MarcxD

April - May 2024 Play-offs it is. 6th might seem a little bit disappointing after finishing in third last season, but we actually got more points this season than last.

Intake 2024 Three star players, can't complain much about that. If only he had a different personality.

February - March 2024 Well, Fenerbahce was a bit too tough for us sadly, but that was expected. Scheduling PSV and Ajax back to back before that didn't really help either. Anyway, we had a really strong March including a surprise win over Feyenoord! European play-offs should be save, maybe more is possible with a lot of luck.

January 2024 I didn't sign anyone as I simply did not see the right opportunity. There were a few departures, but nothing relevant around the first team. If Twente doesn't stop their current run soon we'll probably be battling with Heerenveen for 6th place - we do at least have to make sure to finish in the top 7 or 8 (depending on the cup) to make the play-offs at the end of the season for the last european spot.

October - December 2023 We have not been doing great, to be honest - although there have been quite a few hard games, the only real outlier was the game against Emmen which was just a total off day it seems. Still though, with the losses we aren't doing too poor. The third place last season was of course not our actual place - the current top 4 should normally always finish above us, but I do want us to continue to contend for European football. Fenerbahce should probably be a bit too strong for us, but who knows really!

Yeah, it's a big difference so far with last season. We do sometimes still concede quite a bit of xG though. Not really yet, the personalities are nice for squad dynamics though

September 2023 As I still had quite a bit of wage budget available, I decided to sign some more relatively high rep players to increase rotational options since we are playing in Europe as well. Speaking of Europe, what a debut for us in the main tournament against Juventus! The other two teams in the group are Slovan Bratislava and Tobyl (from Kazakhstan). In the league we had really only one very convincing performance, but the points are coming in.

Pre-Season & August 2023 Certainly still scoring loads - and conceding in all but one game. Still, after one outlier loss we seem to be doing well going into the season. Yilmaz got offers in and wanted go (back) to Galatasaray (no surprise there), but I refused all offers. Even an unhappy Yilmaz scores for fun! More importantly, perhaps, is that we made it through to the Conference League group.

Summer 2023 5 new signings, as there definitely needed to be some new blood with loanees leaving and some contracts ending. Piccini is a new RB, Busk a back-up GK; Fischer (former Ajax) a new AML. Índio and Klefisch are younger players, midfielders in rotation. // Outgoing players:

The wages are high (relatively speaking), and I am certainly missing out on some of the higher rep players who would be willing to come here but want more than 500K per year. It's offset with a lot of them being available for free, though. Thanks guys! Yeah I like me some high scoring games but it's been a bit insane

April - May 2023 We kept on doing really well right until the end of the season, even keeping champions Ajax to a draw. Yilmaz with 5 goals in his last game to claim the league topscorer title as well. A third place finish is really crazy - even more so when you realize we are only three points behind 2nd (and CL!). When we got into form and changed to attacking mentality in January we didn't really stop. We did still have the most goals conceded out of everyone in the league though! Yilmaz had an incredible season - and there are clubs interested, so I just hope he'll not get too pissed when I reject any possible offers. As far as my signings are concerned, Adriano definitely had a downturn in abilities this year, and he has signed for Cruz Azul for next year. Other experienced signings Wagué & Klavan in defense have mostly done well. Jean in midfield is more of a rotational player and will have one more season here. As we will play European football next year, I definitely need to sign some players in the summer, especially as multiple players will be leaving anyway - the loanees and a few more. The squad screen above lacks Pinto, who had an 8-month injury and decided that would be the end of his career at 33...

Youth Intake 2023 Seems like a strong first intake.

March 2023 Another really good month results wise, but we have been lucky with games coming our way.

February 2023 Fantastic month - while on paper the opposition teams except for Feyenoord don't seem to be great, Sparta is actually in the European spots so far. Yilmaz still doing wonders! I'm not getting ahead of myself, but somehow we are two points behind second place!

January 2023 Two new signings, two new experienced players, with Klavan being the higher-rep player. Jean Klavan There were also a few departures, mostly unhappy players or B team players who left on a free. While the friendlies in December weren't too promising, we came back strong when the league resumed. The two losses are against the better sides of the league (although AZ is not doing great this season) - and importantly the games that we won were on merit. With ten games and 9 defeats really we're a good mid-table team, but because many of the other teams are quite evenly matched and often draw, we're quite high up on the table and almost within reach of the european spots. It's also interesting to see us having the most goals conceded and the second most goals scored after Ajax who seem to be winning the title quite easily this year. It definitely fits within my favored style - high scoring risk-taking football. I have changed the tactical mentality to attacking instead of very attacking though - which seems to have worked out so far.