FM12 Big Euro Nation: Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[corinthiano]

PRDH - Possibly the best opponents you could get in the quarters apart from Benfica, but yeah that semi-final looks tough..

aldojags - Do you think he will reach his PA with that attitude? What is his determination like? I personally would chuck him...

[aldojags]

He's 20, determination 19! The funny thing is he has 4.5 PA, but is only worth 65k. But his stats could lead to him being fantastic player. But thats 2 games I've had him unavailable. Think I'll get rid, zero tolerance for that nonsense! Hahaha.

See on scouting reports for next team we play, when the stars are next to opposition players, is that their rating for the league they are in, for their rating for the club they are. I'm about to play PSG, but all their players are 3.5 at most, but they are a fantastic team.

[PRDH]

aldojags - Let's have a look at this guy. See how good he is! I think the stars relate to how good they are in relation to the rest of the team. I think.

[aldojags]

aldojags - Let's have a look at this guy. See how good he is! I think the stars relate to how good they are in relation to the rest of the team. I think.

Radovan Malina. Problem is he has obvious fantastic potential, but thats twice he's missed a game due to being out the night before. If he was delivering on the pitch, I could live with it, but when he gets a chance, he doesn't do it. His only goals have been from pen spot. 2 assists to his name. I've got a 59k per week wage budget, he's 5k of it, missing games, i can't tolerate that no matter what his potential? what u think

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I don't think that you will receive enough reward to satisfy getting rid of him, and could see it coming back to haunt you later on when he stars for your opponents.

I would try tutoring him with one of your Model Professionals, or even just a Professional and see if you can't help to turn him around a little bit.

[Thandui]

Not bad for a first friendly against a strong Almeria team!

[rlipscombe]

aldojags - tough one. looks great on paper but not performing?? i'd be tempted to go three strikes and out and try and improve his attitude. tutoring could work. how long have you had him?

[aldojags]

just since pre-season. I don't really have anyone old enough, my oldest player is a 27 yr old dm, i'll try it and see. I'll give him another chance

[rlipscombe]

i'd persevere a little longer - give him a season. think the potential makes it worth the risk

[iacovone]

Yeah stick with him, he looks great. Don't think you can afford to take a tough line early on in the challenge. Just accept the alky for what he is and get promoted

[PRDH]

Heroic, but perhaps slightly, Pyrrhic victory! Lost the first leg against Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield. Brought them back to Angra and beat them 2-0 after extra time. It's a great performance and we're into the semi final where we face Real Madrid. I think, basically, whatever vague hopes I had have evaporated though.

The Liverpool second leg was a hard-fought game, and by 'hard-fought' I mean they tried to kick us off the pitch. Tuominen, Bazan and Djokovic were all injured by Liverpool tackles and (and this is not so much their fault as mine) Cardoso got himself sent off, again.

They are all out injured for a couple of weeks, with them pencilled in to return just before the first leg of the Madrid game. Cardoso meanwhile will obviously miss the rest of the tournament with his suspension. Not happy. I can't see us getting past Madrid without him.

[corinthiano]

Real Sport Clube – 2023/24 Liga Zon Sagres

Liga Zon Sagres

Media Prediction: 6th
Board Expectation: Top-Half
My Target: European Qualification

League Table: 4th ǁ Position Graph

This was a strange year in the league, all the big teams just seemed to drop more points. We were pretty awful in the beginning ourselves and only started playing a bit better towards the end of the season when we secured 4th place again, but a whole 15 points off top spot.

Europa League

Group H: 2nd ǁ Fixtures

A great campaign in which we knocked out some good sides. We eliminated FC Midtjylland and Leverkusen before being handed a tough group with HSV, Galatasaray and At. Madrid. I would have been happy to take a couple of points from the group, so I was delighted when we managed to get a whole 13 to qualify in second behind At. Madrid. Strong home performances in the last 32 and last 16 saw us knock out Osasuna and Werder Bremen. When we came up against Stuttgart we were unable to get the advantage at home and paid the price with a 4-2 defeat in Germany. Stuttgart went on to beat Man City at the Etihad Stadium in the final.

Taça de Portugal Millennium

Fixtures

Our first major trophy! We managed to get to the Semi-Finals with ease apart from a tricky game against Vit. Setúbal, settled in extra time. There were no big guns in the Semi-Finals as we played our bogey team Moreirense and Beira-Mar faced off Marítimo. I thought our luck was over when we lost the first leg at home 2-1, but we produced a brilliant display to overtun the deficit by beating Moreirense 2-0 in the return leg. The final was quite straight forward as we never gave Beira-Mar a chance and secured the title with a tidy 2-0 win.

Bwin Cup

Third Phase Group D: 1st ǁ Fixtures

The group stages were nice and easy as we scored eight, conceded none and won all three games. In the Semis we went to Alvalade to play Sporting and weren’t quite good enough, losing 3-2.

The Royals – Best XI

Transfers ǁ Squad 1 ǁ Squad 2

On the incoming front I initially only had room to bring in one player, Igor Platonov who came in to be one of our central defenders. But when Porto met Seyithan Bilir’s release clause it allowed me to bring in a couple of stronger players on loan.

GK: Buick – Regular at the club again and now a Portuguese international.
DR: Raymundo Gutiérrez – Came back into the first eleven with the departure of Seyithan. He did OK but I feel I need someone better to compete with the big boys.
DC: Igor Platonov – Was a decent addition, the Belarusian also becomes the first Real player to play at a major tournament, getting to the last 16 of the Euro.
DC: Vince Jordan – Another good season by Vince.
DL: Teté – Surprisingly in the end Teté remained and moved over to the left to cover the departure of Bilir. Seems happy at the club and it would be great to keep him.
DMC: Arturo Domínguez – Arturo had another solid season and is maturing nicely.
MC: Esteban Cardona – Keeps playing well regularly, can see him staying in the side a few more years.
MC: Jens Andersson – As expected he took over Cléber’s place. Was OK, nothing spectacular but did the job.
AMC: Clement Mazibuko / Luis Manuel Sánchez – Clement started the season in excellent form, really providing the strikeforce with plenty of ammunition. He got injured horribly around November though and was out for 6 months, almost the rest of the campaign. This left me short of AMC, which is when I brought in Luis Manuel, initially only as back-up. His performances were excellent though and he even kept out Clement when he came back from injury. Unfortunately he might prove too pricy to bring back to Real though.
ST: Yukinori Sugimoto –What a season by Yukinori. An amazing 35 goals scored, 19 of which in the league. He was chosen as the AFC Young Player of the Year and also the league’s best player. His runs were a menace to defences and there was absolutely no stopping him. Unfortunately Aston Villa met his asking price and took him away for € 7.75M, leaving me with the difficult task of replacing him.
ST: Milton – Milton was the pleasant surprise of the year as he had by far his most prolific season. The captain scored 25 goals, which included one in the final of the Taça to make him top goalscorer of the comptetion.

Other News

Finances – The sales of Seyithan and Sukinori combined with the massive amount of money made from the Europa League resulted in another profit and probably the first time ever that we went into the black!

The extra cash allowed us to make some much needed facilities improvements, as Training and Youth facilities are being upgraded and will be ready around November/December time. The biggest news however came when the board announced that the local council finally approved planning permission for us to move to the 22,875 capacity Real Stadium in a years’ time. We have had to take out another massive loan and are in a s. load of debt, but I am absolutely delighted as this was crucial for our growth as a club.

This Season Targets

1. Another top 5 finish. Yes – Hard work again but crucially we have done it.
2. Get to the Europa League group stages. Yes – and some more! Great campaign in the Europa League.
3. Reach a cup semi-final Big fat yes – almost reached all three cup semi-finals and even managed to win one!

Next Season Targets

1. Top 5 finish, but narrow the gap to top spot to less than 10 points.
2. Get past Europa League group stages again.
3. Find a replacement striker

We made massive steps in the right direction this season. Whilst our league campaign was anything but spectacular, we absolutely overachieved in all cup competitions, doing ourselves proud in Europe and getting our first piece of silverware. We are also on our way to become a top club in Portugal with all the facility improvements, plus I have been handed a major upgrade in the wage budget for the first time as the board raised it a whopping € 30k p/w to € 85k p/w! The key will be to find a top replacement for Sugimoto and a new full-back. I have already lined up a decent AMC for December and am planning on strengthening the squad a bit as I reckon our league campaign suffered considerably from our cup exploits.

Career Overview

Season       League                     Pos      Taça de Portugal     Bwin Cup        Europe             Other Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13      2. Divisão - Zona Sul      7th      First Round          N/A             N/A                None
2013/14      2. Divisão - Zona Centro   3rd      Second Round         N/A             N/A                None
2014/15      2. Divisão - Zona Centro   1st      Third Round          N/A             N/A                Promotion
2015/16      Liga Orangina              10th     Second Round         First Phase     N/A                None
2016/17      Liga Orangina              10th     Fourth Round         Second Phase    N/A                None
2017/18      Liga Orangina              8th      Runners-Up           First Phase     N/A                EL Qualification 
2018/19      Liga Orangina              2nd      Third Round          Second Phase    EL Group Stage     Promotion
2019/20      Liga Zon Sagres            9th      Fourth Round         Third Phase     N/A                None
2020/21      Liga Zon Sagres            7th      Fifth Round          Third Phase     N/A                None
2021/22      Liga Zon Sagres            3rd      Sixth Round          Third Phase     N/A                EL Qualification
2022/23      Liga Zon Sagres            4th      Sixth Round          Third Phase     EL 4th Qual Rnd    EL Qualification
2023/24      Liga Zon Sagres            4th      Winners              Semi-Final      EL Quarter-Final   EL Qualification

[aldojags]

well done on the trophy corinthiano! first of many I'm sure mate. Glad to see Buick getting capped, he's just coming into the best time for a keeper I think, early 30's. Sugimoto was brilliant this year long may it continue. Good stuff bout the stadium too, it's all happening mate,exciting times ahead for u I think.

Yeah stick with him, he looks great. Don't think you can afford to take a tough line early on in the challenge. Just accept the alky for what he is and get promoted

I'm already in Ligue 1. Yeh I know I think I'll stick with it just incase, the boy likes a good time, hell if I was on 5k a week I'd be out all the time!

I'm exactly half way through my season, just about to finish winter break. Finally got board to give in and give me some funds. Used most of it to sign some bosmans, wait till u see some of these players...!

Sam Preston from Man U, looks a star already, can't believe I'm getting him for free! Can't believe we're attracting players of this quality.

Rui Silva from Real Madrid, also looks the part I'm sure you'll agree.

Lewis More from Hearts, fantastic stats, will only get better, and he's Scottish!

Bringing Juan in to shore up defence, add some experience to the back line. He's got 1 Italy cap too so obviously has decent pedigree

Emilio Nocera from Juve, another striker, (I play 433 so like to be top heavy with strikers), pacy, will score goals in my team I know it.

Signed this guy already, 17 yr old midfielder from Hadjuk, have a look see what u think, I think he's destined for greatness. Set me back £675,000.

In other news, our impressive first half of campaign (sitting comfortable mid table) as has us named team of the year, and me named manager of the year for Ligue 2 after winning us promotion last season. Odd thing about awards in France they give them end of calendar year instead of season!


Let me know what you think of my future arrivals, I'm excited by the quality of them, and the teams they are leaving to come to us, shows we're definitely on the rise! I've got 27 points after 19 games, so got 19 games more to get another 13 points to hit my target of 40 and stay up.

[PRDH]

I. Can't. Quite. Believe. What. Just. Happened. As I said above, we got through to the semi final to face Real Madrid. The first leg saw us welcome them to Angra. I was not hopeful. We'd just come off a terrible league performance as we lost to give Porto a sniff at the title. We had 4 key first team players short of top fitness and Cardoso was suspended.

The first half was a pretty low key affair until the 44th minute when my right back (just returned from two months out injured) popped up with a header to make it 1-0. I was at this point still hoping to escape with a reasonable score. Imagine my glee when Bentalaa scored from the rebound of his own woodwork-halted shot to make it 2. Then, finally, as I was starting to think about bringing some defenders to protect what we had, Djokovic slid in to score our third.

A fantastic performance and we now surely have a real chance of getting to our first European final.

Edit - corinthiano - Nice season there. Congratulations on the Taca win. Nice to get your hands on that first bit of proper silverware. Fifteen points is a long way to be off top spot, but you just need a bit of luck/good performances and that gap will narrow significantly.

aldojags - Wow! They're some great players. You're going to have a stunning strike force! And if anything, I'm more excited about the Croatian midfielder than the rest - and that says something! Next year could be a very exciting one for you!

[corinthiano]

aldojags - those surely are some remarkable youngster, the future looks very bright!

PRDH - great result against Real Madrid! How is the other semi-final playing out?

[aldojags]

cheers guys, yes I'm quite eager to get to pre-season, get them in and see how I do next season. Need to stay up first, no use bringing in all these top players then going down! I'll be bankrupt! Still only averaging 3-4000 a match which is disappointing for a top half club I think? Well done PRDH on thrashing Real!

[rlipscombe]

aldojags - agree with other comments - you have some great youngsters lined up to come in there. the young Croat looks a find in particular. good luck for the rest of the season.
PRDH - great result against Real. good luck for the second leg.
corinthiano - well done on getting the first trophy in the bag. the first of many. good luck breaking into the top 3 next season.

[Romanista1994]

corinthiano - Good season. It'll be great to be playing in a real (both in name and in terms of size) stadium.
aldojags - Next season could be a very good one for you, all of those players look like they would be great for Ligue 1. I think your attendances will also increase in due time, how big is your stadium?
PRDH - Great performance against Real, especially when you were without Cardoso. Good luck for the second leg!

