JoseRR's FM09 Big Euro Nation Challenge!

[PaulHartman71]

RW Essen, Season 1, 2009-10 - German Third Division

Predicted - 17th
Finished - 8th

League Table Link

Upon arrival at the newly promoted to the German Third Division side, I went over a quick review of the squad. Quite a few players were released, some were transfer listed, whilst others were attracting interesting from bigger clubs.A lot of the players that were originally with the team stayed with us, but there was still a significant amount of players that left the club during the summer. This screenshot, provides you with all the in's and out's of my first season in charge. As you can see we profited a lot from selling Markus Neumayr for 300K. He seemed to be an important player and one of the best in the team, but he wasn't irreplaceable. The only player I spent any money on was Markus Heppke. He was pretty much a direct replacement for former right sided midfielder Neumayr. Despite paying a mere 40K for him, just over 7 times less than the amount we sold Neumayr for, he was a fantastic signing. Moritz Steinle was one of few players brought in for nothing, and the left back walked into the first team, making the left back position his own. Timo Nagy, comes under the same category as Steinle, apart from the fact he is a left sided midfielder, he was another good freebie buy. The only noteable loan signing that parent club Hertha BSC supplied us with was Damir Coric, who was one of the two first team DC's for the fairly short time he was with us. At the end of the season our squad looked like this.

'Team of 2009-10' (this is my team of the season, and wont always be the same as what the AI chooses).

GK - Andre Maczkowiak, 27, German
DR - Dennis Buhrer, 27, German
DL - Moritz Steinle, 27, German
DC - Damir Cocic, 19, German *on loan*
DC - David Czyszczon, 28, German
MR - Markus Heppke, 24, German
ML - Timo Nagy, 27, German
MC - Stefan Kuhne, 29, German
MC - Mike Wunderlich, 24, German
ST - Silvio Pagano, 24, Italian
ST - Sascha Molders, 25, German

The squad I have at the moment is good, and gives me a lot to build upon next season. It will provide me with a good chance to get rid of some of the players that aren't worth keeping, and also further develop some of the promising youth players in the U19's. Apart from Dennis Buhrer who is joining 1860 Munich on a Bosman and Damir Cocic who will be returning to Hertha from his loan deal, I hope all the other 'first team' will stay. Sascha Molders will be especially crucial to this, the new vice-captain was not only the Top Scorer in the League, but also featured in the German Third Division Team of the Season where Goalkeeper Andre Maczkowiak was also named. New signing Markus Heppke didn't win signing of the season, but he was third place in the German Third Division Player of the Season. Elsewhere the clubs finances look nice, with the club making a profit of over 100K this season.

Aims for next season -

• Don't do any worse in the League than this season
• Bring in a few younger players
• Enjoy our first stint in the German Cup

Career History

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season      League           Pos    Pre    Cup      Europe      Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009/10  Third Division      8th    17th   N/A      N/A         None

[Ohanzee]

PaulHartman71 - Nice finish, not far off that 3rd place either

We beat the Russians, Zenit, 3-1 away and 4-1 at home. Now we need to conquer Rome to get to the Semi finals. All the big teams are left. FC Bayern - Liverpool, AC. Milan - Barcelona, and Real Madrid - Porto. Will be tough to get to the final.

First loss of the season. Sent out our backups / youngsters against Lyon and they lost it 2-1, saving the first teamers for Champions League. I didnt expect them to win, but the way they lost is just ... I dont know a word strong enough Sometimes I really hate this game.

[el sid]

Unlucky to miss out on playoffs Paul

[el sid]

Oh, and I tried to get RW Essen, due to Paul here, as my feeder club to see how well they could do with a few of my players, but their board rejected the offer as they were happy with their current feeder club I'm the German champions ffs!

[Ohanzee]

We outplayed Roma at home, but only managed a 2-1 win. I expected a tight away game and it was. We had the possession, they had the biggest chances. But we won 2-0 Starting to get a habit of winning games we dont really deserve to win. I felt we deserved a draw at least though, so we deserve to be in the semi finals.

FC Porto is waiting for us there. They where extremely lucky to knock Real Madrid out. They managed a 2-2 draw away when really they should have lost by 4 or 5 looking at the chances. Then they won 5-2 at home, again lucky to get anything better than a draw.

So I feel we have a real shot at getting to the final this year. If we do FC Bayern or AC Milan will be waiting there.

[yababo]

Hello lads have been away for 5 weeks and I just can't get back into my Oviedo Save. I am going to start again in Germany.

[Ohanzee]

Heya yababo. Good luck in Germany

We just played our first Semi final. At home to FC Porto. They say a picture says more than a thousand words, so here you go. I guess the portugese used up all their luck in the games against Madrid. If we dont get to the final this year I'm gonna toss my game out the window and never play it again

We lost 2-1 in Portugal, but we're through to the final and got no suspension to worry about. In between Lyon decided to hand us the Ligue 1 title by losing to PSG away. So we're champions of France again with 5 games left to play.

In the other Semi Final I thought Milan would make fools out of FC Bayern after beating them 4-1 at their ground in Italy. But the germans surprised everyone with this incredible performance. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. I still feel Milan are a better team (player-wise) than Bayern, but if Bayern can do that to Milan I fear what they'll do to us. Then again mabye Milan just completely missed the target tactically. We're in the final anyways. Against FC Bayern of Germany.

[Ohanzee]

FC Bayern - FC Mulhouse (Champions League final, De Kuip, Rotterdam)

FC Bayern (442) : Michael Rensig, Michael Chretien, Philip Lahm, Hamed Diomande, Gojko Kacar, Marquinhos, Alex Teixeira, Toni Kroos, Per Ciljan Skjelbreid, Philipp Winter, Gonzalo Higuain
FC Mulhouse (4231) : Marco Antonio Fernandez, Georgi Marinov, Besart Ajazi, Manuel Paiva, Mile Zec, Mohamed Kacem, Fabio Scognamiglio, Ole Clausen, Moussa Diawara, Katsuyuki Yoshimi, Paolo Marcolini

FC Bayern have some trouble in defense as their star central defender Breno is out injured. They're also missing right winger Miralem Pjanic and central defender Pieter Winter who joined from no other than FC Mulhouse last summer. FC Mulhouse miss fullback Chris Hudson.


1' - The game gets off to a flyer as Bayerns Teixeira sees a shot from the corner of the 16y box pushed away by Fernandez. Noone is on the rebound and Marinov clears the ball to safety.
9' - Higuain gets a shot off from 19 yards as Kacem loses the ball to easy in midfield. The shot goes wide of the mark though.
10' - GOAL! FC Mulhouse go straight to attack and get a corner kick out of their efford. World class midfielder Scognamiglio puts it right on Manuel Paivas head and he makes no mistak. 1-0 to the French.
17' - GOAL! Skjelbreid wins the ball in midfield and hands it off to Teixeira on the left wing. He easily passes Marinov and puts the ball into the 6 yard box where Skjelbreid has taken a run and can put the ball into an empty net. 1-1 and it's all square again.
21' - Marcolini gets through on the wing after a brilliant long ball from the defense. He crosses it right onto Diawaras head and he scores. The linesman however is flagging for something and the goal wont stand. Looked a perfectly fine goal.
25' - Another corner kick this time finds Mile Zec, but he can only put it wide of the mark.
29' - Pure inspiration from Skjelbreid as he dribles past two man infront of the 16y box only to blast his shot over the bar.
35' - Kroos plays Winter through on goal, but he doesnt even hit the target.
37' - Dangerous cross from Marquinhos hits the head of Higuain who hit the outside of the post. Should have been 2-1 there.

