FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

[rlipscombe]

B.W.G - you really seem to have the knack of these challenges!! fantastic 1st La Liga season.... the championship next season???

[B.W.G]

Thanks rlipscombe

Championship is a bit out of reach this season, top 4 is a possibility tho

[Lower Leagues Rule]

4000 posts in the thread, this is awesome work, KUTGW everyone...

And WOW BWG you just seem to blast through, do you have some super buying method or super tactics?

[B.W.G]

I just use a lot of scouting and I pick the players I need for my weak points in the team.

As for tactics I use a 4-2-4 which I developed doing Gundo's.

[rlipscombe]

4-2-4?? interesting. i'm beginning to think i may have palteaued a bit with my 4-4-2 formation... might be time for a change even if it is mid-season... debating over a 4-1-2-2-1 and a 4-3-3 formation...

As for 4000, \o/ top work everyone. fantastic stuff. here's to the next 4000!!

[B.W.G]

It works against most teams but it can be really frustrating when you often see the line...Badajoz rue missed chances!!! The main difference between Badajoz and the Gundo saves of LLangefni and Warrenpoint were that I had goalscoring midfielders which I aint really got here.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well I have managed to add both Super Cups to my collection of trophies as I aim for a complete set for Evora before I move on. I am actually trying to decide what I want to do. I am very tempted to drop down to a new promoted team in Portugal after a season in my new stadium, but that would mean leaving Evora. My other thought is to go around and buy a bunch of U19s spending every cent I can to get in a full young squad and just selling all my old timers, (Vazquez [30], Tomas [30], Roman [26] have left already for 33.75M total) and seeing what I can do with just a bunch of Under 25s maybe limiting myself to a bunch of young guns and see what I can do.
This plan would work with a lot of the current team staying, Yildiz (DR,25), Sima (DL,25), Banos (DC,23), Lukic (MLC,23), Ozkan (MC,21), Cappiello (ST,22), Almiron (ST,20), Danilo (ST,25) -
Then add the replacements Evers (20,GK), Britton (20,DM/DC), Senol (21,ST), Medina (21,DM), Elicarlos (DC,22), Javier (DC,21), Duruer (19,DR), Ozgur (20,MC), Bjelic (19,MC).
And the next generation: Van den Bosche (MC,16), Simon (MC,16), Ros (MR/ST,16), Amado (MLC,17), Afonso (MRL,16), Pacheco (DL,16).
Could make for a good challenge at Tiny Stadium.

My Trophies
World Club Champs (Empty)
European Super Cup x1
European Champions League x1
Europa League (Empty)
Portuguese Super Cup x6
Liga Sagres x6
Portuguese Cup x4
League Cup x5
Liga Vitalis x1
Second Division North x1

[iacovone]

BWG you've finished higher in 3 seasons than I have in 17

[B.W.G]

BWG you've finished higher in 3 seasons than I have in 17

Thanks and sorry iacovone

I should have my next update up by no later then saturday

[rlipscombe]

looking forward to it....

[B.W.G]

Game is dead...I got to the semis of the Europa.....against villa....lost 1-0, crashed dumped...now won't let me play the game again.

Same thing happened on Gundo's as well

[rlipscombe]

oh no!!!!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

And I have taken on my first International job with Brazil. This team just fire everybody if you lose a game so im will be looking to win as we have already qualified for the 2030 World Cup in Portugal.

Currently ranked 15th in the world, the team has not been above 10th in the last 3 years, so my first aim here would be to move up the order. Current Order as follows 1) England, 2) Argentina, 3) Holland, 4) Turkey, 5) Russia, 6) Germany, 7) Italy, 8) Romania, 9) Spain, 10) France, 11) Croatia, 12) Colombia, 13) Belgium, 14) Saudi Arabia.

[G-Wiz]

so, my first foray into Europe is over, but i have to say im delighted with how competitive the team was against some big teams...here are the results...

Bordeaux 4 - 2 Lubeck
Lubeck 4 - 1 Debrecen
Lubeck 1 - 1 Dinamo Kiev
Dinamo Kiev 1 - 1 Lubeck
Lubeck 4 - 4 Bordeaux
Debrecen 1 - 2 Lubeck

These reults saw me finish 2nd in Group F, and qualify for the 1st Knockout Round, where unfortunately over 2 legs i came up against a sturdy Udinese defense, and over 180 minutes i was unable to find a goal, drawing the first leg 0-0 before losing the away leg 1-0.

a solid effort in my first european experience, hopefully there may be many more in the years to come

[Lower Leagues Rule]

A pretty good first up effort in Europe there G-Wiz, hopefully you can continue there next season and get a step further.

[rlipscombe]

congrats on the Brazil job Des - 15th in the world????

G-Wiz - good euro campaign there - got to be happy with that. good luck in the remainder of the league campaign.

[iacovone]

G-Wiz - excellent set of results in Europe. Looks like mine are shaping up pretty similar.

BWG - dreadful news

Des - congrats on the Brazil job, hopefully you can oversee their rise to prominence once again

You may or may not have realised...but...

I FINALLY have the internet at my home now \o/

That means screenshots...lots and lots of screenshots

[B.W.G]

Going to start in again...this time in Portugal.

Casa Pia is my chosen club.

Here is my Profile

Here I go again

[iacovone]

iacovone's Long Overdue Castillo Update!!!

Ok so first up a quick recap of the league tables from the last 3 seasons:

Season 2022/23
Season 2023/24
Season 2024/25

So steady progress has been made, culminating with our highest ever finish last year of 8th, and subsequently qualification for this year's Europa League.

Club Information
Facilities

Not much has changed here; low season ticket sales remain! There are two current playing members in the 'Favoured Personnel' list - Gordon Hart and Michael Van Beek but we'll come to them soon.

Current League Table

This has been a fantastic season thus far and we're truly staking a claim to being a regular top half club now. If we had a larger squad (this can be arranged with January fast approaching), I'd go out on a limb and suggest we could make the Champions League. Whatever does happen, I maintain that we are nowhere near big enough a club to be in the position we are. We're punching well above our weight but that's fine by me.

I thought I'd just show you the latest big player to leave. Dida was signed on a bosman and had a couple of excellent seasons before Betis piled in with a massive £9m offer. Obviously the chairman accepted and I didn't mind seeing him leave for pastures new.

Now to the current squad:

Gk

GK - Diego Sosa - probably my best signing thus far purely because of his value to the team. Is starting to get itchy feet though...

Defenders

CB - Michael Van Beek - absolute rock at the back and fan favourite. Was injured for the start of the season but is back to his best now.

CB/DM - Airam Cabezas - 8th year at the club and is a useful squad player.

CB - Dragos Vintila - summer signing and has been superb.

RB - Emilio Jose Sanz - had huge amounts of potential but has struggled to realise it. Still a solid player.

LB - Victor Ortega - one of my favourite players because he is a flawed genius. Immense on the ball and gets a lot of assists but sadly he has just 6 months left on his contract and won't sign a new one!

Midfielders

AMR - Jorge - the prodigious academy talent arrived in the summer and is probably already good enough to start on the right of my front 3. Consequently I have moved that position slightly deeper when he plays.

CM - Wesley Barth - been injured all year sadly, he is a good squad midfielder.

AM - Gordon Hart - fan favourite and has been imperious this year. Works the ball a little like Iniesta and has the ability to carve open defences. I love him.

AM - Sergey Andreev - club captain but has increasingly fallen away from the first team.

CM - Joel Berry - filled in at CM this year very well. I like pace in my midfielders and he has bundles.

AMC - Christos Kantimoiris - backup CM who has a tendency to score superb goals.

CM - Vincent Boumsong - my one world class player. Everyone wants to sign him and he now wants to leave sadly. I accepted the request so am now just waiting on someone offering £20m.

Strikers

ST - Bernabe - once touted as a top striker he has failed to progress how I'd like. Still plays a role in our squad but there is far to go.

ST - Juninho - fairly average striker who can do a job but more is needed really.

ST - Robert Schober - decided to give him a new contract 3 years ago as a backup striker but he has pushed through to become our lead man down the middle.

There we have it. You're now up to date with the ins and outs of Castillo! Onwards. Oh and...

COME ON ENGLAND!!!!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I must say I agree with you about Gordon Hart, absolutely love him. And Castillo is starting to look good, you have nearly made Europe and slowly pushing forward. Best of luck with the new season.

Evora are still on top of the league though not winning as much as before given I am selling stars who ask to leave. Moran is the next to leave. I have appointed a new captain of Brazil, none other than my own Luiz Fabiano. we had a good first up hit out against Venezuela to guarantee World Cup qualification, and now it is just all about friendlies to get a squad ready.

[crouchaldinho]

Still playing the 4-3-3 Iacovone?

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Hmm I am also running a 4-3-3, today was the World Cup group draw, Brazil were seeded first and drawn out in group B, our competitors will be Spain, Saudi Arabia & U.S.A. I am worried that I will be losing my job after the Spain game unless I can steal a win there. Well it will make for an interesting offseason thats for sure.

[iacovone]

I am indeed still playing the 4-3-3. However the wide right striker is now in the AMR position to accomodate Jorge. So its a bit lopsided but seems to still be doing the trick. Just ground out a very good 0-0 at Valencia in the first leg of the Spanish cup last 16.

We qualified from our Europa group in 2nd place behind Man City. Fortunately we landed Besiktas in the next round - very winnable. Though they do possess a 17 year old wonder kid that I've had my eye on. Watch this space

[G-Wiz]

just been offered the job at Vfb Stuttgart, turned down of course

[G-Wiz]

VfB Lubeck - 2016/2017 - End of Season Review

Predicted Position: 8th
Actual Position: 8th
Average Attendance: 16994
Season Ticket Holders: 5009

An average league season by recent standards, yes its my 2nd highest finish in the Bundesliga, but after the high of last season i hoped for more. And so did the squad unfortunately. A few have voiced their displeasure at the teams performance this season, i think the speed of the rise from the Third Divison is coming back to bite me now, but as long as i can continue to establish the team as a safe First Division team i will be happy.

A few notable players moved on, none moreso than Nahuel Centurion, who started making noise about playing for a bigger club. Was subsequently sold to Villareal for £9.75 million. Almost doubled my money so not too bad, altho i did find him hard to replace. Another similar story was Toto Tamuz, who moaned about wanting to play at a bigger club, then agreed a move to Ingolstadt, in the division below us, for £2 million. He only cost me 700k so again a decent return.
The Europa League experience was great, and to be honest i never expected to get out of the group so to finish behind Bordeaux and get to the 1st Knockout Round it was a great acheivement in my opinion.


GK

Marco Mura - average of 7.02 over the season, with 12 league clean sheets, another improvement on the previous season. may be on his last legs however as im hoping to bring in a big GK for next season

Def

Marco Castellani - missed 5 months with a broken leg, but returned to provide another consistent 2nd half to the season

Ezequiel Munoz - average of 7.07 over 42 apps in total, decent season, still a bit erratic tbh

Benjamin Weiner - the youth product, bit-part player again this season, starting to look out his depth. may be moving on soon, so may not get the chance to add to his 125 apps for the club

Holger Badstuber - 6.99 over 45 apps, another solid season

Jose Luis Prado - first choice RB, but starting to be overshadowed by Palaz

Mesut Palaz - starting to push Prado for starting place, may be instilled as first choice RB for start of new season

Dennis Aogo - signed from Hamburg for 2.5 mil, utility man filled in mainly at LB during Castellanis injury problems, ended up only missing 1 league game all season, average 7.03 over 47 apps in all competitions

Mid

Ritchie Kitoko - another solid season, didnt quite score as often as previous season, however one of his goals was voted 2nd in German Goal of The Season competition

Ferhat Dag - now made 101 league apps for club, but being used less and less as the years go by

Eduardo - another productive season from one of my personal favourites. 12 assists and 5 goals from 41 apps, one of the main providers for the team

Claudio Flotta - big-money signing in January, still settling in but decent start

Timo Gebhart - another top season from wide man, laying on 10 assists and 8 goals from 38 apps, average of 7.13

Ghislain Monteil - brought in to cover after the sale of Centurion, used sporadically, should feature more next season

Att

Romelu Lukaku - still really to convinve me as to whether he is good enough, stat wise he should be, but he's not the prolific goalscorer i was hoping i had signed. finished with 15 goals from 36 apps

Stefano Okaka - top scorer again this season, altho not as prolific as the previous year, still finished with 20 goals in all competitions

Lukasz Piszczek - starting to show his age, but still made 39 apps, and scored 10 goals in all competitions

There are of course other players in the squad, but most of them were loaned out to my affiliates or floated about the bench, not featuring enough to warrant a mention or a screenie.

Top Scorer: Stefano Okaka - 20 goals
Most Assists: Eduardo - 12 assists
Highest Ave. Rating: Timo Gebhart - 7.13
Fans Player of The Year: Timo Gebhart

The plan for the season ahead is to try and again push for a european place, and ultimately try and build on the postion i finished in last season.

