[FM 16] Goblue's Everton Dynasty

[goblue96]

2022-23 AJAX SEASON PREVIEW
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Ajax is a club that I have always been a fan of in real life. They, typically, play an attractive brand of football and prefer to win 4-3 or even lose 4-3 than win 1-0. They also do a great job of evaluating talent and then spinning talent off to bigger clubs at a profit and then re-investing those profits back into more youth. It's Crewe on a much larger scale. Ajax have not won the Champions League since 1995. My goal as manager is to return them to European glory.

Since I took them over midway through the pre-season, I wasn't able to schedule a shit load of friendlies to get them used to my formations. We are going to have two main formations: 4-3-1-2 and 4-3-3. We will also train a wide 4-3-3 with a defensive midfielder and two inside forwards. This formation may be used in matches against stronger competition in the Championship League. But the main formation is the 4-3-1-2. I'll have full roster breakdown but first the transfers:

Cevik was bought before I got there and Belotti was sold before my arrival. However, I claim ownership of the Jose Aguado and Glaycon Rian purchases. Aguado will be the starting goalkeeper and Rian will step right into the starting midfield.

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GOALKEEPERS
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STARTER: Jose Aguado - Aguado was the starting goalkeeper for Mexico in the 2022 World Cup. A younger keeper at only 21 years old. He could be a fixture in the lineup for a long time to come.
BACKUP: Chris Tissingh - Backup who could become the goalkeeper of the future. Starting goalkeeper for the Dutch U21 team
RESERVE: Jose Mendes - Third stringer who will only see action if something happens to Aguado or Tissingh
​

DEFENSE
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RIGHT BACK

STARTER: Thom Schapp
BACKUP: Martin Linnes
RESERVE: Kai Koevermans

LEFT BACK

STARTER: Jairo Riedewald
BACKUP: Terence Kongolo
RESERVE: Thom Schapp

CENTER BACK

STARTERS: Terence Kongolo, Virgil van Dijk
BACKUPS: Stefano Denswil, Michael Daal

MIDFIELD
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BALL WINNING MIDFIELDER
STARTER: Mohamed Elneny
BACKUP: Bronco van den Boomen
RESERVE: Michael Daal

ROAMING PLAYMAKER

STARTER: Glaycon Rian
BACKUP: Davy Klassen
RESERVE: Gerrie Huisman/Abelhak Nouri

BOX TO BOX MIDFIELDER

STARTER: Davy Klassen
BACKUP: Glaycon Rian
RESERVE: Gerrie Huisman/Abelhak Nouri

ATTACKING MIDFIELDER

STARTER: Abelhak Nouri
BACKUP: Alex Vermolen
RESERVE: Davy Klassen/Francesco Antonucci ​

FORWARDS
​

STARTERS: Andres Renteria and Sjoerd Bakker
BACKUPS: Vaclav Cerney and Justin Kluivert
RESERVES: Jesper van Gerven and Brian Jongmans

We have a few wide players who will need to be trained on a central positions so they can get more time on the pitch: Virgil Misidjan, Kai Scheepers, and Dennis Bartels

The media love us and have picked us to win the Eredivisie. This will be my first season in this save where I have to deal with the high expectations.

Eredivisie: Win
KNVB Cup: Win
Champions League: Reach Group Stage (accomplished when Ajax won the league last season)​

 

[DeadMan]

That goalie looks boss. No real weaknesses, 18 reflexes? Yes please. Ideally, you'd want better positioning, bravery, agility, and communication, but those are still pretty solid. Maybe not going to be the game's top goalie, but he looks pretty damn close.

 

[goblue96]

That goalie looks boss. No real weaknesses, 18 reflexes? Yes please. Ideally, you'd want better positioning, bravery, agility, and communication, but those are still pretty solid. Maybe not going to be the game's top goalie, but he looks pretty damn close.

And for the low price of 6.25 million squiggles.

 

[Bdub]

Going to have to grab that goalie for my Arsenal save. Dude is good and going to be elite.

 

[Borman]

Andres Renteria looks like he developed pretty well too. I looked through Santos Laguna while I've been kinda looking through teams to decide who I'm going to play as when I get my laptop back and that team (and him) have caught my eye. You've got yourself a pretty good squad there, good luck.

