Normally, I would be desperate to play more and write more. Normally. But not this time. I’m not enjoying it. Mainly play Football Manager 2023. And writing about it a little bit too. I feel that I am forcing myself to write. But a couple of recent days gave me a new positive mood about the game and writing because I read some very good blog posts. Listening to CoffeePodFM by Ed & Shrew also put me back in the FM mood.

When I see the gaps between my blog posts during the FM23 edition, I can see everything I did with my kids. The amount of books I read instead of playing the game because I enjoyed it more. The same as walking/running/cycling outside rather than playing this edition.

I finished the 9th season on August 25, 2023. It took me almost another month to play half of the 10th season. Every time I loaded the game, it was like a miracle when I played at least one match before I hit the quit the game button because I decided to do something else. I wasn’t interested in developing players and I was not angry when my team lost. That was the moment when I finally told myself it was time to end the save and move on despite I didn’t finish the 10th season. It took me 14 real-life days to play one single match. That speaks for itself…

MY TIME WITH VVV-VENLO

The club development

Stadium - decent. Training facilities - average. Coaching staff, recruitment, scouting… everything average or below average. Finances? Just enough to buy decent breakfast for the entire squad.

A typical start of most of my Football Manager saves.

When this save started in 2022, the bank balance of the club was around €900K while the transfer budget did not exist and the wage budget was over-spent.

When this save ends in 2031, the bank balance of the club is over €128M, the transfer budget is €45M and the wage budget is €5.9M with €3.1M available. Quite good for a not-too-ambitious club from the Eredivisie and the three-time league champions.

Patiently waited for the same answer

The capacity of the De Koel stadium was 8k at the beginning and it was increased to 12k after a promotion. The stadium ‘saga’ became very boring during the last three seasons. Every time I asked about building the new stadium, the answer was always the same.

“We believe our ambitions for the club can be achieved without the need to leave our current home.” I know there are many factors and many things have to work out before the club board decides about building the new stadium. We were not able to sell out the stadium for every match. But when the season tickets were sold out for four seasons in a row, I thought it could be enough. But it was not.

One last try

When I played the last match of the 2031 calendar year, I decided to try it for the last time. It would be the only thing that could convince me to move this save for the next FM edition. But the answer was the same again and I decided to not continue. “Please, don’t waste our time in the future.” That was the last response by the club board when I tried to convince them for the last time.

On the other hand, training & youth facilities were improved from below average to the state of the art & superb rating. Same as we were able to improve the junior coaching and the youth recruitment to the maximum.

The way forward

We won the promotion to the top tier straight in the first season as we ended 2nd in the Eerste Divisie four points behind PEC Zwolle. The progress itself was very quick in terms of the results and the final positions within the top tier.

We finished 5th in the opening season after a promotion to the Eredivisie followed by finishing third in the next two seasons. And we finished second in 2027 and 2028 ahead of the three league titles in a row between 2029 and 2031. We were second in the half of the last season, just two points behind Ajax.

Thanks to the already mentioned league results, we played in all three European competitions during the save. How did we do in Europe?

• Champions League maximum: Lost to Atlético Madrid in the quarter-final in 2029/2030.

• Europa League: Lost to Lyon in the Round of 16 in the 2025/2026.

• Europa Conference League: Winners in the 2026/2027 after beating Celta Vigo in the Final.

I’m usually quite pedantic in terms of the domestic cup priority and I really like to make the domestic cup very important in my FM saves. But this year’s edition was different and I didn’t pay big attention to it and my team was knocked out very early as I played backup players or very young newgens. Venlo only won it twice during this save - in 2026/27 & 2029/30, both after beating Ajax in the Final.

As you can see in the picture above, we were 2nd in the table when I decided to call the day of this save. Just two points behind Ajax.

There were draws mainly while playing on Wednesday/Sunday but I’m sure we would be able to win the fourth league title in a row in the second part of the season as our key players would be full of energy while not playing in the Champions League as the possibility to progress to the late knockout stage was very small.

But it doesn’t matter and it’s not important now as the save won’t continue. The brief summary in terms of competition milestones? One promotion & three league titles, domestic cup winners twice, domestic Super Cup winners once. And one Europa Conference League trophy.

Boosting my own tactical ego

The most enjoyable and the most crucial part of this save (mainly to play it for too long) was the tactical part. As I already mentioned at the beginning, I was not too interested in developing young players/newgens this time. Probably the least from all the recent saves I can remember. On the other hand, I enjoyed creating & tweaking the tactics the most in this edition.

It started with the four opening seasons and playing with just one central defender. Tweaking the “Lone central defender” tactic was really good and I really enjoyed it while improving the squad patiently and slowly. If I played with some more common formation, I’m sure I would stop playing after these four seasons because I would already be around the top of the Eredivisie.

But I rather decided to challenge myself. For example by not buying the players I needed for specific positions. I rather keep my own players and retrain them. Free, loan, free, free… that was the most common type of fee in the transfer history. Since we made it to the European competitions, it was around €5M. The maximum of this save was €8M for Antonio Milambo. Until the summer of 2031 when I decided to buy Santiago Giménez for €25.5M because why not? I knew it would be the last season of the save and I had a lot of money. And he was still only 30 years old and good enough to play as AF, CF or False 9.