In terms of the playing staff, i have plans to overhaul many areas of the squad, starting with Marco Mura, but this all depends on what kind of budget i am given by the board.

In other exciting news, the board have announced the construction of Lubeck Stadium, at a cost of £48.5 million, which will be completed in approx. 2 years. A capacity of over 25000 and undersoil heating which will put the current Stadion Lohmule to shame! However, it does mean i now have loan repayments of 350k a month for the foreseeable future Hopefully the benefits will outweigh the short-term negative effect it could have on staff/players wages etc

We shall see

Season          Division        Position       Achievements
2010/2011       Third Division	1st		Promoted 
2011/2012	Second Division 9th		  
2012/2013       Second Division 2nd	 	Promoted
2013/2014	First Division  14th
2014/2015       First Division  9th
2015/2016       First Division  5th             German Cup Runner Up, Qualified for Euro Cup
2016/2017       First Division  8th             Euro Cup 1st Knockout Stage

[rlipscombe]

solid season G-Wiz - i wouldn't worry too much about the slip in the league. sure you'll bounce back next season.

[RaZoR bLaDe]

FC Messina, on the up!

Breaking news the FC Messina board have just announced unknow manager Guiseppe Fiorelli s the man to take the club forward after the financial collapse from Serie B 2 seasons ago.

Fiorelli is thought to be absolutely delighted to be hired, he also states that he wishes to take Messina to champions league glory, by playing beutiful football; and with a yound team.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Welcome aboard Razor Blade, hope you enjoy your time in Italy.

A little on my own season's story: I have won the Euro & Portugal Super Cups, and also the Club World Champs & Portuguese League Cup to this point of the season. The League with 7 games left sees us 12 points clear. Champions League sees Evora sitting in the Quarterfinals against Inter. And we are taking on Nacional in the Portuguese Cup Semifinals at the same time. So looking good to win all 7 trophies that I could possibly take out this season.

Then there is my Brazilian Job, well I may actually be in a little trouble as we just lost 1:0 to Romania in our latest friendly as I am attempting to prepare for the World Cup in June/July 2030. We also have the completion of our stadium: Tiny Stadium on June 29th to look forward too, I would love to get a World Cup match, but I think I will miss out this time around and have to wait til Portugal hosts again.

I have sold or loaned a lot of my elder statesmen as I attempt to build a very strong group of 20-25 year olds who I can use to win a few more titles and decide on what my next Challenge with Evora will be or if I will drop back to the bottom with a newly promoted side.

[rlipscombe]

welcome razor blade - good luck with Messina

LLR - sounds like a mediocre season again... look forward to the review

As for me, we have just completed the 2021/22 season. review should hopefully follow in the next day or so.

[rlipscombe]

Venezia - Serie A - Season 2021/22 Review

Media Prediction: 12th
Final Position: 10th

Following our 9th place finish last season i was hoping for further progression up the league this season. We started out well but had a mid-season slump which saw us fall down the table. We managed to recover somewhat in the closing stages to finish in tenth.

In the Coppa Italia we managed to break our record of crashing out at the 1st round stage where we beat .......... In the Quarter finals we played Ascoli in which a tense game saw us win on penalties after a 2-2 draw. This meant we had made it into the semi finals where we would play Roma over two legs. Incredibly we managed to win 1-0 away at the Stadio Olimpico and following a tense 1-1 scoreline at Collauto Park we managed to progress to play giants Juventus in the final!! Going into the final i was in two minds as to what formation to play - keep the 442 or change to a defensive 4141 setup. i decided i had nothing to lose so stuck with the 442. In a fairytale first half Danilo managed to score twice and we went in 2-0 up. Juventus pulled it back to 2-1 in the second half but some serious backs to the wall defending saw us hold on to win 2-1. VENEZIA ARE COPPA ITALIA CHAMPIONS!! This incredible result will see us play in the Europa league next season, something i can't wait for. I'm over the moon with the cup win and it more than made up for our average league season.

Squad 1 Squad 2
Transfers 1 Transfers 2

Time for a look at the squad players which played major roles this season:

Goalkeepers

Orellana - The Chilean wonderkid took the no.1 shirt this season and played really well. He is incredibly talented for his age - hopefully i can keep him at the club for many years to come. he was also named in the world team of the year.
Terranova - unlucky to lose his starting spot to Orellana, he performed well when Orellana was injured for three months over the winter. Hope to keep him next season.

Full Backs

Wuyts - My Belgian international had a steady first season at the club although i was slightly disappointed. Lost his place to Ortega at the end of the season. Looking for more next season.
Ortega - Performed well as cover for Wuyts, he eventually became first choice RB in the run-in.
Schafer - My record signing Belgian LB did pretty well overall, making the LB spot his own. Another i'll be looking to see develop further next season.
Lopez Gonzalez - The young SPaniard provided good cover for Schafer. One for the future still too.

Centre Backs

Hurtado - Ecudorain defender played pretty well until he became unsettled in the winter. have a decision to make on his stay at the club this summer. if he becomes happy again he's going nowhere.
Mahieu - French wonderkid defender played mainly as cover but did play a number of games. hopefully a season under his belt will do him the world of good next season.
Rossini - January signing brought in to strengthen the heart of the defence. did well when he played. Brings experience to the CB spots.
Moretto - Another January signing from Panathianikos, the versatile Italian played both CB and DM. Did well at the end of the season as CB, he will have a real shot at a starting spot next season.

Wingers

Cannone - Another good season frim the italian, injury affected his season and the good form of Blanco saw him end the season as a sub. still a major player for the club.
Blanco - Great attacking midfielder signed from barcelona pre-season, he was an almost ever-present in the team, mainly as CM but then as RM when Cannone was injured. a bargain for £1.5 million.
Talamonti - THe young Italian LM was the revelation of the season. Put in some great performances and scored a number of important goals. Mad ethe LM spot his own at the age of 17.
Handzic - No more than cover for the Bosnian winger this season, he will leave on a free transfer this summer.

Centre Midfielders

Jones - the Englishman played well in centre midfield again and kept Mazibuko out of the team. More to come from him yet
Mazibuko - The South African arrived over the summer and brought some defensive ability to the club. not overly effective as a CM though - needs some training to play there full time.
Dos Santos - Signed from Sampdoria mid-season he provided cover for the attacking CM spot and became first choice when Blanco played wide. Did well and improved the quality of our midfield.
Modric - veteran midfielder played a bit part role and will leave in the summer

Strikers

Cavada - The Swiss striker was top goalscorer for the club again weigning in with 21 goals. Started the season at more than a goal a game, his form tailed off a little in the run-in. He also racked up the accolades, winning Serie A 2nd best foreigner, 3rd best player and 1st in young player of the year. More of the same to come next season please!
Danilo - The Brazilian recovered some of the form he was missing last season to provide a good partner to Cavada. Won us the Coppa Italia with his two goals in the final. Hopefully his form will improve more next season.
Elber - A steady season for the Brazilian forward. Never been a prolific striker in his career, he provided a good foil for Cavada and Danilo. In demand by a host of clubs.
Szucs - young Romanian brought in to provide cover with one eye on the future. Did ok in the few games he played, i am expecting him to develop into a good little striker
Adria - Young Spaniard brought in mid-season with an eye on the future. Tipped to be a future star. Hopefully he is.

On the finances front we again made a little profit, mainly due to prize money from the league finish and cup win. This is good especially given the £88 million spent on transfers in the season.

Our facilities have been improved to good training facilities and excellent youth facilities. the training facilities are again being improved this summer. i also managed Venezia in my 500th game during the season.

Aims for the new season

• Improve on tenth place league finish
• Enjoy the European campaign.
• Reach the Europa League group stages

Onwards to the new season we go - our first European adventuRe...

FORZA LAGUNARI!!

Career History

Season   League      Pos.  Serie C Cup  Cup       Europe         Achievements
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2010/11  Serie C2/A  2nd   group stage  N/A       N/A             Lost in play-off semis
2011/12  Serie C2/A  3rd   group stage  N/A.       N/A            Promotion in playoffs
2012/13  Serie C1/A  8th   N/A             2nd Qual. N/A            None
2013/14  Serie C1/A  1st   Winners      3rd Qual. N/A            Serie C1/A Champions, Serie C Cup, Serie C Super Cup
2014/15  Serie B     9th   N/A              3rd Qual. N/A            None
2015/16  Serie B     9th     N/A             2nd Qual   N/A            None
2016/17  Serie B     2nd     N/A             3rd Qaul.  N/A            Promotion
2017/18  Serie A     20th    N/A             4th Qual   N/A           Relegated
2018/19  Serie B     3rd     N/A             1st Round N/A           Promoted in play-offs
2019/20  Serie A     13th    N/A             1st Round  N/A
2020/21  Serie A      9th     N/A             1st Round  N/A
2021/22  Serie A     10th    N/A            Winners     N/A         Coppa Italia winners

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Congratulations on the Coppa Italia there Rlips, a very good looking season. Hopefully you have some fun in Europe, best of luck making the Group Stage.

I am nearing the end of my season, Pablo Almiron is smashing the goals in with 40 so far this season, but he suffered a sprained ankle against AC Milan in the Champs League Semi Final and will most likely miss the remaining four games of our season, he has broken the club record for Goals, League Goals, Assists, Goals in a match, and he ended up one Man of the Match short as well. But the funniest moment and the one that makes him feel ripped off is the April Player of the Month, he scored 10 goals in 3 games for a rating of 9.60 and he came 2nd...

[rlipscombe]

that's some joke with the player of the month award!! awesome record though... thanks for congrats too. was very happy. am just trying to plot how to make the step forward in the league now....

[rlipscombe]

well it seems currently that the plan is to bankrupt the club!! £50 million spent this summer so far with nothing coming in yet to balance the books. we're £23 million in the red currently.....

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I managed to finish my season, but update may be slow in coming as I have a rather hectic schedule coming up...though may get it done on Monday on my day off after the All Whites face Italy...

[iacovone]

Look forward to it Des. rlips - good solid season there, congrats on the Coppa Italia - always nice to win some silverware. I'm just firing up my Castillo file. We're in March 2026, going well in the league (6th), out of the Copa del Rey, but heading to Turkey for the 2nd leg vs Besiktas in the Europa League 1st Knockout Round. We drew 1-1 at home. Disappointing.

[iacovone]

Well well well

Down to 10 men after Dragos Vintila was sent off on 9 minutes. Amazingly it inspired on load Kwabena Osman to a delicious hattrick on a snowy pitch to claim the win 3-2 and 4-3 on aggregate. The debut European adventure continues...

[rlipscombe]

iacovone - it is always nice to win some silverware!! good to see the european adventure continuing... you are my inspiration!!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Excellent to see you continuing in Europe Iacovone, best of luck as you continue.

[iacovone]

I'm out!!!

Next round we drew Standard Liege - a seemingly average side and a good draw for us. Well after winning 1-0 at home, we went 3-0 down after 15 minutes in Belgium and never recovered

Oh well. At least with our league form we should do enough to secure a second season of European football. Fingers crossed...

[G-Wiz]

bad luck iacovone, hopefully you can continue to build on this next year

[rlipscombe]

fingers crossed iacovone.

[ghostwriter]

Real life and all that has kind of got in the way recently but I have finally finished pre-season 2019...


Summer 2019

Here is a reminder of last season.

Was pretty quiet on the incoming front until the end of August - only the 3 previously signed Bosmans and some of the usual teenage £100 p/w sigings who may turn out to be good or if not will gain me money in any case. There was also the buying of the half of all the players I had sold the previous season - all 8 came back here although I would not have minded at least a couple going as now, because of the co-ownership bug, I can't sell them and they only have 1 year left on their contracts...

There was much more movement on the selling side of things. First of all I got rid of Schutz, the Belgian AML who had been a disaster. His definition of a bigger club turned out to be a team relegated from Serie B last season . To be fair, it was not entirely his fault as when I offered him out, over 20 clubs from all over Europe bid for him but only Pescara offered what I wanted so theirs was the only offer I accepted. Next to leave was Tacchinardi whose goals had got us into Serie B in the first place, unfortunately he was now 5th choice so off he went, the fact he went to a better club than us is a bit disconcerting though. My first choice GK for the last 5 years, Remy, had been moaning about bigger clubs and was unsettled and as Ailton, my young Brazilian, had been fanastic on loan in Serie C1, I decided to sell and risk Ailton as 1st choice as although he is not yet as good as Remy he has the potential to be better and will only get there via actually playing. Notts County were the lucky recipients.

A few youths along with 2 of the longest serving players in De Rose and Sguera (both first choice defenders in Serie C1) left before the final note-worthy departure of the Summer. Asier Sarriegi had been by far our best MC for each of his 4 seasons and vice-captain. However, he only had one year left on his contract and was demanding 4 times his current wage. He is good but I was not going to offer him anything near that and I have a couple of promising youngsters in his position. I would have preferred him going abroad but he ended up at Parma.