 

[goblue96]

2022-23 AJAX SEASON REVIEW
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The first half of the season was a struggle and we spent a decent chunk of time outside of first place trailing FC Twente. We crashed hard out of the Champions League. The KNVB Cup matches were the only easy ones as we got drawn against lower division sides or Eredivisie Reserve teams. During the winter break, I realized that the 4-3-1-2 formation was just not working. The fullbacks weren't designed to be the only wide players in a formation. I switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation with the middle of the 3-band operating as a shadow striker. The team took the formation straight away and the lack of European matches allowed us to scream past Twente and win the league with two matches remaining.

Twente crashed hard in the second of the season as they went from 1st place all the way down the 4th place and the European Places Playoff which they lost in the first round. Ajax goes directly to the Champions League Group Stage while sc Heerenveen enter the Best Placed Playoff Third Round. Feyenoord go straight into the Europa League Group Stage while 6th place Vitesse and 7th place PSV fight through the playoff rounds. Only one team was relegated....last place VVV.

We just tore through the second half of the season with just two losses and a draw which came in our final match of the season with the Eredivisie already won.

The Champions League was rough. Arsenal, Club Brugge, and Monaco all sliced our defense apart. The only consolation we could take was 1-0 victory against Club Brugge in the last game of the group stage which wasn't enough to move us into third place in the group and secure Europa League football in the spring. These games were a mess. Not sure if we need more firepower to win these games or better defense. Our defense was one of the best in the Eredivisie.

Our only tough match was the final against Heracles. All the other games we handled with relative ease.

Winning both the Eredivisie and the KNVB Cup quickly moved me into 4th place on the All-Time US Managers Hall of Fame list.

The season ended with the club announcing its End of Season Awards and Statistical Leaders:

Goal of the Season:

The Eredivisie handed out their end of the season awards:

Goalkeeper of the Year: Jose Aguado, Ajax
Eredivisie Golden Boot: RW Mohamed Rayhi, Heracles, 15 goals 8 assists
Eredivisie Top Goalscorer: CF Nur Haris, FC Groningen, 26 goals
Dutch Young Player of the Year: RW Ismail Aiken, FC Utrecht
Manager of the Year: Givanni van Bronckhorst, sc Heerenveen

Aguado's numbers are skewed somewhat by the Champions League. Take those 18 goals allowed in six games out of his stats and it's a very respectable 28 goals allowed in 29 games (0.97 goals allowed). His save percentage was a good 70.7%. That's a number he can improve on going forward. Tissingh was good but inconsistent in his starts. He's got potential to be a good Eredivisie goalkeeper. It probably won't happen until he is older.

We had some turnover in the January transfer window to get some upgrades on the wings into the defense. Francis Heber was brought in as the right back of the future from International in Brazil. Thom Schaap is still our go-to right back going forward but Heber's arrival will mean that Martin Linnes will be departing the club over the summer. On the left side, Jairo Riedewald was sold to QPR. I promoted Maurice Abels who stepped into the first team left-back role straight away. He's only 17 years old and already performing at a top notch level in league play. We'll see in the fall how he does in the Champions League. Virgil van Dijk and Terence Kongolo were our first choice center backs with Stefano Denswil able to step in if any of them got a knock which kept them out of the action. Michael Daal is a young defender who can also play in the midfield. I'm going to have him focus on being a defender. We just don't have a lot of young centre-backs coming through the academy at the moment. Ivan Villarroel is another very young wing back with a bright future. Just not ready for senior side football yet.

Glaycon Rian proved why he was the signing of the season. A player who is growing into his game and relishing the roaming playmaker role that he gets to work under. Always ready to receive and give out a pass to transition the attack. Captain Davy Klaassen struggled with injuries this season. He's a good midfielder who can play all three central midfield positions. Vaclav Cerny struggled in the first half of the season when he was forced to play centrally. In the second half, he flourished out wide playing as an inside forward on the right side. Justin Kluivert worked on the left side of the formation as an out and out winger. Mohamed Elneny was our first choice box-to-box midfielder and did a great job. His position may be under threat by youngster Gerrie Huisman who has more pace and passing skill than Elneny but currently lacks the defensive awareness needed for the position. The player I can't wait to see in the 2023-14 is Inigo Alonso. He was another winter signing from Bilbao. He is a 6'4" shadow striker. He scored two goals and added four assists in just six matches before injuring his Achilles during an international break and missed the rest of the season.

