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[FM09] An Eastern European Experience


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Congrats on claiming the title JSalter :thup: A great run at the end there!

Forgive me if i'm being stupid but your updates say 2013 when you're in 2012.

I've not said if I've won the title yet :D

Hmm, all this season I seem to have got a year ahead of myself! Thanks for pointing it out.

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I've not said if I've won the title yet :D

Sorry, my bad. It seems i mis-read what you wrote :o I read it as "we did", not "did we" and saw no question mark after you wrote...

Obviously we finished in the top 3, but did we bring home the title thanks to our fantastic run at the end...

...so just presumed :o

...well...did you win it? :p

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Sorry, my bad. It seems i mis-read what you wrote :o I read it as "we did", not "did we" and saw no question mark after you wrote...

...so just presumed :o

...well...did you win it? :p

I should have put a question mark anyway, fixed now ;)

I'll do the season review sometime today, but I finished 2nd. Loko were too good.

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2011/12 Season Review - CSKA (Sofia)

Bulgarian "A" Group: 2nd (Media Prediction 2nd)

Bulgarian Cup: 2nd Round, lost 4-2 v Botev (Plovdiv)

EURO Cup: 4th Qualifying Round, lost 7-4 v Fenerbahce on aggregate

Season Stats: P35, W21, D6, L8, F58, A36

Thanks to our fantastic 2nd half of the season we managed to finish where we were predicted to finish, and I'd have taken that at the start of the season. The board are understandably unhappy about our cup display, while a defeat to Fenerbahce isn't too bad. Hopefully we can improve in every competition next season. Loko (Sofia) were too good this season, although they did lose 9-0 to Litex in the league. It's amazing that they could put in a performance like that and still claim the title by 8 points.

Squad

Best Eleven Will be added soon

Player of the Season: Aleksandar Tonev, AVG 7.24

Top Goalscorer: Douglas, 13

Young winger Tonev's performances were good enough for him to win Midfielder of the year, his goals and assists were very important this season. £1M man Douglas justifies his price tag, and next season I'll be expecting more goals from him in his lone striker role.

Other key players:

Daniel Iacob

Another of my signings. He's had a great first season in Bulgaria, and should only get better.

Ivaylo Dimitrov

Provided the most assists (10) from the left wing. Like Tonev he is only 22, so we shouldn't have any problems with finding good wingers for some time.

Jan Zapotoka

Signed in January for only £70k, Jan has been a star after the winter break, contributing 4 goals and 4 assists from midfield. Him and Iacob should have 2 of the central midfield positions tied down for next season at least.

Nemanja Tubic

Also a signing in January. He cost £700k, and was an important part of the defence.

Hermann Guðmundsson

First choice keeper for the second half of the season, and we conceded far fewer goals in this time. Will start as first choice next season.

Balance: £4,897,864

Value: £7.5M

We've lost money this season due to transfers, but our balance is still very healthy.

Another year without silverware for CSKA - it's now 4 years since they have won anything - but if we can continue our form into next season, we have a real chance of getting our hands on a trophy.

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World View 2011/12

A look at title winners this season (numbers in brackets denote how many times they have won it in a row).

Club World Championship: Barcelona

European Champions Cup: R. Madrid

EURO Cup: Man Utd

Belarusian Highest League (2011): Dinamo Minsk

Bulgarian "A" Group: Loko (Sofia)

Czech First Division: Banik Ostrava

Hungarian Division I: Debrecen

Ekstraklasa: Wisla (4)

Romanian First League: Rapid Buc. (2)

Russian Premier Division (2011): CSKA Moscow

Slovak First Division: Slovan Bratislava

Turkish Premier Division: Besiktas

Ukrainian Premier League: Dinamo Kiev

Asian Nations Cup 2011: Australia

Copa America 2011: Brazil (3)

Gold Cup 2011: Mexico

European Football Championship 2012: Italy

Oceania Nations Cup 2012: New Zealand (2)