Halftime and it's 1-1. FC Bayern have been in control, especially in midfield where Skjebreid and Kroos have run over the Mulhouse duo. FC Mulhouse are pulling Diawara back into central midfield to make it a trio in the second half. Manager Helm says they will have to mark Skjelbreid and Kroos better and not give them any time on the ball.

49' - The second half have started much better for FC Mulhouse and rigth winger Clausen wins the ball from leftback Lahm. He's through on goal but his absymal effort goes straight on the goalkeeper. Big chance there.
52' - Mulhouse wins the ball in central midfield again, the extra man is really helping. This time Yoshimi gets to finish from 18 yards, but he blasts the ball over the bar.
57' - Deja vu as again the ball is won in central midfield by Mulhouse. This time Clausen gets the shot away from just outside the box, but again it goes wide.
59' - FC Mulhouse are on fire now, Bayer havent had a shot in the 2nd half. Diawara gets to the byline and puts a cross in to Marcolini who have dropped back to the penalty mark losing his marker. He only manage a weak shot though and Rensig makes a good save. Should have scored.
60' - The following corner hits captain Kacems head, but his header goes over the bar.
60' - Mulhouse win the ball straight back again in midfield, but Yoshimis shot once again goes over the bar. Where is this gonna end?
69' - FC Bayern finally get a shot off. A free kick from 40 yards is hit rock hard into the bar above Fernandez who can only watch it bounce back out.
77' - Another corner kick hits Paivas head. This time his effort rattles the cross bar above Rensig. FC Mulhouse really should have scored now.
83' - An amazing run by Marquinhos before he finds Higuain just inside the box. He's under pressure and his shot is to easy for Fernandez.
91' - Yoshimi gets a HUUUGE chance as the ball falls to him on the edge of the 6 yard box. His finish goes straight into Rensig though. Yoshimi looks disgusted with himself.
92' - GOAL!! The following corner see FC Mulhouse finally rewarded for their effort in the second half. Once again Scognamiglio hit it straight onto Paivas head and he puts it below the bar this time to give FC Mulhouse the victory!! 2-1!

WOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Match stats | Player ratings

[el sid]

Good luck mate I see this ending 2-1 to FC Mulhouse

[Ohanzee]

You're scary el sid I'm delighted! Can't believe pulling the AMC into MC for the second half had such a crazy effect. I think it was 13-6 in shots to them in the first half.

<there really should be a happy-dance emote>

[PRDH]

Ohanzee - amazing! You've completed it! Are you going to plough on?

[iacovone]

Ohanzee - well done on completing the challenge

[Ohanzee]

I dunno to be honest. I'll click through to the season update at least, wanna see how we are in European rankings now. Might do another season just to play that World Club Cup, if there is one still?

But to be honest I dont think I'll go on much longer. Now that we're best in France and able to compete in Europe every year it's gonna feel like playing a big team, and I've done that to much already in this version of the game. I might just start again in some other league.

Now I need to make dinner though, been putting that on hold since I got the spot in the Final.

[rlipscombe]

well done Ohanzee... fantastic and well deserved. our second completed game. gives me this season to complete it a season before you......

[rlipscombe]

Real Oviedo - Liga BBVA - Pre-Season 2017-18

So, with Ohanzee completing the challenge and setting a new benchmark... This is an important season for Los Carbayones. following last seasons heartbreak, i have pushed to create a team capable of winning home and abroad. as a result, the following players have arrived at the Nuevo Carlos Tartiere:

Logan Bailly - Belgian GK signed on a free. Was wanted by Barcelona and Man Utd among others but i signed him as back-up to Joaquin. has upset the fans a little as they feel he may cause unrest in the squad. any sign of that and he'll be straight out of the door!

Javier Lizarraga - Spanish youth international signed as cover for Rabben. Potential to be as good as him, which is good. a good Liga BBVA player already. A £1.6 million bargain from relegated Getafe.

Martin Machuca - Argentinian CB signed from Werder Bremen. a lot of money but he's worth it. will push Hugo and Galindo hard for the CB spot.

Emilio - Spaniard signed from Panathianikos. impressed me when we played them last season in CL. Will provide back-up.

Nigel De Jong - in my eyes, a bargain at £7.5 million from Sevilla. 32, but with a great deal of experience, him and Kabore will really strengthen the DM position alongside Munoz.

Charles Kabore - my biggest ever outlay, at £20 million. Possibly over-priced but in his prime and has created a lot of goals in his career. A gamble in some respects, i was prepared to take the risk given our financial earnings last season, plus the money from the Torres sale.

Diego Sanchez - Spanish international winger signed on a free from Aston Villa. as good as Peltonen, we have some real strength in depth there. We now have both Spanish wingers from the recent Confederations Cup...

Arjen Robben - this transfer was arranged last season when i was looking for more experience. with the new arrivals, Arjen may miss out on a squad number for the league. he will need to prove his worth in the remaining friendlies.

Adrian - Spanish ST signed for £11 million from relegated Deportivo. Another player in his prime, he'll provide good strength in depth to our front line. turned out he left Oviedo for Deportivo in 2005 and as a result, i clawed back £500k in future transfer fees

in the 1st leg of the CL 3rd round qualifiers, we took a commanding 5-1 win against Hearts at the Nuevo Carlos Tartiere. The second leg which should be a formality, will see us into the group stages again....

time to bring on the new season for the highly determind Real Oviedo.....

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Congrats Ohanzee, 2018/19 very nice and gives me no chance with AD Fafe haha.
An excellent final as well, as I was reading it I was thinking it was going to penalties and you were going to be gutted once more, but I must say a last minute goal for one of our sides is a delight. Great Work.

[Ohanzee]

Cheers all

Some great signings rlipscombe. I like the experience in Robben and De Jong. I've had much joy from the 30+ year olds we've had the last few seasons. Vukcevic even won the Star of the competition award for his performance in Ligue 1 this year. Good luck this season! I'm not gonna predict anything, cause I might jinx you and that'd be cheating

I'll do a season update in a bit.

[el sid]

You might say I'm good at these predictions

[el sid]

Drawn in the Champions League group stages with Barcelona, AC Milan and Marseille

How do I get out of this one?

****!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Umm Sid, I have no idea, that has to be a harsh group.

[el sid]

You'd normally get atleast one team you can beat twice, but Marseille beat me in one of the legs last season so I'm not very confident. I'd be royally ****ed if Paloschi scores for ACM against me though. How we play against ACM will probably be key in this group.

[Ohanzee]

How on earth did you get those teams? Where you 4th seeded even as league winner? On the bright side, if you get through you got 2 good teams less to worry about.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I believe seeding is based completely on European Coeffecients, so chances are his coeffecient isn't very high, which means the league win doesn't even come into it.

[el sid]

You must remember that last year was our first ever in Europe So our co efficients wouldn't be that high.

