[FM10] Its all Greek to me

Right so after my saving slip up I've decided a multi nation save was in order.

Leagues loaded: Holland to Eerste Klasse. Greece to Regional Divisions and England to BSN/BSS.

Updates used. Tsakalaki's Greek and Cypriot Leagues & el Chusse Dutch lower leagues

Manager Profile

I was approach by a couple of clubs Dutch club GVVV and Verioa from Greece. I wanted to manage in Holland first, so rejected the Greek offer but delayed the GVVV offer to what else came up. A week later GVVV returned with a 3 year contract offer, I negotiated down to a single year, to keep my options open. They accepted.

Surprisingly GVVV are not in the lowest league which I expected them to be in. They are in Topklasse A which is the 3rd Tier in Holland. I've taken over a team with a few decent players, but are in much need of improvement.

We have 75k in the bank, with a 7.5k transfer budget. We are overspending on wages by £650 a week. Facilities are decent. A 5000 capacity stadium with only 500 seats. We have Good training and youth facilities.

So let the career commence.

GVVV Pre-Season Report

There were things I had to address. Squad Overhaul was number one. Two was to reduce the wages, we were £636 per week over the budget. We had a large squad with a few key players to build around. I was aiming to play a 4-2-1-2-1 formation, so no width at all. This meant the keys areas in need of strengthening were GK, DR, DC, DM, MC, AMC and ST, pretty much the whole squad.

We had a small transfer budget which I won't use so put it all into the wages. Over the course of the summer, 12 players left, all but one leaving to join a lower league club, the other was released.

So far I've brought in 6 players all with decent ability for a league such as this. First to arrive was Ibrahim Babangida, the 33 year old was released by Volendam. Days later a new MC arrived in Anthony Berghahn, according to his history the last time he played was 2000/01 season. Next in was the former ADO den Haag player Daniel Rijaard, the Netherland Antilles national will slot straight into RB. I then signed a player capable of covering a few positions, Yassine Assa, prefers DC but can play DM and MC. I finally found a decent GK, Mark Hogervorst signed after being released by Omniworld during the summer. We needed more attacking prowess, so forgeting the wage budget existed I signed Ivar van Dinteren to add some creativity.

Some decent summer signings should hopefully help us achieve our media prediction of 7th.

2009/10 - GVVV - Topklasse A - Holland

Media Prediction: 7th

Finished: 2nd - Promoted

Transfers - The squad needed an overhaul. We had a couple of players that we could use but nothing special. Like I said in the above post I was over my wage budget already, so releasing/selling players to free up some wages before new players could come in would be necessary. In total, 20 players left over the course of the season, one for a fee, one on loan, one released and the rest left for £0 to lower league clubs. Some of my signings were pretty decent, I had regular messages saying my players were pleased with my wheeling & dealings in the market. 11 players arrived, three loan players, from Helmond Sport, VVV and Vitesse respectively, all clubs demanding no wages which was a big help. The rest arrived all on free transfers and all first team regulars. The best of them I posted above.

TopKlasse A - We started well, continued well but tapered off towards the end to leave it a little tight. Veendam ran away with the league and looked certain winners from the off. We gave them a good showing at ours though, narrowly losing in a 4-3 thriller. Our biggest win was 5-0 over HHC who were eventually relegated. Ibrahima Babangida was an inspiration even at the grand old age of 33. His goals proved vital in many games and his creativity was pretty decent too, sitting in a trequartista position he made light work of defences to show some class.

KNVB Beker - We were only in one round, drawn against Feyenoord. We played well, scoring first through Babangida. Minutes later Feyenoord struck back, they took the lead from the penalty spot in the second half. The game ended 2-1. We netted 80k from the game which was a massive help to the finances.

Squad | Babangida | Betula | van Dinteren

Finances - Developed well in the early months, that cup game helping. We also gained 90k from the league position.

Season |Team                  |League           |Pos |Cup         |Achievements
09/10  |GVVV                  |TopKlasse A      |2nd |2nd Rnd     |Promoted

10/11 Update

van der Voort and GVVV continued their rise into the Juliper League. Starting the season well even finding them in 1st position for a week or two. van der Voort's success wasn't going un-noticed as rumours began linking van der Voort to positions away from Holland. Huddersfield and recently relegated Plymouth being interested in his services. That was until Greek giants Panathanaikos sacked Henk ten Cate. They came sniffing and offered van der Voort the job with a 20mil transfer budget and 325k per week wages. The offer was far too good to refuse and was accepted immediately.

I left GVVV in a fantastic position with a decent squad and healthy finances. So who ever takes over my vacant space has a good platform to take the club forward.

Table | Squad | Transfers

Panathanaikos are sat in lowly 7th, with the media predicting them to finish 3rd they are somewhat off the pace. They have a pretty pore squad with the odd exception. I'm looking to adopt the same formation as I played with GVVV, so have a few gems to play the key roles, Kahlenberg in AMC and Mate Simao DMC.

