FM13 - Like Icarus to the Sun, the rise and (hopefully) rise of Jozef Prochazka

Having read and lurked around FMCU a lot recently, I fancied seeing if my little laptop can handle a journeyman career. I suspect that I may have started with a few too many leagues, but we shall see!

Meet Jozef Prochazka. A veteran of the Sunday League scene in his hometown of Prague, the high point of his footballing career came when he scored 16 goals in a season for his club jedovatým hlemýždi Prahy. He lived and breathed his football, you know the type. He was the man who brought the whiteboard and tactics icons along to the big matches with rivals mocný kachny, wrote the blog on his side sýrové lasičky and later on would coach the youth team for Útok z ustupujících neviditelných krav. Unfortunately, the ravages of time eventually caught up with him, and he hung up his boots.

He never forgot his dream however, and hearing the story of Vugar Huseynzade, he started putting in some job applications for managerial positions far and wide. His friends initially smirked, but we'll see who's laughing come the end!

Photo courtesy of WH

Manager Profile - 4-4-2?! Jozef scoffs at 4-4-2!

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[u]Leagues loaded:[/u]

[list][*]Argentina - Primera, Nacional B
[*]Belgium - Jupiler, Belgiacom, Derde Klasse
[*]Brazil - Brasileirao, Serie B, Serie C
[*]Chile - Petrobas Premier, Primera B
[*]Croatia - 1. HNL, 2. HNL
[*]Czech Republic - Gambrinus, 2. Liga
[*]Denmark - Superliga, Betsafeligaen
[*]England - Premier League*
[*]France - Ligue 1*
[*]Germany - Bundesliga*
[*]Greece - Superleague, Football League
[*]Italy - Serie A, Serie B*
[*]Mexico - Liga MX, Ascenso MX
[*]Netherlands - Eredivisie*
[*]Norway - Tippeligaen, Adeccoligaen, 2. Divisjon
[*]Poland - Extraklasa, I Liga
[*]Romania - Liga I, Liga II
[*]Russia - Prem'er Liga, FNL
[*]Serbia - Jelen SuperLiga, Prva Liga Srbija
[*]Spain - La Liga, Liga Adelante*
[*]Ukraine - Premyer-Liha, Persha Liha
[/list]
* denotes view only for the time being

I'm planning for this to be my one save for the remainder of FM13 - hopefully with lots of trials and tribulations along the way! Happy reading and good luck with Google Translate!

To make this a bit more fun, I've set myself a few targets, if you can think of any others, please suggest and I'm sure I can add them to the list:

Career Aims:

• Homecoming: Lift a title with one of the Prague clubs
  
• The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of: Win a National Cup
  
• The Di Matteo: Win a Continental Trophy (sacking optional)
  
• The Neil Warnock: Gain promotion (being a **** optional)
  
• The Crystal Palace Award: Win a playoff competition
  
• The Roy Hodgson: (lovely man) Survive in a relegation battle
  
• Give ‘Em A Chance!: Have a Youth Product become Club Captain
  
• The Invincibles: Go a whole season without losing a league game
  
• For Queen and Country: Win a top division title with a single nationality team
  
• The Dream: Manage Manchester United (Prochazka is a typically local United fan)
  
• The Winston Bogarde: Become a millionaire
  
• The Alan Sugar: Become a multi (20m) millionaire
  
• The Arsene Wenger: Sell a Youth Product for > £30m
  
• The Steve Bruce: Sign a relative (Prochazka’s a fairly common name)
  
• Give Me More: Manage a club with a tycoon
  
• The Graham Carr: Pluck a star from obscurity (less than £50k, becoming over £10m)
  
• The Incomprehensible: Manage Charlton
  
• The Schteve McClaren: Go on an unprecedented European run (brolly not mandatory)
  
• Black Market: Buy a Czech talent for a top European club
  
• The Pretentious: Win a game playing a 4-6-0 formation
  
• Headline Writer: Sign a player who 'may upset the dressing room'
  
• The 'He's played Football Manager before': Sign a player who is basically only famous because of this game.
  
