FM12 Big Euro Nation: Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[Romanista1994]

cameronross - Good luck in Germany!
Manku - Shame that the African Cup of Nations cost you. I share your pain in that injury crisis, had the same happen to me when I was looking to cruise to the title with Barakaldo in the second season and we eventually fell back to second and playoff defeat. I hope you'll come out better than I did.
siLKEAPE - Very young squad that, should see you dominate in a few years. I also find it very fitting that Ferrari's main assets are his speed and his movement.
PRDH - Sousa looks like a top prospect, fullbacks can be hard to judge at a young age, but he seems to have it all. His high Natural Fitness will be very useful if he becomes a starter and you lack options at rightback and the rest of his physical attributes are very good and can only get better. Reis will need a lot of work on his terrible technical attributes and his woeful positioning, but for the rest he looks like a good talent. The other two are a bit meh at this stage, but if you manage to develop them enough you'll have a lot of depth at rightback.

[Manku]

Promoted!

After so many seasons of frustations we finally got promoted. I'll write a report later.

[rlipscombe]

Manku - that's a pretty severe injury list there... were they all injuries in matches??
PRDH - some decent players there - Sousa is definitely the best prospect i'd say. think with some guidance he could become a top RB.

[rlipscombe]

As for me my season review will FINALLY be up tonight... (best thing seeing as i'm in February of the next season...)

[Manku]

rlipscombe - I would say 2 thirds were during matches. We had a very high load of games during November and December, due to successive runs in both the Cup and League Cup. I have a short squad, and even with as much rotation I could have, the players started getting tired. That might be the reason behind most of the injuries.

[rlipscombe]

SV Waldhof Mannheim – German Bundesliga – Season 2023/24

Season Review

League Finish: 1^st Graph Club Overview Club Information

The League

Mannheim sind die Meister von Deutschland!! A great season culminated in Mannheim taking the Bundesliga title for the first time. We were never out of the top 4 all season after week 1 and from the halfway point we were never out of the top 2. Our foundations were built on a tight defence and after a season long battle with Wolfsburg we peaked at the right time. It was a phenomenal effort by the squad and I am delighted to have taken my first title.


German Super Cup

Following our cup win we faced Borussia Dortmund with the aim of taking our first Super Cup. I expected it to be a tough battle but we performed well and beat the champions 2-1 having dominated from the early stages.

German Cup

After last season’s triumph I decided to use the competition as a training exercise for my squad players. We started with a comprehensive 4-0 win against Karlsruhe before we were drawn to play Hoffenheim at home. The reserves beat them 2-0 to see us through to the 3^rd round and a game against Wolfsburg. We battled well but we lost 1-0 ending our run in the competition.



Champions League

Our CL group saw us drawn against Atletico Madrid, Porto and Zurich and it was a group I felt we had a chance of progressing from. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out that way and despite running Porto and Atletico close we finished third and we were relegated to the Europa League



Europa League

So into the Europa league we went and our first opponents were AEK Athens. A 3-0 away win was matched at home to give us a comfortable 6-0 aggregate win. Next up was Anzhi who we had previously. We were drawn at home first and another 3-0 win saw us head to Russia with one foot in the quarter finals. We kept up our form and a 2-1 away win saw us into the quarter finals and a tie with Valencia.

We went to Valencia first and battled away to a 0-0 draw. The home tie was much tighter than our previous efforts but we managed to get the 2-1 win and we were into the semifinals of the Europa League. At this point I was beginning to think that we had a chance of getting to our first European final. We had to beat Roma though and we were nervous in the first leg at home coming away with a 1-1 draw. A big performance was needed in Italy and we came up with the goods in achieving a 3-0 away win to take us to the Europa League final.

Standing in the way of our first European trophy was another Italian team in Juventus. The old lady of Italian football had what seemed a decent team on paper but they didn’t seem unbeatable so I was optimistic going into the game. We had a nightmare start conceding in the first minute. Pirulito quickly got us back on level terms in the 6^th minute. What proceeded after that was one way traffic. We hammered at the door but we just couldn’t find a way through thanks to the heroics of their goalkeeper who had a stunning game. We went into the lottery of penalties and succumbed to a 4-3 defeat. I have to say I was a little gutted as we played so well but it just wasn’t to be and we lost our first European final.

The Players


Let’s take a look at the guys who helped us win our first German title:

Transfers

Squad 1 Squad 2

Goalkeepers


1. David Carroll - David had a good season in goal for the club and played his part in our debut league title. Part of me thinks I need a top quality keeper but he will do for now.
30. Kostadin Dimitrov - Kostadin was backup to Carroll but played a number of games and did well. Really think Dimitrov could become the clubs number 1 keeper in the future.


Full Backs

14. Migen Toma - Made the decision to move Migen to RB this season given my assistant saying it was his best position, and he rewarded me with being an integral part of our tight defence.
22. Andreas Schroder - very much a fringe player this season, the club captain will leave on a free transfer this summer.
2. Victor Escobar - Victor became a reserve again behind Toma. His future at the club is beginning to be put in doubt.
3. Rafael - Rafael was in and out of the team again and the German international did well when called upon. Good squad player.
20. Jonathan Lago - Lago suffered with injuries but did well when he played. Still my 1^st choice LB.
31. Slobodan Dasovic - Young Serbian LB who made the step up to the first team squad. Got a few run outs, he is one for the future.


Centre Backs

6. Everton - Everton was a rock at the heart of our defence and was a key player in our title charge.
15. Vasilis Baxevanidis - Vasilis was a good squad player again and did well when called upon. No longer first choice however.
35. Aidar Solosin - Aidar continues to develop well and was a rock in defence alongside Everton. Still improving he can be a real star.


Midfielders

8. Roland de Jong - Roland had a stunning season and was my player of the season. An integral member of the team, I will fight to keep hold of my Dutch star.
11. Pirulito - Pirultio had another good season and performed well for club and country. I am fighting off lots of offers for the Brazilian.
17. Andres Diaz - our Argentine winger had to bide his time through the form of Clovis but did pretty well when called on.
18. Simon Vennemann - Simon stepped up this season with Toma moving to RB and played well alongside De Jong. Will continue a battle with Teunis next season to see who plays alongside De Jong.
21. Marko Jakovic - Marko was a squad player this season due to the form of Pirulito and will likely be sold this summer given the potential of Delcroix.
24. Mario Teunis - Mario is rated as a wonderkid by people and he did ok when he played. Suffered a little by the form of Vennemann but he will no doubt bounce back next season.
26. Clovis - the Brazilian had a good season on the right flank and proved to be one of our better players. A key part in our strong midfield.
28. Constant Delcroix - Constant played second fiddle to Pirulito but did ok when called upon. A star of the future.
33. Jose Lemaitre - Jose is a young midfielder with potential and is one for the future.
61. Mikica Djokovic - the young Montenegran had to make do with being a squad player but he was a little unsettled. May need more game time to keep him happy.

Strikers

7. Timothy Veldman - Our Dutch recruit played a number of games in his debut season and did ok though a few more goals would have been nice. His position is under threat from Delcroix.
9. Dimitri Delcroix - Dimitri joined in January for £7.5 million from Lens and did ok when he played. Signed with one eye on the future I will be looking for more from him next season.
10. Theo de Graaff - Theo got some decent game time this season as I continue his development and weighed in with a number of goals.
19. Ricardo Freitas - Ricardo had another good season though he didn’t score as many goals this season. A powerful striker for us.
66. Godfrey Mofokeng - Godfrey rose to the challenge of improving on last season’s goal tally and found his form again. A good partner to Freitas.
77. Helder - a handful of appearances for the Portugese striker but he will leave the club on a free this summer.


Finances

A good profit was made largely thanks to our European exploits. With our ever increasing wage budget European qualification is becoming ever more crucial. Our youth facilities are being improved again which should hopefully help with the development of our increasing pool of youngsters.

The Future

After achieving the first half of the challenge I will now be hoping of some progress in the Champions League. Despite this I want to build a dynasty in the league and make Mannheim a German superpower. I will look to add a few key signings in the summer but most of the recruitment will be looking to the future.

[Andy Sava]

Half of my second season is gone and we are currently sitting in 5th place. The first part went well, obviously, but it could have gone even better. We lost, again, games that we should have won. I don't know if we can manage to get promoted this year, even if the distance between us and 3rd place is 6 points i don't think we can do it. But hey you never know. Geting promotion would be a huge boost for us from a financial point of view. If we don't get it things will be hard next season.

[rlipscombe]

Hope the second half goes well Andy Sava. 6 points isn't too big a gap to close down.

[aldojags]

Rlipscombe well done on your title! Such a sweet feeling the first one isn't it? Still to get my report up no internet access i'm on my phone at minute. I'll have a proper look at your review when i'm on the laptop as the phone doesn't show your screenshot that well. Sousa looks like he'll be top quality prdh. I'm 11 games into my next season, top by a point. My champions league group was again ac milan in with me, won at san siro for 2nd time in 3 years!

[Manku]

Ramon Ramirez's
Real Massama
2019/2020
Recap

Liga Vitalis
Media Prediction: 10th
Board Expectation: Top Half Finish
My Target: Promotion

Season Aims:
Promotion
Score at least 45 51
Concede at most 35 24

Table (Graph) | Squad | Transfers | Fixtures (1 | 2)

Liga Orangina (Stats):
After last season's failure. We were ready to give it another shot. The team had been playing together for about 5 years now, and the youngsters had now matured into the players I hoped they would. We started the season with an away win (2-1) in Portimao, tied with Pombal (1-1), and beat Estoril (3-1). After that we went on a 3 games run without winning. It was time for me to change. I had been playing the same way for 8 years, and though it was very successful in the past, it wasn't working for anymore. The team start playing at a faster tempo, and playing solely through the wings. Xia Zhenyu moved up to the CM slot to play as a BWM, and Yildirim moved back to the DM slot. We started dominating more on the midfield, and playing at a faster tempo, we started scoring. After the change, we beat Fatima (3-0), Pacos Ferreira (6-0), lost to Beira Mar (0-1), and then went on a 8 game unbeaten run. Then the injury problem started, we had already lost a couple players for the season, but at one point my roster looked like this, mainly due to the high amount of games we were playing – thanks to successful campaigns in both the Cup and League Cup. We struggled for about a month, but eventually the players started recovering, and an amazing (5-0) win against Beira Mar set the tone for the rest of the season, where we went on an unbelievable 6 games winning run, including a 82nd minute goal in the last game against Espinho (2-1) which put us in second place and promotion. It was brilliant.


Taca de Portugal:
As I said above, this time we played very well, and we went all the way to the semi-final against Sporting, with (3-1) aggregate, we lost at home (1-2) and away (2-0). On the way to the final we beat Prainha (6-0), Lixa (4-0), Farense (2-1), a very fortunate (1-0) against Benfica, and a convincing victory against Boavista in the quarter finals.

Portuguese League Cup:
A successful run in a competition I didn't care much about until later on. The first phase saw us in a group with Beira-Mar, Pombal, and Fatima. Two draws and a win were enough to see us through. We faced Boavista on the 2nd phase, and knocked them out after a (1-0) home loss, we went to Boavista and won (0-2). On the third phase, we got lucky and didn't get any of the big three in our groups, instead we had Uniao da Madeira, Rio Ave, and Nacional da Madeira. Knowing we could beat the first two, I wasn't sure about Nacional, but playing them on the last game made everything easier. We tied with Uniao da Madeira (2-2), destroyed Rio Ave (5-0), and on the last game we luckily beat Nacional, after they scored an own goal early in the match. After that, we faced Benfica in the semi-final, but this time we weren't lucky enough and lost (1-0). It was a good run, but so many games almost destroyed my promotion dreams.

