FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

[iacovone]

Just about signed a couple of good ones

New Brazilian young striker Juninho joins from Juve. He's 19, quick and determined. He should have a good impact and at £2.1m can't be too much of a risk.

Juan Batista Silva Diniz also joins for £2.4m from Feyenoord. He can play CB or DM so will strengthen our spine.

With those two plus the two oldies I'm done on the transfer front. We're out of money now anyway so I had no choice .

This season is all about survival again as we steadily look to build our reputation and infrastructure.

Pleasingly we have a new sponsor at £1.1m a year (up from £220k) so that should help. Season ticket sales remain at about the 300 level though. Don't think football is popular on the Canary Islands

[rlipscombe]

good to see you've got a couple in. hopefully they can make you survive again. As for the season ticket issue, it's just crazy!

[iacovone]

I know! I am not impressed!

How's it going at Venezia anyway? Get much time this weekend for it?

[rlipscombe]

played about 15 games of new season and mid table. shipping a few too many goals for my liking but there you go. money isn't great though - losing about £400k a MONTH at moment so staying afloat with player sales and bonus money etc. we're not good enough at moment to threaten the european places but touch wood we should survive comfortably again this season..

[iacovone]

Sounds good mate, strong progress. I'm in no danger of going into the red as we're well under budget and so the TV, sponsor, prize money keeps us afloat. Unfortunately the fanbase is so small we don't have any other income . 266 season tickets sold this year, up 8 from last year

First game of the season is now and its Real Madrid at home! We beat them 3-1 in the league here last year, quietly confident...

Also discovered an incredible 16 year old wonderkid at Orihuela in the Spanish lower leagues. Unfortunately AC Milan and a couple of La Liga sides have noticed him too...still I'm waiting to hear his decision.

[iacovone]

And. We. Lost. 2-0. The start of another long hard season begins

[Lower Leagues Rule]

congrats on the child and good to see Evora in action again. good luck in the Euro Cup.

First child!? Wow, many congrats Des, good health and all that

Thanks both of you, my Daughter is due in late July, I am already planning the football gear and supporters stuff for her.

And. We. Lost. 2-0. The start of another long hard season begins

Good luck as you slog on, I am pretty happy with the Evora line-up, but I really need a little something extra in there to get home for the Champions League.

[iacovone]

Hope your daughter's going to be decked out in Fafe merchandise and not Arsenal...!

I won't be in here much the next couple of weeks as we still wait for an internet connection at the new flat . I'll try and keep you posted via my connection at work, but that may not be the wisest move . I'll be soldiering on with Castillo though

[DodgeeD]

Just catching up here after a while away myself. Well done on survival iacovone. Not much more you can hope for in the first season really. Amazing that Iniesta is still going - incredible mental stats but pace of 1!

Good to see you are making inroads into Serie A rlipscombe. I always find the finances sort themselves out after a while.

Congrats on the impending birth of your daughter LLR and I second the notion that she should be decked out in Fafe rather than Arsenal merchandise (might be harder to find though )

I will return to my BC Branco save eventually but for now, I have two MA assignments to do and less than 4 weeks to the deadline! I'll be getting plenty of FM time in over the summer though.

[The Art of Drowning]

Giving this a go as Sport Uniao Sintrense in Portugal.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...g?t=1272908632

Already losing money fast but have started very well so far.

[PRDH]

I know I've not uploaded the update I promised. Sorry. Good to see LLR (congrats about the baby by the way) and iacovone back. Looking forward to an update at some point!

I've rather lost interest in Romorantin lately. Kresic's career in the first team is over (his pace has gone) and I've got to no youngsters I really want to see get through their career. I'm wondering whether to embark on another challenge.

[edit] - And good luck The Art of Drowning - I wouldn't worry too much about losing money, I don't know anyone who has attempted the challenge whose first few seasons have not seen the club hemorrhaging money, it tends to sort itself out eventually!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Giving this a go as Sport Uniao Sintrense in Portugal.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...g?t=1272908632

Already losing money fast but have started very well so far.

Losing money in Portugal? I only got out of the red once I got to European Football, although thats hard because I only have 2000 seats for those games, and sell out every one

[rlipscombe]

Giving this a go as Sport Uniao Sintrense in Portugal.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...g?t=1272908632

Already losing money fast but have started very well so far.

welcome and good luck in Portugal.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Delighted with our last two games out, a 4:0 over Nacional who are sitting in 5th, and a 7:0 over Belenenses who are a strong mid table team in 8th. But now with a 23 game unbeaten streak in the league, we haven't lost since we last played Benfica we face them once more.

Oh and on the signings note, I am chasing a Central defender named Francisco Javier, to line up alongside Francisco Javier Sanchez.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Damn the Curse of the Forum...we lost 1:0 to a controversial penalty...

[The Art of Drowning]

Thanks guys, was around £75k in the red but had a good cup run that lead us to playing Sporting Lisbon away so we're out of the red a little bit. Took them to extra time too but lost 2-1.

[rlipscombe]

unlucky results there LLR and TAoD...

[Lower Leagues Rule]

A Quick Update on Evora and their March Competition Hunt

Liga Sagres - We seem to be running away with this, since we lost to Benfica we have won 9 in a row, 7 games 3:0, 1 @ 3:2 (Sporting) and 1 @ 1:0 (Varzim), this has put us 13pts clear with 7 to go, though we have to face Benfica, Porto, Braga, Nacional on the run home. Below is the table showing all the teams with a chance still at the title, Guimaraes on 37pts could get home if we lose all our games, but they would need to get more than +40 GD over 7 games.

Team          Record  For Ags G.D. Pts
Evora         18-4-1  56   9  +47  58
Sporting      13-6-4  42  23  +19  45
Benfica       13-6-4  38  22  +16  45
Porto         12-4-7  35  22  +13  40
Rio Ave       10-8-5  29  21  + 8  38

Portuguese Cup - Well our run has taken us to the Semi-Finals here, and we are facing Sporting over two legs, first away where we have lost 3:2, next we head home to tryand take advantage of the two away goals and win this game. The second Semi sees Porto take on Gil Vicente, Porto is up 1:0 after their home leg.

League Cup - We made it to the final in this competition as we attempt to add a second trophy to our collection for the season, it would also be another final against Porto who we defeated in the Super Cup. We let them in early for a one nil lead, but a great effort by Cappiello led to us getting back into the match. At half time the game was all tied up and I sent them out telling them to win it for our fans, and they did that just a minute later as Cappiello was brought down in the box and Mateus converted the penalty, we had 11 on 10 for 30 minutes before Markovic also left the field. We held on to win for our second League Cup Title and also became the first team to win it twice in the 2020s.

Euro Cup - We were travelling to Turkey for the 2nd leg of our 2nd round match and going in we were up 4:1, I thought this made the game easy, and when at half time we were leading the away leg 3:0 I thought it was a no-brainer from here as they had to score 7 goals to defeat us and send us out, but I never saw them going on a 5 goal run to completely get back in it. We managed to hold on, but just final score 5:3 for an aggregate score of 7:6 and we are through to face HSV in the Quarter Final.

I am also pretty happy with our striking comittee as we have played 44 games, Zeric has played all of them, Myklebust has played 39 & Mateus 41, together they have combined for a huge 58 goals, Zeric (20), Mateus (20) & Myklebust (18), this is exactly what I need all three of my strikers need to be scoring.

[rlipscombe]

that's some serious domination of the league that.... Good luck in the Euro Cup. if you can keep injury free you could have a very successful season....

[The Art of Drowning]

Bloody Hell, we've won the league so I'm delighted with the promotion only to find we're now in some sort of playoff

We better win!

[The Art of Drowning]

Bloody Hell, we've won the league so I'm delighted with the promotion only to find we're now in some sort of playoff

We better win!

Drew 3 out of 3 so far, been behind in each and been battered in each.

[The Art of Drowning]

haha won the final toughest away game 5-2. Update tomorrow.

[The Art of Drowning]

Season 1 - Sintrense - Portugese 2nd Division Central - 1st-




League Table


League Playoff





Key Players




Lima

Well worth spending the cash on, easily our best player and was pretty much impossible to stop at this level, he should step up well enough too.

Buba

Every team needs an African beast in the centre of their midfield, class signing and dominated in the middle of the park.


Pedro Ganhao

Solid season from our new central midfielder, scored a few too.


Transfers

At £20k Lima was well worth the risk and was easily our best signing, as well as the players mentioned we also had some important loan signings. Ramon deserves a mention too, released from the Porto Youth team he was equally impressive in midfield and defence. Got some decent players coming in for next season and I think we can aim for a safe mid table finish at best.

[rlipscombe]

impressive 1st season there - Lima is a beast for that level... he could play in Liga Sagres. Buba looks like a good centre midfielder too. good luck next season.

[The Art of Drowning]

impressive 1st season there - Lima is a beast for that level... he could play in Liga Sagres. Buba looks like a good centre midfielder too. good luck next season.

Thanks, Lima just appeared in our player search but was worth £400k, thought he was worth a scout and couldn't resist getting him in when my scout said I could get him for a much cheaper fee. Well worth it.

Signed an old FM legend in Fabio Paim, remember him being awesome as a 14 year old in one of the old versions.

[rlipscombe]

i remember him well!! what is he looking like now? he was going to be as big as Simao i think....