[Ohanzee]

Ah right. So Milan or Barcelona are below the top 8 (or so) to then. Very unlucky, but at least you'll get tested properly

[rlipscombe]

seriously tough group that.... with a bit of luck you should get 3rd (you've a good team - remember that) and if thats case push for Europa League win....

Ohanzee - don't you go jinxing nothing!!!

[Ohanzee]

FC Mulhouse 2018/2019

1st in Ligue 1 (pred: 1st) | Transfers | Finances | Graph

The League
First half of the season was crazy as we just kept winning every game we played. 19-0-0 at the halfway line and Lyon never got close. I'm especially pleased with the goal difference. And even though we played our second choice players in quite a few games the second half of the season we still won most of those aswell. Just shows we got a really good squad now, even the backups are good enough to fight in the top of this division. Lyon had a bad start, but their signings in January got them going again. In the end they finished above 90 points once again. The gap down to 3rd is really crazy.

The Cups (CdlL | FC)
We played our second choice players in both cups again, and they where good enough to get to two finals. They won the Coup de la Ligue after 120 minutes against Marseille, but lost 3-1 to Lyon in the French Cup. A bit of a freak result as Lyon didnt have a single clear cut chance.

The Champions League (results)
We got a pretty easy group with Partizan, Zürich and Inter. I was hoping for a top spot since we beat Inter over two games last season, but not expecting it. Partizan and Zürich was beaten easily, while Inter gave us two close game where we won one and drew one. Top spot in the group gave us what was probably the easiest way we could hope for through the knockout rounds.

Zenit of Russia was the best draw we could hope for and they where beaten easily both home and away. Roma proved a bit more difficult in the Quarter final as we barely managed a 2-1 win at home, though we deserved better. Away we got the lucky breaks though and won 2-0 in a game we mabye didnt deserve to win. I was expecting to meet Real Madrid in the next round but FC Porto struck lucky in their games against them and we got portugese oposition instead. I'm glad we did cause we beat the crap out of them in a 6-0 victory at home. The away game was our only loss in the tournament as we lost 2-1, but there was never any doubt we'd be in the final.

The final you can read all about here. We won 2-1 after scoring the winner 2 minutes into overtime of the second half. FC Mulhouse are the new champions of Europe! And a fun note about it. FC Mulhouse have alot of german history as you can read in my opening post. So beating german giants FC Bayern in the final is just an added bonus

The Finances
Crazy good. Guess that covers it. Most of it comes from price money again ofc, and the huge player sales. Especially van der Werff who left in January for over £30M. Still getting that money monthly though. Ontop of all that the average attendance rose almost 3k to 15,217 this year, but that money is peanuts compared to tv-money and price-money in Champions League.

The Players
The whole squad was great again, 27 players at 7.00+ rating. 20 different goal scorers. Paiva of course became the hero scoring in the Champions League final. 6 players scored more than 13 goals.

Simon Vukcevic deserves to be mentioned on his own. He couldnt play in Europe as he had already played for Sporting in a qualifier, but in the league he was a monster. He won the Star of the competition award for his performace in Ligue 1.

Fabio Scognamiglio also needs a mention as he's our first and only World Class player. He's been with us for 7 seasons and is the real star of the team. Even better he's worth £27M, not wanted by anyone, and is happy to sign a new 4 year contract if I want him to. He's improved alot since he came, here's the first screenshot I have of him at 17.

I think moving Chris Hudson out to right fullback and getting Mile Zec into the central defense was what made us good in defense this year. Hudson is a natural fullback, but with his qualities I was using him as a centreback before. He seemed to do even better as a fullback and our defense was tighter than ever this year and helped Fernandez to 37 clean sheets.

The Future
I dont know, I might stop here. We can keep this team together if we want, noone is asking to leave. I tried offering every one of our first teamers new contracts and everyone wants to talk. I didnt offer anyone, just tried to see how they reacted. So we could probably keep this core of players together for years and years. The best part is that the team winning the Champions League are all 21-28 years of age. Most of them are 24-26, so we could probably compete in Europe for several seasons with this squad.

So it looks great, we got the finances, we got the attendance rising, we got money coming out our ears. But I'm not sure I wanna do another season atm. It will be a bit like playing with a big team from now on and I enjoy the "road to get big" better than the era after you become big, if you know what I mean. If we had a youth academy from the start I might be more interested in continuing, but apart from Brousse I dont even have any half decent youngsters to see through.

Status in France and Europe
We're now 2nd in European rankings. Financially we're 1st in France at £199M, £99M ahead of Lyon. That's enough to put us 8th in the world £147M behind Barcelona in first.

Jean-Marc Brousse | Start | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

FC Mulhouse history

		League pos	CdlL		FC		Europe		Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009/2010	5th FN		N/A		9th round	N/A		So close
2010/2011	3rd FN		2nd round	9th round	N/A		Promoted!
2011/2012	2nd L2		2nd round	8th round	N/A		Promoted again!
2012/2013	12th L1		3rd round	Final lost	N/A		...
2013/2014	6th L1		3rd round	Final lost 	N/A		No Europe :(
2014/2015	3rd L1		4th round	Semi final	N/A		Europe! :D
2015/2016	3rd L1		3rd round	Winners		EC winners	Trophies!
2016/2017	2nd L1		4th round	Final lost	EC Final lost	No trophies
2017/2018	1st L1		Winners		Semi final	Semi ECL	The double
2018/2019	1st L1		Winners		Final lost	Winners		Champions of Europe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

L1 = Ligue 1 | L2 = Ligue 2 | FN = French National | CdlL = Coup de la League | FC = French Cup

[PRDH]

That's a mad good season! My update is taking longer than I expected because I can't really be bothered to write it at the moment. Might get it done in bed tonight. If not I'll do it whilst watching the men's final tomorrow.

[Ohanzee]

Pondering what to do next. I just dont feel like starting another season with Mulhouse right now (will keep the save though in case it comes over me). Dunno if I wanna try another nation in this one or a completely different place.

[PRDH]

Ohanzee - You could just start again on the current save, takeover one of the teams promoted. Try and topple the giants of FC Mulhouse from the top of French football.

[rlipscombe]

try another here Ohanzee..... don't go!! PRDH's idea isn't bad.....

[PRDH]

Yeah, definitely try another here. You could really irritate LLR and try and beat him and Fafe to the Portugal title!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Thats not very nice PRDH :P

[Ohanzee]

Yea that's an idea, but I think I've had enough of France for now. I'm considering a couple of things.

- Portugal, cause I like the fact that they can sign brazilian kids before anyone else.
- Spain or Italy, with the added challenge of using only players from that nation. Should be possible in such a big nation.
- Going outside Europe to South America or Asia. Never managed outside Europe in any FM (or CM before that), so might be interesting, but I don't know the competitions there at all so it might just get frustrating.
- Ireland, I always loved the way the Irish people have a certain passion for the game and their attitude. Their fans are the best in the world in my opinion, but I hate the fact that their league dont play in the same period as the rest of the major ones.

One question to you guys managing in Spain, Italy or Portugal. Was there a youth academy in any of the clubs available to manage? I deffinatly want one wherever I go this time, cause in 10 seasons we've not had a single huge prospect in Mulhouse. Even Brousse was only a minor one.