New Players:
DC:Michele Rigione An experienced player I brought to help us win some tight games. He got seriously injured in December and was out for the rest of the season.

Note:I signed another guy, on loan, but I sent him back right away, because I decided I would rather play one of the youths.

The Players:
*youth product*
GK: Armand Bakayoko is probably my most important player. He is very good, and keeps getting better. Last season he went to the African Nations Cup, and we ended up in a losing streak. He wants out, hopefully I'll be able to keep him with us.

DR: *Diogo Fernandes* He was supposed to be the backup, but his pre-season performances were so good he ended up as the starter. He played very well, and I'm happy to have a homegrown player in my starting team.

DR/DL: Alex Kakuba The team captain, and best player in the past, was extremely disappointing this season. He got sent off twice, and failed to perform when it was needed, no wonder why he sat out in the bench most of the season. And, if it weren't for the team's injury problems, he would probably have played even less. His contract expires this season, and I believe it's time for him to go.

DC: *Pedro Fonseca* Another youth product, he was already in the squad last season, but only started playing more regularly this year. He took advantage of the many injuries in the squad and proved himself worthy of being in the rotation. He is the vice-captain of the team, and I can see him becoming the captain in a few seasons. I'm sure he will keep improving and eventually become one of the best in the league.

DC: Renan Felipe The Brazilian is the player with most appearances in the whole team, he has been a solid defender and has the experience the younger, more talented players, don't have yet. His reliability is definitely his best asset.

DL: Rastislav Straka Very strong defensively, Straka allows me to have an offensive minded left winger. His defensive security, has surely helped Bacharidis perform as well as he did this year.

DL/ML/AML: *Filipe Ribeiro* I always had a soft-spot for Filipe, probably because of his versatility on the left wing. He has been with us for many years now, and always did well his role as a backup. He will never be a starter. But I can count on him whenever I need someone to fill in.

DC/DM/CM: Xia Zhenyu Hands down, our best player. His positioning in the midfield changed the way the team played. He never gets hurt, even with all the travels he has to do for the Chinese National Team. By the end of the season, I had to prevent him from playing for the Chinese U-23 team so we could have a shot at promotion. He is the most professional player in the squad, and didn't even complain about it.

DC/DM/CM: Bjorn Brauer I always saw him with a lot a of potential to play as DC but eventually I realized that he preforms better when in the DM role. His versatility is very appreciated, even if he isn't quite yet the player I hoped him to be.

DM/MC: Emrah Volkan Yildirim Another great year for Yildirim. This season he played mora as DM, due to the swap with Xia Zhenyu, and he played very well. He is definitely become an influential player in the team.

MC: Buick Despite being very talented, Buick hasn't been able to claim a spot on the starting 11 just yet. He has been overshadowed by other players performing at a higher level. Maybe next season he will do it.

MC: Eugene Babych This season, Babych became the playmaker of the team. He played outsdandingly and, along with Bacharidis, were the top performers in the attack. He was the player with most assists in the League, and also feature in The Team of the Year.

MC/AMC: Massimo Francesco Piccinni He had some injury problems that hindered his evolution, he is back to being physically weak and unless he is able to improve on that aspect, he will never become the player he could have been. He was a backup for the first team, and rarely played this season.

MC/AMC: *Rui Alves* Probably the less talented player in the team, he does well when called to perform. I keep him on the team because nobody wants him, and he's a decent player anyway.

AML/MC: Giorgos Bacharidis Bacharidis is on of our top performers this season, he played brilliantly ended up being picked for the Team of the Year, and winning Best Young Player Award.

ST: Gonzalo Gallo He was injured during the first half of the season, but when he came back he scored 5 goals in 2 games. I was impressed and hoped for a monster season from him, but he ended up disappointing me and only scored one more after that.

ST: Krzysztof Sliwinski Started the season brilliantly, and scored at will. I thought he would be unstoppable, but he did get stopped by injuries, which too away 3 months of his season. I still have high hopes for his future.




Future:
Next season we will be swimming with the big fish. The goal is to hold in there. Hopefully I'll be able to keep most of the players, Bakayoko and Zhenyu want to move to bigger clubs. Lets see what happens.

Aims:
Survive
Cup Quarter Final
Positive goal difference

[rlipscombe]

aldojags - cheers mate. it certainly is a good feeling to get the first win under the belt. onwards and upwards from here.
Manku - congrats on promotion to the tp division. good luck staying there next season.

[Manku]

rlipscombe - Things are going well so far, I couldn't hold on to Xia Zhenyu (sold for 400k to some Cyprus side) but I did get a couple new guys. Bakayoko already has a replacement in case he leaves. So far I'm (3-0) and top of the league. I just beat Benfica away, I was lucky but it doesn't matter. Hopefully we'll keep playing the way we are.

New guys: Albert Morina (replace Alex Kakuba) | Pituca (replace Bakayoko) | Giuseppino Corallo (Replace Xia Zhenyu)

[PRDH]

Lusitânia Açores - Season Summary - 2040/41

With the change in angle of my save I'm figuring out how to adapt my updates, bear with me while I figure out how to best do it.

Finances

Key figure - £63,650,952 | Summary

Nice solid profit, as a lot of players left.

Club News

1/ Training facilities upgraded to keep them at the top level.
2/ Same happening to the youth facilities over the off season.
3/ One feeder team went down, the other got into Europe. Not too upset about the one relegation, it means I now have a club at every level of the Portuguese pyramid.

Transfers | Frees | Loans | Money deals

Transfers are obviously only out now. And they will probably start to top off pretty sharply soon too. This season saw a lot of established and semi-established players leave, the most notable being Tshimpi. The transfers saw a total of £22m come in and with nothing going out it was a pretty nice profit. A couple more transfers are lined up for this summer, and then after that they will really begin to dry up. Money will have to be made honestly!

Competitions

Domestic - Table | Graph | Supertaça | Taça de Portugal | League Cup

A mixed bag of achievements domestically this season. In the league we were dominant again as we increased our lead over second place to 13 points despite picking up fewer points over all than last time out. The most interesting tale is the continuing slide of Porto who dropped out of the top four this season and the great achievement of my feeder team Fátima getting up to sixth and a European chance next season.

The cups were another matter. We won the curtain-raising Supertaça in a 4-3 classic against Benfica but after that it was a story of penalty heartbreak for the team. The youngsters lost in their first outing in the main cup on penalties and then int he final of the League Cup in the same manner.

European - Group Table | First Round 1st/2nd Leg | Quarter Final 1st/2nd Leg | Semi Final 1st/2nd Leg

A season of almosts in Europe with some classic games thrown into the mix. We progressed through the group stages fairly easily before meeting Real Madrid in the first knockout round. A couple of absurd games left us 11-3 aggregate winners. We then played Celtic and again the goals flowed in an aggregate 7-4 win. Our run ended against eventual winners Liverpool however in a tight 3-2 aggregate semi final loss.

The Project

Players are home-grown unless stated otherwise. Progress towards being self-sufficient is running reasonably smoothly. There are still a few imported players about but considerably fewer than last season. Also with the planned departure of Palhinha and Bazan they will all be classed as home-grown by European standards. This is a nice mid-point tick. They have all been trained up by me, these are the last two leaving who went straight into the first team when bought.

Goalkeepers | Players | Homegrown all the way here, first choice and back ups have all been produced by the academy.

Nelson Martins - 7 apps, 9 conc, 2 cln - The club's number two, he's never going to be a world beater, but he's adequate. He's also starting to kick up a fuss about wanting first team football, I'm just ignoring him at the moment if I'm honest.

Ricardo Dias - 41 apps, 33 conc, 18 cln, 1 MoM - Undisputed number 1 and has that honour tied up until his retirement I'd have thought.

Gonçalo Santos - 1 app, 1 conc - Third choice 'keeper. Neither he nor Martins are going to threaten Dias for the regular starting spot.

Defenders | Players | Pretty close to the dream here too.

Jonathan Bazán - 2(3) apps - Formally a star of the side he has fallen out of favour because of the new system. He didn't really get a look in in the first team and is moving on at the end of the season.

Palhinha - 32(1) apps, 3 asts, 1 MoM - Another of the non-homegrown players. He is also leaving at the end of the season. He has been first choice for a while and was still this season, but I have confidence in those behind him being able to step up.

Ricardo Aleixo - 16(14) apps, 1 ast, 1 MoM - This youngster is the player I hope will replace Palhinha, he's not up to the same standard yet, but he is showing potential.

João Paulo - 43 apps, 9 gls, 2 asts, 6 MoMs - Great season from the centre back. He continues to improve and is the future of the defence. He is attracting interest from some big clubs but I plan to hold onto him.

Luis Miguel - 10(7) apps, 1 gl - The youngster is showing signs of progress and is turning into a decent back up to the main central partnership.

Saad Falah - 6(1) apps - Ditto for Saad. Chances should increase next season too.

Rui Lopes - 37(1) apps, 3 gls, 3 asts, 1 MoM - Has really come on since he was shunted up to first choice. The pairing of Lopes and Paulo looks pretty solid most of the time and think it could be good enough to win us another Champions League soon.

Stipe Pesic - 35 apps, 3 asts - He's Portuguese now, which is nice for the national team as it fills a need, stunned Croatia didn't want him though. He's one of the few non-homegrown players remaining, although he's been here so long that he does count as one for the Champions' League which makes me feel better about keeping him on for a bit.

Omar Omar - 1 app - Unlike Palhinha I am keeping Omar around for a bit longer. That's down to two things. 1/ He's younger and cheaper and 2/ He's on the way to being classed as home-grown and that makes a nice first step to complete self-sufficiency.

Duarte - 14(2) apps - Technically still a midfielder at this point, but is very close to becoming a right-back and that is where he made all his appearances. He doesn't look out of place and is improving nicely. Could replace Pesic soon.

Midfielders | Players | A few non-homegrown players lurking in this area of the side.

Paul Bossman - 14(15) apps, 1 gl, 2 asts - Becoming ever more comfortable in the first team. He's improving nicely and is putting pressure on Teixeira.

Miguel Teixeira - 34(1) apps, 4 gls, 5 asts, 1 MoM - Doesn't score many goals, but the ones he does are spectacular. He has made the position his own as the most senior player about, but there are challengers progressing. Won't be all his own way soon.

Carlos Daniel - 0(1) app - The top prospect from last season didn't get much of a look in this season, partly due to injuries but also because I just don't rate him yet.

Tiago Silva - 1 app - Another of the new boys not to get much time on the pitch. He appeared in only 1 match and that was a start in the Champions' League in the midst of a selection crisis. He performed adequately enough. Certainly gave me hope he may make something of himself.

Luis Ventura - 7 apps - Disappointing season for the winger. He is another who was brought in early enough to count as homegrown despite not being produced by the club. He is clinging on to his place at the club right now. Fortunately for him the Azorean players in his position are generally pretty poor. His time is drawing to an end I feel though.

Moussa Sidibé - 5(3) apps, 3 gls, 1 MoM - The winger is starting to make steps in the right direction. Regular in the cup squad and occasional league sub. Will he make it all the way, probably not, but he'll likely be a handy squad player.

Atanas Radkov - 1 app - Like most of the remaining non-youth academy players he is now classed as trained at the club because of his early signing. He is making some progress towards being a useful winger. I'm torn on him, he's not likely to be better than Tuominen and with him not being academy produced his time at the club is limited generally, may be one to leave sooner rather than later.

