Crazy Canuck on European Managerial Tour - Hitchiking Across the Continent Again!

[rancer890]

----------------------------------------

2022 World Cup Squad announced

* = Denotes newgen

Squad:

Goalkeepers - David De Gea (Manchester United), Vicente Guaita (Malaga), Nene (Real Madrid)*

Defenders - Jordi Amat (Malaga), Cesar Azpilicueta (Marseille), Marc Bartra (FC Bayern), Alvaro Dominguez (At. Madrid), Alfredo Lobo (Fiorentina)*, Martin Montoya (At. Madrid), Mikel San Jose (Athletic), Patxi Ugaide (Athletic)*

Midfielders - Sergio Canales (Fiorentina), Cesc Fabregas (Barcelona), Kiko Femenia (Lyon), Javi Martinez (Athletic), Juan Diego (Sevilla)*, Ruben Perez (At. Madrid), Thiago (Barcelona), Alvaro Vadillo (Betis)

Forwards - Ander Cassado (Sporting)*, Jaime Hidalgo (Valencia)*, Patricio Manzano (Sevilla)*, Iker Muniain (Athletic)

----

The following players have been cut from the team: Pemphero Matano, Eduardo, Jordi Alba, Eugene Cagigas, Juan Pedro, Pedro, and Iban Virgill. Unfortunately, there was only one game before the cut off date to announce the final squad so there wasn't much time for the fringe players to impress. Manager Ricky Nakano has opted for experience, as the main squad that would be taken to the World Cup are veterans of the national team, and the unlucky players cut did not feature much in the friendlies and competitive matches earlier in the year and late last year. The squad will down take on Brazil and Ghana before the Group Stages begin.

[B.W.G]

Good luck in the World Cup,do Spain proud

[rancer890]

Bad news. Torn hamstring.

Amat is also injured for 3 weeks.

We defeated Ivory Coast 4-2, drew Brazil 1-1, and beat Ghana 2-1 in the World Cup tune-up friendlies.

[rancer890]

2022 World Cup - Hosts: Qatar

Group H: Australia, Nigeria, Spain, Ukraine

Game 1: vs Nigeria - W 3-2

Game 2: vs Australia - W 5-2

Game 3: vs Ukraine - W 3-0

Standings - Spain (9 pts), Nigeria (6 pts), Ukraine (3 pts), Australia (0 pts)

So despite a bit of a scare in the Nigeria and Australia matches, we managed to win the group. I would have to say our defense wasn't very good at all, but we got away with it for the Group Stages at least. Here are the other standings in the other groups:

Group A: USA (6 pts), Qatar (4 pts), Algeria (4 pts), Bulgaria (2 pts)

Group B: France (7 pts), England (6 pts), Brazil (2 pts), Costa Rica (1 pt)

Group C: Netherlands (6 pts), Russia (5 pts), Japan (4 pts), Colombia (1 pt)

Group D: South Africa (9 pts), Mexico (6 pts), Argentina (3 pts), Czech Republic (0 pts)

Group E: Cameroon (6 pts), Iran (6 pts), Uruguay (3 pts), Greece (3 pts)

Group F: Chile (9 pts), Turkey (6 pts), Belgium (3 pts), Saudi Arabia (0 pts)

Group G: Italy (9 pts), Morocco (6 pts), Israel (3 pts), South Korea (0 pts)

Since Morocco finished in 2nd, we will be facing them in the Second Round

Second Round: vs Morocco - L 1-2

We played poorly, and a late goal killed us....

Second Round Results:

England 2-1 USA

France 3-0 Qatar

Mexico 2-0 Netherlands

Russia 0-2 South Africa

Cameroon 3-4 Turkey

Chile 1-2 Iran

Italy 4-4 (p) Nigeria

Spain 1-2 Morocco

Quarter-Final Results:

England 2-1 South Africa

France 1-0 Mexico

Turkey 3-0 Morocco

Iran 2-1 Nigeria

Semi-Final Results:

England (p) 1-1 Iran

France 2-0 Turkey

3rd Place Playoff:

Turkey 2-3 Iran

Final:

England 0-1 France

------

Sackings/resignations:

Argentina, France, Spain, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Czech Republic, USA, Chile, Italy, Turkey, England, Russia.

