[FM15] Pau FC: How the Paupers of the Pyrénées became a European Pauwerhouse

Formed in 1959, Pau FC are based in the in the Pyrenees, which is in and around the French/Spanish border, i'm not sure if this will give me more of a chance of signing Spanish players than usual, but let's hope so. They play at the Stade du Hameau which is a 13,966 capacity ground - 7,166 of which is seated. The club start the game in the CFA leagues, as this save game is being completed as part of the FM15 Big Euro Challenge I followed the protocol of holidaying for a season and then taking over one of the newly promoted sides in the French National Division. The aim of the challenge is to take the club to glory at the highest level on home and foreign soil, so for me that will be winning Ligue 1 and the Champions League. A challenge that has been made significantly more difficult in reason years with the rise in success and of course finances that PSG and now AS Monaco have seen. Pau FC are as the title eludes to, paupers in comparison to especially those two clubs. But we will cross that bridge when we get to it as first I have a relegation battle in the French National Division to contend with.

I had a thread for this challenge in FM10 with FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin, although I reached the dizzy heights of Europe it was only after winning the French Cup, despite fighting valiantly and reaching a Europa League Semi Final the best I achieved domestically was the 6th place finish in the season we won the French Cup. I think in this save I suffered from a sense of being overly sentimental with a lot of the players within the club, not replacing the players who had served me well in my rise from the bottom to the top, despite being competent to an extent in Ligue 1, a lot of the players were never going to get me into the Champions League. I'm hoping to learn from this and be a bit more ruthless and replace players if they're not of the quality needed to take the club forward. Jerome Herbert, a youth player I had in that save game, will serve as my alias in the save game, I have made him more of a touchline manager with good defensive coaching and okay attacking coaching, as he was primarily a RB that could also fill in on the either side of midfield if needed.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]Pau FC Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1"]Pau FC General Info

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=2"]Pau FC Facilities

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]Jerome Hebert Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=4"]Jerome Herbert Personal Information

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=5"]Jerome Herbert Nationalities

After struggling to get to grips with the new FM layout, transfer/scouting screens, general tactic creation, the way the match-day squad lineup's are changed etc its been a rough start to life at Pau FC. A poor pre-season and just 5 points from 7 games so far. However in my last 2 games we've not only picked up our first win of the season but we also came back from 4-0 down away to Vendee Lucon. I'm hoping this is the start of a dramatic turn around and that we can safely avoid relegation. My CAM, Hicham M'Laab and 34 year old striker Sylvain Heckly have been the stars of the show so far.

I miss Bet-PH71

Getting out of that madhouse called National will be tough !

haha yeah I did love the guessing games in the A-Z challenge, think you must've got at least 90 percent of them right delta

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After a few more poor games we finally put together a good run of form and have at least momentarily escaped the relegation zone. We've done well enough against lower league opposition in the French Cup so far, it seems inevitable that we will be out in the next round though having been drawn away to Toulouse.

A bad slump in form has seen us pick up just 2 points in our next 6 league games, it is very tight at the bottom of the league and it is constantly changing whenever a side wins or even picks up a point. I'm hoping we can pick up a couple of wins building on our form of 2 draws to avoid it going to the wire. One positive was our fantastic performance away to Toulouse, only losing 2-1, we were close to coming back from 2-0 down but ultimately they were too much for us. Only got 100K from it as well, was hoping it would be like the FA Cup and we'd get a load more, 100K is better than nothing though I suppose!

A very inconsistent February/March. A couple of decent wins but we lost far too many games, the first two games we should have at least drawn and those 2 points would have been invaluable in what is shaping up to be a very close relegation battle. With 6 games left we sit in 15th just in the relegation zone. 11th-16th accounts for a 4 point difference so if any team picks up a win they can climb the table by a lot of places. Our goal difference is quite good but unfortunately I forgot the French National does it based on results between teams, which in the case currently with Vendee Lucon means we would go down despite having a superior goal difference.

Not sure what the French for squeaky bum time is...

It went to the wire but we just about did enough to stay up!

Pau FC - Season 1: 2015/16 French National

Just noticed I forgot to upload my last few fixtures of the season so i'll put that in now:

League table again for reference:

Obviously went out in the 8th round of the French Cup after losing 2-1 away to Toulouse.

Transfers:

As you can see the entire transfer activity around the club revolved around free transfers. Some of the players that left were actually pretty decent but just refused to sign another contract to stay at the club despite the promotion. The majority of the players I brought in were to add depth to a squad that I inherited of about 12 players. The actual core of the team I inherited was good enough to stay up but there was just absolute no depth to it at all, the players I did bring in were merely the best I could find among the free agents I gave trials to. I signed two players in January as you can see, both of whom to add more quality to the side, Bouscarrat up-front who I am sure you'll see more of next season, and Pierre Lees Melou in the midfield.

Squad pt 1, Squad pt 2.

The two stand out players for me this season were the two players who were at the heart of the majority of the goals we scored. 34 year old Sylvain Heckly was out top scorer, finishing up the season with 18 goals in 36 starts, providing 7 assists as well. Heckly is not really particularly amazing but despite his age he managed to be one of the top scorers in the entire league - i'm not sure if he will be able to continue this form next season as his technical's and physical's have been slowly dropping all season and will surely continue to do so, hopefully I can get someone in that will score more as well as seeing more goals from Bouscarrat in his first full season next year. I'm sure Heckly will still feature as a rotation option though. One player who wont feature for us next season is the other star of the season - Hicham M'Laab. My first choice CAM had had a decent return statistically with 10 goals and 5 assists from 28 starts, he also always seemed to be the player to assist the player that got the assist for a lot of goals. He wasn't the most consistent performer and I did rotate him a bit as you can see from his 8 sub appearances, ultimately he decided that he was too good for Pau FC and refused to even entertain the idea of renewing his contract. A big loss but there wasn't much I could do really.

I did get 3 players in my Youth intake who all have the potential to be good Ligue 2 players in the future, as well as the 2 Youth intake players that were already at the club when I joined from the previous season. I'll update on those players if any of them manage to break into the first team, most likely i'll look to loan the majority of them out next season and first team football in the lower leagues will improve their game. One of the players who is only 14 I would have actually loved to have been able to play as he was a LB and towards the end of the season we had a horrendous full-back crisis, especially at LB which lead to Flamini at LB-esque calamities, which made our survival from relegation all the more heroic.

Good news as I was offered a one year extension on my deal, I would have liked a bigger extension of course, but I took what they offered me with open arms, especially since they offered it to me a few games before I'd even secured survival.

