FM 2009 - AS Saint-Étienne: Les Verts

AS Saint-Étienne, a team that's had a troubled time but is now firmly back into Ligue 1. Last year they finished 5th, which is very respectable. They do have some gems in their squad, and it's definently a fun team to try and bring back to greatness as they've won the Ligue 1 ten times between 1957 and 1981!

ATT: This team thread was made on request of Maestroik, so he'll probably "run" the thread, but I might have a go myself as well...

Also thanks goes to matty1294 for helping me get a screenie of squad and some of the players!

City of Saint-Étienne:

Saint-Étienne (Sant-Etiève in Arpitan) is a city in the Loire department in central France. It lies 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region and is the capital of the department. It is situated in the Massif Central.

In the 16th century, Saint-Étienne possessed an arms factory, and it was this industry which accounted for the town's importance, though it engaged also in the manufacture of ribbons and passementerie from the 17th century. (During the French revolution Saint-Étienne was renamed Armeville ("Arms town") because of this activity.) Later still it became a coal-mining centre and more recently has been known for the manufacture of bicycles.

AS Saint-Étienne:

Full name: Association Sportive Saint-Étienne Loire

Nickname(s): Les Verts (The Greens)

Founded: 1919

Ground: Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint Étienne (Capacity: 35,616)

Manager: Laurent Roussey

League: 2007/08 Ligue 1, 5th

a French football team founded in 1920. They play their home games at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in the city of Saint Étienne. They are also one of the most successful teams in French Football history, with honours including 10 French First Division championship wins. Their primary rivals are Olympique Lyonnais, from nearby Lyon.

A.S. Saint-Étienne was created in 1919 by members of the Amicale des employés de la Société des magasins Casino: members of the employees' Union of the Casino grocery chain. Since green was the colour of the chain, green jerseys were also adopted.

After relegation Saint-Étienne struggled, with mixed results in the Second Division/Ligue 2. They finally won the Ligue 2 championship in 2004, achieving promotion to Ligue 1. The club finished 6th in Ligue 1 the following season, which enabled them to participate in a European tournament, the Intertoto Cup, for the first time in many years. Having finished the 2007-08 Ligue 1 season in 5th place, Saint-Étienne will be playing in the 2008-09 UEFA Cup after 27 years of absence.

Squad:

St. Etienne has a very good mix of youth and established players. The most prolific player perhaps being young striker Bafetimbi Gomis. The squad might be slightly weak in defence, but over all the standard is quite good. However, you might not have enough quality backup players in case of injuries and internationals.

Goalkeepers

GK - Jody Viviani*

Defenders

DC - Stathis Tavlaridis

DR - Yahann Andreu^

DC - Loris Nery

D/WBR/DMC/MRC - Loïc Perrin*

Midfielders

DMC/MC - Blaise Matuidi^

MC - Paulo Machado

AMRLC - Daisuke Matsui

AMRL/FC - Dimitri Payet*

Forwards

FC - Lasse Nilsson

FC - Kevin Mirallas^

ST - Bafetimbi Gomis*

ST - David Gigliotti

ST - Njaka Rafilibera

The players marked with ^ are promising and capable youngster, the ones with * are important and established players. In my opinion of course...

Players out: (Most important transfers, not complete)

GK - Jessy Moulin (AC Arles)

MC - Pascal Feindouno (Al-Sadd)

FW - Freddy Guarin (FC Porto)

St. Etienne hasn't lost any key players since last year, they have actually strengthened their squad. The loss of Guarin to Porto might have hurt, as he was a decent striker (but not amazing). Apart from Machado from Leixoes and Bilos from San Lorenzo, they have brought in seven players from French teams. Over-all they are a lot stronger this year than last year.

State of Affairs

Your star player is of course Gomis and your default captain Perrin is an excellent and versatile defender/midfielder. Your keeper is good, but you might one to bring in a class keeper and use Viviani as backup. Apart from Perrin your defence is not excellent so this should be top priority to reinforce. Depending on how much money you have left, it wouldn't hurt to get perhaps an MC/AMC and a backup striker for Gomis.

