If you read the last post about using the Half Back role during the first three seasons of the save, and you remember something from it, maybe it’s the fact I decided to return to the 3-5-2/5-3-2 WB formation with three central defenders again instead of two CDs + Half Back. I tried a couple of things during the fourth season within this save but it resulted in an absolutely simple tactic in the end. As always. Open this link if you want to view the tactic.

Maybe I will write about this formation in the future but this post is mainly about the finished 2024/2025 season. It was not a boring season and I enjoyed playing it. The Ekstraklasa campaign was decided in the last round again, the same as in the previous three seasons. And we were involved in it again. Feel free to read more about…

TRANSFERS 2024/2025

When I’m looking back at this season and the transfer history page, I would say it was one of the most typical windows within my Football Manager squad/transfer management. A lot of outgoing loans + two big outgoing transfers + one decent outgoing transfer with over five million in the bank.

On the other side, I knew I need to be active in the transfer market and to add more faces to our squad because I wanted to progress to the Europa Conference League again. And I wanted to be competitive in this competition, the same as in the Ekstraklasa. The outgoing transfer of our second-best central defender Ariél Mosór to Gladbach for €2.8M (up to €4M) and €2M for last season's best league goalscorer Kacper Chelmecki gave us enough money to cover our incoming transfers.

The case of Kacper Chelmecki is interesting mainly because of how the season ended. I signed him for free two years ago. He was wanted by Legia and he also wanted to go there. It was only a matter of time before it will happen during summer 2024. I decided to buy Wiktor Kaminski from Legia for €1.1M as a replacement for Chelmecki. And I’m sure this exchange was really good in the end. Let’s see the comparison of these two from the end of the season including the basic stats.

One of my favourite incoming transfers was the central defender Pawel Koncewicz-Zylka from Piast and also Kacper Masiak from Jagiellonia Bialystok. This young winger came for €1M and I decided to make him our WB(A) number one within the 5-3-2/3-5-2 formation.

Successful loans

As I mentioned at the beginning, there were some outgoing loans and some of them were to our affiliate clubs again. For example, our own newgen Kacper Grabowski (19 years old) spent the first part of the season with SK Lisen in the Czech top tier and he made 12 appearances in the starting XI. If nothing more, his value increased enormously to €1.2M - €2M. I took him back to the club in winter and he was our DLP(S) backup for the second part of the season. He is currently wanted by Legia at the end of the season and that usually means only one thing - they will get him if they will decide they really want him.

I also sent striker Szczepan Mucha to Hapoel Ra’anana to play some competitive football in Israel. The fact he made 40+ appearances during the season and scored ten goals was a pleasing bonus and I’m considering it as a very successful loan. I’m sure he will be a great cover/alternative option to Wiktor Kaminski next season. His biggest weakness is his work rate, that’s something that I would like to improve but the future will decide as always.

I also decided to make the second incoming loan from one of our senior affiliate clubs (Rennes) within this save. This time, it was a young French midfielder Joshua Jehanno who came in winter. My initial idea was to play him as DLP(S) before I find out he develop gets into opposition area trait. He played mostly as CM(S) or CM(A) but his playing time was limited and my expectations were probably too high based on his attributes. I know I will never be able to sign him permanently and I will not extend his loan with us to rather gave playing time to my own Polish youngsters.

For example, to Wlodzimierz Wawrzyniak, I bought for €50k from the third tier.

EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE

DOMESTIC CUP

The Europa Conference League was very successful again this season despite we were knocked out earlier this time in comparison with the last season. We made it to the group stage after beating Ararat Yerevan, Slovan Liberec and FC Basel in the qualifying rounds. We faced Braga, Sheriff Tiraspol and Dinamo Batumi in the group and we finished second in the table. That meant we got Lyon in the first knockout round. We beat them 3:2 on aggregate and I told myself that this is already good enough. Real Sociedad was too good for us and we went out of the competition after a 2:4 defeat on aggregate. But we earned a lot of points to coefficient and a lot of money too.

Despite I’m usually a big fan of the domestic cup competitions and I don’t like to ignore it, I was not angry we were knocked out in the first round by Gornik Zabrze. It was during a hectic schedule and our youngsters and our backup players were not able to perform better than the Gornik first team. We were defeated after penalties but it was only because Gornik didn’t convert their chances properly. The club board was unhappy with being knocked out of the Cup so early as the aim was to reach the third round at least. But I think they will be alright with the season in the end…

EKSTRAKLASA

The first three seasons saw us finishing fourth, second and third. I didn’t have big expectations for the fourth season of the save and I would be happy to finish third again to reach the European slot. We started well with a 1:0 win over Wisla Krakow as the new Advanced Forward Wiktor Kaminski scored a penalty kick. The first month of the new season ended with an absolutely fabulous 5:0 away win against Legia as our own newgen Karol Leopold scored three goals. And also Kaminski scored against his former club while Kacper Chelmecki was sitting on the bench.

We finished the autumn part of the season top of the league. We reached first place after a 1:0 win over Lechia in the 9th round and we were no worse than second until the end of the season…

First, second, second, first…up & down

…if I like some screen within the league I play in, it has to be the past positions screen with the option to tick all or just a few clubs and take a look back at how their league standing developed through the season. The 2024/2025 season is a perfect example of how competitive and tight Polish Ekstraklasa can be. I really like that the league was decided in the last round of the campaign in all four seasons of the save so far.

• 2021/2022: Legia won the title thanks to better results in matches against Lech Poznan while both had 74 points and Wisla ended third with 72 points.

