Part 2 – The Walk In The Park
The mission of taking Deportivo back to the top of Spanish and European football had to begin with promotion. And it needed to happen immediately. Depor started the season as second favourites for the title. If I couldn’t get them up then really I would have to reconsider whether FM was for me.
Fortunately, dear reader, my FM performance was up to standard, with promotion and the title achieved with ease.
There were plenty of big wins and the Gijon defeat briefly threatened to create a title race, but we changed gears and pulled away into the distance.
Winning 7-1 in the 5th league game of the season showed where this save would be heading. Thrashing Tenerife 5-0 two games later offered further confirmation. A 2-2 draw with top flight Espanyol helped affirm that this team wouldn’t be too far off the other lower ranked first division sides. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a team that was recently relegated. The second leg finished 1-1 and Super Depor crashed out on away goals. In the league the only blot pre-Christmas was a 2-1 defeat against Albacete. After Christmas Gijon would win 1-0 at the Riazor. From there on the wins were churned out, with the team developing a habit of turning relatively close games into comfortable wins during the last 25 minutes.
Unsurprisingly the awards flooded in.
Meanwhile the best XI shows players putting up exceptional numbers.
All of which is excellent but expected. As hinted at earlier, promotion was not the challenge. Of more interest to me was how I could start preparing for life in La Liga before getting there. Could I buy players that would grow into La Liga and also potentially bring in large profits in the future. There will be no sentiment, this club is in no way a financial heavyweight. To compete with Barcelona and Real Madrid I will need more than uncut gems, I will need quality. Quality costs money.
Pelayo Morilla was the most significant signing. A 16 year old who could walk into the first team signed for £1.1million. The kid could play for the team for 20 years.
He was signed with money raised by selling a player I had hoped to build a team around. Edu Exposito.
No doubt he would be lost in the pack at Watford but £4.5million, at this point, was a lot of money. Mosquera and Vicente would comfortably fill his shoes in the middle of the park. Mosquera’s 14 goals from midfield would certainly make up for his absence.
At the end of the season key loanees Adrian Ortola and Domingos Duarte were signed permanently for £1.3million and £2.2million, the fees written into their loan deals. Immediately their values more than doubled. Carlos Fernandez had an equally low fee in his deal but by this stage I had zero wage budget left and the board were not willing to give me more.
The financial battle will be constant, at least until Champions League football is regular or I can sell a player on for huge money. Until then, we have to keep a close eye on those books.
Episode two. Efficiently setting up episode three, where things get really interesting in La Liga.