(edit) Ooops, I had my "post reply" window up for a while there, so you posted twice between me opening it and actually posting. Hehe, Fafe is LLRs team, I love his updates, wouldnt feel right to even try it. And if I did and failed I'd never hear the end of it

(edit2) Gah it's getting late, I thought you said "try Fafe". I did consider Portugal, but I dunno. Anyone got an answer to the youth-academy question? That'd sway me alot.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I don't believe their were any in Portugal, but the way to check would be to use the editor Then you can see which clubs have one and keep holidaying until one of those clubs comes up

[PRDH]

Domegliara started with a youth academy. Apart from that I don't know. Messina might have had one too. They also have a massive stadium to start with.

[edit] - Just checked back Messina did have one. Oh, and sorry LLR He could just as easily come to Italy and beat me to it!

[Ohanzee]

I've played games in Italy with Parma and San Marino already in this version of the game so I dont think I'd go with Messina if I where to go to Italy. They're a bit like Parma in having been in the top and gone down. I dunno how Messinas reputation is in the game but Parma was way to easy getting good enough players to win Serie A with.

I got a Portugese holliday save already, just trying to reload a few times now. But I cant find any team with a youth academy either. Fafe is there every time So is the mini-Benfica. I think I'll make a spanish and italian save and see if any teams catch my eye (with a youth academy), if not mabye a Lisbon club would be fun.

[rancer890]

Ohanzee, remember, Asia welcomes you.

I'm taking a little break from Real Oviedo. Hopefully a career game can get me remotivated in FM again.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

So everyone knows, I am on a Fafe break as well, hoping my Sign-up will give me some enjoyment and get me back into the game as well. Just unmotivated with Fafe the continuous 4th was annoying me haha. Will be back before FM10. BTW: Still 3 spots in my sign-up if anyone is keen

[rancer890]

Advertising your sign up eh Des?

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Who me? Yeah pretty much, I kinda had to Where is your career game based?

[rancer890]

Well I'm currently Senegal manager (started with semi pro rep). Got an offer from Workington but rejected. I reckon if I actually get to the World Cup with Senegal, I'll get better offers after one season.

Have a bunch of European leagues loaded + China + HK. Full list in the career thread lol.

[Ohanzee]

Asia is on my list of places I might go, but I'll probably stick to one of the 3 (SPA/ITA/POR) in here right now. Hollidaying takes forever in Italy and Spain *yawn* I've done Spain and found a couple of teams with youth academy at least. Gonna check Italy aswell (hollidaying atm), but I'll probably wait 'till tomorrow before I decide.

I like the idea of doing Spain with only spanish players, or mabye stretch it to spanish/portugese speaking. Though that might not be so big of a handicap after all. I always wanted to try using only players from one nation though, I think it might even work better than mixing nationalities. Same language should mean they gel faster, but I dunno how much the game reacts to it.

[rlipscombe]

Ohanzee, the nation-only rule is something i'd considered too. could try a Basque only game??? would be REALLY tough but could be interesting..... i had thought about doing that at one time.

Sorry to hear you've lost some motivation for Fafe Des - i can imaging it's really frustrating though.

[Ohanzee]

Yea I'm gonna do the nation-only thing, but I cant decide on Spain or Italy. It seems every single team in Italy have a youth academy, so I could pick any newly promoted team there. In Spain Burgos seem to be one of very few that have one.

Is there any easy way of knowing who's been promoted? I usually just go into "managername -> jobs" and see who's searching for scouts, coaches, etc. But some teams dont show there, like your Real Oviedo for instance. They are one of the promoted teams though. And it also seems like some of the B1-4 divisions have just 1 new team while others have up to 5. Takes to much time going through them all.

I'm leaning to just finding whatever team in Italy have the smallest stadium and going with them. Italy would probably be easier to do the nation-only thing with since every team seem to have a youth academy. Should be tons of italian talent.

[PaulHartman71]

Best way of finding who's been promoting for me was finding the clubs predicted to finish near the bottom, then going into their history and seeing if they were in that division last season.

[AdamFitz]

FC Eindhoven: Season 2011/12

Media Prediction: 12th
Final Position: 1st

League Table: 1st (79 points)
Fantastic year, didn't start off very well, but the league was very tight so I knew with a few wins we'd be right up there. we did that, and went on to win it. Our Play-Off place was confirmed after 22 games, so I just went for the league. On the last day I was two points ahead, a draw may have done it for me, but if I did we would've won it, but instead we hammered bottom of the table FC Dordrecht 4-0.

Dutch Cup: Quarter-Finals (Lost 2-0 to Ajax)
Had an easy enough run in until we came up against the best team in the country, Ajax. 2-0 was actually a decent result, because they dominated.

Squad & Tactics
This one worked really well for me. Bit short at the moment and will be even shorter when some players leave, but I'll get in a few replacements as per usual.

Finances
Fantastic, after all our sales in January we are over the £1m mark, hopefully now I can get a new stadium that will make up for our wage bill.

Transfers 1 | 2
Made another HUGE profit, this time it was £3.3m, including 2 players I had snapped up on frees at the start of the season, and highly rated regen keeper Willem Metz. Unfortunately a few players are leaving on frees, I hope to sign a few players to replace them soon, Paulo should be a huge signing.

Club Information

Topscorer: Kevin Vandenbergh (16 goals)
Top Rating: Jens van Son (7.21)
Club's Player of the Year: Kevin Vandenbergh
2/3 for Mr. Vandenbergh, he was excellent. 16 goals, 13 assists and 9 MOTM performances, one of the best free transfers I've ever gotten. van Son also had a great season, wouldn't renew his contract so he's off to ADO Den Haag.

Aims:
Get Into The Play-Offs - 1st - Play-Off spot was secured after about 22 when we were in 2nd place, Sparta were running away with it but I didn't lose once from then on, couple of draws but it didn't really matter, when we got top stop there was no stopping us.
Get Finances Into The Black - Yes! - Made 3.3m out of selling players, my chairman accepted most of them automatically but I was ok with it. Considering they were all bought for nothing, or were already there, that's fantastic.
Sign Some Fantastic Players - Kind of - We signed Kevin Vandenbergh who was let go by Utrecht, he was fantastic! Loads of goals and assists, great signing. Also bringing in a Brazilian who I believe is a faceinthegame player, he looks brilliant.

Aims For Next Season:
Survive
Push The Board For A New Stadium
Get To The Quarter-Finals Or Further In The Cup

Domestic League:

Season       Team             League         Finished  
2009-2010    FC Eindhoven    Eerste Divisie     9th
2010-2011    FC Eindhoven    Eerste Divisie     9th
2011-2012    FC Eindhoven    Eerste Divisie     1st - Champions, Promoted

[PRDH]

Well I've just lost all the update I had written. That'll teach me to write in the window! I now have to start again.

[rlipscombe]

congrats AdamFitz!! fantastic achievement. Vandenbergh is a quality player. Hopefully you can survive next season and establish yourself as the no.1 team in Eindhoven...

[AdamFitz]

Vandenbergh won't renew <_<. Time to cash in?

EDIT: Oh and why? Because his former club Utrecht who are in the Eerste Divisie want him back!

[Ohanzee]

AdamFitz - Congrats on promotion, well done!

