So I have now reached the summer of 2018 in my Plymouth career. Last season was where it was all happening; seriously though, after a trophy drought spanning 4 seasons I managed to win the EPL, League Cup and Europa League. Unfortunately I failed to make it a full house because of an entirely undeserved (heavily biased I may be) 1-0 win for Man City in the semis of the FA Cup.
I got a nice budget of ~ £35 mil from the board at the beginning of this season and I started contemplating how to improve on my current crop of players. However, since I had invested quite heavily in my Youth Academy a couple of seasons ago, I had a number of young prospects which I felt I could grow into the roles which needed seeing to.
I have 3 players in particular who i'm excited about: Mark Grant, a 16-year-old LW with a current rating of 72; Jordan Joyce, a 17-year-old CDM with a current rating of 67 and finally Adam Smith, a 17-year-old CAM with a current rating of 69.
I have subsequently loaned out Jordan Joyce, but I've promoted Mark Grant into one of my backup wingers (I'll try and give him game time in the league cup if possible) and i'm still hoping to find a club to ship Adam Smith out to for the season.
Now, down to the real business

I don't know if I mentioned this dude before, but as a replacement for Ulm - who skipped off to City with pound-signs in his eyes - I brought in this 'Dorde Basta' bloke off of the free agents list.
Well that was last season and he grew into an absolute boss with a rating of 85 at the age of 22. However, one day I noticed he was only 5"8 on his bio page, it began to drive me crazy after that because whenever I saw him on the pitch I realised how small he actually looked compared to all my 6 foot-and-over defenders and keeper. So long story short, this season Bayern came in with an offer of around £24 mil for him. I countered with £40 mil and they accepted!
So here's me, the manager of wee Plymouth Argyle with £75 mil to throw around...
IN
83 CB: Prince Desir Gouano - £13,000,000 (Luciano)
84 CDM: Casemiro - £17,000,000 (Sao Paulo)
OUT
85 CB: Basta - £40,000,000 (Bayern)
68 CM: Matt Horwood - £1,300,000 (Leicester City)
Plus a couple of youth players out on loan.
Horrible news has broken now though as Sosa Pena my talisman, probably the most pivotal player in my squad (and my favourite) has handed in a written transfer request. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
The next day Barca and Real Madrid both submitted bids of around the £60 mil mark for him, I rejected both (I don't need money now, I have about £47 mil still in the bank). The board have come forward and told me that he must be sold because otherwise it will become detrimental to the squad. I have no idea who to buy to replace him, he was an 87 rated CM (but I played him as a CAM). If you have any suggestions please throw them forward, and i'd rather they weren't 'household names'... if you know what I mean. It would be too weird having Iniesta or David Silva playing for Plymouth Argyle...