FM21 & GAIS: The simple tricks and the promotion

It looks one month of a real-life is enough to finish the one season in the virtual world of the Football Manager 2021 for me. I recently ended the 2021 campaign with GAIS and we earned the promotion to the Swedish top tier at our second attempt. The game didn't make it easy for me. Not because of a bad run of results or injury crisis. Or anything like this. But too many small bugs in this version are taking the motivation playing the game out of me.

I had a clear plan of what to do before the second season in terms of transfers, squad building and finances restructure.

It's not a rocket silence and I'm sure most of you is doing absolutely the same automatically. I just wanted to exit all the real-life shits thanks to writing about something that I like to do.

Improve the squad & decrease the wage budget

This sounds like a plan. Not an easy plan but it's doable. Maybe some of you will remember what I wrote in the post about the first season when I wrote about the promotion playoff with Helsingborgs.

I didn't see a point to play with players I don't want in the club for next year and I will try to sell them."

I realised I have more than only two or three players with this status in my head. And I decided I will use them as the main resource for saving money.

Our wage budget in the first season was €111,512 per month. But we finished the 1st season over this budget by €7k p/m. One player (Haris Cirak - €2.9k p/m) was sent on loan to FC Inter Turku already before the end of the season.

I was able to sell or release 6 from 7 unwanted players during January 2021. Midfielder Adnan Maric moved to Vejle BK for €100k as the record club outgoing transfer. We earned €155k in total but it mainly saved almost €41k p/m on wages.

Mervan Celik, 30 years old Swedish striker, who spent almost the whole season injured, moved to Akhisarspor for free. He was the best-rated striker in terms of star rating. I rather saved €7k p/m than to risk he will be injured for another season. I couldn't believe he got €20k p/m in the Turkish second tier.

Transfers summary - season 2021

Better players for less money

My main aim for the first opened transfer window was to strengthen our defensive line. In the end, I brought players to all areas including the new goalkeeper who will fight for the number 1 spot.

We brought 10 new players to the club. Two of them were confirmed before the save started. While Daniel Sterner will be a PF(S) backup. Paradoxically, Sterner has €3.3k p/m what is more than players I brought to the club as the new members of the starting XI.

The wide defender Harun Ibrahim will probably play only for reserves. His training rating during the first weeks of the pre-season was below 6. That's not a good start.

The wage budget for the 2021 season was decreased by the board to €109,738 per month. Nine from 10 new players were signed for free. Only 20 years old Norwegian striker Oscar Aga cost us €17.25k.

The newly arrived players have €32,425 p/m together with Oscar Aga as our new highest-paid player with €9.25k p/m. In combination with renewing contract of Nuha Jatta, we still were under the budget limit.

Wayne Rooney in the town!

Yes, you read the bookmark title right. The one and only Wayne Rooney is the new GAIS player.

"Göteborgs AIS have signed English veteran midfielder Wayne Rooney on a free transfer."

It's not a secret there is a lot of English players available to sign for free when you are playing in Scandinavia. No matter their age or quality. It was also the case of the midfielder Matt O'Riley when we signed him for free in September 2020. He is our key midfielder and he is our main RPM in the second season.

There were a couple of players I would bring to the club for a trial before the end of the 2021 season. But I didn't do it in the end.

Because I found Wayne Rooney here in the list of free agents. And it was that typical moment when you ask yourself "What if...?"

Yes, I tried it. And yes, he accepted our offer.

I still remember Wayne's beginnings when he started playing the Premier League at the age of 16. And that debut goal against Arsenal. He is only one and a half year older than I so I always followed his career. You will always compare the same old (or almost the same old) footballer with yourself. I played the competition for the U17 category when I was 16. Wayne made his Premier League debut.

I recently saw some posts about the fact he has never lived up the expectations. It's even in that screen above and in FM, despite it's connected to his time with Derby County.

I didn't think about signing this kind of player in my save. It's not the usual way within my saves. Especially as we were just promoted to the Swedish top tier.

Contract details:

  • Length: 1 year (October 2021 - November 2022).

  • Wage: €12.25K p/m.

  • Signing On Fee: €13.25K.

  • Agent Fee: Doesn't have an agent.

  • Appearance Fee: €550.

  • Team Of The Year Bonus (Division): €8.5K.

  • Unused Substitute Fee: €140.

Wayne is 35 years old now. He was able to make 40 appearances (37 in the starting XI) for Derby County in the English Championship in the 2020/2021 season + scored 8 goals and made 4 assists. He didn't play since his departure from Derby. But that doesn't matter.

  • Will he ensure we will stay in the Allsvenskan?

  • How many matches he will be able to play?

  • Will he make a lot of assists from set pieces thanks to his perfect corners and free kicks attributes?

  • Will his signing boost the club finances or the match attendance?

  • What shirt number will he use?

  • Will am I able to convince him to stay in the club as a coach?

There are many unanswered questions right now. We will know the answers next season. He is considered as the DLP(S) right now. Where you would play him when you consider his attributes and traits in combination with the roles I'm using - RPM - CM(A), CM(S). Let me know if you want...

