So after seven hugely enjoyable seasons, I decided the time was right for a move away from Palace, in those seven years I have turned the Eagles into Europa, Premier League and League cup winners, installed a solid youth academy, and helped build the business to be healthy and profitable, I felt my time at Selhurst Park had run its course and it was time to look for new adventures.
At the back end of last season I had a nose around at potential job openings, and there were a few interesting choices, I had my heart set on a move to Spain’s LaLiga as most of the stadiums are real and licensed, but to my frustration, all through pre-season, from June right up to 5 games into the new season, there were no available job openings, so I started season 8 as Palace manager, but then mid-September, a few offers came up.
I really fancied a move to a lower to mod table side, such as Real Betis, Espanyol, Sociedad, someone like that, and try to put the ‘Palace stamp’ on them but the offers that came up were Wolfsburg, or Leipzig of the Bundesliga, and Athletico Madrid in Spain.
So with that I applied for the Athletico job, and waited, a further 2 weeks in fact …
So I packed my bags, put my swanky East London penthouse apartment up for sale, and board the London City 12:10 Easyjet flight to Madrid, the Wanda Metropolitano was to be my new home.
I’ve always wanted to try a career mode in another country, just to see if it felt any different from a home turf English campaign, and it did, in fact it took me time to settle in, I inherited a team I knew nothing about, individual players that I will need to learn all about, their traits, key skills, weaknesses etc, also Athelti’s squad is a huge one, I was used to working with the starting 11, 6 subs, and about 5 reserve players at Palace, here we have a squad of around 30 players, many of whome are mid 70’s Ovr to mid 80’s Ovr, so my first few weeks were filled with player interactions from players wanting game time, my first port of call was to scan through each player, and his detailed stats and select a first team and subs that consisted of players with qualities that fit the type of football i want to bring, fast, energetic, dynamic, which also meant transfer and loan listing a fair few players. We need to get the squad size down a bit and trim some wages.
I have stuck with Athelti’s 4-4-2 default formation for now, and built custom formations for each of the defensive and attacking setups, I will assess how the team performs and possibly introduce a variation depending on how things go, but i need the standard setup to use as a baseline for testing for now.
The first few matches at my new club were very testing, the unfamiliarity, new opponents, new players etc, legendary difficulty, FIFERv3 modifier, we won 1, lost 3 and drew 1 of our first 5 games, The Athleti faithful were wondering if this young Englishman should be in charge at their famous club, but a 1-1 draw in the Madrid derby, followed by a 5-1 beating of Eibar, then a 5-0 drubbing of Las Palmas, and a 3-1 win at the San Siro against AC Milan to secure Champions league KO stage qualification has brought them back around, the early stages of my plan and system starting to show and reap rewards.
I mentioned wondering whether the foreign CM would feel any different, it surely does, there was a charm to playing Las Palmas in the early evening Mediterranean sun, with the dusky orange hue above the stadium, and the commentators stating ‘Welcome to the Canary islands for today’s match’.
The football is also noticeably different in LaLiga, players are more technical, dribble more, the pace of the matches is slower, and more considered as possession football is the standard, compared to the more high tempo, direct approach of the English Premier League.
So the journey has started, well, continued, I’m looking forward to seeing if i can take Athletico on a similar journey to palace, whilst enjoying seeing new stadiums, new players and new broadcast graphics and presentation.
I have placed below a full 2nd half from the UCL group match against Lille, in which we was 2-0 up, only to be pegged back to 2-2, that’s where we join it at half time, just to show how beautiful the game looks graphics wise with the GFXMod installed.
Sitting in a decent position in the league, have the Spanish SuperCopa domestic cup match against Barca coming up, and in the UCL KO stages, first season treble and instant Athleti legendary status? Absolutely no chance but will be fun trying.
Finally leave you with a short comp of goals scored from my first few matches as Athletico boss.
FIFAFX.com 
Some nice goals there Paul. Palacios seems to be your midfield general.
Hadn’t foreseen you going to such a big club, but then neither had you probably. Disappointed the commentators didn’t put on Fast Show accents.
Any chance of a Spanish newspaper, or would you rather spend the time getting game time under your belt?
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Chris99 – I was hoping to select Spanish audio and have Spanish commentary, but apparently thats not straightfprard in FIFA, you have to download a ton of files, edit XML files etc I can’t be assed with all that.
As I mentioned, ideally I’d have taken on a smaller club but they just wasn’t available, but I’m enjoying the new league and change of scenery regardless.
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Paul – SAVAGE volley there to end the mini-comp at the end!
I’ve actually disabled the GFX mod in my game because of the kind of result seen at around 1:00 in that vid and a couple of the later ones. My eyes aren’t great lately. I need a constant bright colourful scene to play in. I can handle some murkiness but not the extremes on show here. Reshade is enough for me.
I wonder if you will really settle at Atletico? I know that moving clubs within an ML/CM, in my experience, tends to deflate things a lot, and it’s the beginning of the end. Be interesting to see.
Got caught out by the Origin and FIFA update this week. I managed to take Origin offline before the FIFA update hit, but I didn’t catch the Origin update itself, and my game won’t start. Just waiting to grab the FIFER update, which is probably already out at time to typing.
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NG – I plan to stick around at Athletico for a bit.
The GFXMod does darken some stadias as its all linked to the enlighten lighting mechanics, so rainy or cloudy night time matches are sometimes dark, I’ve fed this back and its being worked on.