[The Art of Drowning]

Pretty average tbh, I'll get a screenshot up when I'm next playing. Has decent stats(13,14's) in crossing, dribbling and pace which is what you want from a winger. Simao he isn't though

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well I have completed my season, and I was killed in results at the end by a very compressed finish. Will post my update soon.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's
Lusitano de Evora


End of Season
2025/26 Liga Sagres
Becoming an Icon

The Current Season

The Quick Reference

Predicted: 1st
Actual: 1st - CHAMPIONS!!!
Portuguese Cup: Semi Final vs Sporting (Leg 1 - Leg 2)
League Cup: Final vs Porto - CHAMPIONS!!!
Super Cup: vs Porto - CHAMPIONS!!!
Champions League: Group Stage - 3rd Group A
Europa League: Quarter Final vs HSV (Leg 1 - Leg 2)
Euro Rank: 28th (^20) [3rd Por]
Finances: £75M (1st Por, 27th World)
Season Tickets: 1913 (^420)
The Squad: Defense & Attack
Transfers: 2025/26
The Manager: Des Tiny - History

The Season in General

Well this season saw me trying to put together the final pieces to challenge for the Champions League, so I made a few more transfers to try and find them. I managed to add two Strikers in Drazen Tomas, who I really just stole as he kept scoring against me he is my 5th best striker, and Emiliano Cappellio, who is going to be the future leader upfront, right now he is coming off the bench most of the time and has played a lot of games. Another addition was a top class Goalkeeper in Steven Vogt, he came in and was great, but unable to play in Europe as he had played already for another team. Then come January I had spotted two more young stars who could join us and we added Jose Maria Aleman to our midfield and Francisco Javier to our defence as well. In Monetary terms we lost almost all of our gains from last season, but we are still financially strong. And the best part of the season came at the end as Des Tiny makes the Portuguese Hall of Fame! & Becomes a Club Icon!

The League

Well there was a slowish start for us in the league even if we continued to be unbeaten for a fairly long time through the season, we took 8 weeks to reach the top spot, but once we got there we never looked back, with seven games to go we were up by 13pts and it looked easy, but somehow it came down to a final day battle and we only just took the victory. I attribute the bad form to the fact that we had 15 games over 8 weeks in March & April and it just ended up with our players exhausted, it also didn't help that we had a stretch of games 3 days apart featuring on TV in a row we had: Porto, Sporting, Braga, HSV, Benfica, HSV, Porto, Sporting, which just made it an even harder run home. When we won the board said Minimal Celebrations, the Fans were delighted with Three Peat, and doing the Double. On another note Braga has been relegated for the first time since 1976, and Tourizense who were in the unplayable leagues during 2013-2020 managed to stay up.

Player Stats
Team Stats

The Cups

Our run in the cups was very good, we made it into the top 4 of both, the League Cup final saw us defeat Porto and take that trophy. In the Super Cup early in the season we overcame Porto with ease to win that one as well, and then we fell apart in the Semi-Finals of the Portuguese Cup as we tried for the Quadruple, but there is always next season. Winning the League Cup please the board, and the fans say Tiny was Staunch.

LC Stats
PC Stats

Europe

Well in Europe we started off with a hiss and a roar in the group stage as we took on Barcelona and others, but they were just a little too good for us and we dropped out and into the Euro Cup, we faced and defeated Siena & Ankaragucu before we failed on away goals to HSV in the Quarterfinals, this was a slightly disappointing European trip compared with last season, but we are going to be back again.

Vs the Top 3


at Sporting 2:3, 3:2
vs Sporting 2:0, 1:1
nv Porto 2:1, 1:0
vs Porto 1:0
vs Benfica 1:0, 0:1
at Benfica 0:1

The Club's History

League Records

|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|
|  Season  |  League  | Final Pos | Playoffs | Achievements |
|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|
|  2010/11 |   2DS    |    6th    |          |     None     |
|  2011/12 |   2DS    |    1st    |    2nd   |   Promoted   | Won 2nd Div South
|  2012/13 |    LV    |    8th    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  2013/14 |    LV    |    3rd    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  2014/15 |    LV    |    3rd    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  2015/16 |    LV    |    4th    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  2016/17 |    LV    |    3rd    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  2017/18 |    LV    |    1st    |    N/A   |   Promoted   | Won Liga Vitalis
|  2018/19 |    LS    |   10th    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  2019/20 |    LS    |    5th    |    N/A   | Qualified EC |
|  2020/21 |    LS    |    9th    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  2021/22 |    LS    |    5th    |    N/A   |  Won Lg Cup  | Qualified EC
|  2022/23 |    LS    |    3rd    |    N/A   | Qualified EC |
|  2023/24 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |  Won League  | Qualified CL
|  2024/25 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |  Won League  | Qualified CL
|          |   Cups   | Won Super | Won Port | 2nd Champs L |
|  2025/26 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |  Won League  | Qualified CL
|          |   Cups   | Won Super |    N/A   |  Won Lg Cup  |
|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|

Club Records & Competition History

All Records:
Highest Gate Receipts: 190,000 vs Sporting
Biggest Win: 9:1 vs Fafe Portuguese Cup 4th Round
Most Games Won in a Row: 18
Most Games Without Conceding: 10
Most League Apps: Francisco Javier Sanchez 191
Most League Goals: Wilson Mateus 51
Highest Fee Paid: 5M for Emiliano Cappiello
Total Spending: 17.75M
Youngest Goalscorer: Francisco Javier 17y 215d

Competition History:
Champions League - 2nd 2025
Liga Sagres - Winners 2024, 2025, 2026, 3rd 2023
League Cup - Winners 2022, 2026
Portuguese Cup - Winners 2025
Super Cup - Winners 2024, 2025
Liga Vitalis - Winners 2018, 3rd 2014, 2015, 2017
2nd Division South - Winners 2012
Reserves:
Group 3 - 3rd 2017
Group 2 - Winners 2025, 2026, 2nd 2019
U19s:
Group 4 - 2nd 2024, 3rd 2025, 2026
U19s Cup - Winners 2023, 2nd 2018

The Players

The Squad

Current Teams Stats - Attack & Defense

Goalkeepers

31. Steven Vogt - A new signing in July he came in and showed straight away that he was good enough to start for my squad, he was excellent at the back and he appeared to be the piece I had been missing in my squad for the last season, but a slight drop at the end meant he ended up with a few more goals against him than he should've.

          Apps    Conc  Clean MoMs AvgRat
 2025/26   38      22    23     0   6.90
 Career    38      22    23     0   6.90

33. Oscar Carrera - The starter for a couple of seasons so far has been relegated to a back-up role, he was our keeper in Europe though and may be the reason we were dumped out quickly as he conceded almost a goal per game.

          Apps    Conc  Clean MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    16      14     7     1   6.89
Career    207     180    94     3   6.87

40. Giannis Nikopolidis - He was another of these younger keepers that I have been starting to stockpile, he actually agreed to go out on loan for me and he will most likely go again next season as he is not necessary in this team, but he is clearly a possible future star.

          Apps    Conc  Clean MoMs AvgRat
2025/26     0       0     0     0   0.00
on loan     8 (2)   6     6     0   7.19
Career      0       0     0     0   0.00

30. Pedro - The young Brazillian is cover for my keepers and will probably continue in this role going forward as well, he is yet to have a game for the club, but he does look good.

          Apps    Conc  Clean MoMs AvgRat
2025/26     0       0     0     0   0.00
Career      0       0     0     0   0.00

Defense

3. Pablo Roman - The Centurion is our centre back strength, he has now played 126 games for us at the back and he had another great season he is definitely going to be the main man for us. If the rest of our team can play like this then we would win every competition.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   39 (0)    1     0    2   7.18
Career   119 (7)   13     2    11   7.21

4. Francisco Javier Sanchez - He now has a namesake at the club who may manage to push him out of the starting line-up, but Sanchez will be hoping to make it to 300 caps for the club before that comes about. Our most capped player is a massive star for us, but he is not as good as Roman and has made some mistakes.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   44 (0)    1     0     4   7.21
Career   286 (5)   47     9    42   7.31

36. Ferhat Yildiz - I love this man, his contract is signed a long time into the future, he is worth millions and his play down the right hand side has made the difference all season long, there is no player I would rather have in this position, as he passed 150 games we saw that the Turkish connection for Evora is learning how to run the team.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   45 (0)    7     7    10   7.62
Career   151 (2)    9    19    20   7.35

5. Adolfo Silveira Reis - He would have to be disappointed with his latest season, with the addition of Javier he has dropped to about 5th in the pecking order at Centre Back, but as I am looking to rotation in 2026/27 he may get some more game time.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    1 (2)    0     0     0   7.13
Career    99 (5)    0     2     3   7.03

63. Peter Kalu - With Yildiz on fire down the right he regularly gets overlooked by the fans and by the media as he is a lot less flashy, but without a strong player on the field at left back we would be in a lot of trouble and as he stacks up the games we see this combination building a great bond.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   39 (1)    0    11     1   7.31
Career   130 (5)    0    40     6   7.34

80. Alejandro Etxeberria - The cover for Yildiz, he is not a superstar, but he managed a Player of the Month appearance when he was covering for injury.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    7(11)    0     1     0   6.88
Career    44(41)    0     3     0   6.85

2. Peter Cooper - The cover for Kalu, our young american is just going to continue as back-up, but a slight rotation may see him get a similar number of games in the new season.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   17(11)    1     3     0   7.08
Career    41(26)    1     5     0   6.80

50. Pedro Banos - He started the season as our third back, but with the inclusion of young Javier it may mean that he drops down a little further. Without a doubt he is good enough for our team and I will be using him when I need to rotate near the end of next season.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    8 (3)    0     0     0   6.61
Career    18(11)    0     1     0   6.95

Adrian Cuevas - He was on loan for the start of the season at Elfsbourg, but then he came back and I let him out on loan to Rio Ave and he featured in their run through the second half of the year, they ended the season in 5th and had been 10th when he joined.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00
on loan   15 (0)    1     0     1   7.14 (At Rio Ave)
Career     0 (3)    0     0     0   6.83

6. Francisco Javier - The young signing in January looks the goods and will become a star in this team eventually, but he just needs a bit more work on the field to get into it.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   16 (2)    1     0     0   6.77
Career    16 (2)    1     0     0   6.77

With me looking at a Rotation Policy for the new season, especially near the end when I have so many matches I am going to show you some of my Youth Stars and possibilities for my team at some point next year.

