FM12 Big Euro Nation: Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[iacovone]

By the way - forgot to pass my congrats on to both of you for excellent seasons respectively. PRDH, amazing work domestically! As you say though, it now has to be about progress into the semi-finals of the CL! Good luck.

And corinthiano, the only thing you wanted was to survive and you did just that - keep it up.


CL DRAW

So much like real life - the CL quarter final draw just took place in Nyon. And it went very well indeed. We drew Marseille in the quarter finals, which, looking at the other options, was the best possible draw. If we beat them we will face the winners of Man Utd and Real Madrid. That's when it gets tough!

Full draw:

Liverpool vs At. Madrid
Marseille vs Novese
Man Utd vs Real Madrid
Barcelona vs Chelsea

[iacovone]

3-2 win on aggregate over Marseille....

Atletico overturned a 4-1 loss at Anfield with a 6-0 home win!

Man Utd won on penalties against Real so we meet them in the semi-final and Barca beat Chelsea by one goal.

We're just three games from completing the challenge...

[iacovone]

I'm speaking to myself here but another update. With 3 games to play we have retained Serie A! We also just need one more win to set a new Serie A points total!

In the Champions League, the 1st leg went well enough as we triumphed 2-1 at home. It's finely poised though as United have the away goal...

[iacovone]

We're in the final!!!

We took a lead at Old Trafford through Ally Guillano on the stroke of half-time as we largely dominated the first half. This meant Utd needed two goals or more. With ten minutes to play Muhammed Messaoudi equalised. We won a penalty with three minutes to play but Bernardo Velazquez hit the bar and United survived. So much so that they went down the other end and grabbed the crucial second goal...

Except...it was disallowed! They'd had a last minute goal disallowed in the first leg too, so we rode our luck a little. The ref blew the final whistle and by some minor miracle we'll meet Barca in the final!!

The bad news - our captain and left back Fuentes will be suspended, as will the monumental Ricardo Ledesma. This is very very bad news and will majorly hinder our chances.

[corinthiano]

Great run iacovone! Hope you manage to complete the challenge despite the absences of Fuentes and Ledesma, good luck!

[iacovone]

Thanks corinthiano. More bad news though. Kevin Schultz (AKA the beast of a CB we have) will miss the CL Final with shin splints

Ledesma usually fills in and he's suspended. So we're going to have a back three without our captain and first choice LB, our RB playing LB, our third choice CB (naturally a DM) and our second choice RB.

I don't think we'll win this one...

[iacovone]

This is it...The Champions League Final

Line-ups:

-------Barcelona---------------Novese--------|
GK| 1. Altamirano     |GK|70. Traore         |
  |                   |  |                   |
RB| 3. Mauricio       |RB|15. Bakker         |
CB| 5. Risada         |CB| 4. Caro           |
CB| 6. Jordi          |LB| 2. Solo           |
LB| 4. Hrabina        |  |                   |
  |                   |DM| 6. Moraes         |
DM| 7. Bezerra        |DM|20. Garcia         |
CM|13. Gonzalez Rubio |CM|17. Velazquez      |
CM|12. Etxaniz        |  |                   |
  |                   |RW|11. van Roosemalen |
RW| 8. Barreto        |LW|18. Guillano       |
LW|14. Screpis        |  |                   |
  |                   |ST|10. Ripa           |
ST| 9. Armendariz     |ST|19. Steve          |
---------------------------------------------

Team news saw us without Kevin Schultz, Ricardo Ledesma and captain Jose Maria Fernandez Fuentes for the final at Ibrox in Glasgow.

Pre-match: I told the players to go out and impress me.

​Kick-off.

1st Half:

2mins: Saul Garcia picks up a light injury - decide to keep him on.

7mins: Barca create the first chance as Etxaniz swings a cross onto Armendariz but his header flies narrowly over.

12mins: Etxaniz sneaks into the box and his pas finds Screpis just six yards out. His shot is saved point blank by Traore, though the forward was also offside.

19mins: First chance for Novese as van Roosemalen's free kick finds it's way to Steve in the box. His snap shot is caught by Altamirano.

26mins: Huge chance for Novese! Bakker throws to Moraes who rolls van Roosemalen in the right channel of the box. The Dutchman turns and crosses low to the back post where Guillano must score! The winger smacks his shot straight at Altamirano from just six yards out!

32mins: Barca respond and it's Etxaniz again. He picked up Screpis' ball inside but saw his shot from 18 yards blocked and deflected behind for a corner.

34mins: Novese hit back, going straight down the other end. Ripa turns the ball into van Roosemalen's path but his low strike from 20 yards is gathered by Altamirano.

36mins: GOAL!!! Barcelona catch Novese sleeping. Gonzalez Rubio's through ball on the half-way line breaks Novese's offside trap as Caro is caught hopelessly square. Armendariz approaches Traore, shifts it right and buries the ball low and into the net.
Barcelona 1-0 Novese

40mins: Garcia finds Velazquez on the edge of the Barca area and he plays a lovely through ball to van Roosemalen. The winger fires his shot straight at Altamirano.

43mins: Barreto free-kick flies just wide.

45mins: van Roosemalen nods wide when he could have done better for Novese.

Half-Time: Barcelona 1-0 Novese

Team-talk: "I'm far from pleased with what I just saw from this team".

2nd Half:

46mins: Immediate response from Novese. Guillano plays a ball down the left and into Steve's feet. He turns his marker and fires at goal. Altamirano kicks the ball away with his feet. From the clearance we get the ball back and Guillano is played in on goal from a wide angle. With the goal at his mercy, he blazed well over.

52mins: Our attacking corner is cleared and Moraes dallies on the ball. We lose possession on the halfway line and they are 2 vs 1. Barreto squares to Armendariz and the forward bears down on goal. His shot is well saved by Traore and scrambled clear.

57mins: Barce carve us open as Barreto is played in behind Solo. His run is swift but his shot is tipped over by Traore.

60mins: Another Barca counter-attack from a corner and Moraes is caught in possession again. This time Screpis is played in on the halfway line. His shot is saved but the rebound falls to Armendariz who tries to lob Traore. Amazingly he recovers to tip over the bar for a corner.

72mins: GOAL!!! Barreto's corner is nodded on by Jordi at the back post and pounced on by Armendariz who grabs his second goal from close range.
Barcelona 2-0 Novese

I react by throwing Meza Sanchez and Lucas on for Steve and Saul Garcia. We go 3-3-4 for the remainder.

79mins: Mauricio goes on a run but shoots over from 20 yards.

81mins: Solo throws to Guillano who tosses a ball into the box. Velazquez gets a flick-on but it sails just over the bar. We had to score there.

86mins: Velazquez finds room on the edge and rolls Ripa in on goal. The striker shoots, scores...BUT it's OFFSIDE. Not our day.

88mins: GOAL!!! As we pressed for a goal, we were caught out. Armendariz won a header over Caro and played Barreto in. This time the winger made no mistake, thumping the ball home.
Barcelona 3-0 Novese

Full-Time: Barcelona 3-0 Novese

[iacovone]

Full season report to come tomorrow, pretty gutted by that

[corinthiano]

That is a shame iacovone, really looked like you missed your key players there. I am sure you will come back stronger next season

[iacovone]

End of Season Report - Novese - 2031/32 (Season 20) - Serie A

Serie A - 1st

We were predicted to come 5th this year but after the initial first few weeks, it was clear we'd be right at the top and battling for a 2nd Serie A title.

In all competitions we actually won our first 18 games! Our first league loss was away to our familiar foes Inter, who were doing their best to keep pace. A draw at Atalanta two weeks later was as close as we came to a blip and we continued to dominate through the winter.

We only lost once more, away at Juve and drew one more game at Lazio to storm the league. We won an incredible 19 out of 19 games at home!

We set a new points total, eclipsing Inter's 97 points with our own effort of 104! We scored a whopping 106 goals. We dominated.

Notice how far AC Milan have fallen. Survived relegation by 1 point!

Results 1 | Results 2
Progess

Champions League:

Our group consisted of PSG, Porto and Zenit. We won 2-1 in Paris, 3-0 in Porto and 3-0 in St.Petersburg and followed it with 3-1, 4-0 and 2-1 wins at home respectively to top our group with a 100% record.

We got Man City in the first knockout round and a late Cardenas goal gave us a 2-2 draw there. We won 2-0 at home to progress.

Marseille in the quarter-finals looked easier on paper but we were run close. We were very lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw away and just edged the home game 2-1 to qualify.

Back to Manchester in the semi-final. The first game we won 2-1 at home against Man Utd. They had a goal disallowed in the dying seconds. We drew 1-1 in the 2nd leg, they had a goal disallowed in the dying seconds!

The final pitted us against Barcelona, a side we had met in pre-season (and lost 3-1). Though we dominated possession of the ball, our missed early chances killed us and they floored us with a 3-0 win.

The Cups:

We kicked things off winning the Supercoppa with a 6-2 win over Cesena.

In the TIM Cup I played a more reserve side but they did well, beating Atalanta 2-0, Udinese 5-2 and Inter 1-0 away in the first leg of the semi final. We lost 2-1 at home though and missed out on the final on away goals.

The Squad:

Goalkeeper:

Ibrahima Traore (GK) - signed for a mere £1.7m in the summer, the Ivorian came in and took Corno's place as starting keeper. Was excellent.

Lautero Corno (GK) - expected him to leave last season but he signed a new deal. Largely back-up.


Defenders:

Daouda Solo (DR) - continues to do a great job at right back but probably time for an upgrade.

Mark Bakker (D/WBR) - good backup to Solo and did well when required.

Kevin Schultz (DRC/WBR) - beast. So, so good for us. Devastating to have him out for the CL final. Signed for £14.5m. Fans player of the year.

Jose Maria Fernandez Fuentes (D/WBL) - captain and a vital part of the team. Another badly missed in the final.

Midfielders:

Ricardo Ledesma (DC/DM/MC) - his final season for us as he leaves for Juventus on a free transfer. He'll regret that. Superb player though, another we missed in the CL Final.

Moraes (DM/MC) - excellent in his first full year for us.

Christer Nilsson (DC/DM/MC) - mainly back-up but dependable when needed at DM or CB.

