Gundo's FM12 European Adventure Challenge™

[midgetram]

Fantastic stuff XaW, beating Bordeaux in only your 2nd European season must be a good sign if there ever was one

Welcome aboard chris11223, I think you're probably right about the Welsh league being quite even throughout.

Dexter_Morgan, that was a pretty miraculous finish last season, and those two new signings look pretty decent, especially Quiroz who looks like he could do the business in a lot of top leagues.

If I'm missed anyone off, sorry but there's been a flurry of activity since I was last here.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Stavanger IF 2014 End Of Season Report

Fixtures

Table

Cup Final

Squad Overview

Ivonescu

Kuznetsov

Finances (Before my board went and added 1,500 extra seats at a cost of £1.7M )

I am delighted to have won the title at the first attempt (predicted 16th at the start of the year) Our defence was concerning obviously, this is something I am putting down to the full backs tiring easily in games plus the fact they are foreign in particular as it is the same tactic i've used the previous 2 seasons and we weren't anywhere near as leaky at the back. Obviously the leap in class would have played a part too. I'm not sure how managed to turn it around this year, a 20 goal jump in the space of a year is a big difference though obviously he had more than Ivonescu creating chances this year which would have been a boost.

I am fuming about the ground expansion though, we only sold out twice all season once the last upgrade was done, that money would have been better served on buying players and then worrying about any expansions once we had a bit more money in the bank, it's especially infuriating when you consider they have already put us in the red once and it was me that got the club out of it yet it's taken 3 attempts to finally get the junior coaching increased and i've been knocked back 3 times for an improved scouting range. One plus is the option to extend the youth recruitment network has finally came up and the board agreed without me needing to beg them.

Dexter_Morgan, that was a pretty miraculous finish last season, and those two new signings look pretty decent, especially Quiroz who looks like he could do the business in a lot of top leagues.

Thanks midgetram, my attacking players have certainly helped me because as you can see the defence is bloody useless

[Dexter_Morgan]

And off goes Ivanescu He wouldn't sign a new contract so had to get what I could now and he has gone to Rapid Bucharest for £1.3M and 10% of future profit, gutted about that but I also accept at this stage it is going to be hard to keep hold of your best players. I have a few in on trail to either allow Quiroz or Kuznetsov play out wide or try to fill the gap because Alex Wilberg isn't quite ready, if he even ever will be.

[chris11223]

Quick question, as the league your in gains reputation and improves does the league prize money & tv revenue increase?? and do the rest of the league get dragged along in this improvement or do they remain for the most part poor??

Dexter_Morgan - congratulations on the league win, the expansion although a bit of a pain now will hopefully help out over the next season or two and it's always frustrating losing players when they refuse to sign new contracts especially when they are of the quality of Ivanescu but hopefully your team should be able to manage without!

[Dexter_Morgan]

Quick question, as the league your in gains reputation and improves does the league prize money & tv revenue increase?? and do the rest of the league get dragged along in this improvement or do they remain for the most part poor??

Dexter_Morgan - congratulations on the league win, the expansion although a bit of a pain now will hopefully help out over the next season or two and it's always frustrating losing players when they refuse to sign new contracts especially when they are of the quality of Ivanescu but hopefully your team should be able to manage without!

In answer to your question some leagues are hard coded in terms of prize money, I think tv money tends to improve the better you become though but not 100% on that. I think it depends from game to game in terms of other teams improving, obviously if you can get it so a few teams are in the CL group stage then that is a massive boost, but I find in the smaller nations if you can win 2 on the trot then you dominate, obviously some years harder than others.

As for my team thanks Losing Ivanescu is a big blow, but i've shuffled Quiroz and Kuznetsov to the wing to allow new signing Anouar Sekour to play upfront and also added Ole Sande as a reserve with a view to him being a key player in a year or 2

[midgetram]

Quick question, as the league your in gains reputation and improves does the league prize money & tv revenue increase?? and do the rest of the league get dragged along in this improvement or do they remain for the most part poor??

Just to add onto what Dexter put, I found that the prize money and such doesn't increase but your sponsorship will over time, especially if you do well in Europe. For the rest of the league, it depends really. Sometimes you get teams getting consortium or tycoon takeovers which helps, and you could always help out the rest of the league by selling off your back-ups to mid-table sides to help them grow

[chris11223]

Thanks to both of you I kinda like the idea of prize money remaining low because then it's far more important to keep tight control of your finances and means that filling your stadium and focusing on your youth system is far more important for the club long-term.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Thanks to both of you I kinda like the idea of prize money remaining low because then it's far more important to keep tight control of your finances and means that filling your stadium and focusing on your youth system is far more important for the club long-term.

