ToMexico!! Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Back once again, another save, another team. FM10 Unpatched Leagues Loaded; Belgium Having only completed Gundo's challenge previously once back on FM08 in Belgium, I wanted to venture back to Belgium after failing in Hungary. The club I completed the challenge with was KVV Heusden-Zolder and I find myself back at that club on FM10, hoping I can replicate that feat. Background... Founded in 1956, KVV Huesden-Zolder are a newly promoted club to the Belgian Third Division B. They are semi-professional club who play their home games at De Nieuwe Dijk which is 2800 (40 seated) capacity. They possess fairly basic training facilties and a basic youth setup. Currently only spending £72p/w on wages, I have a wage budget of 3.6k p/w, accompanied by a 9k transfer budget. Looking at the current squad, it is basic. There are only 12 players, two of which are already transferring to other clubs as their contracts are expiring. I have renewed the contracts of just 5 players, as the other do not cut the mustard. Staff wise there are none, so the search begins. Finances are stated as Okay, taking a closer look we have 86k. We have a kit sponsorship of around 62k which ends in 2015. We have no outstanding loans. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 2010/11 - KVV Huesden-Zolder - Belgian Third Division B Media Prediction - 11th Finances: 86k Transfer Budget: 9k Wage Budget: 3.6k Season Tickets: 53 Transfers - 16 Players In (5.5k) & 5 Players Out (0k) We needed to make signings, we had a decent wage budget to bring in the free transfers. Not knowing the Belgian market too well I made some signings but wouldn't be arriving until the new season. The money was spent on Jean-Toussaint Hamel, a goalkeeper from Tienen U19s and Mathias Moeyersons, a centre back from Westerlo. The rest were all for free, the scouts I brought in worked relentlessly and found a few gems including Bjorn Beyens and Mehmedalija Covic, who were released in the summer. Belgian Third DivB - 7th (Record 14-12-8) We started the season well, we were holding our own, albeit scoring very little, what goals we did score came from midfield, Beyens the catalyst. Our team began to gel and performances improved, we picked up decent wins over the likes of Walhain, Seraing and WS Woluwe, those were the teams around us. This saw us rise to fifth for a couple of weeks but drop back down to 6th/7th for a matter of weeks, a loss to Vise was followed by another against Tongeren, which saw us drop to eigth. Wins over Seraing and Boussu saw us move back up to 7th. Belgian Cup - 4th Round Our first round in the competition was the 3rd round tie against Spa, which was infact our first game of the season. We won 1-0, not a compelling win but a win at least. That saw us draw Peruwelz in the 4th round, a fellow Third Division side but the other league. We couldn't compete, we were shocking, we were out, a 2-0 loss. Squad | Beyens | Covic | Vlaeminck FPOTY - Beyens Domestic Player Bias - 86% Average Age - 25 Finances - are poor. -77k is not good when we started on a +86k. Player wages were 126k for the year and staff wages were 107k, which seems far too high, this needs sorting. New Season Objectives Play-off push Break even for the season Reduce squad size. Season | Division | Finished | Cup | Europe | Finances | SeasTkt | Other 2010/11| 3b | 7th | 4th Rnd | N/A | -77k | 53 | - Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 2011/12 - KVV Huesden-Zolder - Belgian Third Division B Media Prediction - 11th Finances: -77k Transfer Budget: 3.5k Wage Budget: 3.2k Season Tickets: 53 Transfers - 7 Players In (5.5k) 6 Players Out (10k) Busy-ish summer saw the carper players of the team leave including my wantaway back up GK, who left for Cercle Brugge for 10k. I pre-arranged the sale of a further three players for the start of next season. This meant there were a few gaps in the squad, the three players that I had arranged the signings of last pre-season arrived, a couple of them are pretty poor, stats declining with age. We lacked strikers, we had no money to spend and no wages available, the loan market was what I needed. I raided Anderlecht, Standard and Germinal Beerschot for some decent loan signings. Belgian Third DivB - 2nd (Record 19-9-6) After last seasons performance we needed to better that and I had set myself a play-off spot for this season. We didn't start great, the loan signing striker failed to hit the net, making goals hard to come by, we were really relying on my midfield again. However after a draw on the opening day we started to win which took us to a high of 2nd place. Then we had a tough run of games, Tournai, Vise and Tongeren, which we all lost, we couldn't get out of 1st gear. Then 