FM11 Big Euro Nation: Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[Andy Sava]

Great season minisav, good luck next season in bundesliga

[minisav]

Cheers. I may need it! Although everyone bar my left mid is rated 3 stars for the league so not a bad base that I've got.

[Ohanzee]

Biscotti - Well done on breaking up the big 3 in Portugal! Congrats on the Supertaca title. Good performance in Europe to. Best of luck next season!

PRDH - Big congrats on the Champions League win and on finishing the challenge!! Good luck with Holland, and please let me in on the secret of your teleport abilities.

Andy Sava - Never fun to be sacked, but I'm glad to see you jump right back in! Good start with Holstein. Hope you can push for promotion next season!

minisav - Congrats on another promotion! Flying through. Good luck against the big boys! I predict you can reach at least European spots.

Slightly off-topic question, but I value opinions of the people in here and you all play a similar game to what I usually play in long-term save game's on FM. What are the major differences between FM10 and FM11 and is it a significant enough change to warrant buying before FM12 comes out? (no idea when that actually will be).

Of all the new features I think the dynamic league rep. is nice, but it really only starts to show when you play 10-15 or even 20 seasons in the less known leagues. You can see it very clearly at the top level to though. In my Venezia game the Serie A have been #1-#3, up and down, in the seasons I was winning the league. And the TV-money actually changed with £10-15M a seasons based on the leagues standing.

The new contract negotiations and talks with players got old really fast though, now I just fly through them clicking on the same things every time (more or less). Feels more like hiding what you're already used to in a preset list of gibberish responses which ultimately lead to the same outcome. It's also a bit annoying that you can't offer contracts unless a player is interested in talking to you. I know it's more realistic this way, but I kinda enjoyed offering crazy wages to someone "out of my league" and see them go from "not until hell freeze" to "I'd be happy to join your amazing club" when they saw the kind of money in front of them.

I also like the fact that you can ask the board for improvements to facilities. But it can also be very frustrating. As in my Venezia game I've not been allowed to ask for anything in regards to our stadium for 4-5 seasons now. I'm guessing it's because we're capped in our current stadium, and there's some sort of magic number of years you have to play before you can get a new one. I think someone said it was 20 years in game, but I might have dreamed that. Still it's really nice that you can keep asking for upgrades to youth and training facilities, and even sort of negotiate if they refuse at first.

The new tactic system I haven't used at all, so I can't really speak for that. I still use the "classic" type. Actually that's not entirely true. The first few weeks I did try the new system out and tried all the roles in every position. The nice thing is that if you see a player behaving in a particular way in a particular role, and you like that, you can check what kind of instructions are giving that behavior. I particularly liked the way the "ball-winning midfield" type was closing down players, so I've stolen a few instructions from that and put in other positions.

I dunno if it's worth it now, unless you wanna keep a collection. But if you have the money to spend I'd get it.

[minisav]

Cheers And getting 5000 seats added to my stadium. It has a 44,000 capacity but only 38,000 were seated before this.

[rlipscombe]

Andy Sava - congrats on a solid 1st season there. it's always one of the hardest jobs in the first couple of seasons clearing out deadwood. good luck in your play-off push

minisav - congrats on promotion to the Bundesliga. your money will go crazy now and as long as you survive this season i really think you'll kick on nicely.

PRDH - i don't think i've congratulated you yet on completion - well done!! good luck with Holland Dr. Who.

[minisav]

Yeah I'm spending around 120k a week in wages but my budget has gone up to 212k to survive. Mental.

[Andy Sava]

19 games have passed from my 2012/2013 season with KSV Holstein Kiel. And what a season has been until now. Pure perfection. 19 games played in the German Third Division, none lost. I am currently in 1st place with 49 points, 12 points ahead of second place. It's been a real surprise for me because i didn't expect to perform this good. The only official game i lost this season was with Koln in the German Cup First Round.

Now i hope that the second part of the season will be at least half as good as the first one.

[Andy Sava]

KSV Holstein Kiel - 2012/2013 Season Review

Pre-Season

1. vs. Dusseldorf (0-3)
   
2. vs. Shalke (1-1)
   
3. vs. Altona 93 (3-0)
   
4. vs. Leverkusen (0-2)
   

Transfers

Another successfull campaign in my view.

• Emanuel Biancucchi - Decent season, didn't play him much in the second part of the season but he will probably feature in my first team plans for the next season.
  
• Rodolfo Friedrich - Where should i start. The minute i noticed him i wanted him in my team, that's why i went over budget by paying his loan fee so i can get him. He was suposed to be my star player. And he was, when he was not injured. He got injured 6-7 times during the season which sucked because he really was one of my star players, scoring 15 goals in 18 games. When i signed him on loan he was going into his last year of contract with Boca. I was planing on offering him a contract in the second part of the season but Boca offered him a new contract in the winter break and he accepted. To bad because i wanted and needed him next season in the second division.
  
• Julian Baumgart - Promising young winger. He was my main choice for the right winger position trough the season and he didn't dissapoint me, scoring 6 goals and contributing 10 assists in 28 appearances.
  
• Yehuda Huta - Brought to help Marcel Eger in the defense he had a good season, scoring 6 goals, contributing 1 assist and managing to get no cards in any of the 38 official games he played in.
  
• Davit Kandiri - Former player of Arsenal he was released in 2012 and joined us on a free transfer. He had no competition in his position, scoring 5 goals and contributing with 3 assists in 31 appearances.
  
• Adam Straith - Loaned him mid-season from Cottbus because i was having injury problems with my right full backs. He only played 6 games but did well.
  

In august i sold Mohammed Lartey to Esbjerg fB for €90k.

German Third Division

It was a season to remember for KSV Holstein Kiel at the end of which we found ourself winning the promotion to the German Second Division from the position of champions of the Germand Third Division.

While we accomplished this great feat of strength we managed to beat a few records:

• Most games without losing - 21
  
• Most team points - 81
  
• Most team goals - 94
  

German Cup

We were drawn in the First Round against Koln. Unfortunately we lost the game 1-3.