93. Rui Barreto (Yth)

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00
Career     0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00

99. Ricardo Lima (Yth)

           Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00
Career     0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00

95. Augusto Spencer (Yth)

           Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00
Career     0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00

Midfield

26. Ernesto Vazquez - One of the absolute stars of our midfield, he had some great long range goals this season whic led to some stunning celebrations, and he has really grown into the role this year, he has a great combination going with Markovic.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   50 (1)   14     8     6   7.22
Career   240(16)   45    40    16   7.03

16. Gabriel Bazan - He is slowly slipping out of contention for the starting team, most of his games came during a period of injuries, but obviously with a rotation chance he will get more games in the new season.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    7(15)    0     2     0   6.79
Career    80(49)    6    13     1   6.84

13. Andre Santos - With over 200 caps he should be playing better than he did this season, he had some serious dry patches, but he did still get double figures in assists, he is clearly the third best player in our midfield right now.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   46 (0)    3    11     0   7.25
Career   200 (7)   19    44     6   7.12

42. Paulo Cordeiro - There is really no question that Cordeiro after playing so many games over the last few seasons has to be disappointed to only get three appearances in the latest season, he will be hoping to get more game time when rotation comes into play.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    0 (3)    0     1     0   6.73
Career    62(88)    6    27     1   6.79

19. Yasin Erdem - The super sub this season, he lost a few games near the end to Aleman, but he is definitely going to play at least 25 games a season and it may be more in the new year. He is getting on a little as he reached 30 this season, but he will feature somewhat.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    5(21)    1     2     0   6.76
Career    43(40)    3    16     1   6.95

14. Borivoje Markovic - Well he joined in January last year, but this season he had his first full season and showed exactly why I bought him. The Serbian has become a star for the team in very short order and with 21 assists and also ten goals, if he can keep this up then I know how our next season will look.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   49 (2)   10    21     4   7.32
Career    68 (2)   11    25     4   7.14

21. Jose Maria Aleman - He was one of a pair of youngsters to join us in January and was delighted to make the move from Real Madrid to Evora, he had a reasonable set of appearances off the bench and was named Man of the Match in one game as well. He definitely looks a good chance to be a star in the future.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    5(14)    0     1     1   6.69
Career     5(14)    0     1     1   6.69

91. Jorge Maia (Yth)

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00
Career     0 (0)    0     0     0   0.00

Strikers

10. Wilson Mateus - The Colombian has played in 42 international games, but he is an absolute star for Evora, scoring just under a goal every 2 games he is right up there. He also became the first player to score 50 league goals for the club, the highest goalscorer and the highest league goalscorer this season. With over 200 appearances for the club he continues to lead the line and at only 26 has a few years left yet.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   47 (3)   23    14     3   6.99
Career   185(18)   72    38    16   7.03

44. Johnny Myklebust - The only one of my three strikers who didn't manage to get 20 goals this season, but Johnny was also injured for a while and he didn't get as much game time as he would've liked, still a stunning season to add another 19 goals at a rating over seven, he continues to impress.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   43 (5)   19     6     3   7.03
Career   120(25)   54    29    10   7.05

1. Haris Zeric - The third member of our striking front has just shown that it is possible to play in nearly every game in a season upfront, he only missed one game and scored 21 goals and 18 assists as he took charge upfront with his best season to date, the Swiss-Bosnian is clearly has a bright future here as we try to build towards Champions League glory.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   51 (2)   21    18     6   7.21
Career   140(11)   74    38    14   7.00

71. Fatih Erol - He dropped completely to the job of back-up striker this season, with three upfront we have two reserve slots ofr the striking slot, so even with the new signing he will feature in the team through the new year. He hasn't scored as many goals as I would like, but he will grow into the job and hopefully be able to take over at some point.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    3(22)    4     2     0   6.76
Career    32(40)   13     6     1   6.78

94. Francisco Flores - The youth star stepped in when we had injuries in March, but he just made three appearances off the bench and did pretty much nothing.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    0 (3)    0     0     0   6.47
Career     0 (3)    0     0     0   6.47

55. Emiliano Cappiello - I brought this guy in as the future, he has been the biggest signing I have made at 5 million pounds, but it looks like he will be worth the cost, yes he only got 9 goals in 43 games, but that was mostly off the bench, he did get 14 starts and looked good including the goal that got us the victory in the League Cup final.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26   14(29)    9     2     0   6.79
Career    14(29)    9     2     0   6.79

11. Drazen Tomas - The new signing from Belenenses was bought mainly because he kept scoring goals against us, I gave him a shot at breaking into the side, but he never really gave a good effort so he is likely to leave again or just get a few games next year.

          Apps    Goals Assts MoMs AvgRat
2025/26    4 (6)    1     1     0   6.64
Career     4 (6)    1     1     0   6.64

The Best of the Best



The 200 Club



Francisco Javier Sanchez 291*, Ernesto Vazquez 256*, Oscar Carrera 207*, Andre Santos 207*, Wilson Mateus 203*, Gabriele Federici 203.

The 100 Club



Oier Torres 198, Matteo Jehl 194, Hector Cruz 182, Jose Manuel 179, Benjamin Addo 172, Carlos Perez Rojo 170, Ferhat Yildiz 153*, Haris Zeric 151*, Diego Galiano 151, Paulo Cordeiro 150*, Sebastian Visentin 147, Raphael Lopes 146, Abraham 146, Johnny Myklebust 145*, Pablo Cabezas 141, Sergio Torres 137, Alberto Gonzalez 136, Peter Kalu 135*, Guilherme Afonso 132, Gabriel Bazan 129*, Pablo Roman 126*, Theo Tsotetsi 117, Jose Maria 113, Carsten Littman 107, Adolfo Silveira Reis 104*, Ander Suarez Rodriguez 100.

The Awards

Liga Sagres

Player of the Year: Ernesto Vazquez 1st, Ferhat Yildiz 2nd.
Forward of the Year: Haris Zeric 1st, Johnny Myklebust 2nd.
Fullback of the Year: Ferhat Yildiz 1st.
Central Defender of the Year: Francisco Javier Sanchez 2nd.
Best Goalkeeper: Steven Vogt 1st.
Team of the Year: Vogt, Yildiz, Kalu, Vazquez, Markovic, Zeric & Mateus.
Most MoM: Ferhat Yildiz 1st.
Golden Boot: Wilson Mateus 1st (15), Johnny Myklebust 2nd (15).
Most Assists: Borivoje Markovic 1st, Haris Zeric 2nd.
Manager of the Year: Des Tiny 1st.
Goal of the Month - Jan: Mateus 3rd, Feb: Myklebust 3rd.
Player of the Month - Dec: Etxeberria 1st, Jan: Yildiz 1st, Feb: Yildiz 2nd, Zeric 3rd, Apr: Yildiz 3rd.
Manager of the Month - Jan: 1st, Feb: 1st, Mar: 1st

Portuguese Cup

Goal of the Year: Zeric 3rd.
Most MoM: Zeric 3rd.
Golden Boot: Zeric 1st (8)

League Cup

None this Season

Evora

Fans PotY: Ferhat Yildiz

Best XI: Vogt, Yildiz, Kalu, Sanchez, Roman, Vazquez, Santos, Markovic, Zeric, Myklebust, Mateus.
Subs: Carrera, Cooper, Etxeberria, Bazan, Cappiello, Javier, Erol.

All Time XI: Littman, Yildiz, Kalu, Sanchez, Galiano, Jehl, Lopes, Manuel, Santos, Afonso, Zeric.
Subs: Carrera, Roman, Leao, Maria, Vazquez, Reis, Myklebust.

Thoughts of the Future

Predicted Finish: 1st
Odds: 5-2 (Fav)
Expectations: Win
Transfer Budget: 23M
Wage Budget: 325k
The Signings: None Currently

Not really sure why, but our Chairman gave us a loan of 15.5M, we had just received 13M in Televsion Money. We saw Vazquez & Carrera both use their Portuguese Citizenship to appear in the national side, this meant both of them gave up their chance to play for Spain. Our Physio, Castellici, is planning on retirement after 14 years with the club. We are going to get some upgrades as the board plan to upgrade or Facilities, and also add another 2250 seats to our Stadium.

The World Cup Call-ups

Vazquez, Carrera (Portugal)
Banos (Mexico)
Yildiz (Turkey)
Myklebust (Norway)
Zeric, Erdem (Switzerland)

The Youth Players

[ghostwriter]

Renato Curi Angolana - Serie B - 2017/18

Solid midtable at the New Year

There was more transfer activity in January than I was expecting and not all of it good. First of all I wanted to check out the Bosman market but because our wages were a few pounds over budget, I could only offer peanuts. This encouraged me to offload some of the underused reserves, 4 left for over £100k and the wages were sufficiently reduced for me to sign up 2 Spaniards for next season; a GK and a ST. I also signed up another very promising inexplicably transfer-listed teenage Spaniard, a DM/M C for £70k. I also got rid of half of Loeschbor for too much money. On the negative side of things, Agudo signed up at Serie A Lecce for the Summer and then my board accepted an offer of £725k for my brilliant Argentine ML who had only been here 6 months. I could really complain as it is a lot of money but if it had been up to me I would have at least waited until Summer. Anyway this necessitated a frantic search of my shortlist for a replacement. Thankfully my shortlist is full of ridiculoulsy talented MLs (but unfortunately not many MRs which I need), my 1st choice went to Denmark, my second wanted too much money so I checked out 2 more, both were willing to sign but I went with the cheaper so in came a Belgian U21 International.

First 2 matches of 2018 were both away from home and both resulted in defeats which made it 4 in a row which was a little disconcerting. Thankfully we beat Parma 2-0 at home and went on a 5 match unbeaten run only conceding 3 goals. This took us again much closer to the playoffs than the relegation zone. That run ended abruptly at Chievo before we tried our best to throw away the points at home to Mantova but thankfully failed as we struggled to a 4-3 win.