10/11 games in we finally hit 2nd gear and 3rd and began to score goals for fun. By game week 16, we were back up to 2nd and breifly hit top spot a couple of games later. We remained in second place for the rest of the season and we achieved our play-off spot. Promotion Play-Offs - Winners We began our foray against Bercham, we won 2-0 at home but lost 2-1 away, though we were through on away goals. That meant we met KVSK in the Semi's. A inspiring 3-2 away win set us up for the home tie, which we won comfortably 4-1. The final saw us line up against Second Leagues VW Hamme. A dodgy Belgian U21 fixture meant we had lost our only decent GK for the first leg and our on loan striket was injured. We lost the first leg 1-0. Our Gk returned but our striker didn't. We had a chance we were at home. Another injured player, da Silva, was injected with painkillers and sent out. He duly delivered and scored the opener. Another on loan striker Suarez scored the second to make 2-0 at HT. Suarez was then injured, on came Vlaeminck, we had no strikers but 3 AMCs. He too performed well and made it 3-0, unbelievable stuff. VW Hamme pulled one back to make things nervy but we held out the remaning 20mins to seal promotion. Belgian Cup - 6th Round The 3rd round tie was against non-league Torhout, we struggled to 1-0 win. Next up were Oostende, after a 2-2 draw, we delighted fans with a 5-3 penalty win. This meant the 5th round tie was against Veldwezelt, our AMCs performed like usual and sent us through 3-1. The 6th round saw us draw Club Brugge, was the giant killing on? They scored early through Kouemaha, we hit back in first half injury time and battled hard in the second half, fitness told and they came through easily 4-1 winners, Kouemaha scoring them all on the 83rd, 86th and 91st minutes. Squad | Beyens | Jelicic | Nwadikwa | Smet FPOTY - Beyens Domestic Player Bias - 95% Average Age - 25 Finances - are a little better. They were only -44k at the end of this season. Mainly thanks to a small cup run and some decent pre-season and winter friendlies. New Season Objectives Avoid Relegation Stay within wage budget Season | Division | Finished | Cup | Europe | Finances | SeasTkt | Other 2010/11| 3b | 7th | 4th Rnd | N/A | -77k | 53 | - 2011/12| 3b | 2nd | 6th Rnd | N/A | -44k | 53 | - Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 Board announce stadium expansion... The board have announced plans that De Nieuwe Dijk will be expanded to a 5000 capacity with 1000 seat. This will cost 322k and will take 8 months to complete. News item Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 KVV Huesden-Zolder Youth Products YP1 - Jerry Rueter, ST Initial Coach Report - pretty carp to be honest, Assman saying he will reach 2*. Will let him see out his contract. 2012 - no significant improvement during the season. YP2 - Bram Wetzels, AMR, ST Initial Coach Report - carper than Reuter, no chance at my football club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I bet they've never heard this song in Belgium. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 I bet they've never heard this song in Belgium. Probably not. My 3rd season is complete and an update shall soon be up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 2012/13 - KVV Huesden-Zolder - Belgian Third Division B Media Prediction - 18th Finances: -366k Transfer Budget: 0k Wage Budget: 5k Season Tickets: 140 Transfers - 11 Players In (0k) 7 Players Out (1k) We needed imminent strengthening throughout the squad and we did just that. Free transfers were my friend and we picked up a few gems in key areas. Eight players came in for free, mainly attacking options and a couple of defensive ones including a goalkeeper. Again we used the loan marker wisely, bringing in three of the better players available from Genk and Germinal Beerschot. Alessandro Frara and Nicolas Medina the best of my signings. Belgian Second Division - 4th (Record 16-9-9) We started poorly, a 5-2 defeat to Oostende was probably signs of what was to come. Things began to pick up a couple of games later and significant movement up the league was seen. After 10 games we were sitting 4th, wins over Lokeren (5-1) and Antwerp (4-2) back to back were the highlights of what was becoming a more than creditable season. Then a small run of confident performances saw us rise to 2nd just 7 games later, defeating RC Mechelen, Kortrijk, Leuven and Liege in the space of 5 games helped. Form dipped slightly as Medina had a goal drought seeing us slip down to 8th after 26 game. That meant we had 8 games left and enough time to see us rise back up into the play-off places. The way the system works in Belgium is that the league is split into thirds, meaning Antwerp had secured a play-off spot after Period