Saintmat

Season 12 - May 2032 Olympiakos Greece - Super League Heart = broken =(

Season 11 - May 2031 Olympiakos Greece - Super League Did I have something special? Well you'll just have to take a look and see for yourself...

Season 11 - May 2031 Olympiakos Greece - Super League Europa League Quarter Final First Leg - Rangers (A) Well this was about as straightforward a game as you'll see in European competition. Florin Ardelean put us ahead after 16 minutes and Rangers more or less folded from there on out. The age of their squad was particularly noticeable, as the game wore on we went from strength to strength. On to leg 2. Europa League Quarter Final Second Leg - Rangers (H) If the first leg represented a gradual eroding of Glaswegian hope, then the second was more akin to a bludgeoning. Four first half goals put this tie to bed with 45 minutes still to play. Imagine then my misery as Brahim Clement, on a yellow, makes a needless foul and gets himself suspended for the first leg of the semi final. I had the face of a man served a pint of ****. At least though we were through, my furthest foray into European competition since the Conference League run with Jablonec. I wholly expected to see Benfica in the semi final after they won 4-1 in the first leg. Instead, I was surprised to find PSV had turned that tie around with a 5-1 (AET) home leg win of their own. Europa League Semi Final First Leg - PSV (H) This was more what I expected from European competition. We got off to an uncharacteristic slow start here, not performing to our usual level in the first half. In the end we just needed to hold our nerve, and perhaps utilise some experience. Kiril Despodov is into single digits now for remaining games at the club, but his introduction turned the tide of this game in our favour. As has so often been the case this year, Florin Ardelean gets the opener. We move the ball fabulously well across the PSV backline, and find the Romanian hitman with a lovely slide rule pass between full back and center back. My players then do exactly what they should, and hammer home our advantage. Jonathon Giannetti (deputising for the suspended Clement) pops up at the back post following more terrific work down the left hand side. With that we take a two goal lead with us to Eindhoven, and a shot at a place in the final. Europa League Semi Final Second Leg - PSV (A) Sweet baby Jesus. This was not the return leg I wanted to see, but at least we've made it out alive. Clearly this team have found a new level of confidence and we played terrifically in the first half, taking the lead just before half time with another Ardelean goal. I was rubbing my eyes in disbelief then when we found ourselves 2-1 down just after the break. Andi Zeqiri was on a one man mission to reign us in and he very nearly managed it (although I have some serious questions on our goalkeeping with both goals). Diego Plada has made some excellent contributions for a squad player at the tail end of this season, but maybe none quite as important as his equaliser on 60 minutes. This one came from a lofted through ball from deep courtesy of Atte Poyhonen, which drops in front of Plada perfectly for a clean slot past the keeper. But again they peg us back, after Zeqiri pounces on some hesitancy from Nmandi Collins. With the Dutch side needing just one more goal, it seems as though they are spent and we dig in to find a third of our own - this time Uros Nad with the crucial contribution. Thank goodness for that! Now time to take a big sip of water before I look at who my final opponents. Oh boy would I like to have a chance in this.... Ajax just couldn't hold a lead could they. Leicester knocked me out last season in rather disparaging fashion, so this has a bit of extra spice to it. Unfortunately they have gone from strength to strength since then, and will represent considerable opposition to my hopes of a European trophy. This is a big one, so I better have something special in store. And just to return to domestic matters, the league and cup double has been wrapped up with some ease. We are at Dinamo Zagreb levels of dominance here.

Season 11 - March 2031 Olympiakos Greece - Super League No messing about now. Europa League second knockout round with Napoli - here we go. Lovely stuff. An early goal from Atte Poyhonen put us in charge and we never really looked like dropping this lead. It's one of few games we have played in Europe all season that we've actually maintained control of. Granted, we were aided by the absence of Victor Osimhen. He isn't exactly the same calibre of striker as his real life counterpart in this save, but is still a formidable presence. Lorenzo Lucca never really gave us much trouble. On to leg number two, and the cauldron of the Stadio Diego Maradona... This was more what I was expecting. We needed that three goal lead, because without it I'm not sure how we'd make it out of this one. Napoli returned with some *****, spurred on by the recovery of Osimhen. The Nigerian shut down our early goal with a fabulous one-two burst into the box and finish. Thankfully set piece practice paid off here, Brahim Clement restoring our lead and a four goal cushion. In the second half Chucky Lozano came on and gave us some trouble, but that was fortunately the last hurrah the Neopolitans had in store. So, we hit the Europa League quarter finals... Now that's a hard one to call. The Scottish Premiership is not loaded in to this save so I have little knowledge of Rangers, other than this season they were surprise group winners ahead of Brighton and Villareal, then topped that off in the last round by knocking out Club Brugge (who in turn had knocked them out of the Champions League qualifiers... go figure). Rangers put out my CSKA Sofia side from a Europa League qualifier once before so I have some amount of personal vendetta in this one. They, as most teams do at this point, boast a team of 30+ year olds and very little depth. As usual, we get to see the rest of our path to the final as well... There was no easy draw here but Benfica or PSV should be interesting proposition. Benfica won this tournament a few seasons prior, and PSV have some great young players who could cause us trouble. On the whole, there are few teams I fear in the draw (if we can turn up). With a bit of luck, this might be our year.

