1.3. MaddFM takes charge at Tenerife

🎵 Suggested tune: “La Bamba” – Los Lobos & Gypsy Kings 🎵

Before we even kick off this season, a huge shout out to @TheFMEditor85 who has created the latest updated FM19 database following the recent transfer window – please be sure to follow and check out his content!! This means that we are literally kicking off with a brand new database that was released just two hours ago at the time of writing, and due to the fact that Tenerife had picked up a few players in this window I decided to wait until it had closed before kicking off the new save.

It’s official – we are now managing CD Tenerife in the Segunda Division in Spain, taking over from José Luis Oltra who was in his second spell at the club. We sign a 1 year deal worth £6,750 per week – hopefully they threw in a nice penthouse down by the beach too. Hang on – they use Euro in Spain, so a quick preferences change means we will earn €7,500 p/w and speak in Euro going forward. Chairman Miguel Concepcion welcomes us to the club, seems he has made a successful living in transport and television in addition to his 12 years as Chairman of the Chicharreros. He must be in a good mood as he agrees to increase the Wage Budget and allow us sign a few extra physios – I’ll be putting in a few other requests in due course, however as things stand we’ve been given a modest transfer budget of €671K per week along with wage budget of €166.5K based on us aiming to achieve Promotion at the first time asking (as well as reaching the 5th round of the Copa Del Rey). Might as well aim high, there may also be some room to manoeuvre within the budget so I’d better get the calculator out and f̶u̶d̶g̶e̶ crunch some numbers – hoping to bring in some funds through player sales, but at present only 55% of transfer fees are put back in to the transfer budget. Miguel better be in a good mood in our next meeting..

Team Report

Not an overly inspiring report from our (for now) Assistant Manager Emilio Isierte – definitely going to be some work to do with this squad. Initial concerns are at RB, DMC and AMR however we will look to strengthen as much as possible in all areas – big squad will be needed, we have to play 42 games in this division in addition to however many Copa Del Rey fixtures we encounter. I suspect loan signings will be essential, hopefully my next post will contain news of a lot of new signings!

In terms of current personnel, newest IRL signing Borja Lasso looks arguably our best player on paper – vision, flair, technique, passing and decisions attributes are all pretty strong for this level, makes sense having signed from Sevilla in the real life January Transfer Window. Hoping for a few goals and most imporantly a truckload of assists from this man.

We also look pretty strong up front, Naranjo and on-loan Coniglio both look decent – somehow I might end up having to fit all three of these lads in to a formation, potentially a triangle of sorts up top.

My potential back line are pretty average, will definitely need reinforcements – pretty happy with Mauro Dos Santos at CB however, his Heading, Marking, Tackling and Positioning attributes should be more than enough at this level.

Dani Hernandez is first choice keeper, at 32 and with his attributes he will be first choice this season but more than likely will not keep the jersey beyond that, especially if we perform a miracle and get promoted to La Liga – reckon Messi would love to see him between the sticks!

Unfortunately we don’t have much to report in terms of Youth Prospects – our U19 squad is half empty and I am informed that our highest potential youngster is Borja Llarena; the kid has 4 stars but at 19 I am not convinced he will improve beyond a mid table striker – hopefully by recruiting a few youth coaches, improving youth facilities and focusing on recruitment etc will lead to a good youth intake later in the season.

Another thing worth mentioning is the Squad Dynamics page – the combined age of my Captain and Vice Captain is 66 years, both Suso and Sanz are a ripe old 33 years of age so Leadership and Teamwork will be on my mind when making any potential signings for the future. Plenty of highly influential players in the squad, but ideally will hope to sign a future Captain during the summer transfer window.

Final thing to mention in terms of my initial impressions on the club and squad overall – as a SD1 team, I was surprised to see we don’t have any La Liga parent club affiliates so that will be another focus in the initial stages of the save to try and bring in some decent loan signings without sh*tting on our wage budget.

Goals and Objectives

1. Obtain Promotion to La Liga within first 2 seasons
2. Build a concentrated and extensive team of staff with a particular focus on Youth Coaching and Recruitment
3. Try to sign as many Spanish speaking staff members as possible
4. Develop a stong affiliate network domestically and internationally, both for inbound loan benefits as well as youth development
5. Minimum of 50% of all incoming transfers will be paid up front
6. Develop at least one youth prospect or uncapped player to obtain an International Cap for Spain within first 3 seasons
7. Find our “Roy de los Rovers” – an absolute shithouse of a centre-forward the like of which Los Chicharreros have never seen before
8. Get the Ireland job and manage both club & country, ensuring qualification for all major tournaments
9. Sign and develop a young Irish player for the first team and also get him capped by the Republic of Ireland

That’s probably enough analysis and reporting at this point considering its still 9am on Day 1 of the save – in my next post I will discuss tactics, formations and training as well as including a summary of pre-season and all transfer activity, whereby hopefully we will have not only bolstered the squad on all counts but also will have built a quality backroom team.

Once again, thanks for reading – please feel free to provide comments and feedback, if you are enjoying the blog please feel free to like, share, retweet and subscribe via the links on the side/bottom of this page! Yours humbly, MaddFM.