• Solve the Recession: Sell a Greek player for over £10m
  
• The Paul Lambert/Nigel Adkins: Win back-to-back promotions
  
• The Bébé: Sign a player without knowing all of their attributes and give him at least ten starts
  
• The Class One Eggs challenge: Win the Champions League with three different clubs in three different countries
  
• Globetrotter: Win the Championship in the seven major European nations: England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal and Spain
  
• The R Kelly:
  
  

Jozef had a pretty busy first day at the office. After all, hitting 'apply all' takes a good ten seconds. Now to wait for the job offers to come flying in, who wouldn't want the Czech Sunday League's sixteenth finest striker leading their club to glory?

And fly in they did! When Jozef returned from his visit to the local ubrousek kout, he found his inbox cluttered with a whole ten job offers...

Clearly the Norwegians remembered that solitary hat-trick of his career, playing against local demons bakrus rovere on a club tour of Norway. Funny, as Jozef remembered, they weren't that good. Or that vertical. Still, with all of these teams courting his attentions, it would be a brave man to turn them down. As Jozef recalls, there are a lot of Norwegian crime novels. And that can't be good...

This one piques Jozef's interest, but again there is a but. He can't possibly imagine getting through the press-conference without a) laughing, b) offending the entire club by pronouncing the name or c) accidentally proposing to a member of the press.

*little did Jozef know that there would be just 1 member of the Ukrainian football gazette дві перемички і один Сергій Ребров present. And they're basically a laughing stock anyway

Which left two.

Granted, they were both a long way away, but Jozef figured that the lowly nations of Chile and Argentina could both use the footballing insight that only an ex-Czech Sunday League player could provide - and it would get him away from those Norwegian hitmen. However, having seen the success that others had had on Football Manager with the mighty Defensa, he plumped for the Chilean option. Plus, no expectations! How hard can it be?

[*]The Incomprehensible: Manage Charlton

Can you explain this

can you?!

Curicó Unido - 2012/13

And so the journey begins. Curicó start in the Campeonato Nacional First Phase, and halfway through the season already, we sit nicely in second place.

The squad could look better, and some depth is needed here.

That being said, there are a few good players at the club.

• Patricio Ormazábal - DMC
  
• Cristián Rojas - DMC
  
• Juan José Albornoz - AMRLC
  
• Nicolás Medina - ST

Finally, our stadium looks nice, with room for improvement if I'm here that long! The youth and training facilities aren't wonderful though.

Best of luck in Chile,have to admit,I did laugh at some of the career aims

Ok, ok, I admit it doesn't make great reading, but Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. We have adopted a new formation, given that no wingers remain at the club, and results have been decidedly mixed. When we want to, the football is great, but there are too many occasions where the defence just forgets. Everything. The first game against Nublense was atrocious, we barely had possession and just didn't have a clue. Against San Marcos though, everything clicked and we could have had four. Since then, we've just been extraordinarily unlucky. We outplayed top of the table Deportes, but conceded a late own goal. Same story against Union, who only woke up when they went down to ten men and we simply couldn't finish them off. This was followed by two poor losses. We were better than Everton yet managed to concede twice from one shot on target (hello again, own goal) and missed all of our chances. We rounded off the month with a narrow defeat to Primera side Universidad. Honestly, if we sort out our defence, we'll be fine...

Still, one point for trying

Best of luck in Chile,have to admit,I did laugh at some of the career aims

Cheers - did you get around to the Czech/Ukrainian stuff in the OP?

In deepest, darkest Chile, a lone man cries...