Paulo Jorge Vieira - 37(2) apps, 6 gls, 18 asts, 1 MoM - Not his best season in the shirt, but still comfortably the best player in his position in Portugal. Facing increased pressure from Santos, which is an excellent thing for the future of the team.

Sérgio Reforço - 1(1) apps - Never going to make it further than he has done now I imagine, probably keep him around for a few more years but will send him out on loan, he doesn't have the talent for the first team I'm afraid.

Luís Santos - 11(22) apps, 2 gls, 2 asts - Progressing brilliantly and starting to put pressure on Vieira which is really saying something. Has the ability to be another superb player for the club and with him six years Vieira's junior the succession is already sorted.

Álvaro Pinto - 14(9) apps, 1 gl - The first of the youth products is still plying his trade at the club and is still a useful second choice on the right wing. It's amazing to think he's approaching 30. Will start having to convince them all to become coaches too. Maybe I should try to make the entire club (including back room staff) homegrown eventually!

Sérgio Rodrigues - 30 apps, 9 gls, 18 asts, 5 MoMs - The right wing berth is very much his to lose at the moment, the one blot on his copybook being his susceptibility to injury. He misses more games than I'd like with niggling complaints. Fortunately we have reasonable back ups at the moment.

Domingos Gomes - 0(3) apps, 1 gls - One of the second string products who are battling to become a squad player. He's progressing well if not spectacularly and could turn into a player of the calibre of Pinto in the future. I'm hoping he'll be a versatile bench player for the next few years.

Lasse Tuominen - 35 apps, 10 gls, 16 asts, 7 MoMs - Potentially the most important of the imported players not just because of his supreme talent, but also because of the lack of left wing talent. Something I hope will be resolved soon!

João Silva - 6 apps, 6 asts, 1 MoM - An example of that lack of talent, Silva is the best left winger we've produced but really isn't good enough at the moment, nor does it seem likely he will get there. Please let me get a proper winger soon!

Forwards | Players | Another couple of imports here.

Nuno Rosa - 7(14) apps, 4 gls, 2 asts - A tricky one. He's not progressing as I hoped he would. In fact he has very definitely stagnated. Not sure what to do with him, I mean he's got to stay obviously as he's one of the better strikers at the club after Tigabe and Cardoso, but how to make him reach his potential, I don't know.

Mihajlo Djokovic - 31(1) apps, 22 gls, 5 asts, 4 MoMs - I'm worried about how I'll replace this guy when he leaves/retires. I find the playmaking forward role the hardest to fill. It may be a case of moving Cardoso across here eventually.

Pedro Cardoso - 40(1) apps, 29 gls, 9 asts, 5 MoMs - Had a tricky season for the first time in his career. Went through a really torrid spell where he couldn't buy a goal and started to struggle from the penalty spot too. Hopefully it's just a blip and he'll be back on form when the new season starts. We need him firing on all cylinders.

Abakar Tigabe - 19(11) apps, 12 gls, 6 asts, 3 MoMs - A real trooper. He fills in brilliantly and never complains about not being first choice. Whether I'll ever trust him enough to dump Djokovic is another matter. Soon I'll have to make the decision.

Martin Soos - 1 app - Feel for this guy, he arrived just before the new policy kicked in and has had a limited impact because of that. He's turning into a cracking player though and one who I'm sure will have a great career somewhere, just probably not with me.

Story So Far...

Season		League			Position		Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13		Second Division - South	12th			Avoided Relegation (just)
2013/14		Second Division - South 1st			Promoted!
2014/15		Second League		14th			Avoided Relegation
2015/16		Second League		2nd			Promoted!
2016/17		Premier League		13th			Avoided Relegation
2017/18		Premier League		3rd			Qualified for Europa League
2018/19		Premier League		4th			Europa League again
2019/20		Premier League		5th			Europa League again
2020/21		Premier League		1st			Champions!
2021/22		Premier League		2nd			CL Qualification again
2022/23		Premier League		1st			Champions!
2023/24		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2024/25		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2025/26		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2026/27		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2027/28		Premier League		1st			CL Semi Final
2028/29		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2029/30		Premier League		1st			CL Semi Final
2030/31		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2031/32		Premier League		1st			CL Quarters
2032/33		Premier League		1st			CL Quarters and domestic quadruple
2033/34		Premier League		1st 			CL 1st Knockout Round
3034/35		Premier League		1st			CL Quarters
2035/36		Premier League		1st			CL 1st Knockout Round
2036/37		Premier League		1st			CL Quarters
2037/38		Premier League		1st			Champions' League winners
------------------------------------------------Challenge Completed----------------------------------------------
2038/39		Premier League		1st			CL finalists
2039/40		Premier League 		1st			CL 1st Rd
2040/41		Premier League		1st 			CL Semis

[ri916]

I've been following this thread for the last few weeks and I'm amazed at the atmosphere and quality of updates so I'm giving this a go.

AS Cannes

Association Sportive de Cannes Football (commonly referred to as AS Cannes or simply Cannes)is a French association football club based in Cannes. Theclub was formed 1902 as a sports club and currently play in the FrenchNational after being promoted from the CFA in the 2011/12 season. Cannes playsits home matches at the Stade Pierre de Coubertinlocated within the city. The team is managed by Jean-Marc Pilorget and captained by defender Vincent Di Bartoloméo.

Manager Profile
Manager Information
Club Overview
Club Information
Club Facilities
Squad
Finances

The finances look decent but I'm not sure about the squad as I havent looked at it in any depth. The thing that will be different for me is that I'm not going to sign any foriegn players. I have seen how many foriegners you guys have in your sides and I want to take a different approach, using my own academy and buying French players. I dont know what sort of challenge AS Cannes will be, but they were the team that jumped out at me when I had holidayed.

I will do A preseason post shortly which will usually be at the end of every season update but as this is the first season i'll do it separately.

[PRDH]

Welcome aboard ri916. Good luck with Cannes.
Manku - Kakuba brings back memories, he was one of my first signings at Lusitânia Açores too!

[corinthiano]

siLKEAPE - well done on the Serie A title with that young squad? How do you reckon you will do in the CL?
PRDH - Sousa looks like a very decent propsect, good you managed to get someone for that position! Also, a very good season considering you youth policy.
rlipscombe - great to see you winning the Bundesliga, brilliant effort!
Manku - awesome you finally managed to get up to the top league, hope you can survive there without many scares, certainly looks like it from your start!
ri916 - best of luck with Cannes!

EDIT: I thought I had missed out on Europe but as it turns out another Europa League place goes to 6th place regardless wether the Turkish cup winner has qualified for CL or EL football, so we will be in Europe next season!

[Manku]

Welcome, ri916. Good luck with Cannes. It looks like a decent side, and having Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira as Icons makes the club even more interesting. It will be interesting to see you add some more french players to that already impressive list.

PRDH - Kakuba was a good player starting up, and I hoped I could keep him until he retired, but he seemed to want a wage way higher than his actual value. The worst thing about all this is that I'm almost positive he won't be picked up by any team. He will end up retiring at age 29, like many other players who were asking for high wages and then were retired by the game at very young ages. Despite all that, I guess I'll probably look back in a couple seasons and have the same good memories.
By the way, how do you judge the potential of your youngster? Do you rely on coach reports, or do you have a different method of assessing potential?

[Lower Leagues Rule]

...Well I may have lost my Parla saves, last night I updated Windows. This morning I turned on my computer and it wouldn't start up, so I am going to do a system restore. If I haven't lost too much then I will continue this game, but if I lost more than a season you will see me with a new club as soon as I set my laptop back up

[corinthiano]

That would be a shame LLR, know the feeling it is pretty gutting considering how far you went with Parla. Hope you get the save back and if not, best of luck with your new side.

[ri916]

LLR- If your save has gone then it's a great shame, but hopefully it wont come to that. Which country do you think you would restart in?

I just bought this guy for 300k. He has great potential, but I'm not sure about the training schedule.



I realise that agility and kicking are the things to target but would it be worth lowering his strength training to very low for a bit to either bring down his strength attributes or not make them increase as strength and balance arent really needed for a keeper. What do you guys think?

[siLKEAPE]

siLKEAPE - well done on the Serie A title with that young squad? How do you reckon you will do in the CL?

The Serie A title was indeed a big surprise! I would expect the players to become more nervous toward the end of the season. I won't stress too much with the CL just yet, which of course is an easy thing to say as our start in the group stages has been horrible. I am trying to build a squad with as much italians as possible and to upgrade the youth facilities to a decent level.

[ri916]

AS Cannes

Preseason Report 2012/13

Board Expectations: Top Half Finish
My Expectations: Top Half Finish
Wage Budget: £57.3k (49k)
Transfer Budget: £0 (I spent it)

Squad
Transfers

My starting squad is now all French! Isn’t that refreshing to see? I have managed to put together a team that I believe was just as good as the one before but probably not better in terms of ability. I like to be very precise with squad building so there are two players for each position in my tactic, which is a very attacking 4-2-4 with a winger and an inside forward. My plans are that the winger will get crosses in for the two strikers to attack and the inside forward will cut inside and either shoot or slot through my poacher in on goal. There is a ball winning midfielder to balance my attacking tactic with some defensive control and a box to box midfielder with loads of energy that can get on the end of crosses but at the same time can get back to defend. At the back I have a covering defender and a ball playing defender. The covering defender will be on the side of my wing back, whereas the more expansive centre back will play on the side of the more defensive full back.

As for transfers I managed to sign a good young goalkeepe rwho my scout recommended as having good ligue 1 potential for 350k. Worryingly my ass man only rates him as good ligue 2 but my scout has better judgement stats so… I’m hopeful .

As for the aims this year I’ll be happy if we finish top half but I do have a feeling that we might be ready for a promotion push so we’ll see.

[aldojags]

welcome aboard ri196 good luck with Cannes, in my save they rose with me to Ligue 1, and at present are a bit of a yoyo team between Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, but the potential is definitely there. My internet access has finally been restored and I'm working on my update at the minute!

[aldojags]

ES Viry-Chatillon Season Review 2022/23


Ligue 1

Media Prediction: 4th
Board expectations: Qualify for Europa League
Finished:1st
League Table | Graph | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

Incredibly nervy season! Started fantastic, my new recruit from Marseille Mattia Panagelli was scoring for fun, with 12 goals in my opening 10 games, we flew to the top of league. Panagelli then tore his hamstring, missing out on 14 league games, we struggled for goals sometimes but we managed to scrape by, mainly due to the sheer brilliance of Oneil Tatlot. By halfway point, we had amassed a 12 point lead, at that point over Lyon. Marseille and PSG were having a nightmare season.

But then I started dropping points I shouldn't have, and out of nowhere, PSG put together a fantastic run to get within a few points. They have a ridiculously talented squad, and at times I was resigned to them overtaking me, especially when they came to Stade Henri Longuet and turned us over 3-1, but it could have been about 7-1, we were totally outclassed. They eventually did overtake us, but then themselves went on a poor run, which due to some bizarre scheduling, left me 1 point behind them, but with 2 games in hand. Panagelli had since returned from his injury, but wasn't looking the player he was befoe the injury, so I took one of those football manager gambles, where you drop a key player, hoping his replacement might just give you something extra, so in came Mondor Kessou up front. Those 2 games in hand were away from home, to Lille then Lyon. We won both of them, very nervy encounters indeed-Kessou scoring the winner in both, to give us a 5 point lead with 2 games left. Our next game was our 3rd away game in a row, away to Rennes (where we won 5-0 last season) so I was confident.

