The search for Solano
So, this is it, huh? My contract has been bought out, and now I have to finish the Football Manager 2021 series I started over on my old website. Quite honestly I am far too lazy to import everything over to my new home here on CoffeehouseFM, so I’ll be using this post as an overview of the whole series, including its (as yet) mysterious and fantastical ending.
The premise
The premise was simple - starting at Nolberto Solano’s first senior club, I would attempt to utilise the youth system to promote players through the club to bring success in Peru, before attempting to sign them elsewhere in the world, where they would become cult heroes. Fortunately for me, Solano started at Sporting Cristal in his homeland, and as they are probably the strongest club in the Primera División this made things a little bit easier. I still allowed myself a few transfers where we were completely lacking in depth for certain positions, however I would always attempt to use my homegrown lads first.
The Cristal chronicles
With the desired backroom staff firmly in place, as well as a tactic that encouraged the use of a mercurial playmaker as well as dynamic wingers, I set about my first objective - win everything in Peru, as often as possible, before setting my sights on a continental trophy.
Season One: The first season went well enough - we eventually beat our closest rivals, Sport Huancayo, to the title after our season fell a little short of winning the overall table outright, as well as winning only the second ever Copa Bicentenario final against Cienciano. A run to the Copa Sudamericana Semi Final also brought accolades for myself and the players already at the club, with Athletico Paranaense eventually halting our march towards a first continental final for over twenty years. Players already at the club such as Rentato Solís, Nilson Loyola, Jesús Petrell and Patricio Arce feature heavily, and will continue to do so whilst we bring through our first crop of youngsters (that happen to include future favourites Pedro Neyra and Franklin García):
Season Two: With all the pressure on to start pushing towards a dominant domestic campaign, we absolutely fell apart. We finished second overall, however our results in both the opening and closing phases meant that we, along with three others, would play in a four-way tussle for the title. I inadvertently clicked ‘Away’ when being prompted to choose where to play Sport Huancayo, and the altitude rascals beat us 2-0 to end our hopes in the Semi Final. Rancid. We also dropped out of the cup in the Group Stage, as well as getting beaten by Flamengo in the Last 16 of the Copa LIbertadores. I was actually a little surprised not to come under more pressure to keep my job.
On the youth front, Neyra featured a lot and did little, and García hardly featured and did nought. A notable batch of youngsters came through including midfield mover Bruno Camino, never-quite-good-enough Manuel Gómez, mysterious winger Eli Ríos (more on him later), and the fabulously named Oshiro Solano, a right winger. Luis Salazar arrives as my first youth import of the save as we are lacking quality striking options from the intakes thus far:
Season Three: Following a useless second season, Cristal returned to form in 2023. We won the opening phase of the season in a playoff against UTC, and then won the division in its entirety to reclaim the trophy. Another trophy reclaimed was the Copa Bicentenario, as we saw off Cusco FC on penalties to win a dramatic Final. We were beaten over two legs in the Last 16 by Brazilians again in the Libertadores, with Santos being the superior team this year.
This was the first season that I decided to bring in actual starters to the club that would probably keep their positions for a few seasons, with Argentinian folk Carlos Alegre, Erik Núñez, and Paolo Daher all joining for free mid-season.
Pedro Neyra features in over 40 games, and registers 11 goals and 3 assists. García, Camino, and Gomez all feature regularly. Oshiro Solano doesn’t play much but does play well when called upon despite his limited ability. Luis Salazar scores 26 goals in 45 games to ensure we don’t need further transfer reinforcements up top. We were blessed with the Youth Intake this year, with ‘keeper Nick Fernández, as well as future internationals Alberto Villacorta, Daniel Espinoza, and Nicolás Ronceros, all coming through. Arguably the best Intake we had at the club:
Season Four: Another season, another opening phase playoff victory followed by winning the Primera División outright. We drew on points with Sport Huancayo (those bastards were a constant nuisance), and saw them off in extra time, before drawing on points with Melgar in the closing phase, however the obscure way the league structure works ensured that we add our third league title to the collection in four seasons. In the cup competitions I made the decision to put all my eggs into the Libertadores basket, and that meant fielding a weak side against Llacuabamba in the Bicentenario Quarter FInal, which we lost 1-0. My ploy worked well as aggregate victories over Boca and INTER (not that one) got us into the Semi Final, before we conceded an atrocious goal conceded in the last twenty minutes of the second leg against Sao Paulo robbed us of our aggregate lead, and we eventually lost 5-4 over both legs:
Bugger.