Two questions I've been meaning to ask :

- What's a faceinthegame regen? Seen it used twice in a couple of days now, feel a bit silly not knowing
- What's the deal with getting your son as a regen? Is that a real deal, or do people just nickname some decent regen with their own last name? If it's the real deal, how do you know it's your son when he does come around?

[PaulHartman71]

faceinthegame is a regen that is based on an SI person or tester etc, and some of them have funny scout reports, traits etc. The getting your son as a regen is very rare, but does happen. It's easy to tell as they'll have your surname (a lot easier to tell if your surname is less common) and they'll have you in their favored personnel as well.

[PRDH]

**End of Season Update - Domegliara - Serie A - 2020/21**

Transfers

The transfers this season were less successful, apart from those mentioned earlier the following also joined.

Matija Vida - brought in as back-up to Iljin.

Oladipo Diarra - a young, technically gifted dutch left-winger who should have a promising future in the game.

Igov Sviridov - a past-player returns, initially as back-up but if he can rejuvenate his career then he could easily make it into the first team.

League

After last season's exceptional second place finish, a lot was expected of the little team from Domegliara. We started well, rising to 3rd after 14 games. However we stalled mid season, with some difficult fixtures and disappointing results meaning we dropped to 8th (outside the European places), we stayed there for most of the middle part of the season. However, after 28 games, our form turned and we won all of our final 10 games seeing us fight up into European contention, and take 5th place at the end of the season. No Champions League Football next season. but maybe we can win the lesser competition.

Cup

This season we finally got the cup run I wanted, as we made it to the Coppa Italia final beating AC Milan on away goals on the way. In the end we lost to Roma, but without my much publicised injury crisis I think I could have sneaked a win.

Europe

This season saw the team get their first chance to shine on the European stage, and what an impact we made. Winning our first four comfortably and only losing by the one goal at Stamford Bridge. We qualified top and set up a meeting with Benfica, who we dispatched with a 2-0 home win. Bayern were up next and they proved a bridge to far. As we succumbed at home and away to go out of the competition. Still, a good learning experience and a nice source of income for the season.

Players

Artur Pestana - the Portuguese 'keeper continues to impress in goal, and looks set to keep the starting position for a considerable time.

Srdjan Stanisic - the young Serb spent most of his time on the bench this season, but made his first couple of starts towards the end of the season and did well.

Ben Dladla - didn't make as many starts as he'd have liked, but performed well when he did play.

Frank Heß - played regularly but less well than he has done before, also managed to get worse at playing with his left foot.

Antonio Pellegrini - his stats are world-class and he delivered an excellent season at the heart of the defence.

Antonio Velardi - continued in his central midfield role. Has well and truly replaced Casisa who is now in the reserves and I am waiting for him to retire to give him a job on the staff.

Anton Iljin - continues his solid if unspectacular game at right-back.

Gianfranco Dalla Bona - almost ever-present this season. Played 52 games, more than I would have liked but Marchese is in the same situation as Casisa and so there was only emergency back-up at left-back, a situation I hope to rectify over the summer.

Aldo Mazzini - probably time for him to move on. He's not going to break into the first team, and he is now wasting his talent.

Marius Dinu - didn't play much, and approaching 30 he may be on his way out.

Jose Marques - largely restricted to appearances off the bench, but performed well enough when he got on.

Cesare Peluso - got a couple of games during the injury crisis, may be time for him to go out on loan to see whether he can step up to the plate.

Gerson Ramirez - he scored some important goals from midfield this season. A good prospect.

Friedrich Kasongo - not really a member of the first team squad but gets included for his 93rd minute winner against Palermo during the real depths of injury woe that turned the season round at the end.

Marco Novello - another good solid season, would surely have got into the Italy set-up had he been playing in Milan.

Holger Wagner - good, solid back-up for both wings - performs well when called upon.

Giuseppe Magnani - performed well, would love to combine his pace with Willems technical expertise.

Steven Willems - the 32 year old's appearances are getting scarcer, would like him to stay on in some role though.

Claudio Di Mauro - another good solid season since his return.

Diego Pastore - played 50 games in a season for the first time in his career and got 25 goals to make him top scorer.

Bent Hansen - he should be world-class but he struggled with his goal-scoring and injuries this season. Hopefully back to his best after a good pre-season.

Hernan Juan - played a few, scored a few, a good season as number 4 striker.

Luigi Mariani - suffered injury heartbreak just as his form was beginning to come. Will be looking to get a pre-season under his belt and then build from there.

Awards

Fans Player of the Season - Diego Pastore

Top Scorer - Diego Pastore - 25

Highest Average Rating - Marco Novello - 7.15 (45 apps)

Can we play you every week - This season it goes to Udinese who I beat 3-1 away and 3-0 at home.

Youth player watch

Pier Luigi Farinelli - it looks like another move may be on the cards as he is transfer-listed and teams are interested.

Aldo Mazzini - I think it may be time for me to look to move him on.

Diego Pastore - top scorer again.

Gianfranco Dalla Bona- almost ever-present.

Stephen Carriero - yet to make it onto the pitch at senior level.

Giuseppe Esposito - made his debut during the injury crisis but did not impress.

Other News

-The board are expanding the stadium again.
-Marchese has now announced his retirement, and despite the fact that he's a truly awful coach, I've offered him a job.

Aims for next season

-Get Back into the Champions League through the league.
-Win the UEFA Cup
-Win the Coppa Italia

Records

A few records broken this season.

Highest Attendance - 27873 v Roma - Feb 2021
Highest Gate Receipts - £850K v FC Kobenhavn - Dec 2020

Top Goalscorer - Diego Pastore - 25 - 2020/21
Most League Goals - Diego Pastore - 131
Worst Discipline - Antonio Pellegrini - 15 yellows/1 red 2020/21

Best Elevens

20/21

Overall - well it's managed to work itself back to a reasonable likeness of what it should be. Feel sorry for Giuseppe Casisa who they don't deem worthy of inclusion despite over 300 league appearances. Still, we'll all remember him!

Story so far

Season			League			Position			Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009/10			Serie C2/C		1st				Champions!
2010/11			Serie C1/B		1st				Champions!
2011/12			Serie B			8th				
2012/13			Serie B			11th
2013/14			Serie B			11th
2014/15			Serie B			2nd				Promoted!
2015/16			Serie A			19th				Relegated
2016/17			Serie B			1st				Champions!
2017/18			Serie A			11th				
2018/19			Serie A			10th
2019/20			Serie A			2nd				ECL place!
2020/21			Serie A			6th				UEFA place

Domegliara Trophy Cabinet

Serie C2/C - 2009/10
Serie C2 Super Cup - 2010
Serie C1/B - 2010/11
Serie C1 Super Cup - 2011
Serie B - 2016/17

Previous Updates

2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16
2016/17
2017/18
2018/19
2019/20

[PRDH]

Marchese and Casisa are both now on the coaching staff, and the board have negotiated a new sponsorship deal worth £5M/year.

[daemonic]

Congrats Ohanzee ...have added you to the Hall of Fame

[PRDH]

Congrats Ohanzee ...have added you to the Hall of Fame

Wow. I didn't realise so few people had completed this challenge. What have you all been doing in the 40 pages before I turned up!