From tomorrow I'm away for a couple of weeks, so obviously there will be no updates in that time. I'll be continuing this when I get back.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Summer 2012

Club: CSKA (Sofia)

Division: Bulgarian "A" Group

Continental Competition: EURO Cup

Bank Balance: £6,083,735

Value: £9M

Season tickets sold: 1760

Media Prediction: 1st (title odds 3-1)

Board expectations: Title challenge

Transfer Budget: £3.2M (£3.2M remaining)

Wage Budget: £59.3k p/w (£41.9k p/w currently used)

The board don't expect any more this season; another title challenge will keep them happy, but interestingly the media think we'll win the league this time.

TRANSFERS IN

Edwin Marbus, Vitesse, Free

Young Dutch striker who looks quality, could share the lone striker role with Douglas.

Gregory Lavaud, A.S. Nancy Lorraine, Free

French right winger who will provide good cover.

Ramon, Palmeiras, £150k

19 left back signed as backup for van Dijk, will see some action early on after van Dijk tore a calf muscle and is out for 2 months.

Tor Martin Lie, Lyn, £3k

One for the future, the Norweigan midfielder has been sent on loan to Czech feeder Hradec Kralove.

Janos Papp, Nyiregyhaza, £5k

16 year old striker who will hopefully develop into a star.

TRANSFERS OUT

No one important has left, the most notable departure was of Tamas Vasko to Vac. £92k was generated from selling various reserve players. Contract rebel Popo didn't sign a new deal until shortly before his old one expired, but is now contracted until 2016, as is van Dijk, who previously had 1 year left on his contract.

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August-September 2012 - CSKA (Sofia)

CSKA Sofia 4-0 Lokomotivi Tbilisi [EURO Cup 2nd Qual. Round 1st Leg] Zapotoka, Vidlicka, Douglas, Popo

An easy win to get our season underway.

Lokomotivi Tbilisi 0-4 CSKA Sofia [EURO Cup 2nd Qual. Round 2nd Leg] Marbus 3, Dimitrov

Marbus makes a fantastic start to his CSKA career, scoring a hattrick in the first 22 minutes of his debut.

CSKA Sofia 2-0 Leverkusen [EURO Cup 3rd Qual. Round 1st Leg] Tonev, Marbus

Unfortunately we were not seeded for this round, and therefore were handed a daunting task. However, we managed to pull off a remarkable 2-0 win over the Germans, with a goal in each half. Our win was deserved, as we proved to be more than a match for them.

Leverkusen 4-1 CSKA Sofia [EURO Cup 3rd Qual. Round 2nd Leg] Douglas

This game brought us back down to earth with a bump. 3-0 down after half an hour, we were falling apart, until Douglas' 53rd minute strike put us ahead on away goals. Leverkusen went through courtesy of a 68th minute goal.

CSKA Sofia 3-0 Minyor (Pernik) [A] Douglas 2, Vidlicka

A solid win to start our league campaign against newly-promoted Minyor.

Loko (Sofia) 0-0 CSKA Sofia [A]

Just like last season, when we played out 2 draws with the champions, there was no winner in this Sofia derby. We were slightly the better side, but could only manage 1 shot on target.

CSKA Sofia 1-0 Naftex [A] Douglas

Another game against a promoted team, with Douglas stealing the points in the 78th minute.

CSKA Sofia 0-0 Levski [A]

Another stalemate in a derby match. A very even game, where neither side deserved to lose.

CSKA Sofia 0-0 Botev (Plovdiv) [A]

A frustrating draw, as we controlled the match, allowing Botev to have only 1 shot, but we couldn't find our way through their defence.

Slavia (Sofia) 0-2 CSKA Sofia [A] Tonev 2

We finally managed to score again, partly thanks to a sending off for Slavia, although Tonev's 1st minute goal had already put us in front. Tonev added a second early in the 2nd half.

