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City2000

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Reaching that stage is a great achievement in itself, well done, shame about the defeat... Sounds like that Jonsson fellow ran you ragged!

Thanks, Jonsson did indeed run me ragged, I don't fancy facing him again anytime soon!

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Season 8

Season Review - 2018/19

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At the midway stage of the season we were in a great league position, 1st with a 7 point gap over PSV. I was a little concerned though going into the first few games after the break as we lost several key players to the African Nations including Mendy and had just sold Samiou to Bayern. Our first two games proved my fears correct as we suffered defeats to Feyenoord (3-1) and RKC (2-1) as PSV closed the gap to just 1 point. The good news though was that Senegal flopped at the African Nations and Mendy was back much sooner than expected, as he and eventually the others came back into the side we got ourselves on a roll winning 12 straight games, 9 of them in the league. We did then suffer defeat at Ajax but went on to win the last 4 games to claim our third straight Eredivisie Title. We ended up winning 13 of our last 14 Eredivisie games.

We managed to beat Vitesse 3-0 to claim our first Dutch Super Cup but they got their revenge beating us 2-1 in the Dutch Cup Semi Final.

As i've already detailed in posts above we had a nice run in the Champions League, getting to the Quarter Finals before for the second year in a row German opposition knocked us out, this time Wolfsburg.

Fixtures

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Final League Table

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Key Performers

Mansour Mendy - Only one place to start, another great year from Mendy this time notching 47 goals to beat his own record by 1. He also was able to win the European Golden Boot beating a certain Mr Messi into second place. I also managed to get him to sign a new 4 year deal making him deservedly our highest paid player with a now £39.5m release fee, a few clubs are still sniffing around but I doubt anyone will match my asking price. I feel pretty lucky that Mendy has FC Twente listed as his Favoured Club or otherwise I don't think he'd still be here.

Tariq El Taourghi - Tariq really stepped up following Samiou's exit in January becoming Mendy's regular strike partner. He ended the season with an impressive 21 goals and i'm expecting even better things to come from my Libyan international.

Domingos Seide - I haven't mentioned Seide too much on these updates but my right back is a key component of this team. Now wanted by amongst others Barcelona Seide's refusal to sign a new contract means that with two years left on his current deal he will most likely be entering his final season here but again he will be key for me in the coming year.

Ousmane Niasse - Another good year for my AMC playmaker contributing 7 goals and 11 assists. Niasse is one of my favourite players having tracked him from pretty much the day I became Twente manager, however he is also refusing to sign a new contract and unlike Seide only has one year to run on his current deal so unless I can somehow persuade him to stay it looks like i'll have to sell him in this window.

Next Season

After four years at Twente I will now be entering into the first year of my brand new four year contract, the aim for the first year is to keep dominating the Eredivisie and also to keep building towards our eventual goal of winning the Champions League. As for next years CL I would say another run to the Quarters will be fantastic with anything after that a bonus.

Internationally I am still manager of Turkey and am still in the mix to qualify for Euro 2020, i'll produce an update for that once our qualification campaign has finished although right now I don't expect us to qualify.

Career Overview

Season     Club               League                                      Position      Achievements

2011       Jevnaker IF        Norweigan Second Division Group 2           5th           Took over on 6.7.11
2012       Jevnaker IF        Norweigan Second Division Group 2           1st           League Champions, Promotion
2013       Jevnaker IF        Norweigan First Division                    7th           Left Club (didn't extend contract)
2014       Fortuna Sittard    Dutch Jupiler League                        14th          Took over on 26.2.14
2014-15    Fortuna Sittard    Dutch Jupiler League                        1st           League Champions, Promotion
2015-16    Fortuna Sittard    Dutch Eredivisie                            15th          Left Club after 6 games for FC Twente
2015-16    FC Twente          Dutch Eredivisie                            6th           Took over on 27.9.15
2016-17    FC Twente          Dutch Eredivisie                            1st           League Champions
2017-18    FC Twente          Dutch Eredivisie                            1st           League Champions, Dutch Cup Winners, UCL L16
2018-19    FC Twente          Dutch Eredivisie                            1st           League Champions, UCL Quarter Finalists

International

Season     Nation                      Competition                     Position  

2016       Ivory Coast u23's           Olympic Games                   First Round 
2018-      Turkey

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3 titles on the bounce, becoming the dominant force in Holland. Congrats!