Kessou kept up his run of form, scoring the winner for 3rd game in a row to give us the victory that sealed the first ever Ligue 1 title for Viry-Chatillon, we are the champions!!

Needless to say in true Viry-Chatillon style, our last game of season was at home to already relegated Lorient, who turned us over 2-1, but by then it was already wrapped up, we were the Champions of France, and in turn I became a legend of this great club! Also named Manager of the Year.

Europa League

Fixtures

Got to the 2nd knockout round, going out to Werder Bremen. In all games, I played a combination of reserve players and under 19's, and they really surprised me, the best result of which being a victory in Dortmund, with a team with about 5 or 6 starters under 19. A few of mu under 19's have really stepped up when given their chance, Maxime Reset being the best example.

French Cup

Fixtures

The kids/reserves were knocked out at home to St Ettiene on pens in the 11th round.

Coupe de la Ligue

Fixtures

Beaten 3-0 by Marseille in the Semi Finals, again, it was very much a reserve squad, was totally focussed on keeping top players fit for league.

Squad

Same as last year,bold will denote first choice, and a star* will denote an academy player.

Goalkeepers

Jimmy Lynch - solid season, including a superhuman performance in a 0-0 draw away to Marseille, was a crucial point, and if it wasn't for Lynch, we'd have lost 5-0!

Murahla - my two youth keepers made a couple of mistakes when Lynch got injured, I realised if I was serious about winning league, I had to have real quality back up between the sticks, so I went and spent £1.7m on this guy, he done well when called upon.

Marvin Angoma - still hoping he'll turn out well, but may loan him out this season coming. Is a regular in French youth squads.

Defence

Nathaniel Chalobah - great season from the centre back, got amongst the goals too, I set match preparation to "attacking set pieces", and for a run of about 4 games, he kept scoring at corners!

Karl Thorpe - solid partner at heart of my all English central defence .

Andrew O'Neill - young Canadian right back had a good season.

Cedric Hue - 6 ft 3 inches tall, this guy is a giant for me down the left, deployed as a wing back, he's fantastic. Only French player in my back 4.

Safoun Saidi - the surprise of the season. Got him on a bosman from Lille, the Belgian was soon capped by his 2nd nation, Morocco. When he got his chance, he was excellent at right back, and actually toward end of season was keeping O'Neil out the team. He's annoying me with his contract demands, he'd only been here 5 minutes, played well in a match, and wanted a new deal. I tell him to get lost, but he keeps coming back wanting more money, so despite how well he's played I might chase him, I've got a good right back coming in from Man United in the summer. It's a shame because he's a great wing back.

*Jimmy Donaldson* - my homegrown utility defender played well in Europa league, and was regularly brought on in the dying minutes of league matches I was winning narrowly. Regular in France under 21 squad despite his 1st nationality being Scottish.

Andy McMahon - picked this guy up from Man United on a bosman, he done well at both centre of defence and midfield, good player.

Mahmoud Rabie - half a million pounds for the young Egyptian, he looks like he'll be top drawer.

*Maxime Reset* - young centre half who played well and Europa and I'm hoping to train up to compete for first team, at least make a good back up player.

Didn't feature much, but want to show Bart Van der Weg, who looks like he'll be a top player. Got him for half a million quid.

Midfield

Oneil Tatlot - star of my team, sheer class, wins games on his own, regularly linked with all the big clubs, but his £100m asking price keeps him from any bids. World Class in my opinion. Established in the France midfield.

Ali Jelassi - Like Tatlot, regular for France now, and it's not hard to see why, fantastic player.

John Larsson - My holding midfielder, the Swede is important to the team.

Pituca - the Brazilian midfield general oozes quality. A class player.

Raul Gil - good squad player, contract up in a year though, and may want too much money, could be moved on dependant on contract negotiations.

Darko Borozan - the young Croat can't get in our starting midfield, so has to content himself with Europa/domestic cup appearances.

Daniel Sedlacek - able deputee for Tatlot in tip of my midfield diamond.

Strikers

Mattia Panagelli - fantastic season. Shame he got injured, missed out on 14 league games. League victory would have been by greater margin if he was fit, I have no doubt about that.

Tony Champion - scored some important goals in Panagelli's absence, but ultimately disapointing season from the Englishman. Will be looking for an improvement next season.

*Ilan Roger* - the 17 year old started many European games, and the odd league game. Really taking shape now, trying to brush up on his ball control stats, think he'll be a star for me in the future. Regular in the France U-21 team.

Mondor Kessou - will go down in Viry-Chatillon folklore as the man who scored the league winning goal. Gave us a great burst of form at pivotal point of season, scoring winning goal 3 games in a row to win the league when my other strikers were out of orm. Deal is up in a year, is 29 years old, I have quality strikers arriving in the summer, I may sell him despite his contribution in the final weeks.

Mohamed Diagne - season on the periphary of the team, couldn't get a run of games. Again, like Kessou, deal is up in a year, I may move him on given his age. He's a model professional though so it'd be good to keep him for tutoring purposes.

Samuel Preston - bit part season, leaving on a free to Wigan.

Rui Silva - may be part of the clear out, doesn't feature often enough to warrant his wage.

*Patrice Caron* - young striker I've got high hopes for. not as good as Roger, but could definitely make a good squad player.

Club Info

Finances - got a good amount of prize money for winning league, plus will have revenue from Champ League. Plus, a year on from Abidouns £9.2m move to Sevilla, he went onto Man United for £20m, I had a 50% transfer clause, so I'm getting another £10m over the next 2 years from that! Got 8th in the league in terms of wage budget. Still got lowest average attendance in the league.

Transfers - like mentioned above, the sale of Abidoun, whilst sad losing a club favourite, was a stroke of genius, as in total I've earned £19m from the transfer now he's been sold on. Spent a few quid on a new keeper, and a couple of young prospects. I've the lowest net transfer spend in the league.

Facilities - Well after last seasons bug/glitch, where I spent £5m on upgrading my facilities, only to see they'd stayed the same despite me getting a message saying they were complete, I've asked to have them increased again, so we'll see come January if it's worked this time!

Club Info - I'm a legend!

Got a couple of players in team of the year.

Now ranked 34th in Europe.

Trophy Cabinet - The National trophy was awfully lonely, so I've given him a new friend, the Ligue 1 trophy!

Got a few bosmans already lined up, some really good players coming in for free.

Brayan Guttierez - Colombian international looks the part, scored against me in the Europa league this season.

Daniel Schneider - Liechestein international looks a good prospect.

Sevki Gurdal - young Turkish midfielder coming in on a free.

Viv Cable - every year it seems I pick a player or 2 up from Man United, and this years no different, with the right sided player coming in to challenge O'Neill for right back.

Like Man United, Rennes is a club I often poach from, this year it's Vladimir Kralic, young striker I've been tracking for a few seasons, looks good.

Atila - winger brought in as we've no natural width, no plan b with the diamond in midfield, so going to give wingers another try.

Ante Livaja - winger also, hoping for good service to my front men. We're too dependant on Tatlot to create chances.

Next season: Well I anticipate a huge summer in terms of people leaving/coming in. This squad was good enough to win us the title...just! But if we're to win more, we need more quality, so a few favourites of my own and some club icons will undoubtedly leave, and I'm hoping to assemble to squad of 25 players of real quality, with the youngsters to supplement.

Past Seasons
Season     Division        Pos    French Cup      League Cup         Europe        Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13     National      4th      8th round        N/A                            Survived Relegation
2013/14     National      8th      7th round        N/A                            N/A
2014/15     National      1st      8th round        N/A                            Champions
2015/16     Ligue 2       6th      7th round        2nd round                      Consolidated
2016/17     Ligue 2       2nd      11th round       4th round                      Promotion
2017/18     Ligue 1       10th     Runners Up       4th round                      Survived
2018/19     Ligue 1       6th      11th Round       2nd round                      Consolidated    
2019/20     Ligue 1       3rd      11th Round       3rd Round                      Qualified for Champ League            
2020/21     Ligue 1       3rd      11th Round       4th Round         EL QF        Qualified for Champ League                        
2021/22     Ligue 1       4th      11th Round       Semi's       CL Group Stages   Qualified for Europa League
2022/23     Ligue 1       1st      11th Round       Semi's       EL 2nd KO Round   Champions

Season     Ligue 1         French Cup        Coupe de la Ligue                   Champions Lg          Europa           World Cup/Euros         
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/12    PSG             PSG                      OM                         Barcelona               Roma            Euros-Germany
2012/13    Lyon            Toulouse                 Lyon                       Inter                   Liverpool
2013/14    Lyon            PSG                      Toulouse                   Barcelona               Porto            WC-Argentina
2014/15    Lyon            Toulouse                 Lyon                       Man Utd                 Stuttgart
2015/16    PSG             Lorient                  Lyon                       Juventus                Man United       Euros-Germany
2016/17    PSG             Sochaux                  PSG                        Benfica                 Arsenal
2017/18    OM              Lorient                  OM                         PSG                     Arsenal          WC- Belgium
2018/19    OM              OM                       RC Lens                    Man Utd                 Barcelona
2019/20    PSG             St Ettiene               Sedan                      Valencia                Hamburg         Euros-Belgium
2020/21    PSG             Valenciennes             OM                         PSG                     Benfica
2021/22    OM              Lyon                     Lyon                       Arsenal                 Fiorentina       WC-England
2022/23    Viry-Chatillon  Lyon                     OM		               Barcelona	       Leverkusen

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Congrats once again aldojags, that was a great season there. Good Luck next year.

ri916 - Good Luck with Cannes, hopefully the changes you have made work.

As for my game, I have lost my Parla saves, the System Restore I created was buggered, luckily I back-up everything else to my other PC on a regular basis. FM Saves used to be the exception, now I will have to work on them as well. As for where I am going, I am thinking Italy, though not 100% sure yet.

[siLKEAPE]

Sad to hear that, LLR. Must feel awful losing a save after putting alot of hours in to it. Good luck wherever you end up starting!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Thanks siLKEAPE, it's pretty crap, but I will live, just have to get going again...still 5 months til FM13, so plenty of time to go again...

[PRDH]

Cracking season aldojags. Roger is progressing very well and I love the look of your midfield. Your starting midfield quartet are just pure class each one of them. Onwards to Champions League glory now then. What do you think of your chances next season?

LLR - That's horrible luck. Hope you find the motivation to get to completion wherever you end up.

Back in the Azores and I have signed a player. Hold your horses though, this isn't a breakdown in my new experiment already. It is in fact a striker who left the club 10 years ago. He has become a decent player in his time away and has been brought back to his first club. He's 33 now, so he's not one for the future, but the chance to bring him back to end his career in the club just a few miles from where he was born was too much to resist. He's also going to add some much needed depth up front. And hopefully I can convince him to join the club as a coach too.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Thanks PRDH, ​I will find the motivation, it is in part why I am moving to another nation, I can't find it in Spain again.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Right well the game is loaded, kits added, Fake fixed, Logos downloading, PC running and seeming to be working pretty well, only used 8GB of my data cap in 1 day lol. Now I have loaded Italy and have a holiday game running. Will report when I find a team I like.

[rlipscombe]

Ri916 - welcome to the challenge and good luck with Cannes. Look forward to seeing your France only policy.
Corinthiano - thanks mate. It was a relief I tell you!
LLR - that sucks mate. After it was all going so well… good luck in Italy whoever you pick.

[aldojags]

Best of luck LLR sorry you lost your save. Here's hoping for a successful career in Italy!