Even though St. Etienne finished 5th last year it might be difficult to repeat this, but I still feel you should aim for European qualification. With a couple of good transfer dealings this should be realistic.

Best Established Player

Bafetimbi Gomis - ST

Bafétimbi "Bafé" Gomis (born 6 August 1985 in La Seyne-sur-Mer, France) is a French footballer who plays as a striker for St-Étienne. Gomis is of Senegalese descent. He made eleven appearances for St-Étienne in his first season with the club, scoring two league goals. The 2006/2007 season was when Gomis established himself with St-Étienne, scoring ten goals in 30 appearances. Gomis continued this form into the 2007/2008 season where he scored an impressive 16 goals in 34 appearances.

He has been watched by previous Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan, and looks to be on his transfer list this summer. In an interview with L'Équipe, Gomis stated he was attracted by a possible move to England, but revealed Serie A would be his preference.

Gomis is a very strong and able striker, that is a key player for St. Etienne. He's bound to score lots of goals if you give him trust. You might have problems holding on to him, so perhaps try and offer him a new long-term contract.

Best Young Player

Kevin Mirallas - FC

Kevin Mirallas (born October 5, 1987 in Liège) is a Belgian football striker. He played for his home town side Standard Liège at youth level, and has played for Lille OSC since the opening of the 2004-05 season. Mirallas participated in the UEFA Cup in his first season at the club. He has represented Belgium at Under-17, Under-19 levels and Under-21 levels and was one of the leading figures in guiding 2007 Belgium to the semi-finals during the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

Mirallas can play on either side of midfield or down the centre of the pitch. He scored twice in the 2008 Summer Olympics football tournament, once against China (2-0 victory) and once against Italy (3-2 victory).

Mirallas has quite good stats in FM09, and is probably the most promising youngster at St. Etienne that is good enough to (occasionally) be given first-team opportunity. He's a typical pacey striker with good Dribbling, Technique, First Touch and Agility. He's also fairly composed and good movement off the ball.

Misc...::

I'm at work, so I can't guarantee ALL information to be 100% accurate, but I will proof-read everything as soon as I can.

As always, any comments/corrections/feedback more than welcome, don't hesitate to get involved!

Brilliant again. You've got to much time on your hands at work mate.

Biggest rivals of the mighty OL irl. Gomis against Benzema.

Biggest rivals of the mighty OL irl. Gomis against Benzema.

Yep, quite a fun team really... A few really amazing players, some you could probably get rid of and a lot of dealing in the transfer market to match last IRL Ligue 1(5th) position I imagine...

As I said, my give them a bash myself once the full game is out

Cheers mate. You tried them out in the demo?

Nope, I'll probably give them a bash in the full game... I like developing youth and discovering future stars, no point in doing that on demo

You tried them yourself mate?

Not gathering quite as much interest as I thought Saint-Etienne would... Such a proud club...

Anyone gonna start a game with Saint-Etienne tomorrow then?

Sorry but I have been kinda busy with RL but I am getting the game tomorrow tho..Whee!

Cool, let me know how you get along mate

Just got the game and think I might start with them. Played a long save with them a couple of years back and have a bit of a soft spot for them now.

i would be playing a mighty long career with Saint-Etienne as i have done in previous games, but their sale of Feindouno has ruined them for me im afraid

I'm playing as Saint-Étienne at the moment, but some of the players you have in the OP isn't on my game.. The ones that is noton my game is: Gregory Laurey, Fabien Cortes, Driss Pain, Cristophe Roussel, Gerard Leglise, Philippe Vigneau, Bilal Mathis, Mohamed Laval and Ryan Jimenez...

Either you have misspelled all of them, which I doubt, or they do nnot exist.. They don't even come up when I search for them :S..

Sorry for double-post, but is this thread dead??

You are correct; none of those players exist in the Saint-Étienne squad. Unless he spelt them very badly wrong.

You are correct; none of those players exist in the Saint-Étienne squad. Unless he spelt them very badly wrong.

And I checked the editor too and they aren't in the database at all...

