Just over 2.5 in-game years have passed since I last updated you on the developments of Marco Simon & Remo Mahrer, two exceptional talents for the 1st Youth Intake of February 2016. When I last wrote about them, Marco had made the £20m switch to Lyon, France. Remo however, continued to rest with me in Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ). Previous posts:
Magic Marco
Marco's development under AI management has been pretty decent. He's come close to French silverware, with a Ligue Un Runners Up medal in each of his first two seasons before finishing 3rd last year. He's also been ever present in Lyon's Champions League matches, with 5 goals in 23 appearances. In terms of personal accolade, Marco was voted Lyon's Player of the Year for 2021/22. Marco is also rated as one of the World's most expensive midfielders at £45m.
Marco owns the midfield, box to box
Often talents go abroad and do not play. I was confident OL was the right level for him...
For the National Team, Marco has been made Vice Captain and wears the armband when Granit Xhaka is not around.
Swiss Icon
Remo is quicker than his shadow...
Remo's progress under my management has seen him win 'Nati Player Of The Year' - an award for the best Swiss National Player. When we last met him he was playing as a Attacking Midfielder on Support duty, but I said back in April that I see his eventual role being a Support Striker. The main reason for this is the PPMs I added to his game over the past 7 seasons:
Marco came with the Free Kick & Offside PPMs, but I have bettered him with PPMs to make use of his Acceleration & OTB movement
It's fair to say that Remo has flourished in the SS role in the previous 2.5 seasons. He's added goals to his game but still maintained the high levels of creativity.
Year on year, Remo improves...
At present, I don't feel the need to add any more PPMs to his game, but I have worked on his passing through the 'Additional Focus' option in the training. Since the last blog post we can see that Remo has gone from 12.4 to 14.5 in passing. A 4 point rise! He has, more or less, become my 'Swiss Bergkamp', as predicted in my very first diary post.
Passing increase
I'm now fast approaching the end of Season 8 and I only have 2 more seasons left before I quit GCZ and FM16 altogether. I have accepted that I may never be able to bring Marco Simon back to GCZ in this time, but I am delighted that Remo has signed a contract for the remainder of my stay in Zürich.
If you somehow haven't heard, FM17 is due for release on Friday 04 November (and beta being released at least 2 weeks before in mid-Oct), Before leaving FM16 for good I plan to simulate 10 more years to see ultimately what Marco & Remo end up doing. A 10 year sim into the future would effectively be the last blog post on these two treasured Regens. So, does anybody care to make any predictions of what they will get up to?
As always, thanks for reading. I still plan to make a few more longer FM16 blog posts on the 'Casado Experiment' and Season 8, 9 and 10 reviews. I will also be revealing my FM17 destination sometime in late Sept/early Oct as I 'hop' to another club & country.
FMG