I was a little reluctant to embark on a new FM story as i've barely been playing recently, but following the climatic Premier League finale the other day and subsequent absence of games over the next 2 months I've been well and truly inspired to fire up FM22 once again.
And with that I've decided to revisit an old challenge of mine from a previous FM and conquer Europe with an ALL English squad. I'd normally start in a lower division but due to time constraints thought I might need a little boost and who better to start with than recently relegated Burnley and their predominantly English squad (13/23 Senior players).
Key Players
Dwight McNeil evidently holds our greatest potential. The young U21 International is a very talented winger and someone that will likely be looking to build the team around moving forward.
James Tarkowski has previously made it into the England setup but has really slipped down the pecking order in recent years. He is a solid Premiership defender but his contract is up at the end of the season and currently I don't have the financial muscle to meet his renewal demands.
Nick Pope is another capped International and arguably the best English keeper we currently have, although usually finds himself on the bench. However, he is certainly going to be our Number 1 for the foreseeable future.
I decided to turn the first transfer window off, mostly just so I could get straight into the games and get my scouting in-line for January. To which the bookies believe our current squad have the capabilities of avoiding the drop and securing 15th spot in the League - A position I'd probably take in my debut season over overhauling the squad.
We had a pretty easy opening set of fixtures which didn't go as well as I was hoping. I really had hoped we'd get all 3 points from Norwich and then an Ashley Barnes dismissal inside 2 minutes at home to Wolves kind of ruined any chance we had of picking up points.
So we go into the first international break in the Top Half of the table, but not sure it'll remain that way when I next update somehow.