alexcharliemann Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 Youth Intake 2017 Not quite as many players, I think only 3 will be here in the long term if they all develop properly, but one stand out, yet again someone who can go straight into the first XI. Step up Patrick Challinor! 3* current ability, 5* potential, AMC, with 16 for passing, which is fantastic given that I play a stubborn possession, slow passing game. I think he'll fit straight in. No real weaknesses apart from his tackling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 March/April 2017 A decent close to the season, with our only games lost against the teams that came first and fourth. We also experimented with a narrow 4-2-1-2-1 which seemed to work nicely and created more opportunities in areas where we are likely to take them (we don't do well coming in from wide) so I am likely to adopt that next season. Frustratingly if we'd put a run together we could have made the play offs as teams above us slipped up, but this will do after 3 successive promotions. Fun Stats -Dom Yoffe finished 3rd highest scorer with 23 goals, his biggest return for us yet. -43 goals conceded was less than a goal a game and gave us the third best defence in the league. -Our average attendance was third lowest with 10012. Not bad as our capacity is 10109! -We were top for average attendance as % of capacity with 99%! Unlikely to expand any time soon though seeing as our balance is £2.6m in the red and dropping. -We sold out 21 out of 23 home games. -Our wage bill per annum was the lowest in the league with £2.64m. The next lowest, Barnsley, was double that with £5.16m. -The highest wage bill, West Brom, was £27.01m - almost 13 times our wage bill. They finished 2 points above us. -Of our 46 league games, 15 finished a 1-1 draw. -Burnley drew most amount of games, with 22 out of 46 in a stalemate. Both our games with them finished......1-1. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Rectified I normally would, but super attached to these young players. I've never taken a young team of prodigies through their entire career and I'd love to do that. Oh Typical!!!!!!! Anyway I know how you feel regarding being attached to your own young team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Crewe Alexandra Season Review - 2016/17 English Championship - 11th place League - We were looking like mounting a play off challenge, before our form tailored off and we hung around comfortable in mid-table. Conceding less than a goal a game was good. Too many 1-1 draws did us in though - if we had converted only 3 of them into wins we'd be in the play offs. After three successive promotions though and with such a small budget this was a good place to build from. And many of our players were with us in the BSP! FA Cup - Lost in 3rd round to Reading. League Cup - Like two years ago, we got to the 3rd round and then lost out to Arsenal again. 3-1. Key Players Raphael Wolf - Our new Austrian keeper excelled and justified our decision to bring him in. Tom Dunne - First full season playing as our DMC and he did a fine job averaging 7.10. Didn't get many assists or goals but did a very important job breaking up play and setting counter attacks off. Michael Hill - Played a key part for the first time. Injuries to Yoffe and Brunskill meant he got two months as our sole striker, and provided a return of 14 goals and 7.15. Dom Yoffe - 26 goals as he yet again broke his scoring record. Now has a continental reputation and I am amazed if I can keep him in the Championship for another year. Jack Cope - While Dunne held back, Cope marauded forward and provided 11 assists, creative impetus and 7.34 average. Key player. Best Eleven Next Season We need to get promotion at the second attempt if we want to keep this team together. A few of the players from previous successes who aren't up to it will be let go to let some more of the youth come through. I think the play offs are achieveable, fingers crossed. We have a heck of a promising team here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Been a great journey with that crop of players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 I'm not usually one to boast about pre-season friendly results as if you play the same game in the normal season you'll get a different result. However: Unbelievable. It wasn't United's first XI but they were all first squad players including first choice keeper. And in addition to that, I had my second choice defenders and midfielders, yet we played them off the park. 25 shots to their 1, 69% possession, and 6-0! This against the team that last year won the title by 7 points. So it made me laugh when the very next day this came in: Incidentally, out of my 23 player first team squad, 14 are youth products Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Updates have been a bit slow coming through as my computer was dying a very slow death: every few matches it would crash, and it'd take 5-10 minutes to process a day. Happily, my new computer came through today with a significantly better processor, finally a dedicated graphics card and a very smooth 8gb of RAM, so hopefully progress will be much smoother and quicker from here on in. Woop! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 The 8 GB RAM will definitely show an improvement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 Yep. For a bit of fun I opened a new game and left it to go on holiday while I was at work. When I left at 7.30am it was in 2011. When I got back half hour ago it had holiday'd to 2046!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 Career Overview Season Club Country Division Position Other ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2012 Frigg Norway Second Division Group 4 2nd None 2013/14 Crewe Alexandra England Blue Square Premier 1st Promotion; FA Trophy Runners Up 2014/15 Crewe Alexandra England League Two 2nd Promotion 2015/16 Crewe Alexandra England League One 2nd Promotion 2016/17 Crewe Alexandra England Championship 11th Youth Products YP1 - Jan Morten Kjolberg - At Ostsiden in the Norwegian 2nd Division Group 1 still, very average for them. YP2 - Dom Yoffe - Best season yet with 26 goals and Young Championship Player of the Year. Is now a club legend at the young age of 20! Now club vice-captain. YP3 - Martyn Brunskill - First poor season, only 6 goals in 32 games. Season majorly disrupted by a torn hamstring though and struggled for form and fitness. YP4 - Michael Hill - Couldn't get into the team at the start of the year so spent a month on loan at Ipswich. Was recalled early due to injuries and played as a lone striker for 2 months doing really well, and finished with 13 goals. YP5 - Tom Dunne - First full season and he did great as my defensive screen, playing 43 games. YP6 - Patrick Challinor - Joined us in March and this AMC played 8 games for us to get his eye in. Will be a regular this season coming. Former Club Watch Frigg - finished 11th in the Adeccorligre, avoiding relegation by 3 points. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 August-November 2017 A frustrating few months that sees us down in 11th. We started very well and looked like we would be with the leading pack but we are just drawing way too many games we should be winning. We are lacking a creative spark up front and our play making efforts are poor. To top things off we don't put the chances away when we get them either. The defence is tight so it is possible to turn it around but if we want a chance of promotion we need to take it soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulHartman71 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 exciting times for you in Belgium, you did very well at Crewe and deserve the chance at the bigger side Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRL88 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Cracking move to Belgium. As Hartman said. You deserve a crack at a bigger club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Brugge's a good move. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Great move to Brugge. Time to ply the trade at a top flight level. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 Thanks all Definitely feels like a good move. I was holding out for a move to a top tier team in a second tier country and Brugge fits the bill. I felt like my Crewe team may have started to peak. An update about where Brugge are soon! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 Within days of me leaving, the bids have come in for Crewe players and the club has been accepting them so the team is being broken up. Dom Yoffe has already accepted a £10m move to Premiership Watford. Sadly none of the players want to move to Brugge!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 Belgium Juliper Pro League Rules This is absolutely bonkers, I'd never realised this before. Each of the 16 competitors in the Pro League plays each of its 15 opponents twice in the regular season, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents. The regular season thus comprises 30 matchdays of 8 matches each, played between July and March. A win earns three points since the 1995-96 season and a draw earns one point (no points are awarded for a loss). Teams are ranked by total points, then by total wins and finally by goal difference, number of scored goals, number of away goals and number of away wins. If teams are still level, a test-match is played in two legs to determine the final order in the standings.A playoff phase is then played from March to May. The top 6 teams from the regular season enter the playoffs 1, with each team playing their opponents twice. The point system in the playoffs 1 is the same as during the regular season, except that each team starts with half of the points they won in the regular season. Points are rounded up to the nearest integer. At the end of the playoffs 1, the first-placed team becomes the champion of Belgium. If some teams are level in the ranking, any points added due to rounding are first withdrawn from their total points if applicable, before other criteria are taken into account. Teams ranked 7 to 14 after the regular season enter the playoffs 2, with teams ranked 7th, 9th, 12th and 14th entering the group A and teams ranked 8th, 10th, 11th and 13th entering the group B. In each group, each team plays each