[FM 15] AEK Athens - Back to the top and beyond

Background

I saw there aren't many(if any) Greek campaigns going on here so I guessed I'd give it a go with the team I support,AEK.Let's get straight to it.I loaded the top leagues from the 13 biggest nations of Europe(Spain,England,Germany,Italy,Portugal,France,Russia,Ukraine,Holland,Belgium,Turkey,Greece,Switzerland) with a large database plus the 2nd level of Greece obviously since I am going to be managing there.I'm already half a season into the game so the first update will be almost immediate.

The Club

Club Profile

Club History - Obviously a club with a lot of history,we were relegated to the 2nd division in 12/13 but we chose to be relegated to amateur football(3rd level) instead to get rid of our debt.

Competitions

Facilities - Currently renting a stadium,due to move to our own in 2016.

Finances - Greek multi-millionaire Dimitris Melissanidis bought the club in 2013 and our finances have been good since then.

The Manager - Went with the recommended qualifications for AEK and tweaked the attributes to my preferences.

Key Players

Helder Barbosa

Petros Mantalos

Jakob Johansson

Miguel Angel Cordero

Michalis Bakakis

My Goals

1st Season

Winning the league

Good cup run(quarter-final at least)

2nd Season

Qualifying for European Football

Cup Semi-Final

Long-Term

Realistic

Making AEK into the best team in Greece by winning leagues and cups

Reaching the knockout rounds of the Champions League or Quarter-Final of the Europa League

Less Realistic

The best a Greek team has ever done continentally is reaching the final of the Champions League(Panathinaikos in 70-71),I'd like to repeat that or even win it although I know this may not be possible.

Closing notes

First time I've ever done something like this so please give me tips but don't be too harsh on me.If you'd like links to the logos,kits or whatever else just ask me.

Thanks for your time!

1st Half of 14/15

Transfers

I only needed a DL but loaned one instead of signing since I'll be able to attract better players when I'm promoted.Loaned out youngster Grontis to get some playing time as he was not needed and my 3rd goalkeeper as he wasn't needed either.Sold 2 players I didn't need at all and were a bit old as well.Rovas at 30 and D'Acol at 27.I also like signing players on whose contracts run out so I kept money to do just that.

League Fixtures

We did even better than I thought we would to be honest.Really happy with our performance.Unfortunately,I forgot to take a screenshot of the league table at that stage and I've played a few more matches since then.

It was disappointing to lose to Veroia at that point but we turned it around with a really nice win against one of the top sides in Greece,Panathinaikos.All in all a good run so far considering we went through our group with 3 Superleague sides.

Extra

To my surprise David Silva won the Ballon D'or

P.S. Please reply if you want to see more of this.

Interesting to see somebody playing somewhere completely different, will be following.

BTW, don't worry about a lack of replies. People tend to comment more as the thread develops rather than at the start, but the more you show that you're enjoying your save, the more people will respond to it.

Best of luck

Interesting to see somebody playing somewhere completely different, will be following.

BTW, don't worry about a lack of replies. People tend to comment more as the thread develops rather than at the start, but the more you show that you're enjoying your save, the more people will respond to it.

Best of luck

Thanks a lot,good to see someone is interested.I don't reply much myself to be honest but I just wanted to see if anyone is interested in what I'm doing.I'm enjoying it so far and think I will enjoy it even more once I'm playing at top level.

Thanks a lot,good to see someone is interested.I don't reply much myself to be honest but I just wanted to see if anyone is interested in what I'm doing.I'm enjoying it so far and think I will enjoy it even more once I'm playing at top level.

No worries. Everybody has their own style of writing their threads, but you might get a few more replies if you update every month, too. Up to you of course, though.

Always interesting to see careers outside the big leagues.

As for your "extras" section, I like to post stuff like that myself, especially when it's not what you would expect IRL ( I would say Mata in 3rd place is just as surprising as Silva winning ), so by all means keep it up!