Season 11 - February 2031 Olympiakos Greece - Super League On that subject, there have been a few bits of business in January. For the most part, this has been driven by the interest in my players. I try to see this as opportunity rather than damnation, but with the added boardroom challenge of signing "high reputation players", handling squad turnover is much more complex than it used to be. I was most concerned about losing star center back Soares, who had been attracting interest from the mega-club conglomerate. In the end I didn't receive any bids on Soares and it was his defensive partner, Stephane Noah, who made the big departure. Noah pulled in a bid of £24m from RB Leipzig, representing a 10 fold profit on the £2.4m I paid a year and a half previously. Unfortunately, most of this money went straight back to East Germany. Nmandi Collins - a wonderkid from the start of the game, is now 27 and has not had the kind of career one might expect. I'll be hoping he makes good on that early promise here in Greece. His on the ball skillset is an upgrade on Noah, and he fulfills the high rep brief from the board, so I am satisfied with the switch, even if it isn't necessarily the best value for money. The other major move came at left back. Luis Santiago was only signed a season ago, for £11m - but has made his departure from Athens already. I was having trouble juggling his playing time with club homegrown Dionysis Basinas, and when a £22m bid came in I had to take advantage. He is replaced by another LaLiga2 pickup, Inigo Garcia. Not an upgrade but it frees up Basinas to cement his place in the team - something I really need to do so as to ensure I meet those pesky homegrown requirements. Further additions include the acquisition of yet another ancient goalkeeper, Tomas Strakoshka, from Lazio. Key motivation for this is the impending retirement of both keepers currently at the club, his homegrown status in Greece, and his high reputation. At 35, he is no spring chicken and I hoped to get at least a season out of him, however he quickly picked up a 3 month hip injury and I am now left scratching my head over whether I'll have him as an option at all when we hit September. Other than these three, the rest of my business focused on next season's team. This involved signing three young players to stay out on loan, and one last piece of experience in Ben White, who will come in as center and right back cover. Last word, and a salute, goes to Mbala Nzola. The Angolan powerhouse of a forward was a phenomenon last season, but time catches up with us all and in the end he lost his place to Florin Ardelean. The club icon departs for Mexico, and with 137 Thrylos goals, and the club record for goals in a season (32), under his belt. Farewell big man. So, turning my attention back to on the pitch matters, we had the matter of our first KO round in the Europa League to handle. Sporting Lisbon on further inspection had been flying in the Primera this year, so I was expecting a tough battle... In the first leg we started superbly, taking a 2 goal early lead and running the game on cruise control. Of course in European competition things are never that easy for us, so when they pulled one back just before half time with a deflected own goal I was tearing my hair out once more. In the second half the pattern continued, but of course we were hit with another sucker punch to make it 2-2. Thankfully, Florin Ardelean is out for blood this season, and put us back in the lead just minutes later. From here a few tactical tweaks ensured that we would take a goal advantage with us to Athens. A final parting present was a rash second yellow picked up by Anel Ahmedhodzic, a favourite of many FM players and Sporting's starting center back. This would hopefully make life in the second leg a lot easier. We managed another superb start in the second leg, with our Romanian man Ardelean thundering a volley past Gollini after just 3 minutes, then getting on the end of a Clement delivery after 8. A complete collapse from Sporting transpires thereafter, Uros Nad finds a third, and Soares secures a fourth from a corner. But just when I feel at ease, these boys just pull me straight back in. The industrious Kelvin Yeboah plays a neat one-two and somehow squirms a shot past Vlachodimos... then on the otherside of halftime Pedro Goncalves beats the offside trap with an easy ball over the top. What on earth are we doing. So, some more tactical tweaks. More of the ball, less gung-ho please. Not that my players listen. my front three all go for it and we get a lucky fifth, another from Uros Nad, tapping in after the ball is block tackled into his path. I'll be a happy man at this point if I don't see another highlight. Fortunately, this time that is exactly what I get. Christ I need a drink after all that. Our next reward is... Hmm. Another one that could be deceptively tricky. Napoli aren't in great shakes at the moment, sitting 8th in Serie A. They still have some good players in their ranks, so we'll have to be on guard as usual. Domestically our dominance has continued, and we sit top of the Super League table going into the Championship group. One bit of disappointing news to report is that a 63 match unbeaten run in the league came to an end in January. Most frustrating of all was it came at the hands of Panathinaikos, a consistent thorn in our side this year. Still, 63 matches is no mean feat and we have set ourselves a huge target to aim for before my time with Olympiakos comes to an end.