of its 3 opponents twice. The winner of each group plays the final game in two legs, to determine the winner of the playoffs 2. The winner of the playoffs 2 then plays a home and away game against either the fourth-placed or fifth-placed team from the playoffs 1 for the final Europa League ticket, with the opponent depending on the fact if the Belgian Cup winner ended in the top four of the playoff 1 or not. Teams ranked 15th and 16th after the regular season enter the relegation playoff. It consists of 5 games between the 2 teams. The 15th-placed team starts the playoffs with 3 points whereas the 16th-placed team starts from zero. The loser of the relegation playoff is relegated to the second division. The winner of that playoff enters the Belgian Second Division Final Round with 3 teams from the second division. The winner of this Final Round plays in the First Division the season thereafter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 All the best at Bruges. And the mental league system in Belgium! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 2017/18 Club Brugge Juliper Pro League Club Brugge are one of the biggest clubs in Belgium. They have won the Juliper Pro League 13 times, but the last time was 2005. They have also won the Belgian Cup 10 times. Since the game started, they have come 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd. I take over in November after a disastrous start to the season and they are languishing in 9th place in this 16 team league. The media had predicted they would come in 3rd. Our biggest rivals are Anderlecht, who I play at home in my first game. The dominant team are Standard Liege, who have won the league the past 5 years. As I join, Standard and Genk are 13 points clear of everyone else. The League at the moment is 2 and a half stars, making it the 26th ranked competition in Europe, which is actually half a star and 9 places down from the English Championship. We are the 3rd highest ranked team in Belgium with 2 and a half stars, behind Standard Liege and Anderlecht. We are 65th in the European coefficients but that will drop as 5 seasons ago they did really well in Europe. Despite a 3rd place finish last year we didn't qualify for Europe. The country gets 1 Champions League spot and 3 Europa League spots. 1st qualifies for Champions League, and the 2nd place and cup winners go into the Europe League. For the final Europe League spots 3rd place plays the winner of the second play off group. We lost that match, meaning 7th place Genk got the final spot not us. Bizarre. Manager wise things have been unstable. Christoph Daum, the starting manager, was in place until he retired in June 2016. Christophe Delande, an ex Brugge player, retired from playing in the same month and was promoted to manager of the club, a big first job. Despite finishing 3rd, he lasted only 1 season and was sacked. His replacement in July 2017 was Belgian manager Patrick Asselman. He lasted only 5 months and was sacked in November after the atrocious start. So it looks like I have a trigger happy chairman. The original chairman, Bart Verhaeghe, is still in place, along with an MD, a Director of Football, and 7 directors. As I arrive the club has an Assistant Manager, 6 coaches, 2 youth coaches, 3 physios, and an amazing 12 scouts who are allowed to scout worldwide, so there won't be any backroom change for now. Facilities wise we place at the Jan Breydelstadion and we pay £1 per year rent. It is 29,042 all seater and we have the second largest average attendance in the league. We have top training facilities, excellent youth facilities, good junior coaching and established youth recruitment. First thing I did was ask for improved youth facilities and the board announced a £2.8m expansion to be completed October 2018, good sign. The finances are in a good state with £25m in the bank. The club seems to be making a profit excluding transfer revenue also. I have a transfer budget left of £9m, and a wage budget of £246k with £180k being used. There are 49 players on the books though so I expect a bit of a shake up in the squad. I ideally want around 35-40 including the youth. Belgian football is traditionally seen as an entry step into European football for those in South America and Africa, as well as developing good physical footballers, so I imagine I will get a lot of good youngsters who are then sold onto the big European giants for profit. As a whole the squad seems very strong. The best players are: Alejandro Gomez - a tricky Argentian winger with bags of pace, flair, techniques and dribbling tricks. He started his career in Argentina, before spending 4 seasons in Italy. He then headed back to River Plate for 2 years, before he joined us last season for £7.25m. The team will likely be built around him. At 29 he is in his prime. Edward Chipenda - A 19 yr old Congan anchorman. We signed him from Congan club Mazembe for £800k and is already a key player. Bob Martin - a Belgian defender who joined us this season from Willem II for £2.5m. Slow, but a giant and commanding in the air. Scott Hadzic - a Canadian wingback who joined from Lillestrom this year for £2.8m. A pacy all rounder. The main thing missing from the team is goals so a real talisman is my priority for the winter transfer window, but I have a nice kitty to do so. I will probably play the same possession slow build football that I did at Crewe so any players with good technique, creativity, flair and passing will be well scouted! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 Career Overview Season Club Country Division Position Other ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2012 Frigg Norway Second Division Group 4 2nd None 2013/14 Crewe Alexandra England Blue Square Premier 1st Promotion; FA Trophy Runners Up 2014/15 Crewe Alexandra England League Two 2nd Promotion 2015/16 Crewe Alexandra England League One 2nd Promotion 2016/17 Crewe Alexandra England Championship 11th None 2017/18 Crewe Alexandra England Championship 11th Resigned 18th November Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 November/December 2017 A tough start. There's a lot of players who are good but not championship material and that is where this club expects and demands to be! Fire in power in particular is lacking so the winter break has come at a good time. Time to get scouting and get a true stand out striker. I may need to tweak the formation as well as not sure these players are suited to the one I'm playing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 January 2018 Winter break time saw us play two friendlies to experiment with a new formation, and we're now playing a 4231, with the 2 dropping deeper or pushing higher depending on how the game is going. The 1 plays as a very deep forward: more of a hold, turn and pass guy, with 2 IFs and an attacking AM running from deep past him. So far so good. 1 win and 1 draw in the league. A very commendable second leg in the cup against league leaders Standard went super close. We actually won 2-0 in regular time to level the tie but conceded 2 in extra time. Still, a good piece of work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 We also made four signings: Roberto is the new first choice goalkeeper and joins us on a free. He'd been first choice at FC Utrecht in Holland for 6 seasons and for some reason was still available after being released! Gintaras fills the wide right position, joining from Uduva in Lithuania for £650k. Good pace, technique and dribbling Milton joins from league rivals Charleroi for £1.5m. A good all rounder and again with good dribbling, he'll play as the AMC looking to run beyond the turning striker. And I think Jordy will be that striker. Not the blockbuster signing I hoped for, but £2m also from a league rival, Beerschot, is good value. Lots of potential, he's scored 8 in 19 for them this season. He is strong and has good off the ball sense which he'll need as the lone guy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Very slow so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 February 2018 That's what I'm talking about! A draw away to the league leaders who have only lost 2 games all season, followed by 4 wins, is very pleasing. In the last 2 games I finally had all my new signings fit and in position and it showed as they were simply devastating. Sucking teams in then hitting them on a pacy counter attack really works for us, and some of the off ball movement is brilliant. The last game was particularly pleasing: at 2-0 we had a man sent off, but continued to dominate like we had 11 men and hit them for 5. 2 games of the regular season to go, and barring a major balls up we've made it into the Championship Playoff group which is a success for me. European football is our aim. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 Youth Intake - 2018 Utter gash, none of them will make it, won't even both signing any of them. I guess I was spoilt at Crewe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 You were very spoilt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 The Championship Play Off A very play off season saw us with a final position of 3rd place. Although it didn't start great, we found our form to lose only 2 of the 10 games, and concede only 5 goals. The highlight was a great win at runaway champions Standard. We were actually second going into the last game, but we only managed a draw and Anderlecht leapfrogged us. 3rd place did mean we have to play another 2 legged tie to secure our Europa League spot, as we had to play the winner of the Euro Playoff (7th-14th). Thankfully we dispatched of the 8th place team with no problems - what a silly system! Considering we started in 9th place when I took over half way through the season, I think 3rd is a good achievement and we'll be gunning for the title next year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Good recovery. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Club Brugge Season Review - 2017/18 Juliper Pro League - 3rd place Juliper Pro League - taking over in November we were in 9th, but once our winter transfer window signings gelled in February we made a late charge and squeezed into the Championship play off, where we really opened up the speed and pushed our way into 3rd and a Europa League spot for next season. We showed a lot of promise, and I think with some new signings we will be ready to challenge the dominance of Standard Liege and Anderlecht. I see it as a 3 team league. The past 5 seasons have seen the same combination of top 3 teams, although we haven't won it since 2005. Cofidis Cup - we made the quarter final where we lost out to Standard Liége in extra time. They went on to do the double. Key Players Roberto Junior Fernàndez - Quality goal keeper. Joined in January, keeping 12 clean sheets in 24 games and letting in only 15. He earnt us a lot of points. Alejandro Gomez - Took up residence on the left wing and bagged 8 goals in the second half of the season and 9 assist. Defences cannot handle it when he runs at them. Milton Mutale - Another January signing from Charleroi and settled straight into the AMC position. A pain in the ass! Wouter Corstjens - Mr.Solid at the back averaging 7.16, impressive for a defender. Fans player of the season. Edward Chipenda - Only missed on game all season, and fulfilled my old favourite stopper role in the midfield, making a nuisance of himself and breaking things up. Next Season It's my first season in Europe so a nice run in that would be great. The main priority though is to end our spell without victory in the league and claim our first title in 13 years. 2nd place is a minimum. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Career Overview Season Club Country Division Position Other ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2012 Frigg Norway Second Division Group 4 2nd None 2013/14 Crewe Alexandra England Blue Square Premier 1st Promotion; FA Trophy Runners Up 2014/15 Crewe Alexandra England League Two 2nd Promotion 2015/16 Crewe Alexandra England League One 2nd Promotion 2016/17 Crewe Alexandra England Championship 11th None 2017/18 Crewe Alexandra England Championship 11th Resigned 18th November 2017/18 Club Brugges Belgium Juliper Pro League 3rd None Youth Products YP1 - Jan Morten Kjolberg - At Ostsiden in the Norwegian 2nd Division Group 1 still, very average for them. YP2 - Dom Yoffe - Had a £10m transfer to Watford in the Premier League, where he scored 8 goals in 13 matches. Is now a 'wonderkid' and continues to improve. YP3 - Martyn Brunskill - With Dom gone he is now the main man at Crewe but only managed 9 in 28. YP4 - Michael Hill - A poor season, 4 in 29. Doesn't have the killer instinct of Dom despite his pace. YP5 - Tom Dunne - A fractured skull meant he only got 25 games but was ever solid, and is the subject bids from the two big Manchester clubs. YP6 - Patrick Challinor - The main creative force for Crewe last year and Manchester United are determined to prise him away. Former Club Watch Frigg - Relegated from the Adeccoligaen by 2 points. Crewe - Finished 10th in the Championship with very mixed form. The core of the squad is being broken up and I suspect they might slide back a little. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Wow! I get that club up to 3rd is quite an achievement coming from where you took over! This season should be much better! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Club Brugge 2018/19 Juliper Pro League After last season's rescue job, the media and bookies both expect us to claim third, while the board wants a title challenge. I am hoping to take the championship, but 2nd is the bare minimum I want. Standard Liége and Anderlecht are our two biggest rivals and the teams we need to overhaul. A fair bit of money was spent over the summer so lets see what we can do. Transfer Budget: £1m Wage Budget: £216k Wage Bill: £190 Finance Overview: Looking fine. Club Reputation: 3 stars Competition Rep: 3 stars, up half a star Squad Overview: This is everyone, I have no one in the youth team or reserves. Facilities: All looking good with upgraded training and youth facilities on the way. We may need to expand the stadium to move onto European dominance. A decent enough pre-season. We lost the match we played reserves in, and then hammered Belgian and German lower league cannon fodder. Transfers William Ekong - Was my 3rd choice centre back at Crewe and he provides good cheap cover here. Pedräo - My big summer signing from Estudiantes in Mexico, £5.25m. His pace and flair make him the ideal lone striker. Or it did until he was ruled out for 4 months with a broken foot. David Vandenbroeck - Experienced Belgian centre back brought back to the homeland from 1860 Munich. Another good reserve centre and right back. Pedro Centeno - Free transfer from River Plate. He will be on the bench as my Plan B: he is 6'8"with good pace, jumping, heading and finishing! Osmar - Signed from league rivals Lierse for £650k, this Brazilian was second top scorer in the league last year. He is also pacy and will play as my right inside forward. Carlos Gonzalez - Signed from Banfield in Argentina, this live wire is my left inside forward for only £3.8m! Again very quick with great dribbling, he is a right old nuisance to play against and is tearing defences apart. Rolando Perez - Signed from Alajuelnese in Costa Rica for £1.1m, he provides back up for my inside forward positions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 August - September 2018 Cracking start to the season. I knew