resde34 Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Sinking my Teeth into Neath When Eagles Dare Background Neath Athletic are a club who play in the top division of Welsh Football. It was founded in 2005 near Swansea, when Skewen Athletic and Neath decided to merge. It was an instant success as Athletic powered their way to runners-up spot in the First Division and would have been promoted at the first attempt but for problems meeting ground criteria. However, the following season Neath had ironed out those problems and won a place in the top flight as undisputed champions with a league record 92 points. In 2011 they managed to finish 4th and qualify for Europe (Paraphrasing the club's webiste) Ground and Facilities Neath play their home games at The Gnoll, which is the home of Neath's rugby club, it has the biggest capacity in the Welsh Premier League.Wikipedia lists it's capacity as 5,000 however FM says 12,000. Aims They are predicted 4th however I have a sneaky feeling we could push for the title with a signing or two. I want Neath to become the best Welsh team, even better than Swansea, and hopefully getting some headway into Europe. I'll probably do seasonal updates with a bit here and there if it's taking me awhile (I play FM slowly, mainly whilst doing something else). (I've pretty much wrapped up the first season, so the first season shouldn't take me too long) Other Info I've just loaded the Welsh Premier League with a Large Database I am also playing with Power Regens by FootballManagerForum, it lets me get regens from places in the world other than the bog standard ones. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Another Wales career . Good luck you should be able to control the league after 2 or 3 years. Might struggle with attendance for Neath though as i always notice they are always pretty low. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Yea we seem to have little to no fan base so far an average of 0%!. I wonder how many people turn out for the Rugby matches... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Yeah on mine after 10 years they have an average attendance of around 150 but thats without much sucess so if you do well im sure it will pick up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Neath? Neat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 World Stadiums lists The Gnoll as having a 7500 capacity. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 World Stadiums lists The Gnoll as having a 7500 capacity. That just confuses things more. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 maybe it can vary depending on seats standing etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Season 2011-12 League Position: 1st Welsh Cup: Winner League Cup:Winner Europa League: Knocked Out in 1st Qualifying Round My first season goes off with a bang, a great treble. However, our showing in the Europa League leaves much to be desired. We had a terrible loss to Newtown, and sometimes our form would shake a bit, but we managed to pull through to the end, winning the season with 4 games in hand. Next year I want to reduce the amount we are losing and conceding, however we showed great desire at the other end, netting 83 goals. Best Players Lee Trundle: What an amazing season this guy had. He bagged 3 hat-tricks and scored a whopping 34 goals in 42 appearances. He is a favoured personnel of Neath, which he completely deserves, as he managed top scorer of the league, with the player in second managing a bit less than half of his tally, and Welsh Premier Player of the Year Kerry Morgan: Destroyed the first part of the season, but injury hurt him hard with 15 weeks out of the season. He might have got a lot more, but he was in a goal drought when he came back and took a while to get going again. Ebou Sillah: Brought in to make key passes just behind my amazing strike partnership, he impressed very much. Though would never seem interested in my team talks, which caused some annoyance. Injury sorted this out and he started looking alive in them. Jean-Philippe Caillet: According to my ass man, the best or one of the best players in my squad. Played every game this season without fail, sad story is though he decide after a few moths in Wales he would go to Denmark, on a free. I take all the blame for this as I should have added an extra year onto his contract to start with. Fabrice Jau: Just dominated the midfield making the key passes we needed, and also managed to bag some goals as well. Unfortunately he missed about 2 months of the season through injury, and this did cause us to drop some points. Transfers I brought in a lot of player which made my ass man's current ability gauge go a bit crazy, pretty much all would have been leading stars for Welsh teams, so in that case it was good. But the wages that went with it may have caused a problem. Finances These have just been destroyed, normal loss a month was around 70k, the board has so far injected 290k into the club, but we will need to reach about the play-offs for the group stages of Champions League to get back in the black. Squad I need another quality centre-back, and possibly a better goalkeeper as my current one let in more than 1 goal a game, which is fine for the WPL but we need a top keeper if we want to progress into Europe. Aims DO WELL IN EUROPE OR DIE TRYING(Financially Speaking) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Europe Update We got drawn with RB Salzburg, who managed to finish 3rd in there Europa league group last year, it is going to be a hard game. Especially since we have lost Trundle due to injury. The first leg is over, they won 4-1. However it could have gone either way and was actually quite even, we actually scored first! AND... we're out, Second leg we lost again 4-0, managed 1 less shot on target than them. But the better news is that we are now in the Black!! A whole 60k up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Unlucky in europe but a great first season. Once the money starts trickling in you should start to see some rapid development, just make sure you have someone lined up to replace Trundle in the near future! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 I have secured a great signing to replace Trundle, definitely the best in the WPL. Trundle doesn't seem to have the spark that he had last season though so the signing should get us scoring again. My mid season review is just about to come up where I'll post his stats. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Mid-Season Update Current League Position: 4th The season is going well, undefeated after our result in Europe. We were coasting in 2nd for most of the first 10 games, due to some poor performances resulting in draws. Contrary to last season we aren't the leading goal scorers but our keeper has really stepped up this year, and we have only conceded 9 out of 18 games. In the transfers department,we have made two fantastic signings in Simone Cannavo and Christian Nadé, as well as getting former loanee Jake Cassidy. Cannavo is a former Inter player who didn't get signed up after his trial, we tried to sign him in the summer but to no avail, he joins us with 5* potential, and I am looking to make him reach his peak and then ship him out. Nadé joins from a Thai Club, however is natively French, he is an absolute beast and will probably score dozens for the foreseeable future. Another sign to show how far Neath is rising, we might be getting Marvin Gonzalez, an El Salvador international who is wanted by Jaguares in Mexico and SV Mattersburg in Austria. Jaguares have a 3* rep and Mattersburg 2*. However our Finances are crumbling, and I am worried we might have to go into administration, but we should still win the league if we are docked 10 points and get Champions League football. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Looking good so far, nade is a great signing for the welsh league. A few champions league seasons and your finances will be fine, just try to keep wages at a low. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I'm more inclinced to believe World Stadiums than Wikipedia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Season 2012-13 League Position: 1st Welsh Cup: Runner-Up League Cup:Runner-Up Champions League: Knocked Out in 2nd Qualifying Round Fixtures My second season had its ups and down. We nearly went undefeated in the league, however 2 losses at the end of the season ensured this didn't happen. We should have also won both the cups, and I am still mystified as to how we didn't. Our record number of goals last year was not surpassed, yet our goal difference was higher as our keeper, Tamas Kadar, had a great season. Best Players Simone Cannavo: Simone came in part way through the season but still managed to make an impact, he ended up with a tally of 22 games with a 7.43 rating, and he will only get better with time, which is very exciting Christian Nadé: Also came in part way through the season, however he was exceptional managing 9 goals in 14 matches in the league. I can't wait for next season to see how he will do Ebou Sillah: Kept feeding the team with great passes, whilst also bagging 10 goals. In total he assisted in or scored 31 goals in 28 games in the league. Lee Trundle: He was once again named top scorer in Wales, however with a less impressive tally of 19 goals only edging out his opponent by a goal. His ageing and some signings mean that next season he will not be the first person I put down on the teamsheet, and I will be looking to get into the backroom. Tamas Kondor: I couldn't not mention this guy. He was the goalkeeper we needed him to be. Kondor was injured for the final few matches and since we didn't have a proper backup keeper, I ended up playing youth which didn't go great. Transfers Our transfers were really good, Cassidy was mainly a backup, but Nadé and Cannavo both played very well. Gonzalez is more interesting, he should be one of our best players but he doesn't ever seem to perform that well, but I won't be drafting in a replacement or selling Finances Continued to decline, but hopefully some frendlies here and there as well a Champions League money should get us back to black. Squad I have got my team pretty much sorted, i have made two signings up front to play a 4-3-3 and I'll probably say more on them during the Mid-Season report. Aims Third Round Qualifying? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Another great season, hopefully you can turn the club finances around so you can progress as a club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Yea, I have just had some frendlies with Bolton and Sunderland, which netted me about 100k. Both teams played nearly full strength teams and we lost both 2-1. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRL88 Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Walking the league so far. Obviously the challenge is in Europe. When do you think you will be hitting the group stages? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 I'm hoping I'll qualify in about 3-8 seasons. I'll probably come 4th in that for about 2 seasons then go 3rd. Another 2 seasons and I should get out. I'm aiming to win it around 13-18 years from now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I think you'll get to the group stages fairly soon, but from then on its all about luck of the draw in the groups. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 I think you'll get to the group stages fairly soon Speaking of group stages... Europe Update YES!!!!! We did amazingly in Europe, we're in Europa group stages and I'm so delighted I had to get up and do a little jig! We drew Lech in 2nd round of qualifying and after drawing 2-2 in our home game, we managed to sneak the 2-1 away, even though they were probably the better side. 3rd round we face Videoton, and We destroyed them 4-1 at home. Going away though we took an early lead, but it slipped away 4-1 again. In extra time they scored first taking it to 6-5 on aggregate, but then in the 115th minute we struck, taking the game to 6-6 on aggregate and us going through on away goals. Champions playoff was unlucky, but it still feels amazing to get into the Europa groups. Away we went 3-1 down, and for some reason my defender took the penalty which he missed. However the home fixture was more interesting, we struck twice quickly, but then they came back with two. But then some pure skill got us 4-2 up, however I had completley forgotten they were away and had scored 2 away goals to our 1. Nevertheless we got 1.8 MILLION for our participation and 800k for Europa group stages. We pretty much did all of this thanks to our amazing strike force, which we added to in the summer, with two exceptional players. They along with Nadé are the best 3 players at the club. Martin Quiroga Kayleden Brown My group for the Europa League is as follows: Wolfsburg Basel Celtic Neath I'm hoping for at least 1 point somewhere. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRL88 Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I think a point is an achievable target. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Tough group but good progress and your new players look good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Yeah I am really excited for a new challenge, some of my coaches have been saying that some players aren't progressing as much due to lack of a challenge. I'm about a match away from my first match and I'll probably post the results straight away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Are you still semi pro or have you turned profesional? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 We're professional, but for some reason we can only offer non-contracts to people we want to be youngters to rotation, its a bit strange. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Yeah its best to just offer them rotation or first team then downgrade them once youve got them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 What a Game!!!! Neath 4 Basel 3 After going a goal up, Quiroga pulled us back 5 minutes into the second half. They replied 10 minutes later, but then in the space of 5 minutes Quiroga bagged 2 more to get us 3-2 up. Then to add insult to injury Kayleden brown added one more, and Basel got another consolation goal. What makes this game more exciting though, is that Celtic and Wolfsburg drew leaving us top of the table! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRL88 Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Great result . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJCFC Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Good start Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Nice start. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Thanks guys, however we just got detroyed by Wolfsburg 3-0. I'm surprised it wan't more to be honest, we only got our first shot off in the 70th minute. In other news Celtic beat Basel to overtake me as well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Well done on the title. Great result against Basel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
resde34 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Unfortunately my game crashed about an hour ago, I was just off playing some Fifa to get over how pissed I was. I'm back now, seems the last time the game saved was a match before Wolfsburg. Edit: Replayed the match and lost 3-1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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