Season 11 - December 2030 Olympiakos Greece - Super League Champions League Gameweek 3 - Bayern Munich (A) After our first two games had put us in a strong-ish position, we faced a daunting double header against Bayern Munich. The traditional big-hitters had somewhat failed to rejuvenate their squads in eleven seasons of simulation, but this was not true of Bayern. Only a few hang-on's remained and they composed a line up with considerable talent. With that in mind, I approached this game with some amount of caution. Perhaps too much. An early goal from Croatian forward Kmjic put us on the back foot early, beating everyone to the scramble on a corner routine knockdown. Then just after the half hour mark, we concede a silly goal, this time Matty Cash being the chief culprit. Joshua Kimmich's cross is deflected high, and the Croat piles in early to loop a header over Vlachodimos. Truthfully we never recovered fully from the first half, but we put a better showing in when ditching the wingers in favour of a narrow 4-3-1-2. Fram Amagat scored from a terrific slide-rule pass courtesy of Mazinho, but too little too late. At the half way mark in the group we read 1-1-1 for W-D-L. Champions League Gameweek 4 - Bayern Munich (H) Now this is a bit more like it. The success of the 4-3-1-2 in the tail of the last game prompted a tactical switch for this one. Ignore the in-game display, in reality I moved Clement out to AMR, to stretch the defenders as much as possible. Santiago took responsibility for getting up and down the left flank. We didn't start well however, eventually punished by a world class curling effort from the abiding Joshua Kimmich. This time however the team showed some spark, and we managed to carve out an opportunity with a deep run from Clement, who delivers and excellent cross for the overload run coming in from Lazar Samardzic. A goal from the German against the Germans. Clearly the equaliser left Bayern stunned, and we dominate the second half without really creating anything more of note. Still a 1-1 draw here puts us in a good spot. Dynamo Kiev take a win and a draw against Inter in their two games, so we are left in a 3 point lead on the Italians in 3rd place. A win or draw in Milan will mean that we more or less guarantee European football on the other side of Christmas. Champions League Gameweek 5 - Inter Milan (A) To quote Paul Whitehouse's unlucky Alf... Oh bugger. Not one for the neutrals here. Neither side really turn up, and ultimately the tie is settled from a moment of class from Lautaro Martinez. This could have been so much better had we simply come out stronger, but Inter's tactical differential from the last game did an excellent job of neutralising our attacking play. The lesson is you cannot leave things to chance in these competitions. It's go hard, or go home. To make things worse, Inter go ahead of us on coefficient points leaving us bottom with one match to play. We now have to beat Dynamo Kiev in order to progress at all, something I am yet to manage with Olympiakos in three attempts. We also face an unlikely challenge to qualify for the Europa League, as I need Inter to complete an unlikely late revival and beat Bayern. In this scenario we stay level on points, but go into 3rd on the differential. For me this would be the best outcome, as like last season, I feel a Europa League level run is more suited to this current crop of players. Champions League Gameweek 6 - Dynamo Kiev (H) Kostas Tsimikas, that was for you. This was the performance we had been waiting for. Admittedly, a few things played into my favour. Kiev changed managers after GW4, leading to a tactical switch which frankly does not suit them. More importantly they were missing some key players, and played a half-fit aging Denys Popov, who duly put in a 5.8. Florin Ardelean is continuing to flourish in his Advanced Forward role and has provided an expected counter-point to my preferred role of a Deep-Lying Forward, with on running midfielders. The final word though has to go to Kiril Despodov, who is being phased out this season but showed what he has left to offer with some fabulous playmaking (4 CCCs, 8 KPs). I don't think he'll see much more action this year but nevertheless, this man is truly a great in Olympiakos red and white. So, we completed our end of the bargain. Let us see if Inter managed the impossible... In another circumstance, I might have been royally pissed off here. Not this time. In fact, I think I could probably kiss Scott McTominay square in the mouth. So we head to the Europa League, and the draw is... Ok. I prefer this to Premier League opposition! A slightly concerning development is the reveal that my Russian overlords are demanding victory in the Europa League as a minimum expectation. I'm all for ambition, but not when it might cost me my job.