Yeah the bit midgetram said is also right, at the minute I wouldn't dream of selling any player of note to a rival in the division but if I start to dominate then i'll take money from anyone and just add sell on clauses in case they turn out good and move on

On the FM13 version of this I am going to try a club from a smaller town to make it harder on myself as I admit I pick sides from the bigger cities mostly to overtake the big boys from that area but my future attendances do also play a part in the team I choose.

I gave up for the night a while back but i've made a decent start so far, not scoring as many as last season but surprisingly (considering i've not strengthened in defence or the keeper at all) the goals against is a lot better than this stage last year. Hoping to build a decent lead so I can rest at least the defencive players for Europe because my aim is to get through at least one preliminary CL round and hope for a lucky draw to give us a fighting chance in the Europa. I don't expect to make the group stage for either, but to be involved in the last Europa qualifying round would give us a bit of a financial boost.

I'll add since the screen is up I released Flavio as he wasn't featuring and used his non homegrown spot on Oleg Kuklin as we were short in the center. Also realised the screenshot for Anouar Sekour is broken for some reason so I will do another one when I am back on it tomorrow.

[Taunton]

XaW and Dexter Morgan: Congrats with the league wins. Great efforts from both of you. You are keeping the Stavanger region happy.

And Xaw, nice of you to keep Røsten Håkon. He will always do a good job filling the water bottles, and entering the pitch at the 90th minute to score the winning goal.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Cheers Taunton it was tough, especially seeing our defence ship in as many as we did However the last 6-7 months in game has been even tougher with contract rebels being the main problem, once my CL game against Quarabag Agdam is over i'll do a report as there's been quite a bit of movement in the last few weeks.

[chris11223]

Haverfordwest End of Season Review 2012/13

The league

As I said before the whole league seems to be much more even than others iv'e managed in, maybe because it cost basically no money to improve your squad to the point that you can challenge for the title due to a lot of frees being of the quality to be 'leading stars' in the league. this being said there does seem to be a few teams that are the dominant clubs in the country. On the whole it was a very entertaining campaign, I was up and around 1st position all year and never dropped below 3rd for more than a game here and there, toward the end of the season we put together a good run and the title came down to the wire with the final game of the season being between Haverfordwest and Neath (League table before the game. Neath needed just 1 point to secure the league title, which they won the year before, and if we won we would snatch the title on goal difference on the final day of the season. Neath dominated the game in terms of chances but they weren't able to make them count and we got a 2 goal lead, Neath did manage to score a goal in the 75th minute which made the final quarter of the game very nervy but we held on and won 2-1 to win the league for the first time in the clubs history. (Final table

Loosemores League Cup

We got drawn fairly tough opposition in every round of this cup but managed to get all the way through and win the cup with a 2-1 win over Bala in the final. We even managed a 5-1 win over Neath which went some way to make up for the 6-2 league defeat we suffered at their hands in the seasons 3rd match. League Cup Fixtures/Results

Welsh Cup

The draws for this were more favorable to us than the League Cup was only matching us up with one Premier League team on our journey to the final. In the final we came up against our local rivals Port Talbot, we dominated the game in terms of both shots and possession and walked out comfortable 4-1 winners to win the Cup and complete the treble!!! Welsh Cup Fixtures/Results

Transfers

When I took over I was pretty sure that I'd be looking toward basically completely rebuilding the whole team and I set about this immediately letting a lot of players go and bringing even more in (I think). Anyways here is the list of transfers for you Part 1, Part 2 and yes some of the players have been signed and released all in one season :L.

The Squad

I'm happy with the vast majority of the squad so there shouldn't be anywhere near as many transfers next season but I will be looking to get hold of a new RM and maybe a ST but not much else unless an absolute gem comes along and hes too good to resist. From this years team i'm going to pick out a few of the stand out players and do a quick summary of their seasons.

Packie Mailey - CB- He arrived on a free and had a fantastic season being an ever present at the back with his partner, who we'll get to later, he got the highest average rating in the league with 7.40 over 30 or so games and he also rather suprisingly came in as the 2nd top league goal scorer with 9 over the course of the season.

Conrad Balatoni - CB- The other half of the CB partnership that proved to be solid for us this season. He's probably the better defender of the two but I seem to prefer Mailey, probably because of the threat he poses going forward, this being said Balatoni notched up a respectable number of goals over the season too with 5 in the league and a further 3 in other competitions (more than a few of the forwards we have )

Nathan Fisher - ST- By far our top goalscorer with 15 in the league and 9 in other competitions and the probably fan favorite of the season, he has been the only striker that I have been able to rely on to score a goal this season but hopefully next season the others will all settle in and start scoring too. As much as I like this guy there are a few things that wind me up about him, mainly his apparent inability to pass the ball once he gets past one defender and decides he is going to go on a Lionel Messi inspired run through the opponents defence. this is all well and good if it works but the majority of the time he'd just be better passing and moving so i'm trying to get him to stop doing this.