I decided I won't give him some hard training regime. Just the playing position and normal intensity. At least for the start before I will see what he will be capable during the matches.

There were 14 days between the last four matches of the season when we already had the promotion confirmed. It was only about who will be crowned as the league winner. And as there is a no registration window or deadline, I was able to try him in the competitive matches!

I set him as the inswinging corner taker and all the free kicks. And I played him as the CM(S) who has Hold Position, Take More Risks and Shoot Less Often instructions, same as DLP(S) role.

He played both last league matches and he scored his first goal for the club in his debut. It was also the winning goal and also the goal that sealed us the league title.

The less clauses and bonuses, the better

Some contract negotiations are really painful. Sometimes, it's because of the player itself. Sometimes, it's because of his agent. Or because you don't have enough money to fill his requirements.

Appearance Fee, Clean Sheet Bonus, Sell On Fee Percentage... we all know it. I have nothing against most of bonuses & clauses, some of them are deserved for players. But I like to remove some of them if it's possible.

Mainly Yearly Wage Rise, Sell On Fee Percentage and Top Division Promotion Wage Rise. The last one only if I'm not in the top tier, of course.

I think I did a very good job between the first and second season in terms of the wage rise for another season.

The screen below is sorted by the wage commitments for the 2022 season. You can see there are minimal wage rises. Only newly signed keeper Viktor Frodig refused to sign without the 10% of yearly wage rise clauses. And he has also top division promotion wage rise of 35%. He will get a big pay rise if we will go up.

Players I would like to keep for at least two seasons

Players out of contract at the end of 2021 - need to decide who will get the new one

I didn't select or highlighted newgens as they are in the middle in these pictures with €37 p/m wage as youth. Svensson and Eriksson got their pro contracts at the beginning of 2021 season. The rest is doing well in the U19 league but the contracts will depends on the next youth intake.

If I will take our highest earner - Oscar Aga - as an example, it resulted in this. He wanted 15% yearly wage rise, 35% wage rise in case of promotion to the top tier, 15% sell-on fee.

I was able to remove all these clauses after I raised the Seasonal Landmark Goal Bonuses by €1k for both 10 and 15 goals bonuses. But there are not wage rises for the next two years. I like to do the same even with my own players while renewing their contracts.

One transfer window is enough

I'm not sure why but I have it like this for many years. Maybe from the beginning, I'm playing FM, I can't say it 100%. But I'm considering it as my another weird thing I'm doing in FM in the last couple of years.

Probably all nations & leagues around the world have two transfer windows during a single season (please, let me know if you know some league with only one transfer window, thank you).

Superettan transfer windows & squad registration dates for the 2021 season:

  • Sunday 15th November 2020 to Wednesday 31st March 2021 (before the start of the season)

  • Thursday 15th July 2021 to Wednesday 11th August 2021

Despite this fact, I love to sign players only during the first transfer window mainly.

That means I have the main core of the squad already in the team before the season starts. I don't like to buy players in the middle of the season from unknown reason.

I remember I needed new players many times in the past but I rather usually continued with scouting/searching the right player for the summer and used the youngster for the rest of the season.

It's like bad squad management (if it's not related to some long-term injury crisis) when you need new players in the midway through the season. At least in my eyes. I consider it the same in real-life football too.

That's why I usually want to have the complete squad for the whole season ready before the new campaign starts. And just add some youngsters during the season.

Season timeline

[Rich_Web_Timeline id="3"]

Daniel Sterner - the unexpected hero

Daniel Sterner (as I mentioned and shared at the beginning of this post) came to the club from Täby FK for free before the 2nd season. It was one of two transfers confirmed before the save started. I think I would not sign him when I consider his attributes/age/wage.

But the more I let him play, the more I like him.

He caught my eye already during pre-season as PF(A). He had something different than other players. I'm not sure what exactly.

He was considered as the backup. And not even as the first sub choice. He made it to the pitch on 75th, 66th and 83rd minute in the first three rounds. He didn't even play in the fourth league match.

But both Aga and Lindberg had some minor injuries. And Sterner took his opportunity as the main PF(A).

He started with one assist against Norrby, one goal against Örgryte in the derby. He was not playing too well against Degerfors and he was subbed before the sixty minutes were played. But he scored seven goals in next four matches in May and moved to the top among the best goalscorers of the league.

The new league campaign started against Akropolis.

He didn't score in the last part of the season and he is waiting for a goal more than 10 matches. But he scored 15 league goals in 26(3) appearances and he ended the second-best goalscorer of the league. Only Oscar Petterson scored more (18).

In overall, I didn't expect he will feature in more than 5 games as one of our subs. That speaks for itself probably. My finances will be tight in our first season in the top tier. And that means Daniel will play a lot of games again.

Daniel Sterner and his stats in the 2021 season

Season review...

I planned to write something about the season and I wanted to use some parts from the season review.

But this new feature headline doesn't work properly. It was one of many bugs in this edition I found during these two seasons and it pissed me out completely. And will rather stay silent and end this post with this.

Sometimes, it's not easy to play this game. I don't have to mention the fact we invest sometimes even more time into reporting or editing the game than playing. And I don't like it more and more...

Take care...