Yeh, removed those players sorry Fabregas18... Dunno how they ended up there, must have gotten a bit mixed up when I was making this thread to be honest :s

Yeh, removed those players sorry Fabregas18... Dunno how they ended up there, must have gotten a bit mixed up when I was making this thread to be honest :s

Okay, no problem ..

I was just a bit confused when I saw those names ...

Hi guys new to French football on FM and i decieded to give it ago with Saint Etienne a team with good history but no big name players i was suprised with the quality at the club and i did not have to buy untill Jan. Heres how i got on in my first season

And the mighty Lyon came....4th:D

And the mighty Lyon came....4th:D

They did not even make champions league

What happened to them fgs?

Could you see who they bought and sold if possible?

Great season btw. Well done.

What happened to them fgs?

Could you see who they bought and sold if possible?

Great season btw. Well done.

here you go

jan window is almost closed and here is what they have done so far i am 4th but lyon are top by 6 points

It doesn't seem as if M'Bami has the impact they were after, he was shipped out very quickly. Cabanas is an interesting buy for them, as is the return of Coupet.

@ Matt m: How do find Gomis? He's a player I always think of buying but haven't done thus far, so I'd be interested to hear how he performs for you.

Toulalon for 18 mil. Stupid.

Coupet is crap on this version so also stupid.

Thx Matt.

It doesn't seem as if M'Bami has the impact they were after, he was shipped out very quickly. Cabanas is an interesting buy for them, as is the return of Coupet.

@ Matt m: How do find Gomis? He's a player I always think of buying but haven't done thus far, so I'd be interested to hear how he performs for you.

sorry for the late reply i am into fourth season now after come 4th in season 2 and third in season 3 i still have Gomis he gets u a god 10-15 goals in a season when you play 2 upfront on a regular basis like i do but when at the back end of last season and for a few games at start of this season i was forced to play him up by him self with wingers playing off him and he scored 12 in 9 games so on that basis if you get him i have found although he scores maybe 1 in 3 games playing as a 2 upfront he seems to score more playing as a lone striker has always got over 7 rating for season for me.

I have added the Loanees (£2m fee!) FC Oscar Cardozo (awesome) & Jonathan Zebina (Juventus for £240k fee), bought DC Jose Maria Paz (freebie) - pretty good, & also DC Arnaud Maire (Bastia £110k) has been useful. Also Julien Francois £80k from Metz - he is very strong and has promise as a back up DMC / MC at least. Am 5th in Nov, in 1st Season, & am managing the reserves (purely to get the 2nd string playing regularly as there is an issue where 1st teamers are not caled up for reserves though you instruct them to be called up!.) Reserves are winning almost everything, am hoping 2 or 3 players will step up next season as quality buys really cost. Also picked up Jean-CLaude Darcheville (Rangers, £240k) - he is a good 4th choice SC. I have struggled mainly against the top 4 teams, good performances but bad results. I think my tactics against them were too middle of the road & balanced. Fully defensive or more attacking would probably have helped.

I dream of the day I/we win the Champs League - though qualification alone will be fantatstic!

Loris Nery? are you sure - he's rubbish in my game (9.02).

Lets see if we can get this thread going again. On my third season now with Etienne. First season i finished second so made it to the CL were i somehow managed to get to quarterfinals, won over Barcelona with 4-0 at home and lost 1-4 away. Got knocked out by Real Madrid tho. Second season i won the leage at the wery last minute. Was 1-1 which ment Lyon would win but in the 93 min Bayal Sall scored on a corner . Third season now and im top of the table but both Lyon and Marseille is close, will be a close call this season aswell. I play a 4-2-3-1 and the team i got is:

GK

Enyeama

Riou

Janot(last season before retirent)

FB

Eboue (transferlisted by arsenal first season)

Mathieu

Andreu

CB

Sakho (Had to pay over 20 mill euro but well worth it)

NKoulou

Bayal Sall

Mongongu

Linganzi

DM

Perrin

Matuidi (Was for a long time eager to leave but is now settled)

Sall and Mongongo can also play in DM if needed

Attacking mids

Saivet

Bangoura (From Kiev)

Feghouli

Traore (one from Rosenborg)

Strikers

Gignac

Nimani

Acapandie

Im wery pleased with my squad at the moment and theres alot of players that still can develop. Got a regen in the reserves that at 16 years almost is good enough for a first team spot. Next transfer season i will look for another good attacking winger but with the squad i got now i have to spend more and more money on salarys. The stadium was expanded and can now hold 48270 but the board has already approved another expansion. So hows anyone else still playing with Etienne and how is it going?