Youth Intake

only one player to talk of came through this year but he does look to be quite the CB in the making, Richie Davis, he's got a 4.5PA but I doubt hell fulfill this unless I can persuade the board that the club needs a professional status if it wants to get anywhere.

Other Stuff

The pitch needs re-laying but the board refuse to do it because the Finances are in a state but it's nothing that the champions league money we'll get from next season won't fix. (I'd get a screenshot to show pitch condition but I found it then can't find where it says it again :$). Oh, and i'm in the Welsh hall of fame and i'm a Favoured Person for Haverfordwest already!!

[Dexter_Morgan]

Stavanger IF 2015 Midway Report

Fixtures

Table

Transfers In

Colin Kamara - Kuznetsov's replacement, with him refusing to sign a new deal off went Kuznetsov for free but with 50% of the next sale coming to me (as with all other outs).

Tomas Maly - Juan Alverez hasn't devolved as I hoped so in comes this younger, more talented Czech lad to take his place.

Jacob Pederson - The first of the young Danes I have been after for a year but couldn't afford. Not ready for first team action yet but the reports on this lad were superb, being only 17 as well is a huge plus towards the homegrown rule if he makes the grade.

Bo Simonsen - The 2nd Dane and already good enough for the first team. Allowed me to let Mrzarek go for free.

Marcel Simko - Another youngster on a free who I couldn't turn down. His jumping is my only concern but I will be working on that.

Alex Wilberg is the other big out, another who hadn't developed and with me needing space for foreign players he was the obvious choice, again for no fee and 50% of any future one

I feel a bit disappointed at some players attitude towards new contracts but for whatever reason youngsters seem to get above their station a bit on FM12 so i've accepted it and bar Pederson it's worked out better for me as the incomings are better than those who left.

As promised Anouar Sekour This lad has been phenomenal as you can see by his stats, i'd love to see him stay at the club for a long while.

On the pitch and it has been a brilliant start to the year for us, we are a bit tighter at the back (still not perfect mind) but we are still scoring a good amount of goals and have a healthy lead coming in to a few tough months of European football. Our away form which at times was shocking last year seems to have improved which has been a big factor and we are currently 24 games unbeaten in the league. The cup exit was a disappointment as we dominated the game, but it will probably be doing us a favour long term as the squad is still nowhere near good enough to be playing too many games.

We've beaten Qarabag Agdam 7-1 on agg (managed a reserve side in the 2nd leg which won 4-1) to give us a tie against Standard Liege which is obviously a very tough tie, i'll update our European progress from here at the end of August or sooner if/more likely when we get knocked out.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Well done there chris11223 Obviously winning the title on GD means it was close but you managed it which is all that matters To be fair your finances aren't that bad for the first season, at worst you'll get money for 2 CL games and 2 Europa games which should bring it back to a decent amount. Good luck for next season.

[chris11223]

Yeah the 2 CL games should cover the debt and maybe even put us a lil in the black and were only losing around 5-10k a month becuse of very low wages so if attendances go up a bit we might even make a profit each month (fingers crossed). Congratulations on the start to your season you look to be playing very well and some of your signing look good especially Pederson.

[Dexter_Morgan]

That's not a bad amount to be losing at this stage, especially in Wales. Thanks for the comments I'm very pleased with the start in the league, the bigger clubs have had a shocking start which has obviously helped me. I wish I hadn't just praised my defence though, we just let 3 in at Sogndal and was lucky to win 4-3 Fearing for this game against Standard i'm about to play now

[chris11223]

Hahaha :L I'd be glad to have your defence, I'm going into Europe's biggest club competition with a league 2 standard club (on a good day!!) good luck against Standard though

[Dexter_Morgan]

Hahaha :L I'd be glad to have your defence, I'm going into Europe's biggest club competition with a league 2 standard club (on a good day!!) good luck against Standard though

In the main this year they've decent, I think I jinxed them for that game

I wasn't going to post until after Europe is over with but just had to because i'm in shock

1st leg

2nd leg

Sparta Prague next up and guaranteed European football after August no matter what the result

[chris11223]

Sparta Prague next up and guaranteed European football after August no matter what the result

Congrats!!!! you never know what can happen with a bit of luck you could even manage the group stages

[johnnyquest409]

Brilliant stuff, Dexter, some of those signings look excellent.

Well done on your first title chris, and best luck for Europe, hopefully it'll bring in some cash for you.