I didn't press resign from Spain but apparently the news item said I resigned. I was planning to resign after the tournament anyways so I guess the game did it for me...

[rancer890]

Good luck in the World Cup,do Spain proud

Well we didn't meet expectations....

[Scarman]

Unlucky in the World Cup, international football can be rough Any potential jobs open?

[rancer890]

Unlucky in the World Cup, international football can be rough Any potential jobs open?

I have a couple offers, and since Photobucket is undergoing maintenance right now, here they are:

FC Bayern Munchen:

Transfer Budget: $24.5 million

Wage Budget: $121 million (currently spending $109 million)

Inter:

Transfer Budget: $93 million

Wage Budget: $181 million (currently spending $144 million)

Still very undecided which one to take....

[deltablue]

I had a rough time with Spain as well.

[DodgeeD]

Unlucky - knockout football can be tough at times...

I'd go for Bayern I think - a bit of a tighter budget, more of a challenge

[rancer890]

FC Bayern Munchen hire Canadian manager Ricky Nakano

JULY 11, 2022

MUNCHEN - German football giants Bayern Munchen have hired Canadian Ricky Nakano as the next manager of the club. He previously had experience in Belgium with Zulte Waregem and Club Brugge, and was recently the head coach of the Spanish national team.

"I'm very happy to be here and be the new manager at Bayern Munchen," Nakano stated, "I'm thankful of the opportunity given to me here. We have won 6 of the last 8 Bundesliga titles and I look forward to continuing the winning tradition."

"However, we are not happy with our 3rd place finish last year, and we will have to work hard to get back on top. I will examine the structure at the club in the coming days, and we will improve for the better."

He has signed a 5 year deal, worth $2.2 million a year.

----

I would like to post some screenshots of the squad, etc., but that will have to wait till photobucket comes back.

[rancer890]

I had a rough time with Spain as well.

We were a bit crap in the friendlies leading up to it. My tactics worked better with a club team than an international one.

Unlucky - knockout football can be tough at times...

I'd go for Bayern I think - a bit of a tighter budget, more of a challenge

My thoughts exactly.

[deltablue]

Good choice with Bayern.

[cerud]

Tough time with Spain, but Bayern Munich should be better

[B.W.G]

Shame about the reign with Spain but best of luck at Bayern,I have more confidence that you can succeed there.

[rancer890]

FC Bayern Munchen - 1.Bundesliga - 2022-2023 Off-season signings

MUNCHEN - The transfer window has closed and German giants Bayern Munchen have made some minor changes to the squad. Manager Ricky Nakano has only opted to sign one player, with the previous regime signing the 3 other players.

"I elected not to make many changes to the squad," the Canadian manager stated in an interview, "I feel that we already have a strong nucleus here, and I believe that it would be best to just make minor changes and improve the squad depth.

Davor Kovacev - a big money signing from Montpellier, Kovacev is an immediate upgrade over our current core and he's a fantastic addition for us.

Florian Zinnbauer - he trained with the Bayern youth, went to Willem II, then to Feyenoord a year later, and then back to Die Bayern. He has improved a lot and we welcome him back to the club

Berry Huizinga - right back was a position we were previously weak in, and he gives an immediate upgrade.

Nuri Sahin - this was my actual only signing to the club. He's not on permanent contract but he still has great talent. He will be important this upcoming season.

The squad is still a bit large for my liking, but we'll try to manage. One player in particular is Tobias Sen, who is already on the matchday squad at 16 and I think I will play him as much as I can so he can reach his potential!

---

We defeated Celtic in the Best Placed Playoff 3-1 on aggregate, and will go to the Group Stage of the competition. The board have high hopes as they want to at least get to the Semi-Final.