Wonderkid Sjoerd Bakker was the team's leading goalscorer with 20 goals in 30 starting appearances. Bakker split time with Andres Renteria at the center forward position. Bakker can also play the shadow striker position in games when I really want to turn up the heat offensively. Renteria scored 18 goals. He is also on the wrong side of 30 years old. Instead of watching him decline, I will attempt to sell him and bring in a younger center forward while my teenagers develop in the reserve side or out on loan.

Financially, we are in a strong position thanks to both player sales and a strong commercial presence.

2023 AJAX YOUTH INTAKE​

The pick of the litter from this year's youth intake:

ACM/CF Raydell Babel: The best of the bunch for this season. A 15 year old who can play both the centre forward and centre attacking midfield position as a shadow striker. Definitely a player to watch in the next two or three years as he develops into a senior side player.

CM Cristian Dekker: A dual national centre midfielder. 16 years old and looks to develop into either the roaming playmaker or box-to-box midfielder roles as he pushes for a senior side place.

CB Mustafa DeJong: A player who can push for a first team place if he develops in the right manner. He needs to work on passing, first touch, and anticipation to become the centre-back who can be on the senior side.

GK Richard de Vries: A goaltender that can take over the role filled by Chris Tissingh in a couple of years. Definitely a goalkeeper who can start for an Eredivisie side. Not quite sure if he can be a starting goalkeeper on the European/International stage.

CF Abdel Malek Barakal: A big centre-forward. Checking in a 6 foot 6 inches, he's more of a target man than the smaller and quicker forwards that I prefer. A player that I can develop and sell for a profit in a few years.

CM Bram Pol: Pol is a centre-midfielder that has a high level of determination. Can determination carry him all the way to the senior side. I think it can but it will probably be as a back-up or rotation player in the box-to-box midfield role.

GK Desley van der Weiden: A goalkeeper with back-up potential written all over him, at the moment. A player who will be trained up and sold later for a profit.

RB Laurent Diakite: A Dutchman found in Cote D'Ivorie. He's the best full-back in the class but that's not saying a lot. Another player who will be trained up and sold for profit.

The rest of the youth intake is mainly roster filler that will be released when their youth contracts expire.​

 

[Bdub]

Looks like you are in a good position to build the team. Winning plenty in league and good financials should give you the chance to build a better team for champions league play.

 

[goblue96]

AJAX 2023-24 SEASON PREVIEW
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After winning the Eredivisie/KNVB Cup double in the 2022-23 season, the board want us to repeat the feat in the 2023-24 season. We have a very solid squad for domestic competition. They are also a young squad so hopefully they will go during Champions League play. The board has given us a 1.5 Million Euro per week wage budget and a 16.8 Million Euro transfer budget. The transfer budget is a little less than I would like since I want to upgrade both the attack and the central defense. There may not be enough money to go around.

A bunch of players leave. The most notable is Andres Renteria who I sold to Real Betis for 2 million euros. I wanted a long-term deal and I don't like to sign players who are over 30 to longer than a two-year deal. The disappointing thing was selling him for almost 25 cents on the dollar as he was worth 8 million euros. Miguel Angel Medaglia was the big sale in the window as he left for Denmark. He just could never adapt to our style of play and fell further and further down the depth chart. Three attacking players were brought in. Leandro is a centre-forward from Vasco. Batista is a left-winger from Fluminense and Ismail Aiken is someone who about ready to break into the first team when I was at AZ. For some reason, AZ sold him to Utrecht right after I left. After a good season as Utrecht, I brought Aiken in to learn under Vaclav Cerny and to provide cover for Cerny should a big club come in with a big offer for him.

Finances are still good. I've slashed about 200,000 euros per week from the wage budget while upgrading the talent at the club.

What's listed isn't our first team side but an idea of the 4-2-3-1 formation. A complete forward up top supporting a shadow striker and an inside forward cutting in the from the right. The right back attacks to fill the width vacated by the inside forward cutting in. A true left winger attacks down the left side. The two band features the roaming playmaker and a box-to-box midfielder. The left back supports the play on the left wing while we have one covering centre back and a ball playing defender stepping up as a stopper.