Finances are huge, 31m in the bank and like I said a massive 20m to spend on transfers. I will try and stop the rot and push Panathanaikos up a couple of places, with 6 games to go I hope to achieve at least 4th spot.

League | Squad | Finances

Season |Team                  |League                |Pos |Cup         |Achievements
09/10  |GVVV                  |TopKlasse A           |2nd |2nd Rnd     |Promoted
10/11  |GVVV                  |Juliper League        |8th |3rd Rnd     |Left to join Panathanaikos 
10/11  |Panathanaikos         |Greek SuperLeague     |

10/11 - Panathinaikos - Greek SuperLeague

Just a quick update on what happened in my six remaining games of the season with Panathinaikos. We managed to jump up to 5th from 7th, could have been 4th it wasn't for losing the last game of the season, 4-3 after being 3-1 up. I've have taken the following screenshots.

Table | Euro Qual Group | Squad | Finances | Cisse | Kahlenberg

Season |Team                  |League                |Pos |Cup         |Achievements
09/10  |GVVV                  |TopKlasse A           |2nd |2nd Rnd     |Promoted
10/11  |GVVV                  |Juliper League        |8th |3rd Rnd     |Left to join Panathanaikos 
10/11  |Panathanaikos         |Greek SuperLeague     |5th |N/A         |Qualified for CL

You are in charge of my favorite team

Good Luck and I hope you will continue the story for many seasons

You are in charge of my favorite team

Good Luck and I hope you will continue the story for many seasons

Cool, I always wanted to manage in Greece but not starting a game with a team such as Panathinaikos or Olympiakos. Practically overhauled the whole squad so looking forward to this season and seeing how my new team can do.

2011/12 - Panathinaikos - SuperLeague - Greece

Media Prediction: 2nd

Finished: 1st - Champions

Transfers - Seemed like hundreds out but was actually 30 players out. We only made 3.8m from those as I wanted rid of as many players as possible to free up the wages. I was given a 28mil transfer budget to bring in new players. I had pre-arranged 2 transfers from the previous season, Marquinhos for 9m from International and Banega from Valencia for his transfer listed price of 3m.

Regen LB, Palacios joined from Dinamo Bucherest for 4mil. Romanian GK Lung jr signed from Slavia Prague for 3m. Transfer Listed Pablo Piatti also arrived for 2.4m from Almeria. A couple of other players joined as back up. January saw the arrival of two Spanish players from Athletic Bilbao. A huge 7.5m was spent on Molina, at the age of 16 this is a massive gamble. Martinez also joined for 800k.

SuperLeague - Fantastic first full season in Greece, Olympiakos were touted as winners by the media and bookies but we caused an upset, by beating them early on 4-2 in their own back yard, that game taking us to the top of the league. We never looked back and never relinquished top spot from the chasing pack of Olympiakos, AEK and PAOK.

Our best games coming in the latter stages building up to the finale, an 8-0 win over Aris, followed by putting 4 past Levadeiakos and Larisa in consecutive games. Meaning we were champions with a game to spare.

Greek Cup - Rubbish, lost to fierce rivals Olympiakos in Quarter Final.

Champions League - We qualified through the Best Placed Qualifying Rounds, beating Rubin and Rangers on the way. We were handed a tough group, Shakhtar, Inter and PSG. We failed miserably in all the games not gaining a single point. Group Table

Squad | Marquinhos | Lung jr | Palacios

Finances - Plummeted throughout the season but will be regained during the summer through a new sponsorship deal and TV revenue.

Season |Team                  |League                |Pos |Cup         |Achievements
09/10  |GVVV                  |TopKlasse A           |2nd |2nd Rnd     |Promoted
10/11  |GVVV                  |Juliper League        |8th |3rd Rnd     |Left to join Panathanaikos 
10/11  |Panathanaikos         |Greek SuperLeague     |4th |-           |
11/12  |Panathanaikos         |Greek SuperLeague     |1st |Qtr Final   |Champions

And Finally....this offer came, it was promptly accepted. I look forward to a couple of seasons with Greece.

Not bad at all for Superleague. Matos was your second scorer???

Don't worry about that CL group, next year I am sure you can do better.

BTW: Most people in fmgreece.gr usually get millions out of selling Panathinaikos' players. Karagounis going to Aris for free was insane to read!!!

Not bad at all for Superleague. Matos was your second scorer???

Don't worry about that CL group, next year I am sure you can do better.

BTW: Most people in fmgreece.gr usually get millions out of selling Panathinaikos' players. Karagounis going to Aris for free was insane to read!!!

We were massively over the wage budget when I took over. I also wanted to play with a certain formation using no wide players. I had my chosen AMCs and he was not needed, I sent him out on loan then released him when his contract was up in the summer.