice right back.

Antonio Raillo’s demands for first team football could no longer be met by Mallorca and he departed on loan to Eibar for the rest of the season. Brian Oliván also went on loan to nearby Ibiza. We raised some amount of funds in January by allowing Martin Valjent to move on to Betis for £5m but perhaps the most significant departure was that of Filip Rønningen Jørgensen who left when Bayer Leverkusen activated his £9m release clause - it may seem like a paltry sum given his age and potential but I have to settle with what our club’s stature is in the wider context of European football and so the fee was probably quite fair in that regard.

THE NUMBERS THAT MATTER

Despite what I’m terming as a fairly successful season, the stats around that don’t make for overly exciting reading.

Matteo Gabbia has started to really grow into his role as one of the first choice centre backs and made the most appearances this season with 42 - scoring 3 goals in the process.

The top goalscorer in the team was tied between Aleksander Buksa and Joshua Zirkzee on 11 goals. Buksa laying on 4 assists for his teammates while Zirkzee had 5. Gabriel Vidovic trailed behind on 6 with freekick maestro Danilo Cataldi next on 5 goals.

The assist leader was well in the clear as Cuisance set up 14 goals, mostly due to his role as set piece taker. Lovro Zvonarek was next with 6, his movement out to the wide right from his starting central position leading him into several golden crossing positions.

Dominik Grief conceded a total of 59 goals in 37 games with just 7 clean sheets this season - a clear area for improvement. His back up Giorgi Mamardashvili conceded 12 in his 6 appearances with no clean sheets.

The future remains bright at the Son Moix. Andreu Barba’s continued emergence into the first team at just 16 years old managed to see him named at Number 4 on the 2024 NxGn Wonderkid list. Lovro Zvonarek sneaked himself in there at number 9 though he remains a loanee for us at this point in time.

The aims for next season are quite simply to break into the top half of the league. To do that we just have to find a way to score more goals but concede less - easy, right?

RCDM: Trust The Process

The title of this blog isn’t just a very thinly disguised dig at the third best team in North London (Tottenham and Tottenham U23s are one and two, if you were curious). It’s one of my most common post-game comments in the team talk.

I didn’t have a great time with Bastia - understatement of the century - but I feel like I bounced back in my first season with Mallorca. Something I kept telling myself was that I shouldn’t get comfortable as this first season was definitely a bit false when you dig past the season summary. My two top performers (Fer Niño and Take Kubo) were both loanees who were a level above the current stature of Mallorca in its current state and I had little hope of seeing either return for 2022/23.

Tactically, my first season was all over the place as I searched for something to mitigate the otherwise poor levels of ability I had at my disposal. As it happens, the second season started in a similar trend.

A torch, a torch. My Kingdom for a torch…

Why? Because in my search to find something that worked I switched from one style to another akin to a desperate fumble in the darkness. 442, 352, 4141 and 424 but nothing would stick.

We started the season off with five straight defeats. I noted that the fixture scheduling gods had been truly unkind to us given the level of opponents we faced in the opening phase of the season but in truth the performances gave me very little glimpses of positivity for the season going forward.

Reaching October we sat dangerously within the relegation zone in a lowly 17th with a solitary win and two accompanying draws to give us just 5 points from the opening 9 games. After a 4-0 away defeat to Atlético de Madrid I stopped and took a break from playing FM for a week or two.

I discuss my next actions in the upcoming Latte Quarterly where I revert to the old method of exporting to MS Excel. It’s a road much travelled amongst FMers these days. Why would I export from glorified spreadsheet to actual spreadsheet? It allowed me to cut out the noise around the numbers and ask myself a few key questions but the main one being a very simple question - am I picking the right players?

It may seem so simple as to even sound stupid but I didn’t know who my best players were. A very simple look on a very, very basic level allowed me to see that three of my five best players (based on attributes alone) where central midfielders. It seemed daft not to build my team from that point.

A change to 4312 (a formation that served me well previously with Mallorca) gave me the chance to a solid base in midfield. Very simply it was a Deep Lying Playmaker flanked by Central Midfielders (Support on the left and Attack on the right). From that point I had the foundations to build around and create the movement I felt would see us start to gain a foothold in games.

So “Trust The Process” - things didn’t start magnificently well if we isolate things based on results. A 3-1 loss to Bilbao and a 3-2 loss to Villarreal either side of a plucky 3-2 win over Levante add in that we bowed out of the Copa del Rey to second tier side Racing de Santander. I could have thrown the head up and started again from scratch but it was reading some comments from Dan Gear on twitter that made me take a step back. Yes, the results were not great but the patterns of play had a lot of promise. The goals we conceded were generally from stupid mistakes that I could fix via minor tweaks and with the right signings come January. We created a lot of great scoring opportunities but for whatever reason they just weren’t landing. Tactical Familiarity? Maybe. My decision was clear thought: stick with it and things will start to click.