Saul Garcia (DC/DM/MC) - played a lot in the second half of the season.

Emiliano Caro (DC/DM/MC) - didn't get as many games as he wanted but should do next year as Ledesma leaves a gap.

Harold Cardenas (MRC/AMR) - the winger had another superb season on the right contributing 13 goals and 18 assists. He's a crowd favourite and is getting a new 2 year contract. Good servant for us.

Ally Guillano (M/AML) - I was worried he'd stalled but he had a great year. 13 goals and 16 assists. Made the CL Team of the Year.

Lucas (MC) - now plays second fiddle to Velazquez but still very capabale.

Bernardo Velazquez (MRC) - superb at times, just needs to work on his consistency. Got an impressive 13 assists from MC. Signed a new 4 year contract too.

Peter van Roosmalen (AMRL/ST) - played on the left or the right and quite often made a telling contribution. He got 14 goals and 18 assists (the most in the squad with Cardenas). Great year from the Dutchman.

Karel Pacholik (AMRL/ST) - firmly a back-up now and didn't play that often. Did contribute though with 6 goals in his 8 starts.


Forwards:

Carlo Ripa (AMRC/ST) - I don't really understand how he does it but Ripa is just a born goalscorer. He's an icon at the club and he managed to displace Meza Sanchez this year. He scored a mighty 33 goals in 46 games with 12 assists for good measure.

Steve (ST) - yes! Steve came good. After a disappointing first year, the striker found his position as a deep lying forward. Bagged 30 goals and 16 assists. Just a pity his form drastically dipped in the final month of the season.

Sergio Meza Sanchez (AMR/ST) - weird one. Had been the most devastating striker in Serie A in his first two years but really struggled for goals this year. Only bagged 13 in total and became 3rd choice striker.


Squad Stats
Finances
Club Information
Facilities
Transfers

First off, I bid farewell to Gianluca Fabiani, my assistant manager. His contract is up and I've decided he's no longer good enough to hold the role as his own. He's been my number two for the past 12 years. It's a cruel world...

Youth facilities are being upgraded again. The Pastorino Stadium is also going to be expanded by about 900 seats...

Our finances are in great shape. We're still relatively small spenders in terms of wages (our highest was £44k p/w this year) but with a run to the final of the CL you pick up soooo much cash, we cover our expenditure almost two times over in a season at the moment.

I was pleased to see I'm now viewed as a 'legend' - I think that's the first time I've achieved that on FM! Great to see Meza Sanchez, Ripa and Cardenas move up to icon status too!

Objectives Complete?

• Win back-to-back titles

Success! Romped it and set a new Serie A points record!

• Go one step further in Europe

Success! Made the final. Lost.

• Continue to develop the club infrastructure

Success! Youth and training facilities are being continually improved. See Facilities screenshot above

New Objectives:

• Win back-to-back titles
• Make the CL Final again
• Start solving the Italian problem

The big problem in the CL is that I don't have any youth prospects of note that are actually registered and beneficial to the campaign. It is all 0.5 star rubbish just to fill the quotas. We had three youth players on the bench in the final! Awful. So that's something I need to work on and will intend to do so by snapping up young Italian prospects, as clearly the academy isn't capable of producing them. Domestically, we should take the title each year now, we're far stronger than the rest and provided I replace Ledesma adequately I back us to achieve that.

Joining us in Serie A this season are: Brescia, Albinoleffe and Cittadella. Departing Serie A are: Udinese, Cagliari and Empoli.

Seasonal Best Eleven
Overall Best Eleven

[corinthiano]

Great season iacovone, amazing dominance at home and bad luck in the final in Europe. To me your squad seems to be a little thin though, could just be me liking to have lots of options in my squad. Either way, I reckon you can get CL success relatively soon seeing as you are so dominant in the league.

As for Real, we have started the season badly, losing 3 and drawing 1 of our initial 4 matches...all games against beatable sides apart from Benfica away as well...will have to improve sooner rather than later. On a positive note, the board are planning a new stadium, havent seen any news on it, but it is there in the board overview screen, it will be ready in 3 years time.

[iacovone]

Pre-season has been interesting so far. Got a couple of great new players to show you soon.

Also the big news in Italy was hearing that Daniele Bonera resigned from Inter to take the reigns at Liverpool. So my biggest rivals will now be after a new manager. I always got on well with Bonera in the media - it was a friendly rivalry.

[iacovone]

Great season iacovone, amazing dominance at home and bad luck in the final in Europe. To me your squad seems to be a little thin though, could just be me liking to have lots of options in my squad. Either way, I reckon you can get CL success relatively soon seeing as you are so dominant in the league.

As for Real, we have started the season badly, losing 3 and drawing 1 of our initial 4 matches...all games against beatable sides apart from Benfica away as well...will have to improve sooner rather than later. On a positive note, the board are planning a new stadium, havent seen any news on it, but it is there in the board overview screen, it will be ready in 3 years time.

Great news on the new stadium! In the facilities screen does it tell you what size/name?

As for my squad - I agree, it is a little thin. That's why I decided to offer Cardenas a new contract. I originally planned to let him leave but he'll be a good squad option as I upgrade AMR. I have £54m to spend so I should be able to find some good squad options.

[iacovone]

This Inter situation has caused all manner of problems

Kevin Schultz has a £29m buy-out clause in his contract. They've met it. He's now hearing their offer as well as my contract offer. Ours will make him the highest paid player just shy of £100k p/w. The problem is, we have a new signing with a match highest earner clause who's on £60k p/w. So a massive chunk of the budget will go if Schultz stays, and all because managerless Inter bid for him!!!

To make matters worse - they then had the cheek to offer me the job!!

[iacovone]

YES! Schultz signs a new 5 year deal \o/

That is immense news, the guy is phenomenal. He now has a £45m release clause.

[corinthiano]

Very eventful pre-season there, great news on Schulze, he certainly is a key player and losing him to Inter would have hurt. I just hope this doesnt mean you cant strengthen the squad as you would have like now that your wages have gone up quite a bit!

I dont remember seeing anything about size of the stadium in the facilities bit, will have a look when I get home tonight though. I hope it is a signigifcant expansion as we sell out pretty much every game at our 3.500 all seater.

[iacovone]

New Signings - 2032/33 - Novese

Sebastian Pascuali (ST) - on paper, he looks the real deal. Will partner Steve up front.

Carlos Matias Iglesias (D/WBRL) - excellent new right back - can cover the left as well.

Oscar Andreuzza (D/WBL/DM/MC) - superbly talented and versatile defender or midfielder.

Luca Dalla Corna (M/AMR) - new right winger in place of Cardenas, expecting big things from him. Italian.

Daniel Poncu (DC/DM/MC) - back up CB and DM. Another Italian.

Jelle Klein and Gaetan Dambeti were picked up fairly cheaply and are rated highly as prospects for the future.

Transfers

Off the pitch we improved our youth recruitment network which should hopefully help our youth intakes. It's now at 'average'.


Guys (particularly PRDH and corinthiano as you're similarly far into the game) what is your recruitment level at?

[iacovone]

Oh and bizarre start to the new season. We lost 3-0 at Cesena on the opening day! No-one turned up, maybe it was overconfidence.

Anyway, after a bit of a rollicking we greeted Brescia with an 8-0 hammering! Back on track

And Champions League group looks tough:

Barcelona (!)
PSG
Zenit

So we face two teams we had in our group last year and the team we met in the final! Deja-vu anyone?

[corinthiano]

That is some heavy investment there, I reckon you definately have a CL winning squad now! Pasquali looks frightening! I think my youth facilities were pretty decent from the off, managed to use quite a few youngsters as back-up, although none made it into the first team. Will check what the facilities look like when I get home

[PRDH]

Guys (particularly PRDH and corinthiano as you're similarly far into the game) what is your recruitment level at?

Mine's 'Above average'. Has been for about a decade now. The option to expand it hasn't been available at all.

And those signings are phenomenal.

[iacovone]

Thanks PRDH - think that makes yours the next step up from mine.

I've built an absolute monster at Novese. We're just ruthless so far this season. Had the 8-0 win over Brescia, a 6-2 over Lazio (3rd last season) and a 7-2 over AC Milan just now. Steve​ has 15 in 9!

[corinthiano]

My youth recruitment is average. I have good training facilities, minimal youth facilities and exceptional junior coaching...

Great start there, wish I could get a striker to get 15 in 9!

Edit - oh, and no information whatsoever about the new stadium in the facilities screen..guess I will just have to wait.

[rlipscombe]

Just caught up after a few days away. Iacovone - seriously unlucky in the CL final mate. still Barcelona aren't a bad team so no disgrace. hopefully with some luck you'll have a completion soon.

[iacovone]

Just caught up after a few days away. Iacovone - seriously unlucky in the CL final mate. still Barcelona aren't a bad team so no disgrace. hopefully with some luck you'll have a completion soon.

Cheers mate. Unfortunately we bowed out in the 1st knockout round this year to Real Madrid. Damn Spaniards!

[iacovone]

End of Season Report - Novese - 2032/33 (Season 21) - Serie A

Serie A - 1st

We began strangely, losing 3-0 at Cesena that made me pause and wonder if this would be a much tougher season. It wasn't. From there we kicked into gear and scored goals for fun.

We were slightly more attacking this year which did mean we conceded more goals than I'd have liked (both keepers disappointed me) but it also led to some incredible results. A selection: 8-0 Brescia, 6-2 Lazio, 7-2 AC Milan, 6-0 Zenit, 6-2 Palermo, 7-3 Juventus, 9-0 Parma. Yes NINE. When we were on song we blitzed teams in the league.

There was no main challenger to our run of form and as such we wrapped the league up with 6 games to play. We didn't match last season's points haul but we set a new goalscoring record with our 126 goals scored!

Results 1 | Results 2
Progess

Champions League:

Our group was tougher than last year as we had to deal with Barcelona (last year's winners) as well as Zenit and PSG, two teams we'd faced before. Wins over Zenit (twice) and PSG as well as a draw against Barca and the French side ensured safe passage. Though we finished 2nd after losing to Barca in the final game.