I've started a game on FM13 but struggling to get into it so I've come back to Jadran. Missing out on EL group stage this season has turned out pretty well for us so far, for once we're giving Maribor a proper run for their money.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Congrats!!!! you never know what can happen with a bit of luck you could even manage the group stages

The good thing is i've just beaten 2nd placed Bodo at their place to give me a 12 point lead and I have a week and half with no games before Prague so bar the 3 month injury to Colin Kamara the game against Standard gave us I have no injury problems, which means I can afford to rest players for the 2nd and at worst be 9 points clear.

Brilliant stuff, Dexter, some of those signings look excellent.

Well done on your first title chris, and best luck for Europe, hopefully it'll bring in some cash for you.

I've started a game on FM13 but struggling to get into it so I've come back to Jadran. Missing out on EL group stage this season has turned out pretty well for us so far, for once we're giving Maribor a proper run for their money.

Cheers mate, i've not bothered with FM13 yet myself, going to wait until it's been patched once at least because the last few years have been frustrating on the first release. Slovenia is a good little league to play in, I had a go on this challenge but lost the save Have also played with NK Olimpija Ljubljana which was a bit tougher due to the non Slovenian rule I put on myself, but it was fun Good luck

[Dexter_Morgan]

Sparta Prague 1st leg

Sparta Prague 2nd leg

Group draw

Finances

I'm still in disbelief, Standard and Sparta weren't easy games on paper for us but we've got through it. Obviously the group stage is tough but I have a bit of space with a 13 point gap between us and Bodo in 2nd with 9 games left we have to give this group a go. The most important thing this run has given us the chance to become a full time club

[chris11223]

WOW!! It'll be tough to get anything from that group but the money that you'll get from being in the group stage should help you no end, and well done on getting your board to go pro, its taken me a season and a half to get mine to relay the pitch :L

[aldojags]

dexter let me get this straight, you qualified for the CL group stage with a part time squad? That is stunning! and I like your user name, one of my favourite shows ever!

[Dexter_Morgan]

WOW!! It'll be tough to get anything from that group but the money that you'll get from being in the group stage should help you no end, and well done on getting your board to go pro, its taken me a season and a half to get mine to relay the pitch :L

I know it's not the best draw My aim will be something from the home game against Bestkitas, can't see myself getting points from anything else really but at least when I go back to it tomorrow I have something to look forward to.

My pitch needs relaying too In fact everything needs a touch up

[Dexter_Morgan]

dexter let me get this straight, you qualified for the CL group stage with a part time squad? That is stunning! and I like your user name, one of my favourite shows ever!

Somehow yes, my aim was to be in the last preliminary round of the Europa. When I took this challenge on I aimed for top flight within 5 years, so to even win the league in 3 was beyond my expectations, to get in the group is even further beyond.

Glad there's another Dexter fan on here, been a pretty good season so far and has lots of promise

[aldojags]

Yeh I've been downloading it on Mondays after it's screened in the US on a Sunday, enjoying it. Thought last season was the weakest yet, but this season looks to be getting back to it's best.

[chris11223]

Haverfordwest Season Review 2013/14

The League

After an abysmal start to the season we found ourselves 12 points from the leaders after the first 10 games so our final position of 3rd (could have taken 2nd if i'd have managed a win in the last game not a draw) doesn't look that bad. I think the form was due to quite a few players coming in again and disrupting things but hopefully there shouldn't be nearly as many in-comings this season.

Champions Cup

We got a tough draw but we held our own managing a 2-2 draw at home and losing 2-0 away with both of their goals coming in the last 10 minutes after I changed to a more attacking style of play. Results

League cup & Welsh Cup

We managed to get to the semi-finals of the League cup before getting beaten in both legs by the eventual winners Neath (Fixtures/Results.

The Welsh Cup went considerably better and I switched my full focus to this competition when I realised that qualification to Europe wasn't a sure thing from my league position, this focus payed off as we won the cup and subsequently qualified for the Euro Cup by winning it. Fixtures/Results

Transfers

Much less activity this season but still alot more than I want. The players in pretty much all walked into the starting 11 and started to gel toward the end of the year and look really good. the players out who went to other clubs all have 50% of the next sale clauses so I'll get abit of money for them in the future. Next season i'll maybe look for an AMC just for rotation purposes.

The Squad

On the whole I think there better than last year but it took abit longer than I expected for them to start to gel properly. However, there were a few stand out players;

Scott Boden - ST- He was one of the players I'd lined up even before the end of last season and he didn't disappoint scoring 20 in 30 in the league and finishing the season as our top scorer by a fair distance.

Byron Anthony - CB- He was originally meant as cover for my defencive partnership but a long term injury to mailey meant that he was given a run in the first team and in that time he did enough to claim a regular spot in the team.