Indeed. Schteve McClaren would be proud :D. Some great progress and nice to see a Dutch team back in the running for European honours. The Dutch sides always seems to me to have that bit of European nostalgia with them but I suppose that stems from me watching the great Ajax sides over the years.

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Definitely making Europe sit up and take notice now.
3 titles on the bounce, becoming the dominant force in Holland. Congrats!
Indeed. Schteve McClaren would be proud :D. Some great progress and nice to see a Dutch team back in the running for European honours. The Dutch sides always seems to me to have that bit of European nostalgia with them but I suppose that stems from me watching the great Ajax sides over the years.
Another cracking season.

Thanks for the kind words guys, much appreciated! It's nice to have built the club into a dominant domestic force and now i'm focusing my efforts on building for the Champions League.

Raware, Schteve is definetly my inspiration :D I remember those great Ajax teams well and when I am at top division teams with long term aspirations their youth setup is something that I always try and replicate at least to a certain extent. Of course, i'm not producing anywhere near the level of Dutch talent that Ajax could but I am trying to impove all our training facilities to help bring through my own players and also beginning the process of bringing promising youngsters in from abroad to join the U19's now that we are in such a financial position to be able to.

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Brilliant season again :thup:
Another fantastic season,well done :D
Great season and fantastic Champions League run! A 4 year contract should definitely give you the time in order to build a truly dominant European side.

Thanks guys, much appreciated!

Former Club Watch

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Jevnaker seem to have found their level again after four years of punching above their weight while Fortuna went from back to back 6th place finishes to a very disappointing 15th, just one place above the relegation playoff places. Will be interesting to see now whether Fortuna begin their slide back to the Jupiler league.

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Around the World Update 2018/19

Champions League - Real Madrid V Chelsea

Europa League - Valencia V Spurs

English Premier League - Final League Table

La Liga - Final League Table

Serie A - Final League Table

Bundesliga - Final League Table

Ligue 1 - Final League Table

Awards

World Golden Ball - 2019

World Player of the Year - 2019

world Team of the Year - 2019

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Well done another league title, really dominating in The Netherlands now

Thanks!

Season 9

Pre Season Update - 2019/20

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Board Expectations

Eredivise - Challenge for the Title

Champions League - Reach the Group Stage of the Champions League

Dutch Cup - Reach the Semi Final of the Dutch Cup

Dutch Super Cup - Not Important

My Expectations

Eredivise - I Feel like I have to win the league with our recent history and squad we have

Champions League - Hoping to match last year's Quarter Final effort, anything from there will be a bonus

Dutch Cup - Again will mainly play the reserves this year, probably put the first team out if we get near the final

Dutch Super Cup - Playing Vitesse for the third year in a row, currently 1-1, not really bothered too much though

Budgets

Transfer Buget - £20m

Wage Budget - £600k - Currently spending £450k

Transfers

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As you can see above i've had a very busy summer, I decided to ship out a lot of young players on frees and for the last year I have had my scouts scouring the world looking for promising youngsters to join my U19's. I've signed a number of youngsters to fill out my U19 and reserve squads, some average players and some with good potential so it will be interesting to see how they all pan out.

There were also a few key transfers both in and out:

Key Players Out

Ousmane Niasse - Monaco - £9m - The biggest disappointment for me over the summer was losing Niasse, a player that I tracked from day 1 of my FC Twente reign who I eventually signed 18 months ago when his MLS contract with LA ran out. His contract was due to expire at the end of the coming season and his refusal to sign a new one meant I had to sell, in the end I got £9m from Monaco which was a good price but it's a real shame to see him leave.