[PRDH]

Second game against Real done and dusted. We drew 1-1 in Madrid to set up the final against Chelsea.

We've made the job harder for ourselves, My first choice left back as well as Joao Paulo are suspended for yellow cards so they will join Cardoso in watching from the stands.

[corinthiano]

Good work PRDH, best of luck in the final!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Good Luck PRDH, hope you can pull it off.

[Romanista1994]

The best of luck PRDH!

[aldojags]

PRDH good luck my son. 2 completions in a few days would be great

aldojags - Next season could be a very good one for you, all of those players look like they would be great for Ligue 1. I think your attendances will also increase in due time, how big is your stadium?

My stadium redevelopment is finished in 2 weeks, I'll move back into my own stadium, which is going to be 20,000 now.

[iacovone]

Yes! Great news PRDH! Now come on, carry the boys over the finish line!

[PRDH]

Full match report will follow in the end of season report.

[corinthiano]

Brilliant PRDH, all those seasons of hard work have finally paid off

[iacovone]

YES!!! So deserved PRDH, well played mate!!

[iacovone]

I've got some good Novese news (which will definitely get overshadowed...!) - I managed to convince the board to extend the youth recruitment network again. It's now "well established"

It's the beginning of November FWIW. Maybe that's the time of year the option becomes available!? They said no initially until I said the level of ambition they're showing is poor. Success

[PRDH]

iacovone - Your youth recruitment is now more extensive than mine. I've still not been given the option to expand mine. Edit - I've just checked, and it's now available. Upgraded. It's now 'established'. It's a relief to get that improved, because I've had such shoddy players through the youth set up so far...
corinthiano - Cheers!

[iacovone]

iacovone - Your youth recruitment is now more extensive than mine. I've still not been given the option to expand mine. Edit - I've just checked, and it's now available. Upgraded. It's now 'established'. It's a relief to get that improved, because I've had such shoddy players through the youth set up so far...
corinthiano - Cheers!

Haha, glad I could help. Maybe some of my immense prospects will head your way instead

[PRDH]

Lusitânia Açores - Season Summary - 2037/38

Finances

Key figure - £65,223,272 | Summary

Made a decent amount of money this year, this was a result of transfer income and prize money. The upshot is that we end the season with a very healthy bank balance

Club News

1/ Upgrade of youth facilities was completed in October keeping the facilities at the cutting edge of training.
2/ The Youth Recruitment network was extended, it's now 'established'.
3/ Fatima, my feeder team finished 11th in the Premier League.
4/ My other Second League feeder team, Oriental, won promotion this season, so there is a chance I'll have two feeder clubs in the top flight. A situation which surely must be against the laws of the game in real life.
5/ We overtook Italy last year in the coefficients and maintained that position this year which means four CL places for Portugal again next season.

Transfers | Transfers | Frees | Loans

Had a real clear out over the summer getting rid of a load of squad players who were decent but never going to really displace those in possession of the jerseys. Thus we lost a few of the Argentinians I bought cheaply (they went for a huge profit) as well as players lie Bule and Mahmoud who just didn't really cut it. The one transfers I didn't want to happen was that of Cláudio, who was, somewhat bafflingly, sold by the board. There were the usual raft of loans going out to feeder clubs.

As for those arriving, we replaced Cláudio with a Russian player who hopefully would mean we didn't suffer from the board's stupidity and then a couple of young players, a Bulgarian winger and a Senegalese striker. Then, in January, we further strengthened with a left back from Young Boys and an exciting Moroccan midfield prospect. Furthermore we snaffled a few promising players on free transfers including a young Portuguese striker from Braga who I've had my eye on for a couple of years, a Greek reserve goalkeeper and a Japanese midfielder who arrived and boosted our merchandising despite not making an appearance this season. We also brought in a couple of loan players, neither quite up to the standard of Enol last season, who, by the way, I agreed a fee for but then he wanted £100k/week so I withdrew my interest. We brought a young Cypriot right back in as something of a panic replacement for Cláudio and an interesting Mexican central defensive prospect whose loan runs until next January with a clause to make it permanent if he impresses me.

League | Predicted - 2nd (still...)

Table | Graph

We came out of the blocks this season in ridiculous form. We won our first 13 games, including away games at Porto, Sporting and Benfica, while only conceding four goals. This obviously saw us shoot out to an early lead and we never really looked like giving it up. Our form didn't stay so majestic all year, but we were never off top spot after we took it after the third game. In fact we actually took more points overall than we did in the year we went unbeaten. We eventually ended up losing a couple of games which allowed Porto back into contention, but realistically the title always looked like it would be our's again. That's now 16 consecutive league wins.

Once again the league was pretty predictable in the top spots. Porto took second, Sporting third and Benfica fourth to complete the Champions' League spots, while Espinho continued in their role as 'best of the rest' finishing 5th took take their place in the Europa League where they'll be joined by Beira-Mar who go into Europe in their first season back in the top flight.

Cups

A somewhat disappointing year in the domestic cups this time out. We lost the curtain raising Supertaça 2-0 against Porto and then we went out disappointingly against lower league opposition in the Taça de Portugal in the shape of Leça in the 5th round. We then went out of the League Cup in the group stage after failing to win a single game. I blame this lack of progress in the cup on the fact I put out even more second-string teams than normal without even the usual cup squad players like Mendes or other more established reservers. This meant we were often outgunned, still, I haven't cared about the domestic competitions seriously for around 15 years, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Europe

Group Stage | Table

Hoping rather than expecting more progress this time out we went into the group stages confident of progress from at least this stage as we were drawn in a reasonably straightforward group of Zenit, Basel and the only serious competition - PSG. Now, I'm not sure what was said to the players over the off-season, or whether someone had said something to annoy them, but they bulldozed the group completely. They played like men possessed as they first went to St Petersburg and dispatched Zenit 6-0, thinking that may be the high point we invited PSG to Angra and promptly put five unanswered goals past them too. Wondering what an earth was going on we welcomed Basel to Terceira too and put six past them too, again without conceding a goal. A staggering opening to the group stage and hope was building.

As the return figures started we went to Basel where we won 6-1 before Zenit came to the Azores and suffered the same fate, another 6-1 victory. In our final group game, with progress, and top spot, assured we took our foot off the gas a little and lost 2-0 to PSG in Paris. A disappointing end and one which renewed the doubt in my mind. All in all though, a series of utterly dominant performances put us through to the knockout stages.

First Knockout Round | 1st Leg | 2nd Leg

After our imperious form in the group stage I went into the tie with Besiktas reasonably confident, despite the fact we had never played them before. We had beaten better sides already, and comfortably. However, this confidence was tempered slightly by a torn hamstring for Cardoso. The leading man, who was at the heart of all that had gone well this season so far. He was definitely ruled out of this round, and potentially more of the competition.

We needn't have worried as a great performance saw us emerge from the first leg, played in Turkey, with a 6-0 victory. As far as I was concerned it was game over and chose to rest some of my players for the second leg. The performance reflected this and we only managed a 1-1 draw. I was supremely unconcerned by this turn of fate though as we still progressed comfortable into the quarter finals.

Quarter Final | 1st Leg | 2nd Leg

Our reward for disposing of Besiktas so comfortably was a tie against Liverpool. Of the available draws this was probably the second most favourable, with only an all-Portugal affair against Benfica as a more attractive option. I've had a mixed background against Liverpool, they just top the head to head table with 5 wins to my 3, but many of them have been close affairs. Over two legs I thought we had a chance.

The first leg rolled up and we were still without Cardoso as we travelled to Anfield meaning fellow youth product Akabar Tigabe would be starting again. Furthermore, this time out we were also without Stipe Pesic, our first choice right back who had been performing so well as well as Hacene Bentalaa our fantastic right winger. The Champions' League campaign was really starting to rack up the absentees. The lack of spark was clear for all to see and we went down 1-0. Not a disastrous result, but one which placed pressure on us to play well back on our little island.

The second leg rolled round and Cardoso was back in light training. He only had 80% fitness, but I took the gamble to start him and hope he could make a decisive difference before his lack of match fitness told. Bentalaa was also back, but Pesic was still out. We were having a real crisis at right back as the Russian replacement I brought in was in a real sulk. Abysmal morale, alienated by me after I took a hardline with him after he tried to push me around. I didn't want to risk a man who had proved a liability in the previous league game which saw a start for a Cypriot loanee, not really good enough for the league, let alone Europe, but he was all we had. Under these challenging circumstances I was sceptical about our chances.

My hopes went down hill even further as the game kicked off. I needn't have worried about Cardoso's fitness for the ninety minutes, he only played two of them. He was sent off for a rash challenge early in the game and from then on it looked as if we would struggle. Things went from bad to worse as Tuominen, our exciting left winger had to go off injured after 13 minutes. We hung on in there though and in the 72nd minute Bentalaa grabbed a goal to set the game up for extra time. An added few minutes made no easier by Djokovic's injury in the 80th minute and Bazán's in the 88th. Nevertheless, a heroic performance saw Stefan Fink step up to the plate and score in the 96th minute to see us through into the semi finals.

Semi Final | 1st Leg | 2nd Leg

The injuries and suspensions were really starting to accumulate as we welcomed Real Madrid to the Azores. Cardoso was obviously out suspended and though the injuries from the previous tie were back in training, it was a close run thing with two of them returning the day before the game. One good thing was the return of Pesic (again, just) solving the right back problem.

The first leg was a really great performance. Goals from Pesic, Bentalaa and Djokovic secured us a stunning 3-0 victory and a real chance of making it into the final if we could keep the score respectable at the Bernabeu.

The second leg was a feisty affair with João Paulo and Palhinha (our first choice left back) picking up yellow cards that would see them miss the next game. A 1-1 draw guaranteed that that next game would indeed be the final. The first in the club's history.

Final | Game

Our opposition in the final was Chelsea. Now, there are no easy games in the final of the Champions' League, but my hopes against the Londoners were slightly higher than they may have been against others. We had met them in the Group Stages of last year's competition and secured to 2-0 victories over them. We were, to some extent, their bogey team.

Still, this was Europe, and Lusitânia Açores so the only certainty was that it wouldn't be that simple. We went into the game with Cardoso, João Paulo and Palhinha all suspended and a pretty sparse looking bench.

Things started well, we had some chances in an even opening exchanges and began to grow into the match. In the 28th minute, a homegrown striker popped up with a goal as I'd always imagined, amazingly though it wasn't Cardoso, it was the lesser light Tigabe who was grasping his opportunity as he volley home Bentalaa's cross.

We were up, and looking like we deserved it. It obviously couldn't last, and just before half time a player that those of you with very long memories will remember from a short spell with us popped up with a goal. Sidnei Mamede scored in the 45th minute to undo our hard work and send us in level at the break.

I tried to give the team their belief back and send them out to win the game. A strategy that seemed to have worked as in the 49th minute Tigabe was again through on goal. I wasn't positive he'd score, one-on-ones aren't his strong point. It didn't come to that though, he didn't get a shot in a Lozovoy, the Chelsea central defender, desperately trying to make up the ground scythed him down from behind on the edge of the area. He was the last man and had to go and the ref made the right call. Chelsea would be playing the rest of the game with 10 men. Surely a chance.

We started to take control of the match and Chelsea got increasingly aggressive, and this soon took it's toll on our team. First of all Rui Lopes was injured requiring me to bring on Cypriot central defender Louka in the 58th minute. Then, only 19 minutes later, he was himself signalling to the bench indicating he couldn't continue. This was a disaster. Again it fell to his fellow Cypriot defender, a right back by trade, but the only defensive player left on the bench to fill the void. On he trotted, and with this makeshift defensive Chelsea seemed to get their belief back. They started to put us under pressure and it looked like the game was heading to extra time.

It wasn't to be however. In the 87th minute, Vieira swung in a corner and the man to rise highest was defender Jonathan Bazán. He thumped the header past the 'keeper and we had a lead. Needless to say I immediately went for the most time-wasting strategy I could, but even that didn't matter as Chelsea's disruptive tactics came back to haunt them once more. In the 4th and final minute of injury time they conceded a penalty and it was that man Vieira who stepped up and calmly placed it beyond the keeper and into the net to seal a fabulous 3-1 victory and the Champions' League for his hometown club. What better way to end the game.

Squad | Overview

'Keepers

*Nelson Martins* - 4 apps, 7 conc, 1 cln - Again the cup 'keeper, didn't play particularly well, but did have a very inexperience back line in front of him.

*Ricardo Dias* - 44 apps, 31 conc, 24 cln, 3 MoMs - Fantastic form early in the season as we rarely looked like conceding a goal. A solid end to the season to as we claimed the big prize.

Loukas Triantafyllidis - 2 apps, 4 conc - Free transfer signing who was number two to Dias, he's adequate for that role, but probably no more than that.

Defenders

Alexandr Rubtsov - 5(4) apps, 1 gl - Brought in at the start of the season to, in theory, replace Cláudio. He was a nuisance all year. He didn't get into the first team initially as I wanted to give Pesic a try. And then, as we played superbly with him in the side, he stayed. The Russian couldn't handle this and had several meltdowns complaining he wasn't being treated fairly. Eventually I called him into the office and told him to pull himself together. This seemed to be the final straw and he stormed off. He didn't play again and I don't think will. Looking to sell over the summer.

John Carranza - 5 apps, 1 ast - Funny year for the Peruvian back up. He started the year as number two left back at the club, but was pushed down further in January. I had at the start of the year started training him to fill the right back slot, and he did eventually learn it, in the process forgetting how to play on the other side of defence. I don't honestly see a future for him at the club and will look to get rid in the summer.

