FM 2010 - Preseason 2012/13

I haven't finished writing up part two of my blood ties quest yet so instead, you can hear about what I've been doing during the preseason in FM2010.
:P

England
2012 was the year of the European Championships. And, just as with real life, England failed to deliver on the international stage. After getting knocked out of the competition by Italy at the quarter final stage, the FA and the public demanded answers!

After none were forthcoming, the old manager was sacked and a new one brought in. Can you guess who?

I actually considered turning them down until they got better players.

Liverpool
After the abysmal season last year, I needed to ring the changes. Get rid of some flotsam and bring in some new quality players who would be prepared to die for the cause. In particular, I was looking for another attacking midfielder and a world class left back.

Unfortunately, as usual, things wouldn't go my way.

At the start of the preseason, Agger decided that he needed a new challenge and wanted to leave the club. As a result of this, I put him on the transfer list and had a look at other players in my squad. It looked like Babel was also starting to express discontent and was considering looking for a new challenge as well and I figure I am only going to get one more season out of him.

So instead of looking to strengthen my squad, I spent most of the preseason looking for players to replace existing squad members. And the transfer fees in this game are frakking ridiculous.

I managed to identify a world class LB and AMC in addition to some good DCs. However, the asking price of the players I identified were all in the GBP80M+ range - well outside my budget! And to be honest, I don't think I would pay that much even if I had the money!

In the end, I spent GBP41M (most of my transfer budget) on Sokratis Papasthopoulos, a DC to replace Agger. Yes, he is a good player but way overpriced. But then, what choice did I have? The annoying thing is that I still don't have a world class LB and its likely that the transfer kitty for next preseason is going to be spent on a LW to replace Babel.
>:(


Anyway, my squad in preparation for the year. The main reason that you see quite a few new names is because I intend to blood some of the youngsters and put some of the lower quality first squad into the reserves in preparation.



One last thing - despite having crippling debt, Liv are still considered one of the richest clubs in the World.