I just like the varying turf patterns and the broadcast camera.
Strange your game wont start, i disabled all automatic FIFA updates, but origin updated, and my FIFA game still loads fine.
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Paul – I’ve had this problem before, no idea why, it’s only ever solved by actually updating FIFA. My usual routine is to deny updates to Origin and FIFA until I know for sure the FIFER update is out and working, but Origin got in there and now I’m out. Should still have a short session for tomorrow’s post though.
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NG – one of the many little nuances about PC rigs i guess, much like if i tab away from FIFA and go back, my controller is then always erratic and moves about frantically on its own and i have to close FIFA down and restart it.
I didnt think Origin affects FIFA in anyway, sa origin is just a luancher app, that identifies when updates are due, doesnt affect exe’s or game files at all, so strange yours dont load.
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I’ve just discovered the R1 come to me player trigger. No more optimistic long range passes..I really should read the controller pages more. I’m now decidedly ordinary. 16th, an approval of around 65. Ten games to go. How does this compare for a World Class first season? I think a better player would have made more of Stoke’s squad but I still can’t get shot of some lumbering high earners. Their strikers were poor and pace was not great across the pitch. Some real schoolboy errors though (like not reading the instructions).
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R1 is essental Tuf, as you probbaly just foud out, so many times around the oppo’s box I use R for a player to drop short, its good for the obvious short pass, but also drags marking defenders out of position and creates space in behind.
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Seriously? I’d never heard of this essential R1 control either
Shame you missed out on the dream job of rebuilding Ipswich into a top European force Paul, but good luck in Spain anyway
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It’s really useful abbeyhill, it was one of my issues that I couldn’t play simple passes as players were too closely marked or heading off on sprints. Too late to save me though. I thought these games didn’t sack you this early now!
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Haha way past Ipswich abbeyhill. I’ve earned my stars and stripes enough to bypass Portman Road. Although I’d have loved a Betis or Sociedad role, although the challenge of breaking the real/barca dominance is an appealing one.
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TURF – you’ve been sacked?.
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Yep! 39 games in. I was stunned tbh – I got the board are reviewing message, then drew 0-0 with Middlesbrough, and that was that – contract terminated. Not even a full season. I ticked every requirement as well, except challenge for promotion (I was 16th at the time but no chance of going down), which I guess was too big to ignore. So I’ve restarted with blackburn who have a very low league expectation. It’s fits the pattern of stoke’s post pulis behaviour really.
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Harsh Turf but probably a blessing. STOKE is a shit hole, not even you’re managerial genius could turn that place around, mind you Blackburn is also an industrial grey cesspit.
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Never been to stoke but that’s largely because I imagine it as such. Another Sunderland sort of place. Blackburn I have and it falls into that north west triangle of grim (see also Burnley, Rochdale, etc).
Just feels very early to be sacked. I think they have huge pretensions of grandeur in the game, some very big time Charlie players who were always knocking on my door.
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Only been to Stoke once, to see a band called Blythe Power. Car got vandalised while I was at the gig. When someone says Stoke that is my immediate thought, then probably in this order, Potteries, Crouch, Robbie, Delap.
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No offence to anyone living up that way, ‘m sure there are some beautiful areas up north but Blackburn and Stoke aren’t one of them.
Rain, Grey, Industrial chimney smoke bellowing out constantly, weird accents, inbreeding, ferrets, flat caps, and ‘making a brew’ pohrase which annoys the arse off me, are all images i think of when anyone mentions Stoke, Middlesborough, Blackburn, Burnley, Rochdale type areas.
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Paul – How could anyone possibly take offence at that 🙂 By the way, does that include Liverpool?
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I’ve never been to Liverpool, I’ve been to Anfield dozens of times but never the actual city. That and Brighton are on my list of strangely never been to in all my years cities. I can’t think of any others.
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Chris/Turf – Theres a distinct difference between the look, feel and vibe of Liverpool, Manchester, compared to the likes of Blackburn, Burnley, Stoke etc.
Liverpool had a massive financial injection, and was capital city of culture a few years back so theres lots of artsy places, fine dining restuarants, new swanky hotels, a buzzing nightlife scene, and of course the history, beatles, cavern club etc, and the docks.
Mancheste ris very similar, you visit these places and they feel alive and upbeat, buzzing, when i visited Blackburn and stayed for a wqeek on business i was depressed, it was horrid, just grey, concrete, industrial, nothing much to see or do.
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Just poking the beehive with a stick Paul. I know what you mean though, I visited Leeds with work about twenty years ago and immediately felt it had an upbeat character. Around the same time I also worked in Glasgow, about 8 or 9 years after it was European City of Culture. That was a hole, and the taxi ride to work every morning was like a trip through war torn Beirut.
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Can we assume you will quarantine after you get back on that easyJet flight?
I’ve just had two consecutive 3-0 wins and in pursuit of the fourth goal in each it was as if my shooting suddenly went out of the window. I’ve had a couple of five goal beatings but does the ai employ some sort of realistic handicap or can you win/lose by double figures? It was always a sure sign that I’d broken PES difficulty when I hit ten in a game.
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No imminent easyjet flight. Ill be here a while 😉
I’ve hit 6, 7 and 9 goals in fifa 20, in recent sessions too. Not since switching to Legendary though, 5-1 was my biggest win, Way to Las Palmas
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