Alex Okoro - Valerenga - £7.5m - A good young left back who I panic bought a year ago for £4.3m, I signed him after missing out on my other two targets but when one of those became available this summer I decided to ship Okoro out, I had also secured a backup left back on a free aswell so I decided to cash in on a good offer.

Javier Cortes - Lille - £2.5m - Cortes has been my starting right winger for the past two seasons and has done a good job but at 30 and with a couple of youngsters in his position beginning to come good I felt it was the right time to sell.

Key Players In

Nemanja Cerar - £9m - Nottm Forest - Cerar was my number 1 target last season for the left back position but after agreeing a £3.1m deal he decided to join EPL Forest. However after their relegation this year he became available and although £9m is a steep price I felt I could offset most of the fee by selling Alex okoro.

Mohammed Abdel Wahab - £8.5m - Apollon Limassol - Every top team needs a top keeper and when I knew last summer that my No1 Oliver Bauman would be leaving on a free I started the search for his replacement. In the meantime Wojciech Szczesny became available on a free and has done a good job but I feel Wahab is the better keeper already and at just 23 should be No1 for years to come. Not a bad pair of keepers I have now.

Chiko Alon - £1m - Irony Ashdod - My replacement for Niasse will most likely by Marin Grnja who I signed in January but Alon will run him close for the starting AMC position, a bargain at £1m. Oh, and I had never heard of Irony Ashdod either until my scouts spotted this gem!

Key Men for 2019/20

GK: Mohammed Abdel Wahab

DEF: Patrick Wanjohl

MID: Marin Grnja

ATT: Mansour Mendy

Team Report

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Starting XI and Tactics

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Next

Really looking forward to this season, domestically we have a team capable of dominating the league and I also feel we have a squad capable of getting to the Quarters of the Champions League, whether we can go any further than that we'll see.

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It's interesting that you've had so much transfer activity. Any reason for that?

Good luck though for the new season :thup:

Wanting to stock up on players for the future it seems.

Thanks, yes that pretty much it Delta. Up until now I haven't really been focusing on the long term future of Twente as I wasn't sure how long I was going to stick around but since I signed my new deal I decided to sort out the U19's and Reserves looking to bring in some promising players for the future and also to help out with the Home grown rules for Europe.

I dumped a lot of players who just aren't anywhere near good enough to make it and after sending my scouts all over the world (cetainly keeping them busy!) brought in a bunch of young players in various positions to fill out the squads, some look good prospects, some are pretty average but all look better than what we had previously. It will interesting to see how they all work out, maybe one of the average looking players may surprise me.

Best of luck for that Championship League desire :)

Thanks :)

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Must be the best £1.5m spent on anyones save.

Amazing luck that I found both Mendy and Adissa Samiou within a few months of each other. Combined they cost me £2.7m, I sold Samiou to Bayern for £21.5m and his value has now shot upto £26.5m, Neymar is now the only forward valued higher in the world.

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City2000, I would take my hat off to you. If I was wearing a hat, of course.

Great deals, those are the type that would make me sleep easy at night :D

Why thankyou kind sir :D

Looking to get properly stuck into season 9 shortly, can't wait!

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HoW is Mendy only worth £8.75m! Thanks for the career shot - I find it one of the most interesting things to see how newgen careers evolve in everyone's saves :)

Thats a good question, i've never really looked into it but I guess it's down the club and league rep because I think if you put Mendy at Barca his value would be a lot, lot higher. I also love seeing how regens careers evolve and hunting out those great young regens is one of my favourite parts of the game for sure.

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I second this! A fantastic signing! :thup: 158 goals in 189 games...not a bad return! Did you find him or did your scouts?