Then things went wrong again, a run that ended up being 1 win in 13. First of all Benevento embarrasingly thrashed us 3-0 before we drew with Atalanta and relegation threatened Modena won at our place via a very offside injury time goal. Another defeat was followed by a heroic performance at leaders Salernitana, they needed an injury time goal to equalise. 1 point from the next 2 and we were looking over our shoulder at the bottom and were also in a horrific injury crisis, 4 DRs were out which meant we had to play with our 17yo youth product in the next match but he did OK as we broke the run by squeezing past Ravenna. And there followed 1 point from 3 games. Thankfully the teams below us were not advancing at all so after that last defeat our safety was confirmed. This evidently lifted a weight off our shoulders as we promptly won our last 2 home matches to finish the season on a high.

So, 13th is where we finished and midtable is pretty much where we were for most of the season. As I said at New Year it needed a total breakdown to be threatened with relegation and although we tried we were thankfully not bad enough to reach that point, in the end we were pretty much equidistant between the playoffs and playouts. We scored a repectable amount of goals but unfortunately also conceded far too many, the bottom 3 all conceded less. We were great at home (3rd best) and dire away (equal worst, only team with less than 2 wins).

On the player front, Napoli was unbelievably good having his best ever season, which given that it was his 6th here and he played in Serie C2 is pretty impressive, he led the division in assists. Dancs were also great, 4th top scorer in the division. Sarriegi had a great first half of the season and a slightly less great 2nd half. Our wingers, after Martinez's departure, showed nothing which probably explained a bit our slump. Defensively we have problems, not because we conceded so much but because they won't be there next year, the 2 DCs are out of contract (Agudo already signed elsewhere) while the DR is on loan, and also the DL is not really good enough either...

Final Squad
Final Summary
Finances - a bit better, we are making some money in any case but that is only because of sales and TV money
Transfers - Martinez was clearly the best but unfortunately I was not the only one to notice this, Dancs has been great but again others have noticed so I am in fear of the Summer, the right sided players (Revuelta, Jacobo) did OK whilst the 2 German backups have potential, Schutz has so far been disappointing but once settled I hope he will be as good as Martinez, Diego is an ST that came in on free and has promise as do the 3 Spaniards (José, Puertas, Munoz) I actually paid money for.

The better players this season have been:

Best GK - Fabian Remy - solid, made some cracking saves, won us a few points, made few errors, perfectly good enough for this division, one thing that has been lacking is any competition but with the arrival of the Spaniard (supposedly just as good) on a Bosman in the Summer that will change, that said he will probably start as first choice again
Best Defender - Marcos Agudo - moved back to DC and was pretty good, unfortunately he refused all contracts and is off to Serie A Lecce in the Summer, not sure if he is really good enough for Serie A but we will see and I can't begrudge him the move as he has been here 4.5 years and we certainly won't be in the top flight for a few more years, his departure will definitely pose us problems
Best Midfielder - Asier Sarriegi - started off on fire, over an assist every 2 games for the first part of the season but the 2nd half went less well, still had the 4th best assist rate in the division and tore apart many defences, most profilic season here as well, is a great player and I hope to keep him
2nd Best Winger -Antonio Revuelta - clearly Martinez is (was) the best but he is no longer here, Revuelta was pretty solid but rarely gave the performances that Martinez did before his departure, for some reason I have so far been unable to find stunning MRs, will be on the lookout for one in the Summer but I would have no complaints if I had to keep playing Revuelta as he is good player and is improving
Best Striker - Aiman Napoli - wow, wow and wow, pretty much the best season by any RCA player in my reign so far and I certainly was not expecting it from a player in his 6th season here who had played in Serie C2, I am not too sure what happened but he was immense, nearly a goal or assist a game, top assister in the division, top 10 goalscorer, 2nd in the Player of Year award, dominated many teams, set up Dancs for half his goals, great partnership, any thought I had of selling him have disappeared, anything approaching this next season will do
Most Profilic Striker -Adám Dancs - I thought he might be good but I presumed this might be in a couple of years and certainly not straight away in Serie B at the age of 17, fantastic season, voted 2nd best signing of the year, did go on a dry run towards the end of the season but apart from that he was scoring regularly every couple of games, him and Napoli ran many a defence ragged, unfortunately several large European clubs have seen what he has done and at what age and are sniffing around, hope I can hold onto him as he might be even better next season
Best Loanee - Amadeo Fucili - 19yo from Fiorentina and a great prospect, was our first choice DR and did very well, never had cause to moan about his performances or drop him, chucked in a few masterclasses as well, he is going to be very good player, hope I can get him next season but I am not very optimistic about it, his departure will cause a problem as a big as Agudo's
　
Realistically there is very little to change apart from the defence. Yes, I would like a brilliant MR but I shan't complain if I don't find out but apart from that I am pretty well set. As mentioned several times, defence is the big Summer issue, inasmuch as past July 1st I won't really have one any more. I could squeeze one out of the backups but it would not be too good, I need at least 2 DCs and a DR, also a DL would not go amiss either.
To sign I suspect I will have to sell as well. With the Spaniard I signed in February and the one on a Bosman that will leave me with 6 STs and 3 others who can also play there if needed; too many. I will try to sell Bolzan and maybe also Tacchinardi who should fetch a good price. This is all of course dependant on Dancs not being sold by the chairman. A few youths might go as well.

Suppose a realistic aim for next season is top 10.

Best 11
Overall Best 11


10/11 - Serie C2/B - 7th
11/12 - Serie C2/B - 13th
12/13 - Serie C2/B - 2nd (promoted via playoffs)
13/14 - Serie C1/B - 8th
14/15 - Serie C1/B - 10th
15/16 - Serie C1/B - 5th (lost in playoff semi-finals)
16/17 - Serie C1/B - 2nd (promoted via playoffs)
17/18 - Serie B - 13th


Team I Would Like To Play Every Week - Mantova - A1-0, H4-3 (18th, stayed up via playouts, our only away win)
Team I Would Not Like To Play Every Week - Padova - H2-4, A1-4 (3rd, promoted via playoffs)



100 League Appearances Club

New feature (blatently copied from other people!), after 8 seasons there are quite a few (especially thanks to the wage budget issues and inability to sign players). Here the inaugural members:

                        Apps Gls Asts MoM  AvR
Aiman Napoli            172  88   42  26   7.17
ST (2012-)
Fabian Remy             159   -    -   1   6.87
GK (2013-)
Francesco Antonelli     159  13    7   4   6.93
DC (2013-)
Marcos Agudo            132   8    7   9   7.08
DRC/DM/MRC (2014-)
Francesco Della Rocca   130   7   21   4   6.92
MC (2011-2017)
Jean-Martial Kipré      122   1   17   4   6.98
D/WBR (2012-2017)
Francesco Stella        118  17   18   6   7.11
MR (2013-2017)
Francesco Tacchinardi   118  62   18  14   7.00
ST (2014-)
Andrea De Rose          115   0    4   4   6.87
DLC (2012-)
Guiliano Sguera         106   3    2   1   6.90
DC (2013-)
Wim Kuipers             101   3   13   1   6.85
MC (2015-)

It is pretty much our 1st 11 from 2015-2017.


EDIT: looks like most of pics are missing info, apologies, already started next season so can't change them, will attempt to be more careful next Summer...

[ghostwriter]

Youths


5 years ago I did a first youth update, and 2 are still here...

Stefano Mainini - came thru upon my arrival and was going to be my first choice until Giorgi arrived, now we are up I might try to loan him out for 1st team experience, doubt he will ever be 1st choice for us but he should have good C1/C2 career - not great, one useful and 2 underused loan spells (the latter because no-one was interested in buying him) and he will be leaving on a free this Summer, should pick up a job in Serie C2 - now in Serie D
Lorenzo Pisani - another one of mine, came up last season, getting better all the time, was on the bench as DR backup for the last few weeks but never played, probably the same again - even worse, never got near the 1st team again, kind of forgot I ever actually had him so never went on loan, he left on a free for Serie D last Summer - still in Serie D
Andrea De Rose - came in on a free in September after 2 seasons and 10 appearances in Serie B with Ancona, already looks good to me and he played a couple of solid matches when Maric was out, will probably get a few more matches next season - good player, is now basically our first choice DL, previously he was the backup but he has overtaken Maric this season and with the latter's expected departure he will remain important, maybe Loeschbor will take his place but he will be there or thereabouts, to be honest though I am on the (probably unsuccessful) lookout for someone better - still our first choice DL, am having doubts that he is good enough for Serie B but he shall remain first choice until someone better comes along, over 100 apps for us, never expected all this when he first joined
Leonardo Strukelj - got on a free, we're his first club, looks very promising, got 10 minutes of first team football this season, might get a little bit more next season - another good player, had 2 good loan spells in Serie C2 and was backup this season making a fair few appearances, at the moment it is between him and Sguera for the 2nd DC role next season, unsure yet who will get the gig - hardly played in our Serie C1 promotion season and started to annoy a couple of other players so I got rid of last Summer, had a solid season in Serie C1, probably about his level
Luigi Piccinni - was in non-league last year but my scouts liked him, looks quite good except his mental stats, I'll see how he looks in 12 months time - average player, had one mildly successful loan spell in Serie C2, one cup match for us and was sold for a slightly ridiculous £70k last Summer to Messina (C2) where he played OK but inexplicably they got relegated (they had Martins, our best MC from last year, as well) - still in Serie D with Messina
Andrea Bolzan - another freebie at his first club, looks as promising as Strukelj, might get rid of an ST to give him and Puccinni a chance at a couple of appearances - good player, made several appearances 2 years ago but with the new strikers he spent most of last year in the U20s, with Carletes departure he will go back to being 4th choice ST, is worth a lot as well so a sell for large profit will hopefully happen at some stage - still at the club but hardly played last season and with the new arrivals I think it is time to sell, will probably end up in Serie C1

Don't really think there is much point in updating that lot any more as Bolzan will be off in the Summer and De Rose will be mentioned when he is sold.


