FM13 - Like Icarus to the Sun, the rise and (hopefully) rise of Jozef Prochazka

[b101]

Dominating!

Why would you jinx me ?

[b101]

January 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Results:

As good as the last few months have been in the league, this was terrible. We settled into January well with a solid win over Cercle Brugge - Marilía scoring on his debut as well, but fell apart in the second half against Standard in spite of having taken a 1-0 lead. We then limped to a draw against KV Mechelen in the league before a reserve side capitulated in the Cup. Thankfully we had a 4-0 lead from the first leg, but it was an abysmal performance. Finally, we then failed again at home to lowly Gent, hitting the woodwork twice and spurning numerous chances. All in all, a month to forget.

League Table:

Man of the Month:

The best of a bad bunch - scored in each of his first two games, but went missing a little thereafter. Then again, it's not a bad return given that he's only just joined.

[DazRTaylor]

Why would you jinx me ?

Your lead is so big, it would take a blow up of gargantuan proportions for you to fail.

[b101]

Your lead is so big, it would take a blow up of gargantuan proportions for you to fail.

"He said it again!"

Haha, I know what you mean, but don't forget that the lead gets halved before the Championship Group - hence my slight concern

[b101]

Forgot to mention - the best news of all is that Diallo is still with us after the dust of the January window has settled. Now valued at £3.9m, I'm sure I can get a lot for him when he eventually outgrows the club

[deltablue]

Great news.

[B.W.G]

Still going strongly which is great to see,hope you can carry on that form.

[AK22]

Until I saw the January update, I was going to say it's been an amazing season so far! Hopefully that period doesn't come back to bite you later on.

[b101]

February 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

This somewhat amusing notification came up as a result of my role as Colombia manager. I've never seen it get past 16 hours before, let alone that much! Poor guy...

Results:

We started this month better, with a 2-0 win away at Vizé thanks to two early goals from Touré and Vukusic. Again though, we had tried to shoot ourselves in the foot, giving away a silly penalty which Bailly saved (the only thing he’s particularly good at…). This was followed by a tough-fought win over Anderlecht. They took the lead early on through a flukey free-kick that Bailly didn’t fancy saving, before we grabbed an equaliser through Beerens, who was immediately subbed. His replacements, Guerra and Saglik, proved instrumental in the win, with two crosses from the right winger headed home by the Uruguayan. Thank you very much! We consolidated in the first leg against Genk by winning a close match 3-0, with two late strikes from Saglik and Tolimir securing our advantage. We headed into the game against Brugge on a high, and were promptly stomped on in the first half, going back in 1-0 down. A breakaway equaliser from Beerens drew us level before De Bock, who had been having a torrid few months, headed the winner from a free-kick. A real smash and grab victory, that one. Another average performance against a weak Kortrijk outfit followed, before Guerra put rock-bottom Charleroi to the sword. Much better overall, although that's not exactly difficult...

League Table:

Man of the Month:

A tie for the award this month. Whilst Guerra is an obvious inclusion due to his great goalscoring prowess, Saglik has been just as instrumental in inspiring comebacks against Kortrijk, Brugge and Anderlecht, all from the bench. He's never been as great from the start, but this deserves recognition.

[b101]

Great news.

Still going strongly which is great to see,hope you can carry on that form.

Until I saw the January update, I was going to say it's been an amazing season so far! Hopefully that period doesn't come back to bite you later on.

Thanks all, happily things have shown an improvement, and Diallo staying is definitely a huge result for us.

[b101]

End of League Phase 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Result:

This destruction of Zulte finished the first part of the season in fine style, and in reality, this could have been double figures. With any luck, the bad run has been and gone, and we're now entering the hard part on top form.

Championship Group:

A ten-point lead is great news, and is the least we deserve. Aside from draws with Mechelen and Club Brugge, we've beaten every side in this group both home and away, which has to give us some confidence. On top of that, there are no injury concerns yet... touch wood, and things are coming up Lokeren!

[b101]

March 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Results:

Holders Club Brugge were first up in the Championship Group, and a strong second half performance saw them head home well beaten. Diallo scored a rare goal to open it before the two stikers and super-sub Saglik made the game comfortable. I then rested players again for the Semi Final against Genk, with a better result than last time. Anderlecht bombarded us with long shots, but Vukusic took the one shot that mattered, putting us 1-0 up. That is, until they equalised in the 93rd. Ho hum. After that, things got back on track with wins over Mechelen - close, and Genk - not very close. The league is almost done and dusted - as Daz mentioned earlier, it would take a collapse of Keegan proportions to lose this now...

Championship Group:

Man of the Month:

This month, Guerra gets this in his own right. He's benefited a lot from the team focus on attacking play, and has been scoring for fun over the last few months, leaving even Vukusic in his wake. Some of those mentals are finally going in the right direction too, although I'd love it if he could actually learn to pass the ball. Still, at £6k, he and Vukusic are surely the best value partnership in world football.