To make this a bit more fun, I've set myself a few targets, if you can think of any others, please suggest and I'm sure I can add them to the list:

Career Aims:

• Homecoming: Lift a title with one of the Prague clubs
  
• The stuff dreams are made of: Win a National Cup
  
• The Di Matteo: Win a Continental Trophy (sacking optional)
  
• The Neil Warnock: Gain promotion (being a **** optional)
  
• The Crystal Palace Award: Win a playoff competition
  
• The Roy Hodgson: Survive in a relegation battle
  
• Give ‘Em A Chance!: Have a Youth Product become Club Captain
  
• For Queen and Country: Win a top division title with a single nationality team
  
• The dream: Manage Manchester United (Prochazka is a typically local United fan)
  
• The Winston Bogarde: Become a millionaire
  
• The Arsene Wenger: Sell a Youth Product for > £30m
  
• The Steve Bruce: Sign a relative (Prochazka’s a fairly common name)
  
• Give me more: Manage a club with a tycoon
  
• The Graham Carr: Pluck a star from obscurity (less than £50k, becoming over £10m)
  
• The Incomprehensible: Manage Charlton
  
• Black Market: Buy a Czech talent for a top European club

That is brilliant.

Well this was so much better . The system still hasn't totally clicked yet, but the first game against Coquimbo showed a lot of promise, even if it was mostly because of an outstanding performance from Nicolás Medina. The two games in the Copa were fairly average, mainly due to me resting players. Another win against Naval followed, although the two late goals were as a result of a switch to 4-5-1. Much though I love the 4-4-2 box, it's definitely more work than the formations I'm used to. Frustrating draws against Deportes and San Marcos sandwiched a nice away win over Unión Temuco. Finally, we beat Everton (Chi) 1-0 in a performance that deserved more than just the one goal. The result is that we're in 4th place. Hopefully we can push on from here and qualify for the promotion playoff.

Cheers - did you get around to the Czech/Ukrainian stuff in the OP?

I did,your OP is one of the best I've seen

This has been one of the most painful months in my entire CM/FM career. Granted, 1 loss in 7 games isn't awful, but neither is 1 win in 7 good. The really frustrating part is that most of the games follow the same formula, we take the lead, miss a load of chances, then watch the defence make a stupid mistake to let the opposition score. On the plus side, we're somehow managing this with a pitifully thin squad that now has a) no full backs, b) no wingers and c) one fit centre back. No wonder they called for the legend of the Czech five-a-side scene. Someone needs to take this by the cojones and by God, it may just be Jozef Prochazka!

I did,your OP is one of the best I've seen

Thanking you kindly - shame about the management!

After calling his mother back in Prague to discuss his latest theory about a two-pivot midfield being crucial to securing fourth spot, Jozef arrived back at his computer to find the following email.

"Man... this is a tough one. I haven't had a choice this tough since Lukas Nemec, manager of čokoláda čajník asked if I made a better Inside forward or Trequartista. I had to think for a good two days on that before he eventually played me at holding mid. Prochazka is a man of many talents. Still, better ask for an extension while I think it over..."

Edit: Annoyingly, my laptop crashed after the contract offer so I lost the last game - replaying it gave us a 4-1 win over Union. Obviously it's great that we've won (we were favourites for the game anyway), but I really hate having to replay a match and the win feels kind of undeserved. In any case that leaves us second rather than fourth heading into the last two games

Erm, okay, who saw this one coming?! With two games to go, we were second, facing two winnable games against Deportes and Santiago which would see us promoted. In typical Curico fashion, we drew the first (wait for it) 1-1, having taken the lead. There were a lot of positives to take from this, with the box formation FINALLY making some headway, and we were looking pretty dangerous. This all came to fruition in the final game against Santiago. We took the lead after 6 minutes, with striker Servin slotting home after a neat reverse pass from strike partner Medina. Unbelievably, we then scored a second, with centre back Munoz heading home a deep free-kick. Naturally, it wasn't all plain sailing - they scored a debatable penalty after a foul from that man Munoz. Enter the last ten minutes. We set up on the counter, and Albornoz plays a great through ball to Servin, cutting out the whole Santiago defence. With the world (well, about 800 chilean fans and a few Czechs back home) watching, Servin skies it. Okay. Regroup. 2 minutes later, the same thing happens, Servin through on goal. Skies it. From the resulting goal kick however, the keeper passes it straight to Servin, who has finally learnt his lesson and slots it low into the corner. With Everton's loss to leaders Coquimbo, we were promoted in second place!