Giorgos Polykarpou - 8(4) apps - This most unlikely of Champions' League winners arrived on loan at the start of the season to play back up to Pesic in defence. I thought that position had been supplanted by Rubtsov's arrival, but his strop meant the young Cypriot was back in the picture. He didn't play often , but seemed to turn up at the most important times. He was at right back when we beat Liverpool, and in the centre of the defence for the final twenty minutes of the final too. I almost feel I should snap him up for that display alone, but I probably won't. His competition history will stand as a pub trivia question for my universe's football fans for evermore though.

Jonathan Bazán - 37 apps, 4 gls, 2 asts, 1 MoM - Another fantastic season for the Argentine defender. He scored what could have been the winner in the CL final, and generally formed a dominant partnership with Paulo in the middle of defence. Not much more to be said, he's been a great signing.

Palhinha - 23 apps, 5 asts, 1 MoM - Arrived from Young Boys in January and made the left back position his own. He is a great player and has made the position his own. Can see him being around for a few years (if the board don't make the same decision they did with our previous Brazilian full back e signed form Young Boys - Claudio).

Leobardo Caballero - 1 app - Arrived on loan in January, as an interesting prospect with some rough edges. He's got six months left to prove to me they can be filed down and that he can be turned into a proper player. Initial signs are good.

*João Paulo* - 42 apps, 8 gls, 1 ast, 6 MoMs - This homegrown defender has matured into a great player. I thought he could be good, but I don't think I ever expected him to reach this level. He missed the CL final, but was a huge part of the team that got us there.

Shimon Ginzburg - 5 apps, 2 gls, 1 MoM - Part of the inexperienced cup squad defence who didn't acquit themselves brilliantly. I think he's one who could make progress though if he is given time.

*Rui Lopes* - 7(12) apps, 2 asts, 1 MoM - Played less than he wanted, but kept his head down and grafted and was rewarded by starting the CL final when suspensions gave him his chance.

Meraneh Descazals - 4 apps - A rather sad end for the legendary defender. He didn't play in the league or Europe all season, and was in the midfield for cup games occasionally. He has got his staff attributes and I hope that would mean he'd retire from playing at the end of the season, but he says he wants to go and find first team football, so is leaving on a free at the end of the year. I hoped he would win the CL with us, and while he was at the club it is surprising that it happened in the first season in so long where he played no part. He's also a dreadful coach. If he can't find anywhere to go my loyalty at least will see him offered a job.

Stipe Pesic - 37 apps, 1 gl, 7 asts, 2 MoMs - He's been biding his time for years now and finally got a chance this year. He performed superbly and really made me wonder I was worried about Claudio leaving. He looked like he'd been playing at this level for years, barely put a foot wrong at the back and provided some great balls into the box at the other end too. Top marks.

Christian Minniti - 19 apps, 2 asts - Started the season as first choice but was displaced by Palhinha, he returned for the final and performed well. Will continue as back up next year if he wants.

Giannakis Louka - 8(6) apps - Part of the back up defence, he is progressing nicely and played a short part in the final. I will continue to try to blend him into the first team over the next season.

Midfielders

*Miguel Teixeira* - 8(15) apps - His form faltered somewhat this season, but he was still an important part of the side and is still young. He has, somewhat stealthily, turned into a properly good player.

Betu Tshimpi - [i]38 apps, 6 gls, 1 ast, 1 MoM[i] - Continues to be a vital part of the team. Really is a great midfielder, I'm still amazed PSG let him leave on a free. Must be one of the worst decisions they made.

Luis Ventura - 1(5) apps, 1 ast - Limited impact this year, but he is learning his trade in Portugal and might get more chances next season if some things I'm contemplating come to pass.

Mohammed Jellouli - 1(1) apps - Arrived in January and made his first tentative steps into the first team in the second half of the season. I think he's got the potential to be a very decent player.

Hacene Bentalaa - 31(1) apps, 11 gls, 10 asts, 1 MoM - World class winger who just continues to improve, must be one of the bargains of the century! Big part in all our success this year.

Stefan Fink - 10(5) apps, 3 gls, 6 asts, 1 MoM - Real fall for the long-established winger. He lost his place and we looked good without him. He popped up with important goals and performances, but I'm considering selling him in the summer.

Atanas Radkov - 5 apps, 2 asts - Very young Bulgarian winger who appears to have a lot of potential, quite excited about what he could achieve.

*Paulo Jorge Vieira* - 34(2) apps, 8 gls, 18 asts, 3 MoMs - Another spectacular season for the midfielder all capped off by scoring a goal to win the Champions' League for his hometown club with the final kick of the game. I never want him to leave!

*Sérgio Reforço* - 0(1) apps - Youngster trying to make his way in the game. So many players ahead of him that I'm not sure of his chances. Another youth product.

*Luís Santos* - 15(7) apps, 3 gls, 1 ast - Very encouraging first proper season for this latest product of the youth team. He has improved nicely in his important stats and put in some performances that show he has a definite future in the club.

*Álvaro Pinto* - 8(10) apps, 5 gls, 4 asts, 1 MoM - Rather fell from favour this year, but his homegrown status buys him time and he did still perform well when called upon.

*Sérgio Rodrigues* - 9(16) apps, 2 gls, 2 asts - Slightly disappointing season for the winger, but then a few of the players who've come through the system have had a similar season in their development. I still think he can make an impact at a high level.

*Domingos Gomes* - 2(1) apps - Part of the very young set of players who contested the cup competitions. My coaches think he can be very good, but I'm not convinced by him yet.

Lasse Tuominen - 34(1) apps, 9 gls, 22 asts, 2 MoMs - Fabulous breakthrough season for the Finnish winger. Took Fink's place and made it his own, big future for this lad. Very exciting.

Forwards

Hugo Veríssimo - 4(3) apps, 1 gl, 3 asts - Youngster snapped up on a free from Braga. I've had my eye on him for a while now and was delighted to pick him up cheaply. He looks to have great potential as a poacher type striker if he can work on his composure.

Mihajlo Djokovic - 39 apps, 22 gls, 13 asts, 5 MoMs - Yet another great season for the big Serb. He really stepped up and led the line beautifully during Cardoso's injuries and suspensions. Wonderful player.

*Pedro Cardoso* - 28(1) apps, 26 gls, 10 asts, 7 MoMs - Slightly disappointing season in comparison to his last, but he was still great, was disappointed to miss out on the final, but then you never know what would have happened had Tigabe not played. He's a great player and hopefully he'll get another chance to get that medal.

*Abakar Tigabe* - 18(15) apps, 16 gls, 7 asts, 3 MoMs - Really stepped up when he needed to with Cardoso out and scored some incredibly important goals this season.

Asmir Tufek - 6(7) apps, 6 gls, 2 asts, 1 MoM - Bosnian striker with potential to become a proper player. Had more involvement with the first team than I expected due to Cardoso's bad luck.

Iakovos Papadopoulos - 5 apps, 3 gls - Restricted to cup appearances, but is maturing reasonably well, could have a future at the team.

Aims For This Season Were...

1/ CHAMPIONS LEAGUE! - YES!!

Aims For Next Season Are...

1/ Frankly, who cares! I won the Champions' League. Just going to enjoy it!
2/ Seriously though - European Super Cup and Club World Cup wins would be nice.

Story So Far...

Season		League			Position		Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13		Second Division - South	12th			Avoided Relegation (just)
2013/14		Second Division - South 1st			Promoted!
2014/15		Second League		14th			Avoided Relegation
2015/16		Second League		2nd			Promoted!
2016/17		Premier League		13th			Avoided Relegation
2017/18		Premier League		3rd			Qualified for Europa League
2018/19		Premier League		4th			Europa League again
2019/20		Premier League		5th			Europa League again
2020/21		Premier League		1st			Champions!
2021/22		Premier League		2nd			CL Qualification again
2022/23		Premier League		1st			Champions!
2023/24		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2024/25		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2025/26		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2026/27		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2027/28		Premier League		1st			CL Semi Final
2028/29		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2029/30		Premier League		1st			CL Semi Final
2030/31		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2031/32		Premier League		1st			CL Quarters
2032/33		Premier League		1st			CL Quarters and domestic quadruple
2033/34		Premier League		1st 			CL 1st Knockout Round
3034/35		Premier League		1st			CL Quarters
2035/36		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2036/37		Premier League		1st			CL Quarters
2037/38		Premier League		1st			Champions' League winners
-------------------------------------------Challenge Completed------------------------------------------------

[PRDH]

Erm, sorry. That quickly became rather more epic than I was expecting!

[aldojags]

well done PRDH well deserved. Juao paulo looks the part. God knows what kind of youth products you'll get now you've upped your recruitment!

[Romanista1994]

Wonderful job PRDH! Fantastic that you won the CL just the season after I had said that it wouldn't be far off. I'll also be looking forward to the youngsters that will come through with the improved youth recruitment.

[corinthiano]

I echo the others, it was a very strong season in the league as well and with less pressure, improved youth system and even more money in the bank I can see you winning a few more CLs. Love that you have 4 youth team members in your first eleven and so many more coming through, the Portuguese national coach has to be very thankful!

[PRDH]

Cheers again guys.

Edit - I'm torn over where to go next with this. Just carry on, or try something different. What do you guys think? The options I see them at the moment are:

1/ Continue with the game as it is, trying to dominate the world for the foreseeable future.
2/ Continue in the same game set up but try to build a team solely from youth products.
3/ Same as above but with just players from the Azores. This would be trickier, because obviously they count as Portuguese.
4/ Do what iacovone is doing, and open up some more leagues to see what happens.

Also open to suggestions. How do you think I should progress from this point?

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Congrats PRDH, a huge effort in finally taking the victory in the Final, a great season, and some incredible youth prospects in your squad as well. As for continuing, I would play the next season out and think about what is next, either opening further leagues or go for a youth team, all from Azores would be pretty cool. Maybe open the leagues up and go for an All-Azores team.

[iacovone]

First thing's first - you need to play a season and win the World Club Cup. Then with that under your belt, hopefully the rest will become clear. I'm enjoying the next season, introducing a lot of those youth products and destroying the league. It's great

[rlipscombe]

PRDH - awesome mate - thrilled for you. your persistence finally paid off. think if you do continue you could dominate european football now...

[rlipscombe]

SV Waldhof Mannheim – German Bundesliga – Season 2022/23

Season Preview

After a couple of poor seasons I was determined to try and have an overhaul of the squad. However as usual my chairman was being unhelpful and limited my budget. In the end I had to promise european qualification to squeeze a little more from him. Next I reviewed all of the contracts and this was where some tough decisions were to be made. A few high profile players, including goalkeeper Anzarda and left back Rodriguez had a year to run so I tried offering them deals. The demands were extortionate and so I decided to move them on for large fees to generate some cash for me to play with. This cash enabled me to strengthen the squad and reinvigorate it in an attempt to push for the top 3 again.

So without further ado here are the new signings.

Transfers


Goalkeepers

1. David Carroll - my replacement for Anzarda. Tipped as a wonderkid I decided to take the plunge on the rokkie Englishman. Great potential, we may suffer a little as he builds up his experience.

30. Kostadin Dimitrov - a young Bulgarian with massive potential and a snip for £350k. 4.5* potential, I have high hopes for him.

Full Backs

20. Jonathan Lago - An argentine LB brought in to replace Rodriguez. Good looking player, hopefully he can produce on the field
31. Slobodan Dasovic - 17 year old Serbian LB and another with massive potential. Could be a legend for the club.

Centre Backs

6. Everton - Brazilian CB signed for £5million from Rostov. My replacement for Traore who never did it for me. Great player again with 4* ability.
25. Ahmed Adam - young Qatari centre back signed following his release from paris Saint-Germain. 4* potential, he is a backup for now but someone who could become a good player for us.

Midfielders

11. Pirulito - Brazilian international winger signed for £7.5 million. I have high hopes for this Brazilian and he will push Jakovic hard for the left wing berth.
12. Andrey Ivanov - Andrey is a young Russian that I have been trailing for a while before I took the plunge. I can see him becoming our creative force in midfield in years to come. Need to give him some gametime.
18. Simon Vennemann - promising young German midfielder signed on a free transfer from St. Pauli. Has the potential to be the heir to Migen Toma.
26. Clovis - Brazilian RM signed from Anderlecht. Will add competition to the right side of the midfield. Good ability and potential.
Nilton - Brazilian LM signed on loan from Fluminense. Squad player.
Carl Morris - Young Welsh midfielder signed to add to the youth team. Has the potential to be a good player in the future.

Strikers

10. Theo de Graaff - Had to sign this young Dutchman. This man could well be world class. Will hopefully lead the team to future titles both at home and abroad.


The Upcoming Season

So with a squad peppered with new signings I am optimistic of a good season. I am concerned that the team may take a little time to settle (and some early season fixtures have shown this) but hopefully we’ll be better for it in the long run. I guess we will see in 9 months time.

[aldojags]

I would open up a few leagues is iacovone says it increases the challenge. Defend your European title and become world champions!

Ive just had my youth intake, highest is a 2.5, from...Scotland!! A 15 year old 6 feet 6 inches tall! position - DRLC, could be handy if he reaches his potential, but hows he from Scotland when I'm a French club, is that because of me?

rlipscombe Ivanof and de Graff look stunning

[rlipscombe]

I would open up a few leagues is iacovone says it increases the challenge. Defend your European title and become world champions!

Ive just had my youth intake, highest is a 2.5, from...Scotland!! A 15 year old 6 feet 6 inches tall! position - DRLC, could be handy if he reaches his potential, but hows he from Scotland when I'm a French club, is that because of me?

yeah it will be. in my first season with Mannheim we had an Irishman first year (my manager is Irish) still at the club actually...

[PRDH]

rlips - de Graff is a stunning player!

[aldojags]

My coaches suggest I sign complete diddies to the youth team, with half a star potential, you guys ever get that? I release everyone below 2.