Key players

A few players impressed this season:

• Marcel Eger - An impressive season for my main center back, scoring 12 goals and contributing 3 assists. Geting picked man of the match 5 times, Eger finished with an average rating of 7,46. However, compared to my other center back, Yehuda Huta, he lacked discipline, geting 6 yellow cards and 1 red.
  
• Alexander Benede - Only playing 11 games this season, the attacking midfielder finished with 5 goals, 8 assists, 2 MoM and an average rating of 7,45.
  
• Rodolfo Friedrich - Despite his form being disrupted by injuries, the young argentinian striker managed to score 15 goals in 18 games with an average rating of 7,41.
  
• Jerome Rothen - The experienced midfielder had a good season, contributing with 16 assists and 3 goals, finishing with an average rating of 7,13 in 33 appearances.
  

Plans for the future

Hopefully i will stay out of relegation. I managed to extend all of my key players contracts with the exception of Friedrich which signed a new contract with Boca before i got the chance to make him a good offer. Next season's expectations won't be high, with the only goal being to avoid relegation and seeing how much do i have to improve my squad in order to work towards promotion in the next seasons.

The Road so Far

[i][color="blue"][b]CLUB HISTORY[/b][/color]

[b]SEASON      LEAGUE     POS.     CUP            EUROPE     ACHIEVEMENTS/NOTES[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]2011/2012[/b]   G3rd       [url="http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5708/fm2011060100411096.jpg"]5th[/url]      -              -          -
[b]2012/2013[/b]   G3rd       [url="http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5471/fm2011060213005035.jpg"]1st[/url]      First Round    -          Promoted & Winners of the German Third Division[/i]

[minisav]

Well done Andy

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Great work there Andy, keep it up in the new season.

I have a full season update for Haro to come, but probably not til Sunday/Monday as I am off to visit the family

[rlipscombe]

congratulations on a fantastic season there Andy. with a couple of signings maybe there should be no doubts you'll be ok next season. shame couldn't keep Rodolfo Friedrich but hopefully a replacement can be found.

good luck.

[Ohanzee]

Congrats on the promotion Andy Sava, well done! I like your goal difference. 94 for, 53 against. All out attack, defense is boring. Just the way I like it. Good luck next season!

[Andy Sava]

Cheers guys.

Pre-season done. Friendly game with Borussia Dortmund was a very very very very very bad idea. I won't tell you the score just know that i had no player rating above 5.5 this game (one 3.8 and six under 5.0). You can try and guess the score but i doubt you will get it

Edit: Ohanzee - Yeah that's the kind of football i like except most of the goals i conceded were because of stupid mistakes like a keeper that drops the ball in front of an oposition player or a defender that admires the ball going past him.

Edit 2: I'm still in doubt if i should stick with my 4-4-2 diamond all out attack tactic. The game with Dortmund made me think a little. By the way, if you guess the score i'll give you a cookie

[Ohanzee]

Andy Sava - Ok, I guess .. hmm .. Dortmund are very good atm in game. If they played a top team, and based on your bad player ratings I take the wild guess of 8-0.

Istanbulspor - Introduction (Club colors are yellow, but since that doesn't show well on the boards I go with the stripes, which are black and dull.)

I've found myself a new club, and will continue in here. After considering Turkey several times I finally decided to go on holiday for a year and see what kind of clubs are possible to manage. But after about 20 re-loads with lots of different clubs coming up I was starting to lose interest already. All the clubs were the same types, in terms of history and facilities, and with names I'd never be able to pronounce correctly in my lifetime.

But then out of nowhere came a club I hadn't seen before. Istanbulspor. I can even pronounce that, I think. Obviously the club is based in Istanbul, and is (according to wikipedia) the 4th most famous professional club from the city, after the much more famous Besiktas, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce. Istanbulspor also has a interesting history, which you can read all about on wikipedia. It includes a rich family buying the club, a top 4 finish and a bit of European football, before a financial crisis (in 2001) as the rich family left them, and eventually a drop down to the 4th tier of Turkish football.

Now they are back in the Third Division and have appointed manager Tommi Helm to help bring the club back up to the top of Turkish football, and hopefully beyond that. Despite the club having been in the top division (and UEFA cup) not long ago, the facilities are very average. A 4,200 stadium and adequate to basic training and youth facilities. There is a youth academy though, but ony fairly basic youth recruitment. The club is expected to be relegated again, and I've told the board I'll do my best to prevent that from happening.

With a healthy £17k transfer budget I'll be checking the free transfer and loan market. My scout already recommended me a Guinean center back in our first staff meeting. Which is a bit rubbish considering we're not allowed to play with any foreign players in this division. Talking about our division, we are in the Turkish 2nd Division Group A. There is also a Group B. The top team in each group gains automatic promotion, while the 2nd to 4th placed teams play a cup (Quarter Final -> Final) for the third and last promotion spot.

Actually the rules for player nationalities in Turkey are interesting. Here's a quick overview :

Turkish 2nd Division : Max 0 foreign players in registered squad. No further restrictions on match day.

Turkish 1st Division : Max 3 foreign players in registered squad. No further restrictions on match day.

Turkish Premier Division : Max 10 foreign players in registered squad. Max 8 foreign players in match day squad, and no more than 6 in the first 11. At least one U23 player trained by club in match day squad.

This is one of the reasons I've never tried Turkey before, but looking at it closely it's not that bad. 10 foreign players is plenty, and that is only in the 1st team squad. There's no rule against having lots of foreign players in the U18s and Reserve team (at least not that I know of yet), so we can still buy young foreign talent and be a talent factory if I want to go that route. And even though we need to have at least 5 Turkish players on the pitch in the league, we can still have 10+ foreign players for European matches. So there's some room for a versatile squad after all. But it also means we have to at least have some focus on domestic players, which is actually nice for a change.

A funny point about the foreign players rules is that there are a few nations that are not treated as foreign (outside of Turkey). These amazing footballing nations include Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. I'm predicting that this will be an extremely useful rule.