Naturally, Jozef Prochazka couldn't turn his back on the Chilean club who had brought him from Sunday League stardom to managerial obscurity, and he repaid their faith with a new 1 year contract. Besides, the Norwegians might still be angry...

With this, the first of Jozef's challenges has been completed:

The Neil Warnock: Gain promotion (being a **** optional) - completed November 2012 with Curicó Unido

See here for the remaining feats he must complete - including six new challenges!

|Season | Club         | Country | Division     | Pos | Other                        | 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2012   | Curicó Unido | Chile   | Primera B    | 2nd | promoted                     |

Transfers

Obviously, a lot of reinforcement was needed here, with a new right back top of the list. Alexis was a signing from a long while back when I thought we'd be staying in the Primera B. It became clear pretty quickly that whilst there were very few good Chilean free agents, there were quite a few Brazilians. The arrivals of Michael, Eri and Thiago Almeida should add some quality to a relatively weak squad. The final area I really struggled with was at centre back. Having exhausted all my options in South America, I circled African clubs, and found one I liked the look of (at least from the stats I could see). Sure, it's not that realistic, but then again, Jozef's favourite club once splashed £7.4m on a Portuguese starlet. Anything Fergie can do...

• Ilifo Ilonga - DC
  
• Bastian Arce - DRLC
  
• Eri - D/WBR
  
• Alexis Jimenez - D/WBR
  
• Michael - M/AMC
  
• Lucas Nania - AMC
  
• Oliver Toledo - AMRLC/ST
  
• Thiago Almeida - AMC/ST

Results:

The first game against Universidad Catolica was a major frustration. We started very well, taking the lead through Thiago Almeida, but as always, an equaliser followed. What threw the game for us was the sending off of replacement DMC Fernandez. I opted, stupidly (with hindsight), to keep both strikers on as an outlet and we were overrun in midfield as a result. 4-1 would have been incredibly harsh and so it was good that we did at least grab another goal in the last few minutes. In the second game, we were much better, and a free-kick from Escalona secured the points. 3 points from 2 games is a solid start for us... let's see how it continues.

Your manager is certainly an odd looking man! Interesting to see a save in Chile, congrats on last seasons promotion, you've not had a bad start to this season either, keep it up

Haha it's great to see his little face pop up on the bottom of the newsfeed every now and again . Glad you're enjoying it - not sure I've cracked how the league works, but it's nice to be somewhere a bit different

Well this is fast becoming an unbelievable start. After the defeat against Unión Espanola, in which we showed no attacking promise whatsoever, I decided to give up on the 4-4-2 box dream. I will make it work, but not with Curicó. Instead, we reverted to a counter-attacking 4-5-1 that has given me success so far in FM13. The good news is that we are underdogs in every game we play, meaning that the counter system is perfect for us. Huachipato were the first to fall victim to this - given that they were third at the time, this was a great scalp, with two headers from Medina and Albornoz sealing the win. We followed this up with a smash and grab away win to Everton, who were promoted along with us. They took the lead just after half time, but a header from Nania and a stunning free-kick (to be uploaded at some point, 35 yards, in off the bar) from Escalona meant we left with the points. Finally, we played host to high-flying Universidad, and other than an early mistake from Escalona, we tore them apart. 3-1 was totally deserved, and Almeida's late goal was a beautifully clinical example of our new brand of football.

Next three fixtures, 14th placed O'Higgins, 12th placed Palestino and 17th placed Cobresal. Here's hoping we can keep our purple patch going!