This drew us against Real Madrid in the 1st knockout round and sadly that would be as far as we went. A 2-1 home win gave us hope but we were blown away in the Bernabeu, losing 4-1 to go out of the Champions League. Not anywhere near as successful as last year's run to the final.


The Cups:

Wins over Livorno and Juventus took us into a semi-final against Genoa. We won 4-1 away and 4-2 at home to take us to the final where we met Cesena. We made no mistake this time, edging them 2-1 to claim a domestic double.

Or is it a treble? I don't know if it counts but we also won the Supercoppa beating Inter 3-1.

The Squad:

Defenders

Kevin Schultz (DRC/WBR) - strong as ever when he was fit. Unfortunately missed 5 weeks early on and then damaged his knee cap in his comeback playing for France. When he did get fit he was excellent.

Oscar Andreuzza (D/WBL/DM/MC) - new left back acquitted himself well. He's the all-round full-back we need in this formation.

Carlos Matias Iglesias (D/WBRL) - similar words for Iglesias who was solid at right-back in his first season.

Midfielders

Moraes (DM/CM) - coped as the main DM very well. Played a lot of games and kept to a good standard.

Saul Garcia (DC/DM/MC) - stepped in as Ledesma's replacement this year and did very well. Coming on leaps and bounds.

Bernardo Velazquez (MRC) - our playmaker added goals to his game this year, bettering last season's 3 with an impressive 12. Plenty of assists too.

Luca Della Corna (M/AMR) - new signing at right wing and was exceptional. Provided both goals and assists. Did underperform in the big games though.

Peter van Roosmalen (AMRL/ST) - stunning season from the winger. Took over from Guillano at left inside forward and set a new assists record with an amazing 26.

Strikers

Sergio Meza Sanchez (AMR/ST) - has really fallen down the pecking order after his initial stunning first two seasons. Contract is up, not sure whether to renew.

Eduard Dobrovolny (ST) - and the reason is this man. He looks like he could be pretty good if he keeps improving at the rate he has been. Gave him a couple of games at the end of the season and was unlucky not to score.

Sebastian Pascuali (ST) - new signing has the makings of a sensational striker. Suffered through injuries quite a bit though and therefore didn't play as many games as I wanted.

Carlo Ripa (AMRC/ST) - continues to surprise. He's only rated at 2 stars but he's been with us for 9 years now and has always hit double figures in a season. Wasn't first choice but was a great source of goals when used.

Steve (ST) - it worked! Changed him to a deep-lying striker and he flourished! Couldn't score in Europe but tore Serie A to shreds, finishing just two goals behind the all-time record. Won European golden boot.


Squad Stats
Finances
Club Information
Facilities
Transfers

Youth facilities are being improved again at a cost of £4m. That's a lot of cash!
We announced a new set of sponsorship deals taking us from £3.22m up to £6.44m. The chairman also injected some cash to help with the running of the club (we were in the black anyway).
Just the casual £31.5m!!! I have no idea why he did it or where that cash came from



Objectives Complete?

• Win back-to-back titles

Success! Yep. Dominant and a new goalscoring record.

• Make the CL Final again

Failed. Nowhere near, big work to be done next year.

• Start solving the Italian problem

Success! The signing of Della Corna, Andreuzza and Porcu added Italian faces to the dressing room. The latter two are naturalised, as is Lucas now. We have 6 in the first team squad now. Getting there.

New Objectives:

• Win Serie A
• Make the CL quarter-finals at least
• Continue to find Italian players

So the CL is now the sole focus as I look to complete the challenge. It proved far harder this year and I think I may have to be more conservative away from home instead of using my default three at the back tactic to find success. I want us to continue sourcing the best young Italian players and bringing them to the club. Italy are still using a huge amount of nationalised players (not that there's anything wrong with that) but I'd like Novese to forge a reputation as the academy of football!

Joining us in Serie A this season are: Bari, Salerno and Udinese. Departing Serie A are: Cittadella, Albinoleffe and Brescia - all three straight back down.

Seasonal Best Eleven
Overall Best Eleven

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Wow think I have about 3 pages to catch up on over the weekend, will get there
In the meantime Congrats Iacovone on continued Serie A success and hopefully you can grab that Champions League soon

[siLKEAPE]

decided to contine this. Updates will follow shortly.

[siLKEAPE]

Città di Pontedera
Decided to contiue this save after reading through all of this thread again. Hopefully I will be able to finish the challenge!

Serie A 2017/18:

Could we defend our top 4 position from last year? INDEED! We won the whole damn thing!! Inters form declined horribly towards the end of the season, culminating in an embarassing loss against Catania in the last league game to win us the Serie A title. The other top teams all had relatively weak seasons, and this combined with our awesome home form of 15 wins and 4 draws in 19 home games saw us snatch the title on the last day.


Cups:
After last years surprise 4th finish we were now going to establish ourselves in the top. With an economy scrapped due to our new stadium project the summer signings were few.
Last years 4th place finish earned us a spot in the CL-qualifications, but we were utterly destroyed by Fenerbache and instead entered the EURO-cup.
Our EURO-cup adventure ended with a loss against Arsenal in the quarterfinals, but all in all a great first year of continental football.

In the Italian cup we lost in the Semi-final against Reggina who had an awesome season and finished 4th.

Club Info
The league title saw me join Marcello Lippi in the legends section in the Pontedera hall of fame.
Can't wait for next year when we move into the 23000 seater "Lippi Stadium".

Maybe then we can earn some money and upgrade our horrible facilities.
I will post a preseason update with info on the players that won the league aswell as my new summer signings.

So far.....

[rlipscombe]

welcome back siLKEAPE - congrats on the title

[iacovone]

CL group stage draw:

Liverpool
Bayern Munich
Lech Poznan.

Hmmm. Not overly happy by this. Liverpool are strong (and managed by former Inter boss Daniele Bonera) and Bayern are always tough. We're going to need to be on our game this year!

[iacovone]

New Signings - 2033/34 - Novese

Antonis Koltzos (DC) - 17 year-old Greek centre-half with good potential.

Pirulito (DC) - Brazilian who we had on loan back in our 2nd place season. Managed to get him for a very reasonable £3.7m to back up Schultze.

Renzo Cenci (DM/MC) - 17-year-old DM signed from Cesena. Plenty of promise.

Yoney Omer (DM/MC) - the big money signing of the summer from Barcelona. £20m well spent in my book, and effectively the Ricardo Ledesma replacement.

Robert van Gool (ST) - now, I'm excited. I spotted him in the Ajax youth team, had him scouted and the report returned a potential rating of just 3 stars. Instinct told me to sign him though and that potential is now seen as 4 stars. He's only 16 and so good already!

Vadim Lyamin (GK) - a good young keeper to play in the U20's for a couple of years before I make a big assessment on him.



Transfers

We still have plenty of money left for January if we need to spend but I'm pretty happy with the new boys. As you can see long-serving Pacholik has left and Meza Sanchez was released and ended up at Cesena.

[rlipscombe]

some good signings there mate. like the look of Omer especially. van Gool is an interesting one. not massive determination but can't be too bad to be capped at U21 level at 16! tough little draw in the Cl too though i am sure you can come through that.

out of interest, what formation are you playing?

[G-Wiz]

and so, with 5 matches left its been confirmed...Promotion!!!

full report coming soon!

[PRDH]

iacovone - Very good signings there. I'm so jealous that you're in a position to be signing good players from Barcelona! Agree with rlips about van Gool. He's clearly got talent, but that lack of determination is a worry. It's by no means a deal breaker, and a good tutor will, I'm sure, see him become a cracking player.
G-Wiz - Congratulations on promotion. That's, I think, three of us in the Portuguese top flight now. Good luck in your first year.

I've not played for a while, I'm moving house so my life is consumed with putting my possessions in boxes, but hopefully this break will spur me on when I get some time again.

[G-Wiz]

Ac. Viseu - 2015/2016 - End of Season Review

Manager Profile
Team Information
Transfers

Predicted Position: 13th
Actual Position: 1st
Average Attendance: 2938
Season Ticket Holders: 633

The aim for this season was definitely to try and push on from the encouraging form of last season, and try to improve enough to push for promotion. And thats exactly what happened! With a few new players brought in, things were shaken up a bit, especially in defence, which resulted in the club conceding only 26 goals in the league, compared with 50 the season before. This, along with my front 3 again performing well allowed us to open a lead at the top early on, which was never clawed back by any of the teams directly below us.

As for the cup, it was another great season for the coffers, as the 5th round saw us drawn with Porto, who, despite giving us a 5-2 beating, also gave us about 200k in gate receipts. This took a huge weight off my mind with finances as tight as ever.


GK

Igor Rocha - a much improved season for the GK, whether it was the inspiration of bringing in competition for his place i dont know, but 13 clean sheets is impressive

DEF

Alisson - another great season, 8 assists, but just as good defensively, attracting interest again

Leonel Jakson - brought straight into central defence, and proved a great find, have high hopes he can step up next year

Joao Cancelo - another unspectacular season, doesnt offer much going forward but wins a fair few tackles per game

Fernando Lopez - didnt feature as much this season, but a more than capable stand-in

Ricardo Tavares - formed a pretty solid CB partnership with Jakson

Raphael Simon - rated very highly by scout, was brought in to challenge Cancelo at LB, may be first choice next season

MID

Dionatan Teixeira - continues to hold onto DM position, scored a few valuable goals from corners, may be exposed next season in top flight

Mexilhao - one of the standout performers of the season, scored a fair few goals and solid going back

Raphael Gregorio Guzzo - currently first choice alongside Mexilhao and Teixeira, but his position is definitely up for grabs next season if i have any money to spend at all

Nik Cimpric - another spot from the scouts, very highly rated but still to be bowled over by him

ATT

Jean Silva - now the clubs all-time top league goalscorer, another good season. moved to the middle of the front 3 and impressed

Fusca - missed bits of the season through injury and was definitely missed, 10 goals and 8 assists is a decent contribution

Alipio - my replacement for the aging Edson didnt quite fire on all cylinders, but did make a decent contribution to our promotion push with 10 goals

Ahmed Sayed - undoubtedly the find of the season. scored 11 goals and 14 assists from left side of attack. although physically he is quite weak, i hope he can make the step up quite comfortably next season

The hero of last season, Edson, has unfortunately fallen off so dramatically this season i didnt feel he warranted a screenie. 1 goal from 13 apps was the extent of his contribution. Shame how much he has deteriorated over the last 12 months, and at only 32, has now announced his retirement at the end of the current season. A shame how it ended, but his contribution will always be remembered by the Ac Viseu faithful.