The bad news is like most people will suffer when managing in the lower leagues, our finances are really not looking that good. I was hoping that away game in the cup to Toulouse would sort us out but as we only got about 100K for that it didn't really do us all that much of a favour in the end. As you can see I was given a 44K transfer budget, none of which I actually used, I saved this mainly because the players I could have signed for 1K-44K sort of value I couldn't scout enough to work out if they were even that great, so it made much more sense to just sign trial players on frees. I don't think I will aim to spend any of that 40K next season either as with the finances getting worse and worse i'm expecting the wage budget they give me to decrease and decrease, my logic at the moment is whilst I still have quite a lot of my wage budget unused (about 3 or 4K pw) I can negotiate the renewal of contracts for the good players I have at the club, bring in a few more on frees, and then blood in my promising youth prospects in the next few seasons, maybe even get a player or two in on loan, and at some point in the next 2 maybe 3 seasons we will be good enough to get promoted.

Career Overview

Season     League     Position   French Cup   Coupe de la Ligue   Europe    Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16    National   14th       8th Round    N/A                 N/A       N/A

An inconsistent start to the season but it definitely seems to be looking like progress in comparison to last season, let's hope it isn't just early season good form and we can comfortably avoid relegation this time

A terrible run of form has seen us pick up 1 point in 7 games, the most disappointing part aside from shipping goals galore is that we didn't even score once in the 6 games we lost.

Things went from bad to worse as one of our best players has broken his foot and will miss at least 5 months, missing pretty much the rest of the entire season.

Good luck with this - had a greta Pau save a few years ago (still one of my favourites)!

Looks like another close call potentially.

Another month of not particularly pleasing results. We continued our lucky draws in the cup getting lower division sides that we comfortably disposed off, I was hoping that by smashing lower sides in the cup it would give the players a morale boost big enough to increase our form in the league but on two occasions that didn't work. We actually didn't improve in the league until we went out of the cup to Ligue 2 side AC Arles Avignon, we actually only lost 1-0 away to them which isn't bad considering we've been **** against teams in our own league for ages now. We ended the month with 8 points from 7 games which considering our recent form is fantastic and is enough for us to just be out the relegation zone. I think we've got lucky in a sense that the standard of teams/squads at the bottom is a lot worse than last season, i'm hoping we get lucky and stay up more as a result of the other teams below us being really poor rather than us actually being good. I mean look at USBCO ffs Makes me feel terrible for only drawing with them in our game with them earlier in the season.

One slight positive is the Youth intake I have just been given. At least 7 players who could potentially one day gain a place in the squad, although it doesn't help that all 3 of the really promising ones are all DM's ffs I'm not particularly looking to make youth players/youth candidates a massive part of this save game, my main focus is to do as well as possible but i'm always willing to give young players a go and a chance. I'm not sure if anyone was keen eyed enough to spot but in the goalscorers in the fixture list you will see that Sami Denis*, a 16 year old from the academy has been given a run of games and actually scored a goal in our win against US Roan. I'll put a screenshot of him in at the end of the season, he's not particularly amazing at the moment and is only getting game time as a result of an injury crisis that has seen our first choice CAM break his foot (the aforementioned N'Gadi) and then the guy I use as my back-up CAM is also injured at the moment which has lead to Sami Denis* getting a run of games. I'd like to loan him out next season but i've found it really difficult to loan any of my promising youngsters out as nobody ever bids for them and the board wont let me have a feeder club to let me send them out on loan to.

Another inconsistent run of games, 8 points from 7 games yet again. Worth mentioning one of those games was against USBCO who are ****ing woeful so we should be beating them if we want to stay up. A few more very disappointed losses against some of the bigger teams in the division who were just different class. We sit one point above US Roan with 6 games remaining, they do have a more difficult run than us so i'm confident we can just about do enough to stay up especially because we've beaten them once and drawn the other game, so if it goes to the same points we would stay up on the basis we have a better head to head record with them.

Pau FC - Season 2: 2016/17 French National

Not the most triumphant of ends to the season but we have yet again just about managed to hold onto our status as a French National club. It went to the last day of the season as we faced GF38 at their place to decide whether we stayed up or night, to say I was ******** it is an understatement It was really annoying that we'd managed to take it to the final day of the season as we'd actually been 4-0 up against AS Beauvais and then somehow managed to blow a 4-0 lead in complete Arsenal style. This was a real travesty especially considering in the previous game against LEMANS FC we were actually 4-1 down at half-time and had managed to come back to draw 4-4, when Bouscarrat levelled it late on I went absolutely mental

I definitely feel like this season the league was a lot weaker than last season, 31 points last season would've seen us in 17th place. USBCO were Derby County style bad, so embarrassing that we dropped points to them early in the season. I'm hoping we get some weaker teams relegated from Ligue 2 and more weak teams promoted from the CFA but who knows what will happen. Some of the better teams this season were ridiculous though, Gael Kakuta of CS Serdan ended the season with 13 goals and 24 assists from 30 games ffs.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=5"]Transfers

Not much to talk about here, the aforementioned departure of Hicham M'Laab was disappointing but he didn't want to stay despite me begging him to. Signed a player for £1 which was a bit random, the left back I spent almost £10K on actually turned out to be injury prone as ****, he literally could not stay injury free and when he did he just couldn't get to match fitness despite numerous games for the reserves, he only managed 3 sub appearances in the end, massive waste by the looks of it.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]

Squad pt 1, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=4"]Squad pt 2

The squad as a whole isn't amazing but I feel like it is at least slightly better than the relegation battle it has competed it in this season, we could at least get mid table with a decent run of games as we were showing early in the season. Obviously hoping to strengthen where I can in the summer but with finances getting worse and again, not that many people wanting to join us, it is easier said than done really. A couple of the stand out players would be =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=6"]Farid Hazem at CM who featured in every one of our 34 league games, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=8"]Alexandre N'Gadi who did well at CAM early in the season before breaking his foot putting him out for much of the rest of the season, he kept rejecting my contract renewals like M'laab did last season which was worrying, he hadn't accepted at the time of that screenshot but a few weeks later and he has actually signed on becoming our highest paid player in the process. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=7"]Sylvain Heckly didn't have as great a time as he did last season but that was to be expected really with his age, he wasn't used as our main man anyway so to get the amount of goals he did for a cheap supporting striker isn't all that horrendous, but I am really hoping I can get someone better in for next season. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=9"]Sebastien Bouscarrat ended the season as our top scorer with 17 in 32 games, a decent tally but he could definitely have got more and he does go missing in a lot of games, especially against the bigger sides where we get smashed without even scoring a consolation goal.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=11"]Finances really really not looking good.