Pirin (Blagoevgrad) 1-2 CSKA Sofia [A] Popo, Zehirov

Gudmundsson conceded his first league goal of the season here, and it meant we were behind for 3 2nd half minutes. Popo quickly equalised in the 55th minute, and with time running out, Zehirov won it in the 82nd minute.

CSKA Sofia 2-2 Litex [A] Valeriev, Todorov

A game we really should have won. Twice we went ahead, only for Litex to equalise each time with their only shots on target in the match.

League Table

2nd place, but we could really use with turning draws into wins. Away to 3rd place Loko (Mezdra) next, but after that are 6 very winnable games before the winter break.

Since the summer, I've signed 1 more player: Jonathan Vergne, who was a free agent. He should provide valuable backup in midfield.

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October-November 2012 - CSKA (Sofia)

Loko (Mezdra) 1-0 CSKA Sofia [A]

First league defeat of the season, disappointing display which means that we slip further off the top.

CSKA Sofia 4-0 Maritsa [A] Todorov, Douglas, Tonev, Dimitrov

Easy win against one of the weaker sides in the league.

Chernomorets (Burgas) 1-1 CSKA Sofia [A] Zehirov

A game we should have won. Zehirov put us ahead only for Chernomorets to equalise after 29 minutes, 2 more points dropped away from home.

CSKA Sofia 3-1 Loko (Plovdiv) [A] Douglas, Todorov, Iacob

Another comfortable home win. A penalty briefly put Plovdiv back into it, but Iacob soon finished it off.

Belasitsa 0-1 CSKA Sofia [A] van Dijk

An easy looking game on paper, but it took a penalty to win it for us, despite 61% of possession.

CSKA Sofia 1-2 Litex [bulgarian Cup 2nd Round] Iacob

Once again we lose as soon as we enter the cup. Litex went ahead after 5 minutes before the equaliser just before the half hour. The game went to extra time, and Litex won it in the 117th minute.

CSKA Sofia 1-0 Nesebar [A] Marbus

Nesebar are bottom of the league, so this win was expected, although I expected to win far more easily.

Cherno more 1-1 CSKA Sofia [A] Marbus

Cherno took the lead early in the second half, and it looked like we would be losing 3 more points to Loko (Sofia), but Marbus equalised in the 93rd minute to rescue a point.

League Table

3rd, 9 points off the lead. With Loko's fine form it's looking increasingly unlikely that we'll be winning anything this season.

In the winter break, I was offered the Zenit job, with a £23.5M transfer budget. Zenit finished 2nd in the Russian league last season, but have an ageing squad that needs a lot of investment, so I decided to continue with CSKA, in the hope that we could still win the title this season.

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February-March 2013 - CSKA (Sofia)

Minyor (Pernik) 1-0 CSKA Sofia [A]

A terrible way to start after the winter break, but we don't lose any ground on the leaders as Loko and Levski both lose.

CSKA Sofia 2-3 Loko (Sofia) [A] Douglas, Marbus

Another disappointing display. We were 3-0 behind early on in the second half, before consolation goals late on from Douglas and Marbus. With this defeat any faint hope of the title was extinguished.

Naftex 4-1 CSKA Sofia [A] Tonev

Rubbish. Naftex totally dominated, although helped by own goals from Gudmundsson and Kouril. This game left me considering my future at the club, and I decided to see how the next match went.

Levski 2-1 CSKA Sofia [A] Douglas

An even game. Levski took an early lead, but Douglas looked to have rescued a point when he scored in the 73rd minute. However, Levski scored the winning goal in the 91st minute.

League Table

4 defeats from 4 is unacceptable, and with my job suddenly very insecure, I decided to walk after 22 months in the job.

CSKA Sofia statistics: P59 W32 D12 L15 F95 A59

After almost 5 years in Bulgaria, I don't really want another job there. Lokomotiv Moscow is a possibility, but if I don't get that job I'll wait until the end of the season.