That did mean that I was now looking for another MC. My first choice, an Albanian international, went to Sweden but my 2nd choice, a Romanian U21 international, joined for £400k. I then asked him if he could recommend any players and he came up with a fellow U21 player, a DRC, from Cluj. My scouts liked him, I needed another defender so I bought him. The first Romanian now loves me, they should help each other settle and both look highly promising players.


Here are the players:

José Maria - I did not really need him but his versatility and low wage demands meant it was a no-brainer, his best position is DMC whilst I don't really play (although now 5 of my players have it as their preferred position) but he looks a good MC and can probably fill in in defence if needed, not too sure how much he will start but I imagine he will be on the bench for most matches
George Ezeocha - it was me and not a scout that stumbled across him and it is a fluke that I ever did, last Autumn an out-of-contract player on my shortlist was offered loads of contracts, one was from Mogren, I had no idea where they were from so I clicked on them to find out, Montenegro it turned out, I then spied an English player in their ranks which piqued my curiosity, I checked him out and he looked fantastic, my scouts agreed, I then forgot about him until the end of December when I discovered he was out of contract in the Summer so quickly signed him up, he was born in Yorkshire but seemingly grew up in Nigeria, he is an English U21 International (4 goals on his debut! ) and looks a great player, he is massive, unsurprisingly great in the air, is very good in other areas and is now my best ST, a bit unfair on Diego as it might be his place he takes unless I can somehow get away with playing them both
Miguel Atienza - his signing made my decision to get rid of Schultz a lot easier, just as good as him although his dribbling could improve a bit, will be 1st choice at ML, only issue is that he only signed a 1 year contract so I hope that whenever he wants to sign a new one he won't ask for ridiculous wages, in any case I have Angelo Fiorentini waiting in the wings (turned down £900k for him, hope no-one offers silly money) for when he leaves
Andrea Spalazzi - the best of the teenage signings, the only one who had never played for another club, and for a 16yo he looks very promising, in fact I think he is a lot better than I realised when I signed him(!), will be in the U20s but if there was an injury crisis I don't think I would have any qualms about playing him, has a lot of potential
Tudor Corneanu - bought with the money for Sarriegi's sale although he won't play in the same position, another with DMC as his preferred position but unlikely he will play there, will be the more defensive MC in the formation, very promising and might even be 1st choice, we shall see
Sorin Rotărescu - the player that Corneanu recommended, another promising player, fantastic in the air which our current DCs are not, although he could improve his marking but age is on his side, will start as 3rd choice and his ability to play DR is also an asset

So there you go...
Perhaps a bit risky to make so little changes to a side which only just avoided relegation. Perhaps very risky to make little changes to a back 4 which had the worst record in the history of Serie B, especially with a GK who is not yet as good as the previous one. I am hoping that one year's experience in Italy and the ability to speak Italian will have a positive effect.
On the plus side, Ivan, my DL who was in a continual homesick grump last season and played very badly now likes Italy. On the minus side, he now thinks one season and average rating of 6.59 is enough for him at one club and now wants to move to further his career. Unfortunately I have no DLs on my shortlist as good as he currently is so he is staying and I hope he will calm down a bit.

We definitely should not find ourselves in the same mess as last season. Where we do end up I am not certain.

[ANDEHLSON]

I managed to finish my season, but update may be slow in coming as I have a rather hectic schedule coming up...

Just out of curiosity how much do you gain from the Portuguese league TV revenue?

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Just out of curiosity how much do you gain from the Portuguese league TV revenue?

I think its 1-2million pounds at the start of the season and thats all...

PS: New Zealand 1 - Italy 1 WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

[rlipscombe]

PS: New Zealand 1 - Italy 1 WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

watched the game Des... Was rooting for NZ all the way!! Was really pleased when the whistle went... Good to see one team from Oceania doing well...

[ANDEHLSON]

I think its 1-2million pounds at the start of the season and thats all...

Was wondering if this changed for a club outside the big 3. With Leiria I had ~1.7m when I finished 5th and 4th and 2.4m when I finished 3rd.
With Porto always finished 1st and received 3.4m... (€)

Guess not..

Either way it's badly represented. IIRC the 3 big receive 8-9 mil IRL. :c

[rlipscombe]

well we have made it to the Europa League Gropu stage after a 4-2 aggregate win over Rapid Bucharest (2-1 away and 2-1 home) our group??

Zenit st. Petersburg
Shakhtar Donetsk
VENEZIA
Levadia Tallinn

gonna be tough...

[RaZoR bLaDe]

Zenit st. Petersburg
Shakhtar Donetsk
VENEZIA
Levadia Tallinn

Rlipscombe that looks tough group good luck though.

I'm progressing rather nicely and after spending a day or two designing my squad and creating a massive shortlist for the near future I'm now just about ready for the last two pre season freindlies before the start of the season. I just hope my brand new team can gel quickly so we don't get of to a poor start as my season expectations are to win promotion.

Pre season update to come


Cmon North Korea!!!

[rlipscombe]

Rlipscombe that looks tough group good luck though.

I'm progressing rather nicely and after spending a day or two designing my squad and creating a massive shortlist for the near future I'm now just about ready for the last two pre season freindlies before the start of the season. I just hope my brand new team can gel quickly so we don't get of to a poor start as my season expectations are to win promotion.

Pre season update to come


Cmon North Korea!!!

it is tough - could have been a lot better. Zenit have some great players (who i'd like to buy) and Shakhtar are tough too. first game is vs Levadia though so hoping for a good start...

good luck for the new season

[rlipscombe]

just played our first Europa League game at home to Levadia... cruising 2-0 up at half time, we have managed to **** it up big time to lose 3-2 in injury time!!

not pleased.

[RaZoR bLaDe]

just played our first Europa League game at home to Levadia... cruising 2-0 up at half time, we have managed to **** it up big time to lose 3-2 in injury time!!

not pleased.

You need Carlsberg team talks, I've heard their the best

[RaZoR bLaDe]

Ok, Big problems with my Messina save, it kept crashing after i play my first freindly and then when i tried to reboot FM the save game wouldn't load.

[rlipscombe]

Razor - unlucky with the save... what you going to do?

After the farce of the Levadia european game, we've just gone to Zenit away and drawn 2-2. not a bad result i guess.

also, i'm working on a new formation which i've played the last few games. going for a Chelsea 4-1-2-2-1 formation with attacking wingers and a holding midfielder. trying to tighten the defence a bit.

[RaZoR bLaDe]

Razor - unlucky with the save... what you going to do?

After the farce of the Levadia european game, we've just gone to Zenit away and drawn 2-2. not a bad result i guess.

also, i'm working on a new formation which i've played the last few games. going for a Chelsea 4-1-2-2-1 formation with attacking wingers and a holding midfielder. trying to tighten the defence a bit.

Well as the crash completely incapacitated Football Manager I had to re install it so i know longer have my saves,. However i do still have the portuguese save, that was uploaded in the opening post, somewhere on my machine so i will probebly delve in their.

Good result agianst Zenit by the way. Also a good choice of tactic i have used that shape numerous times, however I tend to use a creative inside forward who'll run at the defense, cut in side, play through balls and score more goals, thats just my personal preference though I hope the change of shape will benefit you.

[G-Wiz]

just been offered the job at Bayern Munich, armed with a 43 million warchest! i politely rejected the approach of course, as tempting as it was...

in other news, i have finally won a real trophy, having won the German Cup at last! first real piece of silverware, thank god!! lol qualified for the Euro Cup as a result, which is just as well as i wouldnt have otherwise full season review to follow

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Congrats on the trophy G-Wiz, Ijust completed the World Cup with Brazil, and I have two large updates coming, one for my Evora Season and another for my spell at Brazil...I am currently deciding if I want to stay at Brazil or move on to another international side.

Tiny Stadium was completed and I set-up a Friendly League, but for some reason it was played at Campo Estrela

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's
Lusitano de Evora


End of Season
2029/30 Liga Sagres
Can we win it All?

The Current Season

The Quick Reference

Predicted: 1st
Actual: 1st - CHAMPIONS!!!
Portuguese Cup: Final vs Benfica - CHAMPIONS!!!
League Cup: Final vs Porto - CHAMPIONS!!!
Super Cup: vs Varzim - CHAMPIONS!!!
Champions League: Final vs Celtic - CHAMPIONS!!!
Euro Super Cup: vs Aston Villa - CHAMPIONS!!!
Club World Champs: Final vs New York Red Bulls - CHAMPIONS!!!
The Manager: Des Tiny - History
Euro Rank: 5th (NC) [1st Por]
Finances: £162M (Debt £39.5M) (1st Por, 12th World)
Season Tickets: 4576 (^721)
The Squad: First & Second XI, The Rest
Transfers: 2029/30


The Season in General

Well notably this season we had more season ticket holders than we had seats in our stadium, thank god Tiny Stadium will be completed by the end of this month. I also signed on as the Brazil Manager (A Mini update will follow the World Cup), on the financial front I have actually made a profit over the entire season of about 5 million pounds, but I need more than that if I want to be financially stable again. For transfers I managed to sell off a lot of our older players and to bring in some younger replacements, not necessarily going to jump straight into the starting team, but possible stars for the future. We also managed to top the Sponsorship league as we earned substantially more money through Sponsorship than anyone else in our league. Des Tiny managed to also get himself into the European & World Hall of Fames during this season, and I received the achievement on steam for staying at one club for 20 seasons.

The League

Our league season started with games against Braga, Porto, Sporting and Benfica which left us 2-1-1 and having to work our way back into the competition. We managed to score more goals than ever in the Liga Sagres as we put 83 goals into the back of the net, it took us a few games to get to the top, but as always once we were there no one could hold us back and we managed to take that chance and run away with it. Porto & Benfica managed to rebound from near relegation last season to qualify for the Champions League this season. That loss to Benfica on game day three ended up being our only loss all season as we then went on a 53 game unbeaten streak through til the Champions League Final. Almiron would like us to play Beira Mar every day.

Player Stats
Team Stats

The Cups
Taca de Portugal
We joined the Taca de Portugal in the 3rd Round as we attempted to defend our title for the fourth year running, our first game saw us face non-league team Padroense, we saw a Cappiello hattrick complete this victory 4:1, then we moved on to face Varzim (Last Years Finalists) in the 4th round, Cappiello was involved once more, but we let them score twice before we saw Javier and Ozkan confirm the victory. The 5th round saw us taking on Alcains, they became Liga Vitalis Champions this season and will become the second non-playable club to make it to the Liga Sagres as they attempt their own Big Euro Challenge. The two nil victory with goals to Senol & Markovic was no surprise really and saw us move to the Quarterfinals where we would take on Braga, Markovic popped up again and managed to score a stunning goal, and Danilo finished them off two nil. For the Semifinal we would face Nacional over two legs, we started at home and the regular names appeared again as Senol & Danilo added their names to another scoresheet. Leading 2:0 we were pretty happy heading away, a few goals went in during the away leg, but a result was never really in doubt as Almiron, Cappiello & Javier all scored giving us a 3:2 away victory, 5:2 on aggregate and off to the Final against Benfica. It took a goal from Danilo and an own goal, but we wrapped it up in style winning 2:0.

PC Results
PC Stats

Taca de Liga
The Taca de Liga saw us enter at the 3rd Round Group Stage, we were drawn alongside Gil Vicente, Varzim & Braga in what should be an easy group for us and give us every chance at advancement. We started away from home against Gil Vicente and a hattrick by Danilo led us to a 4:1 victory, then home to Campo Estrela for our final two games saw us meet Varzim in a very tight 1:1 draw, and goals from Sima & Mateus saw us score a 2:0 victory over Braga. This resulted in us making the Semifinal against Benfica, we had another Hattrick as Mateus went wild, he was joined on the scoresheet by Almiron & Babic in a 5:2 victory. The final against Porto was lined up to be a tough match, but we went in full of hope and a huge 4:1 victory for our side after Almiron scored and Babic managed a brace, Javier completed the scoring to set up a historic victory.

LC Results
LC Stats

Super Cup

The Super Cup against Varzim was a tough battle with neither team able to gain any sort of ascendency, in the end a lucky ball falling to the feet of Senol saw Evora emerge victorious in the finale 1:0.

Europe
Super Cup

First up in Europe we had to face Aston Villa for the Super Cup title, this would be our second trophy of the season if we could gain it after our Portuguese Super Cup earlier. The game started with a lot of back and forward early on, but we took the lead after 25 minutes when Markovic snatched a great goal. We went into half time with this lead and I sent them out with some encouragement and this ended badly as Markovic got himself a second yellow to be sent off after 51 minutes, it appeared that we may be in trouble playing with ten men for 40 minutes, and then Steve Poole scored after 63 minutes to draw them level, of course just 5 minutes later Almiron showed why I had the faith in him early in the season scoring his first goal of the night, and then with more play directed at their net he added another after 84 minutes to make it a two goal lead. The Aston Villa side fought hard as the managed to score a second after 86 minutes, but it really was too little too late as we took the trophy home to Campo Estrela.