In the Group Stage, we will be against Manchester City, Sevilla, and familiar foe Sint-Truiden from my days in Belgium. We will be in Group F. The other groups include:

Group A - PSG, Porto, Vitesse, Litex

Group B - Chelsea, Malaga, Rangers, CFR Cluj

Group C - Tottenham, CSKA Moscow, Dortmund, Shamrock Rovers

Group D - Inter, FC Twente, At. Madrd, Lech

Group E - Barcelona, Milan, Metalist, Fenerbahce

Group F - Manchester City, FC Bayern, Sevilla, Sint-Truiden

Group G - Manchester United, Stuttgart, Zenit, Basel

Group H - Marseille, Juventus, Ajax, AEK

[rancer890]

Good choice with Bayern.

Tough time with Spain, but Bayern Munich should be better

Shame about the reign with Spain but best of luck at Bayern,I have more confidence that you can succeed there.

Cheers lads. Unlike Zulte Waregem and Club Brugge, I won't have to do a total rebuild but getting younger will be the key for long term success.

[PaulHartman71]

desperately unlucky with Spain, the loss to Morocco must've been pretty hard to take. Good luck with Bayern though, not quite the group of death in the CL but Sevilla could cause you a few problems!

[Scarman]

Good luck with Bayern!

[SRL88]

Not the easiest of European groups I must say. I cant see Sint-Truiden doing much .

[deltablue]

Should still be able to qualify, the Belgians however...

[DodgeeD]

Good luck for the season - could be a tight battle for the top two spots in that Champions League group!

[AK22]

Didn't see you losing to Morocco!

Good luck in Munich- are they still the dominant force of German football?

[markyosullivan]

Wondering who finished above them when they finished in 3rd, Dortmund and one other team?

[cswalk08]

Bad luck in the World Cup! but good luck with Bayern!

[rancer890]

@Everyone: Cheers.

I usually don't post updates midseason due to superstition but this league title is going down to the wire!

[cerud]

Been involved in the same sort of finale...nerve wracking!

[rancer890]

Matchday 32:

FC Bayern 2-0 Dusseldorf

Koln 0-1 Stuttgart

Dortmund 6-1 Werden Bremen

Standings:

1st - Dortmund - 78pts - +58 G.D.

2nd - FC Bayern - 78pts - +50 G.D.

3rd - Stuttgart - 78pts - +50 G.D.

Oh crap. Didn't expect such a big win by Dortmund...

Matchday 33:

Wolfsburg vs FC Bayern

Stuttgart vs Dortmund

So a BIG fixture between two teams fighting for the title. We have to do our job though.

[rancer890]

Matchday 33:

Wolfsburg 3-1 FC Bayern

Stuttgart 0-2 Dortmund

Standings:

1st - Dortmund - 81pts - +60 G.D.

2nd - FC Bayern - 78pts - +48 G.D.

3rd - Stuttgart - 78pts - +48 G.D.

Well, Dortmund is all but secured the title now. In our game against Wolfsburg, we more or less played like ****. We face Werder Bremen in our last game. Dortmund face Gladbach, and Stuttgart are away at Nurnburg.

[SRL88]

Shame on the defeat to Wolfsburg.

[markyosullivan]

Unlucky, but there's always next season!

[B.W.G]

You ran it close,better luck next season.

[deltablue]

You need a miracle now.

[rancer890]

FC Bayern Munchen - German 1.Bundesliga - 2022-2023

Standings | Fixtures - A below start meant we were never really a threat for the title till the very end, but Dortmund were just too strong.

UEFA Champions League - Choke job. If we defeated Sin-Triuden, we would have advanced, but no, we had to draw them, and thus we finished 3rd.

UEFA Europa League - We did well, like coming back against Lyon in the second leg in the Second Knockout Round, but of course we had to face Real Madrid, and we lost 9-2 on aggregate.

DFB-Pokal - We should have won that Semi-Final, but we didn't.

Transfers - We didn't sign a a lot of players since I joined but there's a decent nucleus in place.

Florian Zinnbauer, Davor Kovacev, and Berry Huizinga were decent players but they're overpaid.