Top Scorer - Jean Silva - 18 goals
Highest Average Rating - Ahmed Sayed - 7.36
Fans Player of The Year - Ahmed Sayed

Portuguese Second League Top Scorer - Jean Silva, joint 2nd
Portuguese Second League Most Assists - Ahmed Sayed - 2nd, 12 assists
Portuguese Second League Most Man of The Match - Ahmed Sayed - 3rd, 5 M.O.M.
Portuguese Second League Young Player Of The Year - Mexilhao - 2nd
Portuguese Second League Manager of The Year - Garry Maltman - 1st
Portuguese Second League Team of The Year - Rocha, Tavares, Mexilhao, Ahmed Sayed
Portuguese Most Improved Team of The Year - Ac Viseu

Next season is going to be very difficult for us with the squad we currently have. Although i am pleased the squad at this level, i fear the step up may be too much for some of them. I am eagerly awaiting the outcome of the takeover currently taking place, in the hope that the new board will bring the investment required to make us competitive at the highest level, otherwise its going to be a long hard slog for us! Wish me luck!!

Season          Division                                 Position       Achievements
2012/2013       Portuguese Second Division - Central      7th	        Safety          
2013/2014       Portuguese Second Division - Central      1st           Champions, Promoted Through Playoffs
2014/2015       Portuguese Second League                  7th		Safety       
2015/2016       Portuguese Second League                  1st           Champions, promoted to top flight

[iacovone]

Well done G-Wiz! All about survival now

rlipscombe and PRDH - I agree on the determination side of things. It's usually something I insist has to be at least 13/14 and above for any new signing. But with him being only 16, there's loads of time for some good tutoring to pick that up.

rlipscombe - you can check my Best Eleven to see the formation I use. It's a bit crazy, but has really worked after spending a LOT of time tweaking it!

[rlipscombe]

iacovone - that is a crazy formation! reaping some good rewards though.
G-Wiz - congrats on promotion to Liga Sagres. good luck staying up next season.

[iacovone]

So after topping our CL group, drawing just the one game, we face Galatasaray in the 1st knockout round. Very pleased with that draw. Should see us go one round further than last year!

[rlipscombe]

sounds promising... good luck mate

[aldojags]

Just had a quick read through some of this thread, iacovon your career looks superb, well done! Really enjoyed reading your posts, they look the part aswell.

[PRDH]

iacovone - Galatasaray is a great draw. Should be a fairly easy couple of legs for you...

[StellaF1]

Stuart Brawls, Vendee Lucon, 2023-2024, Season 1

Squad ¦ Transfers 1 ¦ Transfer 2 ¦ Finances ¦ Income

Overview

Just going to give a quick update as to my first season at Vendee Lucon. It has taken me a while to get into the challenge with this team after the highly enjoyable time i had with Seregno and this has meant it has taken quite a long time to do this first season. It was a struggle to begin with to find players in general let alone those with enough quality to do well in this league presumably due to our extremely poor reputation. Eventually we got a team together and further improved the squad throughout the season.

League - French National Division
Table ¦ Graph ¦ Fixtures 1 ¦ Fixtures 2

After an excellent first game, which we won 3-0, we topped the table but then our goal scoring struggles began as we didn't score many and therefore we slipped steadily down the table. At least we didn't concede many and that meant that we were able to continue to pick up points. At the end of October our top goalscorers wereHermann and Salku, our Centre-Backs!!. It was at this time that i picked up a new striker in Giuseppe Panico on a free. He not only scored regularly enough his play also enabled a good partnership with Amadio who suddenly started scoring after looking rubbish at the start of the season. This resulted in an improvement in form and our rise in the league table which would eventually see us finish the season in 6th place. In the end i was very happy with how this first season with Vendee Lucon progressed.

French Cup
Fixtures
We progressed the 6th, 7th and 8th rounds of the French cup by beating non league and lower division CFA teams to reach the 9th round. This is the round were the big teams enter the competition and we drew none other than PSG at their stadium as well to guarantee a very nice pay day. We played exceptionally well and were only beaten by a goal just before half time.v I therefore couldnt be happier as to how my first go at the French Cup went.

Players
Just going to list those players that started at least 10 games and were therefore the most important players for this season.

Klaus Fabacher - Signed in December as a replacement for Sommer who had been injured. He did a decent job but on average conceded more than Sommer.
Kevin Sommer - Had an excellent start to the season and had a good goals against ratio. Unfortunately a Knee Tendinitis in December ended his season prematurely as it put him out for 6 months.
Raymond Schuitert - Our right back who is only 17 and had a very good first season. He has the potential to be a good League 2 right back.
Jurgen Hermann - Excellent German Centre back who had a great first season with the added bonus of 5 goals. He also has the potential to be a good league 2 player.
Redi Salku - Another excellent German centre back that i picked up on a free at the start of the season. He got 6 goals and amazingly he is now rated as having the potential to be a decent league 1 player.
Maximilien Lavie - 19 year old Belgian youngster who can play as DC, DMC or MC. Used in all 3 positions throughout the season and has good potential.
Arjen Van De Kraan - Started the season as our 1st choice left back but i managed to find a better option in January.
Rabah Abdeslam - Signed on a free in January he became my first choice left back. Has good attributes and very good potential.
Dieter Kleinheider - 20 year old midfielder who play in the majority of matches but was half expecting him to contribute a little bit more. Has the potential to improve significantly in the future.
Madjid Soltani - Proved to be our most valuable midfielder as he bagged 8 goals but even more importantly he got 16 assists.
Soufiene Garbaa - Used both as a DMC and MC. He added experience to the side and had a good season as well.
Mohamed Lamine Dahmane - Decent youngster who filled in as DMC or MC as required. Plenty of potential.
Luis Amadio - Stuggled at the start of the season with roughly 2 goals in his first 13 games. Once partnered with Panico he improved massively as he went on to finish the season as top goalscorer with 16 goals.
Giuseppe Panico - His signing at the end of October we crucial in the improved performance of the team for the rest of the season. He brought in 12 goals and 9 assists.

Future
I will be looking at further improvements to the squad over the summer and hope that with a better start to the season Promotion to League 2 would be a distinct possibility.

[PRDH]

Giuseppe Panico - His signing at the end of October we crucial in the improved performance of the team for the rest of the season. He brought in 12 goals and 9 assists.

Good to see that occasionally Panic(o) buying in the winter can be effective.

Sorry, that's such a lame pun, but I couldn't resist.

[rlipscombe]

Good to see that occasionally Panic(o) buying in the winter can be effective.

Sorry, that's such a lame pun, but I couldn't resist.

Awful....

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well Parla finished their first season in the Liga BBVA in 19th and were relegated. My team just wasn't good enough to compete consistently, going to really look at my squad over the offseason, may make big changes. I think I need some experienced heads as well as my star youngsters.

Only managing 8 wins from 38 games is not good enough, our vanquished foes were Granada, Getafe (Twice), Malaga, Villareal, At.Madrid, Sevilla, & Osasuna. 3 of those teams were in the top 10, but I lost all 6 games against the other bottom 3 teams.

[rlipscombe]

SV Waldhof Mannheim – German Bundesliga – Season 2020/21

Season Review

League Finish: 6^th Graph Club Overview Club Information



The League

A setback, this season saw us have our first season where we took a step back in the league having been on a constant upwards curve before then. It is a combination of little things I think that have caused this. We weren’t as prolific up front as we were the previous season, and we were quite leaky in defence, particularly in the first half of the season. It didn’t help also that our competition were a lot better which made it a lot more competitive at the top end. Dortmund, who held on to the title won nearly 20 points more than the previous season. Indeed, if they had matched their points from the previous season they would have finished 4^th.



German Cup

A comfortable 6-0 away win against non-league Ditzingen in the first round saw us drawn against D2 Hertha Berlin. Goals from Hidalgo and Traore saw us win 2-1 and us through to the third round. A home tie against Stuttgart was a tough draw and was lost to a narrow 1-0 defeat.



Champions League

Champions League Best Placed Play-off

SVW Mannheim 3 – 0 At. Madrid
At. Madrid 2 – 0 SVW Mannheim

So as previously mentioned we made it through to the group stages of the champions league with a nail-biting victory against Atletico Madrid. We rode our luck a little in the second leg but we did enough to get through.

Group Stages

Our success saw us through to the group stages and we were handed group containing Manchester United, Olympique Lyonnais and Galatasaray. My target was to try and nick third and the Europa League space that went with it. However we completely exceeded my expectations, as we won our first three matches to have one foot in the first knockout round at the halfway stage. We suffered a setback losing 4-0 at Old Trafford but two draws saw us through as group winners.

First Knockout stage

Our reward for winning the group stage was a tie against Roma:

Roma 3 – 2 SVW Mannheim
SVW Mannheim 3 – 1 Roma

As the scores show, a close defeat away in Rome was followed by a home win and a result that saw us through to the Quarter Finals!

Quarter Finals

Bayer Leverkusen 2 – 1 SVW Mannheim
SVW Mannheim 0 – 0 Bayer Leverkusen

And the dream was over, as we exited the competition against fellow German side Leverkusen. We huffed and puffed in the second leg and 1 goal would have done it but it wasn’t to be and we fell at the Quarter Final stage.

The Players


Transfers

Squad 1 Squad 2

Goalkeepers


1. Hugo Anzarda - Hugo was first choice again and did a decent job although I was maybe hoping for a little bit more. He is a good keeper but I MAY need to improve this area to be a top team…
13. Raymond Dekker - Raymond was back-up once more. Probably not good enough to be a no.1 for Mannheim but we shall see


Full Backs

22. Andreas Schroder - Andreas was mainly back-up this season to Escobar and the club captain spent a lot of time on the bench. Still an important squad palyer.
2. Victor Escobar - Victor edged the battle for the RB slot and did a solid job. His potential is on the wane a little though so that is something to keep an eye on.
3. Rafael - Rafael was backup to Rodriguez this season but is a good squad player. He can also play centre back so he offers versatility which is good.
43. Cesar Rodriguez - Cesar started to justify his fee this season and did a good job for me. Coveted by top clubs, he can also do a job in left midfield.