it would be good when our first goal in the Europa League came after 29 seconds! Despite the starting day blip, where we played a blinder but just didn't score, we've looked great. Winning 3-0 against the Champions was great, and the 0-0 draw away to Juventus was a real highlight. It was a game we dominated and hit the woodwork 3 times in, but a draw away to Juventus is always good. If we win our game in hand we are top of the league, and we are scoring plenty of goals. Even more pleasing, the goals are coming from all around the team so we are not dependent on one or two players. However, a couple of key players do want to leave for a bigger club, and that maybe the problem we suffer in Belgium. All looking good though so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Gooding very good so far! The Europa League is going well too. Always tough when players want to leave, but I guess that happen in smaller leagues such as in Belgium. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRL88 Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Going along nicely so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 Very interesting season in the league as my two rivals are struggling. We are 13 points ahead of Anderlecht who are 10th, and we have a game in hand. They just lost 5 on the trot, needed extra time against a semi-pro team in the cup, and they just sacked their coach. Standard had an awful start to the season with a number of losses, although they have climbed back up to 3rd: but still 9 points behind us. Anderlecht have since appointed the manager of Cercle Brugge to take over. Good choice: he took Cercle from 13th in the Tweese Klasse to 4th in the Juliper League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Looks like a strong title challenge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 October - December 2018 A really strong run into Christmas despite a crowded fixture schedule has left us 5 points clear at the top, although Standard are clawing away slowly at our lead and losing to them in the last game was less than ideal. In fact in December we have played poorly but still managed some good results so that's encouraging. We topped our Europa League group, including a big victory at home to Juventus. Our reward is Rangers in the knock out stage. We're also as good as into the Semi-Final of the Cofidis Cup after a dominant away first leg. Anderlecht are practically out of the title hunt, although if they make the Championship Play Off the points are halved and that would close the gap for them. I think it will come to a straight shoot off between us and Standard Liége though. 10 games to go until the play offs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Still very strongly in the lead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Opening up a bit of a lead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRL88 Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Going very strong in the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 January - March 2019 The regular season has finished. Despite a league record of 8 wins and 2 draws in 2019, Standard have still closed the gap to 4 points as they too hit top form. This means in the play offs, with the points halved, we start with only a 2 point lead. Rather frustrating as we won 70 out of a maximum 90 points in the main season, winning 22 of 30 matches. In particular, we had a 100% record at home, winning 15 of 15. I can't see anyone else making it so it's between us and Standard. Anderlecht didn't even make the championship play off! The only disappointment has been losing out to Rangers in the Europa League. We had a shocker of a defeat to hand us our only loss in 2019. We went 2-0 up in the home leg but couldn't quite finish the job. We look like making the final of the domestic cup though, and our opponent's are likely to be Standard! Oh, and the last game of the play off is away to Standard!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Great job in the league! How many make the playoffs? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRL88 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Still going strong. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Great job in the league! How many make the playoffs? Everyone, in various playoffs, but 6 in the title playoff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexcharliemann Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 The Championship Play-Off We did it, but buoy was it close. Despite losing 3-0 at home to Standard, things were looking good, and with 3 games to go we were 7 points clear. One shock defeat at home and our morale plummeted, and another defeat soon followed. This meant going into our last game we were 3 points ahead of Standard, but our last match was away at Standard with goal differences equal. It was basically winner take all, with a draw being good enough for us. Luckily we drew and the Championship was ours, but not in the dominant style we expected. We are also in the final of the Cofidis Cup, still to come! Good to have my first national championship under my belt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.