PRDH - I'm about start of December now and got 1 round of fixtures left in CL-and needing to win away to Kobenhavn and hope AC win at home to Valencia, if those 2 results go my way I'm into last 16, but I've been pretty average in Champions League to be honest, no chance of winning it in my opinion. Still a few players off the finished article in champions league terms.

Missing quite a lot of players at the minute aswell, including Tatlot whose just tore his calf and is out for 4 months, so I'll struggle to defend my league title I think. 1 point ahead, but missing Tatlot I would say severely cuts my chances!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Wow a lot of these clubs in Italy are 'new' clubs recreated after being excluded aren't they? A lot of matchfixing :P
Trying to decide which one to play with:
Salerno huge history that is wiped in FM as the club is technically new, but has a 37,000 seat stadium.
Chiavari Caperana: Very little history, but also wiped after exclusion and recreated, good looking club, but 1,368 seat stadium.
Ravenna: Another excluded club, this one was allowed to keep its history.
A few other options as well, right now leaning to Chiavari Caperana, but their stadium is holding me away from them...Nuova Cosenza is another good option, another new club, but massive facilities...

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I have found a smaller FM Stadium - Aquanera has a capacity of 400...WOW!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's A.S. Viterbo Calcio

New Club Update
June 29th 2012

The New Club

Des Tiny has signed on as the Manager of AS Viterbo Calcio (Viterbese), it is a club based in Viterbo (To the north of Rome). The club was founded in 1909, but went bankrupt in 2004 and was re-founded the following season. With no major trophies, poor facilities, and a 6000 seat stadium it is likely to be a long build up from the bottom, but it also means there is quite a blank slate for me to build from.

Preview

Predicted: 17th
Expectations: Avoid Relegation
My Aim: Avoid Relegation
Wage Budget: €8,961
Transfer Budget: €17,960
Wages at 29.06.12: €3,167
Squad: Seniors, Reserves, Under 20s

My Thoughts

Well we are a small club to start with, but I am going to work on building that up, and see what I can do. I think there is a solid enough base at the club, but I need to actually check out the players I have and then decide how much of my wage budget to use. I am hopeful that we can avoid relegation.

[PRDH]

Good luck LLR. Looks like a nice little team you've found there. Hopefully it won't be 'Tiny' for long.

One of my physios left this summer and suddenly my team are collapsing with injuries left, right and centre. It can't be all down to the new guy surely. He's only one of seven on staff.

Anyway, it meant that young right-back Sousa got a start rather earlier than expected and picked up his first win as a professional player. Hopefully the first of many...

[18Rabbit]

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

End of 2015/2015 Season Report, Salerno, Italy, June 21st, 2017
We finished 12th in our first season in Serie A, beat our expected position of 20 handily. Primarily this was due to the strength of our defense. We were 4th overall for conceded goals again. I think we should have finished a couple of positions higher but we ended our season against Roma, Juve and AC Milan on the last three games which didn't help us end our season. We ended 12-11-15, 38 for, 44 against. The highlight of the season was riding mid-table for the middle part of the season. We just start and end crappily, like a bottle of cheap Merlot.

Competitions: Italian Cup
We got knocked out by AC Milan in the first round. We were a little fortunate to get that far but we there's always next year.

Yearly Transfers
Here are the transfers we made this year: Transfers
We made a fortune on selling half of half of our players in co-ownership deals. I think the 7M we made from those deals was a big contributor to our being able to stay up this year. Also the change in our status let us pick up some very nice loans for the season.

2016/2017 End of Year League Table:

Promoted Serie C1/A: Verona (C), Varese (P)
Relegated Serie C1/A: Valenzana, Spal, Ballaria
Promoted Serie C1/B: Sorrento (C), Taranto (P)
Relegated Serie C1/B: Siracusa, Gubbio, Prato
Promoted Serie B: Brescia, Atalanta, Parma
Relegated Serie B: Novara (whoops), Siena (double whoops), Crotone, Livorno
Relegated Serie A: Pescara, Padova, Reggina
Serie A: ECC Qualified: Juventus, Fiorentina, Inter EC Qualified: Udinese, Napoli, Lazio

Here's my current squad: SQUAD

Here's my Profile and my Personal info.

And here's the Salerno information. Our reputation again has gone up again and now we're 22nd overall in reputation in Italy and 17th financially at an overall value of 20M. We finished 12th over a media predicted 20th. We made 8.3M on gate receipts and spent 5.4M on salaries. Overall our balance is the highest it's ever been again at 10.8M. Hopefully we can keep or delay decisions on most of our co-ownerships.

Youth Uptake
Another year of "Meh". We did get one AM (RCL)/ST that wasn't total ass named Daniel Dei but I'm not sure how he's going to develop. I don't think anyone from my youth has seen first team action yet.

Plans for next year:
Make some very careful improvements to my attacking squad and maybe a new DL and try and work up the table to the top half.

Previous updates:
June 28th, 2012
December 31st, 2012
June 18th, 2013
June 30th, 2014
June 23rd, 2015
June 13th, 2016

[Romanista1994]

rlipscombe - Deutsche Meister!
Manku - Well done on reaching the top league and a great start to the next season.
PRDH - League winners and CL semi final with a team filled with so many home grown players is quite awesome.
ri916 - Good luck with Cannes.
aldojags - Time to focus on winning the CL.
LLR - Viterbo! Been there and it's an absolutely lovely city.
18Rabbit - Staying up comfortably in the Serie A is never easy, well done on doing just that.

[ri916]

LLR- Good luck with Viterbo mate, it's a shame about your Parla save.

18Rabbit- Thats a solid season mate considering it was your first season in Serie A. Hopefully you can push up the table now.

I'm currently in October with Cannes. Definately looking like we can push for promotion this season. Not sure whether I should just play commentary only as I can get through the seasons quicker. What highlights do you guys play on?

[aldojags]

I play key ri916.

Best of luck LLR I'm sure you'll bring success.

18rabbit-solid first season there, your defensive record is fantastic, just need to score 20 more goals a season and you'll be challenging for Europe.

[aldojags]

Ah well guess the challenge will need to wait another year to be completed...out the Champions League at Group Stage. Only my 2nd time in Champ League, both times knocked out of group with 9 points, annoyed with myself, I should've qualified out of the group...only lost 1 match - away to Valencia. Won 2 drew 3 lost 1. Both wins were away from home, drew all 3 home matches, really frustrating. How can I win in the San Siro then conspire to get knocked out!! Won my last match away to Kobenhavn 7-0, Ilan Roger got a hat trick and 2 assist...he's still 17!

[aldojags]

right this is the 2nd time in 2 years this has happened, the thing with my facilities being "upgraded"

last year i spent £5m quid on upgrading both youth and training facilities. when i checked them on completion - they were still listed as "top" and "average".

well this year, it was £6m, and whilst the youth went to "good" the training facilities is still top.

this is £10m in 2 seasons on next to no improvements!!!! anyone else have experience of this?

[Romanista1994]

right this is the 2nd time in 2 years this has happened, the thing with my facilities being "upgraded"

last year i spent £5m quid on upgrading both youth and training facilities. when i checked them on completion - they were still listed as "top" and "average".

well this year, it was £6m, and whilst the youth went to "good" the training facilities is still top.

this is £10m in 2 seasons on next to no improvements!!!! anyone else have experience of this?

You can't go higher than "top" for the training facilities though, and there's six levels of "top". This thread contains all of the levels of upgrades for each facility.

[Manku]

18rabbit - Good first season, it's always hard to stay up in a league that strong.
Aldo - Tough break in the Champions league, it always sucks to go out like that. Roger is going to ba a legend.
LLR - Good luck for your new adventure. It sucks that you Parla save was lost.
ri916 - Good luck, for your season. I'm looking forward to read about your progress.

[PRDH]

aldo - I'd almost rather go out in the group stages than the quarters. At least you have plenty of time to concentrate on getting back there next season. When everyone will be a year more experienced. I think that may be the performance that marks Roger's arrival on the first team scene. He's got a massive future that lad...

[jimbowmanuk]

Okay after having success at this challenge with Elgin in Scotland I've decided to give it another go. This time I'm off to Lanzarote who play in the Spain's B4(LLR's Save from opening post). Known more for their tourism than their football I hope to turn this Island team into the best in Europe
My 1st season goals are to try for a mid-table finish(predicted to finish 16th) and sign one British Player, I've taken the view that a holiday maker might get spotted on the beach.

Manager Profile
Manager Information
Club Overview
Club Information
Senior Squad

[ri916]

Jim- Good luck with Lanzarote mate. Might have to go on holiday there and play on the beach, you might sign me up!

[aldojags]

18rabbit - Good first season, it's always hard to stay up in a league that strong.
Aldo - Tough break in the Champions league, it always sucks to go out like that. Roger is going to ba a legend.

I hope so!

aldo - I'd almost rather go out in the group stages than the quarters. At least you have plenty of time to concentrate on getting back there next season. When everyone will be a year more experienced. I think that may be the performance that marks Roger's arrival on the first team scene. He's got a massive future that lad...

Yeah I've gave him quite a bit of football, but I'd always bring him in and out the team, bench him some games, start him against weaker teams etc. But I've not been able to leave him out since that result, the game after that hat trick in Kobenhavn, he got a hat trick away to Metz! 2 hat tricks in a row, thats outstanding for any player let alone a 17 yr old.

His stats for this season so far, in all competitions: 26 starts, 18 goals, 8 assists, 7 MotM. So thats a goal or assist in every match he's played this season on average. Already looking class and he's still got a good few years of improving to do. He's now got "wonderkid" description. I wonder when French senior team will take notice. Maybe a few years from that...

[aldojags]

You can't go higher than "top" for the training facilities though, and there's six levels of "top". This thread contains all of the levels of upgrades for each facility.

cheers for the link romanista. so basically I'm not being ripped off! that's a relief! I thought you could get state of the art on both youth and training.

[rlipscombe]

LLR - good luck with AS Viterbo Calcio mate. Seem a decent club to play as…
18Rabbit - solid first season there mate. Keep that defensive record going and you’ll move up that league next season.
Romanista1994 - cheers mate.
Jimbowmanuk - welcome back and good luck with Lanzarote. I had a little dabble with them at the end of last season. Good luck.

[rlipscombe]

SV Waldhof Mannheim – German Bundesliga – Season 2022/23

Season Preview

So with the Bundesliga title in the bag the summer was all aobut consolidating what we had and looking to strengthen in a couple of areas as well as investing in promising youth prospects.

So without further ado here are the new signings.

Transfers

Full Backs

51. Ronaldo - 18 year old Brazilian RB joins from Santos for £2.2 million. He has 4* potential and could well be a star of the future. Ronaldo will challenge Escobar for the reserve spot behind Toma.


Midfielders

4. Andres Yanez - Andres joins for £5 million and was our biggest summer signing. Brought in to give De Jong competition.
22. Philipp Hamberger - Philipp is a player I have tracked for a while and I snapped him up on a free transfer. Another promising German prospect.
38. Rodolfo Cantoro - Young Argentine youth international signed on a free from Velez Sarsfield. Rodolfo could well be a future star.
41. Nasreddine El Kadiri - Another exciting prospect, this Frenchman is one for the future.
44. Branko Loncar - Branko joins on a free from Dinamo Zagreb and is a player I am excited about. He will probably challenge for a place in the first team squad this coming season.
Ayoub Saidi - Another young Frenchman with plenty of potential.