[PRDH]

Back to earth with a bump. Lost my first league game of the new season!

[Mooping]

Manager Profile
Club Overview
Club Information
Squad

[PRDH]

Welcome aboard Mooping. Good luck and enjoy.

[rlipscombe]

PRDH - he isn't bad is he?? been tracking him a bit too and when i raised some cash in the summer i had to have him despite me not planning on signing a striker. hopefully he develops well.
Moonpig - welcome to the challenge and good luck with Cannes.
aldojags - i get that all the time too. think it's because they think we need bodies in the youth team rather than grey players........ i always ignore them.

[PRDH]

My attempts to sign Enol on a permanent deal continue. Struck up a deal with Villarreal, a fee I'd be very happy to pay, he tried to negotiate this contract. That's right, after one international appearance he wants to be earning £625,000/week. How reasonable! Erm, jog on Enol...

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's
Agrupación Deportiva Parla

Liga Adelante
End of Season 2020/21
Slaughtering the Records

The Season

In Brief
Predicted: 20th
Actual: 1st (Graph)
Cup: 3rd Round vs Mallorca
Manager: Des Tiny - History
Season Tickets: 3985 (v875 [Avg Att: 5064])
Finances: €6M (34th in ESP [v13])
Transfers: 2020/21 - 13 In (€8.5M) 27 Out (€5.5M) 6 Loaned (€500k)
Squad: First Squad, Under 19s

General News

Financially it was always going to be trouble dropping down a division when I still had all the players, a few more and a large wage budget. I did keep it down as much as I could, but through the season I supposedly made a small profit, I did lose 11M in the previous season, mostly in the final days. The Chairman is also looking to sell the club, and a local businessman is looking to buy, so while this may mean no transfers, I am not that worried about this. I am 100 % confident in my players ability to keep us up, and when combined with the new signings I have already made, I believe it is not an issue. So I would love to see a takeover and survive it as well, looking forward to seeing the result. Transfer embargo has now been put into effect, and the touted businesswoman is Isabel Tarrago, I am trying to figure out if this is the current Chairman of Llagostera, or another woman with the same name. Either way she has said she will clear our debt if her takeover is successful, something I would accept as our Stadium paid off would be excellent. Well she has taken over, I survived, but no investment coming, a bit disappointing, though I look at the finance screen and it turns out she took a 2M loan and put us back in the black. I am supposedly being coveted by bigger clubs, Parla are delighted to have me.

The League

Well we lost our opening game, and 2 more losses in the first eleven games made me worry a little bit. I needn't have worried as the boys stepped up and 1 game in the remaining 31 times stepping onto the field during the season. We wowed the fans as we ran away with the record for points and goals in the Liga Adelante as we finished with 102pts and 128 goals, over 3 goals scored per game. The change to a 4-3-3 type variation saw goals galore from my right wing Krasic, while Montiquin, Bumbera, Sen and a bunch of others were providing an excellent team effort. I am going to continue the attacking formation into the Liga BBVA and see how it goes. The fans were ecstatic, as were the board, while club favourite Dumast was in disbelief, while Paulinho thinks it was my leadership qualities that got us over the line.

Best Results: at Cartegena 5:2, vs Celta 4:0, at Mallorca 7:0
Worst Results: at Hercules 1:3, at Guadalajara 0:2, vs Barca "B" 0:1
Season Review
Overachievers: Parla
Golden Boot: Montiquin 1st (22), Krasic 3rd (22)
Most Assists: Krasic 1st (25), Mitovic 2nd (21)
Man of Match: Ruiz 1st (10), Krasic 2nd (9)

Fixtures 1-21
Fixtures 22-42
Player Stats
Team Stats

Cup

Well we saw a 5:0 victory over Xerez disappointed by a 2:1 loss to Mallorca, that was really disappointing.

Fixtures

The Players

Squad Stats

Key Stars

Goalies
GK: Pablo Re (ARG) - A major part of our turn around was Re, he was stopping anything slightly down from amazing and kept the tally at about 1 goal per game, he is labelled the next Hugo Gatti, now that is a legendary name to be associated with. I hope he can fight and step up into the top league, if Re can hold out the goals I am sure my strikers can score them.

Defenders
DR: Alessandro Schwangart (GER) - I like his potential and skills set, but he seemed to be a weakness early on in the season. Because of this Paulinho actually took over on the right, and I have signed Garner (ENG) to takeover this spot in the new season.
DC: Norberto Ruiz (ESP) - He is labelled as the next Miguel Angel Nadal, and shows it with his great physical presence in front of goal at both ends of the park. My vice-captain though knows that there is going to be a huge battle for him this season as he fights with Paulinho & Sedlacek for only two positions.
DC: David Sedlacek (CZE) - The new combination at the back of the park has been the main reason for our extreme turn around this season. Sedlacek has been very strong, he may not get upfront, but his defense is exceptional. I do not think there is a single player I would rather have one on one with any striker going for the ball. If he can live up to his description as the next Tomas Repka he could be pretty good for us.
DRC: Paulinho (BRA) - He spent most of this season on the right playing alongside Ruiz & Sedlacek, but without a doubt this season he has to battle with them for the starting role. He had a great season at right back, and he had a few good games in the middle when he played there. He has been labelled as the next Cris, if he could be that good I would be delighted.
DL: Tobias Wagner (GER) - It ended up as a bit of a rotation policy this season, Wagner stepped up and scored a couple of goals as the clean-up man at corners, but really defensively he didn't quite have the skill and as such lost his seat to the prospect that is Moravec.
DL: Zednek Moravec (CZE) - The youngster stepped in and was a bit of a miracle man for me, I am hoping to showcase his skills at a higher level through this season and see what he can do. If he continues to build the way he has for me so far I am pretty sure he can join up as part of a very strong defensive grouping.

Midfielders
MC: Ales Mitrovic (SUI) - He was the team's playmaker this season, he will be looking to continue this role in the new season, but he knows he will have a battle with Bife, Ogweno & Yildrim for the midfield slots. 22 assists on the season was incredible, his through balls were something to witness.
MC: Ercan Yildrim (TUR) - Our club captain has been a solid worker, he doesn't do the spectacular, but he supports the defence, gets the ball and puts it forward. He plays as the more defensive minded midfielder and does some incredible work. I am hoping he can make the step up no matter who else is in the side.
MC: Bife (BRA) - The youngster spent the vast majority of this season on the bench behind Yildrim & Mitrovic, I am going to give him a shot during the offseason to take one of the two spots as I think he is actually the one member of our midfield with a real chance to play for us near the top of the league in a few years time. He is also labelled the next Juninho Pernambucano.
AMR: Radisa Krasic (SRB) - WOW, what a season, at the end of last year I was looking to replace him and Gomes as neither had done a job for me. Krasic obviously felt the pressure because he stepped up and showed a great skil as an attacking winger, 24 goals, 26 assists, anyone who can be involved in 50+ goals in a season needs to be in the team. I have some crazy decisions over this slot in the new season, will actually feature in a separate post I will be making this weekend.
AMR: Mauricio Ferrari (ARG) - He didn't play a single game in the Liga Adelante because of Foreigner restrictions, but he is still happy to be here and will become the third Non-EU player in our senior squad this year. He will fight Krasic and others for the right wing slot in the preseason, I am planning about 15 friendlies so I can mix and match.
AMC: Javier Arregi (ESP) - He is a Lemona youth product who I actually originally brought in as cover for the attacking half of the field, he has surprised me and become a very solid Attacking Midfielder, he will hold onto his spot next year even though he is probably not good enough for the top level.
AMC: Vangelis Arvantis (GER) - A Back-up and nothing more, is for sale, any offers?
AMC: Phil Jones (WAL) - Well he came in to play in the spot, but he never really settled, I think I may put him on the transfer block in August and go all in on Arregi and use what I can as a back-up, Wilcox, Linhart and others.
AML: Mario Bumbera (SVK) - He spent 6 months out with a broken leg, and didn't want to sign a new contract, I had been putting Tayfun Sen in as his replacement. Then Bumbera returned from Injury, played 1 game off the bench, signed a new 2 year contract and straight back into the starting line-up where he played the final five games scoring 6 goals, 9 assists, and an average rating of 8.82 saw me without a doubt over his place in the side.
AML: Tayfun Sen (TUR) - The Turk looks like he could be great, I may end up having to run some sort of rotation system upfront with these two guys, Sen played a lot of games this season because of the injury to Bumbera, he just doesn't seem to be at the level to play full time yet.

Strikers
ST: Jesus Montiquin (ARG) - The answer to all my striking problems joined in the summer and proceeded to score 22 goals in the league and delight the fans. I have signed him on until 2025 and I think he can truly make the step up and lead our line, his two red cards is a bit of a worry, but nothing else seems down on the 21 year old. Labelled the next Diego Milito, could I want a better example?
ST: Almedin Kapetanovic (GER) - The youngster is one of about five new striking prospects I have, not sure on him, or the others will test them out in preseason.ST: Lee Wilcox (ENG) - The Englishman is expected to be the next Bobby Zamora, he would be much better as a second and supporting striker.

My Youth Prospects

DLC: Juan Pablo YP7 (ESP) - I think he is a player who could perform at Liga Adelante level, but really I need to get some much better prospects right now. Had a couple of good games this season.
MR: Gabriel (ESP) - The young Spaniard will be trying to make it into the team, but now is about 5th on the right wing list.
MC: Juan Carlos YP2 (ESP) - He went off and played in Jerez this season, has started to build a combination with Delgado in the midfield, probably not likely to ever prosper, but is solid at 2DB level.
MC: Roberto Delgado YP3 (ESP) - The best prospect I have had, he has been moved permanently on to Jerez (My Feeder Club) and I am hoping to feed them some more players as I try to get them up close to me in the league table.
AMC: Ivan Vilches YP1 (ESP) - He spent another very average season playing in lower leagues for Amurrio, definitely would never have made it at my club, but I will follow his career.
AMC: Daniel Garcia Suarez (ESP) - A youth product of Parla with a little bit of potential, will probably leave in my huge sell-off.
ST: Alejandro Naveiro YP8 (ESP) - The newest addition to our youth team, the striker looks like he could be alright for 2DB level, but now that we are in BBVA he will play a bit part. March 28th.

The History

The 100 Club

Player                   Nation  Pos  Caps    Goals Assists Conc Clean MoM Yellow Red Av Rat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herlein, Miguel*           POR   ST   175 (3)  139    46      0     0  36    19    1   7.56
Taygun Kuru*               TUR   MLC  164 (1)   18    72      0     0   5    24    0   7.14
Gomes, Andre*              POR   MC   144(12)   24    36      0     0   8    32    1   7.15
Aranda, Juan Francisco*    ESP   DR   126(10)    0    14      0     0   0    45    2   6.98
Guillou, Bruno*            FRA   DM   132( 0)    2     8      0     0   0    22    1   7.02
Ercan Yildrim              TUR   MC   130( 1)   12    19      0     0   6    13    1   7.03
Kivanc Ozlu*               TUR   DC   121( 0)   36     7      0     0  18    23    1   7.31
Delgado, Roberto (YP3)*    ESP   MLC   80(31)    5    38      0     0   3    18    2   7.00
Malheiro, Nuno*            POR   DL    84(26)    1    17      0     0   2    16    0   6.94
Perego, Andre              SUI   DC    99(10)   30     5      0     0  13    15    2   7.16
Briand, Erwan*             BEL   ST   106( 2)   71    21      0     0  12    13    0   7.40
Lopez, Miguel*             ARG   MR    99( 7)   13    26      0     0   3    15    1   6.94
Kaminski, Lukasz*          POL   GK   102( 0)    0     0    166    31   0     1    0   6.78
Wagner, Tobias             GER   DL    83(19)    5     7      0     0   5    26    2   7.13
Tayfun Sen                 TUR   ML    72(28)   21    31      0     0   1    10    0   7.15

The Club Awards

|---------|----------|-------------------|---------|------------|
| Season  | Division |     Fans PotY     | Best XI | Overall XI |
|---------|----------|-------------------|---------|------------|
| 2012/13 |   2DB3   | Guillaume Dumast  | 2012/13 | 2012-2013  |
| 2013/14 |   2DB3   | Miguel Herlein    | 2013/14 | 2012-2014  |
| 2014/15 |   2DB3   | Miguel Herlein    | 2014/15 | 2012-2015  |
| 2015/16 |    LA    | Miguel Herlein    | 2015/16 | 2012-2016  |
| 2016/17 |    LA    | Miguel Herlein    | 2016/17 | 2012-2017  |
| 2017/18 |    LA    | Erwan Briand      | 2017/18 | 2012-2018  |
| 2018/19 |    LA    | Erwan Briand      | 2018/19 | 2012-2019  |
| 2019/20 |   BBVA   | Norberto Ruiz     | 2019/20 | 2012-2020  |
| 2020/21 |    LA    | Norberto Ruiz     | 2020/21 | 2012-2021  |
|---------|----------|-------------------|---------|------------|

Club History

|---------|----------|----------|------------------|--------|------------------|
| Season  | Division | Position |       Cups       | Europe |     Comments     |
|---------|----------|----------|------------------|--------|------------------|
| 2012/13 |   2DB3   |    6th   |        NA        |   NA   |       None       |
| 2013/14 |   2DB3   |    4th   |   SC 2nd Round   |   NA   | Lost in Playoffs |
| 2014/15 |   2DB3   |    2nd   |   SC 2nd Round   |   NA   |     Promoted     |
| 2015/16 |    LA    |   10th   |   SC 2nd Round   |   NA   |       None       |
| 2016/17 |    LA    |    7th   |   SC 4th Round   |   NA   |       None       |
| 2017/18 |    LA    |    3rd   |   SC 2nd Round   |   NA   | Lost in Playoffs |
| 2018/19 |    LA    |    1st   |   SC 3rd Round   |   NA   |    Champions     |
| 2019/20 |   BBVA   |   19th   |   SC 4th Round   |   NA   |    Relegated     |
| 2020/21 |    LA    |    1st   |   SC 3rd Round   |   NA   |    Champions     |
|---------|----------|----------|------------------|--------|------------------|

The Future

In Brief
Predicted: 20th
My Aim: Avoid Relegation
Expectations: Avoid Relegation
Transfer Budget: €2M
Wage Budget: €144,088
Wages at 10.07.20: €114,583
Future Signings: Aaron Garner (DR,Free,Liverpool), Ondrej Linhart (MRC,€65k,Slavacko), Sammy Ogweno (MC,Free), Vyacheslav Yershov (MR,€2M,Tom), Aykut Erden (ST,Free), Thabang Radebe (ST,€60k,Ajax CT), David Frydych (GK,€55k,Mlada Boleslav)

Having a bit of a chuckles as the Facilities screen say we will move into Parla Stadium on 11.07.2021, while boardroom says 03.10.2022, and the draw was released saying we would play at Parla Stadium. Well we have moved into the Stadium on July 11th, looking forward to playing in front of 20,926 fans, if we can get them through the gate. Board room screen still says 03.10.22 as the date of completion, the club has already sold 2936 season tickets and is hoping to sell 8000 more, we could fill this stadium.