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2023-24 Depth Chart
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Goalkeepers:

Starter: Jose Aguado- Aguado comes back for another season though he wants to move to a bigger club. I've put a big price tag on him to attempt to deter clubs from bidding but I may not be able to hold to him much longer.
Backup: Chris Tissingh - Tissingh returns as backup to play in cup competitions and league matches against lower sides to give Aguado a rest and to gain experience.
Reserve: Richard de Vries - A young goalkeeper with potential. Will be our starter for the reserve/U19 team this season.

Right Back:

Starter/Backup: Thom Schaap/Francis Heber - Right back is one of a couple of places that there is true positional competition/transition. Schaap is the older more experienced player while Heber is the better player on pure talent but lacks experience. Should be a fun battle to watch as the season goes on.
Reserve: Ivan Villarroel - A versatile wing back who can play on both the left and the right.

Left Back:

Starter: Maurice Abels - a young developing talent on the left side. Will be handed the starting job and see what he can do with it.
Backup: Terence Kongolo - a centre back who can float out and provide depth on the left
Reserve: Ivan Villarroel - will play on the left as an inverted wing back.

Centre Back:

Starters:Terence Kongolo and Virgil van Dijk - our most experienced centre-backs. Both are good in the air and starting the transition from defense to attack.
Backups: Stefano Denswil and Michael Daal - Denswil can push van Dijk for a starting job while Daal will be converted from a defensive midfielder into a centre-back.
Reserves: Rob Koenders and Kai Koevermans - two developing talents who will improve in the reserve team.

Box to Box Midfielder:

Starter: Mohamed Elneny/Claudio Amarante - Elneny is an aging player with Amarante clamoring for more playing time. Elneny could still be sold to give the younger Amarante his wish for more playing time.
Reserve: Gerrie Huisman - A solid younger midfielder who can play both midfield positions.

Roaming Playmaker:

Starter: Glaycon Rain - a Brazilian with plenty of flair. Should grow a lot in his second season in the position
Backup: Davy Klassen - veteran midfielder who can still contribute as a spot starter/backup
Reserve: Ronald Jol/Gerrie Huisman - two midfielders of the future.

Right Wing

Starter:Vaclav Cerny - a powerful inside forward who provides both goals and assists to the squad
Backup:Ismail Aiken - more of a true winger. Will need to learn the inside forward role
Reserve: Justin Kluivert- provides depth on both wings

Left Wing:

Starter: Batista - a wonderkid on the left wing. Gives us three wonderkids on attack joining Alonso and Bakker
Backup: Justin Kluivert - can play both wings . More effective on the left.
Reserve:Nordine Tran - a younger winger who will learn in the reserves

Shadow Striker

Starter: Inigo Alonso - a tall player can score with both his head and feet
Backup: Davy Klassen - good veteran influence in the attack
Reserve: Alex Vermolen - a player who is good at a lot of position but great at none

Centre Forward

Starter: Leandro/Sjoerd Bakker - both are top flight strikers who will split time at centre forward spot
Reserve: Brian Jongmans - a talented young player who is a year away from making it a three way race for the starting spot
​

 

[goblue96]

AJAX 2023-24 SEASON REVIEW
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It was a little harder than last year and we were taken down to the second to last game of the season but Ajax was able to repeat as Eredivisie champs. We won the KNVB Cup as well to repeat in that event as well.

We improved by one point from last year. Our defense got better allowing only 31 goals compared to last season's 39. Goals scored was about the same (78 this season - 76 last season). We had a lot more 1-0 losses and 1-1 or 2-2 draws compared to the year before. Feyenoord and AZ also only lost five games and pushed us to the end but we were able to squeak out some more wins where they could only down. PSV had a bad season and finished in 6th. Like last year, only the last place team, Volendam, will be relegated. SC Cambuur and Heracles survived the complex Eredivisie Relegation/Promotion Playoffs.

The KNVB Cup was a cake-walk. We drew two non-league teams out of the hat in the first two rounds, one Juliper League club, one lower-level Eredivisie club, and two second-tier Eredivisie clubs. We dispatched Vitesse easily at home 3-0 and then knocked off FC Twente in the final at Feyenoord's home stadium. Twente pushed us tying us after we took 1-0 and 2-1 leads. They couldn't come back a third time and we claimed the title.