Champions League

We were drawn in a group alongside Rapid Wien, Bohemians and AZ, as the top qualifier it looked like our chances would be pretty good as we opened against Rapid Wien away, goals from Almiron & Mateus put us through 2:0, we took other good results with wins over Bohemians of 4:0 & 4:2, a Draw 1:1 & a 2:1 win over AZ and then we finished the group stage on top with a 2:0 win over Rapid Wien. This got us into the knockout rounds and with a great chance to advance.
1st Knockout Round - vs Roma: We started this match up away to Roma with a great 2:1 victory, goals to Cappiello & Ozkan led the way for us to head home ahead of one of the Italian greats. Back at Campo Estrela with our 4250 fans looking on we managed to keep a clean sheet and score two more goals care of Banos & Javier, a huge 4:1 aggregate victory saw us into the Quarterfinals.
Quarterfinals - vs Inter Milan: We started at Campo Estrela and the 4250 fans who turned up were not to be disappointed as we scored an amazing 5 goals and only conceded one to lead heading away to Milan. A Brace from Almiron alongside goals from Cappiello, Danilo & Mateus set us up for a huge advancement to the Semis, we managed a gritty one all draw away with a goal from Almiron making sure we didn't lose our unbeaten record. Two Italian giants down and one to go.
Semifinals - vs AC Milan: Yes we were drawn in the semifinals to meet the third Italian Giant, if we could sweep through them we would face Liverpool or Celtic in the finale. We started this match at the San Siro and a huge 3:1 away result was an amazing effort knowing that we only needed a draw at home to advance to the final for the second year in a row. Goals to Cappiello, Fabiano & Danilo had led us to this point, and now we just looked to hold on at home and not let the opposition get through us. Not only did we achieve that, but with the help of Javier & Senol we made it even better with a 2 nil victory leading us to a 5:1 aggregate victory and another final appearance.
Final - vs Celtic: This game started terribly for us as we went behind inside the first minute, I had to go all out attack at this point as there was no way we could afford to be behind going into the game. We managed to hold them out for the rest of the first half, but our attacks were pretty useless, I was a little mad with the boys at half time. I sent them out asking them to show me more as this was the best I could hope for. It seemed to work as the boys were fired up after halftime and this was shown by a great goal from Danilo on 54 minutes, we then grabbed the lead after 76 minutes as he slotted his second goal home, and we were not finished at this point as Javier stepped up just 3 mins later to finish the job with a goal of his own. 3:1 Final score. Also I laughed a little when I saw who the manager of Celtic was, he placed comment on a great game by Danilo.

Group A
Results
Team Stats
Player Stats

World
Club World Championships

In the Club World Championships the South American & European Champions get an easy route as they advance straight to the Semifinals, as much as being from Oceania I find this just another way of keeping down some areas, I did like it in this occurance as it meant I only had two games to worry about. Really though I am sure that any of these big clubs would complain if the draw was the other way around, so in the semifinal we were drawn against Okayama FC of Japan, the reigning Asian Champions. This game was a bit of a cake walk as our three strikers combined to be completely lethal with Almiron, Cappiello & Danilo all scoring in this match as we won 3:0. The other Semifinal saw an upset as the North American Champion New York Red Bulls defeated South American Champions Sao Paulo, so we would face New York in the final. This game was even easier than the last one as we walked over them 5:0 with Markovic, Cappiello, Danilo & Markovic scoring for us and an own goal finishing the job.

Results
Player Stats

Vs the Top 3

vs Sporting 1:0
at Sporting 2:1
Record: 19-6-12 (64:59)
at Porto 5:2
vs Porto 1:0
nv Porto 4:1
Record: 20-4-11 (60:39)
at Benfica 1:3
vs Benfica 1:1, 5:2
nv Benfica 2:0
Record: 17-6-19 (55:55)

The Club's History

League Records

|----------|----------|-----------|----------|-----------------------------------|
|  Season  |  League  | Final Pos | Playoffs |            Achievements           |
|----------|----------|-----------|----------|-----------------------------------|
|  2010/11 |   2DS    |    6th    |          |                None               |
|  2011/12 |   2DS    |    1st    |    2nd   |         Promoted & Won 2DS        |
|  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 LV         |
|  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 & Qual EC       |
|  2022/23 |    LS    |    3rd    |    N/A   |           Qualified EC            |
|  2023/24 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |        Won League & Qual CL       |
|  2024/25 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |      Won LS, SC, PC & 2nd CL      |
|  2025/26 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |           Won LS, SC, LC          |
|  2026/27 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |         Won LS, SC, PC, LC        |
|  2027/28 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |         Won LS, SC, PC, LC        |
|  2028/29 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   |      Won LS, SC, PC, LC & CL      |
*******************************Challenge Complete*******************************
|  2029/30 |    LS    |    1st    |    N/A   | Won LS, SC, PC, LC, CL, ESC & CWC |
|----------|----------|-----------|----------|-----------------------------------|

Club Records & Competition History

All Records:
Average Attendance:
Most Games without Losing: 54* - 15.09.29-25.05.30
Top Goalscorer: Pablo Almiron 40
Top League Goalscorer: Pablo Almiron 27
Most Goals in a Match: Pablo Almiron 5 (vs Beira Mar 6.4.30)
Most Assists: Pablo Almiron 23
Most League Apps: Francisco Javier Sanchez 272
Most League Goals: Wilson Mateus 93
Highest Fee Received: Pablo Roman (20M)

Competition History:
Club World Championships - Winners 2029
Champions League - Winners 2029, 2030, 2nd 2025
Euro Super Cup - Winners 2029
Liga Sagres - Winners 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 3rd 2023
League Cup - Winners 2022, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030
Portuguese Cup - Winners 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030
Super Cup - Winners 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029
Liga Vitalis - Winners 2018, 3rd 2014, 2015, 2017
2nd Division South - Winners 2012
Reserves:
Group 3 - 3rd 2017
Group 2 - Winners 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030 2nd 2019
U19s:
Group 4 - Winners 2030, 2nd 2024, 3rd 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028
U19s Cup - Winners 2023, 2030, 2nd 2018

The Players

The Squad

Current Teams Stats - First & Second XI, The Rest
Key: First XI, Second XI, Youth, Leaving.

Goalkeepers

30. Nicky Evers (GK) - Keeping a clean sheet in half of your matches is no easy feat, but it was something Evers achieved in his first full season for Evora, he played majorly in a rotation role with Gill. Evers is likely to move into a more senior role in the new season.

32. Julio Gill (GK) - The Paraguayan Goalkeeper has fallen behind the youngster this season, even though he is clearly the best keeper in the squad. With the aim being to train up for the future, Tiny wanted to see Evers in the net and he really never let the side down when it mattered.

31. Steven Vogt (GK) - The Austrian actually had a pretty good game for his side in Russia, with conceding 14 goals in 15 games, he is not as good as either of my current keepers though so he will remain a fringe player.

Defense

36. Ferhat Yildiz (DR) - He is Evora's Superstar, the Turkish right back is head and shoulders above anyone else in his position and has led us to multiple titles over the 8 seasons he has been a member of the team. He would be delighted to have stayed when just a few seasons ago he was looking to leave for greener pastures. He stayed and now has back to back Champions League Medals.

63. Kamil Sima (DL) - He is now one of the oldest players in our starting line-up, but without a doubt he is an absolute star at the back for us, and in the mix with the rest of the top line he is helping strengthen our defense.

50. Pedro Banos (DRC) - He is the number 1 central defender in the squad currently, but finding him a strong partner to replace Sanchez has been a bit of a problem. Britton and Javier have had a few games each, but neither of them really stepped up. Banos is the lynch pin across the middle now, he will lead here for many years to come.

4. Francisco Javier Sanchez (DC) - Captain Fantastic, The Old Man of Evora, whatever you wish to call the man with 439 games for Evora, he has had another excellent season in 2029/30 as he led the team across the park. It will be a miracle if he can last many more seasons, but with 11 seasons behind him for the club after joining on a free from Real Madrid no one can fault his retirement when it comes.

88. Engin Duruer (DR) - Yildiz's replacement in both Internationals and for Evora has shown that he has some amazing skill as he put in a season with a rating of 7.44, the huge effort he put in was shown by his two man of the match awards and headed towards breaking Yildiz's great hold on the position.

2. Peter Cooper (DL) - He has moved back up the pecking order, with the sale of Moran we see Peter Cooper back on the bench. He managed to feature in 14 games this season with a rating of 7.42 throughout the season and 5 assists, he is almost worthy of a few more games in the new year.

6. Francisco Javier (DC) - The young Spainard spent the season as a back-up, but he did manage to score a rating of over 7 in this role and as such may play a greater part in the new season. Really Tiny will be out looking at the World Cup for a new Central defender to lead the team after the end of Sanchez.

5. Barry Britton (DC) - The super youngster was signed as the replacement for Sanchez in the new season, disappointingly he was not quite up to the role. He did play solidly, but he will need to be better in the new season or someone else will take the chance instead.

00. Elicarlos (DC) - The youngster spent his season on loan at Zaragoza, but he only got one game and the trip seems to have been a bit of a waste of time.

47. Jose Pacheco (DL) - He is the next big Left Back, sitting behind Sima & Cooper we would be hoping that he can improve over the next few seasons at Tiny Stadium. I will be watching his development over the years to come.

80. Alejandro Etxeberria (DR) - Another season on loan, this time he went to Falkirk where he performed admirably, he will be looking for a new fulltime contract somewhere in July after Falkirk refused that option.

37. Acassio (DR) - He went on loan this season as there was no space for him in my side, but he looked alright at Racing.

Midfield

19. Sedat Ozkan (MC) - The young turk made double figures of assists once more and has cemented himself in the middle of the park. A huge season as he tries to build himself as the future lynchpin of the Evora Midfield.

21. Branko Babic (MC) - He was brough in as a replacement for some of our outgoing superstars and he lived up to his billing throughout the season he showed some great support across the park, he even got to 7 assists in the half season he played for the squad.

57. Aleksander Lukic (ML) - The left winger is going to eventually be converted to the role of Central midfielder, he seems to play quite brilliantly there as shown by his effort this season as he was great in combination with Babic & Ozkan.

27. Luiz Fabiano (DC/DM/MC) - The Brazilian Captain has fallen slightly down the order at his home club as a new combination of youngsters get a series of runs for the team. He still looks very solid over the season with 6 assists and a rating over 7.

14. Borivoje Markovic (MC) - Another season with over 10 assists sees Markovic continuing, he may not be always the first choice anymore, but he has a stunning base to work on everytime he steps into the team.

28. Mario Medina (DM/MC) - He played a very average 13 games over the season, but he still has a chance to improve on this as he battles for a place in the starting line up in the season to come.

22. Dudu Cearense (MC) - The youth played a big part in the rotation policy through this season as he played cover through injuries and strife and also the possible sale of some of our superstars. Very solid in the middle, Cearense also managed his Brazilian Debut during the season and will be hoping for a World Cup call-up.

68. Thomas Van den Bossche (MC) - The youngster is pretty much a huge part of the future for our club, the youngsters only got a few appearances late on into the game, but he did a great job for our U19s and Reserves.

73. Vitor (MC) - Another very strong youngster in the side, he will be looking to improve himself all the way into the starting line-up. At least one of these young centre-mids must come off, it is really just a matter of time.

74. Philippe Simon (MC) - Simon had a good season in the youth side, but he will be looking to at least get some appearances off the bench in the new season. If he can improve there will be a spot open for him in the future as some of the old guard move off.

18. Derya Ozgur (MRC) - He was on loan at Chievo all season, but it was slightly less than impressive, with the huge amount of competition in the side he may struggle to get a spot back.

24. Milos Bjelic (DM/MC) - He has spent the season on loan at Chievo, when he got on the park he looked impressive and as such he will be trying to get into the senior side in the new season.

97. Jeremie Caron (MC) - With 8 goals and 11 assists for the reserves and youth team this year he is starting to show his skill and he will be an asset for years to come in this side.

59. Rui Amado (MLC) - The Evora Youth product is not looking the best as he slowly learns his position, it is going to take time to get him up to skill and hopefully he will find some partners in our top class midfield youngsters.

00. Yacouba Sylla (MC) - The youngster was on loan at Odivelas, but he only played adequately for his loan club, he is unlikely to be able to wade through the number of players that are currently ahead of him in the Evora side, we will see what happens over the summer.

94. Oscar Afonso (MRL) - The youngster does not really fit with our team, but he could get himself a big contract elsewhere in which case I will sell him for a little profit.

Strikers

9. Danilo (ST) - The leader of the strike force had a major injury early in the season, but he recovered from it really well to end the season with 20 goals in 32 matches. He also is a core feature of Des Tiny's Brazilian squad. He will be looking to build on the combination he has with Almiron with the move into Tiny Stadium.

25. Pablo Almiron (AM/FC) - The best season any of our players have ever had, with 40 goals, 23 assists, 15 Man of the Match awards and a rating of 7.76 through 49 games. Almiron was a delight this season and will be looking to build on it into the new season, he was a little gutted to be injured for the final 5 games of our season, but still a stellar effort.