Another interesting part about the top division is that there is price money, but not the kind where you get a sack of cash depending on your final league position. Instead you get £292k for a win and £146k for a draw. This turns out to be around £10M if your team by some chance wins all 34 matches in the top division. But what I'm more interested in is whether this price money changes depending on the leagues reputation. I kind of doubt it though, as this season the Turkish Premier Division have dropped 3 spots (8th to 11th) and the price money is still the same.

Right, if you managed to read this far.. I thank you for your time

and I'll be off to find some Turkish talent for the future Galacticos of Istanbul.

[Andy Sava]

You were close Ohanzee but you were off by, hmmmmm.....5 goals. It ended 13-0 for Dortmund. I never lost a game this bad, ever.

Good luck in your new challenge, Turkey seems interesting.

[rlipscombe]

really happy you've stayed Ohanzee and i'm actually pleased you're going to have a crack at Turkey. not had anyone give it a real crack really.

looking forward to the rise of Istanbulspor!!

P.S. in Messina land, Juventus have just paid West Ham nearly £400k to hire Avram Grant!!!

[Ohanzee]

I never got why some managers always seem to find good jobs. Avram Grant comes into that category. Guess you have to meet him in person to see what the fuzz is about. :confused:

I'm just about ready to start my season with Istanbulspor. Have signed a load of free-transfers (blindly relying on my scouts judgments of players), and a couple of loan deals. No idea what to expect, as I haven't got a clue about the quality of teams down here. Might go horribly wrong, might end up in the promotion race.

How's Messina doing themselves? I don't really care about Juventus.

[Andy Sava]

My defence sucks so bad. 4 games played in the current season, i lost 2 and managed to get 2 draws. Every goal i conceded was because of a stupid mistake from a defender or from the goalkeeper. If this goes on i'll probably end up selling all of my defenders and buying new ones cause i'm tired of seeing how stupid they are. I even stoped watching the match, i switched to only commentary with replays of goal actions.

[rlipscombe]

I never got why some managers always seem to find good jobs. Avram Grant comes into that category. Guess you have to meet him in person to see what the fuzz is about. :confused:

I'm just about ready to start my season with Istanbulspor. Have signed a load of free-transfers (blindly relying on my scouts judgments of players), and a couple of loan deals. No idea what to expect, as I haven't got a clue about the quality of teams down here. Might go horribly wrong, might end up in the promotion race.

How's Messina doing themselves? I don't really care about Juventus.

i couldn't believe it when he popped up! i think Martin O'Neill was their manager too a couple of years ago... Crazy. as for messina, i have a dozen games to go. fair to say i won't be making the promotion hat-trick! HOPEFULLY should be safe from the drop though.....

[Ohanzee]

Just a small update from Istanbul.

We started the season great and were top of the table after 5 games and again after 8 games. But now we're in really bad form. Haven't won in 8 games and have dropped to 11th in the table. I think I made a mistake that I've done a few times now. Usually in pre-season I set my match-preparation to team blend at a high workload, and then take it down to very low with no special focus area as the season starts. I forgot to do that and my players are shattered in the 2nd half of every match, as low as 40-50%. I've changed it to what I want now and hopefully it'll get us back on track. It has made a big difference when I've forgot before to.

Even though we're 11th, there's just 2 points up to promotion-playoff spots (5th), so anything can happen here. Very close league with the exception of a couple of teams running away atm.

[Andy Sava]

Keeping Kiel up in the German Second Division has proven to be tougher then i expected. After almost half a season i'm barely 16th, 2 points ahead of 17th place. The team just doesn't work, and when it does my strikers keep hiting the post. The last match i won was pretty convincing though, with a relegation rival, 5-1 but all of the goals were scored by one of my center backs (2 PKs and 3 corners). It's amazing how my strikers keep missing the goal. Hopefully i'll be able to avoid relegation.

[minisav]

Good luck Andy. Pity about your strikers. Hopefully it's a confidence thing and they can sneak one and many follow.

[rlipscombe]

Andy, i can understand what you're going through. keep it up and survuve in the league. you'll get a nice cash boost then and can rebuild in the summer. good luck.

[Ohanzee]

The Yellow Bulls - Season Review 2011/12

4th in Turkish Second Division Group A (pred: 17th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph

The League

The graph gives a good idea of how the season went. Great start, horrible period in the middle and a steady climb back up into playoff spots in the end. We went into the playoffs in good form having won 5 of the last 6 at that point. In the quarter final we were drawn against Sakaryaspor, who finished just below us in the table in 5th place. I have no idea how we managed to win 3-0 looking at the statistics, but unusual clinical finishing sent us to the semi finals. We got another "lucky" draw in the semi final with the 5th placed team in Group B, Y. Malatyaspor. It was a cracking football match and it really could have gone either way. We almost threw away a 5-2, but managed to hang on and reached the final with a record scoring 5-4 win.

In the final we had to play the 2nd placed team in the other group, B. Sekerspor. I didn't really know what to expect since I never played them before, but since they beat the 2nd placed team in our group to get here I thought it would be a tough game for sure. We took the lead early on through a set-piece and the 1-0 lead lasted almost the entire match. Both teams had plenty of chances during the match, but it took 91 minutes before Sekerspor pulled one back on us. I was gutted, and thought for sure that was it, but extra time went by without any major incidents as both teams players were dead tired. The penalty shoot-out was tense as always and both teams kept scoring ... 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-3 ... but on the 4th penalty Sekerspors Mehmet Özdiraz hit the woodwork and gave us the chance we needed. 35 year old Murat Deniz scored our 5th penalty and won us the promotion to the 1st division!

The Turkish Cup (fixtures)

It was a short journey as we went out in the 1st qualifying round already against Beylerbeyi. It was only the 2nd match of the season and my players wasn't up for it at all. Interestingly Beylerbeyi finished dead last in the league. Shows how close this division was (only Dardanelspor really stood out), most teams could beat any other team on a good day.

The Players (squad ratings)

Lots of transfers as was to be expected at this point. Mostly just went for anyone my scouts said was 2.5+ stars for now. Was busy both in the summer and in January (as I tried to boost our very weak attack and defense). Besiktas is our feeder club and I made good use of that bringing in 5 in total (3 in January) of their reserve team players. Some of them didn't really do much, but some were essential to our promotion.