[Ohanzee]

Thanks Paul, was wondering where those crazy good regens came from. How often do they pop up ingame? I wish I could find one of them before the big teams once.
Cheers daemonic
Nice job in Europe PRDH. UEFA might be good for you. Our two great runs in that one before getting into Champions League helped alot at FC Mulhouse. You get lots of coefficient points aswell, which helps in the seedings in CL when you're back there.


A.S.D. Spezia Calcio 2008 | Profile

Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Spezia Calcio 2008 (from now on I'll just call them Spezia ) is really an old club founded in 1906. However they went bankrupt in 2008 and refounded right away. The team has a great history, including one "scudetto" win, however it's not regognized as a real win because it was won under times of war and the league system was not what it normally was. You can read all about the 1944 scudetto win on this wikipedia link. I'll just quote the last part of the artice.

Today, Spezia remembers the 1944 triumph by playing with a tricolour badge on the team's official jersey (but different from the Scudetto), with the authorization of the Football Federation.

Some big names have been in the club, including current Roma manager Luciano Spalletti. He's a legend at the club having played 120 games for them. The stadium is called Stadio Alberto Picco and has a capacity of 10,300 (all-seater). The club has average training facilities and adequate youth facilities, but does house a youth academy. The club colors are quite plainly white at home and black away. Finances are bad (£82k balance), but they are £5k below the wage budget atm. They also have as many as 4000 season ticket holders already.

Now it's up to me as the new manager to make sure Spezia wins the real scudetto so all the big boys will stop teasing them about the "fake" one they won back in 1944

[PRDH]

Pellegrini has gone! He's been wanting to move to a bigger club for a while, but no one's come up with the cash. Roma have now come in with a £22M bid for him, so I accepted. I think I have the players to cover his absence without spending.

[rlipscombe]

sometimes it can be better to cash in on a big player for the good of the team going forward. i think (and hope) i'm finding that at moment.

Ohanzee - good luck with Spezia. We all fully expect to you repeat your success here i take it you're going for the Italian-only policy??

[PRDH]

**Preseason Transfer Update**

Well the transfer window has slammed shut and there has been some major transfer movement at Domegliara Stadium again.

Jurgen Schumacher looks to be an exceptionally talented young left-winger. Hopefully he will make that position his own.

Emilio Rinaldi is another left-winger, slightly older but a more complete player for now.

Pedro Jesus Fuentes is yet another left-winger, as you can tell I thought it needed strengthening and I rather took the scatter-gun approach to solving it.

Leonardo Barbierei is that left-back cover I wanted. He is young and good enough to make it at this level should anything happen to Dalla Bona. He can also cover right-back.

And finally the latest product of the world famous Domegliara academy is Vincenzo Fiore who apparently could be one of the best palyers of his generation. He is being tutored by Marco Novello.

Oh and Farinelli has moved clubs again! This time he's gone to France to Bordeaux he was at Inter for, you guessed it, two years. It's the ninth club for the 27 year old.

[rlipscombe]

PRDH - Schumacher looks a good prospect, as do Fuentes and Rinaldi. you're spoilt for choice there!! and another good player from the academy - what do you feed them down at Domegliara????

[rlipscombe]

Cl group draw has been made and we've been handed CSKA Sofia, Celtic and, you guessed it, AC MILAN.

[PRDH]

PRDH - Schumacher looks a good prospect, as do Fuentes and Rinaldi. you're spoilt for choice there!! and another good player from the academy - what do you feed them down at Domegliara????

Interesting question. It seems that the traditional food of Verona and its hinterland (of which Domegliara is part) is horse and donkey. So that is what we are doing right!

[rlipscombe]

Interesting question. It seems that the traditional food of Verona and its hinterland (of which Domegliara is part) is horse and donkey. So that is what we are doing right!

that explains it then!!

on a side note, the starting line-up for the last Spanish U-21 match saw NINE Real Oviedo players wear the national shirt... a further 2 were on the bench.

[daemonic]

Real S.D. Alcalá - Spanish LIGA BBVA 2015/16

Transfers - Lots of activity as I sought to upgrade most areas of the squad. Some purchases were more successful than other...

David Trigueros (GK) - Arrived in January and immediately took over the goalkeeping duties. Did very well and could be our no. 1 for years.
Santiago Ledesma (DLC) - A Barcelona youth product he had some nervy displays with mistakes leading to goals but is progressing well.
Jesús Longo (MC) - Solid season in the midfield. Another one for the future.
Ademilson (MC/FC) - Offers flexibility as he can play in midfield or as a striker. Spent most of the season in the MC role and did well.
Marcos Luque (AML) - Suffers from injuries but when fit was brilliant.

Spanish LIGA BBVA
Predicted: 20th | Final Position: 10th | Graph
We were never going to trouble the top of the table but early results saw us around mid-table until a bad run of 10 without a win saw us drop to 17th. We faced a few of the other relegation candidates at that point and managed to eke out the odd win or draw to move up a few places and give ourselves a 10 pts gap to the relegation places with 14 games to go.
Once we were on the up, we managed some good results and a few capitulations but were never troubled with relegation again and sealed our top flight status with 6 games to spare.

Spanish Cup - 5th Rnd - Didn't manage a single win.

Other News
Finances are struggling as our tiny stadium simply can't generate enough revenue.

Club Records

Awards
Juan Antonio Álvarez - Spanish Young Player of the Year & LIGA BBVA Top Spanish Goalscorer

Stars
Rául (MC) - Good season in midfield averaging over 7.
Enrique (MC) - Couldn't match last seasons creativity but 8 assists and a good average rating.

Youth Watch
Summer 2010 - Juan Antonio Álvarez (ST) | Initial Profile | Current Profile - Fabulous season as he broke club goal scoring records and won awards galore.
Summer 2012 - Leandro Gutiérrez (MC) | Initial Profile | Current Profile - Just not up to it at this level. Will probably sell him on during the Summer.
Summer 2015 - Luis Manuel (ST) | First Season Profile - The coaches rate him as having Leading BBVA Striker potential and he had a great season for the U-19's scoring 25 goals as they won their league.

Best Eleven: Season | Overall

Real S.D. Alcalá Trophy Room
Second Division B1 x 2 - 2011/12, 2012/13

Career History

Season   League              Pos.   Cup         Europe         Achievements
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2009/10  Second Division B1  7th    N/A         N/A            None
2010/11  Second Division B1  2nd    1st Rnd     N/A            None
2011/12  Second Division B1  1st    4th Rnd     N/A            Second Division B1 Champions
2012/13  Second Division B1  1st    2nd Rnd     N/A            Second Division B1 Champions, Promoted
2013/14  LIGA adelante       7th    2nd Rnd     N/A            None
2014/15  LIGA adelante       2nd    Qtr-Final   N/A            Promotion
2015/16  LIGA BBVA           10th   5th Rnd     N/A            None

Next Season...
Mid-table again and maybe a european place if results go our way.

[rlipscombe]

good first Liga BBVA season daemonic. Alvarez looks to have bags of potential. reminds me of my Gorrotxategi at that age.