The Champions League draw was not kind to us again. We got drawn into a group with Chelsea, Barcelona, and Club Brugge (who was in our group last year). Brugge put us behind the eight ball early when they beat us in Belgium again. Some kind officials came to Amsterdam and awarded two penalties for us as we upset Barcelona 3-2. Chelsea made us their bitch in both the home and away legs. We spanked some Brugge ass and then ground out a 1-0 win against Barcelona to finish second in the group. We got a favorable draw in the 1st knockout round with Roma. We couldn't make a 2-1 lead hold up in the away leg and Roma advanced to the second round after a 3-2 aggregate win.

Glaycon Rian is quickly becoming a fan favorite winning both the Player of the Year and Young Player of the Season. Batista was named our Signing of the Season for the low price of 10 Million Euros. Leandro wowed the fans during the Cruiff Shield with the Goal of the Season.

Jose Aguado was our starter and played at a high level all season. He hit my goal of a goals against average to around 1.00 and had a 76% save percentage. Tissingh came in for some KNVB Cup games and games against lower-level league stats. He is proving to be a very capable back-up.

Terence Kongolo is a very flexible defender. He can play in the middle of the pitch as a centre-back and he got some starts in the Champions League at left back while the younger Maurice Abels learned by watching. Denswil is a fast defender who can break up the play before it even starts. Abels is growing into the left back role while Francis Heber is flourishing on the right side. Thom Schapp has be moved from the starting role to the backup role going forward. Michael Daal is great third centre-back option who can also play in the midfield. Ivan Villarroel is a slight wing back who can play on either side and Virgil van Dijk has been phased out of the rotation. However with no one in the pipeline, I'll need to purchase a centre back or two to strengthen this unit for next season.

One of the fun things to watch with the offense, this year, was the variety of options to make that key pass. Eight players with 100+ key passes on the season made us difficult to defend and led to a lot of assists coming from a variety of players. The area with the most assists was on the left wing where Justin Kluivert had 16 assists and Batista had 13. The middle of the field was represented to with Alonso chipping in 11 assists and Davy Klaassen with eight assists. Not a lot of grit in the midfield. There's only one true defensive minded midfielder in Claudio Amarante. Another area for improvement for next season.

Leandro had a hard time adjusting to life in Holland with just 12 goals on 35 shots on target. Thankfully, Sjoerd Bakker was ready to step up and led the club with 22 goals on 53 shots on target. Vaclav Cerny also had double digit goals with 10. Brian Jongmans had a great senior side debut, this season, with five KNVB Cup goals in three cup starts. He should come into the senior side next season which may force me to change formations to get more strikers on the field since it will be turning into our deepest position.

I'd post our youth intake but there wasn't one player who I foresee reaching the senior team in a starting capacity. Hopefully, next season's will be better because it can't be much worse than this season's.​

 

[goblue96]

Since my last update, it is now August 2026.

Holland is fresh off winning the 2026 World Cup hosted by the U.S.A. There is a lot of shake up in the big club jobs as managers move from club side to national jobs. As a result, three English Premier League jobs opened up: Arsenal (Luis Enrique left for Spain), Everton (Sergiy Rebrov left for the England job), and Tottenham (Marco Silva left for Portugal). I applied for all of them.

Arsenal hired Pep Guardiola.
Tottenham hired Marcelino.
Everton hired me.

I spent four years and 16 days at Ajax. My record: 132 wins, 26 games drawn, 36 games lost (68.04 win percentage)

Trophies: 4 Eredivisie titles (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026)
3 KNVB Cup wins (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 semifinalist)
5 Johan Crujiff-schall Wins (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026)

Champions League:
2022-23: Knocked out in Group Stage
2023-24: Knocked out in 1st Knockout Round by Roma
2024-25: Knocked out in 1st Knockout Round by A.C. Milan
2025-26: Knocked out in 1st Knockout Round by Schalke

I am, now, the #1 U.S. Manager of all time

 

[Bdub]

Congrats on the Everton job. You should have a lot of success there.

 

[goblue96]

EPL Money is like Monopoly money. Here's my transfer activity in the summer between year 1 and year 2.

Spend 65 million Euros.....no problem, you've got almost 90 million Euros coming in. A lot of these sales were top players who wanted European football after we finished, in my opinion, a disappointing 11th place. The board was happy with 11th place though.