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After declaring interest in the Lokomotiv Moscow job, they sacked their manager, but then appointed someone else. I then had offers from Chornomorets of Ukraine and Denizlispor of Turkey. I delayed each of these until the end of the season to see if any other jobs came up before then. The 2 above clubs came back with their offers on 27/5. Denizlispor are traditionally a top division team in Turkey, but just finished mid table in their 1st season in the 2nd tier, and I didn't like the league rules, so packed my bags for Ukraine, signing a 4 year contract on £3,200 p/w.

Chornomorets Odesa

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Honours

Chornomorets are a Ukrainian Premier League club, with their best finish (2nd) coming in 1995 and 1996. They have won the Ukrainian Cup twice, in 1992 and 1994, and were runners up recently, in 2012. They have now had 11 consecutive seasons in the top flight, and in the last 5 seasons have finished 5th, 4th, 5th, 4th and 9th. A disappointing season last year for them, meaning no European football this season. Chornomorets play their home games at the Victor Prokopenko Stadium, which was built in 2010 and holds 50000. Victor Prokopenko is a club legend. They have top corporate and training facilities, and state of the art youth facilities with a youth academy. Their fierce rivals are Dnipro and Dinamo Kiev, with Tavria, Arsenal Kiev and Karpaty as other rivals. All 5 are in the same league, so there will be plenty of clashes with rivals over the season.

Shakhtar are the current champions, finishing 1 point above an undefeated Dinamo Kiev. In every season the champions have been Dinamo Kiev or Shakhtar, except in the inaugural season, 1992, when Tavria were champions. From 1997, the top 2 have been Dinamo and Shakhtar every season. Chornomorets were the last team other than the big 2 to finish in the top 2.

Division: Ukrainian Premier League

Bank balance: £19,497,071

Value: £34M

The finances are rated as secure, so I should have plenty of backing financially. Over the last season the club have spent £16.75M on 9 players, selling players for a total of £5.75M. Despite spending this much on players, they have still made a £2M profit for the season. I've been given a £1.9M transfer budget to start with, although this may change when the new season starts. My wage budget is currently £114k p/w, of which £98k p/w is being used.

Team Report

Not a bad team, that should be capable of finishing higher than 9th. I'll look to add a new keeper, and then see if I can improve the team anywhere else. With £10M spent in the last 4 months alone on transfers, I might not have to spend too much more.

It's going to be an interesting challenge to manage Chornomorets, as winning the title isn't a realistic possibility at the moment - the top 2 were 18 points clear of the rest last season, while Chornomorets finished 16 points behind 3rd. However, as they finished in the top 5 for each of the 4 seasons prior to last season, European qualification should be possible within a season or 2.

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World View 2012/13

A look at title winners this season (numbers in brackets denote how many times they have won it in a row).

Club World Championship: R. Madrid

European Champions Cup: Arsenal

EURO Cup: Olympique de Marseille

Belarusian Highest League (2012): Dnepr Mogilev

Bulgarian "A" Group: Loko (Sofia) (2)

Czech First Division: Brno

Hungarian Division I: MTK

Ekstraklasa: Lech

Romanian First League: FC Brasov

Russian Premier Division (2012): CSKA Moscow (2)

Slovak First Division: Trnava

Turkish Premier Division: Fenerbahce

Ukrainian Premier League: Shakhtar

African Cup of Nations 2012: Ivory Coast

In Bulgaria, CSKA (Sofia) finished 5th and miss out on Europe, while Nesebar finished 15th and are relegated.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, as is evident I've not done anything on this for over 2 weeks. Things weren't going great in Ukraine, and I wasn't particularly enjoying it, plus I've been busy with other things like my sign up, so I don't think I'll be continuing with this career. FM10 may lead to another trip into Eastern Europe, but that's for another day.

Thanks to everyone who followed this, hope you enjoyed it while it lasted :)

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