To make this a bit more fun, I've set myself a few targets, if you can think of any others, please suggest and I'm sure I can add them to the list:

Career Aims:

• Homecoming: Lift a title with one of the Prague clubs
  
• The stuff dreams are made of: Win a National Cup
  
• The Di Matteo: Win a Continental Trophy (sacking optional)
  
• The Neil Warnock: Gain promotion (being a **** optional) - completed November 2012 with Curicó Unido
  
• The Crystal Palace Award: Win a playoff competition
  
• The Roy Hodgson: Survive in a relegation battle
  
• Give ‘Em A Chance!: Have a Youth Product become Club Captain
  
• For Queen and Country: Win a top division title with a single nationality team
  
• The dream: Manage Manchester United (Prochazka is a typically local United fan)
  
• The Winston Bogarde: Become a millionaire
  
• The Arsene Wenger: Sell a Youth Product for > £30m
  
• The Steve Bruce: Sign a relative (Prochazka’s a fairly common name)
  
• Give me more: Manage a club with a tycoon
  
• The Graham Carr: Pluck a star from obscurity (less than £50k, becoming over £10m)
  
• The Incomprehensible: Manage Charlton
  
• Black Market: Buy a Czech talent for a top European club
  
• The Pretentious: Win a game playing a 4-6-0 formation
  
• Headline Writer: Sign a player who 'may upset the dressing room'
  
• The 'he's played Football Manager before': Sign a player who is basically only famous because of this game.
  
• Solve the recession: Sell a Greek player for over £10m
  
• The Paul Lambert/Nigel Adkins: Win back-to-back promotions
  
• The Bébé: Sign a player without knowing all of their attributes and give him at least ten starts over the season

Not sure how I missed this career I'm browsing in here all the time lol. I really like these career aims, great stuff!

Excellent stuff so far this year.

They do say pride comes before a fall! Two of the easiest games of our season so far quickly became far trickier than expected. O'Higgins took the lead twice, we responded twice, before our right back Arce lost a long ball in the air for their winger to cut in and score a very easy third goal. If anything, the home game against Palestino was even more annoying - we conceded an early goal from a cutback, they then sat back and we just couldn't break them down. Medina had one ruled out for a foul and we also hit the bar, but the truth is simply that we lacked the quality to unlock their back four. Happily, we won the last two games of the month, beating a very poor Cobresal side before we won the derby game against our rivals Rangers. The three late goals make this look like a smash and grab - in reality, we were far better from the word go, and fully deserved the win. So, with seven to play until the league splits, we sit fourth, with games against 3 of the bottom 4 remaining. Hopefully we can make it into the Quarter Final and then see from there what on earth this league throws up...

Not sure how I missed this career I'm browsing in here all the time lol. I really like these career aims, great stuff!

Excellent stuff so far this year.

Cheers guys, glad you're enjoying it - and please add any other silly career aim recommendations you might have!

Congrats on winning promotion.You've made a good start to the year,hopefully that will continue.

Great start so far, it seems teams are underestimating you!

Bit of a bumper update here, got carried away and played out until the end of the season - the only downside is I forgot this month's league screenshot (we remained second). Anyway, April was excellent as months go, and pushed us to the edge of a playoff place. The wins over Deportes and Antofagasta were expected, but we made them difficult. The frustration came with a late injury to midfielder Michael and centre back Munoz - not really a big issue now, but it all added up later on. The game against Colo Colo was a bit annoying - we created 4 clear cut chances in the first half and only converted one of them, Medina particularly culpable. We scored a very odd goal early in the second half - the game has credited it as an own goal, but in reality our centre back lamped a volley back at goal from his own half and it went in... Still, we let in a 35 yard freekick and then our keeper gifted them a very late equaliser. Ho hum.