Got a new contract sorted though, again quite frustrating to only get a 1 year extension but they wouldn't give me anything more than that so I just have to take what I can get really. Hoping we can kick on next season as these relegation battles are quite tedious, but the finances are terrible and it isn't easy for us to recruit better players and from what I saw this season a lot of the better teams in the league have real quality so its hard to see how we could get promoted any time soon really unless I get a lot of quality young talent coming through the ranks - more on that shortly.

Career Overview

Season     League     Position   French Cup   Coupe de la Ligue   Europe    Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16    National   14th       8th Round    N/A                 N/A       N/A
2016/17    National   14th       9th Round    N/A                 N/A       N/A

Pau FC - Youth Academy

My second season at Pau FC saw the first player from our youth academy get a run of games in the first team. I will add that his inclusion in the first team wasn't entirely based on merit, our first choice CAM broke his foot in the middle of the season, and then my 2nd choice also got injured which lead to a run of games for 16 year old Sami Denis, he did alright to be fair considering we're a relegation battling team in his 7 starts he got 1 assist and 2 goals. I'm not massively impressed by his mental stats aside from the flair and off the ball, he's okay technically aside from the horrendous finishing and defensive stats. Aside from his strength which I assume will at least slightly improve with age, his physical stats are are quite impressive especially his pace. I'd love to send him out on loan to a CFA side but none of them seem to ever want any of my young players however promising their potential might be, tried setting up a feeder club link but the board wont have it based on the fact we have no money, but i'm sure if we had a CFA club as a feeder for loans we wouldn't pay them anything anyway. If he can kick on a bit more in the U19 he could definitely end up being rotation/back up for CAM and CM, he's accomplished at CM with CAM his main position, training him to be a CM at the moment to make him more versatile. I play with a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 so his ability to play on the right wing is of no use to me at all, not that I would play him there anyway with his dreadful crossing.

Sami Denis, 16, MRC/AMRC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17   National       8           1       2        0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                    8           1       2        0    

Summary: Broke through as a result of first team players being injured. Did better than I could have expected. Hoping will make it in some capacity at some point in the next few seasons as he has the potential to do so.

Just as a sort of FYI i'll only be posting players once they've actually somewhat broke into the first time, at least until i'm at a higher level in the game, as at the moment so many of the players I get through have very high potential but might not actually make it or end up being that good, so seems pointless taking so many screenshots of so many players for them not to make it eventually.

Could do with a bit of boring mid-table next time

I would kill for a bit of boring mid-table

In a strange turn of events we've actually only lost 1 of our opening 7 league games, unfortunately we've not actually won any of them

A relatively decent month or so for us, topped off by a fantastic unexpected 2-0 win over Auxerre. It feels like we've been doing alright this season with all the draws but we still only sit in our usual 14th place. However the league is very tight and a win could take us up to as high as 8th.

A very good month for us really, aside from the disappointing 3-0 loss to Stade Lavallois we won four times and drew twice in the league to take us up the table a bit. We were also lucky in the Cup as we continued to draw weaker sides until yet again we were eventually put out of our misery by Toulouse. In our most recent game, Bouscarrat was injured which meant 16 year old youth player John Tagoe got a rare start and he ended up getting the winner in a 1-0 win. It seems strange being so high up the table this late into the season, half expecting to get a nose bleed

I reached my 100th game in management in one of the Cup games.

Another very pleasing Youth intake, two more defensive midfielders though, not sure what i'm gonna end up doing with them all , at least one of them looks pretty versatile. Vincent Jardin can hopefully kick on as he could probably get a few games as a striker even at 15 next season.

A pretty inconsistent run of games with 2 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses. We still sit quite comfortably away from the relegation places in 10th place with a game in hand on a few of the teams above and below us.

Got offered a contract extension a few months earlier than usual and even managed to negotiate myself a 2 year extension rather than the usual 1 year one. I must be doing something right!

Pau FC - Season 3: 2017/18 French National

A pretty decent end to the season really with 3 wins, a draw and 2 losses, with the only really disappointing part being the bad 4-1 away loss to US Dunkerque.

Overall a promising season compared to the last two. 11 points above relegation is definitely progress and 9th place instead of the usual 14th place is definitely a welcome sight. Still seem quite a way away from the better teams in the division and the promotion to Ligue 2 that comes with that, it seems relatively unlikely we'll be challenging for promotion next season as our wage budget is only going to decrease leading to even less chance of me being able to improve the side, I'm relying heavily on youth players now for back-up which you'll see in more depth in my youth player update.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=4"]Transfers

I got in 3 players on free transfers from Tarbes Pyrenees, all 3 were only really brought in as rotation/back-up options and I think all 3 are actually leaving the club this summer as a result of them only being on a one year contract and none of them being happy with lack of playing time, despite having 'back-up' stated in their contract.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1"]Squad pt 1, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]Squad pt 2

I think our squad ability/depth is probably reflected in our final position, we have some good players for this level scattered about, some handy players and some decent youngsters coming through to provide rotation/back up and in a few cases they've actually broke into the first team. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=5"]Alexandre N'Gadi did relatively well at CAM with 9 goals and 12 assists from 31 games, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=8"]Floreal Nivert was our best central defender despite being ever so slightly injury prone, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=6"]Minka Camara had a very good season at CM with 10 goals and 9 assists from 39 games and last but definitely not least the star of the season was =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=7"]Sebastien Bouscarrat who finally showed how good he could be with 27 goals and 8 assists from 40 games, 21 of those goals came in the league and he actually finished as top scorer in the league.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=16"]Finances

Obviously still not looking too good but they're actually about 100K better off than we were this time last season, mainly as a result of our reduce in wages, pretty decent cup run and the fact we've been having slightly increased attendances as a result of slightly improved performances.