• 2022/2023: Legia won the title with 70 points after we lost points in the last round against Gornik Zabrze.

• 2023/2024: Legia won the title with 72 points ahead of Lechia and Warta (both with 71 points) as Lechia drew 3:3 in the last round.

This season (2024/2025) we fought with Legia about first place in the table in the middle of the campaign and we were changing two top places regularly between rounds 12 - 18. But Legia didn’t win in the next 7 matches and they fell down to the third place. And that’s the moment when our battle with Wisla started. We were top of the league, then we were second for two rounds to make it back to the top.

Legia played against Wisla in the penultimate 33rd league round and Legia won 2:1 at home. We played against Górnik Zabrze. They were 12th in the table but they also won the domestic cup already. To be honest, I didn’t expect to have some issues with them as we already concentrated just on the league. But. They were 2:0 up after 16 minutes of the match and it looked like we didn’t even touch the ball during the opening first minutes.

Another but. We have Sebastian Musiolik. Our saviour at the right time. He scored twice within nine minutes to make it 2:2 before half-time. And when I already thought it will end with a draw, Sebastian had some luck in the penalty area, he got the ball back after a sloppy defence and scored a winner with a perfect strike. And that was the moment when we made it back to the top spot before the last round of the league.

The last round drama

Legia was already out of the title race, for the first time in this save. The last round was just between us and Wisla. They had Zaglebie Lubin at home. Lubin was 15th in the table, just two points ahead of Piast Gliwice and they needed points to survive in the top tier. Wisla needed to win because we had better results in matches with them (1:0 & 1:0 wins). And we had Slask Wroclaw away from home. They were 7th in the table before the last round without a chance to move to third place to play in Europe next season. They would be able to move up to 5th if they would beat us.

The last round started absolutely fantastic for us. Kacper Masiak got the ball on the right side of the pitch in the second minute and his cross found the head of Wiktor Kaminski who opened the score. The same thing happened not even two minutes later, Sebastian Musiolik scored our second goal after Masiak’s cross. And we were 2:0 up after four minutes. A great start and our dominant performance continued but we were unable to convert more chances. Wisla scored two quick goals in the 22nd and 25th minute of the match against Zaglebie and they were back just one point behind us.

Patryk Plewka scored Slask’s first goal of the match in the second minute of the first-half stoppage time as hit the direct free kick just from the outside of the penalty area straight to the net. A lovely goal if it would be my team :)

Wisla went to 3:0 straight after the second half started. I was a little bit nervous as our own result was just by one goal but our central defender Michal Koj scored our third of the match after an hour of play after a deep free-kick and his lovely volley. Dorin Rotariu made it 2:3 from the hosts’ point of view in the stoppage time but we were able to keep it until the final whistle and won 3:2. The Running From FM favourite Yaw Yeboah scored four goals for Wisla in the last round as they beat Zaglebie 5:1 in the end. But it was not enough for them.

Warta Poznan won the league title for the first time since 1947.

Sebastian Musiolik - back to the right slot hackz!

I don’t even know why or when it happened but I changed the positions of our strikers during the previous season. Sebastian Musiolik as TF(S) was in the left ST slot instead of the right slot as in the season before when he was the league's best goalscorer.

I really don’t know why I did it but it was probably one small thing that might cause his inconsistent form. Maybe. I’m not sure.

He scored two goals between February 23 and April 12. I changed the positioning back before the last 6 league rounds. And our hero scored 9 goals in these last matches of the season with one assist as a bonus. He ended this season with 16 league goals in 27(3) appearances and became the third best goalscorer of Ekstraklasa.

He was in very good form in the Europa Conference League too as his 6 goals and 5 assists in 15 appearances are very good. He was wanted by some other Polish clubs during the season and he was already unsettled by the interest in him but I’m sure he will be happy to stay in the club after winning the league title as the club reputation will improve and we won’t be considered as just average club. But his contract is until June 2026 so it’s time to give him a new one during summer.

PROS & CONS OF THE 2024/2025 SEASON

• The league title ➕

• The successful return to the formation with 3 central defenders ➕

• The transfer of Wiktor Kaminski who scored 21 league goals and 12 goals in the Europa Conference League ➕

• The development of a couple of young players including Belarusian midfielder Sergey Lyakh who recently turned 20 years old and he earned his first Belarusian senior national team call-up during spring 2025 ➕

• Karol Leopold, our own newgen from the first youth intake renewed his contract and the release clause for foreign clubs changed from €1.7M to €2.4M. And the interest from PSG, Milan and some other big clubs disappeared for now ➕

• Domestic cup early exit ➖

• Performances of some more experienced players led to the fact they will leave the club for free at the end of the season as their wage demands were not in line with their abilities and performances ➖

• Chief scout performances/AI logic with setting the scouting assignments and recommending players with the unenforceable wage demands ➖

What next? The next season, our fifth in Poznan, will bring some new challenges again and it’s perfect the save won’t be stale or boring already. I know that our stadium capacity will get a boost of 2,000 new seats and it will make our stadium up to 6k after nine months of work. We will play at the Lech Poznan stadium until that moment. We will face a new challenge in the Champions League qualifying rounds as our journey will start in the first round. I also have to find a new Head of Youth Development as our current one will retire soon. I also have to set up our scouting assignments from scratch as the experiment with letting it to our chief scout failed massively during this season. What happened? It’s simply a typical FM thing when 9 from 10 players recommended by our chief scout via his assignments were unrealistic and all these players want/wanted monthly wage around €40k-€50k per month. That’s almost like one-third of our squad together. And many more things to do…

Thanks for reading, take care.

💙💛✊🏻