Season 11 - October 2030 Olympiakos Greece - Super League Champions League Gameweek 1 - Inter Milan (H) What a turnaround! I can scarcely believe my eyes at the final whistle. I had resigned myself to disappointment when we conceded a near post corner goal just before the hour mark. Until that point, the game had been tight but I had been pleased with the execution of a tactical plan to shut down Hamed Traore, the Nerrazuri's creator-in-chief. But then, maybe I should have had more faith. After all, Inter are gonna Inter! Matty Cash scores with a cross come shot to put us back in the game, and from then on out we demonstrate some great control, not ceding chances but still creating incursions here and there. Then, as the last ticks of added time evaporate, we take the ball down on the counter. A ball is played long, and somehow Florin Ardelean finds space between two of Inter's three center backs, glides through on goal and slots at the near post. Cue pandemonium in Athens. These are the nights you live for! Champions League Gameweek 2 - Dynamo Kiev (A) From the sublime... to the ridiculous. Dynamo Kiev gave us problems last season, but you just know when a particular team (or the FM gods) has it in for you when they recover a two-goal deficit with 10 men on the field. The most frustrating thing here however is that there is very little I could have done about it. Both goals come from a real lack of concentration. In no way should we have conceded the first, as three of my defenders run in the wrong direction at the same time when Kiev win back the ball. The equaliser is an excellent curling shot from outside the box, but the ball fell to Florentino Luis unmarked after a clearance from a defensive free kick. At a man up I am speechless to how we could have afforded a player like that so much space. Aaand breathe. At least Florin Ardelean has continued his vein of form. I'd not been quite so impressed with him last season and only ended up with him as a permanent fixture in the squad after a clause I wasn't aware of triggered. Thank goodness it did, as I've struggled for output from my until recently reliable duo of Kiril Despodov and Mbala Nzola. So far, this really is shaping up to be a swansong for two club legends. In the other match, Inter and Bayern draw, leaving us with 4 points and still top after two games. A Bayern double header comes next, so this could be a very different group in another couple of games. I'll be hoping for one of Kiev or Inter to tank it in their games, and leave 3rd place open once more.

Season 11 - September 2030 Olympiakos Greece - Super League I for one welcome our new Russian overlords... Well this is certainly a shake up. I do wish it happened quite a bit sooner! The takeover process and obligatory transfer embargo dragged on right into late-July, by which point most of my identified targets had moved on. In the meantime, I was powerless to react in the event somebody swooped in on a release clause for one of my players, as the embargo unable to offer improved contracts. Thankfully we avoided that particular outcome, but it was certainly not ideal to lose half of the window at the outset. When our definitely-legit-and-not-at-all-dodgy benefactor finally arrived however, we got to work on a couple of minor adjustments. The expected financial windfall of a takeover was somewhat overstated, but I was afforded a cool £20m or so to work with - much better than the £2m afforded to me by the original board. An early concern is a board insistence to sign "high-reputation players", something I try to avoid like the plague given my moneyball tendencies. It seems I've been given a bit of time to fulfill that brief, which is good because my primary concern this summer had been to move the squad into a more comfortable position with the home-grown squad limits for European competition. Last season I was limited to essentially a 17 man registration of players I reasonably could expect to contribute. This necessitated some difficult decisions, but I took advantage of interest in a club stalwart, Kim-Min Jae (now 33), and replaced him with Greek trained ex-Arsenal center back Kostas Mavropanos. Not the most exhilarating move, but an important one to free up slots. Should they still be on our books in season 12, this problem will be eased by the graduation of our youthful first teamers Uros Nad, Thomas Autenreith and Giannis Papadopoulos. I put in additional work on the home-grown front, repatriating goalkeeper Lefteris Choutesioris and ball-winning midfielder Vincenz Hansen. To put it as sensitively as I can, they aren't great, I'm not even sure they are good... but they're not total dog-s**t and we're actually allowed to play them if we need to so they're on the team With the rest of my budget I invested in Eibar's advanced playmaker and wonderkid, Fran Amagat. He comes in to provide real challenge to Lazar Samardzic, a 28 year old with similar qualities and great experience, but an imperfect injury record. Amagat proved to be a difference maker in pre-season games against Roma and Fiorentina. If he can replicate some of those performances for us in Europe we will have another world-beater on our hands. The last little sub-plot to play out this summer was with Brazilian defender Soares. In his one season with us so far, he's proven to be a cut-above the rest of the squad and deservedly holds star-player status. Naturally then I have been fending off some aggressive bids for him. Manchester City came in hard, but refused to pay out the £55m agreed upon with the player. So for now he stays, but let us see what January brings.... We enter the Champions League group stage this season without the need for a qualification round, making my pre-season much more straightforward. There is no such thing as an easy group in the Champions League, particularly coming in as 4th seed, although with a bit of luck you can get easier groups. We got... something in the middle. Bayern and Inter will certainly cause us trouble (although we sent Real Madrid packing before, so who knows?), and a rematch with Dynamo Kiev provides a little bit of spice. In season 10, the Ukrainian side very nearly scuppered our goal of 3rd place in the group and they will be in prime position to do that again this year. An additional personal element to this tie is that Kostas Tsmikas sustained his career ending injury in the away leg, making my life considerably more difficult than it needed to be. Revenge would be sweet. Overall, I am just pleased to avoid Premier League opposition, with Arsenal, Tottenham and Leicester all causing me grief in my previous attempts at European glory. If we do make it to 3rd place, I'm not expecting to necessarily go as far as win the Europa League, but I would like to put the team in a position to go on and achieve that in seasons 12 and 13. As a reminder, my self-set limit is 4 seasons and as such I need to make every run count. A deep run into the competition would do a world of good for my confidence that this is possible.