Career Overview

Season     League     Position   French Cup   Coupe de la Ligue   Europe    Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16    National   14th       8th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2016/17    National   14th       9th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2017/18    National    9th      10th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A

Pau FC - Youth Academy

My third season at Pau FC lead to a lot of the older players getting ready to retire/becoming so bad that it made more sense playing youth players that were about as good as them that at least have the potential to be a lot lot better than them in the future. The main guy to benefit from this was left back Ahcene Ziane, he was knocking on the door for all of last season but I never had the balls to play him, he'd improved a hell of a lot in the U19's throughout last season and after a few games into this season I gave the 17 year old a go and never looked back. He's not amazing technically, but he has impressive mental and physical stats especially for his age for this level. Sami Denis didn't see as much first team football in the way of starts, but he was an ever present on my bench and regularly came on in games, ended up starting 4 games. We saw many injuries to our main defensive midfielder, luckily we have a seemingly never ending conveyor-belt of defensive midfielders being produced by the academy, Kevin Haller ended up with 8 league starts at DM and was impressive enough for me to consider him being our first choice DM next season - he's got room to improve technically, mentally and physically but I like his work rate, positioning, tackling and stamina stats and feel he will only improve elsewhere with more game time. We're not blessed with a massive amount of depth or decent striker back-up, this lead to 16 year old John Tagoe getting some games and sub appearances - his only goal actually came in a 1-0 win in the league, he also did well to chip in with 4 assists. This season also saw debuts for two of our defensive midfielders as substitutes - Karim Amroune and 15 year old Abderrahmane Aichour. The final debut of the season, also coming from the sub bench was for versatile 15 year old Yanis Bats who can fill in anywhere from CM to CAM to even up-front apparently, though with rated 2 finishing he aint playing up-front for me any time soon

Sami Denis, 17, MRC/AMRC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=13"]End of Season 3 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17   National       8           1       2      0
2017/18   National      27           2       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   35           3       2      0    

Summary: Featured heavily as a substitute. He's not kicked on massively from last season but I suppose this is as a result of only being a sub rather than starting all that many games. I'd like to loan him out but as I've said nobody ever seems to want any of my players on loan. Hopefully he can kick on through the sub appearances as he's not good enough to be first choice CAM at the moment, has 4* potential and is only 1.5* rated at the moment so room for improvement.

Ahcene Ziane, 17, D/WBRL

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=9"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      31           4       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   31           4       0      0    

Summary: Quickly managed to establish himself as first choice left back. He'll remain first choice left back as long as I can't get anyone better in over the summer, the fact he can also fill in reasonably well at right back is quite pleasing as well. Currently 2.5* rated having started the season as 2* rated, has potential to be 4 or 5* rated so hoping more first team football will make him improve even more next season.

Kevin Haller, 17, DC/DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=10"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      12           1       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   12           1       0      0    

Summary: Filled in as back-up DM late in the season, performed well enough to convince me to play him in the last few games despite my DM being back and fit. He's currently 2.5* rated with 4* potential, you'd think that would give him a good chance of making it at the club but I actually have 5 other DM's in my academy that have higher potential ratings than him as crazy as that is His ability to play DM, MC and even at CB gives him a good chance of at least being a rotation option if and when the other defensive midfielders in my ranks catch up with him.

John Tagoe, 16, CAM/ST

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=14"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      13           4       1      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   13           4       1      0    

Summary: I'd say wrong guy at the right time springs to mind with this guy. He's really not thaaaat great and only got games because my 2nd choice striker got injured and my depth at ST is really terrible outside of the main 2. He actually did do well though with 4 assists and a goal that won me a game 1-0. He's -0.5* at the moment with a potential rating of 3* which isn't awful but i've had a striker come through in my latest youth intake who is already rated better than him at 14 and has a 4* potential rating so next season he will probably be playing instead of Tagoe. Tagoe does have the benefit of being able to fill in at CAM but he's not amazing there so I doubt i'd play him there anyway.

Karim Amroune, 16, DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=12"]End of Season 1 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      2            0       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   2            0       0      0    

Summary: Another one from my conveyor-belt of defensive midfielders. He's currently 1.5* rated with 4* potential, he benefited from Aichour (see below) being injured on a few occasions where Aichour would have made my bench but as he was injured I put Amroune there instead. That's not to take anything away from Amroune though as he does have some very nice mental stats and room to improve in other areas. He could definitely be good enough to be a rotation option at DM/MC if he can continue to progress and improve, if he doesn't make it will be because of our ridiculous amount of defensive midfield talent rather than him not being good enough to make it at this level.

Abderrahmane Aichour, 15, DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]End of Season 1 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      1            0       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   1            0       0      0    

Summary: In terms of potential he is the best player we have in our academy. 1.5* rated at the moment with 4.5* potential. Seems to be slightly injury prone which is a cause for concern but has impressive mental stats and is very good physically for his age with decent technical stats, also has a fantastic moustache for a 15 year old! Will probably feature a bit more next season and definitely has the potential to make it here, most likely at the expense of Haller.

Yanis Bats, 16, MC/CAM/ST

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=16"]End of Season 1 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      2            0       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   2            0       0      0    

Summary: He has some very nice mental stats whilst being okay physically aside from his terrible natural fitness, and he looks okay technically. He's got -0.5* ability at the moment with 3* potential. I don't think he'll make it at the club but his versatility is quite nice and he probably will see a few more sub appearances at some point.

I literally got so confused when this message came up in my inbox. I read it and was just like "YES WE'VE FINALLY BEEN GIVEN A FEEDER CLUB", took me like 3 or 4 minutes to clock that FC Libourne wasn't the team that I was managing and A - they're now in the same division as us and B - we've still not got a feeder club to loan players to. FC Libourne news comes to my inbox from where I had them as Jerome Hebert's favorite team, never expected them to get promoted and join us in the French National Gonna be a bit strange making my return to the Stade Jean-Antoine Moueix in opposition colours.

A pretty good start to the season with the exception of the narrow opening day loss to FC Mulhouse and the 4-1 loss to Le Poire. Sebastien Bouscarrat has carried on his fantastic form from last season with 6 goals in our first 7 games. A fantastic end to this run of games came with a last gasp winner from Florian Carnevale against FC Gueugnon, that was the kind of game we would have drawn last season so i'm hoping this is a sign that we're turning a few draws into wins this time around.

The league table is very tight as we currently sit in 7th place, just 3 points off the playoffs.

Even the TV companies know that my first game against my old club is a big deal

3 league wins, 2 draws and 2 losses made for a pretty decent month as we also put away more lower league sides in the French Cup with absolute comfort. The run of games was rounded off by a 3-1 win on TV against FC Libourne, that also saw Vincent Jardin score his first goal, breaking a club record in the process. We've dropped down slight to 8th but still sit in a good position in the league.

A much bigger update than usual as I managed to forget to screenshot the league table at 21 games, so we're going straight to 28 games. Before I post the results and the table, a few news items as it was an eventful few months on and off the pitch, especially for our medical team...

Terrible news financially as despite our relatively modest wage budget, it was decrease by over 3K which has put us around 2K over our wage budget.

We then received terrible news as our first choice striker Sebastien Bouscarrat picked up an injury that would see him miss the rest of November, all of December and the majority of January.

This looked to be a great chance of for 3rd choice striker 15 year old Vincent Jardin to step up to the plate, unfortunately it didn't take long for him to get injured as well...

It got even worse when 4th striker John Tagoe also joined the injury list for just under a fortnight...

