Football Season Guide

Had a really good campaign in 25-26. Only just finished outside of the European places because of their commitments to progressing as far as possible in the Conference League. Got all the way to the final, but lost against Crystal Palace. A stellar effort. Everything will change this season though. Impressive manager Inigo Perez left for a greater opportunity elsewhere. They've found another Basque manager in Benat San Jose, although his tenures at different clubs have tended to be very short. The big news for the Madrid minnows was that they were left without a stadium mere weeks before the start of the season after the community of Madrid withdrew the concession. For now, they've adopted the El Plantío Municipal Stadium in Burgos as their home ground, which is approximately 2,5 hours from Madrid. Should they managed to find a pitch to call their own, then they've got work to do there too. Regular LB Pep Chavarria has finally joined Chelsea. With Espino having moved back to South America, they're short of options at LB. They've lost some depth in the middle of defence with Mumin moving on but they've got other players, and their mainstays have stayed, including Mendy, whose loan move was made permanent, and Luiz Felipe, who signed a last minute contract extension. Kumbulla joined shortly before the start of the season too, which was good business. They need to find a way to replace the flair of Akhomach, even if only on loan. He was able to carry them during the second-half of last season despite various injury problems. With both him and Carlos Martin having moved on, not to mention Trejo's retirement, they are a little short of creativity. Still, they pulled off a big win by persuading out-of-contract Unai Lopez to sign an extension in the summer, which will keep their CM area ticking along just fine. It's a little concerning that they've not made many new acquisitions yet but given their stadium situation, it's also understandable. It may mean that they start their campaign slowly though. The latest rumours are that they're after an attacking reinforcement - Losada and Icardi have been mentioned. They've got to be aiming for Europe again; they've got the taste for it now. How realistic it is will be governed by whether they have a stadium or not, and how good their last-minute recruitment is. Still a lot to be figured out.