As we returned from the long winter break enforced by the 2022 World Cup, things began to change. 3 wins in my next 5 league games proved that I was on to something and with the right signings we’d start to see real progress.

You might trot out the cliché here that “the rest, as they say, is history” but that would be to suggest that we have a finished product on our hands. Far from it but we’re on the road to finding some success. There were still hiccups along the way with heavy defeats to Real Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla and Espanyol but as the season played out we also took some great results - a scoreless draw with Barcelona, victory over Bilbao and demolishing Tenerife, Celta Vigo and Real Zaragoza. As we closed the season against Barcelona at Son Moix I approached the game with an unexpected hope verging on expectation.

We twice led Barcelona only for the Catalan giants to fire back with goals in the 88th and 93rd minute to see them take the points. This was partly of my own doing as I brought Antonio Raillo and Manolo Reina on for their final appearances for the club in the final ten minutes. Sentiment rides high for me, even in the virtual world of FM. Raillo is not capable of playing at the level I want to see Mallorca rise to and Reina, at 38 years old, will retire after six seasons in Palma helping the club rise back from the third tier of Spanish football.

4312: The tactic that saved our season

As I mentioned, it was very simple. two central defenders with full backs on either side. Attack on the left to give us movement down the flank and Support on the right to… you know… support the play. The Deep Lying Playmaker on Defend to sit slightly deeper and dictate play with defence splitting passes, a Central Midfielder on support to provide an option and a Central Midfielder on Attack to make runs from deep. An Attacking Midfielder to support the strikers who were a Target Forward and Advanced Forward. The Target Forward assigned PIs to Stay Wider and Run Wide With Ball - this opened up space for the CM(A) to venture into.

The TIs were minimal - simply to press more and employ the offside trap. Indicative of the way I like my teams to play. The mentality was set to Positive to try and impose ourselves on the game but with consciousness of the risks of counter attacks from our opponents.

Transfer Business

The tactic was set but that’s only part of the problem fixed.

Summer 2022

Shane Duffy was my only permanent signing of the summer for a paltry sum of £600k from Brighton. Thanks to La Liga’s ridiculous squad number rulings he had to take the number 9 shirt. A shirt that he more than earned in the second half of the season thanks to my focus on creating an effective attacking corner routine. His near post headers finding him on the scoresheet five times in our race for mid table.

Aleksander Buksa came in a season long loan from Genoa for which I had to pay £1.4m for the privilege. Scouting for new players can come in many forms, I became aware of Buksa through the LQ article ‘Running From FM’ where myself, FMGrasshopper and FM Rensie took charge of Wisla Krakow for a season. Buksa has a lot of the attributes I like to see in a striker - he’s tall, relatively physical and capable with both feet. His work as our Target Forward in the second half of the season was simply fantastic as he finished the season with 10 goals / 5 assists in his 29 appearances. At just 20 years old there is plenty more to come from him.

The final three signings of the summer were loaned in from Bayern Munich’s stockpile in their Bayern II squad. Firstly it was Michaël Cuisance. The French midfielder will hardly need much introduction to FM fans, alongside paying his wages I also stumped up an additional £135k for the loan fee. Cuisance can play all manner of positions from DM-forward, he primarily played as my CM on support but often filled in at DLP when needed. It was a role he thrived in thanks to his aptitude in passing, technique and vision.

Gabriel Vidović came to me highly recommended by ScoreOneMore on FMSlack. Another player who can basically play anything from DM onward. He deputised at CM on attack for me during much of the season but also found himself thrown up top as our Advanced Forward. 3 goals / 4 assists may seem like a meagre return in his 28 appearances but his direct running through the middle of the pitch created all sorts of problems for the opposition even though it didn’t lead to direct goal involvements.

Joshua Zirkzee was the final signing of this window. You may remember him from his time with FMGrasshopper. Again, a tall and physical forward who is adept with either foot. He was initially my choice for Target Forward before that position was usurped by Aleksander Buksa. As an Advanced Forward, Zirkzee led the line in a fine manner - his 12 goals / 2 assists in 33 appearances wasn’t quite on par with Fer Niño but it was a great contribution in our time of need.