My 5th choice and 6th choice strikers from the U19 squad amazingly were also injured at the same time as Tagoe, which lead to a unprecedented start for 7th choice striker Bastien Blondy, who aside from sounding like a WWE Wrestler, is utter turd. It is ****ing quality that he's actually blonde though ...

Finally a look at our results for the past few months...

2nd choice striker Anthony Gaillard did quite well to pick up the pieces and step up with a few goals and assists with Bouscarrat out injured for as long as he was, even CB Floreal Nivert came up with a few goals, including in a 3-3 draw against GF38 where we came back from 3-0 down in the 81st minute to draw it level at 3-3. Also worth mentioning Abderrahmane Aichour who now has 3 in 3 games despite our current poor form by our usual standards, even if we have been playing some of the better teams in the league.

As expected we went out of the French Cup, this time to Ligue 1 opposition in FC Nantes. They did do us a favour financially though as we received our highest ever gate receipts from that game...

The board also did us a massive ****ing favour by randomly investing just under half a million pounds into the club...

And this is how the table now looks...

In 9th place again but it is worth noting with 6 games remaining we have a pretty good run of games that we could very well get 3 or 4 wins out of which could put us slightly above the current 9th place.

Consistent aren't you

Pau FC - Season 4: 2018/19 French National

A fantastic end to the season saw us win all 6 of our last 6 games, smashing our consecutive win record in the process. Bouscarrat struggled with fitness which lead to Vincent Jardin getting more game time than usual, he ended the season with 3 goals in 5 games, not bad for a 15 year old!

Our best season yet as we improved on last season's 9th place finish by finishing 6th this time. Despite a strong finish we couldn't find that top consistency needed to challenge for the play-off's, despite only finishing 9 points off 3rd we never really looked like threatening the front runners. One thing we need to improve on next season if we are to kick on and challenge for promotion is definitely our performances against the bigger sides, this has been a problem that has troubled as pretty much since day one, we generally beat sides worse than us or of similar quality, but rarely grind out draws let alone beat sides that are better than us, despite my efforts at changing tactics/formations/style of play to make up for these bigger sides as my usual tactic never seems to work against them either. Sad to see FC Libourne go down

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=8"]Transfers

Nothing to see here really apart from a few releases, as i've stated in previous updates we've been over our wage budget pretty much all season as a result of being really poor which has lead to be not able to bring anyone in this season. As you'll see in the Youth update, it was another season or giving youth a chance and in some cases even fast tracking player with potential to the first team.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=2"]Squad pt 1, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=6"]Squad pt 2=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]

Star man again this season would be fan favorite =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]Floreal Nivert who was a rock at the back, even popping up and scoring a few times, even getting 2 in one game in a fantastic last ditch draw against GF38. A decent season for =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=5"]Sebastien Bouscarrat, not up there with his heroics of last season but he did miss 6 league games through injury and wasn't properly fit for the last few of them hence his sub appearances, his strike partner =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=7"]Anthony Gaillard arguably had a better season as our 2nd choice striker, he didn't score as many but got a **** load of assists and scored some important goals along the way - as you'll see in the youth update, 15 year old Vincent Jardin is hot on the tails of both Bouscarrat and Gaillard for a regular place in the first team. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=12"]Alaxandre N'Gadi had an average season at CAM really with 7 goals and 10 assists from 37 games.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=4"]Finances=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=16"]

Still looking pretty terrible, if the board hadn't invested just under half a million during the middle of the season we would be in big big trouble. We do appear to be gradually increasing our income season on season though, as a result of our club reputation slowly increasing and thus ticket prices, match day revenue and sponsorship all gradually increasing season on season. Still not great though lol.

Career Overview

Season     League     Position   French Cup   Coupe de la Ligue   Europe    Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16    National   14th       8th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2016/17    National   14th       9th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2017/18    National    9th      10th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2018/19    National    6th       9th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A

Youth update to come and its a big one!

Pau FC - Youth Academy

Ahcene Ziane, 18, D/WBRL

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=9"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=13"]End of Season 3 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      31           4       0      0
2018/19   National      37           2       1      2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   68           6       1      2    

Summary: A great season from Ziane who is now our first choice left back without any question. Still quite a lot of room for improvement and he did have one moment of madness where he got sent off, but apart from that a very pleasing season, even getting two MOTM awards which is pretty good for a left back.

Sami Denis, 18, MRC/AMRC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=13"]End of Season 3 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=9"]End of Season 4 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17   National       8           1       2      0
2017/18   National      27           2       0      0
2018/19   National      33           5       1      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   68           8       3      0    

Summary: More of the same from last season really. He's improved a little bit and got a decent amount of assists, he's still not improved massively considering the amount of first team football he's received especially compared to some of the other youth players breaking through. He got more starts this season as a result of also filling in at CM occasionally.

Kevin Haller, 18, DC/DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=10"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=11"]End of Season 3 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      12           1       0      0
2018/19   National      39           2       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   51           3       0      0    

Summary: I was originally skeptical about having him as my first choice DM but he did a good job this season and is always improving which is nice to see.

Abderrahmane Aichour, 16, DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]End of Season 1 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=10"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      1            0       0      0
2018/19   National     25            2       4      2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                  26            2       4      2    

Summary: He improved a fair bit this season and half-way through the season I decided that he'd done well enough to earn a spot as one of my first choice CM's. He didn't disappoint and had a great season, getting two MOTM awards and bagging 4 goals. Still repping the Pornstar look as well which is nice to see.

John Tagoe, 17, CAM/ST

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=14"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=17"]End of Season 3 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      13           4       1      0
2018/19   National       8           2       2      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   21           6       3      0    

Summary: He's now been "demoted" as it were to 4th choice striker with the arrival of Vincent Jardin, but as a result of injuries Tagoe got some game time again this season and tbf to him he did pretty well getting 2 goals and 2 assists in just 2 starts and limited sub time. I don't see him making it at the club especially with the arrival of Jardin but he's got a decent record for us.

Vincent Jardin, 15, AML/ST

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=14"]End of Season 1 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   National      18           0       4      4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   18           0       4      0    

Summary: A very promising first season for the 15 year old. His finishing is not amazing but he has pretty nice stats elsewhere, enough to make me start him over Tagoe and he definitely has potential to be first team material in the long run if he keeps improving like he is.

Karim Amroune, 17, DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=12"]End of Season 1 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=18"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      2            0       0      0
2018/19   National      3            0       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   5            0       0      0    

Summary: A very uneventful season for him. He's got the potential to be better than Haller but just isn't there yet, its hard to give him first team football especially with Aichour kicking on as well. There's just so much competition for the DM and less creative CM spot in my team.