55. Emiliano Cappiello (AM/FC) - The Italian striker managed to score 22 goals for us in 47 games, I was delighted with this return from the 23 year old as he moved into a lead striking role alongside Danilo & Almiron, he will be looking to grow into the role as the years go by for Evora.

77. Javier (ST) - Even though he was seen as a back-up he managed to make it onto the park for 46 games during the season, in this time he made 14 goals and assisted on another 13. This was not the best possible season for Javier, but he is clearly sitting there right behind the front three.

10. Wilson Mateus (AM/FC) - The elder statesman of the front line has dropped behind the young superstars, he will be looking to score another 7 league goals over the coming year as he is just that many short of 100 league goals for Evora.

1. Josu Ros (MR/ST) - The youngster is still looking to get his debut goal for Evora, but he will get more games as a couple of elder statesmen may see the end of their careers here in the near future.

66. Fahrettin Senol (ST) - The youngster had an alright season, he played as cover for most of the season with major injuries to Danilo, Mateus & Almiron through the season. He looked average at best during this time though.

71. Haris Zeric (ST) - Spending the season on loan at AA Gent he had a pretty good season and with 13 goals he managed to get on the scoring sheet for them as well. I am hoping someone will want his contract for a price in July, but if not he is likely to go on loan once more.

The Best of the Best




The 100+ Club




The 400s

Francisco Javier Sanchez 439*.

The 300s

Ernesto Vazquez 394, Wilson Mateus 352*, Andre Santos 303.

The 200s

Ferhat Yildiz 294*,Johnny Myklebust 281, Borivoje Markovic 228*,Pablo Roman 218, Gabriel Bazan 217, Oscar Carrera 211, Gabriele Federici 203,Emiliano Cappiello 201*.

The 100s

Oier Torres 198, Matteo Jehl 194,Haris Zeric 183*, Hector Cruz 182, Jose Manuel 179, Benjamin Addo 172, Carlos Perez Rojo 170, Pedro Banos 169*,Diego Galiano 151, Paulo Cordeiro 150, Sebastian Visentin 147, Raphael Lopes 146, Abraham 146, Pablo Cabezas 141, Sergio Torres 137, Peter Kalu 137, Steven Vogt 137*, Alberto Gonzalez 136,Guilherme Afonso 132, Theo Tsotetsi 117, Luiz Fabiano 116*, Danilo 116*, Jose Maria 113, Kamil Sima 111*, Javier 108*, Carsten Littman 107, Drazen Tomas 106, Adolfo Silveira Reis 104, Alejandro Etxeberria 104*, Pablo Almiron 103*, Ander Suarez Rodriguez 100.

The Awards

Liga Sagres

Young Player of the Year: Emiliano Cappiello 1st, Sedat Ozkan 3rd.
Golden Boot: Pablo Almiron 1st (27)
Most Assists: Pablo Almiron 1st (10), Javier 3rd (8)
Most Man of Match: Pablo Almiron 1st (9)
Manager of the Year: Des Tiny 1st
Team of the Year: Borivoje Markovic, Sedat Ozkan, Pablo Almiron.
Quickest Goal: Cappiello 3rd.
Goal of the Month - Oct: Myklebust 2nd, Ozkan 3rd, Nov: Mateus 3rd, Dec: Cappiello 2nd, Mar: Markovic 1st, Apr: Almiron 3rd, May: Senol 2nd.
Player of the Month - Oct: Cappiello 3rd, Nov: Almiron 1st, Dec: Almiron 1st, Sima 2nd, Apr: Almiron 2nd, Fabiano 3rd.
Manager of the Month - Sep: 3rd, Oct: 1st, Nov: 1st, Dec: 1st, Jan: 1st, Feb: 1st, Mar: 1st, Apr: 1st, May: 1st.

Europe

Golden Boot: Pablo Almiron (27)

Champions League

Dream Team: Julio Gill, Kamil Sima, Pedro Banos, Sedat Ozkan, Luiz Fabiano.

World Cup

Golden Boot: Danilo 3rd (BRA)
Dream Team: Dudu Cearense (BRA), Subs: Danilo (BRA), Aleksander Lukic (SRB), Javier (ESP), Ferhat Yildiz (TUR).

Evora

Fans PotY: Pablo Almiron

Best XI: Julio Gill, Ferhat Yildiz, Kamil Sima, Francisco Javier, Pedro Banos, Sedat Ozkan, Borivoje Markovic, Luiz Fabiano, Pablo Almiron, Danilo, Emiliano Cappiello.
Subs: Nicky Evers, Engin Duruer, Branko Babic, Wilson Mateus, Javier, Peter Cooper, Fahrettin Senol.

All Time XI: Oscar Carrera, Ferhat Yildiz*, Peter Kalu, Francisco Javier Sanchez*, Diego Galiano, Matteo Jehl, Raphael Lopes, Borivoje Markovic*, Jose Manuel, Guilherme Afonso, Emiliano Cappiello*
Subs: Steven Vogt*, Andre Santos, Ernesto Vazquez, Wilson Mateus*, Rablo Roman, Benjoman Addo, Haris Zeric*

Thoughts of the Future

Predicted Finish: 1st
Odds: 6-4 (Fav)
Expectations: Win
Transfer Budget: 26M
Wage Budget: 1M
The Signings: Stoyen Bonev (MC)
The Youth: None worth Mentioning

Our move into Tiny Stadium was completed, and to celebrate I held an opening night Tournament with the 4 previous winners of the European Champions League, Evora won the tournament with ease, but it seems we are still playing at Campo Estrela. I may post this to the Bugs Forum if it continues. So now we build our first season at the new stadium having won everything possible the season before, I have quit my job for Brazil after the Final of the World Cup. So we will focus on the winning for Evora once more before I pick another international side to have a run with. (The Brazil update will come later, I just want to play on right now).

[RaZoR bLaDe]

Great season their LLR, congrats on winning everything.

[rlipscombe]

fantastic season there Des - what more can be said?!?!? i'm so jealous of your success!! ha ha

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Not much can really be said, I was delighted with that whole season, I could not believe the way we played it was spectacular. I am now in the process of offloading some of the former stars, Fabiano is gone, Zeric is gone & Mateus is gone (93 League Goals), I also rejected three International Jobs, France (1st), Argentina (3rd), & Spain (13th) following my leaving Brazil (5th). I would like to take over Turkey, New Zealand, Portugal or Netherlands.

It gives a new look to my First XI: Evers (20)/Gill (33) [GK], Yildiz (26) [DR], Sima (26) [DL], Banos (24) [DC], F.Javier (22)/Britton (21) [DC], Lukic (24) [MC], Babic (22) [MC], Ozkan (22) [MC], Danilo (26) [ST], Almiron (21) [ST], Cappiello (23) [ST].

So now I have just finished my friendlies and starting to look towards the new season, would like to try for all the trophies again, but really now I am trying to see what I can do with a bunch of younger players, not selling Sanchez (c), but the rest of my senior players are on the way out.

[rlipscombe]

looking forward to seeing the new generation come through...

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's Brazilian Adventure

2029/30
The Road to a World Cup

The Job

The Brazilian Job is one of the most Volatile positions in football, no manager seems to be able to hold it for long. In the 20 years since I took over at Evora there had been 22 Managers through the doors, the latest had managed to last over two years, he had been sacked when Brazil drew to Chile in the World Cup Qualifying, I was offered the job and agreed to the new challenge. There were a few other International jobs I would've taken, but this was one I thought I could have some fun with.

The Players

My first thought on taking the job was that I could bring through my own crop of Brazilian Stars. So that saw Danilo, Dudu Cearense, Luiz Fabiano, Elicarlos, Acassio & Vitor all come into contention for a call-up. In the end it was obvious that only the first three would make the grade, I had decided early on after looking at the national pool that I wanted Fabiano to captain the side and I would have them playing an attacking 4-3-3 as they were lacking a good international winger.

My First XI
GK: Junior (Atalanta)
DR: Luiz Claudio (Corinthians)
DL: Josue (At. Madrid)
DC: Beto (Roma)
DC: Deivid (Sao Paulo)
MC: Flavio (Inter)
MC: Luiz Fabiano (Evora)
MC: Leandro Machado (Inter)
ST: Robson (Barcelona)
ST: Claudiney (Genoa)
ST: Danilo (Evora)

Those were the players I was planning on using to win the World Cup come June/July 2030, it was not to be though as Luiz Claudio was ruled out with an injury, everyone else made the trip though which gave me a great chance.

The Pre-World Cup Matches

17.10 WCQ vs Venezuela 3:0
Carioca (6,12,25)

17.11 FRN at South Korea 3:0
Flavio (19), Tony (72,78)

21.11 FRN vs Poland 2:0
Tony (87,89) - Gaucho Sent Off (3)

27.03 FRN at Romania 0:1


08.06 FRN at Mexcio 2:2
Josue (pen 52), Jose Luis (73)

So heading towards the World Cup itself we had a couple of late slip-ups, but in general our form was pretty good, and a cup in Portugal where all my players speak the language, several of them play for Evora and I myself am a Manager was a good sign. We could go all the way.

The World Cup

The Group Stage

We had been drawn in the same group as Spain, USA & Saudi Arabia. I knew I had to beat USA & Saudis to go through, but really the battle here was to beat Spain and drop them onto the wrong side of the draw as they were favourites to beat us given out 13th place in the World Rankings.

15.06 vs U.S.A. 2:1
Danilo (36), Gaucho (61)
Well it took a while for this game to get underway, but in the 28th minute I thought our whole world cup campaign could be in trouble as the opposition led following a pretty good goal. Luckily Danilo managed to crack their defense and get one back before halftime to let us into the sheds tied at 1 a piece. I told the boys I had faith and they went out and repaid me as Gaucho came up to score from a corner and put us into a lead we never looked back from.

20.06 vs Spain 2:2
Claudiney (pen 53,60)
It was another long period of feeling out early on and the first goal came after 30 mins in this game, an incredible goal from Meilan, this put Spain into the lead, but we had already shown that going behind was not a killer on our games. It went into halftime with us still behind, but early in the second half our striker was taken down in the box and Claudiney stepped up to slot home a penalty and tie the match. It was only 7 minutes later when he managed to slip through the defense and score a magic goal to give us the lead. Brazilian hearts went back into their mouths though as Garcia scored for the Spanish in the 63rd minute. This was the final result as neither team was willing enough to risk anything more.

25.06 vs Saudi Arabia 1:0
Josue (15) - Robson (Missed Pen 85) - Fabiano (Sent off 90+2)
Going into this game we had to beat Saudi Arabia by 2 more goals than Spain managed to beat USA for us to go through, it was possible, but unlikely. So I went out with a very attacking formation and it paid off as after 15 minutes Josue managed to score our first. It seemed that it may stay this way through to halftime as we were unable to get the final cross in, and our through balls were not falling to feet, the Spainards though were being led by another Evora Player and Javier stepped up to score for them on 39mins to make our job even harder, we had to score 2 more now. At halftime I told them to keep going for the goal. We went out and had numerous more shots on goal, but it just was not happening. Then in the 85th minute we had a penalty call given and it was our chance to put another goal in, with Robson missing the game headed to injury time. In the 91st minute the other game saw Javier step up again and slot another home for the Spanish, with no chance of us getting there now the frustration showed as Fabiano received a second yellow and would miss our 2nd Round match.

Final Group Standings

The Knockout Rounds

29.06 2ND vs England 2:1
Danilo (71), Jose Luiz (87)
The second round saw us match-up against Group A winners England, I was a little worried going in, but neither team could get the lead in the early goings and we went to halftime tied up with no goals scored. Ten minutes after halftime we were in trouble as they scored and put us behind, I knew at this point that we had to score again, even if just to take the game to penalties. I sent out the word for the boys to push up and this led to Danilo cracking through to score in the 71st minute. I pulled back a little then, still pressing for the win, but willing to take extra time if it came. Just short of fulltime we saw our substitute striker Jose Luiz step up and score a winner in the 87th minute. We were off to the Quarterfinals.

05.07 QTR vs Serbia 3:1
Cearense (10), Danilo (17,62)
Serbia came second in Group C and we have attacked them from the get go, we managed to get the first goal as my young Evora star, Cearense, shot from distance to score a great goal and put us ahead, we looked like we were in a little bit of trouble as they grabbed one back. With three of our Evora players in this line-up I really had to back their huge effort, but I was managing Brazil and we needed to win. The older of the two Aleksander Radanovics scored the goal, but then I sent my boys forward and Danilo scored in the 17th minute. This was the end of the game as a spectacle, they were trying to attack, but we were just sitting back and letting them try to come at me. In the second half we managed to get another goal as Danilo took one on the break to advance to the Senis.