Winter 2023

I started off by bringing in two young lads to supplement by B team with a view to the future. Daniel Melo was a loanee from Botafogo with an optional fee involved - sadly he never really showed any great promise and will return to his parent club as the season ends. The second was a show of nepotism in its truest form: Ryan McKay is a left wing back signed from Northern Irish club Dundela on a free transfer once he had turned 18. Ryan is my nephew (in the real world setting) and although his attributes may never reach the levels I desire for my Mallorca team, I couldn’t pass up the chance to sign him.

Matteo Gabbia cost me £6m from Milan, the game tells me this is a record high transfer for Mallorca. It was a huge outlay but one that I think can be justified as I feel he will greatly improve my defensive options. Sadly it won’t be noted as a debut season to remember for Gabbia. I tried to introduce him gradually so as not to upset the apple cart of team morale. He ended the season as a regular starter alongside Duffy but he was found to be at fault for a lot of goals conceded - missed interceptions and headers leading to goals. I’ll put it down to a tough integration to regular senior football and look forward to better from him next season.

Fahd Moufi for £750k from Portimonense feels like an absolute steal. We’d been lacking in a right back who could impact the game in an attacking sense since Pablo Maffeo’s loan ended. Joan Sastre wasn’t quite cutting it so the move for Moufi made absolute sense. Yet again, the stats don’t tell the full story as he scored once and didn’t lay on a single goal but his participation in the build up play became a vital component of how we attacked teams.

Javi López as a free transfer must go down as the signing of the season. The (then) 20 year old was brought in on a free transfer from second tier Alavés simply to provide cover for Brian Oliván. When Oliván picked up a broken ankle just a week after López’s signing, the young wing back was thrust into first team action. His impact was immediate, laying on an assist for Danilo Cataldi within 30 seconds of his first appearance. He only went on to record a further 3 assists in his other 21 appearances but his impact on that left hand side complemented Moufi’s emergence on the right.

Goals, Assists, Clean Sheets?!

No self-respecting FM blog is complete without a run down of the key stats. Here goes…

Kang-In Lee topped the scoring charts with 17 goals in 39 appearances, another 6 assists laid on for his peers.

Danilo Cataldi was the top assister with 7 added to his 7 goals in 30 appearances. He finally started to fulfil his promise following that winter break putting his 17 for free kicks and 16 for long shots attributes to effective use. His 14 for corners also came in handy for our new routine targeting Shane Duffy.

Speaking of the Irishman, Duffy managed the highest average rating in the squad with a 7.09. He may have seemed like an unusual acquisition but he’s fully justified the signing.

Kang-In Lee had the most appearances with his 39 (37 starts and 2 as a sub) as mentioned but it was Dominik Grief, our goalkeeper, who racked up the most minutes with 3,213 - that’s 110 more than Lee.

Forward Planning

I feel like I’m really getting into my stride now with Mallorca and so it’s a return to what I normally do. I like to plan ahead, I like to be able to anticipate what’s coming around the corner.

In terms of club infrastructure, I have already had the board agree and complete an upgrade to both the youth and training facilities. The youth facilities are now rated as Good and the training facilities are Great. In addition to this we’ve seen the board agree to increase funding for youth coaching to what is now considered as Good academy coaching.

Mallorca has always been kind to me with youth intakes and this save is no different. Even before the upgrades had taken place I was graced with this young lad in our season two intake. Andreu Barba is already at a level to compete for a first team place despite being just 15 years old. I’m very excited about his potential.

Ahead of next season I’ve already sorted a fair bit of transfer business. The rest will come in the next season’s update but for now the big announcement is that I have secure pre-contract deals for Joshua Zirkzee and Gabriel Vidović at the end of their Bayern contracts in the summer - I consider these both to be a massive coup for Mallorca at this level.

The aims for next season in the board’s eyes are to avoid a relegation battle. Having finished this season in 10th place, it would be unambitious to consider anything less than a top half finish.

#NewDayNewAdventure

I’m fond of an inside joke, I won’t lie. Those who know me will know what the title of the blog represents.

After being sacked by Bastia I really didn’t take that long to decide on what I was doing next. As FMRensie said - I had a new save before he even had a chance to read that the old save had ended! The reason for this is that the choice was relatively simple and not too far from where I was. Another island team that I had previously had a long term save with. I landed on the virtual shores of the Balearic isle of Mallorca.

Truthfully, this is now the third save I will have start with Mallorca over the last few years. Mallorca (the original save) is one that I really enjoyed. Without going too personal, FM17 was a difficult time for me and this Mallorca save became a good distraction. It was the last FM save that I truly couldn’t get enough of - that’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed each year since, otherwise I wouldn’t be playing it, but it really did land differently for me.