Yanis Bats, 16, MC/CAM/ST

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=16"]End of Season 1 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=16"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      2            0       0      0
2018/19   National      2            0       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   4            0       0      0    

Summary: Decent stats here and there but is very unlikely he will make it here, got two more sub appearances this season.

Gerard Vincent, DC/DM, 16

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=15"]End of Season 1 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   National      4            0       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   4            0       0      0    

Summary: I don't like giving first team football to young players at CB or GK but Vincent played the odd game here and there when our first choice defenders were injured. He definitely has potential to kick on and be part of our first team but again as I said, i'm not massively keen on throwing inexperienced players in at CB until they're ready.

Others: =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=19"]Bastien Blondy got 1 start when we had an injury crisis at ST, apart from his hilarious name/actually being blonde, he's really not that great and he has no real chance of making it at the club. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=20"]Sirina Rouault got a sub appearance during our injury crisis at ST as well, likewise with Blondy, he is very unlikely to make it at the club. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=24"]Jonathan Lebrun got one sub appearance at DM, again due to our abundance of talent at DM it is unlikely he will make it.

2018/19 Youth Intake: Of the most recent intake there are a few players that could potentially make it at the club. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=21"]Matteo Maes who is a defensive midfielder that can also play central midfield, I think he might be part werewolf as he has a quite astonishing hair and beard combo for a 15 year old. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=22"]Bastien Bonnel could potentially one day overtake Sami Denis in his chase to be a starting central midfielder or central attacking midfielder. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=23"]Thomas Poiret, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=25"]Lilian Gauthier and =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=26"]Regis Ngoyi are 3 more defensive midfield prospects - Ngoyi has very nice physical stats combined with some good mental stats, Gauthier also looks very impressive mentally for a 15 year old.

Constant progression. It's all good.

I made the decision to drop Bouscarrat for Vincent Jardin in pre-season as Jardin was doing a lot better, Bouscarrat was also demanding huge wages for his contract renewal which took the **** a bit considering he's past his peak now and most likely on a decline. This decision appears to have paid of as 16 year old Vincent Jardin, alongside Anthony Gaillard are, after 7 games in the season both joint top scorers in the league with 5 in 7 each. I was a bit worried after the first 4 games as after a nervy late win over RC Strasbourg courtesy of an own goal it looked like we were returning to our form of drawing games and losing badly to bigger teams, the 4-2 scoreline with FC Istres flattered us massively as we were 4-0 down at one point. However a 3-2 win over Dunkerque and a 4-0 smashing of US Roan as returned me to some optimism at least! We currently sit in 7th place but the league is very tight and we're just 2 points off of 3rd place and the promotion that would come with it.

A pretty fantastic run of games for us, only one loss to EFC Frejus which was really disappointing considering we were 2-0 up, but aside from that we've been doing well. Battered a couple of lower league sides in the French Cup, in one of those games Vincent Jardin bagged 4, and Bastien Bonnel stole Jardin's youngest club scorer record. We were drawn against Ligue 2 Tours FC in the 7th round and just didn't have enough for them and sadly went out 3-0. The 6-0 win the French Cup was also our record highest win. 4 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in the league has, at least temporarily taken us to the holy grail of the top 3! Vincent Jardin is now the league's top scorer with 13 goals in 14 games.

A a very good set of results in a pretty tough run has seen us win 3, draw 3 and lose 1. Whilst the loss to AC Arles Avignon was a disappointing one, we've beaten US Avranches who are top, and then avoided defeat against 2nd place FC Istres and US Dunkerque who at the time were below us in 4th. The board have done us a massive favour and donated almost half a million again to avoid us being completely ****ed financially. We're still 3rd by 2 points and with the harder games out of the way now we definitely have a very good chance of going up this season.

Great run. Hopefully, you'll win the title this season

4 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss made for a pretty good run of games. I was disappointed by the 2-0 loss to SO Romorantin especially as we were at home, but you can't win them all I guess and it was very easy to bounce back from it with a win considering our next game was against UJA Maccabi Paris who have been absolutely woeful with 3 points from 28 games We then drew 2 in a row against FC Mulhouse and Calais RUFC which was a bit worrying and we did actually momentarily drop to 4th, but a 4-2 win over EFC Frejus has put us back into 3rd place with 6 games remaining.

A pretty good Youth intake sees us finally get through a natural MC who has good potential, as well as a good looking DC which we're not particularly over-stocked in. It wouldn't be a youth intake without us getting another promising looking DM, with the amount of DM talent we have at our disposal it is highly unlikely that the DM will have any future at the club.

Pau FC - Season 5: 2019/20 French National

A disappointing away loss to Rodez derailed our promotion campaign a little bit, but 3 straight wins against SO Chatellerault, SR Colmar and GFC Ajaccio put us in a very good position going into our last 2 games. We didn't manage to win against GF38 or RC Strasbourg, but did get two draws courtesy of Alexandre N'Gadi goals that ultimately left us level on points with US Dunkerque. Despite having a better goal difference it was our better head to head record against Dunkerque that was why we went up at their expense.

A fantastic season really, I thought we could put up a good challenge for promotion as there wasn't really any massive dominant clubs in the division like last season where we had CS Sedan Ardennes and Stade Lavallois who were both a class above the rest of the league. I was massively humbled to win Manager of the Year as from what i've seen so far that has always gone to the league winner. Personally think the UJA Maccabi Paris guy should have won it, somehow managed 2 wins near the end of the season after 3 draws the whole time.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=15"]Transfers

Again, had no transfer/wage budget free so nothing to see here barring a couple of releases.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=12"]Squad pt 1, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=13"]Squad pt 2=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]

A good core of experienced players that have stayed with us for the last few seasons combined with academy graduates has lead to us having a relatively decent squad, in terms of depth, especially up-front and in defence we are lacking, but the quality players we do have were enough to get us the promotion. It would feel weird putting a "finally" to describe going up, as despite it being 5 seasons into the save, apart from having an outside chance last season, we've never really looked like or had the quality to go up anyway really.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=16"]Floreal Nivert was again a rock as our first choice CB, pretty sure he played every minute of our entire campaign this season which is a credit to him really. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=17"]Alexandre N'Gadi had a pretty good season at CAM, 14 assists and 10 goals in 35 games, with 5 man of the match awards showing how a lot of the time his assists and goals were very important ones - N'Gadi made it into the French National Team of the Season. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=18"]Minka Camara was an important figure at CM and supporting striker =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=19"]Anthony Gaillard again had a good season, 14 goals and 12 assists from 36 games is pretty good for a supporting striker. =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=21"]Ahcene Ziane at LB and =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=20"]Abderrahmane Aichour at CM, two youth graduates who as of this season are both capped at U20 level for Algeria, both also had key roles to play this season. There's no real doubt over who was our star of the season though, 16 year old =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=14"]Vincent Jardin had an unbelievable season, scoring 31 goals and getting 7 assists from his 37 games, including 7 man of the match awards - it was a great season individually for Jardin as he was not only =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=4"]Top Goalscorer, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=5"]French National Player of the Season, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=6"]French National Star of the Season but also joined N'Gadi in the =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=8"]French National Team of the Season.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=11"]Finances=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=16"]

Finances at a glance still look terrible, but I have just been given a transfer budget of just over £1M for next season, which i'm assuming is a sign of the TV/competition money to come next season. I don't want to spend any of that just yet as our balance still makes for very grim reading.