Thanks :) I found him via the player search, I was just randomly looking through some of the lesser valued nations as I didn't have a huge amout of money to spend and there he was. As soon as I saw him I knew I was going to sign him and actually the first scout report I got for him wasn't great and made me think twice about signing him but in the end I went for it and i'm pretty glad I did!

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Champions League Update - Group Stage Draw

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I was delighted to see myself just sneak into Pot 2 for the first time and i'm content with the group. Lyon are always strong although I did dump them out in the First knockout round last year. Sampdoria have finished 2nd, 1st and 2nd in the last three Serie A seasons and also look strong. Rapid are clearly a side that I will be looking to take 6 points from, they do have some talent in their squad but I expect to see them in 4th place at the end of the group stage. Overall I fancy my chances here to get through but I certainly don't think it will be easy.

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More than a chance of topping that group! :thup:
Great group, I love playing teams that I know but that we should beat, in Europe :D
Favourable draw there.
Looking good to go through.

Thanks guys and I agree with you, i'll be disappointed if I don't get through this group.

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International Update - Turkey - Euro 2020 Qualifiers

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Needless to say it wasn't a great Euro 2020 qualifying campaign, we made it difficult for ourselves by losing the first two games. Despite then winning our next two games our biggest problem then came to the fore in that we just couldn't score enough goals. We had three 0-0 draws in a four game spell that effectively ended our chances. We did find our scoring boots against San Marino but other than those games we managed just 7 goals in the other 8 games.

I was then sacked which was a bit disappointing considering the position Turkey were in when I took over, i'm at least happy with taking them from 103rd in the World Rankings to their current postion of 46th.

I think International management isn't for me right now, i've already had an offer from Ireland to lead them into their 2022 World Cup Qualifying campaign but unless one of the bigger nations come calling I don't think i'll be returning to International management for a while.

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Pretty poor show, but, at least Croatia had a shocker too. Those draws against Georgia really cost you.

Yes, it was a poor show for sure and just too many draws.

Pity about being sacked by Turkey - FC Twente, however, are looking like a lock for the 2nd Round of the CL!

I hope you are right about the CL!

An interesting Dutch Cup 4th round draw......................

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My ass man Rafa van der Vaart just led the reserves to a win over PSV in the 3rd round, guess I can't really lose here!

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I don't know what's more surprising...you failing to qualify, Croatia failing to qualify, Belarus qualifying or Israel topping the group. Any reason why the Ireland job didn't appeal to you aside from it just being an international job? No specific nation cries out to you?

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Interesting situation.

Sure is, i'm quite looking forward to it, be nice if I could manage both teams!?

You're a turkey.

:D Thanks!

I don't know what's more surprising...you failing to qualify, Croatia failing to qualify, Belarus qualifying or Israel topping the group. Any reason why the Ireland job didn't appeal to you aside from it just being an international job? No specific nation cries out to you?

Was certainly an odd group. It was just so frustrating as 2nd place was constantly there for the taking but we just couldn't take advantage. The Ireland job was just bad timing more than anything else I think, having just failed with Turkey and at times feeling like I was just going through the motions there I almost felt like it would be a chore at the moment to take on the Ireland job. I think after getting back into solely club management once the 2022 WC qualifiers come around I might have the enthusiasm to jump back in.

No real nation stands out, I'm not expecting to get offered a real top national job but maybe a side ranked 10-50 like a Russia, Norway, Sweden or outside of Europe like a Australia or Mexico. We'll see who comes calling but I expect i'll give it another crack at some point.

As AK22 said (I seem to be agreeing with almost everything that he says at the moment) the draws against Georgia cost you.

Yes they did, I think I also paid the price for trying to bring too many young players through at once and maybe ended some players International careers a bit early. Looking back on it I probably should have gone for the evolution, not revolution approach. Still, at least i've got a taster of International management now.

Oh, and i've never really taken to International management, I haven't won any major tournament since FM2006 with the Italians and it hasn't been for the lack of trying!

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