I've been wanting to do a save with Mirandés for quite a while now. Initially, I had planned for this to be a FM25 save, but after watching Clayts' youth-only Catanzaro save on YouTube, I felt inspired to start it now.
Brief History
Club Deportivo Mirandés was founded in 1927 in Miranda de Ebro, Burgos, Spain. The club spent most of its history in the lower divisions of Spanish football, primarily in the Tercera División and Segunda División B. Their breakthrough came in 2011-12, when they reached the Copa del Rey semifinals, becoming only the third third-tier team in history to achieve this feat. This cup run brought them national recognition, as they defeated top-flight teams like Villarreal, Racing Santander, and Espanyol before falling to Athletic Club in the semis. Mirandés secured their first-ever Segunda División promotion in 2012, and after a brief relegation, they have established themselves as a solid second-division side.
Over the years, Mirandés has been led by several notable managers. Among them is Juan Manuel Lillo, who managed the club between 1988 and 1991 and is now best known as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City. However, their most prominent coach in recent history was Andoni Iraola. The former Athletic Bilbao player guided Mirandés to the Copa del Rey semifinals in 2019-20, mirroring their legendary 2012 cup run. His attacking philosophy and tactical intelligence earned him widespread recognition, leading to a move to Rayo Vallecano, where he later secured promotion to LaLiga.
After leaving Rayo Vallecano, Andoni Iraola took charge of Bournemouth ahead of the 2023/24 season. In his debut campaign, he led the club to their best-ever Premier League points tally, securing a 12th-place finish. Iraola has continued to impress in the 2024/25 season, guiding Bournemouth to 10th place after 29 matches. Along the way, his side set a club-record 11-match unbeaten run in the Premier League, cementing his reputation as one of the world’s rising managerial talents.
IRL (As of March 19th, 2025)
CD Mirandés are exceeding expectations in LaLiga 2, sitting in 3rd place. Under former Levante manager Alessio Lisci, they’ve become a breath of fresh air, they have the best home record and joint best defense in the league. What makes this even more impressive is that 13 of their 22 players in the squad are loanees, mainly from the Basque region. On top of that they operate on one of the lowest budgets in the division. It would be a phenomenal feat if they were to achieve promotion to Spain’s top flight.
In FM24
While in FM24, Mirandés' youth setup is nearly non-existent, with no academy coaching or youth recruitment, and their youth facilities are considered "basic." Financially, the club has £400k in the bank, but with a £4 million per year wage budget, that balance won’t last long. The squad is heavily reliant on loans—15 out of 27 first-team players. On a positive note, the B-Team is already in the Tercera División, just one step away from the playable leagues, which could be crucial for youth development in the long run.
Setup
On the backend, I’ve made a couple of adjustments. First, I decided to retain Alessio Lisci by converting his contract to a coaching role, as I felt bad leaving him unemployed. Second, I removed the option for outside takeovers, meaning we’re stuck with our current chairman.
For the database, I’m using SI’s latest official update rather than any of the community-created versions. As a result, my save does not include most of the 2024/25 squad, including the 13 loanees.
Additionally, I’ve loaded all European leagues to keep the game world as realistic and competitive as possible. To add an extra layer of challenge, I’ve also included the Qatari and Saudi leagues, as their financial power will likely see them poach some of my most promising youngsters.
Rules & Objectives
The rules for this save are simple: no signings—only homegrown talent. However, the goals will be far more challenging. I’m not setting any strict time limits for achieving them, as this will be a long-term project.
My first priority is financial sustainability, which will be crucial for investing in our non-existent youth academy. To achieve this, I have two main approaches:
Generating revenue through player sales—while ensuring it doesn’t hurt our chances of promotion.
Earning promotion to LaLiga as soon as possible—and hoping we can avoid relegation long enough to start saving our top-flight earnings.
Once the club is financially stable, the focus will shift to building a strong foundation by developing the academy and youth infrastructure. From there, our success will depend entirely on our youth intakes and my development skills, with the goal of winning a domestic or continental trophy while having the best academy in Spain.
We will no longer be a club that nurtures talent for others—instead, we will focus on developing our own!
Before I jet off, I want to address the elephant in the room—my U.D. San Fernando save. To be honest, I loved that save so much that I just kept playing, moving further and further ahead. Every time I thought about writing an update, it felt like it was I far too ahead and it was too late to catch you all up. Who knows? Maybe one day, I’ll fill you in on my time in Maspalomas. But for now, join me on this journey with C.D. Mirandés.
If this save catches your eye and you want to follow along, feel free to swing by and say "hi" in my Slack channel. You can also catch me on Twitter.
Thanks for dropping by! Until next time, José.