Saints guide for realistic CM:

Club history:
Having only won 1 major trophy (FA Cup) in their history, Southampton are a side best known for their youth academy. Some of the best who were trained at the Staplewood Campus and its predecessors include Alan Shearer, Matt Le Tissier, Gareth Bale, Wayne Bridge, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and club-captain James Ward-Prowse. A long-time, unrealised, ambition of the club has been to field a team made up of 50% academy players while also competing for the top 10, but in recent years the club has teetered on the edge of relegation and relied more regularly on foreign talent. The club’s peak was qualifying for the Europa League in 2015/16 in 6th place, since then an array of poor managerial appointments led to a steady decline. Now under new ownership, Sport Republic are looking to return Southampton FC back to top 10 hopefuls and establish them as one of the best developers of youth in Europe.

Youth scouts: the youth academy is OP so for an extra challenge, get only one scout:
< 4* Experience
< 4* Judgement
Send to England and sign and promote all players that you get.

Transfer policy:
No European competition:
Age: < 23
Overall: < 73
Potential: < 84
Nationalities/regions: UK + Ireland, Western Europe, any African country
Leagues: PL, Championship, Scottish PL, European top 5
(examples: Livramento, Bazunu, Lavia, ABK, Salisu, KWP etc)
OR
Age: < 25
Overall: < 76
Potential: < 79
Nationalities: Same as above
Leagues: Top 10, target players not getting much game-time at top clubs or the best players from teams in weaker leagues
(examples: Oršić, Romeu, Højbjerg, Aribo, Stuart Armstrong etc)

If Conference:
Overall: < 78

If Europa:
Overall: < 80

If CL:
Overall: no maximum (I'd say max 82 overall until you're qualifying regularly)
____________________________________
Sales:
If no European competition: Negotiate all offers for players over 79 overall; must sell if 80
If Conference League: Sell any player over 81 overall
If Europa League: Sell any player over 82 overall
If Champions League: No need to sell

Note: Don't sell JWP (the club valued him at £75M in 2021)

Objectives: (optional)
- Have at least 6 home-nation players in the starting XI [England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland]
- Don't break the record-transfer fee by much (£22m for Danny Ings) [i.e maybe £25m max fee, then up to £30m etc]
- Take all cup competitions seriously, the fans love a cup run
- Aim for 50% academy players in the starting XI
- Try and integrate the youth players already in the game into your first team (Simeu, Small, Smallbone, Ballard etc).