Season 10 - May 2030 Olympiakos Greece - Super League Let's get straight into the important stuff. To say this was disappointing would be an understatement. A dream run into the Europa League was cut short by Leicester. Premier League opposition would never be ideal, but in this case I felt we had an edge. Leicester's first XI probably exceeded ours, but the strength in depth was appalling. The plan then was to try and hold out until later into each game. A first leg goal from Harvey Barnes on half time robbed us of a chance to do that, and we faced an uphill battle from then onwards. My difficulty was compounded by Kiril Desposov, my set piece king and all round talisman, abandoning ship just weeks before the first game with homesickness. In a sleep deprived state I selected the option to offer him a chance to visit home, not realising that would commit him to a month out. Infuriating. In the second leg we were stonewalled by Leicester, who barely had to get out of second gear to do so. So, we start from scratch next season. I've learned a lot from this campaign, particularly the value of having a full squad selection available. With just a smattering of options to fill those home grown slots, the flexibility of my team is hugely hamstrung as I rely on the remaining 17 slots in the registration. Next year I will have a similar problem, so I am making a point of identifying targets to fill the 8 homegrown positions. This left me with just the League and Cup to focus on, which went... ... pretty well! Given the huge financial advantage I have, I'm cautious about boasting too hard, but this is my first ever unbeaten season so forgive me for having some pride! What's more, we set a record points total in doing so. The cup was as straightforward as last season, although the final (despite appearances) ended up providing some more jitters than I might have expected. Planning is well under way for season 11. I am hoping that we might be attracting some big offers, particularly for a few players who have developed into world class quality. This would go a long way to funding some more improvements. That said, we might not need it after all...

Season 10 - January 2030 Olympiakos Greece - Super League January 2030 marks my first full year in charge of Olympiakos, and one quarter of my way through a planned four year stay in Athens. My primary goal, as stated repeatedly in previous updates, is European silverware with "Thrylos". So let's get the boring stuff out of the way. Given the AI had managed a decade of consecutive league titles with Olympiakos, it would be somewhat embarrassing not to maintain that degree of form with a significantly upgraded squad. Thankfully that hasn't been an issue! 15 games played and 15 wins on the bounce in the regular season has given us a 9 point lead over AEK so far. The Kypello Ellados (Greek cup) has been similarly successful. A real challenge would be a full season of domestic wins, but I won't hold myself to that particular goal! On to the good stuff then. Our UCL group pitted us against Real Madrid, Tottenham and Dynamo Kiev. My initial feeling on this was not too good, not too bad. Ultimately winning the Champions League (this season at least) would be a tall order, so my best bet was to secure a 3rd place finish. I figured that I could secure two wins on Dynamo, and squeeze enough points out of Spurs or Real to see us through. First up then, was a trip to London. Well I certainly didn't expect this! A trusty near post corner from Kim put us into a 1-0 lead at half time, so I set the team up to play on the counter in the second half - and boy did that work out well. Mbala Nzola, my 33 year old Angolan DLF nailed an out of sorts defense with a hat-trick and gave us a 4-2 win. Next up, Real Madrid. This one will be tougher for sure. What is happening! I struggle to work out in this case whether this result owes more to a solid performance from us, or whether Real turned up cold. Brahim Clement, my French winger (who is developing wonderfully, thanks for asking) pops up to slot home in the first half and we just get absolutely nothing back from them. This leaves us two games in with 6 points on the board, and with a double header against Dynamo Kiev to follow. Huh. Well that's a bit anti-climactic. Dynamo shut us down in Kiev. No one turned up to play, and frankly think I over-tinkered trying to find a way back into the game. To make matters worse, Tsmikas ruptured his cruciate ligaments in this one leading to his instant retirement. While he was always going to play a supporting role this season, his homegrown status was crucial to my registration structure so the consequences of this one are perhaps further reaching than one might initially have thought. RIP big man. In the return leg, we gave them a better go, but honestly didn't do enough to warrant a win. Just 3 shots on target from 13 tells you everything there. Going into the business end of the group stage, we had a finely poised situation. Dynamo hadn't just given us trouble, they'd taken a victory over Real Madrid and a draw with Spurs to make them the unexpected group leaders. We sat in second, but would need to get at least a point from somewhere to stand any chance of not finishing bottom here. For game five, we host Spurs in Athens. Talk about a sickener After racing into an early 2 goal lead, we concede 2 absurdly silly goals just before half time to give the Premier League side a way back into the game. They have a caretaker manager since last time, so throw a few different things at us tactically. We freeze up in the second half, but do look like we are going to hold on until conceding a penalty late in the game. Real take a draw against Dynamo in their penultimate fixture, meaning they go into the final round top of the group. Our next opponents however are in desperate need of a win to qualify, and we have to see this one out in the Bernabeu. Well you know what they say, if you don't like the heat, get out of the kitchen. Aaaaaand breathe! This has to be the tensest match I've had in FM22 so far. Madrid threw a lot at us, but we restricted them to half chances and my backline held firm. As fun as a barnstorming, goal ridden, rout of your opposition is, there is something really quite satisfying about seeing your team grind out exactly the result they needed. Spurs win the group in the end, and our point draws us level with Kiev on points - but behind them on results between teams. Another manager would be seething on this, but for me, that is just what I wanted. We head into the Europa League with some valuable experience, a solid set of performances, and a healthy degree of optimism that we can take home this trophy. The first knockout round pits us against Leicester. Frankly, that's not the draw I wanted, but hey, we move.