As always teams are chasing my signature, this time Valencia would like me to run the team, they finished 5th last season, is almost tempting. I also enjoyed this question in a press conference, as they wanted to know about the 4 times we hit the Woodwork.

Of my new signings, Ondrej Linhart is labelled as the next Tomas Rosicky, Sammy Ogweno is labelled the next Yoann Gourcuff, Vyacheslav Yershov has been labelled as the next Marat Izmailov, and Thabang Radebe has been labelled as the next Benni McCarthy, these guys along with the ones I already have could result in some amazing line-ups out there. Looking forward to seeing the squad in action as soon as we can.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well with Bife, Paulinho, Willian, Ogweno & Ferrari called up for the Under 20s World Cup from July 30th - August 21st I am going to have to test the out in the starting line-up sooner rather than later, so they will all feature in our opening game as Swansea head to town for the opening game at Parla Stadium on July 13th.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well halfway through the Preseason, Arregi looks set as the Attacking Midfielder of choice, Montiquin & Radebe are fighting for the starting strikers role, Bumbera is the Left wing, Right wing is a dilemma, Ferrari played 1 poor half before going to the U20s world cup, as did Bife, Paulinho & Ogweno so they haven't had a chance to fight for their positions. Current decided positions: GK: Re, DR: Garner, DL: Moravec, DC: Paulinho/Ruiz/Sedlacek, MC: Nothing decided, AMC: Arregi, AMR: No decision, AML: Bumbera, ST: Montiquin/Radebe

We have also now sold 6000 season tickets, that would've sold out our old stadium...

[PRDH]

A storming return to the big time LLR, should be a great catalyst to make progress in La Liga too. Loving your players, I can see why they were so dominant, and I'd be pretty confident they can cut it a level up too. Krasic had a ludicrous season, left backs across the Liga adelante must have found themselves waking up in a cold sweat weeks later after the nightmares he gave them!

[FMtillidie]

Wonder goal alert!

what a goal.

[Romanista1994]

rlipscombe - Massive potential for some players there, but I think they also can already start making a mark on the team.
Mooping - Good luck with Cannes.
LLR - You're a much bigger club now than two seasons ago, I hope this can see you stay up.

[PRDH]

The European Super Cup is mine. Seems to come with a tidy amount of prize money this time round. Or maybe it just feels that way because Portugal has so little money generally!

[aldojags]

good luck mooping, cannes rose through the leagues with me on my way to Ligue 1 so I think you'll do well!

[rlipscombe]

Romanista1994 - cheers. i am delighted with the potential of the squad - just need them to start gelling and i am sure the performances will come.
LLR - stunning season - i am sure you can carry that sort of form into La Liga and survive quite comfortably. great potential in the squad there too. Sure the Parla Stadium will be having some rocking European nights soon...

[aldojags]

Sitting comfortably with 46 points with 6 games to go, top half finish well within our capabilities. And just reached the French Cup final!

Gutted, got Lorient in the final, which of course is winnable. But they knocked out Marseille on pens, had it been Marseille in final, I'd have been in Europe even if I'd lost as Marseille look likely to win the league. But still, 1 victory away from Europe in my first season in Ligue 1 is quite exciting! Too inconsistent to challenge for Europe in league yet, but the prospect of winning a national cup final is exciting.I'll let you know how I go.

Edited to add, just checked league table, Lorient are 5th, so if they finish there they will qualify for Europa league anyways, so potentially European Football at Stade Henri Longuet next season! Potentially, I'm not sure if that's how it will work. But would be great! One way to make sure of it for certain...win the trophy!

[Romanista1994]

Good luck aldojags! Getting into Europe after your first top-flight season would be fantastic.

Barakaldo season update to come.

[aldojags]

Well, if I told you the score was 2-0 to us after 9 minutes, you'd think I'm on my way to first major national trophy. But oh no, we conspire to lose 5 goals in the remaining 81 minutes, nightmare...

Been an overall successful season thus far, wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me I'd get to cup final and easily survive, but there's much work to be done, a lot of these players are not up to it and my system needs tweaking. I've signed a couple of loanees who've not lived up to their stats. Nervy last few games hoping Lorient consolidate 5th place and I could be in Europe.

[aldojags]

Just read rules properly and I think Lorient would need to finish in Champions League places for me to get Europe this year, just means 6th in league will get extra cup place. Rubbish!

[Romanista1994]

Barakaldo End of Season Report 2014/15

Brief Roundup

Media Prediction: 7th
Actual Position: 1st
Topscorer: Iosu Saiz (25)
Most Assists: Daniel Suarez (16)
Best Rating: Inaki Astiz (7.41)
Club Value: £1.6M
Finances: £155,244
Wage Budget: £16,094 (£15,334 in use)
Transfer Budget: £78.75k


Transfers

No changes since the summer.


Segunda B3

Table|Graph

We didn't have the best of starts after the 6-0 win on the opening day, but we managed to recover well to start a title chase. Leganes and the other teams in the running for the title were just as inconsistent as we were and in the end we managed to become champions with a game to go.


Playoffs

Fixtures

We were drawn against Alaves for the Playoff Semifinal. I set out to contain them in the first leg and it worked as we conceded only once, but the media criticised the tactical switch and took it as a blunder. In the home leg Astiz, Bilbao and Saiz all scored to give us a 3-2 aggregate win.

The Playoff Final was against Tenerife whom we held to a 1-1 draw at home with Gorka scoring. In the second leg Saiz and Beitia got us 2-0 up by half time and their goal wasn't enough to stop us from winning.

PROMOTED! Barakaldo will be playing at the second level of the Spanish league season for the first time since 1981!


Copa del Rey

Run

We easily beat Roquetas and Llagostera, before being given a bye from the 3rd round. Real Madrid awaited in the fourth round and ended our cup run.



Squad

Goalkeepers


Jon Ander Serantes - Did very well and kept 19 clean sheets.


Defenders


Imanol Plaza - Backup rightback, I'll probably get rid next season.

Joseba Zaldua - Not as good as last season, but still very decent.

David Usandizaga - The youngster came into the team when the players ahead of him were injured and showed great maturity.

Jon Manuel - Was slightly better last season.

Inaki Astiz - Scored ten and continues to improve at 31. An absolutely dominant figure in our backline.

Mikel Santamaria - Wasn't great, but did well enough towards the end of the season to be rewarded with a new contract.

Jon Gaztanaga - A good partner for Astiz, can still become even better.

Julen Etxabeguren - Didn't do well as a backup and has requested a transfer.


Midfielders


Eneko - Will be let go at the end of the season unless he vastly reduces his wage demands.

Javier Eraso - A solid, unspectacular season.

Inigo Eguaras - Good but not great. When he was injured for two months our form didn't drop massively.

Alex Quintanilla - He had been signed before Eguaras came in and was relegated to being a backup from that moment onwards.

Joseba Beitia - Didn't start the season well, but stepped up in the final few months.

Cristian - Too old to really perform for us, in spite of this he still managed a couple of assists.

Iosu Ozcoidi - Last season's injuries broke him and he became second choice on the left wing.

Gorka - A good season, finishing just shy of double figures for goals and reaching them for assists.

Daniel Suarez - How he does it I'm not sure, but he continues to create consistently.

David Bilbao - Was part of this year's intake and came into the team when we were short of options. With three goals and an assist his Barakaldo career has started off on a high note.


Forwards


Asier Iribarren - Found his playing time much reduced because he started the season injured. Managed to form a good partnership with Saiz when he played.

Iosu Saiz - Scored a record number of goals in a season for the club which meant he finished third top goalscorer for the league. He did well in any partnership and his growth has been incredible in these past three seasons.

Juan Dominguez - Didn't live up to expectations as he frequently found himself fourth in the pecking order.

Mikel Orbegozo - Had a great season as strategy of turning outside his marker and either blasting at goal or passing to Saiz worked a treat.

An honourable mention goes to Borja Soria who scored twice in three sub appearances before he tore his calf muscle.


Youth Intake


Very good again. Four others were signed along with David Bilbao and there are a couple of very hot prospects among them.


Aims for This Season

Promotion - Success. We were better at chasing in a close-fought race than when we held a massive lead. Go figure.
Continue to give youth players a chance - Success. Five of them played a role in the season with Saiz being the outstanding player this year. An increase in Junior Coaching was also agreed so that's now up to 'Good'.


Career

Season     League      Cup     Europe     Club Value     Attendances   Achievements         
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2012/13    5th         N/A     N/A        £1.1M          3825          None
2013/14    2nd         R2      N/A        £1.2M          4508          None
2014/15    1st         R4      N/A        £1.3M          4708          Promotion

[aldojags]

Well done Romanista, tense stuff for the play-offs, but you held your nerve and got the job done, good on you. 19 clean sheets is outstanding. Having someone from the youth team aswell in Saiz must be so satisfying!

[Romanista1994]

Cheers aldojags, there were some tense moments for sure, during the playoffs as well as before. I'm delighted with how Saiz has been doing. He wasn't that highly rated when I started off and his attributes were horrible, the increase in some of them has been spectacular. He is also three goals from becoming the leading league goalscorer in Barakaldo's history as the record stands at 32.

Your cup loss is probably due to the pressure getting to your players and their inexperience showing. You were expecting relegation so anything more than that is a bonus and the cup final is a very big one which will do wonders for your club's reputation.

[rlipscombe]

aldojags - unlucky in the cup final but as you say to have got there in your first top flight season is a great result. and to be comfortable in the league is a bonus.
Romanista1994 - well done on getting promotion at last - fully deserved. good luck next season in Liga Adelante. good to hear you're getting some decent youth too - will be key for you and your challenge.

[corinthiano]

rlipscombe - I reckon you did an excellent job rebuilding the squad there, a lot of young signings with bags of potential, and most importantly most can do the job straight away. I really like the look of Everton, would love a CB like that in my team.

Mooping - welcome to the challenge!

LLR - great job bouncing straight back up to La Liga, great to do it with the new stadium as well. I also reckon your squad is good enough to stay up there, best of luck

aldojags - shame about the cup, but you have done really well to get to the final and establish yourself in the top league with ease. That cup win will come along sooner rather than later the way you have been progressing

Romanista1994 - well done on promotion, how do you think you will fare in Liga Adelante? I bet financially it will be really beneficial. And Saiz, absolutely brilliant season by him! Do you think he will be able to make such an impact in a higher tier?

[Romanista1994]

Romanista1994 - well done on getting promotion at last - fully deserved. good luck next season in Liga Adelante. good to hear you're getting some decent youth too - will be key for you and your challenge.

Thanks, it was about time we went up. Hoping next year's youth will be even better with the increased junior coaching. I think the difference between this and my previous attempt is that I'm now trying to build the club up instead of just assembling a great team. This might make it tougher for now, but will hopefully be worth it in the long run.

Romanista1994 - well done on promotion, how do you think you will fare in Liga Adelante? I bet financially it will be really beneficial. And Saiz, absolutely brilliant season by him! Do you think he will be able to make such an impact in a higher tier?

I think we'll have a tough season ahead of us and I'll be doing all I can to stay up. Saiz had all the attributes in the right places to be extremely effective at Segunda B level, but I don't know whether he can up his game for the Liga Adelante. I sincerely hope he can though. Staying up will be an absolute must for this season as we'll have to build up our facilities to progress and in the future be able to sustain two fully Basque clubs in the Liga BBVA.

[aldojags]

Season Review 2017/18 (6th Season)


Ligue 1

Predicted 20th
Finished 10th
Table
Graph
Fixtures 1
Fixtures 2

Fantastic debut season in the top flight, can't believe how well we settled into it, particularly given how we were unable to properly add to squad until January due to stubborness of my new board, who were at times making me want to smash my laptop into a thousand pieces, denying every request for more funds!

Seemed to be a season of runs, good and bad. We would go on a run of a few wins on a row, then lose 5 in a row. But I can accept inconsistency in a first season, especially with a 10th placed finish, given I had lowest wage budget and lowest average attendance.

Notable games include a comeback from 2-0 down to beat Bordeux 3-2. Came back from 3-1 to draw 3-3 with PSG. And also got a draw away to Marseille, so we mixed up with the big boys on occasion. Took a good few beatings, conceded a lot of goals, but we played open 433 attacking mentality every game, so there were always goals at both ends during most my matches.