Ali Kucik - Striker who joined on loan in January. His goals, especially in the playoffs were essential.

Ozan Tahtaisleyen - Defender who joined on a free transfer in January. He really gave our defense a huge boost.

Zafer Kargoglu - Of the ones brought in during the summer he's our best attacker by far. Sadly he seems to be a bit of a matchstick man. Twisted his ankle and broke his arm and was out for a total of 10 weeks during the season. Still he was one of few I could rely on for goals, especially until Kucik joined on loan.

Süleyman Celikyurt - Our leftback for pretty much the entire season. He also played rightback a lot in the first half of the season.

Mustafa Bozkurt - 17 year old (16 when he joined) defensive midfielder on loan from Besiktas. Kind of show the quality of this league when a 16 year old can dominate in midfield.

The Finances

Not very good. I dunno why our board gave me a wage budget of £17k to begin with. We're £6k below it and were losing money every month. Wouldn't say it's a crisis though. Hopefully our average attendance can go up from the pathetic 1,677 now that we are going to play at the next level. Our stadium can only hold 4,200 people, but we should at least fill that in my opinion. There's like 13 million people in this city, just need to attract their interest.

The Future

I really wasn't expecting to get promoted even after reaching the playoffs. But now that we are I hope to be able to rebuild the squad enough to stay up. Lots of players are leaving as their contracts run out, so it'll be a busy summer. This season 38 points was not enough to stay in the 1st division, which is a bit worrying. 39 points is a very high limit for just 34 matches I think. The nice thing is that we'll be allowed to register 3 foreign players now, so my scouts are already on their way across the border. I'm not even gonna bother trying to ask for upgrades on facilities with our current financial status, so there'll be no progress there just yet.

[b][u][color="Blue"]CLUB HISTORY[/color][/u][/b]

[b]SEASON	LEAGUE	POS.	T-CUP		Europe		NOTES[/b]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]11/12[/b]	T2D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Istanbulspor/s1tab.jpg"]4th[/url]	1st Qual Rnd	-		Promoted through playoffs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[b][u][color="Blue"]TROPHY CABINET[/color][/u][/b]

to be continued ...

[minisav]

Nice one on promotion! Must feel good winning something like that. Always get automatic I do.

[Ohanzee]

Yea it is fun when you get promoted this way, but it's equally frustrating when you lose that final match and a whole season is wasted.

Just got this message when trying to sign a promising Spanish player who's out of contract soon. Another rule to deal with! I can't find it anywhere in the rules of the league though, but apparently I can't even bid on foreign players older than 23, don't get the menu-option at all. I hope there isn't any of these hidden rules in the top division (if we ever get there). Kinda ruined my scouting. Gonna have to restart them with age limits now cause they are finding nothing but older models in foreign countries atm.

We did get one really good news report though. We're going to get £1.3M in tv-money over the forthcoming season. Compared to the Serie A and Venezia that's pocket change, but right here and now it's ALOT. Not got any transfer money though, unless I take it from the wage budget.

[danger_mouse]

After my success with Mantova in the Italian challenge i am going to be starting it again but in Scotland, trying to kick them blue noses off the top i will post my pre-season most likely tomorrow morning.

[rlipscombe]

congratulations on promotion Ohanzee - great stuff!!

I had this interesting news item come up today - not seen this before!!

[Andy Sava]

That is awesome rlipscombe.

As far as my season goes, 3 games left to play and i'm 1 point away from the relegation play-off spot. I'm safe from the relegation spots atleast. God help me now.

[duccio]

I had this interesting news item come up today - not seen this before!!

Loud bang at a football stadium? I bet it wasn't the Croatian football player (whose name I can't remember) and his wife this time?

Ugh. Poor sense of humour.

[Ohanzee]

First time I've seen anything like that to rlipscombe. Interesting feature.

Istanbulspor pre season 2012/13

I already had a few deals ready since January. Players whose contracts were running out. But all of them were really based on me assuming we'd be playing another season in the 2nd division. Still they should improve our quality overall. After finding that I can't sign foreign players above the age of 23, I started searching for younger ones. I found that several very good youth prospects had been released, including players like Lukaku and Asenjo. Obviously no one like that are interested in joining atm, but I did manage to get one well know (at least to me) player.

Oliver Norwood - Ex Man Utd reserve player and Northern Ireland international. He's touted as a leading star for this division by my assitant. Really pleased to get him. Once he settles in and learns the language he should be brilliant at this level.

After finding that a fairly known player like Norwood was willing to join us at this level I started looking through the top european international youth teams for more free transfers. Most of the really good ones were obviously not interested at all in joining a Turkish 1st division side, but I did manage to find a couple of (in my opinion) great deals.

Marko Mitrovic - Swedish striker. He's got 10 goals in 10 youth matches for Sweden. He only wanted a 2 year deal, but I think he'll be well worth it.

Andrea Romano - Released by Inter and he's exactly the kind of midfielder I like. Not exceptional at anything, just good all round.

So that's the 3 foreign players we can use. I also found a couple of free transfers in the Turkish youth international sides. Umut Firtina (defender) and Hakan Calhanoglu are very promising and both have potential to be good premier division players.

I also found a new right back in the Turkish trialist game (or what ever it's called). Cihan Kaptan can play both sides, but he already fractured his arm and is out for a month. My 2nd choice rightback is out for 2 months with fractured ribs. So I'm down to 3rd choice already. I also decided to bring back a couple of the loan signings that did good last season.

So far we've won one and lost one in the league, and are through to the 2nd qual. round of the cup after hammering 2nd division opposition 4-1.

[duccio]

OK. I've started a new game.

After a short lived game in Spain, where I found the squad registeration to be an annoying hindrance, and some deliberation, I decided to retun to Italy and take over Casertana. I have managed them some game versions ago, so the club is not entirely new to me.