Season 10 - September 2029 Olympiakos Greece - Super League Ahh. Football Manager. I remember you. Between a PC meltdown and general life getting in the way, the time to crack on with this has been hard to find! Yet find time I have - and finally I have another update to post. I finished my first half-season with Thrylos some months ago. To say there was any drama in re-taking the title for a 9th season in a row, and completing the domestic double by winning the Kypello Ellados would be... generous. At the very least it allowed me to add some new trophies to the cabinet, and provided the opportunity to familiarise myself with the squad. In my last post I was rather disparaging about the state of the squad, and whilst there was certainly a fair amount of deadwood needing to be moved, there were certainly some good players in there too. Notably, Devyne Rensch. Under the last regime, this Dutch wing back was used as primarily as a member of the supporting cast. For me, he was straight into the team and performed fantastically. So fantastically in fact that Barcelona decided to bid £31m for him in the early part of the summer. Now given his importance I had hoped to build the team around him, but £31m is a LOT of money in Greece and in the end this sale really kick-started my transfer activity. In total 15 players left the club for a total of £83m, and I spent £58m on 19 incoming players. The average age fell from 29 to 25, injecting a much needed jolt of potential to my first team. There are too many moves to go through each individually, but I am particularly proud/excited/sweaty about a few. Soares is a Brazilian defender with green numbers in all the right places. Atte Poyhonen is a fickle little Scandi sod, but christ alive can he pick a pass. And Brahim Clement is more of a traditional winger who offers us something different going forwards. At 19/20 all three of these have great futures in the game. The main focus for this season, as mentioned previously, will be our European campaign. The qualifying round against Trabzonspor did not pose much of a challenge, so our reward is a Champions League group of Real Madrid, Spurs and Dynamo Kiev. Spurs and Dynamo Kiev are two teams I have a little bit of European history with already, and Real Madrid will be my first challenge against the true creme de la creme in Europe. To be completely honest, the best outcome for me is probably a 3rd place finish. I don't doubt that my team can do better than that - but I want a trophy, and frankly I think I have a better shot of that in the Europa League than here. Maybe I shouldn't count my chickens just yet though! An additional challenge amongst all this are the registration rules. Olympiacos haven't done too well to accrue homegrown players, and consequently I have had to leave some good depth options out of my Champions League squad. I pulled this back a little bit by signing aging Greek internationals Odysseas Vlachodimos and Kostas Tsmikas, however they are not homegrown to the club so I am now having to leave out 4 players from my 25 man registration. Hopefully some of these younger players will meet the criteria in a few seasons time, but until then I will be facing my goal of European silverware here with one arm tied behind my back.

Season 9 - December 2028 Olympiakos Greece - Super League FM23? Never heard of it. So, time for a new chapter. I wanted to close the last one on an interesting note, hence the style change in my last post. My time at CSKA Sofia felt like a bit of a breakthrough and I'd finally managed to assemble a squad that truly felt my own. Leaving them behind was a bit of a wrench, although who knows if I might be able to get a few to follow me to Greece. The Olympiakos job popped up in mid-December when their long serving manager got the Atletico Madrid job. As mentioned in a previous post, this was the league I was looking at most closely and it felt like an opportunity that I couldn't really turn down. Notably, this represents the last real opportunity I will get in this save to complete my objective of European club silverware in a nation that has not seen it before. As regular qualifiers for the Champions League group stages, realistically this means dropping down a rank or two to do this within four seasons, so let's see how we get on with that one. The expectations of the board are essentially to maintain the domestic domination. Olympiakos in save have won the title 8 seasons on the bounce. Anything less than 1st could equal an embarrassing exit. The board also expect success in the Kypello Ellados (Greek Cup), so between that and my European ambition I will need a robust squad to cope with the fixture congestion. More on that later. First, an assessment of my situation on arrival. Joining in late December, the team sit in their usual 1st place perch. However form dipped under the caretaker and the lead has been cut to just one point. There is a bit of a scrum below us, with the other 5 remaining of the top 6 spots (denoting the qualification positions for the end of season Championship group) separated by just 6 points. My introduction to Greek football looks relatively kind, we have a number of fixtures crammed into January, but February is nicely spaced out before we hit the end of year group. I don't have any European football to worry about - they finished 4th in their Champions League group. Onto the squad then. One of my big bug-bears with FM is AI squad building. Teams seem to very rarely value two things - age, and defenders. Every time I have arrived at a new club I seem to have far too many aging players and not enough center backs. Olympiakos takes this to the extreme. The average age of the squad is 29, and I have two center backs (31 and 32 respectively) who I would consider playable. Looking around the youth team there is nobody who particularly stands out as knocking the door down for a first XI spot, so scouting and recruitment will be key to quickly advancing this team. Frustratingly, there is only one Greek player in the whole first team squad, so I'd like to re-introduce a bit of nationalist pride. Like in Bulgaria, I also have a 5 cap limit for non-EU players. Two of those are taken up by my playable center backs. Fortunately at least one slot is going to free up soon. This is shaping up to be a dramatic summer window. My goals then, are as follows: Season 1 Secure League and Cup double. Use January window to reinforce squad with younger, known players, any I can get my hands on. Season 2 Summer window clearout. 5 players are out of contract which will help, but I will be actively looking to sell a few more big earners going into the last year of their contract. Use as much financial resource as possible to bring in healthy mix of young players, ideally with a few Greeks. Reshape the staff team. Qualify for Europa League for a title run (may have to take an objective hit from the board by missing out on Champions League group stage, or possibly by taking a 3rd place spot). Maintain domestic domination. Seasons 3 & 4 Rinse, wash and repeat. πάμε!