Lets see if we can get this thread going again. On my third season now with Etienne. First season i finished second so made it to the CL were i somehow managed to get to quarterfinals, won over Barcelona with 4-0 at home and lost 1-4 away. Got knocked out by Real Madrid tho. Second season i won the leage at the wery last minute. Was 1-1 which ment Lyon would win but in the 93 min Bayal Sall scored on a corner . Third season now and im top of the table but both Lyon and Marseille is close, will be a close call this season aswell. I play a 4-2-3-1 and the team i got is:

GK

Enyeama

Riou

Janot(last season before retirent)

FB

Eboue (transferlisted by arsenal first season)

Mathieu

Andreu

CB

Sakho (Had to pay over 20 mill euro but well worth it)

NKoulou

Bayal Sall

Mongongu

Linganzi

DM

Perrin

Matuidi (Was for a long time eager to leave but is now settled)

Sall and Mongongo can also play in DM if needed

Attacking mids

Saivet

Bangoura (From Kiev)

Feghouli

Traore (one from Rosenborg)

Strikers

Gignac

Nimani

Acapandie

Im wery pleased with my squad at the moment and theres alot of players that still can develop. Got a regen in the reserves that at 16 years almost is good enough for a first team spot. Next transfer season i will look for another good attacking winger but with the squad i got now i have to spend more and more money on salarys. The stadium was expanded and can now hold 48270 but the board has already approved another expansion. So hows anyone else still playing with Etienne and how is it going?

Delighted to see your Post, thought this thread had died. Amazed Sall is playing by end of season 2, in season 1 he is a mile off the 1st team. I have 1 match to go (season 1). Will finish anywhere between 2nd-6th, its tight behind PSG!). Can Post more detail if you like. I am using 442 (wwfans T+TF inspired). You seem to have had a lot of transfer kitty, I hope I get that for season 2 as I have not had much so far, though the board did top up with£4m at one point but that is nothing to compete in this League.

Jose Marie Paz (a £0 signing) has been my player of the 1st season and also top L1 "buy of the season". Oscar Cardozo (loaned in from Benfica) had a barren spell of several games but still finished 2 goals short of top L1 goalscorer.

One problem at the end of 1st season, I was £8m in the red overall and would hate this save to end up as an Administration disaster.

One down note about playing as Les Verts, their fiercest rivals are Lyon + PSG. Unfortunatly these are 2 of the very strongest teams in the League so until you establish yourseleves you will suffer disappointing results against these 2 and that will engender a negative reaction from fans & board. But dont worry, that is not irrevesible! On the other hand, if you are an FM genius / natural, you may well get good results in due course against them - this the board & fans will like!... a lot!!

Did you went into administration or not?

Did you went into administration or not?

We didnt - I think it is a warning of impending disaster but the board just sold Gomis from under me to Arsenal for £16m, which I am seeing as a blessing in disguise. Will spend as much of it as they let me though - I need a Star striker for a start!

Gignac, Briand come to mind.

Gignac, Briand come to mind.

Thanks for the tip, checking out Briand now, he fell through my scouting network!

Gignac got to negotiation stage & didnt think we were "good enough" for him!

Also Daniel Niculae, am already in negotiations with him!

Landon Donavan maybe. Just a shout though.

Ive just started my final FM09 game with St Etienne. Have decided not to buy until January as the squad seems ok at first glance.

Played and won all my friendlies and my scouts are in motion. Have decided not to use the search functions and will ensure I only buy from my scouting reports. This is mainly because there seems little quality there in the first place

Mirallas has scored 4 in the friendlies and much is expected from him.

Without being complacent, 5th shouldn't be too hard to match - famous last words

I might give them a go on a new update. I love the French league and usually play with Lorient. But have an ASSE shirt so why not