Old Caserta & modern Caserta

The city of Caserta is home to about 80 000 people, and is located in the Southern Italian region of Campania, some 20 miles to north from Naples and still within it's greater metropolitan area. It is situated on a pleasent and fertile region, and thanks to the rich soil, has enjoyed relative afluence for a long time.

Caserta is famous for it's Royal Palace. It was built by Charles III of Savoy, King of Naples, as an Italian version of Versailles. The royals thought their seaside property in Naples was defenceless against attacks from enemies, so they decided on a move to inland Caserta. It may be topsy-turvy to say that the palace is in the middle of Caserta, as the modern Caserta formed around the palace - people were moved in from nearby previous Caserta, now called Casertavecchia (Old Caserta), to provide workforce for the new Royal dwelling. Inspired by the Palace, Neapolitan aristocracy built lavish residences in the vicinity of the city. Nowadays Caserta is an important agricultural, commercial and industrial centre, though achievements of the city's football club leave room for improvement.

Casertana football club was founded in 1908. The best successes took some time and came in the 70's and 90's when the club had brief stints in Serie B. I intend to markedly improve on this record - at least there will be a helluva place to celebrate (the palace ) when the squad brings scudetto home. Casertana's stadium, Alberto Pinto, is not the smallest by capacity (12 000), so there will be enough room for fans even once the club is in Serie B or higher. Also if the board decides to build a new stadium, it will happen later rather than sooner, so the the new stadia, if not very large already from the get go, will most likely have decent expansion capacity. Sometimes when I've improved fortunes of clubs with really small stadiums, the boards have built new stadiums very early. This became a problem when the new stadiums maxed out their expansion capacities and still were too small when the clubs competed at the highest level. With Casertana this shouldn't be a problem (fingers crossed).

I had to vacation for 2 seasons for Casertana to pop up from Serie D. Anyway, heeere's Johnny.

[duccio]

I've inherited a squad of 1 ok and 38 pretty much useless senior players.

[Andy Sava]

KSV Holstein Kiel - 2013/2014 Season Review

First Team | Transfers | League Table

Pre-Season

1. vs. Fort. Hannover (4-0)
   
2. vs. Solingen (8-1)
   
3. vs. Jena (3-0)
   
4. vs. Dortmund (0-13) - Yes, that's right, Dortmund scored 13 freakin goals against me. I guess an all out attack tactic is not good against a team like that. Not yet at least.
   

Important transfers

• Evgeny Cheremisin - Transfered in the pre-season he was my main goalkeeper and played in all the league games. He didn't have a very good season, making some pretty stupid mistakes which cost me some matches.
  
• Hristo Zlatinski - Was in need of a left AM and he seemed my best option. He scored 2 goals this season, one of them being a beauty from outside the box after a corner while all of the opposition was in front of the goal.
  
• Marcel Sobotzik - Left with only one full back on the right side i found this young austrian player who was way better than the one i had. He had a decent season considering my final league position.
  
• Carlos Villanueva - The player who was suposed to help me in my campaign this season. I had all my faith in him. And he let me down until the last few matches of the season when he scored half of his 9 goals scored this season.
  

German Second Division

It was a disappointing season, only managing to win 3 games out of the first 17. One of this 3 games standed out. Kiel vs. Koblenz was a game to remember for my center back Yehuda Huta who managed to score 5 goals. The second part of the season was not much better. The team did show better football but we still only managed 4 wins.

As for the battle to avoid relegation, things were close up until the end. After 33 games i was in 16th place, 2 points behind Rostock which was in 15th place. The last game i had to play was at home agains 3rd place Frankfurt. The game started off well with Villanueva scoring a superb goal after taking the ball from the center and taking it to the box and giving me the lead until the break. After the break Frankfurt remembered that they are way above me this season and by the 60th minute they were leading with 2-1. After that there was no going back, we had to attack with all we've got and that's exactly what we did. In the 82nd minute Emanuel Biancucchi showed that he comes from the country that gave Messi scoring a beauty from outside the box, giving us hope once again. The extra-time came and i was starting to think about how to approach the play-off games so i can avoid relegation when Biancucchi does it again, this time from in-side the box, making me jump out of my seat from joy. We won 3-2 in the end and after Rostock lost their last game with the same score we were out of danger this season, finishing 15th.

German Cup

The first round put us against ex-promotion rivals from the German Third Division, St. Pauli. It was a close game in the first half but we came out 3-1 winners in the end.

In the second round we were drawn against Koln, the team that took us out of the competition last year in the first round. While last year they had no problem defeating us, this year they struggled to a 1-0 win.

Key players

It was a poor season and no players came out as better than most overall. The highest average rating was Huta's and it was only 7.02. He and Villanueva shared the top goalscorer place in the team with 9 goals each, which highlights what a bad season my star player had. Hopefully he will do better next season.

Plans for the future

I don't even know what to expect next season. Obviously i am hoping for a better season than this one but who knows. My goal would be a mid-table finish but with the way the team has been performing this season i really don't know how the next season will go.

The Road so Far

[i][color="blue"][b]CLUB HISTORY[/b][/color]

[b]SEASON      LEAGUE     POS.     CUP            EUROPE     ACHIEVEMENTS/NOTES[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]2011/2012[/b]   G3rd       5th      -              -          -
[b]2012/2013[/b]   G3rd       1st      First Round    -          Promoted & Winners of the German Third Division
[b]2013/2014[/b]   G2nd       15th     Second Round   -          -
[/i]

[Andy Sava]

Pre-season of 2014/2015 started with a bang. I signed a player from Besiktas which upon arrival has stated the he expects me to build my team around him. After that i find out that my board are disappointed that i signed him and that the fans fear he will ruin our dressing room harmony. Funny how my scouts recommended him and never mentioned something about him being a douche.

Edit: Cool i have been drawn agains Bayern in the first round of the German Cup. Oh boy, Dortmund flashback.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's

Club Haro Deportivo

Spanish Second Division B2

End of Season 2013/14

Pushing the Leaders

The Season in Brief

Predicted: 14th

Actual: 3rd (Graph)

Fed Cup: Final vs Lorca (Leg 1 & Leg 2)- WINNERS!!!