[b101]

April 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Great news, and the praise couldn't come from a better source. Please stay!

Results:

We continued our good run of form with a 4-1 thrashing of Genk - Guerra again playing a huge role in scoring a first half hat-trick. We then lost just our second match of the season, faltering slightly against Sint-Truiden. We came back by making it a double over Club Brugge, before win over Mechelen and Anderlecht (the fourth of the season against them!) rounded off the month in style. The game against Mechelen was the one that finally secured the title though, and supersub Saglik again made the vital difference. A thoroughly deserved title - we've been by far the best team all season, and we're only going to get stronger

Championship Group:

Man of the Month:

Guerra takes the award again - deservedly so. He's been our best player by a mile recently, relegating Touré to the bench. The only frustration is that he will sit out the remainder of the season after Anderlecht hacked him to pieces

[DazRTaylor]

Congratulations on a fantastic season.

[b101]

May 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Results:

With the league all sewn up, the last two games were effectively irrelevant. Two quick goals after half time did for Genk, before a second string side saw out a draw with Sint-Truiden - who have oddly been the toughest side we've come up against in this mini-league. After that, we had our Cup final to play, but we were missing no less than 5 players: Guerra, Touré, Maaloul, Riveros and sole keeper Bailly. So, with a 17 year old débutant between the sticks, we faced Cercle Brugge away for the chance to secure a famous double. An early strike from Beerens put us ahead, before Vukusic took over with two smart finishes. A solid 3-0 win saw us finish the season on a real high.

Players of the Season:

Boris Vukusic - The main man for much of the season before Guerra stepped up in the last few months. Just a lethal finisher and, yes, all for just £6k (count how many times I've mentioned that...)

Bonaventure Diallo - Our driving force from midfield. Think a slightly de-powered Yaya Touré and you're pretty much there. Next year I might try to get more goals out of him, but he keeps everything ticking over nicely.

Rodrigo Guerra - He really kicked on after Christmas, and was unstoppable in the last few months when Vukusic faltered slightly. With two stars of potential left to fill, he remains an exciting prospect.

Michihiro Yasuda - Made what has been a tricky right back slot his own and was probably our most consistent performer. Never had a bad game.

Ahmed Ugochukwu - It took me a little while to realise that he was by far our best centre back, and he put in some excellent performances throughout the campaign.

Ali Maalool - Very effective early in the season, the marauding wingback was a key part of our attacking play. His late injury was a shame, but didn't impact too much on the overall results of the season.

Overall thoughts:

An outstanding season that was every bit deserved. We were by far the best team and showed it, winning the league by a colossal margin. The first of our new Brazilian recruits joined in January (with 3 more to come, we are fast becoming the Belgian Shakhtar!), and more importantly, we held on to the youngsters we had nurtured so carefully. The aim for next year has to be to give a decent account of ourselves in the Champions League, whilst retaining the title. Anything more than that would be wonderful, but this has been great so far!

One final happy moment to end on:

|Season  | Club         | Country | Division      | Pos   | Other                              | 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2011-12 | Curicó Unido | Chile   | Primera B     | 2nd   | promoted                           |
|2012-13 | Curicó Unido | Chile   | Primera       | 2nd   | playoff semi, resigned             |
|2013-14 | Lokeren      | Belgium | Jupiler Pro   | 10th* | won European Qualifying Group      | *took over in December, 12th
|2014-15 | Lokeren      | Belgium | Jupiler Pro   | 3rd   | 5th in League, 3rd in Champ. Group | 
|2015-16 | Lokeren      | Belgium | Jupiler Pro   | 1st   | won league and cup double          | 

[b101]

An update on where we are with the long-term objectives thus far - four seasons in.

Career Aims:

• Homecoming: Lift a title with one of the Prague clubs
  
• The stuff dreams are made of: Win a National Cup - completed May 2016 with Lokeren
  
• The Di Matteo: Win a Continental Trophy (sacking optional)
  
• The Neil Warnock: Gain promotion (being a **** optional) - completed November 2012 with Curicó Unido
  
• The Crystal Palace Award: Win a playoff competition - completed June 2014 with Lokeren
  
• The Roy Hodgson: Survive in a relegation battle
  
• Give ‘Em A Chance!: Have a Youth Product become Club Captain
  
• For Queen and Country: Win a top division title with a single nationality team
  
• The dream: Manage Manchester United (Prochazka is a typically local United fan)
  
• The Winston Bogarde: Become a millionaire
  
• The Alan Sugar: Become a multi (20m) millionaire
  
• The Arsene Wenger: Sell a Youth Product for > £30m
  
• The Steve Bruce: Sign a relative (Prochazka’s a fairly common name)
  