Strikers

16. Ronan Le Gal - A highly promising French attacker with bags of potential. Will feature in the first-team squad this season.
40. Javier Fahrasmane - Javier is a young Frenchman with potential (heard that before?)
Nikita Mikhailov - Young Russian striker signed from Spartak for £1.7 million. Maybe a little overpriced but good potential nonetheless.

The Upcoming Season

Overall I am happy with the squad I have and I am optimistic we can try and retain our title. In terms of European success I am hoping for progress from the group stage at least and hopefully we can make the quarter finals. I would be happy with that.

[corinthiano]

rlipscombe - I think you are trying to turn Mannheim into the largest French city outside of France

Some great signings though, the future certainly looks bright!

[PRDH]

WARNING: Potentially dull post coming up.

Right, so this isn't something I normally talk about, but my board have just negotiated a new sponsorship deal. Nothing unusual there you might think, and you'd be right, but it's not a renewal, it's a completely new one. Again, not that unusual, but it's also my SIXTH sponsorship deal. Where is there space on the kit for all the logos? I now have the following deals:

- 6 year main kit sponsorship deal at £2.37m per season. Ends 2046
- 6 year additional kit sponsorship deal at £1.17m per season. Ends 2043
- 2 year general sponsorship deal at £184K per season. Ends 2043
- 10 year stadium sponsorship deal at £2.01m per season. Ends 2044
- 2 year additional kit sponsorship deal at £255K per season. Ends 2043
- 3 year general sponsorship deal at £271K per season. Ends 2044

That's a pretty active board. Anyone got more?

</tedious post>

[Tony Hawker]

Decided to give this a go with Camara Lobos in Portugal because it had the lowest reputation of any team to get promoted after 20 reloads of 800.

Manager Profile
Manager Information
Club Profile
Club Information
Squad

There are only 6 real players in the team with the rest being regens so I'll need to bring in a lot of players, along with an Assistant Manager & Scout.

Stadium:

[Manku]

Just won my first silverware, I'll put a report up as soon as I'm done with the season.

PDRH Check out some of the kits for the brazilian teams, they have a lot of sponsors.

Tony Hawker Good luck with Camara de Lobos.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist’s 2032/33 End of Season Ejea Report

Season             League            Pos           Cups                      Europe     Award
East Stirlingshire
2012/13            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
2028/29            Sc Prem           1st           LC                        CC Q/F     Manager of the Year
2029/30            Sc Prem           1st           LC, SC                    CC Final   Manager of the Year
2030/31            Sc Prem           1st           LC, SC                    Winners    Manager of the Year
2031/32            Sc Prem           1st           ESC, WCC, LC, sc          Winners    (Unbelievably) Nothing
Ejea
2032/33            Spanish 2B        12th          None                      n/a        None

Having achieved the challenge in Scotland, I decided to start the challenge anew in Spain, but continuing with the same save.
I chose Ejea, a team that has never appeared in this tier of football before.

Initial Ejea Squad
Ejea's Non-Existant League History
Club Overview (Before I changed their strip to Baby Pink, because too many teams in our league play in blue)
Club Information


End of Season Squad
League Table
Transfers


Obviously a bit of a shock to the system. It took me a while to get used to the fact that, whereas the season before anyone with 3 and a half stars was pretty much world class, now a 5 star scouting report means nothing. I made a few mistakes with signings, although I had to sign somebody as the ones I inherited were absolute rubbish. None of those mistakes were disastrous. They were all 1 year contracts, so the ones I didn’t manage to sell are on their way out now.
We were in the bottom half of the table but very safe from relegation the whole season. It was disappointing not to even get near the playoffs, but we have a solid foundation now. Of course, the main part of the season doesn’t mean all that much as only 4 of the 16 teams in the playoffs get promoted anyway. Barcelona B were in our division and were by far the best team, not only in ours, but all 4 divisions. Luckily they have been promoted, so hopefully we can finish top next season, which would give us a slightly better chance of promotion through the playoffs.
There’s really not much more to say about the league. We weren’t entered for the Spanish Cup. I hope this gets course corrected next season, as we should have been.
I’m also the manager of Scotland, and that is going terribly. Given that the Scottish League is ranked 8th in competitions, with the same reputation as Portugal and Germany, we should have some good players, and hopefully they’re coming through, not least some East Stirlingshire alumni, but at the moment our defence is appalling. I plan to arrange a friendly between Scotland and Ejea sometime, but frankly I’m not sure it will be a foregone conclusion. We lost all 3 Four Association Tournament matches, and it looks unlikely that we’ll qualify for the World Cup. Hopefully I won’t get sacked and in a few years I’ll have a good squad.

[ri916]

Vikeologist- Thats a solid first season mate. Hopefully next year you can get into those playoffs and get promoted.

rlipscombe- Some good signings that will leave you in a good position for the season

Tony Hawker- Good luck with the challenge!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

There’s really not much more to say about the league. We weren’t entered for the Spanish Cup. I hope this gets course corrected next season, as we should have been.

Good solid season, as for this here, the Cup qualification in Spain is weird. It is not automatic, it is supposed to be All of La Liga, then all teams from Adelante (Excluding B Teams), then Top 5 teams from each group of 2nd Division (Then the numbers are made up to 46 from the rest of these divisions, again excluding the Reserve Teams), and finally the 18 winners of the Third Divisions.

(Though taking that into account, you should've won a league to be promoted and hence should've been in??)

[ri916]

The season came down to the last day to decide whether we would be promoted! Our second last match was against 4th placed Epinal, who we were just 1 point ahead of in third (top three are promoted, no playoffs) We completely crumbled to a 5-1 defeat and as we drew our other game with Epinal they had a better head to head record. This meant that they had a 2 point lead in the league on us so in the final game we had to win and they had to lose for us to be promoted. By half time in the match, although we were 3-1 up, Epinal were beating Amiens 1-0 so I just started the second half and minimised to check the forums. When I reopened the game I was greeted with the news that we had won 4-2, so I gave an encouraging team talk and pressed continue, covering the league table with my hand. I then proceeded to the results screen and I was greeted with this! We are going up say we are going up!

Will have the season update up soon. It might be tomorrow as like many of you I'm planning on watching the euro's.

[aldojags]

Congrats ri916 promotion in your first season is a fantastic achievement, took me 3 seasons to get out the National.

[rlipscombe]

Corinthiano - ha ha!! I did sign a few Frenchman there didn’t i!! not a deliberate ploy…
Tony Hawker - welcome to the challenge. Good luck
PRDH - love the dull post!! That is a lot of sponsors…
Vikeologist - solid first season there mate. Solid foundations.
Ri916 - well done on promotion!! Great start…

[aldojags]

PRDH I have 2 kit sponsorships, main which is £2.22 million per year, the 2nd which is £1.72 million a year. So basically your team are walking advertisement boards! Lusitania Acores home kit!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

PRDH - On the Sponsorship front, I believe I had 6 at one point with Parla, I would have to look back through the screenshots on here, but I believe it was: 1 Stadium, 1 Main Kit, 2 Additional Kit & 2 General Sponsorships.

The way I saw it related to the Wellington Phoenix: 1 Stadium = Westpac Stadium, 1 Main Kit = Sony across front, 2 Additional = TAB on Sleeve, Nova Energy on rear, 2 General Sponsorships = Rembrandt (Official Clothing Supplier), The Grand (Official Bar).
In actual case the Nix have another kit sponsor (4 Total), and 6 Total General Sponsors.

I think what I am trying to get across is that in reality teams do have this many sponsors, though not sure in Europe how many of the Sponsors are actually on the kits.

[aldojags]

Got this years youth intake, nothing of note. Got a 3 star attacking midfielder whose attributes aren't that impressive so I won't be holding my breath.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Aldojags - I actually like Pruvot as a Left winger if you play with them? His only real weakness is Strength, and if you are playing him as an attacking winger then speed is more important (Train him with knocks ball past opponents), then individual training on his crossing and he looks pretty good. Acceleration, Balance, Agility, Pace, Dribbling, and Flair are all at good values already. I think you could train him into a pretty good left wing.

[PRDH]

aldo - Yeah, not sure about your midfielder. Doesn't look impressive but three stars should, in theory, mean a decent squad player at least in the future. Will be interesting to see how he progresses.
LLR - Well, in that case my board aren't working hard enough! I'm pretty sure my team in real life (Norwich) only has one sponsor on the shirt, and then the maker's logo.
rlips - Just for you I'll post other bits of pointless trivia more often!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

LLR - Well, in that case my board aren't working hard enough! I'm pretty sure my team in real life (Norwich) only has one sponsor on the shirt, and then the maker's logo.

Correct, in Europe it is a lot more rare to have multiple sponsors logos on the kits. I am not sure if I can think of an English Prem team with more than one Sponsor on their shirt.

[rlipscombe]

Correct, in Europe it is a lot more rare to have multiple sponsors logos on the kits. I am not sure if I can think of an English Prem team with more than one Sponsor on their shirt.

i MAY be wrong but i think there may be some sort of law banning it?? Something tells me can only have a sponsor of a certain size in a certain position...

[aldojags]

Aldojags - I actually like Pruvot as a Left winger if you play with them? His only real weakness is Strength, and if you are playing him as an attacking winger then speed is more important (Train him with knocks ball past opponents), then individual training on his crossing and he looks pretty good. Acceleration, Balance, Agility, Pace, Dribbling, and Flair are all at good values already. I think you could train him into a pretty good left wing.

aldo - Yeah, not sure about your midfielder. Doesn't look impressive but three stars should, in theory, mean a decent squad player at least in the future. Will be interesting to see how he progresses.

Yeah I've signed him up along with the 2.5 players just to see how they go, 3 stars as you say should mean he'll be a very handy player in terms of my squad, so I'll persevere. 14 is still very young I suppose, be 3 years or so until I get a look at what sort of player he can be.

[rlipscombe]

Question for you all... What would you have done in my situation (i have played it out):

January window - Chairman accepts an offer of about £19 million for Ronald de Jong. Currently on £38k p/w which is top wage at club. Would you:

a) Let him leave and take the money
b) offer a new contract to keep him. He wants £60k p/w.

Do you keep him or let him go......??

[aldojags]

Depends on your situation rlipscombe, are you sound financially? How integral is he to you? I would immediately jump to player search and see how much a replacement would cost, I'd be sure I could find a suitable replacement for less than 19m, so I think I'd let him go...

[ri916]

Rlipscombe- I would offer him a new contract because you will make back the money lost in wages by selling him for more than 19 million, as I think you could get more for a player of his quality.

[PRDH]

I think I'd probably have let him go rlips. If he's already your highest earner and you're almost doubling his wage, then it becomes a bit absurd. But then again I'm very prudent with my finances - almost to a fault.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Rlipscombe - Makes sense for the sponsorship on shirts being a rule. As for the player, for me it depends who the offer is from, if it is a foreign club I would probably let him go, a domestic club I would put up a fight. Of course if he is a central part of my team then I would probably fight no matter what, though even at Parla I think everyone was able to be let go...

[ri916]

AS Cannes Season Review 2012/13

National

Media Prediction: 6th
Board Expectations: Top Half Finish
Finished: 3rd
League Table I Graph I Fixtures 1 I Fixtures 2


An Incredible season here at Cannes, but hopefully the first of many! The key to our season was that we didn't have massive slumps. We never set the world a light but we were always picking up points meaning we were usually 3rd or 4th all season. As explained in the post above, the league came down to the final day and before kick-off and even at halftime it looked impossible that we would go up. Somehow Amiens managed to turn their game with Epinal on its head which meant that our 4-2 win over fellow National Newbies Raon-l'etape was enough for promotion! What I didn't mention in the earlier post was that we only went up due to having a better record against Amiens, and I admit I did feel sorry for them after they helped us to get promoted. We also had a worryingly bad disciplinary record topping both the yellow and red card tables. At one point we had 6 players out suspended which is bordering on ridiculous but we managed to get through it so I can't complain to much.As for the cups, I got knocked out of the Coupe de la Ligue at the first hurdle and only got through the 6^th Round of the French cup before going out to National Opposition.