Finances

We made a 175k profit over the season which completely wrote off the loss that was made last season, this was basically all down to the Champions Cup money I received (113k for playing in the qualifying round and 300kish for getting knocked out as league champions ... that one confused me a little but i'm not going to question that amount of money)

Other Stuff

I finally Managed to persuade the board to Relay the Pitch which apparently takes a full year!! I also got a Parent Club this took a few attempts because the board kept saying they liked the idea but couldn't find anyone so I took the first team they found which worked out quite well.

[johnnyquest409]

johnnyquest409 - NK Jadran Dekani - 2021/22

Division - Slovenian First League

Media Prediction - 3rd out of 10

Europe

I've already mentioned how Europe went this season. It began in Georgia in the EL 3rd Qualifying round, where we put 6 past Dinamo Tblisi without reply. A 2-0 win at home saw us ease into the 4th qualifying round to face Villareal. Both legs were fairly even, but Villareal took their chances, winning 2-0 in Dekani then 1-0 back in Spain. Disappointing not to make the group stage after last season, but every cloud has a silver lining...

League

With Europe out the way, we turned our focus 100% onto the league. Maribor had qualified for CL group stage, and their busy schedule took its toll on their league form over the opening few months of the season. Five defeats and five draws (for Maribor) before Christmas gave us the chance to open up a lead at the top, leaving us with an 11 point advantage going into the winter break. Maribor responded by signing eight players in January, spending over £3 million. And it worked for them, as they went on to win all but two of their remaining matches. We drew our first game back, then won 6 in a row before bizarrely losing 2-0 at home to Bela Krajina who ended up getting relegated. Next up was the big match away to Maribor, where we defied the odds to hand Maribor their only post-Christmas defeat, clinging on to a 1-0 victory. This was probably the point were we finally realised the title was ours to lose. Nerves finally kicked in with four games left, losing away to bottom of the table Aluminij when a victory would have clinched the title, but four days later we wrapped it up with a narrow 1-0 win at Rudar Velenje Champions!

League Table

Cup

We won this again, beating Maribor in the final 2-1 to seal the double.

Squad stats

Transfers - Just four signings, two of them youngsters who didn't feature much this season. Polish midfielder Dawid had a decent first season but it was disrupted by injury. Campara was excellent, see below for screenshot. Lots of players out to Gorica on loan, who they helped to their worst ever league finish.

Key players

Cervenka and Borisov had great seasons again, as did new signing Eldin Campara. Unfortunately he's off to Dinamo Moscow, with the board accepting a £2.1m offer for him. Jakub Zeman finished as top scorer despite mostly featuring from the bench, he's pushing for a starting spot but if we play just one up top then it's Cervenka everytime. Ales Tlusty was our best defender, finally bumping Jernej Schwarzmann from the first team.

Zeman might have finished as our top-scorer, but he was nowhere near Maribor's Ryan Collin, who smashed in 37 goals in 34 league games, ending with over fifty in all competitions. I'm kind of hoping a big team will come in for him in the summer, but he's just signed a new contract.

Maribor, incidentally, finished 3rd in their CL group, and impressively reached the Quarter Final on the Europa League before losing to Roma. It's boosted Slovenia's coefficient again, and we'll have two CL places again next season.

Finances - Healthy, allowing us to start work on upgrading the youth facilities again. Money from Campara's sale should boost things further. We've also just received a £1.7m offer for our Colombian midfielder Samir Ceballos from Monterrey in Mexican. Strange this is, he was a minimum fee release clause (foreign clubs) of £500k. The board have accepted it over my head, so it looks like he's off too.

Season  |      League     |  Position   |     Cup      |   Europe    |     Achievement     | Top Scorer (Lge)      | FPOTY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    
2012/13 |  Second League  |     8th     |       -      |             |       Survival!     | Marko Drljic (6)      | Etien Huskic
2013/14 |  Second League  |     7th     |      SF      |             |        -----        | Marko Vukelic (5)     | Admir Krsic
2014/15 |  Second League  |     7th     |   1st round  |             |        -----        | Marko Vukelic (6)     | Jerney Schwarzmann
2015/16 |  Second League  |     2nd     |   1st round  |             |      Promotion!     | Rok Smid (10)         | Jerney Schwarzmann
|		  |		|	       |             |      Turned pro     |  		           |	
2016/17 |   First League  |     8th     |   2nd round  |             |                     | Dominik Ozbolt (7)    | Miha Barbic
2017/18	|   First League  |     3rd     |   2nd round  |             |   EL qualification  | Dominik Ozbolt (11)   | Jerney Schwarzmann
2018/19 |   First League  |     3rd     |      QF      |    EL3Q     |                     | Nusmir Fajic (15)     | Vit Cervenka
2019/20 |   First League  |     2nd     |     Final    |    EL4Q     |   CL qualification  | Vit Cervenka (7)      | Ludek Urbanek
2020/21 |   First League  |     2nd     |    Winners   |  EL 1st KO  |       A trophy!     | Vit Cervenka (22)     | Vit Cervenka
2021/22 |   First League  |     1st!    |    Winners   |    EL4Q     | Slovenian champions | Jakub Zeman (20)      | Vit Cervenka

So there we go, Part 1 of the Challenge complete, in our 10th season. I've got FM13 sat idly in Steam, but I think I'll keep going here for a few more seasons.