• Give me more: Manage a club with a tycoon
  
• The Graham Carr: Pluck a star from obscurity (less than £50k, becoming over £10m)
  
• The Incomprehensible: Manage Charlton
  
• Black Market: Buy a Czech talent for a top European club
  
• The Pretentious: Win a game playing a 4-6-0 formation
  
• Headline Writer: Sign a player who 'may upset the dressing room'
  
• The 'he's played Football Manager before': Sign a player who is basically only famous because of this game. - completed January 2015 with Lokeren
  
• Solve the recession: Sell a Greek player for over £10m
  
• The Paul Lambert/Nigel Adkins: Win back-to-back promotions
  
• The Bébé: Sign a player without knowing all of their attributes and give him at least ten starts over the season

[AK22]

Well done on winning the league! Very convincing too!

[b101]

Congratulations on a fantastic season.

Well done on winning the league! Very convincing too!

Cheers guys - hopefully the first of many! I'd like to stay here at least another two seasons, especially with the new Brazilians coming in

[b101]

That being said, I received my first job offer or interest in the last 3 years. Obviously it was a huge club that came in for me...

[JackJCFC]

Congrats on the title win. You going to move? They certainly have a good budget.

[B.W.G]

Congrats on winning the double

[b101]

Not an awful offer, but it's not very tempting though given the squad I've got at Lokeren. I'd like to set them up as a major force in Belgium before I move on. Some of the players we have coming in this summer are frighteningly good as well

[Helginho]

Very nice career, enjoying it a lot!

[b101]

Two interesting moments from pre-season:

The first is a decent budget, nothing spectacular but I can work with it. The second is very scary - I've negotiated for the time being, but that is a huge offer for the man who cost peanuts. Thoughts?

[AcidBurn]

What percentage of sales do you get to keep?

[DazRTaylor]

At a club like Lokeren, I would accept the bid - you could sign 2-3 players who would be fantastic for the Belgian league with that cash.

[b101]

60% at the moment - annoyingly the board wouldn't budge on it. I'm pretty certain he'll leave now, Liverpool have come in as well. Very glad I never put any sell-on clauses in when I bought him!

[AcidBurn]

60% isn't that bad you could find a few players to improve the side as a whole with the money. Obviously you should try and stick a sell on clause in when you sell him if you can.

[b101]

As if I didn't have enough to think about! An hour of play tonight and I've made it through 1 match and 30 days... eesh!

Again, thoughts?

[AcidBurn]

It would be a big challenge to topple Shakhtar at the top but it's a tempting offer.

I know that's not very helpful lol.

[b101]

So yeah, that was inevitable. That being said, it was a good bit of negotiation, and although I could have persuaded him to stay another year, it's probably better to sell him now, add some quality to the team and give us the best chance possible in the Champions League and Jupiler League.

Also, for those of you who know the maths (I think mine is right!) - bought for £6,000 - sold for £17,000,000 = a 283233% profit...

Boris when he joined:

And as he leaves:

Some improvement!

[JackJCFC]

An incredible piece of business, nicely done. Should help the club to improve in a few areas now.

[AcidBurn]

Great deal for you, you did well to get such a good price. It'll be interesting to see who you bring in now.

[AK22]

That's a great deal! Invest it wisely

[b101]

Cheers guys - I'm going to be very careful with this money, although my Director of Football has already seen fit to snap up a good looking youngster!

As for now though, I have a couple of targets. Pretty close to the top is this lad, who looks seriously good:

[b101]

Pre-season 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Transfers:

A lot of change here and the future is looking very bright, with a number of young arrivals to bolster our squad. Vukusic's sale started the landscape, with a number of new faces joining in addition to those pre-arranged transfers. South America continues to be my source of new faces, with a number of payments spread over 48 months to give a little more flexibility. Normally, this wouldn't be ideal, but the £9m coming in from the Champions League has eased any lingering concerns.

• Flavio Perticari - GK - At £3.5m, our new keeper hasn't come cheap, but I've become fed up with Bailly's inability to make any sort of decision. Granted, Perticari isn't the finished article yet, but he has a lot of potential.
  
• Renzo Reveredo - D/WBR - Signed with a few greyed out attributes, Reveredo is my attempt at going for the Bébé challenge. Looks ok, but nothing special - more for cover than anything else. (What I saw before signing)
  
• Walber - DMC - Should walk into our first team as an outstanding holding mid.
  
• Pavel Jelinek - DMC - That being said, this guy isn't half bad either! Found when combing Eastern Europe for the next Vukusic, he's a bit dearer at £2m, but looks exceptional already.
  
• Daniel Kaderabek - DMC - What do you do when your Director of Football brings in a decent DMC? Go and sign two better ones evidently! Nothing against Kaderabek, he looks ok, but probably won't get the chances he needs to develop.
  