Nuri Sahin - he's past his peak now, but he provided good service for one season. He isn't coming back.

Amor Denden - my second signing of the season is this talented midfielder. He's German and he's got good potential. He will be part of the nucleus in the future.

Squad - The stars say it's a decent squad. I say the squad needs some reinforcements in the summer...

However, we do have Manuel Neuer, who looks like he can still play for another season or two at a high level, but we should start looking for a young 'keeper soon as the eventual replacement. We have a couple good midfielders in Jose Ignacio Pallares and Torsten Tank. Up front, there's Sekou Diallo, Nene, and Rustem Plotnikov are the three headed monster, although one was injured for a third of the season (Nene), one was ineffective in the league (Plotnikov), and the other is just plain average.

Some good pieces here, but if we want to compete, we need better players.

Overview | Facilities | Finances | Affiliations

We still have some money, but I'll be looking to make more profit in the coming years.

Goals for Next season

• Get a new team at Bayern Munchen. This current group will never win another league title. We will get younger and better.
  
• I still have 4 years left on my contract, so job security isn't a big deal yet. However, I need to greatly improve my performance next season.
  

Career Summary:

Overview

Year Team Country League Position Notes
2016-2017 SV Zulte Waregem Belgium Jupiler Pro League 3rd 99 league goals scored!!!
2017-2018 SV Zulte Waregem Belgium Jupiler Pro League 1st Champions!!!
2018-2019 Club Brugge KV Belgium Jupiler Pro League 1st Domestic Double
2019-2020 Club Brugge KV Belgium Jupiler Pro League 1st Undefeated Champions!!!
2020-2022 Spanish National Team
2022-2023 FC Bayern Munchen Germany 1.Bundesliga 2nd No trophies

Former Club Watch:

SV Zulte Waregem - 9th place this season. They're back to be an average mid-table team....

Club Brugge KV - They're Championship Group contenders, but they haven't finished top 3 since I left. The Championship Group isn't done yet, but the best they can do is 5th.

[B.W.G]

Unlucky with this season but you should be able to make the team more of your own from next season.

[Scarman]

Unlucky this season, but you were pretty close. Next season will be the one.

[rancer890]

Unlucky with this season but you should be able to make the team more of your own from next season.

Cheers B.W.G. It'll be a challenge to get some good players in at the right price but hopefully I can with a bit of wheeling and dealing. Priorities include another striker, a 'keeper, and a left back.

Unlucky this season, but you were pretty close. Next season will be the one.

I hope so too. We had a bad start in all accounts in the league and Champions League, and by the time we got better results, it was going to be hard to get the title. With a full off-season, and my scouts working hard trying to find talent around the world, in the UEFA u21 Championship, the Toulon Tournament, and the U20 FIFA World Cup in August, I hope for the best that we can rebuild rather quickly.

[rancer890]

FC Bayern Munchen - German 1.Bundesliga - 2023-2024 Expectations

Media Prediction: 1st

TV Rights: $11.63 million

1.Bundesliga Expectations: Win it!

DFB-Pokal Expectations: Not important

UEFA Champions League Expectations: Reach Quarter-Final

Transfer Budget: $28.58 million

Wage Budget: $121 million (currently spending $91,295,944)

---

These expectations are realistic imo. Unfortunately, I didn't expect to get less than $30 million to work with...going to have to get creative again this off-season!

[cswalk08]

Good luck in the new season!

[deltablue]

You could still get a couple of key players, especially if you take some money from the wage budget as you have plenty of surplus there.

[cerud]

Should be enough to work with. Your Board seems to demand it

[PaulHartman71]

hopefully you can topple Dortmund this season, got pretty unlucky in the league and the CL last year!

[rancer890]

FC Bayern Munchen - German 1.Bundesliga - 2023-2024 Off-season signings

MUNCHEN - During the off-season, manager Ricky Nakano made one thing clear: there was going to be change, and the club was going to get better.