On the transfers front, Argie stopper Carlos Alegre goes out on loan yet again, but that’s about it. Spoiler: he will end up playing a lot for me, but never make an appearance for Sporting Cristal.
Our young lads continue to thrive, with Villacorta and Ríos having breakthrough seasons. Only Luis Salazar is capped by Peru at this point, but it won’t be long before some of our own homegrown boys join him. From the Youth Intake we gratefully receive technical winger Mateo Pajares, and playmaker Alexis Alva. They don’t play too much next season, and although they will eventually sign for me at my next club, they flatter to deceive there as well. Probably a case of not playing to their strengths, but I felt the talent was there. I neglected to make a save at the end of Season Four, so you’ll just have to believe me (I have later screenshots of them but they hardly feature again so bollocks to them).
Season Five: The final season in Peru. The year is 2025, and we’re aiming to win it all. We finish the league campaign unbeaten, with 26 wins and 4 draws contributing to our fourth title in five seasons - no-one got close. In the Copa Bicentenario we actually lost a game to a second division side during the Group Stage, but this wasn’t enough to halt our progress to the Final, where we saw off Cusco FC (again) in a 4-1 victory. What I really wanted was the Copa Libertadores. We got through a tough group containing Cusco FC (ffs), Boca, and Fluminense, before seeing off Colombians Atlético Nacional, popular dining implements River Plate, and then our first ever continental foes Athletico Paranaense in the Semi Final. An historic match against Flamengo awaited. We fell 1-0 to the dominant Brazilians, with a 57th minute red card for Johan Madrid not aiding out effort. We never stood a chance, but I’m proud to have got to the Final.
As this was the final season in Peru I decided that I wasn’t that fussed about who was coming through the Intake. In the middle of the campaign we sold Paolo Daher and Luis Salazar to Atletico Madrid and Toronto respectively (whilst retaining them on loan for the rest of the campaign), but this didn’t stop them from being two of our better performers. Ronceros started banging them in this season, and Neyra was the next best off our production line, but team was now essentially made up of the old guard from the start, and those still in their teenage years and just out of them. Full international caps were gained for the aforementioned Neyra and Ronceros, as well as Frank ‘Franklin’ García. We truly had a special team at Cristal, and I do miss them.
The PEC pursuit
Season Five.Five: Having been offered high profile jobs in the Greek Second Division, and by Ufa in Russia (I made Sporting Cristal into continental challengers ffs), I eventually got through the interview process at Dutch relegation fodder, PEC Zwolle. Having taken over at the back end of December, we found ourselves one point above the Relegation Playoff zone. I noted that we had inherited two homegrown talents - a strong, hard-working right back, and a massive Brazilian striker in the youth ranks who also happened to be bloody superb, so I wanted build a solid platform defensively and hope that he could deliver the goods up top.
We needed reinforcements, however I needed to sell before I could buy. I sent €4m worth of players packing, and raided Sporting Cristal for 5 first team players for around €2.2m. At the back I was relying on Nick Fernández between the sticks, and defensive duo Alberto Villacorta and Manuel Gómez to keep more clean sheets than Zwolle were doing prior to my arrival. DMC destroyer Daniel Espinoza shielded the back four, whilst semi-mercurial winger Eli Ríos was entrusted to supply the giant Brazilian, Neto. I attempted to sign Pedro Neyra, Nicolás Ronceros, and Bruno Camino, however they all fecked off elsewhere to not battle against relegation. Frank García was about to move to Italy, however a broken foot scuppered his medical, and allowed us to pick him up at the end of this season following a successful fight against relegation - we ended the season 14 points clear of the Relegation Playoff place, and could look to clear some deadwood, and bring in more Peruvians…
Season Six: We continued to rock a 4-1-2-3 where I was looking for our wingers to move into the space in the middle, and force Neto further forward. It worked. In Eredivisie we improved on last season’s 11th place finish, and ended up 5th, securing Europa Conference League football for next season…or at least we would have, had we not also won the KNVB Beker in my first full season at the club, with Neto scoring the only goal in the Final against sc Herenveen. Europa League football beckons!