Squad- Surprisingly few 7+ ratings but It just shows that it was a team effort. This also shows that my whole squad is French, I haven't played any non-French players.


Top Scorer: Vincent Le Mat. Scored 14 goals in 26 appearances after being signed for 100k. Came good at the end of the season scoring 7 goals in the last 9 games.


Player of the Season: Michael Nelson. He has been an ever persistent force at the back this season, playing every minute of every game and chipping in with a few goals and assists.


Other Notables


Gaetan Sidney- He has been running rings round full backs on the right wing all season and has made quite a few goals


Mathieu Robail- Another assist machine on the left wing but he is on loan so he wont be with us next year.


Club Info


Finances- Although we are in the Black that's only due to about £5 million investments. This is a real problem and I'm going to have to lower the wage bill and have a much thinner squad if I want to keep us afloat. I will also have to sell some players and cannot afford to buy anyone.


Facilities- No change


Club Info- No change


Transfers- There was a massive overhaul this year and I spent quite a lot of money. There will probably be another overhaul as only a few players are good enough for Ligue 2. I will also be looking for a negative net transfer spend next year to balance the books.


Summary

A very good season and a great start to the challenge. I am enjoying the challenge and I'm still buzzing from the final day of the season.I'm now just going to try and spend a few seasons in Ligue 2 and get some youngsters in on Bosmans (I already have a few lined up) I will let these players develop with the team and take us to Ligue 1. I have got rid of the foriengers, now I've got to get rid of the old players!

  Season       League           Position            Achievements                 Top Goalscorer (Goals)    Player of the Season  
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                        
  2012/13       NAT               3rd                Promotion                     Vincent Le Mat (14)        Mickael Nelson

[ri916]

I've been pasting my updates from word and I've been having problems like not all spaces between words showing. This means I have to go throught he whole post finding the missed spaces. I think it's probably the font I'm using so I wanted to know what font is the default for these forums? Then I will use that for my updates.

[aldojags]

Well done on promotion ri916. I think you'll be surprised at how you adapt to Ligue 2, I was expecting to plummet straight back down, and I came 6th in my 1st season.

[corinthiano]

Hacettepe Spor Kulübü 2018/19 – Spor Toto Süper Lig

Spor Toto Süper Lig

Media Prediction: 16th
Board Expectation: Avoid Relegation
My Target: Mid-Table

League Table: 6th ǁ Position Graph

After a slow start we really started playing some nice attacking football and looked like we belonged near the top of the league all season. The league was really tight until about 6 matches to go when the big teams started winning important matches. We oourselves lost to Gala and Fener in the third and second before last game, which put us on a delicate position in the final game.

Ourselves and Bursaspor were on 58 points in 5th and 6th respectively, whilst Göztepe where on 57 and Kayserispor on 56. In the final round it was Göztepe vs. Bursaspor and Kayserispor vs. Hacettepe, with only one of the teams (5th place) assured European football in the following season. Both games were tense and ugly and were both heading toward goalles draws. A better head to head result against Bursaspor meant we were securing 5th spot, but in the 89th minute Göztepe scored to break Hacettepe’s fans hearts. Luckily for our parent club Gençlerbirligi lost in the cup final to Galatasaray and whilst I thought they would get the EL place due to Gala only being in the EL themselves, I was pleasantly surprised to see that last spot go to us 

Ziraat Türkiye Kupası

Fixtures

I nice easy win against a third tier side was followed by an impressive hammering of Trabzonspor away from home. Eventual winners Galatasaray were much better than us and the 1-0 loss in the quarters could have been worse.

Hacettepe

Transfers ǁ Squad - Defence ǁ Squad - Attack

A lot of movement again this year as I let go the players I didn’t think were cut out for the Süper Lig. For the first time I was allowed to spend a little money, which was nice. I also started investing in youth players, with mixed results so far. On the outgoing front the big story was the sale of Al-Sallal, who’s agent hated me. His deal was going to end at the end of the season so I decided to cut my losses. The fans weren’t too happy, but meh, we survived well enough without him and his winging agent.

First XI

*denotes a Hacettepe youth product

GK: Volkan Babacan – Another solid season by the experienced goalie.
DR: Ferami Kusçu – An OK solution to our RB problem, still not 100% satisfied though.
DC: Murod Holmuhammedov – Was off quite a bit this season with the U-23 Asian games and the Asian Cup, we did miss him in those games.
DC: Nida Güngör – This was a guy I had been tracking for a long time. He never wanted to join on loan so when Fenerbahçe put him in the transfer list for peanuts I jumped at the chance to sign him. Didn’t perform quite as expected but I think he will improve.
DL: Ham Ji-Young – Made the LB spot his own this year. Great season.
DMC: Mirko Maric – Moved back to the anchor man role as planned and did a good job there.
MC: Tomás Farfán – This guy is starting to perform really well. I think he is a bit injury prone, but when he was fit he was amazing. I think I made an error in playing him as MC, for some part of the season, so will look to move him to AMC next season.
MC: Alberto Martínez – Brought in on a free from Olimpia, had a decent season.
AMC: Abdel Aziz Saber – The envisioned replacement for Al-Sallal. Not quite as good but he did well, will swap positions with Farfán next season as his better physical stats suit the Box to Box role better.
ST: John García – A bit irregular this season, although he can win games when he has his day.
ST: Mustafa Semih Kepoglu – A much better season from the young Turkish player, he has a knack for cutting in and hitting awesome shots in the top corner. He will have a lot more competition next year though. He even won the Young Player of the Year award!

Others

Antonio Jozinovic – Continued doing a good job as squad player, as I demand a lot physically from my midefielders.
Azer Abbsasov – Same as above. Also, he decided to play for Azerbaijan and has a handful of caps already.
Kamil Ahmet Çörekçi – Another short term quest for a RB, was OKish.
Shohruh Mirabdullaev – Happy to find another Uzbekistani (who don’t count as foreign) with some potential and a lot cheaper than a Turkish player of this ability would cost. I reckon he could see more games next season.

Other News

Finances – I was a bit wary to spend too much of the € 1.5 M transfer budget I was given seeing as we only made a decent profit for a year and I was right as we made a bit of a loss. Hopefully Europe will balance the books next season.

Awards wise I came second in theManager of the Year award, whilst Hacettepe won the Fair Play Award as well as being the overachievers of the season. Another good piece of news was that the Besiktas board were withdrawing their financial support, which gives us a better chance to compete with them. And finally, my feeder club Gümüshanespor won the third tier with the help of a load of my youngsters!



This Season Targets

1. Mid-Table Safety. Yes and some more, very happy with European Qualification.
2. Better performances against the big teams.. No – Only beat Gala in the league and did a double over Bursaspor who had a pretty bad season.

Next Season Targets

1. Qualify for Europe.
2. Better performances against the big teams.
3. Get past a couple of rounds in the Europa League.

We have a good base now to start being taken seriously in Turkey now. I am hoping against better games against the big boys again as they made some difference last season, could have been much better with good results. I don’t think we will get to the group stages of the Europa League, but it would be nice to at least lose to good opposition.

Career Overview

Season       League          Pos        Türkiye Kupası        Europe           Other Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13      2. Lig          2nd        Second Round          N/A              Lost in Playoff Semi-Finals
2013/14      2. Lig          3rd        First Round           N/A              Lost in Playoff Quarter-Finals
2014/15      2. Lig          2nd        First Round           N/A              Lost in Playoff Semi-Finals
2015/16      2. Lig          1st        Quarter-Final         N/A              Promotion
2016/17      1. Lig          4th        Third Round           N/A              Promotion via Playoffs
2017/18      Süper Lig       11th       Quarter-Final         N/A              None
2018/19      Süper Lig       6th        Quarter-Final         N/A              Qualified for Europa League

[ri916]

Corinthiano- A great season in Turkey for you, european qualification is brilliant!

Aldojags- Didnt you win the National though Aldo? I hope that I can emulate your success in the step up!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's A.S. Viterbo Calcio

Preseason Update
August 22nd 2012

The New Guys

02.07.12 --> Tomislav Grcic (DM) - The first thing for me in lower levels is getting a solid anchorman, and I don't think I was going to find one better than this guy. Very good physically, and also a good tackler and marker, he will support my central defenders very well.
03.07.12 --> Francesco Frijio (AML) - Normally I would be more worried about building a spine early on, but when I was offered this left wing (A very weak position at the club) I couldn't turn him down. For an 18 year old he is pretty good, I am still looking for another left wing.
06.07.12 --> Leonardo Orsi (DC) - Back on track and building my defense saw me sign our second guaranteed starter. Orsi will be the rock of our defence and have a younger player alongside him. Solid right across the duties he will need to cover as my central figure at the back.
07.07.12 --> Domenico Di Fusco (DC) - One of the possible younger options, but within 8 days at the club I have greatly improved the centre of my defence with three very solid signings.
08.07.12 --> Luca Riberto (ST) - The other important feature of my club is a solid advanced forward who can both score and hold up the ball for the others coming through. I managed to find this Italian veteran for my side, and I am very happy with his attributes. Fast, strong, and a bit of flair.
13.07.12 --> Manuel Cervini (MC) - A solid 23 year old with reasonable stats, for the supportive midfield role I need someone who can play support forwards, and backwards, he is that guy.
29.07.12 --> Leonardo Ciocca (GK) - The final piece of a good spine to the club is a solid keeper, now I have been unable to sign any of the better ones because of my wage limits, but this guy is good enough, and he will stop the shots that get through my defence.
02.08.12 --> Ivan Aiardi (GK) - I wanted him as a GK Coach, but he wanted to play, signed on as both will tutor my young keeper.
04.08.12 --> Joseph Pisano (ST) - A young back-up for Riberto, he is reasonable at the job already, but he will get better.
07.08.12 --> Domenico Bombara (DL) - After building the middle of the team the four wide players also need to be upgraded, Bombara is the best left back I could find, he is solid across the board, but nothing stands out.
09.08.12 --> Fabio Di Fausto (DR) - Following on from Bombara, it made sense to fill in the other side of the pitch. Di Fausto is the improvement I needed there, while reasonable attributes are the key here.
10.08.12 --> Federico Casino (MC) - A young back-up for my midfield, solid and needs some mental work, but will improve.
11.08.12 --> Marco Galiano (MC) - Another youngster to provide some midfield cover.
13.08.12 --> Luigi Panarelli (DRC) - I have made a habit of picking up a few youngsters, this guy provides cover at right back, and can come on in the middle if needed as well.
21.08.12 --> Arturo Zuccarelli (DC) - He has been signed as another option at the middle of the back, it now means I have what I see as three good options for my defensive line.

Friendlies

We played 5 easy teams and won 4 of those games, and I had decided to finish it off with a game against Serie B side Bari, and I thought the boys stepped up quite well and we ended up with a 1-0 loss. Really overall I am happy about the results and will see where it goes into the regular season.