Here are the next 7 from a couple of years back:

Boubacar Traoré - not really very good at all, has not improved even a little, acceptable as a 3rd choice as long as he never plays, maybe get sold or sent out on loan - is still here but only as a bench player and only so it means Ailton can play regularly for the U20s, has made one half hour appearance but never started and never will as long as Ailton is fit, with the Spanish GK coming in and Traore starting to moan about 1st team football, he will be sold in the Summer
Mattia Amaolo - not bad, big brute of player, made one sub appearance, between him and Donati for a backup role next year, the other will got out on loan - went out on loan did OK, tried to sell him last Summer, failed so let him go on a free to Serie C2, had quite a good season there
Lorenzo Donati - not bad at all, think he is a bit better than Amaolo and has potential to be even better, am torn between keeping him as here as a backup or sending him out on loan to play more matches, has a chance of staying here for a bit - good loan spell in Serie C2, good enough for a fellow Serie C2 club to spend £30k on him last season, another have had a good season
Mattia Picone - has a bit of potential as well, was not that impressed after a couple of months here but he is getting better, useful multi-position player to have around so might keep him here next season as a backup, also might stay here a bit - did not go out on loan and became a valuable sub for us last year, played considerably less and with all these new young midfield Spaniards he won't make appearances next season either so will probably be sold
Giovanni Lemma - not fantastic, thought he had potential when he arrived but has not improved at all, plays all over midfield which gives him an advantage but tempted to chuck him out on loan to see how he plays in Serie C2, probably won't have a career here - not great on loan in Serie C2, left for £20k to the same division last Summer, did OK this year
Franco Danese - see above, very promising player, already in first team squad - played very well last year but like Picone, this is a better division and I have new better players so will probably also be sold
Luca Basile - not bad, but has not really improved and has little chance of playing next season, will keep either him or Pirro (see below) here and send the other out on loan, will probably be sold next Summer - same as the others, Serie C2 loan, Serie C2 sold, good season
Guiseppe Pirro - one of our own and has quite a bit of potential, in all likelihood it will be Basile out on loan and Pirro kept here in the U20s and as 3rd/4th choice ML, curious to see how he progresses as my coaches think he could be pretty good - made a couple of sub appearances last season and was planning on the same this year but that was before Serie A Siena offered £400k for him, certainly not turning that down, made a couple of sub Serie A appearances but Siena finished bottom so I might come up against him next year

Seems little point in mentioning these again either as the ones which are still here will be out of the door in the Summer.




Here are a few new ones to follow...


Aílton - signed up 2 years ago when he was inexplicably without a club for 6 months, made some appearances this year when Remy was injured, has fantastic potential, could better than Remy, already a good player, with the new Spaniard coming in, he will now be 3rd choice so might stay in the U20s another year, the only issue is that by the time he is better than Remy there might already be GKs at the club that are better than that so he won't play, we shall see...
Jorg Hain - a freebie last Summer, good player, mainly in the U20s but during the Big DR Injury Crisis of March 2018 he made several appearances, was not too convincing but with Agudo and Fucili leaving he will now be out best DR, am willing to take the risk in playing next season but would prefer to leave him in the U20s for a bit longer, could turn out to be very good
Guiseppe Gennari - another to profit from the Big DR Injury Crisis of March 2018, as being 5th choice he could never have expected to play this year, came thru our youth ranks last Summer as the brightest prospect and is showing promise, improving and did not do too badly in his 2 matches, not sure he will ever be good enough for the 1st team but as he is currently our backup next year (I hope that situation changes) he might get games
José - certainly not going to turn down buying him for £5k, will turn out to be a bargain whatever happens, what has happened so far is that he has made a few 1st appearances and done OK, with both DCs leaving he might be closer to the 1st team next season, my coaches don't think he has the potential to ever be 1st choice but we shall see...
Aritz Munoz - does not really fit with the others as I actually paid quite a bit of money for him but already he seems a bargain, played a few games and his bad rating is down to the 2 penalties he gave away, that aside he did OK, is improving all the time and is a classy DMC, pretty good at MC as well, doubt he will be first choice next year will be playing regularly
Harald Rahn - a freebie last Summer, made a couple of respectable appearances from the bench during the season, there are a few players ahead of him at MR so unless one leaves I don't really expect him to play much this season either, good prospect for the future though
Massimo Offredi - a £100 p/w signing from last Summer and looks quite a good one, plays best as an ST but I converted him to ML and he made some sub appearances there last season and played well, is essentially our 3rd choice ML so highly likely he will make some appearances next season as well, will probably never be a regular so will be cashed in on at some stage.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

So our Expansion is complete, we go from 15000 (2000 seats) to 15000 (4250 seats), so this means slightly bigger crowds in Europe, but we really need more.

[rlipscombe]

mega update Des!! congrats on the league title again. hopefully you can kick on a little further in europe next season...

[rlipscombe]

Venezia - Serie A - Season 2020/21 - 1st February Update

Table

So on the first of February we sit in 11th place, short on the top 6 and reasonably close to the drop zone. We started well but have begun to slide a little, which needs rectifying.

Transfers wise we were fairly quiet, with two in and four out, two on loan. The newbies were:

Eduardo Lopez Gonzalez - Young Spanish full back touted as a future star. His arrival saw the departure of Ploeger to Pescara
Niklas Bendtner - Experienced Danish striker arrived for £4.5k deal from Bayern Munich. On a short-term contract to end of season. Hopefully he can add something to the squad.

The other main departure was Fernando for £4.4m to Lazio. He was unhappy so i let him go, preferring the cash. The transfer window worked it's magic again unsettling half the squad - marvellous.

Which way will the season go?? We shall see.

FORZA LAGUNARI!!!

[elsybelsy]

Good luck with the run in but you can easily get into Europe. Just win every game

Anyway, I've finally found time to continue with my game and my stadium is going to be expanded by another 1313 seats costing £1.5m I'm already over £300k in the red

[The Art of Drowning]

Played Sporting away yet again in the cup but couldn't take them to extra time this time. Lost 2-1 to a last minute Postiga goal.

[The Art of Drowning]

Season 2 - Sintrense - Liga Vitalis - 1st-




League Table








Key Players




Lima

Made the step up a level with ease and I'm interested to see if he can do it again, will give him a chance next year because he deserves it.

Balu

Classy central midfielder who has the talent to play at the higher level, was a great coup when we signed him on a free transfer.


Llyod Sam

Former Charlton player banged them in from the wing, surprised me with how great he was tbh.


Transfers

Quite a few new additions to the club and nobody dissapointed if I'm honest, all of them provided what was needed to make the step up, our only cash signing was brazilian centre back Eder Baiano and he was incredible at the back with a very solid 7.42 rating. I have Jermaine Beckford coming in on a free transfer for next season to provide some competition to Lima

[rlipscombe]

that's some rapid rise to Liga Sagres there! Lloyd Sam is a great player for this challenge. Did some good things for me at Venezia earlier in my career.

[iacovone]

Just to update you on my progress with Castillo:

Signed a 5 star potential striker called Bernabe (16 years old). With our pretty poor squad he's a guaranteed starter already (I sense another Riccardo Rotunno for those that remember my Savona adventure!). We are nearly safe and with 7 games to go sit about 13 points clear of relegation in 13th. Its been a fun year this time around, we've picked up a handy knack of beating the top sides away from home - Barca 1-0 in the Nou Camp in the cup, Real Madrid 1-0 in the Bernabeu in the league, Betis 1-0 away in the league (they were 4th). Its massively helped us keep ahead of the relegation scrap!

Players of the season so far would be Bernabe, Gordon Hart (a 22 year old Scottish AMC who has really come into his own), Serafin Gago (21 year old Spanish versatile defender) and Etienne Capoue (34 year old DM man of experience. Its a good mix of old and young and they've done the club proud despite a 2nd consecutive predicted finish of rock bottom!

Should wrap up the season tonight but will not have the internet at home til the end of the month. End of season review won't be spectacular

Onwards Castillo

[The Art of Drowning]

that's some rapid rise to Liga Sagres there! Lloyd Sam is a great player for this challenge. Did some good things for me at Venezia earlier in my career.

Yeah Sam seems capable enough to be decent at the top league too, as I've said before the only concern is our finances and we're now around £450k in the red. Might have to sell some top players in Jan.

[Razer82]

Yeah Sam seems capable enough to be decent at the top league too, as I've said before the only concern is our finances and we're now around £450k in the red. Might have to sell some top players in Jan.

I wouldn't worry too much about the finances. I was making a loss the entire time before we made the Champions League. Prize money & TV money from then on kept me sorted.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I am still making losses of between 10-20M a season, but I manage to get given that in Champions League TV money come the end of the season which keeps me on a slight upward trend overall.

[The Art of Drowning]

I really hate being in debt though, always prefer to make a profit on transfers and feel I should be responsible with it. Think it might be impossible to avoid debt in portugal until I get succesful.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I really hate being in debt though, always prefer to make a profit on transfers and feel I should be responsible with it. Think it might be impossible to avoid debt in portugal until I get succesful.

Yeah it is pretty much the only way, this is my 4th or 5th Portuguese Game and only the Big 3 seem to make any money at all, and they have 50k+ stadiums. I still have a 15000 (4250 seats) stadium, we can't expand, but we have gained a double through in the number of seats, last two seasons in the Champs League we had crowds of 2000 people at our home leg of the Semi-Final, that was a bit of a joke, because it was standing room only...we sold 1900 season tickets, so only 100 extra fans could come...Its hard to make money like that

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Lusitano de Evora
Sept 1st Update

The Transfers

On the way out we saw Silveira Reis leave for 1M to FC Groningen as they were in the hint for a DC and we had more than enough. Other than that a bunch of former youth players left the squad and we had three new signings come in.

Alvaro Cardoso (MC) - He may be 32, but he has been brought in as more cover for the midfield. We now have a very strong midfield coming together alongside our strength at the back and our good strike force, its going to be interesting to see if it can make a difference in our side.

David (DL) - He does start the season as a back-up, but he is pretty solid, and with the rotation policy he will get a fair amount of game time, any week with two games will see the reserves in the starting line-up.

Andres Moran (DL) - He is most likely going to start in what has now become one of the strongest positions in our team, with David, Kalu & Cooper all behind him there will be a lot of battles this season.