One, Oostende after Period two, meaning the last place was still available. Could we get that last spot? Things didn't start well, we found ourselves bottom of the form ladder in the last period after 4 games. We had to perform miracles and hope the form teams dropped points. We defeated Kortrijk, Liege, Dessel, Union SG to give ourselves hope but Sint Trudin were just far too strong in the late stage claiming 31 from an availavle 36 points. They claimed that last spot. Belgian Cup - 6th Round Our first game of the cup was against Heist, they would definitely need help if they wanted to rob anything from us. We won comfortably 4-0. Turnhout were next, another home match that we dominated, 5-2 winners, goals coming from five different scorers. The 6th round draw wasn't kind and we were drawn against Cercle Brugge, we lost 3-1, Vlaeminck with the consolation goal. Squad | Beyens | Jelicic | Medina FPOTY - Medina Belgian POTY - Medina Belgian Top Scorer - Medina, 26 Domestic Player Bias - 82% Average Age - 24 Finances - are a worse but what could be expected when an expansion had taken place. A 174k payout for league position was greatly received but the 56k squad bonus wasn't :/ New Season Objectives Consolidate Improve defensive options Season | Division | Finished | Cup | Europe | Finances | SeasTkt | Other 2010/11| 3b | 7th | 4th Rnd | N/A | -77k | 53 | - 2011/12| 3b | 2nd | 6th Rnd | N/A | -44k | 53 | - 2012/13| 2nd | 4th | 6th Rnd | N/A | -160k | 140 | Stadium Expansion Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share Posted January 18, 2010 2013/14 - KVV Huesden-Zolder - Belgian Second League Media Prediction - 10th Finances: -160k Transfer Budget: 0k Wage Budget: 4.7k Season Tickets: 146 Transfers - 8 Players In (0k) 19 Players Out (0k) We had a decent base to build around and we just needed to add a couple of decent players in RB and DM. Julien Desire solved the RB position signing for free from Sint-Truiden. Union SG's Italian DM/AMRC Andrea Scala also joined on a pre-arranged deal, although preferring RM he was equally as good in DM. The only other first XI signing was Marnic Vermijl, who joined on loan from Standard and slotted straight into CB. The other signings were all future prospects. Belgian Second Division - 1st (Record 21-7-6) We cruised to the title with games to spare, four infact. It took us 14 games to reach the top of the table, losses to Eupen and Oostende not helping, we struggled to score goals at one stage, Medina didn't hit top gear until a quarter of the way into the season, something which possibly needs addressing. Then the goals flowed, Medina banging them in, scoring his first hat-trick coming against KVSK. That was followed with wins over Deinze and Beveren. We then went on a decent run of results which opened up a small gap at the top, with us the beneficiaries. In that time, Medina scored 10 goals in 6 games, with three at Leuven and four against Eupen. An out of the blue loss at Union SG, was a slight dent in what was to be a fantastic run in. Wins over Ronse, Oostende and Tournai were overshadowed by the 6-2 hammering of KVSK, where Medina scored all SIX. Quite surprisingly Medina didn't score another goal after that, seven games with no goal was his longest run without one. In that time, we lost to Beveren and Leuven, drew with Tubize but more importantly won against Deinze, Zulte Warege, FC Brussels and RC Mechelen. We were Champions by 11 points. Belgian Cup - 6th Round We started away at Vise, the slow start to the league season didn't help but we scraped a 1-0 win to send us through. Like I said goals were still hard to come by and the away 5th round tie away to Bleid was no different, but another 1-0 win was suffice. That set up a 6th round tie against AA Gent, at home helped a little with the finances but the run was over again for another season as we lost 3-2. Squad | Medina | Wilker FPOTY - Medina Belgian POTY - Medina Belgian Top Scorer - Medina, 32 Domestic Player Bias - 44% Average Age - 24 Finances - were not too bad before a stadium expansion was announced, at a cost of just over 4.5m, the board need to sort a loan out. New Season Objectives Survive Relegation Improve Squad Season | Division | Finished | Cup | Europe | Finances | SeasTkt | Other 2010/11| 3b | 7th | 4th Rnd | N/A | -77k | 53 | - 2011/12| 3b | 2nd | 6th Rnd | N/A | -44k | 53 | Promoted 2012/13| 2nd | 4th | 6th Rnd | N/A | -160k | 140 | Stadium Expansion 2013/14| 2nd | 1st | 6th Rnd | N/A | -4.86m | 146 | Stadium Expansion Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeLikeFM Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 expensive upgrade there. I am no expert on construction prices but that seems like a rip-off Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 That's probably about right. A few years ago £1000 per seat was deemed the going rate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share Posted January 18, 2010 expensive upgrade there. I am no expert on construction prices but that seems like a rip-off Seems it. I presume its that much as there was no stands in the first place, having to rebuild half the ground. We've had no loans either, just money straight out of the bank account. They've twice injected 575k to help run the club. Thankfully ground-sharing at a nearly 10k capacity stadium has helped too bringing in decent gates against the likes of Anderlecht, Standard and Genk. So our balance in now sitting at 3.2m in the red. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 19, 2010 Author Share Posted January 19, 2010 2014/15 - KVV Huesden-Zolder - Belgian Pro League Media Prediction - 16th Finances: -4.83m Transfer Budget: 0k Wage Budget: 14.75k Season Tickets: 146 Transfers - 11 Players In (7k) 11 Players Out + 1 Loan Out (0k) We needed to strengthen big time after promotion to the Pro League. Finances were obviously a little worse for wear after the stadium expansion. So again the free transfer market was our friend as well as the scouts working furiously in Spain, France and Italy to find the odd gem. The domestic player bias took a huge dip as the quality of home grown players was poor. Signings of the season had to be Marquitos, although he struggled to adjust to life in Belgium and either Jorge Saez, formally of Rayo or Zoltan Simon would be the other better signings. The 7k was spent on German regen Marcin Malkowski, scouts raved about the 16 year old AML. Belgian Pro League - 9th (Record 7-12-11) Looking back through the previous seasons around 35 points would be enough to survive in this league, so that was my benchmark for the season. Things started quite brightly, we were hovering around 7th/8th for the first 8 games of the season, wins over Lierse, Cercle Brugge, Roeselare and Germinal Beerschot. Things soon stuttered as a winless streak was started, 9 games without a win, 6 of those draws left us sitting 10th, not so bad actually. Another couple of wins lifted us up one to 9th, again a blip dropped us down to 11th but somehow consecutive 3-3 draws against Sint-Truiden and Mouscron lifted us back to 9th and that where we stayed. That meant we went into the European Places Qualifying group A, where we were drawn along with Roeselare, Westerlo and FCV Dender. A strong 3-1 win got us going before an heavy away loss to Westerlo. We were unbeaten in the next 4 games, two wins and two draws. Which left us 2nd behind Westerlo. Belgian Cup - Losers in Final v Standard We started off at home to RC Mechelen, a confident 4-2 win saw us through to the 7th round, where we met Westerlo. Nicolas Medina scoring the only goal of the game to put us in the quarter final. Cercle Brugge were up next, over two legs we won 2-1 to put us into the Semi's against Mouscron. A 2-2 away draw set us up for the aggregate win, the away goals crucial. We won 1-0 at home to secure a final showdown with Standard. We found ourselves 1-0 up after just 11mins, minutes later it was 1-1. Wilker put us back in front after 36mins and we were leading at half time. It went downhill from there, Standard scored 3 more goals to win the final 4-2. Squad | Medina FPOTY - Jean-Toussaint Hamel Domestic Player Bias - 34% Average Age - 23 Finances - we were massively in debt, -4.86m in fact. The board were rubbish, in the fact that they did not restructure the debt through a loan. However through the course of the season we began to reduce the debt, the gate receipts of playing at a 10k capacity stadium until our 9k stadium was completed helped massively. The added bonus of TV revenue, a large bulk of prize money from final league position and a new 600k kit sponsorship deal meant we were nearly debt free. New Season Objectives Consolidation Squad/Staff Rebuild Season | Division | Finished | Cup | Europe | Finances | SeasTkt | Other 2010/11| 3b | 7th | 4th Rnd | N/A | -77k | 53 | - 2011/12| 3b | 2nd | 6th Rnd | N/A | -44k | 53 | Promoted 2012/13| 2nd | 4th | 6th Rnd | N/A | -160k | 140 | Stadium Expansion 2013/14| 2nd | 1st | 6th Rnd | N/A | -4.86m | 146 | Stadium Expansion 2014/15| 1st | 9th | Finalists | N/A | -39k | 661 | - Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 How on Earth are Genk champions when they finished in 3rd place? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr NEC Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 belgium has a play off system taking the top 6 into a championship group that way third can eventually become champion playoffs is a 6 team league playing eachother twice Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Stupid Belgians! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 Tell me about it. Completely forgot about that system until I saw it too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rancer890 Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I'm interested in managing in Belgium now because of the playoff system at the end of the season. It's similar to MLS. Nice work so far ToMexico!! Hope you can qualify for the Championship group next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hursty2 Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Belgium also like the A-League I see. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 I'm interested in managing in Belgium now because of the playoff system at the end of the season. It's similar to MLS. Nice work so far ToMexico!! Hope you can qualify for the Championship group next season. I can't me reaching the top 6 for another season after this one. Struggling a little for various reasons. We're a semi-professional club still. Meaning we can only attract certain players who want part time players. Money! we're 600k in the black but could have been so much more if the board had got a loan to clear the debt from the stadium expansion. (No harm done though) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 2015/16 - KVV Huesden-Zolder - Belgian Pro League Media Prediction - 11th Finances: -39k Transfer Budget: 0k Wage Budget: 16k Season Tickets: 667 Transfers - 8 Players In (135k) 14 Released + 1 Player Sale (800k) We struggled to attract the decent players again and I brought in what I could. Belgian Pro League - 8th (Record 12-7-11) Morale was poor throughout the season and we had no consistency. The longest unbeaten run we went on was 4 games and that was a struggle. Goals were hard to come by, three players managed to reach double figures but that was never enough. Conceded far too many to. Belgian Cup - Quarter Finals We reached the quarter finals, beating Mons and Roeselare before being dumped out by Zulte Waregem over two legs. Squad | Medina | Jorge Saez FPOTY - Jorge Saez Domestic Player Bias - 29% Average Age - 23 Finances - are healthier now thanks to prize money. Hopefully we will turn professional over pre-season. New Season Objectives European Placement Season | Division | Finished | Cup | Europe | Finances | SeasTkt | Other 2010/11| 3b | 7th | 4th Rnd | N/A | -77k | 53 | - 2011/12| 3b | 2nd | 6th Rnd | N/A | -44k | 53 | Promoted 2012/13| 2nd | 4th | 6th Rnd | N/A | -160k | 140 | Stadium Expansion 2013/14| 2nd | 1st | 6th Rnd | N/A | -4.86m | 146 | Stadium Expansion 2014/15| 1st | 9th | Finalists | N/A | -39k | 661 | - 2015/16| 1st | 8th | Qtr Final | N/A | +2m | 667 | - Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 22, 2010 Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 Pre-season update... KVV Huesden-Zolder have finally turned professional. Thus meaning we can attract far more players to the club and scout the world now. We have also been given a tidy 1.9m transfer budget and around 18k per week wage budget (only spending 13k) so have room to work with. Three players in so far and another 4 staff. Making my backroom staff rather multi-national. 6 Belgians, 2 Italians, 2 Croatians, 1 Turkish, 1 Icelandic, 1 South Korean, 1 Argentinian, 1 Ivorian, 1 Macedonian, 1 Madagascan, 1 Spanish and finally 1 Serbian. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted January 22, 2010 Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 Really struggling this season to score goals again and to keep them out it seems. Not found any really quality players that can single handily win us a match. However I am sitting 6th don't expect to finish there at the end of the season. Think we could finish as low down as 10th/11th if performances do not improve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Yank Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Stupid Belgians! Playoffs are the way forward. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 Not to decide a championship, unless teams have identical records at the end of the season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rancer890 Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Not to decide a championship, unless teams have identical records at the end of the season. Tell that to all the North American sports! Playoffs = $$. Mind, in hockey, everyone's following the NHL with playoffs (including that British league! ). Basically every professional hockey league in the world has playoffs. IMO, I like playoffs for deciding a championship, although for historical reasons the top European football leagues shouldn't have them. It's good enough as it is. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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