[Dexter_Morgan]

chris11223 Good season there, did well to turn it around and at least you ended the season with a trophy for your efforts.

johnnyquest409 Congratulations on your title win and a 2nd Slovenian cup. I hope you keep up with this, after reading here and elsewhere i'll not be touching FM13 until it's patched at least once

My end of season report will be coming up once I have finished the CL group stage.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Stavanger IF 2015 End Of Season Report

Fixtures - Fixtures 2

Table

CL Group - Beskitas (H) Beskitas (A)

Cup (Knocked out in 3rd round)

Squad Overview

Anouar Sekour

Finances

The best season to date, the summer changes certainly helped us with our CL progression, but the squad that got me there in the first place also deserve credit. The one thing I am not happy with is how they just seemed to turn off when we won the title, at that point we were 18 points clear so to lose that much of a lead is a disappointment.

Since we have had the prize money in the bank I must admit that the board have been fantastic with me, we finally managed to get the scouting network upgraded to all of Europe, they have agreed to improve the youth facilities (being done now) and the first team facilities for next year. On top of that they have agreed to extend the youth recruitment range for a 2nd time as they also have with the youth coaching. These little things along with becoming professional and the personnel I have brought in means it is starting to feel like my club and run in the way I want now

Revised Club Overview

Revised Facilities

2016 Transfers

Espen Bugge Pettersen My main aim for this year was to improve in the goalkeeping department again (this is the 4th 1st choice in 4 years) He probably only has 2 years left in him but it gives me time to find a long term number 1

Espen Borufsen We've lacked decent cover at left back so was delighted to sign him, he is now first choice there.

Magnus Karl Benediktsson I'm well stocked in midfield, my aim is to make him a right back.

Vettle Salvesen Technically he may not look much but he's given us problems the last 2 seasons, there's plenty of room for him to grow and I have him on an inside forward schedule.

Ole Jorgen Holtan Snatched from Odd's youth team for £800k bit of a gamble but highly recommended and in a month his progression is already superb.

Tor Age Klette His pace is a bit worrying but i'm working on that and hopefully he will become a rock at the back for us in the future.

Our 3rd place in the CL meant a tie against Shaktar, leading the 1st leg 3-2 we went to Ukraine hoping to snatch a goal or 2 which we managed but Shaktar were too strong for us.

[chris11223]

Well, it's all started well i'm dominating games but seem to be lacking that finishing touch look at these game stats for consecutive games A last minute equalizer saved us in that game and Neath played with 10 men for over 60 minutes here ... I'm not sure if there just desperatly unlucky results or if it's my team.

Also, thats a great thing to do taking 4 points in that group Dexter and the money that it brings in added to all of the improvements can only mean that your going onto bigger and better things!!

[Dexter_Morgan]

Could just be bad luck. I'd give it a few more games and if things don't improve have a scout around for wingers and a forward as you are obviously not doing too much wrong bar creating the chances.

[chris11223]

Haverfordwest - Season Review 2014/15

The League

We never even came close to challenging TNS for the top spot throughout the majority of the season but the atrocious TNS Form in the last third of the season allowed us to catch them and overtake them on the last day of the season to finish 2 points above them Our fixtures/resultts, conceding the second lowest number of goals in the league. The treat we pose when going forwards however was not nearly as effective as it was last year scoring 12 less than the previous season. The way the team is playing is rather pleasing though with us dominating possession in most games but our forwards just don't seem clinical enough.

Cup Competitions

The Welsh Cup, I think the less said about this the better.

The League Cup went much better with us managing to reach the final but we again failed to take our chances and lost .

In the Euro Cup we got drawn against Dinamo Tbilisi, I wasn't expecting any huge results and lost 1-0 away, when they came to our stadium we managed to control the match and win the game 3-1, taking the game 3-2 on aggregate and going through to the 3rd qualifying round against AEK. I again wasn't expecting anything and was pretty much hoping not to get embarrassed, we lost 2-0 at home and drew 0-0 away losing 2-0 on aggregate but we held our own against a much bigger club so i'm not that disappointed.

