The Marco & Remo Diaries - "Invincible" Part II #FM16

Last month I introduced you to Marco Simon and Remo Mahrer, two gifted 2016 Youth Intake Newgens at my club: Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ).  Today I'll share their development with you all, one year on...

Invincible

Now it's an extremely hard feat to go the whole season unbeaten. To do it at the age of 16-17 is magnificent and it's exactly what GCZ U18s did in 2016/17. As if that was not enough, the youngsters also pulled off the U18s Swiss Cup...effectively replicating the Senior Team's 'Domestic Double' the year before.

So how much did Marco and Remo contribute to this success? Well, quite a lot:

Marco Simon, now German

Marco was made captain by U18 Manager Johann Vogel. He only missed 2 games the whole U18 league season, captaining 26 games and winning 23 of them! He led by example, covering 329km in the season (12.8km a game). Despite growing up in Switzerland, Marco was born in Germany and swapped allegiance to captain Germany U19s. We can only wonder what influence German GCZ youth coaches Arne Friedrich and Michael Ballack had on Marco's decision.

I was also keen to give Marco some 1st team experience. A 1st team Debut away at Basel (where we sadly lost 3-1) and a title winning sub appearance at home to Aarau. What is key with these brief cameos is that Marco did not seem out of place and this is encouraging for 2017/18 and beyond. My view is that if you're good enough, you're old enough.

Attribute-wise Marco is developing into a solid Box-To-Box midfielder, which complements his PPM of 'Gets into Opposition Area'. He was also tutored this year by Deep Lying Playmaker and Professional Captain, Kim Källström. His Determination has therefore dropped to Kim's level (18) but this has been countered by a more professional attitude and a PPM of 'Tries Long Range Passes'.  His Professionalism is something I was keen to boost, this will make it easier to train further PPMs or focus on individual attributes.

2017/18 will be a big year for Marco. I expect him to feature more heavily in our 1st team and I also want to see his Passing & Technique improve.

Remo Mahrer - a change of hairstyle for 2017

Now on to Remo Mahrer, who I described as my Swiss Bergkamp in Part I. The 2016/17 season started fairly quiet for Remo. He picked up a few injuries and attribute-wise was not developing as much as I would like. He did however pick up form as the U18 season went on and finished as the league's top scorer with 12 goals in 23 games. He also made 130 key passes in those 23 games, leading the way in the league's statistics (note - Marco SImon was 2nd on this list with 74 key passes). Therefore, Remo has something special.  I see him as a Shadow Striker as he matures, but I desperately needs to increase his Composure, Decisions & Strength.  

Like Marco, Remo is also capped at U19 level although Remo is more of a peripheral figure in the Swiss team. He needs to work hard and see if he can achieve further International reignition and add consistency to his game. If he does that, he may get some 1st team action in 2017/18.

Thanks for reading this quick update.  Next blog is my End of Season 2 Awards Ceremony (expected Friday 15th).

FM Grasshopper

Sack the Agent #FM16

"Don't ever forget you're the Boss".  That's the mantra I try to live by in FM16, no matter how difficult at times it may be.  An example of this is the interference from player's agents.  Just like in Modern Football, the Agent has become a key focus in transfer & contract negotiations.  Many moaned about their involvement in FM when they were introduced, but let's face it...we want realism.  

In many cases nowadays the Agent dictates a player's career.  The roles are now reversed and we now have Agent's players.  Agents who now play a key role in deciding where their players retire and, in the case of Super Agent Jorge Mendes, can turnover as much cash in a year (£30m in 2015) than recent Premier League clubs like Blackburn and Bolton!

Falcao: An Agent's Dream. 5 clubs in 5 years £££££

There's a danger that player recruitment could be solely dictated by Agents, so what are we going to do in FM16 to stop that?  "Don't ever forget you're the Boss" right?  A few months ago I spoke about investing your manager points in the right places.  A few attributes at the onset of your managerial journey can help you take back control from the Agents, specifically Level Of Discipline (LoD) and Man Management (MM).  LoD reduces the amount of problems that players may bring to you and MM increases the chances of good reactions from your players during 1:1 discussions.  Imagine the most authoritarian of managers of recent times: Sir Alex Ferguson .  In FM13 I believe he had LoD of 19 and MM of 18, he was THE Boss.

So in my current Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ) save, my manager Loïc Swartzendruber has high LoD and MM stats:

Swartzendruber on Day 1 of my save. 17 in both LoD and MM

Sack the Agent

One useful way of exerting my high LoD and MM is through dealing with contract sagas at the club. In Nov 2016, 19 year old Nikola Gjorgjev was coveted by some of Europeans top clubs: Chelsea, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Man Utd to name a few.  Gjorgjev was still contracted for a further 18 months (£2.2k pw), so I thought I could ride this out.  Until...Gjorgev's Agent pulled this on me (after 'starring' in a 0-0!):

Remember: "you're the Boss"

Now the conservative manager here would offer or reject.  The riskier approach is to ask for this Agent to be sacked (à la Sir Alex Ferguson maybe?).  Remember, if your values are high in LoD and MM...you have a strong chance of getting this to work (Note - this has succeeded 3/3 times for me in FM16):

I assertively voice my opinion about dropping his Agent (1st option)

The Agent is sacked and Gjorgjev for now is happy to remain on £2.2k per week

Once done, Gjorgjev will concentrate on his football again.  But in this case, I didn't stop there.  Money is tight at GCZ (as you have probably gathered from reading my Twitter feed).  So having an Agent-less player is the perfect time to offer a new contract.  If you're wondering why, it's because there will be no Agent fees that deduct from your current season transfer budget.  Contract negotiation are also (I find) less painful to go through.

Here is what Nikola ended up getting at GCZ (below).  You will see that the transfer cost from the 16/17 budget is just £4.4k!

Now contracted to 2020, I have the security of getting what I want for Nikola within the next 3 years (i.e. at least £9.75m)!

So, don't forget you're the Boss.  We play FM to be managers and not to be dictated by the whim of player Agents.  Go forth and sack the bastards!

Thank you for reading,

FM Grasshopper