Angeball - Making Spurs exciting again

[Stlducks4]

In 2019, Tottenham lost a Champions League final to English rivals, Liverpool. It was a dream Champions League season for Spurs who were never expected to go that far. What followed was five years of decline. On the pitch, the club became stale with old managers Josh Mourinho, Nuno Santos, and Antonio Conte turning Mauricio Pochettino's exciting style into one that Tottenham fans did not even enjoy watching. Each manager left the club in more turmoil than when they came. The drama reached the peak in the summer of 2023 when the clubs top scorer, Harry Kane, was sold to Bayern Munich. No manager, no identity, and little hope. That is where our story begins.

Ange Postecoglou, the 57 year old Australian manager is just coming off winning the treble with Celtic but has never managed in the top leagues. “Ange brings a positive mentality and a fast, attacking style of play,” Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said. “He has a strong track record of developing players and an understanding of the importance of the link from the academy — everything that is important to our club."

Levy is all in with the old Tottenham style, buy young players, develop them, and repeat. After meetings with Postecoglou, the goals have been set and everything is clear. Levy knows the academy needs to be built back up after Conte and Jose refused to develop it. Four new players will be required this season, one goalkeeper, one defender, one midfielder, and one attacker. In addition to developing youth, Levy wants to bring Tottenham back to a popular club. The Asian market is growing with the Premier League and with Postecoglou's history, Levy sees this as a perfect time to sign 3 players born in Asia.

Of course, Tottenham has always been about making money under Levy and that is the same here. Despite wanting to sign 3 crucial players, Levy has asked Postecoglou to raise 174 million Euros. In addition, Postecoglou has set his own standards. He wants to finish in the Champions League positions, win the FA cup and score in 7 straight home matches to bring excitement back to the fans.

With these goals set, Tottenham are now in a position to move forward and try bringing back glory to North London.

I am also adding my own restrictions to try making transfers more realistic and difficult. In previous years, using a club like Tottenham became boring because you had so much money.

1. Every new signing must agree to a 4 year deal. Spurs rarely sign someone less than that (unless it was a Conte or Jose signing)

2. New signings must be under 26 years old.

3. No release clauses

4. Must offer realistic wages and not FIFA wages. A starting player will not accept a contract under 20,000 weekly.

5. Only 3 signings max in January, 4 max in the summer

6. Must abide by league squad rules 

7. Cannot rotate a full XI for cup games. That is not realistic, at least 6 players from the game before must start.

8. If a club like Bayern, Real Madrid, Barca, etc come in for a player with a offer over the player value, the board (members of this website) will vote to accept or not.

[Stlducks4]

    

[JustinCase0110]

Good luck mate (use of Ange's "mate" on purpose here).

I really like your "rules" here, especially number 7 not allowing yourself to rotate a full 11. This could prove to be tricky with fatique, but making the right substitutions at the right time should do the trick. Kudos for nailing the realism here.

I also look forward to voting whether you should sell a player or not. This could be fun.

[Stlducks4]

Haha every time I hear "mate" now I hear it in Ange's voice. He really does live up to some Australian stereotypes.

Thank you, some of the rules I thought of and others I found online. The rotation rule is one that I thought of to force myself to deal with fatigue issues and possible injuries more. 

[CO88LER5]

@Stlducks4 Like the rules. I definitely live by number 3. And number 2, come to think of it.

[JustinCase0110]

The number 2 rule is actually one I'm trying to reverse, "forcing" myself to sign an experienced player from time to time. I also used to sign teenagers almost exclusively, which you don't really see real life football clubs do. So I suppose I wanted a more realistic approach for myself.

[Danimal5981]

Rule #5 will be hard to abide by. Not the winter transfers mind you, however in summer....

[thurlow885]

I sometimes * similar rules as a mental note, just adds a little something to the challenge. Spurs are a very interesting side at the moment 

[JustinCase0110]

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@Danimal5981 wrote:

Rule #5 will be hard to abide by. Not the winter transfers mind you, however in summer....

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I'm no stranger to number 5 either. I usually make my limit as "per season", not really distinguishing between the summer and winter windows. But I usually keep my number of new signings below 5 or 6 per season. And it's another "rule" that has prolonged my CM experience. I remember once I started a game with a closed window and signed 8(!) players in the first open window in January. Add one or two summer windows, exclusively signing young prosperous talents, and my dream squad was complete two seasons in. I found that there was nothing left to play for then and have altered my approach since.

[CO88LER5]

@Danimal5981
Because a lot of my careers involve managing lower league clubs, I tend to go for a lot of movement, especially at the end of the first season and if I've got a promotion. The players in League 1 are simply not good enough to flourish in the Championship and therefore clear outs are required.
It's also why I use quite a few freebies, especially in the early windows, because the teams I manage don't have much money and would certainly use freebies to a high extent.
Not so much last year (Fifa 23), and not so far this (EAFC24), but in years previous I have often started in League 1 England and certainly the teams in that division use the free transfer market quite heavilty. I stop doing that if I get them into the Championship, or at least reduce the number I acquire that way.
I do find it interesting, however, how so many Premier League teams are now acquiring free transfers, so maybe real life is starting to imitate this game...