Transfers

Again less activity as the Squad improves and gels, no-one really performed well this season with everyone getting around 6.8 ratings over the season so I think if players can put together a run of good instead of average performances we will be able to make a really good challenge for the title next season. I might get a GK and maybe a ST just to see if the goal scoring situation will improve.

Finances

we just about broke even this season again because of prize money, home attendances are going up slowly but still aren't anywhere near the level needed to cover player wages but if ticket or season ticket prices go up a little bit that I imagine will help greatly, season tickets not so much because the sales have only gone up by 2 in the last 2 years :L.

[b]Season          Division               Position          Welsh Cup          League Cup          Champions Cup          Euro Cup[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13     Welsh Premier League       1st              Winner                Winner                  N/A                        N/A
2013/14     Welsh Premier League       2nd              Winner               Semi-Final        Qualifying Round 2          N/A
2014/15     Welsh Premier League       1st              3rd Round              Final                   N/A                Qualifying Round 3
2015/16     Welsh Premier League       1st               Qtr-Final            Semi-Final        Qualifying Round 2          N/A

[johnnyquest409]

Despite being seeded for the CL 3rd Qualifying Round, we ended up with a tough draw against Lech Poznan. The away leg was fairly tightly, probably edged by Lech, but finished 0-0. We dominated the home leg, and should have scored a few really, but that also ended 0-0. Extra-time was nervy but we were still creating chances, until we went down to 10 men after an injury having used all our subs. And so it went to penalties, Cervenka missed our 2nd, but Lech missed their 2nd and 4th and we sneaked through.

Next up, in the CL Champions play-off, is a tie with Sturm Graz, having just missed out on being one of the seeded teams.

[Dexter_Morgan]

chris11223 It's obvious you're not too far off, a bit of freshening up to the squad and you should be able to start dominating.

johnnyquest409 Well done on getting that far, a few tough games there for you. How did the Graz games go?

It seems the standard of players in my game has improved, i'm not too far ahead but I am unbeaten, though to be honest I did have Valerenga, Brann, Tromso, Rosenborg, Lillestrom and Bodo in my first 8 games which is a far from easy run, hopefully now I can pull away a bit before Europe starts up again.

[johnnyquest409]

I haven't had a chance to play it yet, RL got in the way unfortunately! I think I'm correct in saying though that even if we lose it we'll qualify for the EL group stage so it's definitely progress from last season Obviously the real money (and coefficient boost) is in the CL though so fingers crossed!

Bizarrely, despite our first ever league title and domestic double, our reputation frustratingly went down slightly last season, so improving the squad this summer has been a challenge. I think I'll do an update when the transfer window closes as there has been some movement both in and out of the club.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Stavanger IF 2016 Halfway Report

Fixtures

Table

Squad Overview

The division seems stronger this year dispite some big names leaving other clubs, going by some of the scouting reports clubs are bringing good standard regens in to replace those names, which is good for me in all honesty as I don't want an easy ride every year.

In the champions League we've beaten Ulisses and Zilina, BATE are up next and a good chance to make the group stage for the 2nd year in a row.

No ins and outs since the last update and non planned, i'll be letting a few players run their contract out and maybe make a move for a few in pre season.

[chris11223]

Dexter_Morgan- 32 goals in 21 games for Sekour??? he looks likes he's on fire this season, with that sort of form you could struggle to keep hold of him.

[Dexter_Morgan]

He's on 43 from 26 games now. Just cost me £7k a week but i've finally got him on a full time contract, Stavenger are amongst his favoured clubs which is going to be a big boost in keeping him long term.

BATE home

BATE away

The 2nd leg was closer than it should have been. It was my own fault as I played 2 CB's in DM for the 1st 60 minutes and rested a few players, as soon as I made the changes we were comfortable and scored a few goals. Horrible group for us though, Man City, Inter and Zenit

[johnnyquest409]

Well done Dexter, good luck with that group! How long have you managed to tie Sekour down for?

[Dexter_Morgan]

Cheers mate, got Sekour until 2020 hopefully. It is a horrible group isn't it? I've saved it just before the first game vs. City and will pick it up after work tomorrow, got a few points lead stacked up now so can afford to at least try and rest people in the league and get a few CL points.

[johnnyquest409]

CL Champions Playoff, 1st leg - (h) v Sturm Graz

We lined up with a 4-2-3-1 formation against their 4-4-2, and from the start dominated possession. Vit Cervenka, sporting a newly shaved head, led the line and opened the scoring after half an hour, finishing a nice passing move from near the penalty spot. The 2nd came after the break, with substitute David Prokes breaking through on the left to convert Jaroslav Jurcik's through ball. It finished 2-0, giving us a good advantage going into the second leg. Delighted with the clean sheet, and particularly with my two DMs Jurcik (MoM) and Caceres, rarely giving the ball away and breaking up a lot of Graz's attacks.