Centre Backs

6. Amadou Traore - Amadou didn’t really hit the levels I expected from him and he was a bit part payer this season. Still has ability, he will get more chance to make his mark.
15. Vasilis Baxevanidis - Valisis had a good season and was a mainstay in the defence. Performed well, he is becoming my first choice centre back.
55. Alexandr Kuznetsov - Alexandr improved on last season and was largely the partner for Baxevanidis in defence. Still developing like most of my defence.
26. Hans-Werner Hermann - The young German is still a backup player and patiently waits for his chance.
35. Aidar Solosin - the young Russian was mainly a backup but has good potential. A little unhappy, I may try and involve him more next season.
Marcello Moschini - the young Italian spent the season on loan at feeder club FSV Franfurt and did a decent job there.

Midfielders

4. Zafer Balikci - Zafer had a good season once more and weighed in with a number of assists.
7. Christoph Jung - Jung played understudy to Cook and di ok when called on. A little unsettled, his future remains in doubt.
8. Paul Pogba - The Frenchman joined on loan in January and did ok for the club. Unlikely to be back though.
11. Eoin Doherty - Eoin had a season with few appearances and will leave on a free transfer this summer.
14. Migen Toma - Migen is one of our key players and the German international had a good season in midfield.
Toby Hiner - the Man United loanee had a good season down the left. Will try to bring him back next season.
23. Carl Cook - The other English loanee had a great season and created plenty of assists. I hope to sign him this summer.
24. Craig Hopkins - Craig had a good start to the season but in January Valencia activated his release clause of £6 million and he was off.
24. Mario Teunis - young Dutchman with a big future joined from Ajax for £2.5 million in January. One for the future.
27. Luca Oliveti - the young Italian featured sporadically and did a good job overall. A star of the future.
28. Omer Ahmetovic - the young Australian made a solitary appearance but he has the potential to have a big future at the club.
30. Logan Humbert - Logan was backup in our midfield but still has time at the club as long as he remains patient.
75. Takeharu Fukuda - the young Japanese international had a frustrating season and he is unsettled at the club.
Jose Luis - spent the season at feeder club Jena, it looks unlikely he will have a long term future at the club..



Strikers

9. Daniel Axelsson - Daniel matched the number of goals scored as the previous season, proving the ability of ‘The Axeman’. Star for the club.
10. Vladislav Scherbakov - Vladislav had a bit-part season and his star is beginning to wane a little. His future long term may be in doubt.
12. Armando Hidalgo - Armando didn’t impress again and has only 3 goals in his three seasons at the club. A departure is likely this summer as players have moved a head in the pecking order.
19. Ricardo Freitas - the big-money signing struggled to find form initially but settled down and had a good second half of the season. Axelsson’s first-choice partner.
61. Helder - Another to spend a season with feeder club Jena, he did ok for them and remains in my thoughts for the future.
66. Godfrey Mofokeng - signed after a couple of prolific seasons in the Czech Republic, the South African adds some quality to our striking options. Expecting him to have an impact next season.


Finances

Finances were helped a lot as expected by our CL exploits but I am starting to grow a little frustrated by our boards reluctance to back me in the transfer market. I feel that it is beginning to hinder my chances of completing the challenge.

The Future

So we stumble for the first time in my reign. 6^th place sees us snesak into the Europa League which is good but I think I need to reassert my place at the top of German football. This coming season will be a big one for the club.



Career History

Season      League        Pos.    German Cup  Europe     Achievements
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2012/13   3rd Division    12th     N/A         N/A      
2013/14   3rd Division    2nd      N/A         N/A        Promotion
2014/15   2nd Division    3rd    1st Round     N/A        Lost in Play-offs
2015/16   2nd Division    3rd    3rd Round     N/A        Lost in Play-offs again
2016/17   2nd Division    2nd    3rd Round     N/A        Promotion
2017/18   Bundesliga      12th   3rd Round     N/A
2018/19   Bundesliga      3rd    2nd Round     N/A        Champions Leage Qualification!
2019/20   Bundesliga      3rd    1st Round   EUro Semi    Europa League Semi-finalists
2020/21   Bundesliga      6th    3rd Round   CL Q/Final   CL Q/Finals, Europa League Qualification

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Sometimes that step back is needed Rlip, hopefully you can sort out where the issues are and turn them around in the new season.
Good Work in the Champions League though, was tight in the knock-outs too.

[Adam "Le God"]

Adam "Le God"- Teramo - Season 1- 2012-2013.
Profile - Personal Info - Club Info - Club Facilities - Squad Depth
The journey starts here

Earlier today, newly promoted Serie C2/A side Teramo announced that they have parted company with Roberto Cappallacci with immediate affect and have chosen to appoint Max Trayhorn as there new manager. The appointment of Mr Trayhorn has met with extreme distaste from the majority of the fans who have questioned the clubs ambition by appointing an inexperienced English manager.

Season Objectives
-Maintain our status as a Serie C club
-Improve squad to challenge for title this year or next year
-Sign young players to build for the future
-Try and work within the financial constricts of my budget

[rlipscombe]

Sometimes that step back is needed Rlip, hopefully you can sort out where the issues are and turn them around in the new season.
Good Work in the Champions League though, was tight in the knock-outs too.

Cheers. to be honest i don't think there are that many major issues - just didn't click as well. tweaked the tactic a bit this season to try and tighten us up a little. unlucky with your relegation. good luck rebuilding.

[rlipscombe]

welcome Adam Le God. good luck in Italy.

[Adam "Le God"]

Cheers rlipscombe. I have just made my first two signings as manager. A much needed left back and a left winger who i hope will offer a bit of quality at this level. Quick question lads, Is it ok for me to do more frequent updates than just once a season? i was thinking that i would do 3-4 a season. Would that be ok?

[PRDH]

Adam Le God - Welcome aboard! I think I speak for all of us in here that we never complain about 'too many' updates. Post as much detail as often as you want. We love to know what's going on!

Edit - Well. That's a bit of a relief. After some nervous moments at the start of this year's Champions' League campaign - I drew Barcelona, Juventus and Wisla in the group and then promptly lost to Wisla in the first game - I have qualified. Largely thanks to a dreadful showing from Juve who finished rock bottom of the group with only one point.

Also encouraging were our performances against Barcelona. We lost 0-1 at home courtesy of an own goal, but snatched a 2-2 draw at the Nou Camp. We were in both games. Encouraging if we can play the same way in the knockout stages. I still think it'll take a decent draw and a bit of luck for us to get to the real business end, but surely we must get a bit of luck soon!

[iacovone]

LLR and rlipscombe - both slightly disappointing seasons - hope you can turn it around next year and come back stronger

As for us, I predicted it right - we hammered Galatasaray 8-0 on aggregate! This could be the year...Bayern Munich in the quarters

[iacovone]

A pretty epic 9-5 aggregate win over Bayern takes us to the semi-finals. I'm delighted to be facing Porto, who knocked out our nemesis Barcelona in the quarter finals...

[iacovone]

We're in the final!!! Another epic win over Porto. A real nerve-jangler.

We face four-time European Cup winners Manchester City in the final

[Adam "Le God"]

Congratulations iacovone, good luck in the final.

On a side note i have just brought in a couple of decent strikers and a right winger with quality dribbling and technique. Hopefully i will get my first update out later tonight otherwise it will be tomorrow.

Also does anyone know where i can get hold of some kits and badges for the Italian league teams?

[rlipscombe]

Adam "Le God" - i get all my kits from sortitoutsi.net. all the italian kits are there plus lots more. you might even get a kit made for you if you ask the right people. And as PRDH said, feel free to update as often as you like. helps us get drawn into your game.

iacovone - was a little frustrating but i am over it now. one of those things. good luck in the final. i feel that we might have our next completion very shortly. seem to be scoring goals for fun which will help.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist’s 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 End of Season Reports

Season             League            Pos           Cups                      Europe     Award2012/13            Sc Div 3          1st           No comment                n/a        Manager of the Year
2013/14            Sc Div 2          1st           Challenge Cup Finalists   n/a        Manager of the Year
2014/15            Sc Div 1          3rd           CC Winners & SC Final     qual       None
2015/16            Sc Div 1          2nd           CC & SC Winners, LC R/U   EC 3Q      Manager of the Year
2016/17            Sc Div 1          1st           Challenge Cup Winners     EC 4Q      Manager of the Year
2017/18            Sc Prem           5th           LC Final                  qual       None
2018/19            Sc Prem           7th           LC Winners                EC R2      Manager of the Year 
2019/20            Sc Prem           1st           SC Winners, LC R/U        n/a        Manager of the Year
2020/21            Sc Prem           1st           SC & LC Winners           EC Winners Manager of the Year
2021/22            Sc Prem           1st           SC Winners                cc Q/F     Manager of the Year
2022/23            Sc Prem           1st           LC R/U                    CC R1      Manager of the Year 
2023/24            Sc Prem           1st           LC R/U, SC Winners        CC R1      Manager of the Year
2024/25            Sc Prem           1st           SC R/U                    CC Q/F     Manager of the Year
2025/26            Sc Prem           1st           SC, LC                    CC Q/F     None
2026/27            Sc Prem           1st           SC, LC                    CC Q/F     Manager of the Year
2027/28            Sc Prem           1st           LC                        CC Q/F     None

2026/2027
Squad
League
Transfers
Pretty much unbeatable both at home (109 points from a possible 114 and every record imaginable) and Europe, until we were beaten 7-0 away by Man Utd in the Quarter Finals, (having won 3-0 at home)

2027/28
Squad
League
Transfers

More of the same, except the team is now on the decline, and this time we lost 2-1 on aggregate to Utd in the quarter finals.

[iacovone]

One day before the Champions League final I get this message. Quite cool

[Lower Leagues Rule]

So if you win the final you will have completed the challenge after exactly 1000 matches in charge...WOW!