FM17 was the save that ignited my love for Carles Aleña and Borja Mayoral. It was also the last time I experienced trophy success in a European competition - the video below is still an absolute joy to watch! Who doesn’t love a 90th minute winner?!

RCD MALLORCA - FM22

Similarly the Mallorca I inherit today is in a different situation to the one I inherited previously. Mallorca are now a La Liga team although expected to have a difficult battle against relegation.

The board set very few demands on me. The Club Culture calls for signing players under the age of 23 for the first team and the 5 year plan is simply to work within the budget. The former is the bread and butter of how I play FM and the latter is just simple logic. Although that budget being ~£275k per week was ever so slightly restrictive.

The squad I inherited is one I would suggest is still not really a premier division team bar a few higher quality players - goalkeeper Dominik Grief, defender Martin Valjent and winger Kang-In Lee a few of the standout individuals.

On arrival Mallorca had four players on loan. Wingback Pablo Maffeo (another former fmadventure signing) from Stuttgart, midfielder Rodrigo Battaglia from Sporting CP, winger Take Kubo from Real Madrid and striker Fer Niño from Villarreal.

IMPROVING THE SQUAD

I decided against making any signings in the Summer but made moves come January. Firstly I had to raise funds and free up room in the wage budget - that was done by selling three of the fringe players from the squad. Dani Rodríguez (£750k) and Abdón Prats (£500k) swapped the Balearics for the Canaries as they joined Las Palmas and Salva Sevilla (£40k) went to Marítimo. Jordi Mboula also left the club but only on loa to Eibar for the remainder of the season.

Coming in to Mallorca were three players:

First up was Nico Williams from Athletic Club (Bilbao). He was signed initially to replace Jordi Mboula as one of my back up wide men but when Take Kubo picked up a lengthy injury, Nico ended up stepping in to fill the void. Nico Williams was a loan in for the remainder of the season, Athletic insisted on an optional fee of £34m - something I would obviously not be able to afford. Nevertheless, he’s one I’ll definitely be chasing to try and get in on loan again next season.

The second signing was another wide man in 19 year old Nigerian Akinkunmi Amoo from Hammarby IF. As his crossing attribute indicates, he’s very much more in the line of an inside forward than a traditional winger. He has plenty of potential and with that pace/acceleration I can see him training up as a winger in the future. For £1.7m it feels like a shrewd buy, if he doesn’t make it for me then there’s definitely profit to be had from him.

The last signing of the season was that of Filip Rønningen Jørgensen. You may know him from Samo’s FM21 stint with Vålerenga and Norway. At £2m (rising to £2.9m) and at just 19 years old he’s another excellent signing who will either star for me or net me some tidy profits in the future.

THE PERFECT THERAPY

It was indeed the perfect therapy after that disastrous spell with Bastia. After a mediocre pre-season (which I took to be a good omen) we started the season with a win in the league before going through what I can only describe as a consistently inconsistent season.

We finished the season in 12th place - exceeding the board’s (and my own) expectations. It’s easy to see where our faults lay as we conceded 79 goals over the season - the second worst defensive record in the league. Although we did manage to score 61 goals which made us the 8th best scorers in the league.

We blew it in the Copa De Su Majestad El Rey (Copa del Rey for the less articulate) and were knocked out by Getafe in the third round. I didn’t see it as a massive issue and neither did the board. All good here.

Fer Niño ended the season as our top goal scorer, we’ll find it difficult to replace him as he returns to Villarreal on conclusion of his loan deal.

LOOKING AHEAD

I always find that I don’t have too much to say within my first season at a club. It’s all about consolidating my place there and getting to know the squad - or more to the point, finding where our weaknesses lie and planning recruitment for the next summer.

It’s clear that we have a lot of work to do defensively, recruiting another solid centre back to accompany Martin Valjent is an absolute must. an experienced head in midfield is also high up the agenda along with attempting to replace Fer Niño’s goals obviously. Ideally, I’d like to bring in a set piece specialist of some sort too.

Tactically I’m not quite settled yet - I started out with a 5-2-3 with wingbacks, two central midfielders, an AML and AMR and one up top but ended up moving to a flat 4-4-2 by the end of the season. I want to revisit three at the back whenever we get the right players in the facilitate it. Maybe as things progress next season I’ll be able to talk more deeply about the tactical set up I’m working with.

For now, it’s a summer of heavy recruitment ahead, both on and off the pitch as I also look to beef up my backroom staff. The aim for 2022/23 is simply to stay the course and establish ourselves within La Liga. Maybe even push on a bit in the Copa if we get the luck of the draw.