The World Cup

We saw 8 of our players head to the World Cup, but the best one of the lot was Ferhat Yildiz who led his Turkish side to a Bronze Medal, he was delighted with the effort as they defeated Saudi Arabia, tying with Germany and South Africa in the Group Stage, before they dispatched Switzerland (Featuring Zeric & Erdem) in the 2nd Round, then Italy in the Quarterfinal, they then lost to England in the Semifinal before they beat Brazil 2:1 in the Third place Playoff.

The Preseason

Our friendlies had good sides and bad sides right throughout the start we ended up playing every second day through it and met some good sides and some bad sides as I attempted to truly gauge the quality of our extended squad.

05.07 vs Reserves 3:1 - Santos, Mateus, Myklebust.
11.07 vs Lyon 1:2 - Etxeberria.
18.07 at CS Ardennes 5:0 - Santos, Myklebust, Zeric (2), Cappiello.
20.07 at FC Nantes 0:0
22.07 at OCG Nice 1:2 - Mateus
24.07 at Duisburg 8:0 - Vazquez, Yildiz, Myklebust, Tomas, Zeric (3), Santos
26.07 nv Livorno 2:0 - Cappiello, Myklebust (South African Friendly Cup)
27.07 nv Sttutgart 0:1

The Super Cup

Our first shot at a trophy this season came against Sporting as we took them on in the Portuguese Super Cup with our chance to win it for the third year running, we ended up doing it with ease, but it didn't look that easy at different times. With Haris Zeric going off injured after 14mins and replaced by Fatih Erol who was injured in the 36th minute and replaced by Tomas I was really worried about fatigue late in the game, but Tomas set that aside as he scored in the 57th minute to give us the lead and with Markovic sent off in the 72nd minute we were in trouble, but Tomas continued to show his class and put another one in the back at the 85th minute. As we came out and took a great 2 nil victory to win the Super Cup for the third time running.

nv Sporting 2:0 - Tomas (2)

Going Forward

Now I am on my way towards the league season and really looking forward to the way it is spreading around, I have had my draw for the Champions League and am not the happiest with my group, but I think with the strength of my side I can beat all three of them - Barcelona, Sampdoria & Paris Saint-Germain.

[iacovone]

2022/23 'Brief' Report


The '1-0 to the Castillo' Edition

No screenshots unfortunately, though I'll try to update it at the end of the month. We were expected to come 20th but produced a series of memorable away wins to all but secure our top flight status with 5 games to go.

We finished 13th.

Key 1-0 results were obtained away at Barca, Real Madrid, Real Betis, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and a smattering of lower league clubs. I don't know how they did it !

Player of the year was 22 year old Argentinian CB Lisandro Dure.

The summer has seen our training facilities get bumped up again, 300 season tickets sold and a mass exodus of talented players.

'A new challenge' was the across the board reason as I sold club legend Alberto Merola as well as stars Serafin Gago, Lisandro Dure, Ake Gronlund, Riza Bozdag and Petr Stepanovsky. Fortunately they all went for sizeable sums and we made about £12m profit off the lot of them.

In came a superb young goalie (a priority) called Sosa from Mexico. A wonderful centre back prospect called Michael Van der Beek, a young Brazilian CB called Dida and an English CM on a free (can't remember his name - something Jones ). I also acquired Hugo Sanchez, a Uruguayan RB to help out at the back. I'm pleased with my signings as it signals another new era at Castillo. It will be very hard to top our performances of last season but we should be ok to stay up. I've kept the 3 main strikers at the club - Andoni, Bernabe and Juninho. They scored about 30 goals between them last year - very good for us.

All in all its an exciting time to be a Canary Islander. Oh and we also have our first promising youngster through the academy (who was born on the island). His name is Albert Torre and is an AMRC. Should be a good prospect.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Sounds like a great season the Iacovone, let the battle between the Challenge Leaders commence...Castilo vs Evora vs Venezia...

[iacovone]

Ha I think I'm a long way off at the moment. Evora seem to be furthest ahead with European football! Gutted I missed pretty much your entire journey.

Fancy giving me a 100 word rundown of the adventure so far!?

[Lower Leagues Rule]

It took us 2 seasons to escape the 2nd Division South because only two of the three league Champions are promoted, and then 6 seasons to escape the Liga Vitalis even though we were good enough, we kept choking late or early in each season and finished just outside the promotion place 4 seasons in a row. Then we slowly built ourselves up the Liga Sagres, I have tried to keep a minimum of changes in the last couple of years and as such we have won three straight League Titles, Two League Cups, a Portuguese Cup, Three Super Cups and we also made the final of the Champions League only to lose 1:0 to Real Madrid. Last season we very nearly dropped the ball as we went from 13pts clear with 7 games left to win by only 2pts on the final day of the season. This season I have added to my squad and am playing a wider rotation in an attempt to spread my team and also focus on the Champions League to try and complete.

Well its about 200 words, but it gives a good run down of my current run.

[iacovone]

Wow thanks

Seems like you're nearly there on the European front. It'll be a few years to hopefully stretch your lead at the top and then assault Europe once more. Who is the club legend?

(cheers for the run down!)

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Wow thanks

Seems like you're nearly there on the European front. It'll be a few years to hopefully stretch your lead at the top and then assault Europe once more. Who is the club legend?

(cheers for the run down!)

The Club Legend is Francisco Javier Sanchez, my number 2 Central Defender, he has played for the club for 8 seasons and has made over 300 appearances in that time, he is also now my club captain and has led us to all three league titles. Tiny himself has made it a club Icon, and I hope to push for the Club Legend status myself shortly, I also wish for a new stadium, and would love to have it named the Sanchez Stadium

[iacovone]

Good luck on all those fronts!

My Castillo file is actually pretty epic come to think of it. It took me 6 seasons IIRC to get out of the bottom tier! It truly has been the slowest/hardest rise on any FM file I've had but the pride I'll have if I do complete the challenge will be awesome. Not sure if it'll ever happen though as the reputation and lure of a tiny club on the Canary Islands cannot be that big. Its destined to be a very slow process to the top.

[rlipscombe]

Sounds like a great season the Iacovone, let the battle between the Challenge Leaders commence...Castilo vs Evora vs Venezia...

i'd say i'm a few years off that yet too! Reckon we'll be a couple more seasons before we make europe, let alone the CL... and to win the league? that WILL take a while....

[iacovone]

i'd say i'm a few years off that yet too! Reckon we'll be a couple more seasons before we make europe, let alone the CL... and to win the league? that WILL take a while....

Same here . Sounds like we're racing rlips

[ghostwriter]

Basically I needed a new defence (Antonelli did leave and is in Serie A now as well), anything else was a bonus and that included Dancs not leaving.

This was the Summer of co-ownership, I now only own half of 8 players but have over £2m more than I did before. All of them were players I obtained last Summer and most are quite promising but not really 1st choice, Revuelta being the only regular and Puertas being the only one I might actually regret as he could turn out to be very very good; that said if Livorno do buy the 2nd half I will have a nice payday. I also bought back the half of Loeschbor that I had sold in January for much less than I sold it for.

Apart from the usual splattering of reserves and £100 p/w players of past, there were only 2 other significant sales and neither was really wanted. First of all, as sadly predicted, I was unable to hold onto Dancs, an offer of £1.1m from Werder was too much for my chairman to turn down . No complaints there, yes I would not have accepted it but it is a lot of money for a player I bought for £120k last Summer. I am pretty sure he will go on to be a star there and elsewhere. The 2nd player was Kuipers, my MC, he had had several minor moans last season about bigger clubs and this Summer he had a big one and put himself on the list. After much thinking I decided to get rid as I did not want an unhappy player, he had not impressed as much as he should have and others can cover there. He went to Chievo.

On the way in was the aforementioned new defence. I made several futive attempts to sign my targets but they all went elsewhere so I ended up with an Italian (who as you will see won't actually play in defence!) and very cheap Argentinian. This was until my scout found a very good DC on the list at Barcelona, £800k and he was mine. Next up was DR as after much haggling I got a Slovenian in (who promptly injured himself in his first match and will miss 6 weeks) whilst my assistant found another young Spaniard at Sevilla to fill DL although he cost a fair amount. And that was about it.

The inbound players are:

Eugenio - Bosman from Barcelona, comparable to Remy but will start as backup and unless Remy get injured or plays badly will stay there, looks very promising and wants very little in the way of wages.
Fernando Galindo - Bosman from Racing, looks very good but not as good as he thinks he is (thinks I should build the team around him), will start on the bench as Napoli's backup, will see how he does
Marco Palermo - had tried to get him in on loan a couple of years back and failed, so dived in when Fiorentina listed him, was intended as a DC but his lack of height and jumping plus his dreadful performances in 2 friendlies put paid to that idea, with Kuipers departure there is a space at MC plus he is a very good DMC as well, may have overpaid for him
Andrés Romano - not sure why Independiente were letting him go so cheap as he is a pretty good player, good enough to be our first choice DC at the start of the season, looks a useful player, will see how he starts, also has the advantage of Italian 2nd nationality so does not count as a foreign signing
Ivo Jazbec - basically Agudo's replacement as he covers all the same positions, probably paid too much but he looks a very good player, already an International at 19 and lots of clubs were interested in him, might take a while to settle but he is my new DR, well, he will be when he is over his injury (60 minutes into his debut)
Ivan - my assistant found me this one, the scouts say he is already good enough for Serie A so was willing to pay quite a bit for him (again probably too much), had lined up a Brazilian from Croatia for DL but cancelled that one I saw this guy, he is much better, goes straight into the 1st 11
Antonino Martinengo - we took Lazio as a parent club and straightaway they gave us this guy on loan for the year, did not really need another MR but he also covers MC and looks pretty useful, will start on the bench and will probably play quite a bit
Jacobo - 2nd Jacobo at the club, another listed and quite expensive Spanish defender, this one from Barcelona, the scouts loved him so I freed up some money to get him, straight in and partnering Romano at DC, hope he lives up to the hype

So there we go, a brand new defence and some squad depth. The problem with a new defence is that they have to get used to each other, I have basically had the same 5 or 6 defenders for 4 years (bar last year's loanee) so to start from scratch might be dangerous (not that I had much choice in that matter). 3 do speak Spanish which might help...