• Zdenek Chladek - AMC - My Director of Football brought this lad in as well, looks an interesting prospect, but I don't see him becoming first team material.
  
• Nehuen Miguel - M/AML - Smashing our transfer record, we brought in Miguel as Franks has yet to fully impress me. £4.5m was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but the raw attributes are there - once the Determination goes up that is!
  
• Franca - ST - Vukusic's replacement was lined up long ago, and Franca is an incredible prospect, let alone the £350k outlay. Should surpass everyone's favourite Croat.
  

And one future signing, for an initial £3m, rising to a potential £8m

• Gonzalo Villegas - AML/ST - Broke the bank to sign him (both wages and fee), but he looks incredibly talented. Just need the physicals to rise and he should be the Deep Lying Forward I've been after. Sadly, he doesn't arrive until January
  

[b101]

August 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Results:

Pre-season and the first few fixtures were seriously hampered by the Olympics, which always ruin my youth-friendly approach. We only had one striker available, with Marilia stepping up to play up front alongside Franca, whilst our centre backs were also hit. A 2-0 win over Genk was deserved, although it took a late tap-in from Franca and a drive from outside the area from Diallo to break them down. Then came the frustrations. Mechelen scored two poor goals from a penalty and a corner to deny us a deserved win after our Brazilian double act had put us 2-1 ahead. Then we managed to draw with Visé - another corner proving our downfall. Happily, with everyone back in the fold, we pumped Club Brugge 4-1 at their place in a spectacular performance before dominating newly promoted FC Brussels. Certainly improving, but not the perfect start I'd envisaged.

League Table:

Man of the Month:

The diminutive attacking mid may have been playing out of position but still scored the most this month with 5 in 5. Just looks incredible...

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

Finally, the Champions League draw took place towards the end of the month. With some big teams in the draw, I was expecting something tough. What I got was practically insurmountable...

Still, at least we get to welcome Boris back

[b101]

Just noticed Villegas' birthday. How annoying!

[DazRTaylor]

You are building a terrific squad, it has to be said.

[b101]

Cheers Daz - give them a few years and they'll be world-beaters! Shame they'll probably have moved on...

[AK22]

Probably couldn't have hand-picked a tougher group than that

[b101]

Nope, the next worst was Madrid, Dortmund and AEK Athens - at least I'd have had a chance at some points!

[deltablue]

Looks like you have a team that would have had a decent chance otherwise.

[b101]

September 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Results:

A simple win over Kortrijk opened this month, with replacement right mid Saglik finally breaking the deadlock. Franca then made things comfortable before they grabbed one back. We then faced Liverpool at home, with the return of Vukusic in his Reds debut. Guerra ensured that it wouldn't be a game for him to remember fondly however, sneaking in a cute finish to give us all three points! We were a bit leggy in the following league match as a result though, and could only struggle to a 1-1 draw with Gent. That all changed away at Oostende though, a fabulous first half performance paving the way for a 6-1 rout. A comfortable 2-0 win at Standard followed before a disappointing result in Lisbon. We weren't actually much worse from them, but they were utterly clinical - although Marilia made it 1-1 at one point, a needless penalty and a brace from Demba Ba sent us home with nothing.

League Table:

Champons League Group:

Man of the Month:

A hat-trick at Oostende and the fact that he's generally been outstanding in spite of only being half-fit means that this award can't go anywhere else this month.

[iHeadHunta x]

Going to be tough in Europe but still a good month!

[b101]

Cheers, the European group is certainly tricky! Just to get 3 points at all was my target going in so anything else is a bonus really!

[AcidBurn]

I think you're capable of getting a few more points with some luck.

[b101]

A sad day for Jozef:

To be fair, they've been on the brink almost exclusively since I left!

[b101]

October 2016 - Sporting Lokeren

Results:

We made hard work of Zulte, leaving it late before a rare Jenniker goal sealed the points. Sint-Truiden on the other hand, was a much more straightforward prospect, and 4-0 barely flattered us. We then faced Juventus at home, and hit the post after just four minutes. After eight, they were down to ten men after a lunge from Arturo Vidal. Sadly however, we couldn't make our numerical advantage tell, and they struck on the counter. A bit of a gutting result that one. We again struggled with a CL hangover, drawing 1-1 with a poor Cercle Brugge side before exiting the Cofidis Cup on penalties after injuries took us down to nine men. On the plus side, we ended the month with a rout of rock-bottom Mouscron. A good month, but could and should have been better.

League Table:

Champons League Group:

Man of the Month:

Diallo was excellent this month, scoring a screamer and a 50 yard chip (which was oddly accredited as an own goal). Still our main driving force.

[B.W.G]

Excellent as always domestically.Europe looks tough but that is definitely anyone's group,hope your able to get a top 2 spot.