We rather stuttered to a close in the league, with a draw against rock-bottom Cobreloa an indicator of just how poor our attacking threat had become. We then put in a meek performance against Coquimbo before making our way past San Felipe courtesy of a header from a corner. I wasn't exactly full of confidence when the playoffs then paired us with Coquimbo once again... We conceded early on before making it very difficult for them and gradually working our way into the game. It didn't help when Medina and Cabral went off injured, but a late goal from Toledo saw us take a valuable away goal back to Curicó. At home, we persevered 2-0, with both goals coming worryingly from set pieces. Against Huachipato, the first leg was perfectly even, but whereas we struck the bar with our best chance, they converted theirs in the 89th minute. At home, it was all going to plan when Ormazabal scored a penalty toward the end of the first half, but again, our lack of creativity was painfully obvious. We were struck down, ironically, by a goal from a corner. At 1-1, we were never going to score twice, and exited the competition at the semi final stage.

Edit: Oddly, Huachipato went on to lift the trophy, also beating runaway league leaders Universidad de Catolica 2-1 in the final

Somewhat surprisingly, rumours emanating from Southern Chile are suggesting that Jozef Prochazka has quit as boss of Curicó Unido. Prochazka is cited as claiming that Chile's baffling league system, along with his hatred of Chilean Shiraz are the main reasons for his exit. In fact, the reasons are a bit more understandable. Whilst Chile has been fun, I feel I've taken the club as far as I can, and it would take a huge effort to breach the top few - results have been good, but they've mostly been ground out through sheer willpower and we've never taken a team apart. It'll be interesting to see what comes up now in any case

|Season | Club         | Country | Division     | Pos | Other                        | 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2011-2 | Curicó Unido | Chile   | Primera B    | 2nd | promoted                     |
|2012-3 | Curicó Unido | Chile   | Primera      | 2nd | playoff semi, resigned       |

You've taken far in a short space indeed.

Did well in your first job

With hindsight, I probably jumped a little too soon - I was just a bit frustrated by Curico's lack of ability in attack. I certainly didn't expect to be out of a job until December! Poor Prochazka's exploits in Chile had largely gone unnoticed, with many clubs (even Romanian second tier!) laughing off his interest before appointing some joker from their own nation. Even the Norwegians didn't want him... Still, if there's one thing he learnt in Chile, it's that perseverance unlocks many doors, and finally a couple of offers landed in his inbox. Surprisingly good ones as well!

AE Larisa made a tempting offer, expecting promotion this season. Granted, they were slightly off the pace, but surely this was why they had turned to God's gift to promotion chasing sides, Jozef Prochazka! Mainland Greece was an interesting proposition, and the squad looks decent, just massively underperforming. In addition, the fans look incredibly passionate, a major plus for Greek football. On the downside, they have an athletics track.

Prochazka hates athletics.

The second offer came from Belgium and a club in the top tier no less! No reason was given as to why their previous manager departed, leaving Jozef feeling slightly unsure. The aim of mid-table mediocrity was clearly in hand, with the club sitting 9th of 16 in the league. The main worry here was that the chairman specified his desire to see attacking football. Recalling his results from Chile, Prochazka feels this is like a marriage between Capello and Ancelotti (albeit with slightly lower end figures) and can't see it working that well. But is that enough of a reason not to take the job?

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So, I've made my decision - where do we think Jozef should have ended up? I expect at least a whole one reply before I continue

You've taken far in a short space indeed.

Did well in your first job

Muchos gracias (pretty much all the Spanish Prochazka learnt in Chile, apart from the ever-useful phrase "Para mí, la presión es la gripe aviar" - thumbs up if you get the reference )

Great work in Chile, done very well in just 2 season. I recommend Belgium, very enjoyable and whilst their are maybe 2 or 3 really top teams, the rest of the league is fairly even so anything can happen. Just make sure you look at the rules beforehand as they are a bit different to anything i've seen before.