Neto absolutely carried us all season - he was the only player to score more than 6 goals in all competitions, having finished on 22. He was regularly supplied by Eli Ríos, who was quickly making me forget about the player who I thought was the new Nolberto Solano; Pedro Neyra. Ríos ended the season with 5 goals and 11 assists in 34 games, and I genuinely believed he was moving up a level. Our other Peruvians were solid, but unspectacular, however Villacorta and Espinoza did make their debuts for their country in this season.
Season Seven: Here we are. The first of the previously un-blogged seasons. Usually I end up not blogging seasons if they become much of a muchness, and this is probably the reason why I stopped this time, too. We finished fifth in the league again after starting incredibly slowly (2 league wins in the first 3 months), with the switch to my regulation 4-2-4 formation being the catalyst for improved results. Ajax knocked us out of the Beker in the third round, and we dropped into the Europa Conference League after finishing third in our Europa League group. I was chuffed to finally play in this illustrious competition, however we were beaten in the first knockout round by Rangers. We’d be back in the Europa Conference League next season, and I couldn’t wait.
On the transfers front we signed a couple of future key players in flying left wingback, Armando Lumeuno, and dominant Russian centre back, Genady Naumov. Our Peruvian boys did…jack all. Eli Ríos did his best Michu impression and become bloody awful after one great season, and Daniel Espinoza decided that he was going to be happy by earning loads more money in China. Honestly, this was a boring season. Neto was great, I guess.
Season Eight: We start off the season by signing young striking duo Eren Yildiz and Ewald Weissmann for €25m all-in, as I was under the impression that Neto’s €45m release clause would be met (it was in the winter window, January 2029, by Spurs), as well as ex-Cristal goalie Carlos Alegre resurfacing to become the PEC Zwolle #1, and roaming playmaker, Jimmy Velásquez, arriving from Allianza. In January we signed García upgrade, Bruno Camino, for around €11m from Gremio. We finally had the depth in our squad to properly push on, in my opinion, although that was at risk early when Zenit saw us off in the final round of Europa Conference League qualifying. Rancid. On the bright side, we were then able to focus all of our resources on domestic matters. sc Herenveen ended our dream of the KNVB Beker in January, so most of the season was spent concentrating on the league, in which we came second, 6 points behind eventual winners Feyenoord. We were never really challenging for the title, and were the best of the teams that finished in the European places, it was as simple as that. This was an incredibly young team that really started to come into its own in the last couple of months of the campaign, so hopefully that bodes well for the final season of the save.
I mentioned that Camino came in mid-season, and his ability to carry the ball forward and pick a pass to the wide players at the right time really aided our push to second, as we were lacking a decent foil for Peruvian wonderkid, Velásquez. With the final season approaching, I decided to try and bring in some other ex-Cristal favourites, and hope that my search for a new Solano will bring us glory in another league, and that their legend will live on forever…
Season Nine: So, this is it. The final season. To begin, we brought in two expensive full backs, and an Argentinian wonderkid centre back, in order to effectively give us two strong starting XIs. I was intending to target progression to at least the knockout rounds of whatever continental competition we’d end up in, and wanted to try and win the league above all else. Joining my exotic defensive additions was electric winger, Pedro Neyra, from Mainz for €12m, even though my coaches didn’t rate him. I attempted to bring Ronceros in from Bologna throughout the season, but I just couldn’t get personal terms over the line.
After starting the season poorly (yet again), we found ourselves rocketing up the table towards the winter break, and we were in second place going into the second half of the Eredivisie campaign. We unfortunately dropped out of the Champions League in the Group Stage, having seen off Braga and Rangers to qualify. Manchester City, Barcelona, and Shakhtar proved a little too canny, although finishing third in that group and dropping into the Europa League was no disgrace. It was around this time we also moved into our new stadium, which I was hoping to christen with at least one trophy by the end of the campaign.