Always interesting to see careers outside the big leagues.

As for your "extras" section, I like to post stuff like that myself, especially when it's not what you would expect IRL ( I would say Mata in 3rd place is just as surprising as Silva winning ), so by all means keep it up!

Thanks for your support!2nd update coming soon.

End of 14/15

Competitions

Football League South

Two draws,both against Kallithea didn't let us have a "perfect" season.We went a bit better than I expected and dominated the league by a 21 points margin so I don't care for the 2 draws.Panachaiki which finished 2nd in real life and but failed to be promoted was actually 2nd from the bottom and was relegated.

Football League North

North Group favourites Iraklis secured the league 9 points clear off Lamia.

Promotion Playoff

Rotated a lot and lost a few points but we dominated anyway.

Note:We started with 8 points,Iraklis with 6 and Lamia with 1.I don't know the exact formula but the winner of each group gets a number of points(I think 6) and you get a few more depending on your points difference to the 2nd team.

Relegation Playoff

Apollon,a decent to good Football League side was relegated despite finish 3rd in the South Group IRL and reaching the promotion playoffs.

Superleague

Pretty normal stuff except that Platanias qualified for the European Playoff but PAOK got the Europa League position anyway by winning the cup.

Note:Niki Volou was taken to court for failing to pay their squad for several months and as a result lost all of its players.This happened in real life and FM updated the team to have no players in the winter update.

European Places Playoff

Asteras Tripolis managed to get a Champions League place even though they started with no points.

Cup

Asteras Tripolis managed to knock out Olympiacos to play against me and then lose against PAOK,pretty normal otherwise.

Important Note:The Greek football had a change of structure for the season 15/16 reducing the teams in both the 1st and the 2nd division.This is the reason you're seeing so many relegations and only a few promotions

Fixtures

League & Playoff

Damn you Kallithea

Cup

Pulled off an upset against Panathinaikos and knocked them out of the group and then got sweet revenge against Veroia which qualified as 1st through the cup group.

Other Competitions

Champions League

Man.City advanced due to away goals twice and won it on penalties...

Europa League

PAOK reached the 32 and was knocked out by Gladbach 4-2 on aggregate and Olympiacos went through Sporting on penalties to be knocked out by runner-up Dynamo Kiev 5-2 on aggregate.

Finally,the big 5 leagues for anyone interested

End of Season Squad

This one is full-sized so you can see the stats.My AM's being the most valuable players as it turned out(Mantalos,Platellas,Barbosa) but Bakakis,Hancox,Cordero,Anakoglou,Chrisantus and Aravidis were pretty good as well.Don't forget my GK,Anestis and my CB's Kolovetsios,Sarris and Labropoulos.Finally,Johansson had really good passing and tackling rates despite falling short on average rating.What the squad really needs is some depth as many of my 2nd choices aren't good enough for the Superleague.

Your thread is really well done

I quite like the idea of any update thread that has anything unusual.

Greece, (as you say), isn't a very common Nation to post an update thread in, so I like that.

As you are doing very well, I suppose I would like to see more info on the games you lost and what you thought about why you lost. Maybe a little tactical insight.

Used to love being AEK back in 01/02 iirc, will be keeping an eye on your attempt to bring the team back to the top.

Bringing in key foreigners will be crucial for the top flight.

I quite like the idea of any update thread that has anything unusual.

Greece, (as you say), isn't a very common Nation to post an update thread in, so I like that.

As you are doing very well, I suppose I would like to see more info on the games you lost and what you thought about why you lost. Maybe a little tactical insight.

I'll start doing this from season 2 and onward but only for important matches.

Excellent first season there.

As for replies...you're probably better off going on how many views the thread gets, both in total and update-on-update. Receiving feedback is always nice, but it's generally hard for most people to find anything to say (though of course there'll always be specific questions and observations).

In other words, if you're enjoying it carry on and don't worry too much.