09.07 SMF vs Austria p1:1
Robson (42) - Pens: Robson, Luan, Machado, Josue, Danilo
Well it took us til just before half time to get in the board, this was as Robson stepped through the defense and slotted one home, but the opposition scored almost immediately and it was back to scratch as both teams jockeyed for a slot in the final. It went all the way to 120 minutes without another goal as changes in tactics, words in the breaks, and some good touchline yelling achieved nothing as my boys just could not score the winner. All the way to Penalties and I picked my 5 best takers and hoped that one of the opposition would miss, or our keeper could save one as after these 5 we had a huge drop off. With a miss on their third attempt, a great save by Junior gave Danilo the chance at the end of our line to complete the victory, Danilo slotted it home with ease and we went to the Final.

France's Road to the Final

France were drawn in a group alongside Argentina, South Korea & El Salvador. First up they met El Salvador and managed a 1:0 victory to get their account off to a start with only an average match. In their second game they faced South Korea to put another 3pts on the board as the beat them 3:2, even a final round loss 2:0 to Argentina could not put them out as they made it into the 2nd Round. Next up was the Dutch, France walked all over them to take a 2:0 victory and then they headed towards a Quarterfinal match with Turkey, even the presence of Yildiz & Dureur on the right hand side for Turkey could not keep them out and France scored a 1:0 victory. The Semifinal saw France line-up against Russia and they took another 2:0 victory to make it to the Final against Brazil.

The World Cup Final

14.07 FNL vs France 0:1

Well I had made it all the way to the final, and it was a very hard fought match, still tied at halftime meant I had to try and push up to attempt and score a winner, but France managed to get one on the break in the 70th minute, and even our huge dominance in the statistics could not help us to get another goal back. A disappointing final saw Des Tiny decide to step down immediately after the match to go back to Evora and Tiny Stadium.

Player Stats
Team Stats

International Management

|--------|----------|---------|------------|----------------------|
|  Year  |  Nation  | Records | World Rank |     Achievements     |
|--------|----------|---------|------------|----------------------|
|  2029  |  Brazil  |  3-0-0  |  12th ^ 3  |         None         |
|  2030  |  Brazil  |  5-2-1  |   5th ^ 7  | World Cup Runners Up |
|--------|----------|---------|------------|----------------------|

I am looking to Manage Internationally again, but not sure who to take on as the next challenge, if New Zealand or Holland came free I would be applying instantly. Other than that I want a bit of a challenge, Spain, Argentina & France have all approached me and been rejected in this last month.

[rlipscombe]

great little review of your Brazilian reign... really hope you can get the NZ job!!

In Venezia news, with a home tie left against Zenit in the Europa League, we have already qualified for the knockout stages!! After the disappointing start vs Levadia, we drew in Russia before winning the next three, home and away to Shakhtar and then away in Estonia... absolutely delighted with our form in Europe!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

An excellent effort there Rlips, hopefully you can press on from here towards a good positioning in the Europa League, even a Quarterfinal slot here would be awesome. How is the League season going this year??

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's
Lusitano de Evora



20 Season's of History
Part I - Seasons 1-5

Year 1: 2010/11 - 2nd Divison South

As a newly promoted side into the 2nd Division South, Lusitano de Evora were aiming to avoid relegation and as such hired a new manager, a completely unknown quality in Des Tiny. The New Zealander made some huge changes through the season as he attempted to lead the club up the board. He brought in a total of 33 players over the season to completely change how the club looked at things.

The Competitions

Our only challenges this season were the League where we fought hard all season and avoided relegation to finish in 7th place. We had a great run taking 4 victories in a row at one point over Maritimo B 4:1, Real Massama 1:0, Veiria 1:0 & Pontassolense 3:0. We looked good and I was pleased with the steps forward made. In the Portuguese Cup we made it through the first two rounds as we defeated some lower league challengers, but then we drew Vit. Setubal away in the third round. They scored 3 quick goals around the 25 minute mark and that was the game.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Jose Maria
Fans Player of the Year: Jose Maria
Golden Boot: Nilton (18)
Best Signing: Nilton (Free)
Defender of the Year: Mauro
Player to Watch: Djibril

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |   LCup   |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|   2DS    | 6th | 3rd Rnd  |   N/A    | 15-04-11 |   54-44   | 4 Wins in a Row  |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

Year 2: 2011/12 - 2nd Divison SouthThis season the aim was clear, climb up the table a little and try to press towards a title if we could manage it. With 13 players leaving in July & three more in January, replaced by 7 in July & 1 in August I set the wheels in motion, these changes meant a slight profit from transfers as well as a strengthening of the squad.

The Competitions

The league season was looking good from the start as we took victories in our first three games, from here onwards we never really looked back. We managed to win 5 in a row this season, Pontassolense 3:0, Pinhalnovense 3:0, Machico 3:1, E.Lagos 3:0 & Tourinzense 3:0. This little run was great and led to the League coming to us. Going into the Playoffs we were the clear underdog, but a 3:0 win away to Oriental set us up well, we then lost home & away to E.Amadora 2:1 before winning our final game 2:0 over Oriental to make it through in 2nd spot. A great season from all the boys.

The Cup was never going to really be on our radar, but the aim had to be to match our effort of last season and make the third round. We achieved this with two victories over other 2nd division teams and then in the third round lost on penalties to a lower league opponent.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Edson
Fans Player of the Year: Antonio Alves
Golden Boot: Edson (28)
Best Signing: Edson (free)
Defender of the Year: Mario Silva
Player to Watch: Raphael Lopes

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |   LCup   |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|   2DS    | 1st | 3rd Rnd  |   N/A    | 18-09-03 |   63-26   |    Promotion     |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

Year 3: 2012/13 - Liga VitalisA new season following promotion to the Liga Vitalis meant that my squad was going to need another revamp, and as such there were 23 new players brought into the squad without Tiny having to spend a dime. A couple of old hands as well as some who would feature in the squad for a while, Gabriele Federici & Sebastian Visentin being two players that any followers of Evora would recognise. The finances suffered for the third year running as Evora ended up 300k in the red.

The Competitions

This season would see Evora in the League Cup for the first time as well as the Liga Vitalis & an entry into the Portuguese Cup. The league started well as we won our first game, and a few more results put us well inside the top half, we then proceeded to fall apart once more and we ended the first half of the season with a 5-2-8 record and 12th spot, I was definitely not happy with that, so the changes in January added to a slight tactical switch up saw the second half be a much greater improvement as we went 7-6-2 through the second 15 games and moved into the top half comfortably, a last day loss to U.Madeira saw us slide to 8th. Though this was more than satisfactory for our first season in Liga Vitalis.

Well first up we faced Fatima home & away to qualify for the League Cup 2nd round group stages, we absolutely smashed them winning 5-1 at home before travelling to lose 2:1 and win 6-3 on aggregate. That drew us against Varzim & Belenenses both who beat us twice to leave us out after the group stage in 3rd. As for the Portuguese Cup in the second round we lost on penalties after a tight game was 1:1 the whole way. A miss by one of our stars put us out.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Raphael Lopes
Fans Player of the Year: Diego Galiano
Golden Boot: Wesllem (16)
Best Signing: Addy Menga (Free)
Defender of the Year: Diego Galiano
Player to Watch: Sebastian Visentin

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |  LCup    |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
| LVitalis | 8th | 2nd Rnd  | 2nd Rnd  | 12-08-10 |   53-47   |  7-6-2 2nd Half  |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

Year 4: 2013/14 - Liga VitalisThis season I was looking for some consistency, I had seen what my players could do and it looked good. I only brought in three new players in the entire season, all on frees, at the same time I managed to sell 18 players for 12k. The changes meant that we didn't lose as much as we had in previous seasons, of course now we were on our way towards 500k in the red.

The Competitions

We started the league with a win and a loss, but after that we went on a long run of 17 games without a loss, this put us on top of the league and left us with a great shot at promotion. When we eventually lost it was to Varzim the eventual champions, but then our team fell apart over the last few weeks and we dropped to 3rd and could never recover, we missed promotion by a mere 2pts.
The League Cup was up first as per normal, but we were drawn against Fatima again, and it seems that they were out for revenge as they beat us 2:1 over the two legs.
We started off the Portuguese Cup with two 4:0 victories as we decimated Lousade & then Farense, the entry to the 4th round saw us drawn against Operairo de Azores, we beat them easily in a 1:0 victory. This saw us face Leira in what would likely be a huge battle for us, but we fought all the way and eventually won 7:6 on penalties after my keeper saved one and got us through. This saw us into the top 8 and drawn to visit Sporting, I didn't think we had a shot at all, so we went in looking to put in a good effort and nothing more. In the end I was pretty happy with the final score of 4:2.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Carlos Perez Rojo
Fans Player of the Year: Diego Galiano
Golden Boot: Wesllem (21)
Best Signing: Elia Motta (Free)
Defender of the Year: Diego Galiano
Player to Watch: Elia Motta

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |  LCup    |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
| LVitalis | 3rd | Q Final  | 1st Rnd  | 15-10-05 |   53-36   | Port Cup Q Final |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

Year 5: 2014/15 - Liga VitalisWell I had only a few spots to fill in the side and then I should have the team needed to gain promotion, the most important offseason signing was Afonso. The finances are still in freefall and there seems to be nothing I can do as we have passed 600k in debt.

The Competitions

The league started well this season, but it was always going to be a very tight battle between us Gil Vicente & Naval, in the end we finished 3rd and I was very disappointed as at the halfway point we had been leading, and with 7 games to go it was ours to lose. A few stumbles at the end saw us drop the ball again and miss promotion once more.
Well we got knocked out of both cups by Vit Guimaraes this season, I have to say I was completely delighted with the players efforts though, and the 3:2 loss in the Portuguese Cup was only a last minute thing, it really came down to a little bit of luck for them with their shot at 83mins or so to win it.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Guilherme Afonso
Fans Player of the Year: Guilherme Afonso
Golden Boot: Willian (25)
Best Signing: Guilherme Afonso (free)
Defender of the Year: Gabriele Federici
Player to Watch: Jose Manuel

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |  LCup    |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
| LVitalis | 3rd | Q  Final | 2nd Rnd  | 18-07-05 |   59-37   | Port Cup Q Final |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

This is something I have wanted to do for a while, a rundown of the entire time I have spent at Evora in brief form. If there are any extras someone would like to know in my mini history just let me know. I will be hoping to add the next three sections over the following few days and all of them up by the beginning of July.

[iacovone]

Ooh like the look of this already

This will be great for someone like me who missed the journey

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Ooh like the look of this already

This will be great for someone like me who missed the journey

I thought of you when I started it, it also is great for me to look back over what happened, may at the end wrap up what happened to some of my teams stars after they left me, noticed a lot of times the superstar one season is leaving the next early on.

[canvey!!]

Unlucky in the World Cup Final there LLR .

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's

Lusitano de Evora



20 Season's of History
Part II - Seasons 6-10

Year 6: 2015/16 - Liga Vitalis

Well for Transfers we spent 14k and got in 28k, only a few improvements this season, though a stellar season by our young goalie that we signed, the constant improving at this stage actually resulted in us dropping down the league one slot.

The Competitions

Our League season was down on the previous season and we never really looked like making it to promotion, it is going to be hard fought when we eventually make it up.
In the League Cup we finally made the third round and faced off against Boavista, Maritimo & Benfica, we managed to defeat Boavista, but got beaten soundly by the other two as expected. The Portuguese Cup saw us again fall at the 4th round as we could not overcome Gil Vicente.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Jose Manuel
Fans Player of the Year: Guilherme Afonso
Golden Boot: Guilherme Afonso (21)
Best Signing: Simone Saracino (Free)
Defender of the Year: Diego Galiano
Player to Watch: Simone Saracino

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |   LCup   |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
| LVitalis | 4th | 4th Rnd  | 3rd Rnd  | 15-05-10 |   61-36   |  7-0 vs Varzim   |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

Year 7: 2016/17 - Liga Vitalis

Well financially the only thing keeping us up was the board continuously injecting money, our team is in financial hell and it as always in Portugal is impossible to make money at this point. I will try to change that, but most likely it will keep going down until I get into Liga Sagres. The transfers as always continued, we do have a few in (16k) and out (325k) each season, but I really hope that I can keep a more continuous line-up this season.

The Competitions

As the Position Graph shows, we started very poorly, had a small improvement in September, but then plummeted to be last after the first 11 games of the season. I knew if this continued we would be out of the league, and I would lose my job. I decided to remove all pressure from my team and that made a huge difference as the turn around began, because it was still close we actually still had a chance at promotion. In the second half a few changes led us up the table and the hunt was on, though a gutting 75th minute equaliser from our final opposition meant we would miss out and spend another season in Liga Vitalis.
We were very disappointing in both cups this season, out in the first round of the League Cup, and in the Portuguese Cup we had two 6:0 victories before losing on Penalties to Espinho, very disappointing.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Guilherme Afonso
Fans Player of the Year: Marcel Gomis
Golden Boot: Marcel Gomis (29)
Best Signing: Marcel Gomis (Free)
Defender of the Year: Darko Franjic
Player to Watch: Matteo Jehl

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |   LCup   |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
| LVitalis | 3rd | 4th Rnd  | 1st Rnd  | 16-05-09 |   62-35   |  Huge comeback   |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

Year 8: 2017/18 - Liga Vitalis

Well we got given a 1.1 million pound loan by the new director following the elections this season, we have to pay it back at 6.5k per month, but we are still in the black, and with the step up into Liga Sagres that money is going to come in handy. The transfer front saw a lot of movement this season as 19 players left and 10 joined.