[iacovone]

So if you win the final you will have completed the challenge after exactly 1000 matches in charge...WOW!

Exactly! Such a coincidence! I'll be updating later this afternoon on the big game...

[rlipscombe]

iacovone - it is SURELY destiny that completion will come on your 1,000th game.... good luck!

[PRDH]

Agreed. It's written in the stars iacovone!

[crouchaldinho]

Good luck Iacovone!

[iacovone]

My 1000th game in charge...The Champions League Final 2034

Line-ups:

|---------------------------------------|
|MANCHESTER CITY    |    NOVESE         |
|---------------------------------------|
|Soler              | Corno             |
|                   |                   |
|Schmiedel          | Iglesias          |
|de Graaff          | Schultz           |
|Pecarov            | Andreuzza         |
|Liu Shuai          |                   |
|                   | Omer Yoney        |
|Sedani             | Caro              |
|Hanninen           |                   |
|Qin Zhenglei       | Velazquez         |
|                   |                   |
|Cardena            | Della Corna       |
|Emerson            | van Roosmalen     |
|                   |                   |
|Mostafa            | Steve             |
|                   | Ripa              |
|---------------------------------------|

We were pretty much at full strength. The only concern was Steve, who had just come back from a 3 week layoff and Pasquali who had been out for four weeks and could only make the bench.

Pre-match: I told the players to go out and impress me.

​Kick-off.

1st Half:

1min: Mostafa finds room wide right to dribble to our byline. He cuts the ball back to Hanninen who sees his shot hit the side netting.

3mins: Emerson's free kick from wide is headed onto the crossbar by Cardena from 6 yards out.

4mins: Qin Zhenglei rolls the ball into Mostafa but his shot from the edge of the box is caught by Corno. A worrying start...

12mins: Emerson beats Andreuzza too easily and sends a deep cross that Cardena nods just over the bar.

16mins: Velazquez collects a corner on the edge of the box and gives it to van Roosmalen. His right-footed strike thunders against the crossbar and away to safety.

19mins: Ripa gets his head on a Della Corna corner but it sails over.

24mins: Schultz meets Della Corna's front post corner and somehow nods over the bar. It looked in!

27mins: GOAL!!! Sedani's corner to the back post is met by De Graaff and he slams it past Corno for the opening goal.
MAN CITY 1-0 NOVESE

32mins: Ripa weaves past two defenders on the edge of the box but his low drive is tipped round the post by Soler. From the resulting corner, Caro sees his shot from the edge of the box tipped behind. 37mins: Mostafa and Cardena link up well but the latter's shot is just over the bar.

41mins: GOAL!!! Omer Yoney finds van Roosmalen on the left corner of the box. He spots Velazquez's run and puts the ball on his head. The Mexican flicks it backwards and into the top corner!
MAN CITY 1-1 NOVESE

2nd Half:

47mins: Della Corna's wide free kick is met by Schultz but his shot is saved at the near post.

56mins: Steve breaks from the halfway line and charges into the box. His initial shot is parried and his follow up effort is also turned away. We lose the ball on the edge of the box and City break. Iglesias loses a crucial tackle on the halfway line and it's 3 on 1...Mostafa switches play to Cardena who pulls wide before hitting an early cross to Russell Cameron...GOAL!!! the forward slams home the cross at Corno's near post.
MAN CITY 2-1 NOVESE

61mins: Velazquez wide free-kick is tipped behind for a corner.

69mins: Emerson drifts inside and feeds Cameron who slips behind our defence. His shot is beaten away by Corno though.

70mins: van Roosmalen cuts inside and slides the ball into Della Corna. His shot is fiercely struck but Soler again matches it, turning the ball away.

76mins: PENALTY!!! van Roosmalen takes the ball from Andreuzza and turns Schmiedel in the box. The full-back swivels and slides, tripping van Roosmalen. He's shown a yellow card...and it's his second! RED CARD for MAN CITY. ......Velazquez steps up to the penalty spot and smashes it into the top right corner! GOAL!!!!
MAN CITY 2-2 NOVESE

80mins: Mostafa takes a throw and gets the return. He puts a great ball in and Cameron heads...just wide. 88mins: Cardena corner to the near post is met by Turner. It looks to be heading to Corno but takes a nick off Schultz and...GOAL!!! City score.
MAN CITY 3-2 NOVESE

90mins: van Roosmalen's cross from the left is heading in but for the fingertips of Soler. The ball ricochets into the air and is hacked off the line by de Graaff! From the resulting corner, Schultz attacks the near post and his header is heading in until Soler parries it to safety! Drama!

93mins: Liu Shuai fouls Della Corna on the edge of the box. The crowd hold it's breath...van Roosmalen's effort cannons off the wall for a corner...Della Corna whips it in...Schultz heads it...OVER!

Full time - Manchester City 3-2 Novese

Gutted

[PRDH]

iacovone - Bad luck pal! Gutting. I was sure you were going to do it. To come back from behind twice just to concede another with an extra man must have been soul-destoying.

You'll just to have to do it next season!

[iacovone]

Thanks PRDH, I won't lie I was rather peeved by that result! I felt certain we'd win it, especially after they went down to ten men

End of Season Report - Novese - 2033/34 (Season 22) - Serie A

Serie A - 1st

The league felt like a bit of a cake walk this year. I finally had a big enough squad to really rotate my players and it meant we mainly avoided big injuries. We won the title by 11 points in the end - half the distance we won it by the year before, so perhaps team's are closing the gap on us. To be fair Lazio led the way early on very impressively.

The middle of the season saw us set a new club record of 28 games unbeaten. The unbeaten league season is still evading us and an early loss away at Lazio ended this season's hopes. We sustained two more losses but the league was already won by then. Overall it was a fairly easy league win.

Results 1 | Results 2
Progess

Champions League:

The group stage saw us pitted against Lech, Liverpool and Bayern Munich. We won all our games except the home tie to Liverpool to qualify top and draw Galatasaray in the first knockout round.

This was easy and we won 5-0 and 3-0 to set up a rematch with Bayern Munich in the quarter finals. Despite losing 3-2 away, we took them back to the Pastorino Stadium where we thrashed them 7-2!

In the semi-finals we were paired with Porto. This was harder than I thought and we lost the away game 2-1. It could have been worse. Back at home, a Bernardo Velazquez hat-trick settled the tie 3-1 and sent us to our second final.

As you'll have seen, it was my 1000th game in charge. The script was written but Manchester City refused to comply, beating us 3-2 with a late winner. Sad times.

The Cups:

I played our reserves for the whole tournament and they triumphed, winning our 3rd TIM Cup. I will continue using it to blood youngsters and keep reserve players fit.

The Squad:

Defenders

Kevin Schultz (DRC/WBR) - back to his best with a largely injury free campaign. Scored an impressive 11 goals as well.

Pirulito (DC) - you may remember I had him on loan a few years ago, well he's here permanently now and had a great time as back-up to Schultz. May be first choice next year if I move to 4 at the back.

Midfielders

Bernardo Velazquez (MRC) - beginning to turn into the world-class player I'd hoped. At times he single-handedly pulled us through games. Contributed goals and assists.

Peter van Roosmalen (AMRL/ST) - another excellent year on the left as he grabbed goals and assists in abundance.

Luca Della Corna (M/AMR) - Fans player of the year and superb in his second year at the club.

Forwards

Sebastian Pasquali (ST) - phenomenal second season for us as he scored exactly a goal a game. Set a new club average rating with 7.93. Probably would have shot us to the CL had he not got injured a few weeks before. He won a host of awards too. Best player in the CL, CL golden boot and best player in Europe.

Steve (ST) - difficult year for the naturalized Pole (!). He tore his calf in pre-season so missed 3 months. Came back well enough but then suffered another injury right before the CL final.

Carlo Ripa (AMRC/ST) - has taken the role of backup striker but is beginning to slow down now he has hit 30. Just completed his tenth year at the club and grabbed 19 goals and 19 assists. Another great return.

Eduard Dobrovolny (ST) - young Bulgarian striker was blooded this year and did very well. 11 goals and 9 assists is not to be sniffed at. He will likely move ahead of Ripa in the pecking order next year.


Squad Stats
Finances
Club Information
Facilities
Transfers

Our training facilities will be improved again but the packed out stadium still won't be touched. I managed to get the youth recruitment network expanded again to above average. Unfortunately it's had no effect yet.

With the 2034 World Cup, I thought I'd post a list of our attendees - it was quite impressive.


Objectives Complete?

• Win Serie A

Success! Yep. Easy enough.

• Make the CL quarter-finals at least

Success, but not quite as great as it could have been.

• Continue to find Italian players

Failed! I actually ended up selling one of them so it's really not going too well. I may just delay it until my academy starts producing players.

New Objectives:

• Win Serie A
• Win the CL
• Have an unbeaten league season

CL is still the main focus and we are on the pinnacle of succeeding. I like some of my youth prospects but I'm beginning to think to get success in Europe I need to alter my tactic. We were too exposed against the very best sides and I may move to four at the back. I'll tinker in pre-season and see how it looks.

Joining us in Serie A this season are: Empoli, Alessandria and Verona. Departing Serie A are: Reggina, Bari and Salerno.

Seasonal Best Eleven
Overall Best Eleven

[iacovone]

Sebastian Pasquali just scored the winner in World Cup 2034. We have a world cup winner

[rlipscombe]

unlucky iacovone... gutted for you. still it was a good experience and i'm sure you'll complete within a couple of seasons...

[ghostwriter]

unlucky iacavone. hopefully 3rd time lucky...

was that 2 Chinese players i saw in Man City's line-up?! presumably they are pretty good players. do China have a good side then?

my game with Lyon Duchere has got off to an insanely slow start. not had a huge amount of time plus the 1st season always seems the most difficult.

[iacovone]

unlucky iacavone. hopefully 3rd time lucky...

was that 2 Chinese players i saw in Man City's line-up?! presumably they are pretty good players. do China have a good side then?