Season 9 - December 2028 CSKA Sofia Bulgaria - Prva Liga "Robert Cuisance stands on the touchline at Vasil Levski, hands held behind his back, watching in quiet contemplation. His young, dynamic and hungry side are in the 90th minute of this Eternal Derby, leading 5-0 and cruising to the final whistle. The Prva Liga has failed to provide a challenge since the title was wrestled back from Ludogorets in May of last year, indeed this result will be eighth time Armeytsite had scored five or more goals to win this season. Victories over their nearest rivals had propelled them into a nine point lead going into the winter break. Truly, CSKA had returned to domestic domination." "So what of this season's European foray? Cuisance's squad began their campaign in the early months, as do most in these European outskirts. The return of the league title ensured the return to Champions League qualification for CSKA, entering in the second round and dispatching Astana, of Kazakhstan. Having already been sent to one cold and unforgiving wasteland, the third round draw sent the team to another - Scotland and Glasgow Rangers. This particular challenge however was one too far, and in the end they fell to a 4-3 aggregate defeat at Ibrox." "From here then, CSKA would need to confine themselves to the potential of Europa League, or Conference League football. Hammarby were drawn in the playoff. With the squad now formed with new recruits, the Swedes could not resist and a 4-2 aggregate victory sent Cuicance and his men to the group stages." "Third seed in Group B, and a tough test to make it through. Qarabag would likely be the whipping boys, but CSKA would be returning to North London, albeit the white half this time. Arsenal had made a mockery of the Bulgarians two seasons prior. Rounding out the group was RB Salzburg, certainly monied and certainly dangerous, few second seed draws could have been tougher." "First up, some English redemption and perhaps the finest moment for Cuicance in Sofia. Spurs provided stern opposition, but a nuanced tactical plan ended up sending CSKA into a two goal half time lead. The Lilywhites fought back in the second, but their aging stars couldn't find a way through and CSKA hold out for a famous 2-1 win." "The next four matches provided elation and frustration in equal measure. Salzburg capitilised on an early red card in their visit to Sofia, returning home as 2-3 victors. Qarabag were poorer than anticipated, and across the double header CSKA scored no less than than 14 goals. With the goal difference filled and 9 points secured, qualification would rest on the return fixtures with Spurs and Salzburg. Sandwiched in between tricky domestic matches, an unfit Sofia side could not repeat their earlier trick against Spurs at home, losing 0-2. With third place leading to the Conference League, CSKA's next European destination would rest on the return to Austria. So as the group stage started with redemption, it would end on revenge. Sofia held firm for 89 minutes, and with a good old near post corner, Jose Valencia pops up with the critical header and wins the game 1-0." "Two weeks ago CSKA learned that they would be heading to Rome, Lazio the opposition in the next round. An opportunity at European glory, and to go further than a Bulgarian team had gone in many years." "Alas, Robert Cuisance is not thinking about that now, and nor will he. He is enjoying the latest performance of his CSKA team. Darting runs from Tamas Nemeth, imperious defending from Jose Valencia. The return to form and ruthlessness after injury to midfielder Stojanovic. There is no doubt in his mind, this is the most talented squad he has had in his eight and a half seasons as head coach." "And with that thought, Cuisance contorts a rueful smile, as he acknowledges this will be the last time he composes these players. He knows that once the post match rituals are over, he will be collecting his already packed bags in his apartment and ordering a taxi to the airport." "New opportunities await..."