One positive i've noticed about Ligue 2 is that their rules state the minimum stadium capacity be 10,000 and the minimum seating capacity be 6,350. I was quite worried our stadium wouldn't be up to scratch and we'd have to upgrade it, making us even more broke in the process. Luckily our stadium capacity is 13,966 and our seating capacity is 7,166 so we just about are up to scratch.

Career Overview

Season     League     Position   French Cup   Coupe de la Ligue   Europe    Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16    National   14th       8th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2016/17    National   14th       9th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2017/18    National    9th      10th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2018/19    National    6th       9th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2019/20    National    3rd       7th Round     N/A                 N/A       Promoted to Ligue 2! 

Youth update to come and its another decent one!

Pau FC - Youth Academy

Ahcene Ziane, 19, D/WBRL

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=9"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=13"]End of Season 3 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=21"]End of Season 4 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      31           4       0      0
2018/19   National      37           2       1      2
2019/20   National      33           5       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                  101          11       1      2    

International: 
Algeria U20: 2 caps, 0 goals

Summary: Another good season for Ziane who got 5 assists this season, the most he's ever got for the club. The main highlight of his season will no doubt be picking up 2 caps for the Algerian U20 team, aside from a couple of suspensions for two many yellow cards, he missed another game or two due to his international commitments.

Sami Denis, 19, MRC/AMRC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=13"]End of Season 3 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=9"]End of Season 4 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=24"]End of Season 5 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17   National       8           1       2      0
2017/18   National      27           2       0      0
2018/19   National      33           5       1      0
2019/20   National      19           1       2      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   87           9       5      0    

Summary: Still hasn't properly kicked on and he has no chance of dispossessing N'Gadi as first choice CAM. He missed out on more games through injuries, with 2 of his 3 starts coming in Cup games against lower league sides. He also kicked up a fuss about his lack of first team opportunities which I found pretty irritating considering he's not good enough to be first choice, he may well leave at the end of next season as that's when his contract runs out, perhaps Ligue 2 football will make him change his mind, but if he wasn't good enough to start in the National, he's definitely not going to be good enough for Ligue 2 games. Not looking good for him really.

Kevin Haller, 19, DC/DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=10"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=11"]End of Season 3 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=22"]End of Season 4 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      12           1       0      0
2018/19   National      39           2       0      0
2019/20   National      26           1       1      1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   77           4       1      1    

Summary: His lack of games compared to last season is only a consequence of him picking up injuries. He had a pretty good season at DM and i'm hoping he can make the step up to Ligue 2 level next season.

Abderrahmane Aichour, 16, DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]End of Season 1 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=10"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=20"]End of Season 3 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      1            0       0      0
2018/19   National     25            2       4      2
2019/20   National     36            2       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                  62            4       4      2    

International:
Algeria U20: 1 cap, 0 goals

Summary: Another impressive season at CM for Aichour who firmly placed himself as one of our first choice CM's. Likewise with his compatriot Ziane, no doubt his biggest achievement of the season with his call up to the Algerian U20 side, who were the only reason he featured in 33 league games, not 34.

Vincent Jardin, 16, AML/ST

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=14"]End of Season 1 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=14"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   National      18           0       4      4
2019/20   National      37           7      31      7
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   55           7      35      7    

Summary: A pretty unbelievable season really. Ended up Top Scorer and Best Player in the entire league, his goals firing us to our promotion. I gambled on making him a first choice striker this season and boy did it pay off! Hopefully he can make the jump to Ligue 2 level football.

John Tagoe, 18, CAM/ST

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=14"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=17"]End of Season 3 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=27"]End of Season 4 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   National      13           4       1      0
2018/19   National       8           2       2      0
2019/20   National      15           2       0      0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                   36           8       3      0    

Summary: Was used very sparingly, isn't good enough to be our back-up striker in an ideal world but due to a lack of resources and Bouscarrat being plagued with injury all season I didn't have much choice really.

Gerard Vincent, DRC/DM, 17

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=15"]End of Season 1 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=25"]End of Season 2 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   National      4            0       0      0
2019/20   National     21            3       1      1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total                  25            3       1      1    

Summary: Got an unprecedented amount of starts this season, thought not at his preferred CB position. I did play him at CB in the 2 cup games against the crapper teams, but his run in the first team came at RB as a result of our first choice RB picking up a long term injury and the fact we had no other senior RB to come in and fill in, I retrained Vincent to be a RB as he was our next best defender and he did well enough. He's got potential to be first choice CB if he gets enough first team experience, but I don't really want to be giving an inexperienced CB games in Ligue 2 if he's out of his depth. Hopefully a National side will take him on loan.

Karim Amroune, 18, DM/MC

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=12"]End of Season 1 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=18"]End of Season 2 Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=23"]End of Season 3 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
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2017/18   National      2            0       0      0
2018/19   National      3            0       0      0
2019/20   National     18            1       3      1
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Total                  23            1       3      1    

Summary: He finally got his break into the first team mainly as a result of injuries to Haller. I also started playing him at MC in games where I would've played Sami Denis mainly cause Denis was being a bit of a dick about his contract. Amroune has improved this season, its unlikely he'll be first choice with Haller and Aichour ahead of him its unlikely he'll break into the first team. Good squad player if he's happy to be that though.

Bastian Bonnel, 15, MC/CAM

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=26"]End of Season 1 Profile

Season    Division   Appearances  Assists  Goals   MOTM  
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2019/20   National      7            0       1      0
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Total                   7            0       1      0    

Summary: I gave the technically gifted young CAM a couple of starts in our cup games against lower league sides, during which he scored and became our youngest ever goalscorer in the process. Definitely has the potential to make it at the club one day, with Sami Denis potentially leaving his rise to the first team could come quicker than expected.