The Competitions

As the Position Graph shows we once more had a terrible end to the season, but we started to recover and managed to be in touch at the halfway point, then we went on a run of unbeaten matches. The real turning point was when we faced three of the top 5 in a row, first up was U. Madeira at home and we beat them 3:1, we followed this with a 2:0 victory over Trofense away, and a 2:0 victory over the league Runner-ups Varzim at home. To top this off we broke the record for goals scored in a Liga Vitalis season with 69, smashing the old record of 62.
Wel we tumbled early in the League Cup again, losing to Trofense in the 1st Round. Our run in the Portuguese Cup was much better this season as we managed to get to the Quarterfinals once more, this time we drew Benfica and managed to hold them out pretty well, Jehl was gutted to put an own goal in, and then they scored two late goals to wrap it up. Pretty happy with the Cup run.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Matteo Jehl
Fans Player of the Year: Darko Franjic
Golden Boot: Marcel Gomis (20)
Best Signing: Hector Cruz (Free)
Defender of the Year: Darko Franjic
Player to Watch: Hans Winter

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |  LCup    |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
| LVitalis | 1st | Q Final  | 1st Rnd  | 19-06-05 |   69-29   |     Promotion    |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

Year 9: 2018/19 - Liga Sagres

This season I got a good amount of income from the TV Rights, a new sponsorship deal and a new parent club for a total of 1.7M pounds, which was going to be a huge help. I ended up losing about 1.5M over the season as I went a little crazy in the transfer market, I spent 1.3M & only got in 475k, so with that leaving me short and also the higher wage costs meant I was losing money from the beginning. The transfers though saw my team strengthened across the park, with the exception of right wing and my centre backs I was happy. After the season looking back I know a couple of solid centre backs would've been the difference, once my pair got into the game it was too late to do anything amazing.

The Competitions

We had a reasonable start as we won 2 of our first 4 to stay right in the hunt, but then a horrible run where we couldn't score, though we didn't allow too many against lower teams the big boys spanked us. Nacional 0:5, Benfica 1:4, Beira Mar 2:5, saw us drop well into the relegation race. I knew coming into the last ten games that we need to pick up some points and quickly. We faced Sporting first and went down 1:6, it was not looking good, next up was Nacional, and we managed a huge 1:1 result which was massive considering our earlier loss to them. Then a 0:0 draw away to P.Ferreira another relegation battler, we followed this with a 2:2 against the other promoted team Varzim, and then a huge 1:0 victory over Vit Guimaraes who were in the top 6 all season, we followed this with results of Vit Setubal 2:0, Porto 0:3, & Boavista 4:1 at which point we managed to avoid relegation, we completed the season with results against Belenenses 2:2 & Academica 1:0. A pretty good first season in the top league.
The League Cup saw us entering at the 2nd Round now, and we were drawn with Beira Mar & Espinho, a defeat of Espinho & a draw against Beira Mar saw us into the 3rd round where we faced Porto, Boavista & Nacional, the expected results here as we beat Boavista and lost to Porto & Nacional. In the Portuguese Cup we had a good run defeating U.Madeira first, and then beating Vit Guimaraes on penalties, but we were upset by Feirense in the 5th round and tumbled out.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Matteo Jehl
Fans Player of the Year: Carsen Littman
Golden Boot: Gaetano Santangelo (10)
Best Signing: Gaetano Santangelo (Free)
Defender of the Year: Francisco Javier Sanchez
Player to Watch: Francisco Javier Sanchez

Summary

|----------|------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|-------------------|
|  League  | Pos  |   Cup    |  LCup    |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement  |
|----------|------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|-------------------|
|  LSagres | 10th | 5th Rnd  | 3rd Rnd  | 08-09-13 |   34-50   | 1:0 v V.Guimaraes |
|----------|------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|-------------------|

Year 10: 2019/20 - Liga Sagres

Well financially this season we didn't do quite as badly as the year before, we only lost about 800k not the 1.7M of the previous season, but we are now 2.5M in debt and there doesn't look to be much chance of improving it quite yet. Hopefully a run into Europe in 2020/21 will help a little bit, we need some serious money into the coffers if we are to have any real chance. As for Transfers we had a lot of players leave as I tried to cut the wages we were spending so that I could extend the core contracts in the squad. I actually believe the squad I have is just getting better and better, only a single loss in the final 15 games is a clear sign to me that my team is solid. Hopefully we can use that to build on with a couple of key signings and nothing more.

The Competitions

Well this season my major aim was to build on my 10th place finish last season, and we did that perfectly as we moved up from 12th at the start of the season and steadily progressed until we jumped two spots on the final day of the season by beating Braga, this moved us past Nacional & Maritimo and into the European Spots. I was delighted with our second half run home, we ended with a thirteen game unbeaten streak in the league. This alone pulled us into the top half, and we also were unbeaten at home with 7 wins and 8 draws in the league. We have only lost 1 game at Campo Estrela all season which was a 2:1 defeat to Benfica in the League Cup Group Stage, even that result cannot make me think anything other than our home ground being a fortress.

Well an average run in the Portuguese Cup ended against Academica in the 5th round, while our League Cup round saw us through the 2nd Round beating out Rio Ave & Santa Clara, then the 3rd Round we went through over Benfica, Maritimo & Vit.Guimaraes. Of course the run ended as soon as we travelled to Braga for the Semi-Final, but it was still an awesome run and the prize money helped us a lot.

Evora's Stars

Tiny's Player of the Year: Pablo Cabezas
Fans Player of the Year: Francisco Javier Sanchez
Golden Boot: Hector Cruz/Alessandro Guerra (17)
Best Signing: Alejandro
Defender of the Year: Francisco Javier Sanchez
Player to Watch: Theo Tsotetsi

Summary

|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  League  | Pos |   Cup    |  LCup    |  Record  | Goals F/A | Best Achievement |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|
|  LSagres | 5th | 5th Rnd  | S Final  | 12-12-06 |   50-38   | Unbeaten at Home |
|----------|-----|----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------------|

There you go completion of the first 10 seasons in my update, halfway there. I hope you are all enjoying the summing up of a long and great career at Evora.

[G-Wiz]

great updates LLR, good to look back and see just how far youve come...

Vfb Lubeck season review coming soon, when i get my finger out lol

[PRDH]

Well, a quick update because work has got in the way of real updates. I'm still at Romorantin, Kresic has just retired at 36 having won 35 (I think) trophies in his career. I'd ordinarily say that I won't beat it, but this team has been together and winning for so long that almost all the other players could beat that. Dorel Parvu my captain already has one more and is only 30 having joined as a 17 year-old.

I'm now Spain manager too, their manager left after they won World Cup 2030, I've won my 3 games so far.

Beginning to tire of Romorantin, but I have so much invested in this team now that I don't think I could start another game properly. Might keep going until the new one comes out!! Bring on FM2011!!

[G-Wiz]

VfB Lubeck - 2017/2018 - End of Season Review

Predicted Position: 9th
Actual Position: 8th
Average Attendance: 17613
Season Ticket Holders: 5006

The League

Another up and down season, which started off brightly but any chance of a european push quickly faded away with some silly dropped points. Still struggling to push on for a consistent European place, although i did qualify for the Euro Cup through the German Cup win

Some of my players are starting to get recognition in the end of season awards, with Claudio Flotta voted third in the German Footballer of The Year, Eduardo winning German Players Midfielder of the Year, and Stefano Okaka voted third in German Players Striker of The Year. I myself was also runner-up in Manager of The Year behind Thomas Doll of Hamburg, who unsurprisingly won the league.

The German Cup

Finally, a real trophy! its been due, with a few good runs in the cup the last year or two. Thankfully this was our year, thanks to some great results.

1st Round - Neunkirchen 0 - 5 Lubeck

2nd Round - Lubeck 4 - 3 Wolfsburg

3rd Round - Lubeck 2 2 1 Nurnberg

Quarter Final - Lubeck 2 - 1 Furth

Semi Final - Kaiserslautern 1 - 3 Lubeck

Final - Stuttgart 1 - 2 Lubeck

as you can see i won the final by the skin of my teeth, winning with a 91st minute penalty!

Players

On the transfer front, there was quite a lot of acitivity, mainly with fringe players, who had hardly kicked a ball for the club, being moved on. The biggest transfer was the sale of Ezequiel Munoz to AC Milan for £9.5 million after he started making noises about wanting to play for a bigger team. The other bigger moves out were for Will Jenkins, who finally realised his dream of getting some first team football by moving on to Burnley for £2 million, and Ruben Lima, my 2nd choice left back, moving to St Pauli for £2.4 million.

Buying wise it was a fairly quiet season, with only 3 players coming in. They were Nikolay Sorokin, for £5.25 million from Steaua, Matteo Giorgi from Genoa for £7.75 mil, and Jurica Antunovic, bought for £300k from Hajduk. Another summer of selling may be on the cards as i trim the squad further and remove some dead wood.

The major players were:

GK

Marco Mura - now a veteran, having made 197 appearances for Lubeck. Starting to be exposed on occasion, and hasnt really pushed on as much as id hoped.

Emmanuel Nkomo - signed in 2016/2017 season after a glowing report from my ass man, Mozambique international Nkomo is starting to push Mura for a starting place. Featured in 19 league matches last season, keeping 4 clean sheets.

Def

Marco Castellani - pretty much ever-present again this season, solid as always

Matteo Giorgi - impressed in first season, adding a bit more stability to the shaky defense

Benjamin Weiner - continuing to improve, but looks pretty average at this level. after 149 apps for Lubeck, could be make or break this year for him.

Holger Badstuber - another solid season averaging 7.00 over 32 apps overall

Jose Luis Prado - used less and less, due to the rise of Mesut Palaz, but a very useful backup to have

Mesut Palaz - continuing to improve, attracting interest from some big names, and still only 20. the future is bright if i can keep hold of him

Dennis Aogo - utility man, used as cover for many positions initially, before making a starting place his own.

Mid

Ritchie Kitoko - used sparingly due to the moving of Eduardo to the middle of the park

Eduardo - another good season from my best signing so far, well worth the 100k he cost!

Claudio Flotta - first full season at the club, impresses throughout, averaging 7.15 over 33 apps

Timo Gebhart - approaching 200 games for the club, ever reliable, still one of the first names on the teamsheet

Ghislain Monteil - first full season at the club, solid DM, another attracting interest from some big clubs, hopefully i can hold on to him too.

Ulf Hartmann - signed for 900k from Bayern Munich 2 years ago, filled in where required, and provided 5 assists in 11 apps

Att

Jurica Antunovic - 300k signing, looks good value, decent cover for first team

Romelu Lukaku - scored 7 in 16 apps, not really firing on all cylinders, but maybe im too impatient lol

Stefano Okaka - another great season, scored some vital goals, hitting 22 in all. still no international recognition which is a shame

Lukasz Piszczek - veteran, my other favourite signing, still firing in some vital goals, getting 10 in 17 apps. 6 goals off becoming the clubs record goalscorer, and currently has 103 goals in 211 apps in his Lubeck career.

Nikolay Sorokin - bought for £5.25 million, didnt really set the world alight, but still adjusting to life in Germany. Hope next season will be more productive


Top Scorer: Stefano Okaka - 22 goals
Most Assists: Eduardo, Stefano Okaka & Claudio Flotta - 12 assists each
Highest Ave. Rating: Claudio Flotta - 7.15
Fans Player of The Year: Claudio Flotta

The plan, going forward, is really to try and improve on my league position. While the team are now established as a solid mid-table First Division team, sooner or later we need to improve further if i am to have any chance of progressing with the challenge. Hopefully i can build on the German Cup success, and try and better my achievements in the Euro Cup as well.

Season          Division        Position       Achievements
2010/2011       Third Division	1st		Promoted 
2011/2012	Second Division 9th		  
2012/2013       Second Division 2nd	 	Promoted
2013/2014	First Division  14th
2014/2015       First Division  9th
2015/2016       First Division  5th             German Cup Runner Up, Qualified for Euro Cup
2016/2017       First Division  8th
2017/2018       First Division  8th             German Cup Winner!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

A good season there G-Wiz, Congrats on the Cup win, its always good to grab the Trophy. Hopefully you have a good run in Europe in the new season. I also love the look of Mesut Palaz, good to see that someone else also has a stunning Turkish Right Back to match my two. Duruer is now being trained to play at DC as well because he has the attributes to do it, and it is one area where our players are weaker than elsewhere on the park. Duruer is a World Class player already and plays at MR for his National side.

[rlipscombe]

LLR - love the look backs. great idea and good to read back on.