[PaulHartman71]

well, my second season in charge of RW Essen was, eventful at the least. The first half of the season was everything I ever wanted, comfortably second and looking on for certain promotion. Add in a magnificent cup run, reaching the Quarter Finals after beating 2 teams in Division 2 and one of the big boys in Division 1 everything was looking good, we'd even made 2 Million profit in January, that was 20 times the profit we'd made last season. However we were inevitably knocked out by another big boy in the Quarter final, then everything went bad in the League as scoring goals became a massive ask, and I began to wonder just how the team I was managing were in second place. We lost our second place with less than 10 games left, and it was then a 3 team battle for 2nd and 3rd place. We won back 3rd place on the last day of the season, which would get us into play-offs with 3 teams from Division 2. We didn't make it. It was a season of good memories, but not getting promotion left a very bitter taste in my mouth

[rlipscombe]

seriously unlucky Paul.....

[PRDH]

Pastore's in a funny mood this season. No goals in six in the league. Four in four in Europe. If only he could transfer his European form to the League and we'd be challenging at the top.

[edit] - Also, which of you is it that has Paloschi in your squad. Whoever it is, could you discipline him for me. He's a *******. Keeps scoring against me.

[daemonic]

good first Liga BBVA season daemonic. Alvarez looks to have bags of potential. reminds me of my Gorrotxategi at that age.

Thanks. Álvarez is rated as a good BBVA Striker but because he was my first ever youth product he's staying in the team whatever happens. If he is just short of the quality required I'll compensate in all other areas of the team....although, last Summers youth product is also a striker and he's rated as having leading BBVA potential. I forsee a rotation policy

[el sid]

Pastore's in a funny mood this season. No goals in six in the league. Four in four in Europe. If only he could transfer his European form to the League and we'd be challenging at the top.

[edit] - Also, which of you is it that has Paloschi in your squad. Whoever it is, could you discipline him for me. He's a *******. Keeps scoring against me.

I had him but sold him just this season back to ACM

[PRDH]

Roma are definitely my bogey team. I've played them 12 times altogether and lost 9 times and drawn the rest. Not a good record.

Nothing like an untraumatic qualifcation from the groups stages of the UEFA Cup though. 6 games played, 6 games won, 19 goals scored, 3 conceded. Simple!

[edit] - the draw has been made for the first knockout round. And it's a new country for Domes fans. We are off to the Ukraine, in particular we are off to play Shakhtar. They are a decent team, they qualified second in their group level on points with PSG. I reckon we can have them over two legs. First leg is away.

[el sid]

Good start to my European campaign. Just beat Marseille 4-1 away with goals from Marquinhos, Laurito, Cabral and Matias Fernandez. Also Barca beat AC Milan 3-2 at home

[el sid]

Drew with Barca 0-0 at home in the next game, and the Milan v Marseille match also finished in a draw. Barca and us have 4 points each, while Milan and Marseille have 1 each after 2 games.

[rlipscombe]

promising start el sid.....

[el sid]

This is getting better. Just defeated AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro through a Marquinhos goal. My defense has held out splendidly so far against Barca and Milan

[el sid]

Defeated Milan again! This time by 3 goals to none at home. A 'vintage curling strike' from Fleck, a penalty from Marquinhos and a headed goal from Cabral sealing the win. All but seals our qualification, but it is not 100% yet since Marseille have beaten Barca 5-2

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Wow thats crazy el-sid, can't believe how much you have smashed Milan.

[el sid]

Wow thats crazy el-sid, can't believe how much you have smashed Milan.

But tbf the only top players they have are Bojan, Pato and Gourcuff. Kaka is 33, but still good. And since they play with only one up front (Christmas tree), either Bojan or Pato starts, but not both.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Haha fools, why would they do something soo stupid, change your formation if you have two stars in a spot.

[rlipscombe]

i've not had too bad of a record against AC Milan either....

[el sid]

Just drew the last group game 1-1 against Barca at the Nou Camp, Fleck with a late equaliser This means I actually top the group.

[mista T]

I have started a new game as Real Oviedo and am midway through the season. I am top by 4 points and joint on goal difference with second. An easy run in is imminent and I feel I have a real shot at getting promoted to the Liga Adelante. Full season report coming soon.

[el sid]

A mini mid season update :
1) We've drawn Olympiakos in the round of 16 of the Champions league
2) We're on top of the league table by 5 points. Mickey Owen's Bayern are second
3) Cabral has won European defender of the year. Danny Guthrie won the European midfielder of the year
4) We've drawn Hannover 96 in the 3rd round of the German Cup. They were the runners up last season.

Players I've bought in so far: (all prices in millions)

Matias Fernandez - 8.75
Federico Laurito - 18.25
Nicolas N'Koulou - 12.5
Steve Mandanda - free
Jack Wilshere - free
Nick Howard (regen) - free

Players sold :
Alberto Paloschi - 12
Silviu Lung jr - 1.5
Kyriakos Papadopoulos - 3.9
Daniel Pacheco - 7.5
A few others were released on frees


Ben Foster - out on loan - 200k loan fee - agreed price 1.8 million

[PaulHartman71]

RW Essen, Season 2, 2010-11 - German Third Division

Predicted - 16th
Finished - 3rd

League Table Link
Past Positions

Words can't really describe how we managed to blow second place and the certainty of Second Division Football next season, but that Past Positions screenshot certainly gives you a good insight... The season had started well, with a bit of a change to the squad made following the transfers. Michael Kammermeyer came in on a free, and the new center back became first choice in that position, doing well. Markus Kreuz, another freebie, came in and made the LM position his own, despite suffering a few injuries over the course of the season. Kai Bastian Evers was a freebie, who's young, and didn't really make an impact on the squad at all. Manuel Konrad was another freebie who came in and became part of the first team, playing at MC. Fetsh, the fairly young Striker was brought in to partner Sacha Molders up-front, yet he was nowhere near as good as I'd hoped. Florian Riedel on loan from parent club was decent back-up. Mirko Casper, another freebie became first choice RB. Daniel Kruas was brought in for back-up to my GK, he didn't play at all this season, but that can only be a good thing. Marcin Mieciel was brought in temporarily to give Fetsch a good kick up the backside, and Mieciel brought a couple of crucial goals, one in the first leg of the play-off. Fabian Holland, the final loanee was a very good player who could play LB or ML, he was very good. Fwiw, we lost in the semi final of the play-offs, 3-2 on aggregate.

'Team of 2010-11' (this is my team of the season, and wont always be the same as what the AI chooses).

GK - Andre Maczkowiak, 28, German
DR - Mirko Casper, 29, German
DL - Moritz Steinle, 28, German
DC - Stefan Lorenz, 29, German
DC - Michael Kammermeyer, 25, German
MR - Markus Heppke, 25, German
ML - Markus Kreuz, 34, German
MC - Manuel Konrad, 23, German
MC - Mike Wunderlich, 25, German
ST - Sascha Molders, 26 German
ST - Matias Fetsch, 22, German

It's an alright squad but after the huge disappointment of not getting promoted, inevitably there will be some changes next season. There was only one player worth of an award, our Goalkeeper Andre Maczkowiak retained his title as best GK in Division 3. Our finances are now very secure, pretty much down to our fantastic cup run, as we reached the quarter finals. This included a memorable victory over Schalke, oh the joy when that equaliser and the winning penalty went in :******)

Career History

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season      League           Pos    Pre    Cup           Europe      Achievements
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009/10  Third Division      8th    17th   N/A           N/A         None
2010/11  Third Division      3rd    16th   Qtr Finals    N/A         Lost in play-off semi final

2009-10

[Ohanzee]

I havent had time to do much with Spezia so far. Been clearing out the backroom staff and replacing them, which put us almost in red (just from terminating contract release fees), but it had to be done.