Manager: Des Tiny - History

Season Tickets: 3062 (NC [Avg Att: 2324])

Finances: €825k (80th Esp)

Transfers: 2012/13 - 13 In (€180) 13 Out (€61k)

Squad: First Squad & Under 19s

The League

Well I was really worried by the early results in this season, it is clear from both the graph and the fixture lists that the team performed much better in the second half of the season. It seems that the extra matches of the Federation Cup just spurred them on further. First Half Record - 7-3-9 (38:35), Second Half Record - 16-1-2 (56:20). We came back from 14th to take 3rd place by the end of the season and then into the playoffs, we made it through the first round, and then only just lost 4:3 in the second round.

Possible Season Tickets Bug: We sold out 3062 of them, but our Avg attendance is only 2324.

Best Results: at Conquense 6:0, vs Guijelo 5:1, vs Parla 5:1, vs Villanovense 4:0

Worst Results: at Yeclano 2:5, at Ontinyent 3:5, at Alcoyano 2:4

Fixtures 1-19

Fixtures 20-38

Playoff Fixtures

Player Stats

Team Stats

Federation Cup

Well this was an exciting little trophy, all the teams who competed in the previous season's second division fight for a small trophy through 5 rounds of 2 legged matches. We went out there and I just told the boys to have a bit of fun early on, but then we were all of a sudden in the Semi finals, and then the final, a great effort as we lifted the trophy in a great finale. Winning of the Cup led to a happy board, grateful fans, and another 90k for the bank.

Fixtures

The Players

Squad Stats

Well our young side got a little older, I added a bit of strength, but generally we are still far and away the youngest squad in the competition and this showed as inexperience was a part of our campaign, though we still outperformed what everyone expected with a Federation Cup win and the Playoffs.

Keepers

13. Alberto Gentile (ITA) - He started the season as the back-up, as evidenced by his squad number, but Gentile was superior to anyone else in goal and moved into the starters role and held it for the rest of the season. 61Con 14ClSt.

Defenders

2. Bradley Diallo (FRA) - Captain Fantastic moved to the Right side this season and still performed remarkably, he will be battling to hold off Makengo in the new season though. A star performer as he leads the club. 4G 10A.

3. Ricardo Ranieri (ITA) - With a bevy of Man of the Match awards and a season average rating of 7.24 he performed at the top of his game, the 21 year old is the centre of our defense and will hopefully lead the line for a few years yet.

5. Ricardo Ferreira (POR) - He slotted in alongside Ranieri with ease, and once they were working as a perfect combination no one could question their strength. Just over 1 goal per game conceded in the second half of the season shows why they were so good.

22. Fran Garcia (ESP) - Diallo's replacement in the left fullback position was just great, he made some amazing early appearances, and he managed to help out upfront and at the back.

20. Anthony Marin (FRA)

19. William Makengo (BEL)

16. Lucas Spendlhofer (AUT)

4. Dani Salas (ESP)

Midfielders

14. Christian Loffredo (ITA) - He played a role from the bench last season, but he surprised a few and stepped into the starting line-up alongside some stars as our defensively minded midfielder, he blew away the competition and will be looking to build on that in the new year. 1G 4A.

17. Joao Carlos (POR) - The one player who did well last season and managed to pull 13 assists, was able to double that and then some this season as he provided goals at a level I have never seen before, running the midfield with ease. 4G 28A.

18. Iago Aspas (ESP) - He is leaving at the end of the season after wanting to go to a 'bigger' club, so sold for a fair amount of money when we have a ready made replacement, very solid through the season, but at 26 was worth cashing in on. 11G 7A.

12. Jean-Marc Pfeiffer (FRA)

6. Cristian Russo (ITA)

15. Alex Rossi (ITA)

Strikers

21. Fabio Almedia (POR) - The surprise package of the pre-season, he was not expected to be the man to force Calderon out, but some great form gave him a spot alongside Campana & Mwepu and he ran with it all the way to Fans Player of the year. 20G 13A.

11. Patient Mwepu (DRC) - Well he was expected to be the one to lose a position in the new season, but his solid game saw him move straight back into the squad. From there we saw Patient take charge and he headed the scoring charts with 24 goals.

9. Guiseppe Campana (ITA) - Campana was not in the first starting line-up of the season, but he forced his way back in near the end of our bad run and he then got on the score sheet and helped lead our team up into playoffs. 20G 10A.

23. Carlos Calderon (ESP)

10. Marco Francesconi (ITA) - Multiple times out with "Food Poisoning" - I really think this is getting suspicious.

7. Manu Barreiro (ESP)

The History

Leading Players

|------------|------------------|--------|--------|
| Category   |    Top Player    | Career | Season |
|------------|------------------|--------|--------|
| Games      | Joao Carlos      |   81   |  46(2) |
| Goals      | Patient Mwepu    |   39   |   24   |  
| Assists    | Joao Carlos      |   41   |   28   |
| Avg Rat    | Ricardo Ferreira |  7.21  |  7.21  |
| MoMs       | Joao Carlos      |    9   |    6   |
| Clean Shts | Alberto Gentile  |   14   |   14   |
|------------|------------------|--------|--------|

The Club Awards

|---------|----------|------------------|---------|------------|
| Season  | Division |     Fans PotY    | Best XI | Overall XI |
|---------|----------|------------------|---------|------------|
| 2012/13 |   2DB3   |  [url="http://i.imgur.com/nle2L.png"]Bradley Diallo[/url]  | [url="http://i.imgur.com/SA3xR.jpg"]2012/13[/url] | [url="http://i.imgur.com/SA3xR.jpg"]2012-2013[/url]  |
| 2013/14 |   2DB3   |  [url="http://i.imgur.com/cknxR.png"]Fabio Almeida[/url]   | [url="http://i.imgur.com/65ewt.jpg"]2013/14[/url] | [url="http://i.imgur.com/Zj3Cy.jpg"]2012-2014[/url]  |
|---------|----------|------------------|---------|------------|