My Thoughts

I am happy with the team, I think we have a chance to push forward and I will be playing with the aim of qualifying out of our group in the Serie C Cup. Then comes the league season where my only aim can be to avoid relegation. So without further ado here is my starting XI for the season:

GK: Leonardo Ciocca
DR: Fabio di Fausto
DC: Leonardo Orsi
DC: Arturo Zuccarelli
DL: Domenico Bombara
DM: Tomislav Grcic
MC: Manuel Cervini
MC: David Corsaro
AMR: Emanuele Morini
AML: Francesco Friji
ST: Luca Riberto

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well Riberto showed his skills with a very quick debut goal, 23s into our first game and he scores.

[Andy Sava]

First of all i want to wish good luck to those who started the challenge since my last post.

As for my team, we hae a few more games left and the distance between us and 3rd place is 8 points now. Like last season, we droped points where we should not. During the season i changed from my 4-1-2-1-2 to a more wide approach of 4-5-1. The reason for this change was that with my 4-1-2-1-2 the team didn't create as many goal chances as i wanted, we were managing not to lose games but we were not winning many either.

I guess i'll have to play another season in the third division which will hurt my finances.

End of season report will probably come tonight.

[G-Wiz]

wow, a lot of new faces in the challenge since i last checked in. Good to see so much progress, and so many people still active in here. As for Ac Viseu, i kind of lost interest a little in the last few months, and i havent been able to spend much time on my save due to work commitments, but im back and firing on all cylinders to get through my first season in the top tier of portuguese football. It became apparent pretty quickly that my squad wasnt strong enough to compete as it was, so there are a number of new faces who i will introduce in my end of season review. Coming soon!

[rlipscombe]

Ri916 - congratulations again on promotion. Le Mat looked a great player for that level – think he should be pretty good for Ligue 2. Extra praise for the all-french squad again also.
Corinthiano - well done on the improvement again and also great news about European football! Good luck pushing even further next season.
LLR - lots of new signings there! The Bari score gives optimism that you will do ok this season. Good luck.
G-Wiz - good to have you back mate and good to hear the passion is back. Looking forward to seeing how you got on.

As for me and my de Jong poser, I actually decided to offer him the contract of £59k p/w as a gesture I thought was a tame effort to keep him. However he decided to stay so my best and key player stays, albeit on a larger contract! Although the wage is similar to one I refused to offer Pirulito, de Jong is the heartbeat of my team and a driving force. Oh and the bidder was a foreign team but I can’t remember which as I have finished the season again!!

[aldojags]

corinthiano - well done on Europe, and I really like the look of Farfan.

ri916 - Yeah I won the National in my 3rd season, then came 6th in Ligue 2. But I think from looking at your squad, you'll survive no probs I'm sure of it.

LLR - plenty of transfers there hope you get them gelled quickly and have a good season

rlipscombe - well never a bad thing to keep your star player, good sign that he'd rather stay with you. I'm going to start having to offer money like that to keep my top players, a lot of them expiring next 2 season.

[rlipscombe]

aldojags - i know. normally i am loathe to offer big wages but as our stock rises and we look to win top prizes it has to be done unfortunately. he is definitely the exception to the rule though. most players still on 'modest' wages...

[aldojags]

I've just had to offer £19k per week to Ilan Roger, he's only just turned 18. I initially offerred £5k per week but his agent was having none of it. He's my top scorer this season so far so can't really argue. But my wage bill is climbing all the time. As you say it needs to be done if you want to keep mixing it with the big boys.

[Andy Sava]

Holstein Kiel - 2013/2014
Table | Squad | Transfers | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2 | Manager Profile

Season Overview

League Finish - 9th
Media Prediction - 18th
Fans Player of the year - Sebastian Reinert

It was a good second season even if we didn't get promoted, we are on our way to the Second Division. We just need a little more consistency and we will be fine. The team had the same problem like last season, we dropped points that we should have got easily.

Transfers

I let alot of players go at the beginning of the season so i don't mess up to much with our finances. The only player i would have liked to keep was Fiete Sykora but he was asking to much money so in the end i gave up on him. What i hate about being stuck in the Third Division is that i need to have 4 german players under 23 in the team. One of the reason i like playing in Germany is that it suits my playstyle on the transfer market, and that is to gather the talent from all over the world. But enough on this topic, here are the players i brought during this season:

Ionut Salaman (Position - AM R, Games Played - 18, Goals - 3, Assists - 3, MoM - 1, Average Rating - 6.83) - I can never resist the temptation to bring players from my nation in all the teams i manage in FM. I got Salaman so i can have a decent right winger and he did well during the season. The only bad thing about him is that he is lazy, very lazy. Even with 11 in Work Rate he complained over and over again about his training schedule while people with lower attributes were very happy with it.

Pascal Testroet (Position - Striker, Games Played - 19, Goals - 7, Assists - 1, MoM - 2, Average Rating - 6.95) - Young german striker brought in to replace Sykora. He had some good games and some bad games, overall i was pleased with how he did in his first season here.

Jelle Maes (Position - AM C, Games Played - 20, Goals - 2, Assists - 4, MoM - 1, Average Rating - 6.89) - Promising young dutch attacking midfielder. He played in different positions troughout the season and did well.

Frederic Maciel (Position - Striker, Games Played - 5, Goals - 1, Assists - 4, Average Rating - 6.86) - Brought in to strengthen my attack he only played a few games because of the previously mentioned rule that requires at least 4 under 23 german players in the match squad. He will definitely feature in my plans for the next season.

Jacopo Galimberti (Position - D C, Games Played - 6, Goals - 1, MoM - 1, Average Rating - 7.35) - Got him in the second part of the season and got to play him in a few matches. He did really well and he will be a part of the team in the next season.

As you can see my transfer policy for the time being revolves around geting good free players so i don't mess up my finances. At the end of the season i will let go the players i didn't use in order to help with that.

Also, this season i got Kerim Akyildiz, a nice young player who came trough our youth ranks and who i hope will develop quite nicely in the years to come.

German Third Division

We started this season so well, we got a 3-0 win away at Erfurt and we went on to get a 12 games unbeaten run. After that it started to go downhill, we started to lose games we shouldn't have lost, missing alot of goal opportunities and just being very incosistent during the rest of the season. Maybe i am to blame for changing the tactics but even after the team got used to the new tactic it was the same.

Season Best Eleven

Something wierd with this season's best eleven as the game put Rafael Kazior as my best DM when i didn't even play him in that position and Sofien Chahed who was my best DM didn't even make the substitutes. I fixed this by putting them in their deserved spots.

First Team

GK - Daniel Strahle (Apps - 28, Rating - 6.86)
DR - Daniel Gareis (Apps - 24, Rating - 6.88)
DC - Samir El Moussaoui (Apps - 26, Goals - 7, Rating - 7.21)
DC - Tim Hofmann (Apps - 34, Goals - 5, Rating - 7.18)
DL - Throben Stadler (Apps - 29, Goals - 1, Rating - 7.02)
DMC - Sofien Chahed (Apps - 37, Rating - 6.90)
MC - Simone Pecorini (Apps - 29, Goals - 1, Rating - 6.90)
MC - Jelle Maes (Apps - 25, Goals - 2, Rating - 6.89)
AMR - Ionut Salaman (Apps - 20, Goals - 3, Rating - 6.83)
AML - Sebastian Reinert (Apps - 28, Goals - 9, Rating - 7.18)
SC - Tim Wulff (Apps - 23, Goals - 6, Rating - 7.02)

Substitutes

GK - Korbinian Muller (Apps - 10, Rating - 6.83)
DC - Maikel Verkoelen (Apps - 19, Goals - 2, Rating - 7.09)
DRL - Paul Camps (Apps - 21, Rating - 6.75)
MC - Massimiliano Esposito (Apps - 19, Rating - 6.77)
MC/AMC/ST - Rafael Kazior (Apps - 16, Goals - 2, Rating - 6.91)
AML/ST - Marc Heider (Apps - 17, Goals - 4, Rating - 6.91)
ST - Pascal Testroet (Apps - 20, Goal - 7, Rating - 6.95)
ST - Frederic Maciel (Apps - 7, Goal - 1, Rating - 6.86)

Next season

This season we improved on last season's position and this is exactly what i want to happen next season. We have to be up there in the end, fighting for a promotion spot.

Club History

Season             League                         Position                     Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/2013          German Third Division          14th                         Avoided Relegation
2013/2014          German Third Division          9th                          N/A

[aldojags]

Good season there Andy Sava a similar improvement next season will see you promoted I'm sure.

Pecorini looks like he's 1 for the future. I'd train him further at CB he looks like thats where he'd be best to me. But got great mental stats for a young player.

[aldojags]

help!! Just noticed a frightening drop in Ilan Rogers determination, I take it this is because I must've tutored him up with a player with low determination?

At one point it was sitting at 18, now it's dropped to 13 Will I need to pair him up with a player with higher determination then?

Is there a difference in the 2 options for tutoring? As in, help him with his game, or mentor him off the pitch. does the off the pitch one mean your looking to improve mental stats?

[Andy Sava]

Here's my new defender

He came with my brand new scout and he came free of charge!

[tjt65]

I have had a browse through most of these posts and i have always tried but given up on this/Gundo/dafuge challenges, but i really want to give it a push this time round before FM 2013 comes out (not much to do over the summer).

I was tempted by Russia as not many have tried it, but i assume due to the rather annoying league rules it would be pretty damn hard.
I have done a long save with Nacional da Maderia in Portugal so not wanting to go there again (plus i couldn't get anywhere near the success of PRDH)

Anyway, you guys have any recommendations? (apart from Portugal+Germany)

Thanks,
tjt.

[Andy Sava]

Is this game for real ? I'm only 4 games into the new season and i already have 4 (FOUR) key players injured. FML

Edit: another injury on one of my key players. **** this...

[PRDH]

tjt - Ha! It all comes with patience! I've had a lot of fun in Italy in the past, it takes a while to crack the league, but once you get there you can build a truly world-class team. France is also fun.

[tjt65]

Thanks PRDH i think i am going to go with France, am i correct in thinking you start in the 'National' league not 'CFA' as you cant select the teams in that league?

[PRDH]

Thanks PRDH i think i am going to go with France, am i correct in thinking you start in the 'National' league not 'CFA' as you cant select the teams in that league?

You are. Good luck!

[rlipscombe]

Andy Sava - well done on an improved season. Ferreira looks a great signing as well there. tough luck on the injuries front. sounds brutal
tjt65 - welcome to the challenge and good luck in France. i hope you find yourself a good club and enjoy the challenge of making them a force in French football.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I actually felt a bit sorry for Sambenedettese in my last game as they finished with this formation, they made 3 subs at halftime and then had injuries to 3 of their players and ended up with only 8 players left on the pitch. We were leading 3:0 before they started losing men, but we did manage to put 3 more past them after that, including Riberto's hattrick to give him 5 goals in his first 3 appearances (His total goals before joining Viterbese was 6 in 118).

[Andy Sava]

Despite the many injuries the season is going really well and we are currently 1st after 11 games. Hopefully we can keep it up.

[siLKEAPE]

Città di Pontedera


January 2019

Champions League: We did not manage to qualify for the next round, but I am satisfied with how we played against champions Lyon.

Serie A: Really satisfied we are still among the top 4. After a dip in form in November the team reacted greatly and beat Juventus, Roma and Udinese in December. What impresses me the most is that we are still unbeaten at home, continuing the great tradition from last season when we did not lose at home all season. In fact, we have not lost at home since 07.05.2017, when Atalanta beat us in what was our first season in Serie A.

At the moment we are experiencing what is probably the worst injury crisis in my time here, but hopefully we won't be dropping too many points in January.