The new backroom staff is
Fulvio Giovanetti - Assistant Manager. Really happy to get him, he's got the motivation skill which I always look for (cause I hate press-conferences). And he's a all-round good coach aswell, which is great since we can only have 1 coach + assistant yet.
Maurizio Guido - Coach. Since we can only have 1 I went for the best all round one I could find. A bit surprised we could get such a decent one, but really happy about it. He's got the GK and Fitness that Giovanetti lack aswell.
Rino Baron - Physio. The one that was here at the start was completely crap, probably would have put my whole team on a diet of burgers and coke. This guy is good, has the discipline and can work with youngsters.
Vofango Patarca - Scout. We can only have 2 scouts, and I cant afford to sack the other one, so there was only room for one new one. This guy looks great, although I'd like his determination to be higher, he's brilliant at the JPA/JPP.

Happy with that backroom staff for now, cant really do better atm.

Our squad is pretty crap aswell. The big star is leftback Giuseppe Imburgia who's ability is far ahead of anyone else. So I'm roaming the free transfer market and there looks like we can get a decent team together from there. Just had to wait untill we got an assistant to filter out who's unrealistic.

We got one talented regen youngster in our u20s already aswell. Edoardo Doardo has 7 star potential, meaning he can become one of the best at the club apparently. Although that might not say alot he's been given a new longterm contract already just in case. Reports say he's got no ambition which is a worry, so I need to find some old guy to tutor him asap.

Atm I'm just roaming through all the other clubs in our division and the ones above looking at the under 20s of each team. Hoping to find some good talent I can snap up, we do have £60k transfer budget left so we can afford to spend small fees on talented youngsters.


daemonic - Great first season up there, like the look of those youngsters
PRDH - Nice signings, one of those 3 wingers must surely become a star, they all look great.
el sid - Good luck in the Champions League, looking good.
Paul - Unlucky, but I recon you'll get promoted as winner next year now.

[iacovone]

I had Patarca as my first scout at Savona

[el sid]

Unlucky Paul

[el sid]

Beat Olympiakos 2-1 in both the legs, giving us a 4-2 aggregate
Drawn Leverkusen in the quarter final. I should be able to beat them over 2 legs.

[rlipscombe]

good luck again el sid.. Semis are on surely....

[el sid]

good luck again el sid.. Semis are on surely....

Yes definitely, I wouldn't be at all pleased if we lose to Leverkusen. I don't like losing to teams from the same country in Europe.

[el sid]

Just played out the two legs. Lost 1-2 at Leverkusen, was one of those games where you lead every stat but still somehow lose the game. However in the return leg, we were in better form and definitely the better team and just beat them 3-1, thus making the aggregate 4-3

We'll be playing Lyon in the semifinal fwiw in a couple of weeks time.
Liverpool v Roma is the other semifinal.

[rlipscombe]

i think you'll definately does this now.....

[el sid]

2-0 at home in the first leg against Lyon. Marquinhos and Wilshere the goalscorers. Unless we utterly balls up the away leg, we could be in the final. Liverpool beat Roma 3-1 at home in the other final fwiw.

[el sid]

Before the second leg there's this small matter of the German Cup final against Owen's Bayern Stay tuned for live updates.

5 min : Fantastic save by Mandanda to deny Diogo. I thought that was going in.
17 min : Fernandez given space outside the box to shoot, only for Michael Rensing to tip it over.
44 min : Marquinhos does a dummy and gets himself space on his left foot to shoot, but he screws it wide of goal.

Half Time 0-0. Pretty close game so far.

56 min : Fleck hits one agonizingly wide of the left hand top corner.
67 min : Chermiti gets one on target but is denied by Mandanda.
72 min : Demidov nods one high and wide from a corner.
80 min : Adrien hits the post, but the rebound falls to Chermiti who taps it into the net. The goal looked offside. Bayern lead 1-0.
90 + 2 min : Diogo breaks before laying it off to Chermiti who gets another easy finish to make it 2-0. That's what you get for playing 5 up front plus 2 attacking midfielders 2-0 to Bayern
90 + 4 min : FT.

No consecutive German Cup wins for Sachsen Leipzig.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Hard luck el sid, hopefully the Champs League goes better.

[el sid]

Champions League semifinal 2nd leg coming up

3 min : Great intervention by Cabral to prevent Skjelbred from taking a shot.
21 min : End to end stuff as Lyon are throwing everything at us. Decent save by Mandanda as he turns a shot from Afellay round for a corner.
22 min : Afellay takes the corner, some ruckus going on inside the penalty box and the referee Martin Atkinson awards a penalty to Lyon as his assistant thinks Stachel tripped Benzema. Fook!
22 min : GOAL! Diakhate takes the penalty and slots in beyond Mandanda. 1-0 to Lyon
25 min : Chance for Kolodzieczak but he thankfully puts it wide.
31 min : Decent save by Lloris to deny Cabral from scoring. That's the first time we've troubled the Lyon goalkeeper.
39 min : Swift passing from Lyon and Afellay hangs one up which Demba Ba heads into the net but he is flagged for offside. Phew that was a close one.

Half time. 1-0 to Lyon. We've getting out classed here. The defense is not as good as it should be and we've hardly created anything offensively.

Going into the second half a little bit more defensively.

48 min : ^ Doesn't make any effing difference. Lyon just continue where they left off, only for Mandanda to deny Benzema. This man is definitely keeping us in the game.
61 min : Pjanic nods one over the ball from a Lyon corner.
75 min : Mandanda restarts from a goal kick and hits it straight at Pjanic. Lyon come forward in numbers again but the Sachsen goalkeeper atones for his mistakes by saving it.
77 min : GOAL! YAS YAS YAS! Stachel and Toure get involved in a tackle and the ball falls kindly to Laurito who slots it past Lloris. Quite a few protests from the Lyon players but the ref isn't interested 1-1 now, and 3-1 on aggregate. We also have an away goal, so Lyon need to score atleast 3 more.
83 min : Sinama Pongolle, Benzema and Pjanic combine to present an opportunity to Benzema but he hits it straight at Mandanda.
89 min : Mandanda with another, albeit easy, save. 1 minute added on. SQUEAKY BUM TIME now.
90 + 3 : After 3 minutes of nail biting and hoofing up of the ball by Lyon, the referee finally blows for full time. Only 1 min was added on ffs! But it doesn't matter now. The match has ended 1-1, and Sachsen Leipzig have qualified to the final 3-1 on aggregate.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Hmmm 2:1 after 20 mins, you need to keep them out
Hmmm maybe you should go more attacking in the sec ond half instead
Hmmm GOAL!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL! hehe

[el sid]

Mandanda easy choice for Man of the Match, he ended up with a 7.8 rating.

[el sid]

Match Stats if anyone's interested.

As you can see, we were completely dominated but once we sneaked in that away goal, it was just a question of hanging on for the result.