At various special 'An Alternative Reality: The Football Manager Documentary' UK screenings on Tuesday, it was revealed that the legendary game's 2015 installment will be released on Friday 7th November. To those who gladly risk marriages for this obsession, their own Christmas Day is merely weeks away. Members of the FM community are already putting in hours of research to find their first managerial adventure (apart from who they support, of course) and the various wonderkids they plan to buy in bulk, in order to create their own Ajax/River Plate/Barcelona-style factory. As well as looking for free transfers, bargains and those with minimum fee clauses, the global hoarding of potential superstars is a staple of all new saves. This piece will try to stay away from the FM14 wonderkids like Eder Alvarez Balanta (River), Doria (Marseille), Will Hughes (Derby), Angel Correa (Atletico Madrid), Richairo Zivkovic (Ajax) and Memphis Depay (PSV). It'll also stay away from the completely obvious youngsters who are already at world-class clubs, such as Paul Pogba, Adnan Januzaj, Marco Verratti, Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw, Juan Iturbe and the Schalke collection (Julian Draxler, Leon Goretzka, Max Meyer, Kaan Ayhan and Sead Kolasinac). It was with Schalke in FM14 where I tried my own wonderteam of wonderkids, adding Matthias Ginter, Timo Werner, Kevin Volland, Alex Telles and Rodrigo Gomez. We were simply superb! So who are the kids we should be looking out for? Will their attributes match their real-life potential? Honourable Mentions Lesser known wonderkids who might be tough to buy for various reasons: Saúl íguez - highly regarded at Atletico Madrid and therefore expensive. Salih Uçan - on loan at Roma from Fenerbahçe for two seasons, with an agreed fee of around £9m. Saido Berahino - the infamous 'English premium' may only make the West Brom striker affordable by the elite. Hakan alhanolu - scored from the halfway line for Hamburg last season, spurring an £11.5m transfer to Bayer Leverkusen. Cristian Manea - Romanian right-back who was recently capped by his country, aged just 16. Chelsea have already agreed to buy him from Gheorghe Hagi-managed Viitorul Constana for £2.3m.
From Chester-le-Street, with Newcastle as my spiritual home. 24 years old, I'm at Sunderland University studying for a Sports Journalism MA. It's all about football and WWE. Wordplay jokes and puns are also encouraged.