Season 8 - April 2028 CSKA Sofia Bulgaria - Prva Liga шампион! шампион! OLE OLE OLE!!! We're champions of Bulgaria baby! It was a phenomenal campaign... with a rather anti-climactic end. We took a 0-0 draw at home to Arda after a two week break following the semi-final exit. I'd assumed this would mean we needed a win over Etar in our next game to take the title, but instead Ludogorets went ahead and took their own 0-0 draw to CSKA 1948 - and just like that a 16 season unbeaten run of titles was over. I can't lie, I don't quite feel satisfied about that! Nevertheless, the title is ours and regardless of the circumstances, this is an achievement in itself. Ludogorets have an absurd financial grip on the league and overcoming that level of quality and maintaining consistency over the rest of the division is no mean feat. The challenge next season will be to repeat the trick but also while maintaining a European campaign. And on that note, I thought I'd use this opportunity to look at my original save goals and what the plan is from here. Original Objectives: Manage for 30+ seasons. 8 seasons in so far, 30 might be a challenge! I'm planning on skipping FM23 (at least any plans to have a main save in that game), so who knows I may make it this far. Chances are though even if I do we'll get a save crash. TBD! Manage at least 10 different clubs. CSKA Sofia is club 4. Again, 10 might be a challenge, but let's see. Manage a top-tier team across 4 different countries. 2 out of 4 on this one, so very much on track. Retrospectively could have made this 5/6 countries but that will probably happen anyway. Manage at least 3 clubs from my "cool list". This has been a dismal failure! Unfortunately most of the clubs on this list are no longer a "step up" for my manager, and being the role playing sort I am not keen on taking an artificial step down. I'm going to ditch this objective, and replace it with something new... Learn 5 new languages (in addition to the English, French and German already spoken by my manager). I'm on track here, with 3 out of 5 complete (Icelandic, Czech and Bulgarian). Topple a top-team in any league.* If I had any lingering doubt about the legitimacy of ticking this one off with Jablonec, I think we can say for certain I've done this in Sofia! Win the Conference League. So close and yet so far Win the Europa League. Win the Champions League. Not had a sniff of either of these yet! Win European silverware with a club in a country that has never had European success. Champions League, any club not from Holland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia. Europa League, any club not from Holland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Belgium, Ukraine, Turkey. Conference league (including above) depends on in game outcomes! Again, missing out with Jablonec hurts, as this one is definitely the most challenging! All in all, I'm feeling satisfied with my progress in 8 seasons. There are a few sticking points however, particularly around objectives 4 and 10. I'm clearly not going to complete #4, so in it's place I will create a spiritual successor. The idea of the list was to add to my FM-CV some clubs that had some interesting culture and history to them, mainly drawn from some spotty research I conducted before embarking on this challenge. As it is unlikely I will fire myself off to the Hungarian second division for example to revive Debrecen, and I want to maintain a general upward trajectory (as long as my manager performance justifies that of course!), instead I will deploy an objective that targets higher reputation clubs. So, from here on, objective 4 reads as: "Manage at least 3 clubs who have previously appeared in a Champions League/European Cup or Europa League/UEFA Cup final" There is a little bit of overlap with my previous list of clubs*, but this now means I need to sit in the hotseat at 3 of: RB Salzburg Anderlect Club Brugge Panathinaikos Fehérvár Ajax AZ Feyernoord PSV Twente Benfica Porto Braga Sporting Steaua Bucharest (or) FCSB** Partizan Belgrade Red Star Malmo IFK Goteborg Galatasaray *I have removed Russian, Belrusian and Ukrainian clubs from my plan since the last patch made changes to the functionality of these leagues. **This feels unlikely, but in any case it would more than likely be FCSB (despite the fact the official claim for the 1986 title lies with 3rd division Steaua). And then I still have #10 to consider, by far the trickiest to pull off as the circumstances have to be just right. From where I am, I have 2, maybe 3, shots at this in eligible nations. To my current advantage is the fact that that a Bulgarian club is eligible to tick this off for me, so for that reason I want to give a 3rd season with CSKA Sofia a go. We go into the Champions League qualifying and, while I'm not going to deliberately throw a game to drop down a competition, it seems unlikely I will go far here. So the ambition will be to have a run at either the Europa or Conference League. I'm realistic that is a tall order though, so for that reason I'm planning my next career steps carefully. My ambition is to at some point end up at one of the big Dutch or Portuguese clubs, as this will give me the best chance of a Champions League win within the 4 season limit I've set. So rather than jumping straight to these countries, I'll need to make an intermediate step. The way I see it, this is ideally at a Greek club. There are two key candidates, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, where I could imagine having a strong run in European competition. Failing that, PAOK and AEK might also offer a similar, albeit further back, platform. The only realistic alternative would be RB Salzburg in Austria, or at a stretch a strong Swiss club. So, with that in mind, the plan from here is to: 1. Remain at CSKA Sofia for the next two seasons, provided I am in good European standing during that time. 2. Keep a firm eye on roles at the aforementioned Greek clubs, and with RB Salzburg. If they come up, then I'll strongly consider a switch. And of course, I'll need to attend job interviews at higher reputation clubs all the while - but unless I get a truly spectacular offer, I'll be sticking to this plan.