I'm pretty amazed to see Lille go down, aswell as Bordeux, who missed on winning the title last season by a point, and finished bottom this year! Very unusual, I checked their transfers etc, they didn't lose anyone of note, just seems to have been a woeful season!

If you look at my graph, I did not drop below 12th all year, I am delighted with that, not in my wildest dreams did I think I'd compete so well. But these players, a good few of which I've had since the 3rd tier of French football, keep improving and rising to the challenge.

In a way was a victim of my own success. Journalists were questioning me about the fans not being happy after losing at home to Lyon, I couldn't believe my eyes, we've a bit to go yet until we can hope to regularly beat teams like that!

French Cup - Runners Up

Fixtures


Done well to reach the final, lucky enough to avoid giants to get through, but had to win away in the semi to CS Sedan Ardennes, where I'd already won twice this season, in League Cup and League, but we made it 3 out of 3, to book a place in the final. The other semi was Marseille vs FC Lorient. I was hoping for a Marseille win, as if I was still to lose final, I'd get the UEFA cup space due to Marseille qualifying for Champions League. But Lorient won on pens, and beat me 5-2 in the final after me leading 2-0 after 9 minutes. Gutted, as I was getting greedy and wanting European football, but hey guess I'll need to wait some more. Still good to get to a national final.

League Cup -4th round

Fixtures

Humiliated by St Ettiene at home when trying out an experimental formation and team, not too worried.

Players

GK
Quentin Beunardeau had a decent season, will be looking for more clean sheets as my 2nd choice keeper has real potential and he'll get his shot if Beunardeau drops his standards. But he's been with us for years hopefully for years to come.
Petr Blazek has the makings of a top class keeper. Gave him a few games, didn't do too much to impress, but I think one day he could be my number 1. Worried he'll stagnate from lack of games though. Will give him the cups next year.
Defence
Thorgan Lienard had a good season and continues to develop. Got some talented centre backs coming in on a bosman, so he'll need to play well next year to keep a place. I didn't have a lot of options this year so I persisted when we were losing goals. But he's still young and done well for us for a few years now.
Stephen Junglas was 1st choice rb until Jan when he lost his place to a loanee. Still young and could have a future, but he'll need to be more consistent.
Marco Maria Tocci was brought in on loan from Parma to give Junglas competition at right back as he was struggling and we had no real back up. Did well, probably the best of the loanees this season.
Christophe Lowinsky had a decent season, but we conceded too many goals, I've got 2-3 cb's coming in, and I think he'll be the one to drop out the team. Good squad player to have though.
Andy McMahon was brought in on loan from Man U, just to give us more depth in CB area as we were losing a lot of goals. Done ok when called upon.
Dalibor Ladic - first choice left back, done well, happy to go ahead with him in that position.
Midfield
Christer Westrum is a young defensive mid, done ok when called upon, hope he develops into a good player.
Valentin Eysseric had good form early season and earned himself a bumper new contract. Hasn't quite maintained that form, but I'll be looking to get more from him this season coming with the cash he's on.
Rhys McCabe was the early season star, but faded away following an injury and didn't hold down a place. Out of contract in a year, considering seeing if I could get some cash for him and let him go, he won't feature much as I build for greater things. His versatility is good help though.
Dominique Abiola is sheer class. Broke his leg and we missed his influence last bit of the season. He's good on the ball and a creative player, big part of my plans.
Dominique Abidoun didn't have the best season, his stats say he should be a great player, but the only way I've been able to fit him in my team is as the defensive part of my midfield, which maybe isn't his preferred position. But still a favourite of mine, been here a while.
Darko Borozan was brought in for £650,000, still young, looks to have a big future. I included him when I can. He got a last minute winner in a 4-3 win at Nantes.

Forwards
Alvear Agbessi had a disapointing first season. Couldn't manage a goal, given how many minutes he spent on the pitch that is disapointing. May try and loan him out as I think there is a player there somewhere! But trying to get clubs to take your players on loan is a nightmare, and the feeder clubs my board offer me are rotten. I want him to go to Ligue 2 at the lowest.
Kenneth Alvardo did ok, mainly from bench. Will probably try and sell him, he won't feature much, nowhere near as good as players coming in.
Sjors Boeve came in on loan from Holland, and done ok, played a lot of games, but I won't be desperate to sign him following this season, thanks for your help but goodbye.
Dramane Koffi blew hot and cold. Got 2 hat tricks this season, then would disappear for a few games. Is my all time record appearance, with 138 appearances. Again, like all my strikers, will be up against it with the guys coming in.
Mondor Kessou hit a bit of form late season which makes me hope he'll fulfil his promise. His stats say he should be a good Ligue 1 striker, but he didn't show it until late on this season. And I've got plenty of strikers coming on in the summer, so he may find himself out the equation if he doesn't do the biz.
Mohamed Diagne is the main man in my team. Signed him last season, now has 62 league appearances, 37 goals. 18 league goals this season, cracking player. Be interesting to see he does with the quality forwards I'm bringing in in the summer.

Youth Intake
Jimmy Donaldson - Scottish defender coming through at a French club, most unusual, but as I mentioned further up thread, I think it's because of me! But he's got 3.5 star potential, so I'm going to do my best to get him to his potential for both club and country!
Club Info
Profile
Overview
Facilities
Got board to agree to do up training and youth facilities, will cost £3.8m, but I've got the money. Will take 7 months. Can't get them to increase junior coaching or youth recruitment.
Finances
Made a steady profit all year. May struggle next year with a profit, as crowds remain low, and I've got a few high earning players coming in, so may lose some cash this season unless crowds pick. I've got 762 season ticket holders, ranked 52nd in France!!

Transfers

Already got a lot of players lined up, anyone who seen these players earlier in the thread- u only need to look at bottom 2 as I've signed them since I posted that update.

Sam Preston from Man U, looks a star already, can't believe I'm getting him for free! Can't believe we're attracting players of this quality.

Rui Silva from Real Madrid, also looks the part I'm sure you'll agree.

Lewis More from Hearts, fantastic stats, will only get better, and he's Scottish!

Bringing Juan in to shore up defence, add some experience to the back line. He's got 1 Italy cap too so obviously has decent pedigree

Emilio Nocera from Juve, another striker, (I play 433 so like to be top heavy with strikers), pacy, will score goals in my team I know it.

Pep Lopez Morillo is a cb, from Barca, think he could do well for me.

Nathaniel Chalobah is a classy defender from Chelsea, going to play him as a ball playing CB. Thinking of trying a back 3 this season, so I've got him, Morrilo, and Juan to add to Lienard to compete for those places. He's a beast physically.

Season Objectives

Survive - Success. Achieved with ease. Even reached a domestic cup final, couldn't have dreamt of a better 1st season.

Next season

Consolidate with mid table finish.

Concede less goals.

Hoping to continue good work I started this season, another stable season. Would love to get to another cup final, but won't put myself under any pressure for that. My league form suffered toward end of season, as soon as I got to quarters, and it was obvious I could stay up, I prioritised cup, and rested players in league, and lost a lot of matches I shouldn't have.

Joining us in Ligue 1 are Angers SCO, SC Bastia, and Stade Malherbe Caen.

I AM LOVING THIS CHALLENGE!

Season     Division        Pos    French Cup      League Cup         Europe        Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13     National      4th      8th round        N/A                            Survived Relegation
2013/14     National      8th      7th round        N/A                            N/A
2014/15     National      1st      8th round        N/A                            Champions
2015/16     Ligue 2       6th      7th round        2nd round                      Consolidated
2016/17     Ligue 2       2nd      11th round       4th round                      Promotion
2017/18     Ligue 1       10th     Runners Up      4th round                       Survived

[Romanista1994]

Great season aldojags, but don't be too harsh on your young players (Agbessi in particular since he's only 18, a loan spell at a team where he is the star player would suit him perfectly because afterwards you'd be set to go with a top prospect in great form). They've done a magnificent job for their age and what you're paying in wages. With time they will become better and more consistent.

[aldojags]

Yeah I agree about Agbessi, he's got the potential, going to try and find him somewhere next season and hopefully get a few goals.

Does anyone know much about the French leagues. Most of the other teams have a reserve team in the regional leagues, does anyone know when I get the chance for this? It would be handy to get competitive football for my players who aren't playing.

[corinthiano]

Congrats again aldojags, Abiola and Diagne look the part btw!

[efrumttr]

First off, congrats to PRDH and iacovone for completing the challenge. I can't even imagine getting to that level at this point.

After getting those nasty papers mostly out of the way, I'm finally almost done with my frustrating first season (should be able to play a lot faster hopefully when school lets up). We're down to the final week of play in the National, and a 2-1 win in the previous week after a stoppage time goal at the death gave us a vital three points. As you can see though, we're not out of danger yet...



Our final match is away against US Créteil-Lusitanos, who are already relegated. A draw is all we need to mathematically remove ourselves from the possibility of being relegated, so everything is definitely in our hands. I'm just hoping that things go our way so that I can have a chance to fix the mistakes I've made (I've made a loooot of mistakes this season ) and put us on a trajectory back towards the top. If the board want to keep me on, that is.

[PRDH]

Romanista - Congratulations! You're definitely approaching it right. It's a marathon not a sprint (well, if you're like me anyway!), and it's more fun to build a legacy anyway.
aldojags - That's a great first season in Ligue 1. Mid-table obscurity is brilliant for a newly promoted side (I should know, I'm a Norwich fan!) and with the quality of the players joining you're only going to push on from here. Chalobah became one of the best defenders in my universe, he's a cracking signing. I seem to remember when I played as Romorantin a couple of years ago I never got a reserve team, the feeder clubs became incredibly important.
efrumttr - That's going to be a tense final day, but survival of any kind is a great job in the first season. Fingers crossed you get the points needed for mathematical safety, although it looks like you'd have to be unlucky to get dragged back in again at this stage even if you lose.

[aldojags]

PRDH-glad to hear it about Chalobah! He's got all the makings of a top player. I've just been given a reserve team, so that will come in handy for the fringe players.

corinthiano those 2 are my favourite players. Always deliver.

efrumttr your goal difference will keep you up there even if you do lose. first season is just to get used to game, it all starts for real in 2nd season, don't let it get you down.

[efrumttr]

Well we got outshot 19-4 and it wasn't a pretty match, but we pulled a Chelsea and snatched a 1-0 win somehow to keep us clear of relegation. Phew. Full end-of-season report to follow, hopefully later tonight.

[corinthiano]

efrumttr - well done on surviving the first season, its always the hardest as you still have lots of players who you didnt sign and the team is nowhere near your yet. Should be a lot better from now on

Real reached the Europa League quarters again, this time I am feeling more positive about our chances to maybe even reach the final. We got the easiest draw as we were paired with AZ. If we get through them it will be Holland in our way again as we play PSV or Feyenoord. The other side of the draw has Sevilla, Man City, At. Madrid and one more, so have deinately gotten lucky!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

For those who have been following my Parla game from the early days: Look who has rejoined us...the one and only Club Legend...Miguel Herlein, he is not good enough for this level, but mainly I have him here to support my young strikers and provide some tutoring.

[aldojags]

LLR you're like me, a sucker for nostalgia!

Well done efrumttr you done the business when it mattered most. It will get better from here on.

Sounds promising corinthiano, if you play to your capabilities could be a final to look forward to. I can't wait to bring European football to Viry-Chatillon, hopefully in next few seasons.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

LLR you're like me, a sucker for nostalgia!

He is the current record holder for Goals in a season, League Apps & League goals for the club with 139 in 175, I am hoping he can pass on some skills, and I couldn't bear to see him out there without a contract. But yes Nostalgia plays a huge part, if I could get Rafa Benitez (Club Icon) to come as my Asst I would. Also bring him back boosted season tickets, now up to 9953 sold, a target of 12000 or so, I would be delighted to have 10,000 season ticket holders considering last year our capacity was 6k.

[corinthiano]

Damn me thinking about a final already, had to play 30 minutes of the first leg at home with 8 men...Tete sent off and two injured after I had done all my subs...We managed to hold out until AZ scored one in added time, will be tough to turn it around in Holland...

EDIT: What a frustrating tie, after going another goal down in Holland we managed to score two goals which would have put us through on away goals. 10 mins before the end AZ had to score though...

[efrumttr]

SO Romorantin
Season Review 2012-2013 (1st Season)


National
Table
Graph
Fixtures 1
Fixtures 2

So yeah, we obviously struggled for most of the year and apart from the brief climb to tenth, we flirted with the relegation zone for most of it as well. We had two brutal stretches, one at the start of the league campaign and then one right after the new year started.

The biggest issue, by far, was scoring--the defense wasn't as good as I had hoped and fell apart at a few points but we absolutely could not find the back of the net. I was worried about scoring going into the season but didn't expect it to be that bad.

The biggest mistake I made--as will be shown in the transfers section--was signing way too many young players with high potential but low current ability. I guess I figured that they'd be able to come in and be competitive, but for the most part it was a recipe for disaster.


French Cup
Knocked out in the Eighth Round (we entered in the sixth) by a non-league side, which was disappointing and sparked our worst run of the season where we didn't score for something like 7 games. Was won by Ligue 2 side RC Lens over fellow Ligue 2 side AS Saint-Etienne.



Players

GK
Paul Cattier--My first choice keeper for pretty much the entire season, came with the team to start and proved reliable for the most part. I don't think he's really cut out for any kind of higher level competition, but unless I find a keeper I absolutely can't live without he'll probably be back between the pipes next season.
Yan Marillat--Signed this guy early on in the year, spent most of the season on the reserve squad but did get 3 callups, including 2 league matches. Did okay. He's still super young, has solid potential, hopefully he'll develop.