The obvious choice of the two was Lokeren - although the transfer budget of £700k was massively inflated due to wages being £10k over budget. We haven't started firing, but in two tough games against Charleroi and Club Brugge we took a point. Against Charleroi we took the lead after 3 minutes and should have hung on, but conceded from a corner. Against Brugge, it was a similar story - we outplayed them in the first 45 but conceded a goal from a corner. I tried changing everything in the second half, only for our left winger to miss our best chance, then they scored from another corner. Starting to get a bit hacked off with it to be honest, but we'll keep plugging away. In any case, we enter the January transfer window with some serious squad building and tactical tweaking needed - the lack of creativity syndrome that plagued my last days with Curicó has returned with a vengeance and I'm starting to suspect that the latest patch simply doesn't like my tactic. Grumble grumble haha.

A few of the players who will be key to our hopes are striker Harbaoui, holding mid Riveros and captain Maric

Good luck in Belgium!

Good Lok (it was either that or 'Lokeren and Load!')

You made the right choice Good luck!

General State of Play:

January was a great opportunity to get some friendlies in and start learning the squad. It doesn't help that the majority of our centre backs are injured, but the screenshots below show how weak the squad is in reality. Looking back over the transfers, no wonder the previous manager got sacked, having spent his £2m pretty badly in my opinion. Having sorted the finances by altering the budgets, I only had £70k for transfers. A whole £6k went on young Croat striker Boris Vukusic, whilst Brazilian Willian also joined on loan.

Tactics:

This has been where I've spent most of my time. I've really struggled to make both Curicó and Lokeren creative and they tend to use the ball terribly. I'm still unsure as to whether this is me being new, me being tactically inept (at least for this version of the ME), or the ME itself. Either way, it's been frustrating... So, we've gone right back to basics, letting the Tactics Creator do all of the work, and have ended up with this:

The 4-4-2 seems surprisingly more solid than the 4-5-1 I've tended to use, although it definitely lacks creativity from our two centre mids - our creators are still injured. I think we'll probably be ok when everyone's back, but for the moment it's all a bit stagnant.

Results:

The friendlies gave me a chance to evaluate everything and work out what to take from this team. I was ready to kill my Assistant when I realised he'd scheduled a friendly with Dortmund in the middle of our worst possible run of form. However, we looked fluid and attacked them well, scoring 3 times before the break. Naturally, they came back strong, but we held firm for a great win. The next game brought us back down to Earth though, as we simply couldn't break down Tubize from the division below. After that came the first of our league games, and we played well in a home duel with leaders Anderlecht, holding them to a just 1-1 draw. Two more friendly wins followed before the moment we'd been waiting for - a win in the league! Harbaoui scored an early header from a corner to put us 1-0 up, but we then conceded 2 in quick succession (I had accidentally clicked continue without replacing my youth centre back who had played the previous friendly :o - I bet Mourinho never has this problem...). Happily, goals from left mid Jenniker and sub Saglik secured us a deserved victory. Finally, we rounded off a very good month with a 1-1 draw away to Zulte. This should have been a win, we created more than we had previously and conceded in the 94th minute when our centre back decided to stand off their midfielder right to the edge of the area - he shot straight at the keeper and scored. Typical. Still, we haven't lost in a while, and I am hopeful our problems will be solved when the team start to gel.

Good luck in Belgium!

Good Lok (it was either that or 'Lokeren and Load!')

You made the right choice Good luck!

Thanks all - definitely good Lok

As you can see, the month didn't start too well, and the board are also becoming slightly disappointed that we aren't playing the attacking football I had promised. Had I looked at the squad properly before I signed, I'd have probably told them it was a dream they were chasing, but there we go... Still, 7 games left and all to play for.