We have started dreadfully in the league as we lost 0-3 at Cesena and embarrassingly 1-2 at home to freshly promoted Cittadella. Our defence looks like they have never seen each other before which, to be fair to them, they haven't. This settling in might take a while...

Meanwhile the Cup has been crazy. At home to Taranto, 0-2 down at h/t, we pull it back to 2-2 and then, having already made 3 subs my DR goes off (that 6 week injury) so have to play with 10 men. Extra time they score 2, we pull one back and then in the 121st minute we make it 4-4. And promptly win the shootout 3-0! Next up is relegated Torino, they take the lead, we equalise, we hang on to full time and then extra time, win the shootout 5-4. Next up we have Serie A Reggina...

[The Art of Drowning]

Approaching Jan now and we're just above the relegation zone, look good enough to survive though. Very tempted withjust selling everyone to raise some cash and then just blowing money we dont have on quality Brazilians on 48 month payments. Could ruin us financially if it fails though, thoughts?

[rlipscombe]

Approaching Jan now and we're just above the relegation zone, look good enough to survive though. Very tempted withjust selling everyone to raise some cash and then just blowing money we dont have on quality Brazilians on 48 month payments. Could ruin us financially if it fails though, thoughts?

interesting tactic!! although i am suffering a little from the 48 month transfers a little now....

[The Art of Drowning]

yeah I've avoided it for now, I did a similar thing on my Aylesbury United game, we did get the rewards but had to spend the next 4 years just selling and raising money while still trying to be succesful on the pitch.

Will give it a few years of bargain hunting 1st but if that fails then I'm just going to bankrupt us to find success

[rlipscombe]

look forward to seeing that happen!!

[iacovone]

Palermo and Ivan are my picks of the bunch there ghostwriter. Ivo Jazbec gets an honourable mention as well, should be a great player (if not already!)

[ghostwriter]

Renato Curi Angolana - Serie B - New Year 2019

The Summer

After those 2 embarrassing defeats to start the season, things did not get much better; more embarrassment at home to Ascoli before we lost at Torino (acceptable) and Mantova (unacceptable). 5 matches, 5 defeats, nearly bottom. Thankfully we halted this run at home to Pescara and followed that with an impressive 3-1 home win over Virtis Lanciano. And then we visited relegated Verona; 0-2 at h/t was to be expected, but then we got 1 back and equalised with 15 minutes left and then somehow scored a 3rd to claim a very very good win. After this, we had Empoli at home, given that they were doing as badly as us and after the previous win this would be easy, no? Yes, it was. For Empoli as we capitulated to a horrific 1-4 defeat .

2 more defeats followed before we chucked away a 2 goal lead at home to gain (lose?) our first draw of the season. And another defeat followed before Sassuolo visited. We were not happy and finally put in an impressive performance, thrashing them 5-1. Our next match - 0-4 at Siena . And then following another home defeat we faced Serie A Reggina in the Cup. They were 2 up at h/t and still 2 up with 6 minutes left. Then something ridiculous happened. We scored 1, we scored 2, and then in the 94th minute we scored a winner . Simply no idea what happened there. Roma in the next round. This perked us up as we then thrashed Frosinone at their place 4-1. Our attempt to keep this run going started well in the next game at home to Arrezo. 24 seconds in and they were ahead . We fought and fought and finally with 5 minutes left we got an equaliser.

Chievo and then relegation threaten Cagliari disposed of us to close off a dire end of 2018. We are 20th place and in the relegation zone.

Oh dear, oh dear. I am not panicking yet but I am definitely worried. As can be seen, our problem is defensive. That Remy (GK) is one of our better players is not a good sign. Both Jacobo and Jazbec have showed me that they are good players. Ivan has been dire but that is principally because he has not settled at all. The 2nd DC spot has been all over the place as I have not found a good partner for Jacobo yet. Our star so far has been Diego, the Spanish ST I got on a free last February, 14 goals so far. Also Sarriegi and Puertas have been good at MC. And that is it. The rest have been not very good.

We are not that far from mid-table so if we can get a couple of early wins on the board we should be OK. If we don't we may have trouble. Relegation would not be the end of the world as I don't think I would be sacked, the big problem would be money and I would be forced to sell half the squad as well...

I am willing to persevere with Ivan as he is much better than anything else I have for DL and he must adapt sooner or later. I will, however, be on the lookout for a new DC to play with Jacobo. The main problem I have is that I don't really know why we are playing so badly, yes, the defence is new and Ivan has not settled but even in my worst nightmares I was not expecting this...

[rlipscombe]

good luck in turning that around ghostwriter....

[The Art of Drowning]

Just randomly smashed Sporting Lisbon 4-0

We're a lower mid table side in this league it seems.

[rlipscombe]

not the worst position to be in the league in your first season...

[The Art of Drowning]

Yeah I'm very happy with how it's going so far, we've never looked out of our depth and never been in any danger of going down so I'm very pleased with it. I know where we are weak so I just have to hope that free players become available in those positions because we can't really afford to splash the cash at the moment.

Lima has adapted to this league well enough but he'll be sold next season I think, might as well cash in on him now I've realised his deputy can come in and do very well. Should get the season finished shortly so I'll have an update later.

[The Art of Drowning]

5-5 away at Leira sums up our strengths and weaknesses btw

[The Art of Drowning]

Season 3 - Sintrense - Liga Sagres - 8th-




League Table








Key Players




Lima

He has shown that he has the ability to perform at the top level, class player but I think I will make it his last year with the club. He is no longer 1st choice in the lone central striker role and at 30 I think it's best we cahs in while he still has a decent value.

Ruben Rochina

The reason why I'm not massivley bothered about losing Lima is this ex Barcelona youth player, had to put up with me using him often as a late sub and out of position on the wing at 1st and then I finally gave him a proper chance and he didn't let us down.


Franck Songo'o

Was clear that Sam wasn't good enough to make the step up so this was quite a coup on a free transfer, scored some great goals and his pace caused all sorts of problems for defences in this league.


Tomas Costa

Released by Porto on a free transfer, their loss is our game as he often bossed the middle of the park covering every blade of grass.


Transfers

Made quite a decent profit there but we're still losing money pretty fast, without those sales I guess we'd be in a bit of trouble. We scored more goals than any team in the entire league so it's obvious where improvements are needed. Our defence and goalkeeper just not good enough for this level of football.

[rlipscombe]

congrats on a good season there. Rochina looks a decent player - he is better than Lima now. if you can get good money i'd be tempted to cash in too but he looks like he'd still have another season in him....

[The Art of Drowning]

congrats on a good season there. Rochina looks a decent player - he is better than Lima now. if you can get good money i'd be tempted to cash in too but he looks like he'd still have another season in him....

Cheers, the loser that I am means that I'm racing through the next season too. Been playing all day

Sold Lima for £1.2m.

[The Art of Drowning]

Been playing literally all day now, have forced myself to stop. A look at our squad has made me realise we now habe 0 portugese players

[The Art of Drowning]

Season 4 - Sintrense - Liga Sagres - 4th- Portugese Cup - Winners




League Table


Cup Final









Key Players





Ruben Rochina

Lima who? had some great competition from young austrian Ancic but it was another magnificent season from the spaniard.


Franck Songo'o

He could rule the right wing for us for a few seasons I think, just genuine class on the right hand side, his pace is just lethal.


jamie Bailey

Had this transfer arranged earlier in the previous season and after taking a while to settle he was well worth the wait.


Thought I took another screenie of Tomas Costa but it looks like I forgot, he had another fantastic season in the midfield but looks set to leave as he is kicking up a bit of a fuss.


Transfers

Just about managed to end up making a profit with some wheeling and dealing, some of the player in are on 48 month payments purely because the chairman wouldn' give me the full alocation of player sales money. Not everyone has performed immediatley but I'm hoping it's just a settling in issue and we can push on even further next season.

[rlipscombe]

congrats on the cup win! and also an improved league season too. CL places next season i reckon... good luck

[The Art of Drowning]

congrats on the cup win! and also an improved league season too. CL places next season i reckon... good luck

Hope so, we were quite a distance behind the "big 3" but we'll certainly give it a go. Just found a youtube channel dedicated to the club: http://www.youtube.com/user/susintrense

Pretty cool, stadium looks like a **** hole.

[ghostwriter]

6 games to go. Quite close and we have problems...

We are only in this position thanks to 5 successive home wins which shows how much of a mess we were in before. Problem is our away record which is the worst in the division (again ). A large issue considering that 4 of the last 6 games are away.

Basically we need to get to at least 19th and be close to 18th to get a playout...

[rlipscombe]

that's going to be tough... my advice?? park the bus! need to tighten that defence a bit....

[iacovone]

Well guys over the weekend I completed season 2022/23!

Really back into this file now

So this year was much tougher following the sale of a number of high quality youngsters over the summer. Despite winning our opening game away at Bilbao, we proceeded to go 11 games without a win, hovering in amongst the relegation candidates. Injuries played a major role in our travails this season, with the pulled hamstring rearing its head a whopping 9 times !

January came and I spent the remainder of our budget (~£5m) on a 16 year old LB (Victor Ortega) and a Belgian CM (Wesley Barth). We now had a youthful but effective side that every now and again would shock the Spanish press with a blinding away win. We continued our tradition of picking up unexpected 1-0 away wins and this helped us steal a march on the basement clubs. As it turned out we secured our status as a top flight side for the 3rd season running with a couple of games to go. Final position was 15th.

The highlight? Either making it to the Semi Finals of the Spanish Cup (where we lost to Espanyol - epic amount of defensive injuries cost us!) or beating the eventual champions Real Madrid 4-1 in the Bernabeu (our 2nd consecutive win away in the league vs them!).

