Wait, what?
Yes! The Red Bull Revolution has rolled it's way over to England. There were a few clubs in consideration, and if truth be told, this was a bit of a last minute decision to go down this route again in the save. Just this summer I'd decided to get rid of the Championship and only have the Premier League active in England, otherwise it probably would have been a second tier side we take over.
Alas, the Premier League is our destination. The bright lights of the TV deal was too attractive for the fizzy drink brand to avoid for too long. It's the bright lights of the capital as you can see, too. You might even recognise the stadium. That's right, West Ham United are no more. Say hello to Red Bull London.
David Gold is no longer around, so it's David Sullivan and Karren Brady who make the decision to allow Red Bull to come in and completely change everything about the club. Gone are the Hammers. Fans will be blowing their bubbles through a straw into their cans of Red Bull in the concourses of the now Red Bull Stadium. The badge and kits have been changed to the similar ones you see in Leipzig and Salzburg, with the appropriate links between the network of clubs set up too. My purchase of the in-game editor (£4 right into your bloody back pocket SI) doesn't allow me to wipe out West Ham's previous debt (silly SI, and me), which currently stands at over £500k a month until 2026. With some sound financial management, I don't think we should need to make any major investments to improve the club's current financial situation, which currently sits at £40m in the bank, and £40m to spend (makes sense...). A decent Premier League finish this season will go a long way to improve that.
The image above shows you who's been chosen to take over. Scott Parker retired in-game in 2018 after finishing his career in the US with Minnesota. He's been patiently biding his time, doing his coaching badges, and finally gets the opportunity to move into management with the club he made over 100 appearances for.
The club has performed averagely so far over the last six seasons, with only a 6th place finish to really shout about in 2017/18. All the infrastructure is in place to get the club kicking on though, with a really good level of facilities across both our training and youth categories. While the costs of Red Bull investing and taking over in East London was high, with the club already having a continental reputation and being just outside the top 10 of Europe's richest clubs, the opportunity to push the club on and challenge in the higher reaches of English and European football was too big to turn down. Especially with the financial rewards on offer, plus the completely made up, non-existent branding opportunities in-game!
The squad doesn't actually appear to be in as horrific shape as expected when a number of non-human managers have been managing them for six seasons. There's a few players that are over my usual squad age profile I've been looking for during the save that I'll be moving on early doors. Lanzini, Obiang, Feghouli, Ogbonna and their classic AI signing for £27m of Patrick Bamford will be out the door in the first few weeks. The club has a core of relatively decent looking young Englishman that will be making the step up to be in and around the first team squad which includes Will Hughes, Steven Bergwijn, Jonathan Callieri and current captain, goalkeeper Alex Meret.
The main focus of the save will continue to be RBLeipzig. With consecutive Champions League wins under the belt there now, the squad is in a brilliant position to completely cement their place as the best in Europe. Philipp Lahm's RBSalzburg may take a dip in my priorities as we look to cement RBLondon's status within the revolution and in the Premier League.
Big thanks to FMPressure for helping out again with the RBLondon header and the new logo, plus acidphire21 for the RBLondon kits.
No one likes us in Germany or Austria, you can add England to that list now too. We certainly don't care though!