The pressing forward with support or attack duty was my first choice alongside Advanced Forward for most of this save but if I had to select the most enjoyable part from all, it would surely be two seasons when I decided to use the False 9 role in combination with the Advanced Forward and the CM(A) roles.

It was the most fluid football we played within this save.

It was also probably for the first time in a very long time that I decided to use the False 9 role and it worked.

The most favourite versions of these two formations within my FM23 saves. The evolution of both is documented in the previous posts, at least the most important things for sure.

Three legends of the save

Everyone who read at least something from my Football Manager saves in the past knows a simple thing about my squad building. Or maybe better said, what I like to do within my saves. It’s related to players from the original squad and how I treat the players during the save. There are always some more recognised players. Not sure about the word “recognised”, I’m sure I would be able to select a better word in my native language but I’m sure you understand what I mean.

If it’s possible I always try to keep one or more players from the original squad. I’m not starting my saves somewhere in the 6th or even lower tier so there’s always a chance these players will be able to compete at the highest level. This save with VVV-Venlo was not an exception. One of the reasons why I started it was to play with the midfielder Richard Sedláček who I have known from Sparta Prague youth teams for a long time.

There were four key players - team leaders. Defender Rick Ketting, midfielders Richard Sedláček & Yahcuroo Roemer and striker Nick Venema. But the reason why it’s only about three of them is that Rick Ketting decided not to renew the contract with the club in 2028 despite being a leader, and captain and we just won the league title. The even bigger surprise was when he signed as a free agent with Dudelange, our affiliate club from Luxembourg.

If I start with Roemer, he was originally the best AMR player in the squad when the save started but I didn’t want to play with AMR's position. He moved down to the MR slot and he made 18 league assists in the opening season of the save as we won the promotion to the Eredivisie.

He was our main MR player and he didn’t make less than 26 appearances during a single season. His best season in terms of assists was the 2026/27 when he made 14 assists in our last season while using the “Lone central defender” formation. When he had an ideal day, he was perfect. Roemer didn’t play for a different team thanks to this save as his career is connected just with VVV-Venlo from 2016 to 2032.

My fellow Czech midfield maestro Richard Sedlacek came to Venlo a season ago before this save started but he didn’t play more than a couple of minutes due to a long-term injury. He was my main DM player no matter what role I tried and used at the beginning of the save. He was perfect as the DLP but also as DM(D) ahead of the lone central defender. He had 15, 10 and 12 assists in our first three seasons in the league. He didn’t drop under the average of 7 in the first eight seasons of the save.

When we moved to the 3-5-2 formation, he was also the first choice for the DLP(S) or DLP(D) role later. Sedlacek was the vice-captain and he scored the title-winning goal when we were crowned the Eredivisie champions for the first time. He didn’t score too many goals but even if he would score just this one, it would be enough. If I look back, if I wanted something super-narrative, I couldn’t wish a better narrative than this. When Rick Ketting left the club, he was our captain for the last two and a half seasons.

The best for the end? Nick Venema. A nightmare for many FM23 players who played in the Netherlands or played against him in a different country. I was lucky to have him in my squad. I was also lucky he never wanted to leave the club and I had enough money to give him the best possible contract when he wanted to improve his wage and bonuses.

35 league goals in the first season when we won the promotion to the top tier. 35 league goals in the opening season in the top tier after a promotion. He scored 70 goals in 75 matches in two first seasons of the save. I knew there was something special. He played mainly as the Advanced Forward.

When the save progressed and we started playing in Europe as well, he slowed down in the domestic competitions a little bit. But when we won the Europa Conference League in the 2026ú27 season, he scored 27 league goals in 33 appearances and 14 goals in 15 Europa Conference League matches.

It’s not for the first time as it happened in my previous saves, but Venema’s best Eredivisie seasons were the first one and the last complete one. As I mentioned already, he scored 35 goals in Eredivisie after our promotion. He scored 34 goals in 32 appearances in the 2030/31 season.

As it stands, he played 394 competitive matches for VVV-Venlo during this save between 2022 and 2032. And he scored 305 competitive goals. Incredible.

Final words

“Has this been my favourite blogged FM save? Probably not, but I am ok with that. I cannot always find the most epic save ever or have the greatest in-game moments. Alternatively, this has not been a bad save either.”

FM Grasshopper in his "10 years at Ceuta" - Plazas de Soberanía #FM23

This quote above is probably the best characteristic of my save as well. I loved the opening seasons in combination with challenging myself tactically. I liked the connection with a couple of players and I like the fact that VVV-Venlo will be another club I will follow closely in real life, also because of Richard Sedláček or Nick Venema.

It’s time to move on now. The Football Manager 2023 will not be among my favourite and most played FM editions. But it surely had some positive things and I learned a couple of new things too. Hopefully, I will enjoy the FM24 a little bit more. Both in terms of playing and writing.

Thanks everyone for reading.

Thanks everyone for supporting our website.

CHFM ☕️🏠❣️