Still rocking the 4-2-4, I decided to massively overload on central midfield players, and bring back as many cult heroes (to me), as I could. Luis Salazar came in from Toronto as a Ronceros-lite, Daniel Espinoza returned from China, and my only non-newgen signing since season two of the save, Jesús Petrell, joins me from FC Metz to add some experience into the middle. I suppose when you know you’re in the final furlong of the save you don’t worry about spending money any more, or upsetting one of the many DLPs we had in the squad. My faith was rewarded in the latter half of the campaign, as we dropped only 8 more points over the season to be crowned as champions of Eredivisie for the first time, as well as smashing all who came before us in the KNVB Beker to win the domestic double. The Europa League draw was very unkind, however we managed to comfortably force our way past Monaco, Braga, and Chelsea, in order to meet Roma in the Semi Final. A 2-2 away draw was incoming before one of my expensive, exotic full-backs, Daniel González, was sent off in the 88th minute. ‘Not to worry’, I thought, and went defensive. Roma immediately scored twice, and unfortunately those goals proved very decisive. We lead the second leg 2-0, and hadn’t really conceded a single chance until the Italians scored in the 83rd minute, which left us too much to do. A 5-4 aggregate defeat is no disgrace, but we should have made it through to the final, really.
Overall the season was a huge success, with so many players performing for long stretches. Striker Yildiz managed 51 goals in 49 appearances, having been supplied by assists from all over the pitch. The January signings played their part, however it was the performances of Pedro Neyra that grabbed my attention. He was seemingly peripheral at Mainz, however 12 goals and 13 assists in 42 appearances were reminiscent of his Cristal days, and I truly believe that he is the successor to Solano.
The search for Solano
As I mentioned above, I genuinely believe that the search for Solano has ended. Pedro Neyra’s contribution to the success at Sporting Cristal and PEC Zwolle cannot be denied, and he was integral to how we played in our most successful seasons at each club. A few months off his 25th birthday, Neyra has made 47 appearances for Peru, as well as 171 at club level for three sides, winning 9 trophies in the process. Solano was never this successful on the pitch in terms of his trophy output, however there was always an air of excitement when he was on the ball, and attempting to supply legendary striker, Alan Shearer, with ammunition. I felt the same connection between Neyra and Yildiz in this final season, and I’ll honestly cherish the memory of him forever (until I don’t).
In terms of other very notable players from the Cristal academy, I’ll include Frank García, Bruno Camino, and Alberto Villacorta as pseudo-legendary players, with the latter being the captain of PEC Zwolle as they lifted their first ever Eredivisie title despite not being technically as good as my other centre back options. I would have loved to manage Ronceros again as I feel like he could have had a season as good as Yildiz given the chance, but alas my adopted striking son, Salazar, was a worthy replacement, and more importantly wasn’t a greedy bastard. I know this a little much, but I felt a bit emotional during our final game of the save (an 8-2 drubbing of SC Cambuur) ended with Salazar scoring the final goal of the save, which was constructed by the other Peruvian lads:
Final thoughts
Honestly, I had hoped that this save would have gone on a little longer, and I genuinely enjoyed it when I was playing it, however my personal situation changed quite considerably in terms of how often I could play, and that dented my momentum. It’s a shame, but it’s also opened my eyes to how I want to play the game in years going forward. When I started blogging I wanted to recreate the saves of years gone by - my 15 years with Fleetwood, 16 with Crewe etc, however it’s just unsustainable for me to play and blog all of it. I’ll probably be focusing more on a player/club/scenario in future and make future series a little snappier, be it one season, or 5/6.
This blog of course is a diluted version of my save, and if you want to read more about the first 6 seasons then please visit here to read from the start. If you’ve read/enjoyed then I’m truly grateful. Cheers to Nolberto Solano for being great, aside from the fact he would never join my coaching staff. If this reaches 108 likes within a week of coming out then I’ll simulate the remainder of Pedro Neyra’s career.
The search for Solano has ended. Will always love you xox