I am hooked on FM20 in a way that FM hasn't gripped me in about a decade. My better half has been away all weekend and took the car with her so I was stuck in the house and ended up playing a lot of FM. I started playing on Saturday night, looked out the window and saw it was 3am - that hasn't happened with FM since I was a teenager.
I now have Sunderland in the premier league, two of the young 18 year olds I signed in year 1 are still in my team. The club is doing well, the board treat me like a god and I have been able to upgrade both the training ground and youth facilities. A few months ago the board announced that the stadium was going to be expanded to 60,000 seats. I still have the same owner from the third takeover attempt, but there are constant rumours of looming takeovers for some reason - always a consortium, so I doubt we are suddenly going to get a sugar daddy. (does that happen in FM? Can Norwich suddenly get taken over by a Saudi prince?)
The only problem is that my club reputation doesn't seem to have caught up to my new status. Players at clubs like Palace and Villa aren't interested in talking to me, even though I have plenty of money to offer in terms of wages. I have similar problems with the French league, keep getting messages like 'Player X is not interested in joining Sunderland as he would prefer to sign for Southampton' I would understand being turned down because they want to sign for City (who spend absurd amounts of money every year) but even lower mid table clubs?
My way around this has been to buy up a load of obscure but very talented 18 year olds, my bench and under 23 team are both packed with wonderkids from places like Bulgaria. If they are well coached I might suddenly have a title contending squad in a few seasons, but having to rely purely on young players is a bit frustrating. I was recently linked with some big jobs and have been offered the Everton, Rangers and Leicester jobs, but I would prefer to stay at Sunderland if my club status ever improves.
Greenwood has never made the breakthrough at United (who are in mid-table) for some reason, they play some guy I have never heard of upfront, with Martial as the backup and Greenwood gets very few games. I have been trying everything to get them to sell him as his finishing stat is crazy, but no luck yet