Good spot, yeah the two Chinese players at City are very good. 120 caps for the CB and 93 for the midfielder. China did well in the world cup just gone, losing to Nigeria in the quarter final

[corinthiano]

iacovone - so unlucky against Man City in the final, you are amongst the best of Europe though so CL success will come around soon surely.
siLKEAPE - well done on winning the Serie A
G-Wiz - great job on promotion!
StellaF1 - Solid first season with Vendee Luçon
rlipscombe - dissappointing season in the Bundesliga there, but a good CL campaign, hope you can get back on track next season domoestically.
vikeologist - You seem to have hit a stalling point in the CL, hope you can find that extra edge to make it further!

I am almost finishing another season and it has been a steady one, no threat of relegation

[aldojags]

vikeologist your game is immense mate!! I don't know what I'm more impressed with, the fact you've won the SPL with East Stirling, or that my beloved Partick Thistle are also in the league and doing well! Ah if only! This thread is brilliant, I'm downloading fm12 as we speak and will join up tomorrow, had a look at various challenges, but the support and goodwill on this thread far outweighs the others. Plus, I honestly don't think I've ever played a single league in all my FM's in the past outwith Scotland and England, so will be interesting to try another country. Will update you tomorrow with my first steps into European club management!

Edited to add, could you indulge me and have a look at Thistle to see how they've fared since you started. Like maybe a star player or two, if they've played in Europe etc? If you can't be gassed it's cool, but I'd love to see it on screen the jags in europe!

[iacovone]

vikeologist your game is immense mate!! I don't know what I'm more impressed with, the fact you've won the SPL with East Stirling, or that my beloved Partick Thistle are also in the league and doing well! Ah if only! This thread is brilliant, I'm downloading fm12 as we speak and will join up tomorrow, had a look at various challenges, but the support and goodwill on this thread far outweighs the others. Plus, I honestly don't think I've ever played a single league in all my FM's in the past outwith Scotland and England, so will be interesting to try another country. Will update you tomorrow with my first steps into European club management!

Great stuff, look forward to your input aldojags

[aldojags]

cheers mate. meant to mention, i'm a big fan of your posts too iacovone, already dreaming of signing a player like Schultz! Your dutch winger is dynamite too! Look forward to sharing my story with you gentlemen! fm12 currently at 83%, it's 1.46am, I want to wait up to holiday, get my club, then head to sleep, start my season tomorrow! download taking an absolute age, just watching some of my arrested development to tide me over

[aldojags]

Ok here goes nothing...decided to join this challenge after reading a few pages and getting kinda hooked on some of your seasons, thought I'd give it a go myself...




Profile| Personal

Have taken on the post of Entente Sportive Viry Chatillon in the French National League.

As you can see, media predictions have us finishing 20 out of 20, so survival must be the main aim this season. I have a 9k per week wage budget, of which I am currently spending 6k, so I've got a bit of room to manouvere.

Have had a quick look through my squad, seems one or two decent players there, but I'll undoubtedly have to strengthen.

Heading to bed now, will tackle pre season when I get up, will update you when I've got something (hopefully positive) to report.

P.S. apologies if this page turns out a mess, I tried to make it as professional as some of yours, but I don't think I got close!

[corinthiano]

Great opening post aldojags, best of luck!

[aldojags]

Thank you, glad to be on board!

[PRDH]

aldojags - Welcome aboard and good luck in France! I have not seen the word 'outwith' used since I left Scotland, love it!

[rlipscombe]

aldojags - welcome to the challenge - always good to see new people starting the challenge, particularly when it is their first foray into the dark waters of lower league European football!! hopefully you enjoy your game with Viry-Chatillon and get great success - it might take a few seasons mind! sure you'll get the support you need here to help you through the dark times!! and as for your opening post, it all looks fine to me!

[vikeologist]

vikeologist
Edited to add, could you indulge me and have a look at Thistle to see how they've fared since you started. Like maybe a star player or two, if they've played in Europe etc? If you can't be gassed it's cool, but I'd love to see it on screen the jags in europe!

Thistle are a fixture in the Premier League in my save, and often finish in the top half of the table. the closest they've come to actually winning anything was the Scottish Cup Final in 2024, where they played us and lost 4-1. Sorry about that.

They've been in europe a few times, and failed to make it to the Euro Cup Group stage by one goal a couple of times. Their star player has been a Scottish International mainstay who's scored 209 club goals, but unfortunately in my save his international status doesn't mean much. I've given up on Scottish players for my club as they're never good enough to get into the first 11, so their potential goes unfulfilled. The only Scottish player in my senior squad is my reserve cental midfielder who picked up a couple of caps at the end of last season when I played him in the first team after I'd won the league by the customary country mile.

[efrumttr]

I too have decided to give this a go after being inspired by reading through this thread. It was between France and Russia for me and I landed in France with...



Here goes, hope this works

SO Romorantin 2012-2013
The Beginnings

SO Romorantin hire Thelander as coach
Profile
Manager Info
In what may be seen as a surprise appointment, the SO Romorantin board has named a virtually unknown Canadian head coach as their new boss. Andrew Thelander, who turns thirty-three next birthday, was introduced to fans and journalists alike at Stade Jules Ladoumègue this morning.


Background
I couldn't find a ton on the club. It was founded in 1930 and they've been back and forth between the National league and the CFA since the early 1990s. Their stadium seats about 6k (and about 2k seated). I admit I primarily chose them because I really liked their logo and kits

Preseason
Board expectations: Avoid relegation. I'm still a fairly new player at FM in general so I'm also just hoping I can stay up.
Media prediction: 15th (to just stay up, then)
Wage budget: $24k, currently spending roughly $19.4k
Transfer budget: $101k (not bad at all actually, much more than I was expecting)

Squad
Overview
Information
Squad
Team Report

So as I mentioned earlier I've only played FM for a few weeks, I've found some pretty good sites that describe what attributes to really look at for each position. Player roles are still a little shaky though, so this could be touch and go. One thing that I have come to appreciate is having a rock solid keeper in the back. It's one of the first things I really look for in pretty much every game I've played so far. I think I've gotten pretty lucky with this team, though, as Cattier seems to have very nice atts for this level (he's my only 4* player as well). Hopefully he can hold things down and maybe snatch us an extra point or two now and again.

Other than that my squad looks decent, but not great. I'm really wondering where the goals are going to come from, as my attacking mids leave plenty to be desired and I seem to have one lone striker who has halfway decent atts. We might have to adopt a more defensive style initially until I can get some finishers in here. Oh well, I guess that's the challenge of managing in a lower league, eh?

The good thing is that I do have money to spend, so I can bolster the squad quite a bit.


Goals for 2012-13
1) Avoid the drop.
2) Judiciously use the transfer budget to bring in new talent. I want to do this gradually so that the squad cohesion isn't completely thrown off, so it'll be a balance.
3) Be financially responsible and help the club stay in the black.

I think that's everything...off to France I go! Good luck everybody!

P.S. Hope this post was solid, let me know if there's something I missed.

[aldojags]

Thistle are a fixture in the Premier League in my save, and often finish in the top half of the table. the closest they've come to actually winning anything was the Scottish Cup Final in 2024, where they played us and lost 4-1. Sorry about that.

They've been in europe a few times, and failed to make it to the Euro Cup Group stage by one goal a couple of times. Their star player has been a Scottish International mainstay who's scored 209 club goals, but unfortunately in my save his international status doesn't mean much. I've given up on Scottish players for my club as they're never good enough to get into the first 11, so their potential goes unfulfilled. The only Scottish player in my senior squad is my reserve cental midfielder who picked up a couple of caps at the end of last season when I played him in the first team after I'd won the league by the customary country mile.

Thanks for that mate! 209 club goals, legend! Already that guy is my favourite FM player of all time! hahaha. In the past, when I was Celtic in a save, I found Scottish players to be decent back up, but no-one ever really got up to standards of playing in Champions league. But they were good squad players, give them a game at home when your resting your stars.

[aldojags]

Pre-season report 2012/13.

Well I've been playing this save for hours already, but yet to play a competitive match. Just wanted to get used to changes from FM11, hired a whole new backroom team, and I gutted out my squad, moving on 21, bringing in 26, so pretty much an entire new squad, although a few of my signings were 16 year olds for my under 19s with decent PA.

Struggled in my first match in pre-season, mainly as I was getting used to changes in match engine from fm11, and getting used to my team doing a bit of tinkering. But I recovered to have a pretty decent pre-season, the bigger teams I played, I actually competed well, although Toulouse thrashed me, we actually played well and dominated possession. The Lille game was great, they had a good team out, not 1st choice, but still good team, and we were unlucky not to win. Pre season fixtures.

As you can see, my first game of league season is at home to Guingamp, who are favourites to go up along with FC Metz, both clubs squads look light years ahead of the rest, so I think my first game, although at home, could well be a tough one.

I'm still getting used to tones you can use in team talks, any of you found a good motivational speech? I've been pretty calm mostly, telling them to get fitness sorted, and it worked ok, but a few bodies "appeared disinterested" etc.

Happy with squad I've assembled, got a good blend of youth and experience, plenty of pace up front, need to see how I'll fare, as I'm a complete novice regarding French football, this could be good enough to keep me up, or I could bomb to bottom of the league. Media prediction is bottom of league, so I'm guessing I'll struggle.

Here's a few players I've highlighted, who have either impressed me in pre-season, or who I think will be key in me staying up..

Vincent DiBartolomo, steady centre half, along with Mikal Gamondes, will form a part of what I think is a steady back four. My main focus in FM is always to make my team hard to beat, get the keeper and defence sorted, you will never be successful without clean sheets, so I'm happy with the defence I've got.

In midfield, I've got a blend of steady strong central players, and got young exciting pacy wingers to supplement the steel in the middle. Got a few centre mids, Noui Lafa, Pierre Goazoui, unspectacular but steady players with decent physical attributes, hopefully winning and keeping possession for my creative players like
Ziri Hammar, young winger, still got a bit to learn, but going forward I think he'll do well, and could get a few assists for me. Also will be depending on Aboubacar Guindo, more experienced than my other wingers, he impressed me in pre-season, especially against the bigger teams. I might get him to tutor on the younger ones actually. Also worthy of a mention are Brahim Zenafi, may not start too many games, but my assistant fancies him as a 4.5 potential, so worth giving him a few appearances and he could do well in years to come. Fawzi Ouaamar also looks a decent prospect, as does Otman Djellilahine.