Player of the year was costly new Mexican goalkeeper Diego Sosa. He really is a gem and someone I'm determined to keep hold of for many years. The forwards were the most disappointing. Bernabe struggled to improve on his potential due to a number of injuries, Andoni was in and out of form, injuries wreaked havoc on Juninho's season and despite Schober's best efforts he is a backup non-goalscoring striker.

Overall though I'm happy to have a 4th season in La Liga to look forward to and very happy with the improvement in reputation we are gaining. We are also improving the youth facilities in the summer to take them to 'good' - essential in the long run for us as a club. I hope to unearth a gem this summer!

That's all folks

[rlipscombe]

congrats on survival iacovone - good to see you having the love for Castilla back! looks like a frustrating season what with the defeats and then the high points... hopefully you might actually be able to get some players interesting in joining this summer.

good luck.

[iacovone]

Cheers rlips. Got a couple of new strikers in on loan for the next season. Felt this would be my best shot at finding a goalscorer as an outright purchase would just be too big an outlay. Didn't play much more than a couple of friendlies so its still up in the air to whether or not we're going to be a bit more competitive this year.

Injuries are still far too common for my liking, I'm going to have to reassess my training regimes.

I've decided to move to a 5-3-2 formation with wing backs this year. I've still not had a formation with 2 outright wingers so why change the habit of a lifetime!?

Also got offered the Villarreal job at the end of the season (they went down) and the Real Madrid () job in the summer following Rafa Benitez's retirement. I obviously had to turn it down () but its nice to see I've been recognized. Former Barca player Rafael Marquez took the reigns.

[rlipscombe]

Real Madrid job!! not bad going... mind you no doubt it would only have been for a season.....

[iacovone]

I'm a great manager I'll have you know! I'd have gotten 13 months out of it guaranteed!

[rlipscombe]

ha ha!!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Ok that was funny, I am currently wondering how I take my League form into Europe, for the fourth season running I am dominating the league, 4pts clear of 2nd (Maritimo), 5pts clear of 3rd (Benfica), 13pts clear of 4th (Porto/Sporting) and they are only 6pts clear of the wooden spoon after 11 games...But in Europe I am struggling to even make it out of my group in the Champions League as I face Barcelona, PSG & Sampdoria. I now need to win at Camp Nou to get through.

[rlipscombe]

keep the faith mate! you can do it!

[SMPL]

I want to do this challenge in Holland, i've holidayed for two years as per instructions at the start but when I get to the reload date it's always one of the two clubs relegated the season earlier Would this be frowned upon as i'm getting a bit sick of reloading now

[rlipscombe]

as far as i am concerned that would be ok??? iacovone?

[SMPL]

as far as i am concerned that would be ok??? iacovone?

To be honest mate i'd rather be someone else as it's bound to be easier with teams that have been in the league as recently as a year. The teams in question are FC Eindhoven and FC Omniworld, Eindhoven come up in the main

If not, then I was half tempted to do Italy anyway, been reading the posts about Venezia on here and sounds fun

[rlipscombe]

i can fully understand your feeling on it - it would make it a little easier potentially. Italy is good to manage in, but so is Spain. Germany seems to have been a successful place this year too.

[SMPL]

Well I was about to boot up Italy, then I realised I made a mistake in the detail level on the Dutch save anyway and had chosen players from "Top division clubs" rather than players from "Top clubs" so i've reset it and will holiday for the two seasons and hope 2 poorer sides get relegated or at least somebody else comes up If not then I shall do Italy Thanks for the help

[rlipscombe]

it's a pleasure. always happy to help a new player of the challenge...

[Lower Leagues Rule]

keep the faith mate! you can do it!

Oh I will keep going, I still have 5 months or even 6 months til 2011 comes out and I am sitting right on the edge of success, I will get there.

Well that result at Camp Nou became sooo much more desperate as we could only manage a 1:1 result at home against Sampdoria, we went on the road requiring a victory over Barcelona while hoping Sampdoria could hold PSG as well. We saw a stunning goal by Borivoje Markovic to give us the lead that we never gave up, so now with it down to Sampdoria and they were still tied, but in the end they ran out 2:1 victors to tie us on 8pts, but we went through on the strength of our results against them. A huge victory. This also puts us unbeaten through 4 meetings with Barcelona, two draws at Campo Estrela & two victories at Camp Nou.

The Goal in full screen action replays. (Trying to get this, but CamStudio is having issues )

[iacovone]

Welcome SMPL, good luck wherever you choose

I have no problem with you taking one of Eindhoven or Omniworld in the Dutch league. It will of course be a slightly easier choice of starting club.

In Castillo news...we've begun the new season and I got to 13th November before a crash dump hit . Fortunately I save every two weeks so I've not lost too much. It is a bit worrying for the longevity of the game...

Anyway importantly we're more solid than ever, have a more potent attack. Carlos is looking good (young Brazilian loanee) and Schober is surprisingly stepping up in the big moments. Gordon Hart the popular Scottish AMC scored a roaring 30 yard strike in the last minute vs Barca in the Camp Nou to secure another 1-0 at a big club. Epic.

After about 10 games we're going along nicely. No danger of relegation. Yet.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well that result at Camp Nou became a victory over Barcelona we saw a stunning goal by Borivoje Markovic to give us the lead that we never gave up. A huge victory at Camp Nou.

Gordon Hart the popular Scottish AMC scored a roaring 30 yard strike in the last minute vs Barca in the Camp Nou to secure another 1-0 at a big club. Epic.

Hmmm seems to be a 30 Yard trend here, that's how far out Markovic's was as well, I think we have a super midfield bug...rofl. (Oh whoops that's only when it makes us lose)

EDIT: Guess that was my 5000th post on the forums...

[SMPL]

Sounds like you're going well there iacovone, are you sticking with the wingbacks? I've never managed to get a system to work using them, so it'd be interesting to see how you do.

I restarted as I said I would due to me loading too large a database, but now i'm having the same problems only this time it's Dordrecht and Veendam (mostly Veendam) I'd feel it'd take away a bit of whatever I achieve if I took a club who had already been in the league, so i'm going to load a different country up as i've wasted 2 hours holidaying and an hour I could have been playing.

The problem now is I can't choose between Italy, Spain or Portugal because I have had/have got saves in the other nations

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I would say, "Come to Portugal" but that would be repetitive, so how about, "Why would you choose Spain or Italy? Come on."

I've had great fun in Portugal both of the last two years, and a pretty good time in Italy the year before that so I would think you will most likely enjoy all of them.

I have also never got wing backs to work, but currently I have a system of 4-3-3 (Narrow) as I struggled to find strong wingers and I had three great centre mids, and three strong strikers as well. It seems to work pretty well and I don't even get beaten down the flanks like I thought I would. This season I have conceded only 2 league goals in 14 games (1 Penalty).

[SMPL]

I've been reading about how you've been struggling for money ect and to be honest it's been a while since i've had no money (I think Gent on Gundo's challenge was the last time, though i've never been a moneybags club either ) I've also never managed in Portugal on any version, so with what i've read in your other posts too you've sold me I'll be back in an hour or so with news of who I am

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Delighted to hear SMPL, I cannot wait to see who you are going to play with and join the Portuguese Hunt for a Champions League Medal. I am just hoping for a new stadium at some point soon, so have decided this offseason I will not spend my transfer budget that I know they will give me.

[rlipscombe]

SMPL - good luck in Portugal. you like tough challenges with no money then!!

LLR - great result at the Nou Camp and congrats on qualifying out of the group. good luck in the next round.

iacovone - good to see a solid start to the season. wish i was as good as you against the top teams in Italy!

As for Venezia, i have finished the league season having got back into the game. The season update will have to wait until Monday / Tuesday next week as i am away for a few days from tonight. All i'll say is that we have consolidated our league position and moved upwards a bit. already got some interesting transfers lined up for next season too and coupled to some off the field improvements it should be an interesting summer

[SMPL]

As a newbie to Portugal I thought i'd read up about each promoted club and in the save and see which one appealed to me the most. I've done this on previous games where there's been a few clubs to choose from and I've always felt if you learn about a club and something about a particular one appeals to you then you are more likely to enjoy it

I've gone for Uniao de Coimbra in the end after reading about the place itself, looking at a few pictures and it seeming a nice enough area, which was what actually attracted me to them. Here's the bits i've found on Wiki about the club itself.

Clube de Futebol União de Coimbra, usually known as União de Coimbra (Portuguese pronunciation: [uniˈɐ̃w̃ dɨ kuˈĩbɾɐ]), is a sports club in the city of Coimbra, Portugal. The club was founded in 1919 and has a large array of sports departments which includes football, futsal, basketball, aikido, volleyball and swimming.

The main football team of União de Coimbra played in the Portuguese First Division in the past, among big clubs like FC Porto, Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal. Today it is a top team in the Portuguese Third Division. It plays in the Estádio Municipal Sérgio Conceição, in Taveiro, Coimbra, which was named after the football player Sérgio Conceição and has 2500 seats

The club has had one previous season in the top flight back in 1972-73 where they finished 14th and were subsequently relegated.

Here's the proof and my profile

I'll post the few signings I made in a while. All loans or freebies as we have no money. Predicted to finish 9th and to be honest i'll be happy with that. It's going to be a slog this year so i'm just looking to get it over with as quickly as possible and make sure i'm comfortable, but not too close to a promotion place. I'd never survive with this squad or the money available

[iacovone]

SMPL - I gave up on the 5-3-2 after 2 league games . We had sub 35% possession in both. Guess its something to work on in future but for now whilst safety is never guaranteed I need to stick with my solid but unspectacular 4-1-2-1-2

[iacovone]

Oh and good luck with the Portuguese adventure. My advice would have been to find a tiny island club with no following and try to take them to the top within 50 years...but then that would be foolish.

For those that care season ticket sales were up by 2 this year to 286 . That is a quite incredible statistic in my book. Not even 300 Canary Islanders willing to stump up the cash for a season ticket...yet we average close to 7000 on matchdays