Club History

|---------|----------|----------|------------------|--------|------------|
| Season  | Division | Position |       Cups       | Europe |  Comments  |
|---------|----------|----------|------------------|--------|------------|
| 2012/13 |   2DB3   |   [url="http://i.imgur.com/Tx9MA.png"]11th[/url]   |        NA        |   NA   |    None    |
[b]| 2013/14 |   2DB3   |    [url="http://i.imgur.com/TFxAS.png"]3rd[/url]   | [url="http://i.imgur.com/QCt13.png"]Winners Fed Cup[/url]  |   NA   |    None    |[/b]
|---------|----------|----------|------------------|--------|------------|

The Future

In Brief

Predicted: 9th

My Aim: Promotion

Expectations: Top Half

Transfer Budget: €62.5k

Wage Budget: €7.7k

Signings: Pedro (ST, €2.5k), Raphael Le Goff (MC, Free), Luis Guiterrez (DC, Free)

Youth: Ignacio Alvarez (ST)

I didn't take a job offered by Betis B, even though it was tempting...NOT! World Cup is to be held in 2022 in...QATAR!

Haro's Trophy Cabinet

[rlipscombe]

Messina - Serie B - Season 2013/14

Season Review

Media Prediction: 20th

League Finish: 15th Graph

The League

Well we didn’t make it 3 promotions in a row but that was never the target!! The target was simply to survive and we managed to do that which was pleasing. We were never really under threat of going down, although the gap came down to about 5 points during a Spring slump. In the end though that didn’t matter as we managed to guarantee our survival with a couple of games to go. I was pleased that we seemed to be pretty tight at the back but we did struggle for goals at times. Something to work on for next season I think.

Coppa Italia

We made it through the 2nd and 3rd qualifying rounds with wins over Triestina (4-0) and Empoli (1-0) before we were dr\awn against Serie A Parma in the 4th qualifying round. We put up a brave fight but unfortunately we lost 2-1 and we fell at the 4th qualifying round.

The Players

Transfers 1

Here’s a look at some of the key players for me in the current season:

Squad 1 Squad 2

Goalkeepers

1. Fernando Martinuzzi - Experienced Argentine started the season as the number 1 but I phased in Di Gennaro more as the season went on.

13. Raffaele Di Gennaro - Italian youth international with bags of potential, Raffaele started the season on the sidelines but I slowly introduced him in the New Year and by and large he did well. Frontrunner for next season.

Full Backs

3. Mattia Desole - Swiss LB was understudy to Antonio for most of the season, he was solid when called upon.

23. Antonio - Spanish youth international LB, he had a great debut season at the club. Potential to be a bit of a star.

2. Vitezslav Kuchar - Czech youth international was signed on a free in the summer and did ok at RB until the chairman decided to sell him for £500k to Torino in the winter. Slightly disappointed but not ready to throttle the chairman over this one.

22. Jaime Serrano - Spanish RB who had a solid season and became 1st choice after Kuchar left. Not convinced he is our long-term RB though.

Centre Backs

6. Lukas Spendlhofer - Lukas wasn’t guaranteed of a starting spot this season and was in and out of the team until a good run towards the end confirmed my faith in him.

15. Marek Kysela - Marek was a peripheral figure this season and will most liKely make way in the summer as new CB’s are arriving on free transfers.

45. Marco Baldan - young Italian CB with plenty of potential, Marco was probably our most consistent CB. Room to improve further.

16. Antonio Marino - Antonio had a good debut season and is one of a number of our players in demand.

Midfielders

4. Salvetore Temperino - Salvatore was 1st choice for the 1st half of the season but he fell away towards the end and he may leave in the summer.

7. Robi Merino - Robi had another good season, particularly in the second half of the season. Probably our best player again.

8. Valerio Verre - Ex-Roma youth player did well enough pre-January but his head was turned when I rejected offers. Then he handed in a transfer request when he didn’t get a contract. Will probably cash in this summer.

10. David Petrucci - Another season of development for Davide, he got more game times this season. Tempted to try tweaking the formation to accommodate him more next season.

11. Davide Matteini - Davide didn’t turn up really this season and disappointed me. I think he is past his best now.

12. Xavi Torres - Ex-Barca midfielder arrived on a free in the spring and was solid. Xavi is our best player according to my assistant with 4.5* ability. Hoping for more once settled in next season.

18. Simone Pasa - Young Simone struggled initially but then found some form as the season progressed. Has solid potential too.

21. Andrea Pisanu - Experienced winger came in when Merino started sluggishly but his arrival seemed to spur Robi on so Andrea was mainly a peripheral figure.

24. Juan Sanchez Martin - Spanish youth international who was mainly a sub but who got a bit of a run in the latter stages of the season when Matteini went off the ball. Has bags of potential.

25. Mirko Barbero - Mirko had a solid season and has lots of potential which makes him a player to watch.

27. Elia Cortesi - A peripheral figure this season, he actually did pretty well when he played, which earned him a new contract.

78. Elias Steven Kabamba - Swiss youth international was solid if unspectacular when called upon. Solid potential though.

Strikers

9. Gustavo - Mentioned as a star when I signed him, Gustavo finished the season as our best striker. Still developing though and did have some barren spells. Still one to watch.

19. Giuseppe Santurro - Giuseppe signed in January and is another with a lot of potential. With him and Gustavo I have two potential star strikers for the club.

20. Jakub Vojtus - Jakub fell from grace somewhat this season with the arrival of Gustavo, he has a bit of a make or break summer ahead. At risk of leaving the club.

73. Said Ahmed Said - the young Ghanaian became 4th choice this season and will possibly leave this summer.

Finances

On the finances front, we were largely helped by television money and the transfer fee for Kuchar. The step up to a higher level also saw us begin to make monthly profits.

The Future

Pre-Season Targets

- Survival - Achieved!!

Looking ahead to the summer and next season there is obviously room to improve. I think we are still weak in central midfield and we need to strengthen at RB after the sale of Kuchar. Matteini’s decline also means we will have to look for a left winger. Hopefully I can keep our top players and make a push for mid-table next season.

FORZA PELORITANI!!