Got some decent pacy strikers, hoping if I give them the service a few of them can nick double figures this season, need goals to stay up. Nicolas Crus, and Abdou Dieye are just 2 of my 4 strong centre forwards.

Signed a few youth prospects, get them match experience at some point hopefully, although a relegation battle is no place for blooding youth, so they may need to be patient. Here's the pick of my youths...Bereket Teklehaimanot, Steve Vincent, Christophe Casabianca, Clment Diop-Degout, Enis Benzarti. Got most of them on free transfers, but apparently they've all got good PA according to my assistant, so I may have some good players for the future.

Plan for season

Avoid the drop at all costs.

Lose some more of the dead wood in the squad, identify some good players for next season.

Give the youth a chance when appropriate, bring the CA closer to PA of some of the prospects.

Wish me luck!

Edited to add, best of luck to efrumttr, will be good doing the challenge same time as you in France, we can compare notes! All the best buddy.

[aldojags]

Does anyone know if there's a badge/kit download for lower league france? If not, I've downloaded the badge, how do I put it in the game?

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Does anyone know if there's a badge/kit download for lower league france? If not, I've downloaded the badge, how do I put it in the game?

I believe the badges should be in the Metallic Pack, or Button logos, check the front page of the thread, on that 2nd post there should also be kits for all our leagues.

[PRDH]

efrumttr - So happy to see you taking on Romorantin! I had a great time with the back on FM10. I wish you all the best. I hope you can oversee a fantastic rise to glory.

[rlipscombe]

effrumttr - welcome to the thread. good to have another newcomer. hope you enjoy your game. good opening post too.
aldojags - good update there. sounds like a typical first season in the challenge, clearing out the deadwood and scouting around for a new squad. hopefully they settle quickly and you make a good start to life as manager.

[corinthiano]

Best of luck with Romorantim effrumttr!
Pretty busy pre-season there aldojags, I especially like the look of Abdou Dieye.

[corinthiano]

Real Sport Clube – 2020/21 Liga Zon Sagres

Liga Zon Sagres

Media Prediction: 12th
Board Expectation: Mid-Table
My Target: Avoid Relegation

League Table: 7th ǁ Position Graph

I was very happy with our solid performance this season. We started off looking like we were going to struggle, but once we hit our stride we never looked back. We even had a shot at European Qualification in the last game if we had won against Nacional da Madeira at home, but it wasn’t to be. The highlight of the season has to be our 2-0 away win against Porto, the first win against them in my career!

Taça de Portugal Millennium

Fixtures

After dispatching two easy teams we were unfortunate to lose out to eventual winners Moreirense on penalties.

Bwin Cup

Third Phase Group C: 3rd ǁ Fixtures

We almost made it to the Semi Finals this time, if we had managed to hold Porto at Estádio do Dragão, but they were too strong on that occasion and ended up beating us 4-2 and advancing to the next stage.

The Royals

Transfers 1 ǁ Transfers 2 ǁ Squad 1 ǁ Squad 2

This is the first window were we managed to make more money out of sales. All of the players were back-ups and easily replaceable, apart from Ahmed Fawzy, who just wouldn’t sign a new deal. I managed to bring in quite a few good players on frees again and had by far my best squad so far in terms of depth.

GK: Buick – Another great season by Buick, played in all games, was concerned about wanting to go to a bigger club again, but I convinced him to stick around.
DR: Raymundo Gutiérrez – Came in on a free and was given the task of replacing the ever present Antônio. Did well.
DC: Carazinho – Bringing this guy in January meant I could cash in on Menno Koops. Hasn’t been brilliant though and could be one to lose his starting place.
DC: Eid Sayed – Had a good season. I was scared of losing him, but a week before his contract was supposed to end he finally agreed a new deal.
DL: Seyithan Bilir – Keeps producing amazing performances at such a young age. Kayserispor have been annoying me with constant € 2.4M bids, but I am having none of it, mainly as he has just signed a new deal.
DMC: Bruno Fazio – I was honestly a little bit skeptical about him replacing Fawzy, but he convinced me with solid performances and got better as the season progressed.
MC: Esteban Cardona – Another good season by the Colombian, he has broken his leg though and will be out for 6 months.
MC: Emil Nowak – Also had a good season and rotated well with Esteban and Cléber.
MC: Cléber – Had to put in three guys there this season as they were equally good and played roughly the same amount of matches. Cléber also played as Advanced Playmaker when Elia Agnesini was out.
AMC: Elia Agnesini – Snapped him up from Roma on a free and he was a great signing, just a shame he got injured quite a bit this season.
ST: Yukinori Sugimoto –Tried playing the Japanese international as a supportive striker at the start of the season, as soon as he was given the poachers role he flourished, scoring 11 league goals in the season.
ST: Milton – Less effective goal ratio as he played a supporting role, but as important as ever.

Other News

Finances – A new chairman came and he decided it would be a good idea to take out a massive loan, so we are further indebted...on another piece of bad news, the local council blocked our stadium move.

This Season Targets

1. More comfortable survival Definitely, a much easier campaign
2. Score more goals Not a big yes, but we looked a lot more fluid and comfortable in the division
3. Try to improve the finances Big fat no, even with all the sales we barely made a profit, and only because of a massive loan taken out by the new chairman.

Next Season Targets

1. Challenge for a European place
2. Do better in the Taça de Portugal

I think we definitely belong in the division now and look like one of the better sides outside the big 3 + Braga. If we can keep our key players I believe we can get European Qualification, be it through league placing or a cup run.

Career Overview

Season       League                     Pos      Taça de Portugal     Bwin Cup        Europe             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                Europa League 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

[efrumttr]

aldojags: Good luck to you too! Hopefully we'll wind up as Ligue 1 and European rivals

rlipscombe/corinthiano: Thanks for the welcome!

PRDH: That's awesome! How far did you manage to take them? And thanks for the warm welcome too

[aldojags]

Pretty busy pre-season there aldojags, I especially like the look of Abdou Dieye.

I'm 8 games in and he's been dynamite mate, I'll post a mid-season update later tonight, the good lady has a works day/night out today, so it's FM and Gilette Soccer Saturday all day as of 3pm when she leaves! So I'll get a good chunk done today! But yeah Dieye has been undoubted star whether played as poacher in a front 2, or I've played him as lone striker and he's still scoring from the scraps he's getting. I only signed him on 1yr deal and he won't speak to me about extension at the minute so I'm panicking big style!

[aldojags]

Good season there corinthiano, definitely got a good young side there, hope you get into Europe this season and the finances don't mean you need to cash in on the assets. I especially like the look of the young full back Bilir, he'll be solid if you can hold onto him for another few years and further develop him.

[PRDH]

corinthiano - Excellent season pal! You've definitely proved you belong in the top flight and you've got the makings of an excellent squad there. How are the qualification places in your game? Finances are tricky in Portugal certainly, I'm still only really making money because I'm being incredibly strict with myself about wages and transfer fees.
efrumttr - It went pretty well, completed it in the 2026/27 season. Makes me realise how slow my progress has been in this version. Really need a proper break in Europe soon!

[corinthiano]

aldojags - thanks, yeah I dont think I need to sell any of my best players as I think I coud get into Europe with the current squad and make money from that. Bilir's improvement in the last couple of seasons has been amazing, he seems pretty loyal as well as he hasnt been unsettled at all by all the transfer talk, as well as being pretty undemanding in durng the contract renegotiation. He is my favourite player at the moment alongside Sugimoto so I hope he stays for a while! Great to hear that Dieye has started well, his acceleration and pace must be hard for defenders at this level to cope with! Eager to see how you did in your mid-season report

PRDH - Thanks! Portugal are currently 7th in the coefficient ranking with 2 CL and 4 EL spots, but we are some way away from 6th placed France and that 3rd CL spot. Our league is also the 7th most reputable in Europe (3 and a half stars). How is the Portuguese league in your save doing? I imagine quite well seeing you have had plenty of decent campaigns in Europe. Have the big 3 achieved any success?

[PRDH]

PRDH - Thanks! Portugal are currently 7th in the coefficient ranking with 2 CL and 4 EL spots, but we are some way away from 6th placed France and that 3rd CL spot. Our league is also the 7th most reputable in Europe (3 and a half stars). How is the Portuguese league in your save doing? I imagine quite well seeing you have had plenty of decent campaigns in Europe. Have the big 3 achieved any success?

It's incredibly close in the rankings at the moment. Especially for that third Champions' League spot. Portugal currently have sixth place and the third spot after we leapt up fro, 7th this season but we're also quite a long way off France in 5th. It's pretty close between Portugal, Turkey, Holland and Russia. We've stretched a bit of a gap in the last couple of seasons after Porto had a good season. They've not done anything this year though, not getting through the qualifying rounds.

It's been tricky for Benfica and Sporting because Porto and my team have locked up the top two spots for the past 10 seasons. Sporting snuck into the qualifying places last time we nabbed the third spot, but achieved nothing.

[Adam "Le God"]

Should be able to finally get going with my save now. I had essays coming out of my nose this past week but now it is the Easter holidays I can get cracking with a bit of FM.

[corinthiano]

I dont actually know how well Portuguese tams have done in Europe in my save, I will check when I get home.

Out of curiosity, at what detail level do people have their games playing? Ideally I would prefer having every club competition in Portugal and Europe in Full detail, but my laptop is getting on a bit and the game slows down too much if I do that. Do you think it makes a difference to the development of your gameworld?

[Adam "Le God"]

I dont actually know how well Portuguese tams have done in Europe in my save, I will check when I get home.

Out of curiosity, at what detail level do people have their games playing? Ideally I would prefer having every club competition in Portugal and Europe in Full detail, but my laptop is getting on a bit and the game slows down too much if I do that. Do you think it makes a difference to the development of your gameworld?

Just out of interest what does changing the detail level actually do to your game?

[corinthiano]

It changes the detail at which matches between the AI are processed. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I think that at full detail the matches are calculated entirely, like the games the human players play, whilst if they are not in full detail only a quick sim is done, and results are based mainly on reputation.