CL Champions Playoff, 2nd leg - (a) v Sturm Graz

Went with a slightly more defensive 4-1-2-2-1 for the away leg, looking to protect our advantage and hopefully grab that away goal. Sturm Graz didn't manage a shot on target in the first leg, and the same was true here. We restricted their options and comfortably kept them at bay, and should have scored one or two ourselves. It ended 0-0, so a 2-0 aggregate victory, but Cervenka took the shine off the result by getting a straight red for a savage two-footed hack with five minutes to go.

So for reaching the group stage, we receive £6.17m and a chance to play Man Utd, OM and Zenit. Very tough draw, and we'll be without Cervenka for the first three matches. I'll be happy with a point or two.

[johnnyquest409]

Maribor failed to qualifying for the Europa League group stage, so this season it's their turn to concentrate fully on the league. Defending that title just got a whole lot harder!

[chris11223]

Congrats on qualifying for the group stages, it's a hard group but with a bit of luck you could do alright!! And how'd you put that code thing in your season review??

[chris11223]

Haverfordwest - Season Review 2015/16

The League

We lead pretty much the entire season and opened up a 12 point gap between ourselves and TNS by the point the league splits, losing only 1 game in the process. We hit a patch of poor form for a short time and TNS managed to close the gap so they were only 1 point behind us but our form picked up again just as theirs dropped and we managed to open another gap by the end of the season securing the title with a game to spare.

Champions Cup

We got put in at the 1st qualifying round against B36 and after looking at their squad I was hopeful of a win but this Result in the first leg really had me suprised, after this we won 4-1 at home. In the nest round we played Dinamo and the game again was more about not being shown up rather than the win and I think we managed a good job even though we were knocked out. Fixtures/Results

Transfers & Finanace

Of the players that came in the most influential was Sean Jeffries who added a goal scoring threat that our midfield had lacked up to this point. The most notable out going was that of Jack Dunn to Yeovil for 18k and 35% of any future sale which I consider to be a very good deal considering he wasn't a regular for me.

The finances are looking better now we are back in the black and with champions league football next season this should only improve with the money that this brings in.

Other Stuff

- Iv'e managed to get the board to offer me a new 3 year deal which will stop the talk of me going elsewhere at the end of every season.

- A few notable ex-players have been willing to open talks about joining my backroom staff (Ryan Giggs & Ben Thatcher) however both of these are just out of my price range both demanding wages that are £25 above what I can offer them .

[b]Season          Division               Position          Welsh Cup          League Cup          Champions Cup          Euro Cup[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13     Welsh Premier League       1st              Winner                Winner                  N/A                        N/A
2013/14     Welsh Premier League       2nd              Winner               Semi-Final        Qualifying Round 2          N/A
2014/15     Welsh Premier League       1st              3rd Round              Final                   N/A                Qualifying Round 3
2015/16     Welsh Premier League       1st               Qtr-Final            Semi-Final        Qualifying Round 2          N/A

[johnnyquest409]

Well done on another title Chris, keep plugging away with Europe

[chris11223]

Well done on another title Chris, keep plugging away with Europe

Thanks, my main focus is raising the leagues stature in Europe and getting my club professional status so we can start attracting players of better quality. Good news is the league is up 72 places this year and we even get another spot in the euro cup qualifying rounds

[chris11223]

I'm not sure whats happened here but 2 of my scouts who's contracts expired have left the club (one retired from football completely) but they are both still on my staff list & on the scouting menu thingy and the one thats not retired is costing me large amounts of money in scouting costs because he is just doing his own little thing all over Europe costing me 60k last month!!!(it only cost me 2k for all my scouting all of last season) Does anyone know why this is happening or how to stop it?

[midgetram]

I'm not sure whats happened here but 2 of my scouts who's contracts expired have left the club (one retired from football completely) but they are both still on my staff list & on the scouting menu thingy and the one thats not retired is costing me large amounts of money in scouting costs because he is just doing his own little thing all over Europe costing me 60k last month!!!(it only cost me 2k for all my scouting all of last season) Does anyone know why this is happening or how to stop it?

As odd as it sounds, the one costing you not actually be retired. If you click on the person to get up his attributes/profile and "offer new contract" it could be sorted out that way. I remember having one of my scouts like that in my Serbia save, can be a bit annoying after a while though.

[chris11223]

As odd as it sounds, the one costing you not actually be retired. If you click on the person to get up his attributes/profile and "offer new contract" it could be sorted out that way. I remember having one of my scouts like that in my Serbia save, can be a bit annoying after a while though.

Thanks, I'll give that a go and let his contract run out again see if i can get rid of him the second time round :L