"This past off-season, my staff had 3 clear targets, in no particular order: a striker, a left back, and a goalkeeper. We feel that we have addressed all 3 immediate needs this off-season. There has been a lot of positives going into the season and the dressing room has meshed well between the new signings this summer and the current players."

"We spent a lot of money to get all this talent, and while I wouldn't guarantee that we would reduce the spending in the future, I will cutback somewhat after getting my core group into the squad for a long time."

Ricardo Millan - One of our needs was a new goalkeeper. Millan was a player I targeted when I first joined the club last season but we were unable to come to an agreement with his former club. However, we approached his former club after the end of the season, and after some tough negotiations, we came to an agreement and signed him. While we have a fantastic goalkeeper in Manuel Neuer, we feel that it's important to have 2 very good goalkeepers. We sold our former backup at the same price tag so the net result is that we get a better 'keeper than the one before.

Antonis Borbokis - Antonis is a signing for the future. He will play in the Bayern youth team to get valuable training and perhaps contribute to the first team in a few years.

Rodrigo Adame - Rodrigo was on our radar last season but I waited another season before pulling the trigger on a loan deal. He's not in the plans of Manchester United and it would give us a look at him whether we can possibly sign him on a Bosman in January.

Joel Ryan - #2 on our wanted list was a left back. Joel Ryan is another expensive signing but he was playing a lot of games for Manchester United over the past 4 seasons and you don't do that without actually pretty a good footballer. So I'm very pleased with the signing and out of our options he was the best one. We beat out some very good teams for his signature.

Ousmane Nanakasse - Frozen out at Liverpool, he will get a chance to get consistent playing time at the club. You can never have too many good options at CM, and we have four now who are 3.5 star quality.

Ander Cassado - Yes, $60 million (less than a third upfront) is a lot of money, but I have experience with Cassado while being the national team manager with Spain. Unfortunately he has an injury to start off his career at Bayern Munchen, but I'm confident he can contribute and we will be successful.

We got rid of a lot of players, some were just too old, others were surplus of requirements. We're not done selling yet but I'm content with the current group for the duration of the season.

------

Finishing in 2nd meant we go directly to the Group Stage.

Group Stage 1 Group Stage 2

Our group isn't too bad, and looks slightly easier than last season. We avoided something like Group B so that's good.

[rancer890]

Good luck in the new season!

Cheers cswalk!

You could still get a couple of key players, especially if you take some money from the wage budget as you have plenty of surplus there.

I did follow that advice for Casado!!!

Should be enough to work with. Your Board seems to demand it

It took me a bit of time, but I realized our budget might have been a bit low because of the monthly payments I did last season. And this season it's more of the same so we probably won't have much money to spend next season.

hopefully you can topple Dortmund this season, got pretty unlucky in the league and the CL last year!

Cheers Paul. I'm very confident with this group of players though, even if some of the players performing well were here last season. Hopefully that full off-season here will pay off with success and meeting the board's expectations.

[deltablue]

Casado's very much worth it.

[markyosullivan]

Should at least be able to get into the knock out stages

[B.W.G]

Some good signings made and your group doesn't look too bad.Good luck for the new season

[SRL88]

Inter will provide a stern test, but you should get through.

[AK22]

Not a bad start- at least you know what you need to do to improve next season. You've made some decent signings, so you should be right in contention again

[rancer890]

Casado's very much worth it.

I'm not used to making big signings like this. It certainly makes me nervous. This is the first time I ever got the 'Splashing the Cash' achievement in FM. (And I've played nearly all my FM games on Steam! )

Should at least be able to get into the knock out stages

Some good signings made and your group doesn't look too bad.Good luck for the new season

Inter will provide a stern test, but you should get through.

Not a bad start- at least you know what you need to do to improve next season. You've made some decent signings, so you should be right in contention again

It's early in the Group Stages, but I think we have what it takes to advance. Stuttgart is a pain as usual....

[rancer890]

Haven't posted here in a while, but I guess this screenshot is enough:

Two league games to go, as well as a cup final. And then an end of season update shortly afterwards.