G-Wiz - congrats on solid league result and cup win. good luck in Europe.

PRDH - good to see you back!

[PRDH]

Oh and I forgot to mention, Marko Kresic has obviously been given a position on the coaching staff.

[RaZoR bLaDe]

After my unfourtanate experience with my Messina save i have now ended up in Germany, update to follow after the footie.

Cmon England

[rlipscombe]

hope you fare better than England Razor.....

[yababo]

Decided to have one more go at this challenge. Holidaying in Holland currently.

[rlipscombe]

welcome back yabobo - good luck in Holland

[yababo]

Back in the game as ijsselmeervogels. It feels good to be back.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...gerprofile.jpg

[rlipscombe]

gone quiet in here...

in Venezia news, we went out of the Europa League in the 1st knockout round. lost 1-0 home and away to Feyenoord. hopefully i can get back in europe next season through the league as we were embarassing in our cup defence!!

[G-Wiz]

6 games to go, and im only 4 points off top spot! i think i may have finally cracked it! wish me luck

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I'm about halfway through my season, the unbeaten run fell down at 73 straight games for Evora, which was awesome, but disappointing to lose 1:0 to Galtasaray. We have sold out a handful of games in Tiny Stadium in the first season. I'm running the league once more, unbeaten in 47 league games (Tying my previous record), I have changed to a slightly more youthful team and I have brought in a whole bunch of 16-19 year olds to try and keep at the club, or to make a profit off in the years to come. Already won the first three trophies again: Portuguese Super Cup, Euro Super Cup & The Club World Championships. And on target in the rest as expected, in a side story Alcains, another possible club to complete this challenge with have made it up to the Liga Sagres, they are battling to avoid relegation at the moment, currently 14th (safe), but I would love to see them stay up. I have thought about going down the ladder and grabbing some more Challenge teams and trying to overload the Liga Sagres with them, but really right now I just can't leave Evora, I love it too much.

[rlipscombe]

great to see your love for Evora is still there..... interested to see another eligible team reach the top league too. hope they survive.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Commercial Break

Did you know there’s an easier way to find out the best threads in the forum than organising an awards ceremony? When viewing a thread, you will see a ‘Rate Thread’ button towards the top of the screen (just above the first post of the page). When you click on this, you get:



Rate the threads you visit regularly to tell everyone else about how good…or bad, you think they are. A thread needs 10 ratings to display one, but these ratings can be used to help you choose a thread to read, or can be used in future in conjunction with the guides.

Give it a try...rate this thread.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well I may be about to lose my unbeaten at home record. It has been going for 70 games since 15.04.28, but I have to face Porto in the League Cup Semi Final with 23 players on International Duty...including my entire first XI.

[G-Wiz]

Well I may be about to lose my unbeaten at home record. It has been going for 70 games since 15.04.28, but I have to face Porto in the League Cup Semi Final with 23 players on International Duty...including my entire first XI.

lol that sucks...only a fraction of my squad get call-ups, some real talent being overlooked

good luck!

[canvey!!]

LLR, stealing my posts .

[rlipscombe]

that's seriously tough that Des!!

in Venezia news, we have finished the season. i'll try and get the review up sometime this weekend...

[rlipscombe]

F.C. VENEZIA - SERIE A - SEASON 2022/23 - SEASON REVIEW

Media Prediction:
League Finish: 5th graph

So the final league table shows that we achieved our highest ever finish in Serie A in 5th which sees us qualify for the Europa League again. However a couple of draws in the final few games actually denied us a dream finish and a Champions League finish. To have achieved it would have been incredible and maybe a little bit of a fantasy as we're probably not quite ready for it. Some more european experience will set us in good stead. The key to our improvement? A change in formation from 4-4-2 to a 4-1-2-2-1 formation a la Chelsea and such like. We tightened up our defence no end resulting in us being the 4th meanest defence in the league. We weren't as free-scoring but still did pretty well. A few too many draws ultimately denied us a top-four finish.

In the Coppa Italia, we defended our crown in embarassing fashion by crashing out in the first round. Having won it though i wasn't too disappointed.

In the Europa League we made it through to the group stages where we were given a tough draw of Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit and Levadia. Defeat against Levadia at home spelt the worst but we rallied, drew in Russia and then beat Shakhtar home and away. revenge against Levadia saw us through and the Zenit result wasn't important. Our reward was a tie against Feyenoord but we crashed out 2-0 on aggregate after two 1-0 defeats.

Transfers
Squad 1 Squad 2

TIme to look at the key players:

Goalkeepers

Orellana - Chilean wonderkid had a great season and was firmly no.1. Roma came sniffing in January but we held them off and he stayed. hopefully i can do the same this summer. He was also named European GK of the year and was named in the World XI team for 2022.
Terranova - Again back-up but did a great job when called upon. A great back-up keeper who really should be a no.1.

Full-Backs

Ortega - having decided to offload Wuyts after he became unhappy, the weight was fully on his young soulders. Played incredibly though and meant i had no regrets in letting Wuyts go.
Bianchet - Brought this Italian LB in in the summer with the departure of Schafer in mind. Schafer hung around until January though so Bianchet had to wait for his chance. When he got in he just about held off Lopez Gonzalez to keep the LB spot.
Lopez Gonzalez - the highly rated Spaniard fought hard for the LB slot and will do the same next season.

Centre Backs

Ercan - Selahattin was one of my major signings with a view to tightening the back. The Turk did fantastically and was a rock at the back. all the big clubs are circling again but hopefully i can keep him.
Hurtado - Provided an able partner to Ercan, he still showed why he was a quality defender. still developing too.
Moretto - played mainly as cover CB he still did well and was unlucky not to be a regular starter. Good squad player

Wingers

Cannone - won back the right wing berth from the aging BLanco with some stellar performances on the wing. Key player in my plans.
Talamonti - another great season from the young Italian he continues to defy his little experience. A star in the making.
Ander - Russian signed for £7.5 million after being trailed for a year. Played well when called upon, he would have played many more games but for the form of Talamonti.

Midfielders

Jones - the Englishman did great things in the centr of the park once more and is one of the first nameson the team sheet. Still waiting for his first international cap.
Verratti - I splashed big money on the Italian in the summer and by and large he did well. great attacking central midfielder.
Gomes - Signed in January following the sale to Liverpool of Mazibuko who was unhappy. Not that i mind as Gomes is a quality defensive midfielder and slotted seamlessly into the team. high hopes for him.
Dos Santos - experienced Mexican did well when called upon and weighed in with some important goals. Also awarded with the Serie A goal of the year award.
Robles - young Argentine signed in the summer as a cover Dm. did well when called upon, he has a big future at the club.
Valle - young Spaniard who finally got some game time after a couple of years at the club. Might be sold though as unhappy.

Strikers

Cavada - Another solid season and still our no.1 striker. Even did well out on the right wing when called upon in the Spring. His injury in the final few weeks possibly ended our CL chances.
Danilo - had his dry spells again but still weighed in with a decent haul of goals. Firm favourite of mine.
Alfonso - i splashed £10 million on the young Spaniard after tailing him for a year. Played mainly as a sub and many of his appearances came on the wings. Serious potential though and one for the future.

On the finances front we ended the season with a small profit again which was all the more pleasing considering i went mad in the summer on spending. I don't envisage spending too much in the summer as i really feel i'm building a great squad. time will tell though!!

Targets for next season

• Qualify for the CL. Given the improvement we have made i am looking for more of the same next season.
• Make the Quarter finals of the Europa League.
• Keep hold of our stars

Onward we go to the 2023/24 season!!

FORZA LAGUNARI!!!

Career History

Season   League      Pos.  Cup       Europe         Achievements
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2010/11  Serie C2/A  2nd   N/A       N/A             Lost in play-off semis
2011/12  Serie C2/A  3rd    N/A.       N/A            Promotion in playoffs
2012/13  Serie C1/A  8th   2nd Qual. N/A            None
2013/14  Serie C1/A  1st   3rd Qual. N/A            Serie C1/A Champions, Serie C Cup, Serie C Super Cup
2014/15  Serie B     9th     3rd Qual. N/A            None
2015/16  Serie B     9th      2nd Qual   N/A            None
2016/17  Serie B     2nd      3rd Qaul.  N/A            Promotion
2017/18  Serie A     20th     4th Qual   N/A           Relegated
2018/19  Serie B     3rd       1st Round N/A           Promoted in play-offs
2019/20  Serie A     13th     1st Round  N/A
2020/21  Serie A      9th      1st Round  N/A
2021/22  Serie A     10th     Winners     N/A         Coppa Italia winners
2022/23  Serie A     5th      1st Round  Euro Cup 1st knock out round

[PRDH]

Right, in a fit of, oh, I don't know - let's call it boredom, I decided to have a hefty change around in the January transfer window of 2031. Having sold my first choice keeper at the beginning of the season - Man Utd bid £40m+ I signed a 30 year old replacement, but now I've sold him and am going to stick with my highly rated 18 and 19 year-old pair of keepers. Should be interesting!

I've also sold off a couple of established players and replaced them with some youngsters. It's exciting times in ROmorantin.

I've spent £127m this season and raised £160m from transfers - quite a change around!

[rlipscombe]

that's some transfer spending!! hope the young keepers work out for you.

[Ohanzee]

Give it a try...rate this thread.

It says I have rated this thread, but I'm actually 99,999% sure I have never done so. Are you sure it's not bugged? If all it takes is 10 ratings most threads in this forum should already have stars, but very few do.

Anyways, it's nice to see you guys still going strong. I wish I could find the time to really push on in my Scotland game soon.

Congrats to all the people completing the challenge or parts of it since I last visited (I see there are quite a few achievements). Keep up the good work!

[canvey!!]

Try writing a reply in 'Go Advanced' mode. Scroll down and you should be able to choose a rating from there. I did that, but I don't know yet whether it has worked.

[iacovone]

rlips - great round up, you've really pressed on this season finishing 5th. only 6 defeats too is mightily impressive!

i love your keeper Orellana, he's awesome (and only 20 years old!). Alfonso looks a very shrewd investment, he's pretty strong in all aspects of his game. hopefully you can press on next year and secure CL qualification. KUTGW

i've not played my file in a while but just firing it up now for a bit of a hungover session

also been reading over 09's awards thread! i loved that version, Oviedo, Fafe and Savona all had great stories (link can be found in opening post of this thread)

[iacovone]

rating in the 'go advanced' mode worked for me and i'm pretty sure I hadn't rated the thread before

[rlipscombe]

rlips - great round up, you've really pressed on this season finishing 5th. only 6 defeats too is mightily impressive!

i love your keeper Orellana, he's awesome (and only 20 years old!). Alfonso looks a very shrewd investment, he's pretty strong in all aspects of his game. hopefully you can press on next year and secure CL qualification. KUTGW

i've not played my file in a while but just firing it up now for a bit of a hungover session

also been reading over 09's awards thread! i loved that version, Oviedo, Fafe and Savona all had great stories (link can be found in opening post of this thread)

cheers iacovone... really happy with last season despite just missing out on 3rd and 4th. was in with a shout with two games to go but had two 0-0 draws which blew it. We really tightened up at the back this season which helped cut down the defeats. Juest a few too many draws in the end.

Orellana is an amazing goalkeeper. can't believe i nicked him from Udinese for nothing!! Alfonso is good too - with my new formation i only have one striker spot so when he gets a go it tends to be on the wing. Cavada and Danilo are so strong. looking forward to the new season a lot - really optimistic if i can hang on to my best players. just given quite a few new long-term contracts so hopefully that helps.

The 09 version of this thread was great - i still miss Oviedo in a way but i have to admit i'm really enjoying Venezia too. Des's Fafe game is possibly the best 'game' i think i've ever seen on this whole forum... Mind you Evora isn't bad either!! Not forgetting your Savona thread of course!!

looking forward to seeing some Castillo news soon...

[iacovone]

Haha so true re: Fafe. I can quickly recap on Castillo.

Last update told of my loss in the Europa League to Standard 3-1 on aggregate. From there I've won 1, drawn 1 and lost 1 in the league. We're still 6th but that 4th CL place is slipping away now. Its been a combination of losing my entire 3 central midfielders to injury at the same time as well as a game every 3/4 days (which for the size of our squad, is tough). Still, 7 games to go, who knows where we could finish with a streak of form.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

The 09 version of this thread was great - i still miss Oviedo in a way but i have to admit i'm really enjoying Venezia too. Des's Fafe game is possibly the best 'game' i think i've ever seen on this whole forum... Mind you Evora isn't bad either!! Not forgetting your Savona thread of course!!

Haha so true re: Fafe. I can quickly recap on Castillo.

Awww thanks Guys And yeah there were some awesome stories in 2009, though I have loved that I have been able to complete in 2010, and now am looking forward to FM11 as I have placed my preorder...Still going to keep playing FM10, just excited that a new one is nearly here again.

[rlipscombe]

yeah, i'm looking forward to the new one... plenty of unfinished business with Venezia first though!!