Results:

A huge month in the league this, and the fixture list simply hasn't been letting up. Genk overpowered us at home - the game itself was very even, but their striker scored two well-placed finishes. Thankfully we somehow managed to scrape past bottom of the league Visé, with enigmatic Badibanga scoring deep into Prochazka-time. We then drew 0-0 in a poor game with Waasland, and still can't really find the key to unlock this patch's defences. Against Standard we were abysmal, and in truth, the 1 goal we did score in the 90th minute was pretty undeserved... With our last three fixtures of the league against 4th, 5th and 6th, things were looking pretty desperate, until we pulled an excellent performance from somewhere to beat Cercle Brugge 2-0 at their place. A rise of just one place in the league table from last month, but I remain hopeful!

He's no tycoon, but this could be useful

Those two away wins were vital to stop you being dragged towards a relegation battle, hopefully you can grab and few more before the end of the season.

Been without Internet for a few days, so quite a few updates to come - lucky you

Results:

The promise that we showed last month finally came through with these four fixtures. We scraped our way up into a 10th place finish in the league stage after an early De Pauw penalty secured three points at home to Mechelen. We went 1-0 down early in Gent, but worked our way back into that match, and a late Harbaoui goal was just rewards for our efforts. This put us in a European playoff group with Kortrijk (8th), Zulte (11th) and Waasland (13th). We started this group impeccably, with a 3-1 win over Zulte (all four goals from corners...) and a 1-0 win in Waasland whilst everyone else could only draw. A healthy 4 point gap after 2 games is just what the doctor ordered!

End of League Stage:

Good so far in the European playoff.

Results:

Our good form continued, with a late De Pauw goal giving us a crucial win away to Kortrijk, putting us on the brink of qualification. This we ensured in style, putting 5 past Zulte at their place in a marvellous display – Willian in particular stepping up to the mark with a superb hat-trick. The home draw against Waasland was yet more evidence of our inability to break down weaker sides at Daknam. Topping the group meant that we were going to face Charleroi in the semi-final before playing host to one of the Championship Group sides in the Final.

Results:

In spite of the fact that we had already won the group, I opted for momentum over fitness, gaining another win over Kortrijk to finish the group stages strongly. Our first leg against Charleroi produced some odd scorers, holding mid Riveros popping up in the box in the first half, before centre back De Bock was in the right place to prod home a corner. We then took the lead away in Charleroi, with De Pauw scoring and injuring himself at the same time. They then scored from a corner and a well-worked goal, but our 2-0 home win saw us through to the Final against Club Brugge, who had finished 2nd overall in the League Stage but bombed in the Championship Group.

The bad news was that De Pauw, who had proved his class in a Deep Lying Forward role, would be out for a month after his heroics against Charleroi. In came Harbaoui to start after a bit part role in the previous weeks. We again took the lead in the home leg, a header from Willian rounding off a good team move, and we continued to dominate the game in the first half. Then, heartbreak struck. Galitzios, who had been outstanding since his return from injury, challenged Tchité for a header and was harshly penalised. Their striker picked himself up and scored the penalty giving Brugge a priceless away goal and a 1-1 draw to take back to theirs. Happily, justice was done in Brugge, with Harbaoui scoring early on, and a backs to the wall performance saw us win the tie and, unbelievably, qualify for Europe.

Overall thoughts:

Well, after the trials and tribulations in December and January, I certainly didn’t expect this. I would heartily predict that we won’t make it through to the Europa League Group Stages, but we’ll see what we can produce! The squad does need a bit of an overhaul though, and I hope to bring in some youngsters who can progress whilst weeding out the high earners. In short though, a great start to life in Belgium.

|Season | Club         | Country | Division      | Pos   | Other                           | 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2011-2 | Curicó Unido | Chile   | Primera B     | 2nd   | promoted                        |
|2012-3 | Curicó Unido | Chile   | Primera       | 2nd   | playoff semi, resigned          |
|2013-4 | Lokeren      | Belgium | Jupiler Pro   | 10th* | won European Qualifying Group   | *took over in December, 12th

Good work on getting into Europe!