Others: This season saw 1 start for defender =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=30"]Mamadou Diouf during a defensive crisis, 1 start for =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=31"]Jonathan Lebrun at DM, and then sub appearances for versatile defender/midfielder =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=28"]Yves Gilbert, defender =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=29"]Maxime Huguet, defensive midfielder =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=32"]Louis Lavie, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=33"]Lillian Gauthier, attacking midfielder =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=34"]Yanis Bats, striker =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=35"]Sirina Rouault and defender =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=36"]Dijalali Mokrani.

Youth Intake: =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=37"]Jorge Pereira is a promising CB who may make it at the club given time and development, =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=39"]Pierre Bertrand is another one of many DM's at the club and finally iacovone's boy =61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=38"]Noe Roche who has some pretty nice mental stats.

Always nice to get a contract extension during pre-season

That would explain the transfer budget I have been given...

But the biggest news by far...

Massive news for the club and I was expecting it to happen given the promotion to Ligue 2. The extra TV money has given us a much bigger budget than before, but the first thing that needs addressing is to change the part-time contracts to full-time contracts, which will surely see significant pay rises for pretty much everyone at the club. We should still have a pretty healthy transfer/wage budget after all these changes are made, at least i'm hoping so anyway. With the news that we'd turned professional and with the fact we're now in Ligue 2, my scouting screen for players that would realistically be interested in joining went from "360" to "3,600" Certainly got a lot of scouting to do! We can now also scout anywhere in Europe as opposed to just France! Due to the rules on not many non-EU players i'll probably avoid Eastern Europe for now and hope I can find some cheap quality elsewhere in Europe. A big pre-season for me though that's for sure!

It may have been a close one but it looks like promotion is having a big impact.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from the first few games as whenever we've played Ligue 2 sides in the French Cup we've lost quite comfortably. I'm glad to see that so far we haven't been really outclassed in any of our games aside from our first ever Coupe de la Ligue game at home to Stade de Reims, a result that was disappointing considering we'd drawn with them a few weeks ago, even if it was only the result of a last gasp equalizer. Ultimately 2 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses out of our first 8 games is more points than I could have hoped for and expected. We've not been conceding a massive amount of goals but we've also not been scoring a massive amount either. I'm hoping we can at least start scoring a few more in the next few months. Hopefully some Cup games against crap teams can boost the teams confidence a bit more, I'd be happy with anything apart from relegation though really, so, so far, so good!

We've not carried on our relatively good start to the season, but tbf I wouldn't say we've been completely dire and in relegation form either. Whilst 1 win from 8 is pretty poor, we did get 4 draws, the 3 losses were poor but its not like our team is good enough yet to be comfortably winning games at this level. I rotated heavily and played quite a few youth players in our Cup game against lower league side Stade Montois, this nearly came back to haunt me as it went all the way to penalties, luckily we saw it out.

So its not looking particularly pretty admittedly, but I take some good from the fact we've only lost 5 times, and there's teams below and around us that have lost a lot more than we have. If we can turn some of those draws into wins and keep narrowly drawing games rather than losing them, and if our strikers can find some form, we should hopefully have just about enough to stay in the division.

A fantastic run of games recently which has only seen us lose twice, once away to Nancy-Lorraine in the league, and to Ligue 1 side Bordeaux in the 9th round of the French Cup, we did put up a good fight though almost equalizing late on. Elsewhere in the league its been great stuff, 4 draws and 3 wins has done wonders for our morale and confidence and has seen us go all the way up to 12th in the table. It is of course worth noting how open the league is and and that even a run of two losses could easily see us bottom. Yet a run of 3 wins could potentially see us very close to the play-offs. I'm not actually thaaaat optimistic and would happily take anything above 18th but this season has certainly shown us we're not out of our depth at this level. Vincent Jardin has shown recently that he too isn't out of his depth at this level, even scoring a hat-trick in our 4-1 demolition of Auxerre.

You was still in the National when I last read this so delighted to see you promoted and doing well in Ligue 2

Nice recovery.

I was actually pleased to see our good form continue and we managed to grab another 3 wins against LEMANS, US Orleans and Havre respectively. Our form in our last 5 games as dropped off however as we've failed to win all of them, losing to Lorient and Stade Lavallois, and without late equalizers we would have lost to US Avranches and FC Istres as well. The league is so tight we could theoretically still very easily go down if we don't win at least 2 or 3 of our remaining 6 games. Hoping our good form in the middle of the season will have paid off and we can stay up!

Pau FC - Season 6: 2020/21 Ligue 2

A relatively poor end to the season saw us win just one of our last 6 games, draw 3 and lose 2, including a terrible last day of the season 5-1 loss to Stade de Reims.

In the end we survived with relative comfort finishing 4 points off of 18th place US Avranches. It is worth noting how tight the division is, we could have finished as high as 6th with just 9 more points. We did well to avoid defeat as much as we did, we drew far more games than we lost which helped us stay up in the end.

Transfers

Despite having a decent transfer budget I stuck to free transfers and increased wage budget. We needed to bring a lot of players in for depth as we only had around 12 senior players at the start of the season which was definitely not enough.

Squad pt 1, Squad pt 2=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]

Our squad is okay and has enough quality to at least finish mid-table in Ligue 2 next season. If a couple of players have very good seasons we could very well challenge for promotion next season. Clement Castelli had a good season at CB as did captain Floreal Nivert, Xavier Mercier did well at CAM and new versatile RB Rachid Qasmi looks like a good signing. Samir Kouakbi is our new GK and did alright as did our new 2nd choice ST Nadir Bendahmane and we signed a pretty promising young Argentine Agustin Zanello who is very good but also very slow. Academy players worth a mention in the actual season update of course our top scorer yet again this season, 17 year old Vincent Jardin who stepped up to Ligue 2 scoring 25 goals and 10 assists from 42 games, Abderrahmane Aichour did well as did Ahcene Ziane and Kevin Haller.

Finances=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=16"]

Yeah still really not that great, if anything they're worse with our promotion to Ligue 2 due to our higher budget that has let our wage budget almost triple. I'm hoping at some point we'll get some TV money or increased sponsorship that will significantly help our finances but i'm not sure that this will happen.

Career Overview

Season     League     Position   French Cup   Coupe de la Ligue   Europe    Other
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2015/16    National   14th       8th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2016/17    National   14th       9th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2017/18    National    9th      10th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2018/19    National    6th       9th Round     N/A                 N/A       N/A
2019/20    National    3rd       7th Round     N/A                 N/A       Promoted to Ligue 2! 
2020/21    Ligue 2    15th       9th Round     1st Round           N/A       N/A