Defense
Wouter Gudde--Biggest mistake I made all season was signing this guy. Was supposed to be a patch-the-dam guy for when our defense was getting absolutely picked apart. Thought that his attributes could make up for the fact that he's a mental midget. I also didn't consider the language barrier, him being Dutch and all. I don't know whether it was his solid 1 Determination, or not being able to fit in due to not speaking French, but lesson learned on both counts. Guy was terrible. Luckily I only signed him for a year so I can get his wages off the books shortly.
Thomas Holbein--Signed this guy in October, he was much more solid than Gudde. Not flashy, but works hard and gets the job done. Trainer says he's declining as a player (due to age I'm assuming) but I had to resign him, hopefully he's got another year or two in him until I can get some replacements in.
Soumahoro Johnson--Solid but inconsistent centreback. Scored a few important goals, including the header to give us the 1-0 win in the final week of the season. Going to keep him around for sure.
Nicolas Melet--Oh, boy. Left back was a thorn in my side all year long. Melet is only 23, so I'm hoping he can get better, but he just wasn't up to snuff. I also had a nasty midseason incident with him where I fined him a week's wages after he picked up his second straight red, he freaked out and sent the team's morale tumbling. Left-back is high on my list of areas to address, we're far too thin there.

Midfield
Yannick Aguemon--At least I got one pickup right. This guy has a very, very bright future with us--not the flashiest of attributes, but he consistently made himself a threat. If he can work on his crossing he'll be deadly on the right side.
Plaisir Bahamboula--I don't know what we would have done without this guy. Second-leading scorer on the team. His pace is only 12 but he absolutely blew by everybody on the left side--he made defenders look silly. He earned a nice contract extension and a spot in the lineup next season.
Mourad Badra--I had such high hopes for this guy when I signed him preseason, and he just never panned out. He was decent in central midfield, and I even tried him in attacking midfield, but he just never showed any sign of being more than good. Only contributed 1 goal and always seemed miserable, morale was often in the red. Disappointing, we'll see what he does next year I guess.
Missada Saytaifa--This guy seemed to have a ton of potential preseason, but then once league play started he quickly faded into the background. Scored a few times, but overall a disappointment.

Forwards
Mickael Bernardo--Preseason signing that I had high hopes for. I still think he will be a good player, but he definitely struggled this year, only got 3 goals. Part of that struggle was in staying healthy--he had multiple injuries and he never really managed to hold match fitness at any point. Hoping he keeps developing.
Joris Di Gregorio--Our leading scorer with 11 goals. Could have had a lot more, lots of poor finishes. He'll be back next year.




Youth Intake
Completely useless except for one prospect: Damir Stojanovic, who my assistants seem to be high on and who looks decent for a 15 year old. Too bad we have horrendous youth facilities and the board won't allocate money for a youth coach



Club Info
Profile
Overview
Facilities
Finances

Only thing I'm slightly worried about are finances, we went 300k in the red. I'm not sure that can be helped until we can get promoted and get some TV revenue and higher prize money, though. In the meantime I'm just trying to be as frugal as I can.


Transfers
List
Apart from the transfers that got listed above in the key players section, here's the others:
Jordan Cuvier--Another young striker with solid potential. Didn't see the field much this year for the senior squad, but I'm hoping to get him involved more next season.
Mustapha Allaoui--Signed near the end of the year so I couldn't play him. I have plenty of young striker talent, but I brought this guy in to score goals NOW. Hopefully he can provide a spark up front and spell Di Gregorio, who was gassed by the end of the season because I literally had to play him every single week.
Abdou Abiala--Much needed depth and talent at right back, which similar to left back was a liability for most of the year.


Goals from Preseason
Avoid the drop--YES. By the skin of our teeth, but that's all that matters.
Use the transfer budget to bring in new talent--Um...well...sort of. This was pretty hit and miss, I signed too many young players and not enough guys that can compete now. I didn't use any of the transfer budget though, all of them were free, so I can still sign guys. This is going to be a huge offseason too since I'm letting a ton of contracts expire, so I'm going to go shopping and hopefully be more successful this time.
Be financially responsible and stay in the black--In retrospect I think the second half of that goal was impossible. I feel like even though we did lose 300k on the year that I was pretty frugal.


Promotion/Relegation
Lots of turnover with this league structure, will make things exciting next year with 7 new teams coming into the league. We're losing Amiens SC, Chamois Niortais, and Clement Foot 63 who got promoted, while AS Beauvais Oise, Aviron Bayonnais, US Créteil-Lusitanos and Senart-Moissy will be heading down to the CFA. Joining us from Ligue 2 are SC Bastia, Paris FC, and FC Martigues, and coming up from the CFA are CS Louhans-Cuiseaux, RC Strasbourg, AS Cannes, and Orleans-Loiret Football.


Various Miscellaneous Happenings Around My World
This is, to me, almost as much fun as actually managing my team. It's actually killing me that I can only have France open so that I can't follow the others leagues like the Prem, MLS, etc.
Euro 2012 Winner: England, in a penalty shootout over Spain. I had a good chuckle over that one, I guess someone should tell the FM devs that the game still isn't realistic enough. We all know this could never actually happen
Champions League: Fellow French side Lyon actually made it all the way to the finals, but got slaughtered 4-0 by Barcelona at Wembley.
Europa League: Tottenham over Dortmund in penalties.
Premier League: United over City, with Chelsea in third. Pretty standard. Poor City fans.

[aldojags]

efrumttr I sympathise with your point about signing too many youngsters, I was in a similar position. I just saw the 4 star potential and signed them, and ended up with whole team of 1-2 star players. It's difficult at that level to get any real quality in.

I wouldn't worry about the finances, same happened with me, it'll get to a point where hopefully your board will bail you out with a few quid. Until you hit Ligue 2 you probably will lose money every month.

I like all the other stuff that goes on too, I keep an eye on International football, where my native Scotland qualify for every tournament, and are currently in the quarter finals of World Cup 2018! So how is that for unrealistic! If only...

[Romanista1994]

Romanista - Congratulations! You're definitely approaching it right. It's a marathon not a sprint (well, if you're like me anyway!), and it's more fun to build a legacy anyway.

Absolutely, though last season it looked like it was going to be a marathon filled with lots of cramps.

efrumttr - Survival in the first season is key, after that you can really start to rebuild the team in your image.

[aldojags]

Belgium have just beaten hosts Russia in the 2018 World Cup Final! Hmmmm, a bit far fetched there maybe!

Who are the current world and european champions in your games? Mines is world-belgium. Europe-germany.

Any of you guys who've been playing for 10 years+, have any african/asian teams won the world cup?

[corinthiano]

Real Sport Clube – 2024/25 Liga Zon Sagres

Liga Zon Sagres

Media Prediction: 5th
Board Expectation: Europa League Qualification through League
My Target: European Qualification

League Table: 2nd ǁ Position Graph

Absolutely delighted by our league campaign, we picked up after a poor start and were always within a reasonable distance from top spot throughout. We even had a chance to make s real go of the title when we went to Porto with 4 games to go and four points behind, but ended up losing by a single goal. Not sure if we really deserved 2nd place as we were only there in the final round, but who cares, Champions League football it is next year!

Europa League

Group B: 2nd ǁ Fixtures

Another solid campaign, we were not as convincing as last season but ultimately got to the quarters again, which does our co-efficient no harm. In the group stage I knew it would be all about our games against Dynamo Kyiv, but they ended up having a disappointing campaign, so my wins agains M. Tel-Aviv and the draws against Dynamo were more than enough. Man City trashed us at the Etihad, but we almost stole a point at home, only conceding late in the game.

The last 32 threw us up against Fiorentina and I was pleasantly surprised we managed to take 2-0 lead to Florence. Our life was made easier there when Fiorentina had a man sent off half way through the first 45 minutes, but I am proud we came back from Italy with a clean sheet.

The last 16 were a bit more complicated as Zenit took the lead in the first leg and we only managed to turn the game around in the last 10 games. I was worried about the goal conceded at home, but we managed to equal that out pretty soon in St. Petersburg. Zenit equalized to ensure a tense final minutes before we took the lead in stoppage time.

The Quarters were extremely frustrating. After knocking out what I judged was superior opposition I thought I would have no problem knocking out AZ. A pretty dull first half at home was not a good start and then the freakiest events took place. Teté managed to get himself sent off and then a further two players got injured with me having made all my subs, and with a whole 30 minutes to go I was down to 8 men. We managed to hold on until stoppage time, when AZ grabbed that crucial lead. In the return leg we played extremely well and were knocking them out with a 2-1 win until the 80th minute when the Dutch decided to break our hearts again.

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira

Game

It is always good to start the season with a title win over Porto 

Taça de Portugal Millennium

Fixtures

Disappointing title defense. We did get unlucky drawing a top division side away but going out in the first game is not good.

Bwin Cup

Third Phase Group A: 1st ǁ Fixtures

Easy group stage before a narrow loss to Benfica in the semis.

The Royals – Best XI

Transfers ǁ Squad 1 ǁ Squad 2

A lot more movement this year as I strengthened the squad and replaced the two key players who left. I couldn’t find a decent permanent signing for the striking position so I brought in Elias on loan to the job this season. At the back we brought in Ignazio De Nicola out of desperation to replace Vince Jordan before a not much better player came in January. Milan became our parent club and we got in a couple of very decent players from them.

GK: Buick – Another decent season as he was shortlisted for best domestic based Portuguese player. Think he still can do the job, but if a very good replacement is found I will look into it.
DR: Yoon Sang-Wook – The South Korean was available for a while and with my wage budget increase I managed to finally sign him. Was voted Fan’s Player of the Year.
DC: Igor Platonov – Had a good season, but kicked up a fuss about wanting to leave and wouldn’t back down so he might be off in the summer.
DC: Ole Christian Marhaug – Decent season and he is still young, had a replacement lined up but could still feature in the first 11 if Platonov leaves.
DL: Teté – Another one to get Portuguese citizenship and get his first cap in the summer.
DMC: Arturo Domínguez – Only really realized how important he is when he got injured in the final months of the season. Really missed him, the protection he provide the back four is vital.
MC: Esteban Cardona – Solid as usual, although he got a couple of stupid re cards for reckless challenges.
MC: Jens Andersson – Kept his place as I couldn’t find anyone to replace him. Have lined up a Nigerian MC though which could limit his appearances next season.
AMC: Piter – Piter made a hell of a difference to our side when he came in January.
ST: Elias – Of course it was going to be impossible to replace Sugimoto and my expectations were unfairly too high. Elias actually had an OK season although some of his misses were absolutely infuriating. I won’t be renewing his loan.
ST: Giuliano Villa – Didn’t plan on bringing him in but Milan offered him and I couldn’t say no to a player of this quality for free. He gave us more mobility up front so replaced the club captain Milton. I still have to mention him though as he often came from the bench to score crucial winners, the most special being the two against Sporting to give us a 2-1 comeback win.

Other News

Finances – More sales and more Europe means we make a profit despite the loans for the stadium and the facilties improvements. We moved to Real Stadium at the end of the season, very excited to start playing there next season, will do our revenues a world of good.

Personally, I reached my 500th game for Real and was even offered the Benfica job at the end of the season, which I obviously turned down. They went on to appoint Ronald Koeman who comes back to the club after about 20 years.

This Season Targets

1. Top 5 finish, but narrow the gap to top spot to less than 10 points. Yes – Only 6 points away from Porto.
2. Get past Europa League group stages again. Yes – managed to get to the Quarters again.
3. Find a replacement striker No – only found short term solutions this season with a couple of loan signings. Have pre-arranged transfers for two decent looking strikers, hope they turn out to be deadly for us!

Next Season Targets

1. Top 3 finish, which now guarantees CL football.
2. Get to the Group Stages of the CL.

Another very good season which gives us a great platform for our debut season in our new stadium. Getting to the Champions League group is vital financially as the board are now giving me a € 130k p/w wage budget and even a € 500 k transfer budget. I need to be getting CL football to be able to maintain this. There are a lot of transfers coming in, hopefully it wont disrupt squad harmony, but there will surely be a big increase of quality in the squad.

Career Overview

Season       League                     Pos      Taça de Portugal     Bwin Cup        Europe             Other Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13      2. Divisão - Zona Sul      7th      First Round          N/A             N/A                None
2013/14      2. Divisão - Zona Centro   3rd      Second Round         N/A             N/A                None
2014/15      2. Divisão - Zona Centro   1st      Third Round          N/A             N/A                Promotion
2015/16      Liga Orangina              10th     Second Round         First Phase     N/A                None
2016/17      Liga Orangina              10th     Fourth Round         Second Phase    N/A                None
2017/18      Liga Orangina              8th      Runners-Up           First Phase     N/A                EL Qualification 
2018/19      Liga Orangina              2nd      Third Round          Second Phase    EL Group Stage     Promotion
2019/20      Liga Zon Sagres            9th      Fourth Round         Third Phase     N/A                None
2020/21      Liga Zon Sagres            7th      Fifth Round          Third Phase     N/A                None
2021/22      Liga Zon Sagres            3rd      Sixth Round          Third Phase     N/A                EL Qualification
2022/23      Liga Zon Sagres            4th      Sixth Round          Third Phase     EL 4th Qual Rnd    EL Qualification
2023/24      Liga Zon Sagres            4th      Winners              Semi-Final      EL Quarter-Final   EL Qualification
2024/25      Liga Zon Sagres            2nd      Third Round          Semi-Final      EL Quarter-Final   CL Qualification

[Romanista1994]

Who are the current world and european champions in your games?

France are holders for both in my game.

Edit - Real progress this season corinthiano, good luck in getting into the CL groups for next season. With your performances in the Europa League I'm sure you can do it.

[aldojags]

conrinthiano great season there. Unlucky not to beat AZ in Europa aswell. Hope you find a solution to the forwards, and do well in CL.