Career History

[font=Verdana]Season   League        Pos.    Serie C Cup  Coppa Italia  Europe   Achievements[/font]
[font=Verdana]_________________________________________________________________________________________________[/font]
[font=Verdana]2011/12  Serie C2C     3rd       xxx          xxx        N/A     Promotion via playoffs[/font]
[font=Verdana]2012/13  Serie C1B     1st       Semis      2nd Qual    N/A     Champions, Serie C1 Super Cup[/font]
[font=Verdana]2013/14  Serie B       15th       N/A        4th Qual    N/A     none[/font]

[Lower Leagues Rule]

A Good solid season there Rlips, hopefully you can continue onwards and move up from here over the next season. Good to see that Spendlhofer is a good buy, he seems to only be third choice for me at Centre Back right now, but he may just have to step into the role if called upon, he had a few good games as my defensive minded central midfielder as well.

[rlipscombe]

cheers. Spendlhofer is a decent prospect but he'll have to perform well for me this season for a starting spot. was a good season for you there too - congrats on a cup win!!!!!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

cheers. Spendlhofer is a decent prospect but he'll have to perform well for me this season for a starting spot. was a good season for you there too - congrats on a cup win!!!!!

Was good to get some silverware, but taking out the "Losers & Non-Qualifiers" Cup is a bit sad, it is for any teams who are out of the Spanish Cup after the first round, this season I am in the Spanish Cup, so hoping to win the first round and avoid the Fed Cup, but it's good to know that there is a back-up Cup.

[rlipscombe]

a trophy is a trophy though... i'd always take a trophy win. was gutted to miss out on Serie C cup to be honest.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

There is that, will see what happens in the new season, would love to get a big name team in the Spanish Cup, but a run through the Fed Cup could boost morale again

[Ohanzee]

Andy Sava - Good job staying up, looks like a very exciting finish to that season. Good luck in the next one. (PS! You forgot to change the header "German Third Division", you're in the 2nd now. )

LLR - Congrats on the cup win! Good job in the league to. Unlucky getting such good teams in the playoffs. Really well done getting past Murcia, and then you get Alaves. That's tough. And you almost beat them to. Next year for sure!

rlipscombe - That's a very good first season in the Serie B. It's a lot tougher up there compared to the two divisions below for sure. I finished 11th with 53 points in my first season there, so it was even more competitive for you. If I remember it correctly 3rd to 6th is playoffs to, so you're actually just 8 points away. Think you got very hot prospect in Di Gennaro. I see several names I recognize from digging through international youth teams in fact. Looks like a promising squad. Good luck next season!

[Andy Sava]

Grats LLR on the good season and the cup win. Good season for Rlipscombe too.

Thanks Ohanzee for pointing that out. Guess i still didn't believe i avoided relegation when i wrote the review

The new season isn't going that well unfortunately. I am still fighting to avoid relegation, which makes me a bit mad because i have pretty decent players that should not struggle. Hopefully i can turn this around.

[rlipscombe]

sounds like it's formation-related?? have you tried going defensive to shore things up and then working from there?

[Andy Sava]

KSV Holstein Kiel - 2014/2015 Season Review

First Team | Transfers | League Table

Pre-Season

1. vs. Unterhaching (0-0)
   
2. vs. Bielefeld (1-1)
   
3. vs. Cottbus (4-1)
   
4. vs. Wismar (5-0)
   

Important transfers

IN:

• Ferdi Eser - Got him on a free transfer from Besiktas to cover my left winger position. He did well during the season scoring 3 goals.
  
• Giorgos Panagi - Defensive midfielder from Cyprus, he quickly got in my first team and was one of my best players this season.
  
• Lorenzo Beltran - Signed in January, the young striker from Chile was probably my best player in the second part of the season, scoring 6 goals in 13 games.
  

OUT:

• Davit Kandiri - The board annoyed me with this one as they took the decision in their hands and decided to sell him. Granted that the transfer fee was pretty big for our club, i still wanted to keep him at the club.
  
• Marcel Sobotzik - After only one season at the club i got an offer to sell him for 500k. I didn't really know if i should take it or not but in the end i sold him.
  

German Second Division

Well, it was better then the last season. We did manage to get results from some of the top teams that were fighting from promotion, but at the same time we had some bad games against relegation rivals.

In the end we finished 13th, with the chance to move up 2 positions if we would have won the last game against already relegated Wehen. But we didn't win, only managing to get a draw.

German Cup

We were put up against Bayern. We scored first, they scored 4 after. And that was the game.

Key players

Carlos Villanueva and Giorgos Panagi were my best players this season. Panagi was constant troughout the season while Vallanueva had ups and downs. In the second part of the season Lorenzo Beltran quickly made himself noticed, scoring 6 goals in 13 games.

Plans for the future

I am hoping for a top-half finish next season but i would be happy to see the team perform well, especially the defence. One thing i have to do is get some better full backs and maybe another center back.

The Road so Far

[i][color="blue"][b]CLUB HISTORY[/b][/color]

[b]SEASON      LEAGUE     POS.     CUP            EUROPE     ACHIEVEMENTS/NOTES[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]2011/2012[/b]   G3rd       5th      -              -          -
[b]2012/2013[/b]   G3rd       1st      First Round    -          Promoted & Winners of the German Third Division
[b]2013/2014[/b]   G2nd       15th     Second Round   -          -
[b]2014/2015[/b]   G2nd       13th     First Round    -          -
[/i]

[rlipscombe]

good season of stability and improvement there mate. Beltran looks a promising little player too. good luck next season.

[minisav]

Good stuff Andy. Slow and steady.

Made a silly amount of signings. Olic, Benayoun and Tuncay being notables. Olic netted 5 in his debut as we beat a non-league side 13-0 away from home

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Haro's Goal of the Century

Player:Christian Loffredo

Match: Haro vs Alzira

Description: Just two minutes into the game and the ball flies back off a punch by the keeper, it falls to the feet of a charging Loffredo who controls the ball with his first touch and then slams it into the back of the net with a flying right boot. Have to see a few angles of this, spectacular.

I just had to share this goal, it is completely spectacular, not seen one like it before.

[rlipscombe]

cracking finish that!!