There’s much to be said for having a comfort save to fall back on. Viva Mallorca!

SC Bastia's Deception of Pre-Season

For today’s post I’m going to employ the use of the popular How We Got Here TV trope. It is the running theme of shows such as How I Met Your Mother, where the preamble is actually the middle or end of the story and what follows is a chronicle of the preceding events. For the classics lovers amongst us, let’s call it In medias res as demonstrated in Homer’s Iliad.

On 27th December 2021 (in-game date) I was relieved of my duties by the board of Sporting Club Bastiais. Here’s how that happened…

In my intro post, I’d already outlined some issues with the squad. Namely that they were the oldest average age in the league and that there was little to no money to make any major changes. I was afforded room in the budget to make just one signing and it was that of Brazillian striker Kléber.

Admittedly making the move for a 38 year old striker probably doesn’t seem like the most logical decision after complaining about how old my squad was, however, it was a sticking plaster as a short term fix.

THE TACTICAL TAKE

We’ve been through this many times. I don’t talk up my ability to translate tactical theory well into FM. It’s a big area of struggle for me but usually I find something that clicks. Throughout my short tenure on Corsica I had adopted three main tactical set ups as below:

4-4-2 was my primary tactic, focused on getting the ball down the right wing and crossing in for one of the forwards or arriving midfielders to score - or at least that was the idea. 4-1-4-1 was something that never really got off the ground - why? I’m not really sure. 4-3-3 was my go to tactic for a panicky last 20 minutes when I needed a goal. For every match it worked there were two or three that it backfired and the gaps on the flanks allowed us to be carved open with ease.

As I’ve alluded to, this was an ageing squad - and an ageing squad is, generally, not a very fit squad. We ranked bottom of the league in terms of physical attributes. It didn’t suit the way I generally like to play the game which is very much quick paced transitions into attack. I also like to have tall centre backs (6’2” at minimum) and tall strikers - Bastia had neither of these.

SO IT WAS THE PLAYERS?

Yes and No. Truthfully, this Bastia side was filled with players that just simply weren’t anywhere near a Ligue 2 level. Physically, mentally and technically they lagged way behind the rest of the league. Sure, someone who is very good at FM could probably make it work but honestly that isn’t me. This was too much of a challenge for me.

IT ALL STARTED SO WELL

Pre-season isn’t about the results, it’s about minutes on legs and tactical preparation - this is what any half-decent football manager will tell you. I lost sight of that as we embarked on a pre-season tour (to mainland France) and came away with a number of impressive results. Not least, the draws with Auxerre, Sion and Fenerbahçe who are teams well beyond Bastia’s current position.

The Ligue 2 campaign even began quite promisingly. A hard fought scoreless draw at home to Nîmes (who at my time of writing are top of the league in-save, unbeaten in their 19 games) before a poor performance against Quevilly-Rouen. What followed was a classic against Nancy, coming back from 2-0 down at half time to seal our first win of the season. 4 points from a possible 9 - not a bad start.

What followed was painful. A run of seven games before our next win before another five unsuccessful league games leaving us just a point off the relegation spots. A 1-0 defeat to Championnat National 2 Blois Foot 41 was down to a 90+2 minute winner (loser for me) and the fans had officially turned against me.

Things were bad. Maybe I was foolish but I still felt that the tide could be turned here. In the month of December we had three league fixtures: Paris FC (18th), Sochaux (12th) and Rodez AD (19th). The board called a meeting and I promised that things would be better in a month’s time. How could they not be?

How wrong was I?! Paris outclassed us, Idriss Saadi’s finish really making the scoreline flatter us more than it should. We didn’t create a single shot on target against Sochaux. Kylian Kaïboue’s late winner against Rodez gave me the slightest glimpse of hope. Maybe I’d be given a chance in January to ship players out and bring in my own identity.

As we now know, the board were not keen. With Bastia sitting perilously in 19th place they moved to sack me. Am I bitter? Slightly. We were expected simply to avoid relegation and that wasn’t beyond the realms of possibilities at this point. Though I do understand why this happens in football. Maybe a new manager boost can push them on to where they need to be.

WHAT’S NEXT?

It’s a difficult question to answer. My whole way of playing these days is geared around picking a team and building them into MY team. I can’t just jump ship to a new team in this save. In short, this save is now dead. It’s back to the drawing board to decide on what I do next.

Unfinished business at Bastia? It remains unfinished. Don’t rule out my return there at some point in the future.