[PRDH]

efrumttr - Great job. It's all about that first survival. The real fun begins now!

[Romanista1994]

Barakaldo 2015 Preseason Report

Club Situation

Media Prediction: 22nd
Captain: Inaki Astiz
Vice Captain: Jon Gaztanaga
Season Ticket Holders: 6075 All of the available tickets were sold, almost double last season's figures. We'll probably have the staudium expanded at the end of the season.
Finances: £723k
Transfer Budget: £3.2k
Wage Budget: £36,879 (£26,054 in use)


Transfers

A few players joined who immediately became starters and I started spending money for the first time. A couple of youngsters went on loan to our new feeder club Amurrio. The squad now looks like this.


Key Players

Jonas Ramalho - One of the hottest Basque prospects in real life, he came in on a Bosman after his career at Athletic had stalled.

Inaki Astiz - The captain will once more be key to our performances.

Iker Ruiz - I spent most of the transfer budget on this kid. I could have had him last season for £160k, but we didn't have the funds to complete the signing. He was rated as a potential leading Liga BBVA star by my scouts when he was at Athletic.

Jon Erice - An improvement on our defensive midfield options, he'll be a key player when we play two defensive midfielders in the containing tactic.

Iosu Saiz - Last year's topscorer, we'll see if he can up his game to become a proven goalscorer at Liga Adelante level.


First Choice Lineup

GK Jon Ander Serantes
DR Jonas Ramalho
DC Jon Gaztanaga
DC Inaki Astiz
DL Iker Ruiz
MC Jon Erice
MC Joseba Beitia
RW David de Paula
LW Juan Imaz
ST Mikel Orbegozo
ST Iosu Saiz


Aims For the Season

Survive


Our first match was against Zaragoza and a great performance saw us grab the winner when Asier Iribarren forced one of their defenders to score in his own net in the 90th minute (and then missed a penalty just afterwards). Zaragoza 0 Barakaldo 1. Bodes well for the rest of the season as they are one of the bigger clubs in the division.

[aldojags]

Good start romanista. Ramalho looks solid as a rock. Be sure to get Ruiz trained in bullet long throw! Will be as good as a corner when you get a throw in with a throw in rating of 20! Just about to kick off my 2nd season in Ligue 1...away to PSG! May aswell get the hardest fixture out the way first!!

[Romanista1994]

I just got Ruiz to start learning the long flat bullet throw, hopefully it'll add a new threat to our game. The start wasn't that good btw, we won the first two games before going on a six game run of losses. Our form has stabilised somewhat after that and we're now in 15th place.

Good luck against PSG and for the season.

[rlipscombe]

aldojags - good first season in the top flight there. some solid foundations to build on for next season with the new recruits.
corinthiano - great season there - well done. looking forward to seeing how you get on in the CL.
efrumttr - well done on survival - the only thing that matters really in the first season as has been mentioned previously. good luck for the new season
Romanista1994 - some decent looking signings there. good luck this season.

[PRDH]

corinthiano - Great season. Good luck in your first CL campaign.

[ghostwriter]

Well, I have finally finished my 1^st season in Lyon. So here goes...

Lyon Duchère Association Sportive – Championnat National – 2012-2013

After the usual first Summer mad sign-anyone-of-any-ability scramble, we got going with an away loss at Amiens and followed that with a home win. And that was sort of the theme until Christmas although unfortunately not that many away defeats were followed by a home win. So without an away point and only 4 home wins we were bottom come December 21^st. That was the date our season changed; we flukily beat 2^nd place Nimes 2-1 at home with our 2 goals coming from a combined 55 yards with one in the 93^rd minute. There followed our 1^st away point and then 1^st away win as we strung together a 7 match unbeaten run to go 4 points clear of relegation. Which was soon reduced to 1 point as we promptly went on a run of 4 games, 1 point, 0 goals and 3 home defeats. A lucky win at our relegation rivals (and real-life French Cup finalists) Quevily gave us a bit of breathing space. Breathing space that we never lost as a run of away wins took us safe and then somehow up to the totally undeserved giddy heights of 10^th place! This was a 10^th place that we had been nowhere near to reaching at any stage of the season. Somewhere around 14^th-15^th was probably where we should have ended up.

If we had not scored 4 goals in our last game, where we denied Amiens promotion, we would have had the worst goalscoring record in the division – this was also the only game we scored more than 2 goals. Defensively we were actually very good, 5^th best in the league. Which all in all made us by the far the most boring club in the league.

Our home / away records were bizarre mirror images of each other, after failing to even gain a point away from home before January we prompted stayed unbeaten until May whilst we failed to win a home match from the end of January until May. If we could combine (the positive part of) those records we’d be in a great position.

As for the French Cup, we actually reached the 10^th round but that was by dint of some ridiculously lucky draws - 2*CFA and 2*CFA2 clubs - taking us that far before my dreams of success were shattered by a bit of giant-killing by another CFA2 club.

Final Squad
Finances – not horrific but could be better, we were a bit over the wage limit but not by that much, I was however bit shocked to discover that we actually had the 9^th biggest wage bill in the division, not great
Transfers 1 2 – hundreds in and apart from the odd youngster I signed, they all played at least one game, over half will leave this Summer though

Our better players

Best GK – Benoît Aureille – seems perfectly OK for this level, not too many clangers and several great saves, cleansheets in 1 in 3 matches is good, if I get a better GK then good but I have no problems if this guy stays as 1st choice for a while longer
Best Defenders – Ibrahima Traoré + Mourad Benhamida – my 1st choice back 4 all pretty much played equally well so I have picked these 2 because 1) we were bottom when Traoré arrived from Africa and well, look where we finished so his impact was clearly positive and 2) Benhamida is our best defensive player on paper and also on the most wages, I was thinking about renewing but when I wanted to the board would not let me offer enough but I managed to sign him up for another year after this screenshot was taken
Best Winger – Yoann Tribeau – not bad and he came up with some great performances from time to time plus he has getting better all the time, however, a return of 0 assists for a winger is beyond poor, I may only play with one ST but I would hope for something a bit more that, he will remain as 1st choice though unless something fantastic comes in
Best Midfielder – Rafik Bouderbal – our best player, to begin with he played in every midfield position possible before I settled on AMC with him, which was a good decision as he was great there andhe got better and better as the season went on until he went on that fantastic run you can see for the last 5 games, his contract situation is identical to that of Benhamida insomuch that he is now signed up for a bit longer
Best Strikers – Alexandre Garcia + Christophe Chapdaniel – neither exactly prolific and neither exactly kept their form for much time, Garcia started as more or less 1st choice until I discovered that a player I had chucked into my reserves when I arrived (Chapdaniel) was actually quite good, he got a couple of months as 1st choice until he lost his form, this carried on for a while, although as you can see Chapdaniel finished the season in style, both are here next season but I would hope to find someone a bit more friendly with goals during the summer.

Notes:

• Lyon evidently had a very wet winter or my stadium is in a very bad drainage area as 3 of my home matches were postponed this season for waterlogged pitches
• We had the usual takeover but it was so uneventful that I can’t even remember what happened! All I do remember is that it happened, nothing else.

Aims:

• Thin out the squad and cut down the wage bill – far too many players were signed last Summer but thankfully they were all on 1y contracts so I can pick and choose who I want to stay
• Score a few more goals – I would be pretty distraught if we actually scored less to be honest
• Avoid a relegation battle – if we could spend the season around where we finished last time, it would be great

The Story So Far
12/13 – National – 10^th

Team I Would Like To Play Every Week – Le Poiré-sur-Vie (18^th, relegated) (H2-0, A2-0)
Team I Would Not Like To Play Every Week – SR Colmar (16^th ) (A0-2, H0-3)

Best 11

[18Rabbit]

Salerno Calcio
Italian Serie C2/A
Salernitana Soccer 1919, Salerno, Campania, Italy

End of 2013/2014 Season Report, Salerno, Italy, June 30th, 2014
Well, we got promoted to Serie B. Here's where we wound up on the table LINK. It was possibly the ugliest promotion bout I've even seen and frankly, I'm glad that it's over. We did amazingly well for the first part of the season and wound up in the top three teams for most of the season. After winning well for the first half of the year, our form started to fade and we wound up with more and more draws when we should have won. In the end we topped the league in draws with a record of 17-14-3. Then we had a terrible contest in the promotion playoffs.



The final was horribly sloppy and we only lucked out and got one additional home goal to put us on top. The last 5 minutes of that game they had probably 6 chances to score. It was horrible. The final was also our record highest scoring game, it was nerve wracking to watch. I needed two bottles of wine to calm my nerves after that game.

Other than that, we won an equally sloppy Serie C Cup winning on away goals.


And, for the second year in a row, we didn't even make it to the Italian Cup.

We fought hard and came out on top almost, but we got the promotion and that was really what counts. Highlight of the season I think for me was finally selling over half of our tickets to Arechi stadium. We set an attendance record of 21,623 for the playoff semi-final against our rival Avellino which made us about $220k for the game. Most of our competitors don't even have a stadium that big. It was nice seeing so many fans in the stadium. Hopefully we'll see more of them this year.

Yearly Transfers
Here are the transfers we made this year: Transfers
I'm not very good at selling people, probably because I either sign really good youngsters or old farts that I only sign to one year contracts. I picked up a couple of new names that show promise Said Abdellaoui has been a pretty good signing for our DR position, at 20 he's still young and can grow. Really his only failing is that he gets demoralized pretty easily. I had Tom Soetaers for the season and he did pretty good for an old guy but he's just too old to keep on so I let him go at the end of the season. Marco Martina Rini is a decent midfielder I picked up but seems to be a little injury prone. And I picked up Mattia Evangelisti who is a cracking passing midfielder. He's done well for us. In January I picked up Oliver Markoutz, an AML/ST, because I could see that Soetaers wouldn't be around for next season. He has great ability but just never really seems to pay off on his talent. I'm going to have to look at him more closely this season and see what I can do to tune him.

2013/2014 End of Year League Table:

Promoted Serie C1/A: Triestina (C), Verona (P)
Relegated Serie C1/A: Pro Vercelli, Monza, Feralpi Salo
Promoted Serie C1/B: Barletta (C), Salerno (P)
Relegated Serie C1/B: Andria, Pergocrema, Grosseto
Promoted Serie B: Reggina (C), Brescia (P), AlbinoLeffe (PL)
Relegated Serie B: Sassuolo, Cittadella, Varese, Frosinone
Relegated Serie A: Lecce, Cagliari, Novara
Serie A top 3 teams: Juventus (77pts), Inter (77pts), A.C. Milan (75pts)

Here's my current squad after the free releases at the end of the season: SQUAD

Here's my Profile and my Personal info. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the press.

And here's the Salerno information. Our rep went up again and we're now 41st in Italy financially @2M value. Our expected ticket prices should double and our attendance should more than double I hope.

Plans for next year
For 2014 our plan is to hold on to our butts and not lose what we've accomplished so far I'm shooting for a solid 14th position in the league table. I'll be happy if we can manage that. That should give us enough gate revenue to really let us open up in the transfer market (maybe by the mid-season break) to get some real talent in.
For personnel, we have to find a replacement keeper. Our current one will do ok as a backup (and that's what we've renegotiated his contract for) but he's too damn old to be a primary. He's 38 and most of his physical stats are below 5 now. Ugh. I also need to hire a new ass. man. Hopefully one that doesn't feel the need to email me about match preparation 3 times a week.

Previous updates:
June 28th, 2012
December 31st, 2012
June 18th, 2013

[aldojags]

Ghostwriter thats a pretty decent first season, everyone is inconsistent on their first year, but you learn from it and I'm sure you'll build on it. To get to 10th round of French Cup is great, I always got beat by non-league teams (whilst usually playing my 1st team!) so 10 round is pretty good. Keep at it.

Well done on promotion 18rabbit, I'm confident you'll do well in Serie B!

[Romanista1994]

Not a bad first season, ghostwriter. If you manage to get someone to bang them in next year you would have a good chance of reaching the promotion spots.

Great job on the consecutive promotions 18Rabbit! Juve Stabia will be gutted that they didn't go up.

[ghostwriter]

thanks. yes, can't be unhappy with the final position, not matter how undeserved it was.

aldojags - my assistant recommended your gk Beunardeau during the Summer after his release from Le Mans but, unfortunately, Creteil signed him up before my scout could check him out. When he did get back to me, apparently his current ability is the same the GK I currently have but can get better. I might have tried to sign him given the chance although his wages do seem quite high.


Made probably too many signings again but they are all on less wages and better than the players I released so should not complain. Not entirely sure whether the one ST I signed is going to be the goal-machine I need but we shall see.
Just played the 1st league match at Besancon and it was an eventful affair. 15 mins in and one of my new DCs headed in from a corner, 10 mins later and my other new DC gave away a penalty and got sent off for a professional foul, they missed it, we surprisingly held on without too much of a problem and got a 2nd with 20 mins to go before they got one back with 10 to go. Can't complain with that start and an away point let alone away win before the 9th game is definitely an improvement on last season!

[aldojags]

TOo bad you missed out on him, he's been really good for me and doesn't look out of place in Ligue 1.

Thats an improvement already then for your away form. I've had a horrible start, sitting 13th, which you'd think isn't too bad, but drawn all 5 of my home games so far, my new signings haven't really clicked, and I'm struggling through lack of belief in my system. Not helped by my assistant (Mikael Silvestre) changing his mind every week about what roles i should give my players. Going to just ignore his advice from now on, one week he thinks I should play someone as a trequarista, next week it's poacher. I'll just do what I want from now on as his advice isn't working.

But I'm already a good 8-10 points behind where I was last season at this point, was flying this time last year. Mohamed Diagne still banging them in though, love that man!