The Rise of East-elona. Viitorul's Romanian experiment.

[D0bi]

I'm not entirely sure if this belongs in Updates or Stories, time will tell I suppose.

Full Disclosure: I have edited the database I am playing on to include the 4 Romanian Divisions, as well as adding in a few "rivalries" to my club to make the game more "immersive". I'll be updating this roughly every two in-game months, with larger updates around Pre-Season, NewGen day and Post-Season.

To begin, a bit of history is always a good start point. Viitorul Constanta are a Professional Football Club playing in Romania's Liga I. They were founded as recently as 2009 and have so far won two successive promotions from Liga III to Liga I. They were founded by renowned Romanian Gheorge Hagi as an academy side and as such, they possess the best youth facilities in Romania. For the purposes of this save they have 3 main rivals; FC Farul (Local), Steaua Bucuresti (Competitive) and finally ACS Berceni (Competitive). ACS Berceni battled Viitorul for the final promotion space for two years running, establishing themselves as rivals along the way.

The aim for this save:

To become the dominant Romanian side and eventually challenge in Europe, using mainly (only) homegrown players.

To achieve this aim there are some pretty stringent rules.

• Money cannot be paid for players over the age of 20 (Free Transfers only),
  
• No Foreigners, unless Romanian is a second nationality,
  
• Players over 30 can not play for the side [unless already at the club],
  
• There must be at least 3 academy players in the First XI at all times.
  

Without further ado, on to the story.

Gheorghe Popescu (Me!) was today unveiled as the new manager of Viitorul Constanta in Romania. Chairman, ex-Romanian International Gheorghe Hagi stated that this was part of his aim to bring success and a new identity to not just Constanta, but all of Romania. Popescu, who played with Hagi for the Romanian National side, is also Hagi's brother-in-law and became good friends with the chairman whilst playing together at Barcelona in the 1990's.

It is believed that both Hagi and Popescu both possess a vision for Viitorul to become Eastern Europe's answer to the Catalan giants, although only time will tell if they can convert this vision of "Mes que un club" in to reality. Thanks to the funding of Hagi, Viitorul already possess excellent facilities and now it will be Popescu's job to nurture the talented youngsters and bring in staff capable of realising their potential.

The Romanian leagues are admirable in that clubs are asked to have at least 5 players trained in Romania within their starting eleven, but Viitorul are hoping to take this one step further by naming an almost-exclusively homegrown team within a couple of years.

[DazRTaylor]

Sounds interesting. All the best with this.

[D0bi]

Sounds interesting. All the best with this.

Thanks a lot. So far it's looking like updates are going to be split between a news article giving a brief summary of the last two months, and then a more detailed update written in First-Person. I'm currently working through Pre-Season so there'll be an update out probably tonight/tomorrow.

[D0bi]

Gheorge Popescu has wasted no time in reshaping Viitorul's current set up. Popescu has began to instil a sense of Determination and Loyalty within the club by bringing in 4 new players who all seem very determined to succeed and he has done it without spending a penny. Viitorul have also parted company with Vlad Rusu, a young striker with potential who moves down a division to the richer, metropolitan team Corona Brasov for £26,000.

Reports are also coming through that Popescu has straight away attempted to bring the Viitorul players together, with the older players helping out and tutoring many of the youngsters, much like what is seen at Barcelona, with several youth players expected to make the step up in to the first-team this season. One of these, Mihai Balasa, has spoken of his admiration for the new boss and his link up with experienced Romanian Giani Kirita who has been brought in to lend experience to the younger members.

[/Quote]

So, as you can see from the report above I've immediately set about reshaping the team. Vlad Rusu looked like he could probably do a job at this level after a season or two, but he was on a relatively high wage and £26,000 will fund my new acquisitions wages for a few months. My coaches, in whom I have to put a lot of trust, simply didn't rate Naziru, who left on a free transfer, whilst Serban and Nikolov will hopefully progress well with lots of game time in the Third Division with Fortuna Brazi.

In terms of newcomers, Kirita is pretty much purely for tutoring purposes and due to his age will not feature if possible. Himcinschi has great potential as a striker but will require a lot of work whilst Cojoc is young enough at 23 to come in to my side but is also extremely determined and would make an excellent tutor to my young stars.

I realise that none of these players mean much to anyone at the moment, but soon they will!

[D0bi]

Today the Romanian season really kicks off in earnest. It was a mixed pre-season for Viitorul as they lined up against some tough opposition, but demonstrated their ability to find the net, scoring in every game. A close defeat to Cherno More of Bulgaria was followed up by a 4-0 win against Nesebar, also of Bulgaria. The opposition got considerably tougher after that however, as they surrendered to a 6-2 defeat by Spartak Moscow before gaining a respectable 1-1 draw with Levski Sofia.

But now the real work starts with Viitorul lining up against some of the toughest teams in the competition early on, will they be able to gain some early scalps, or will their season be defined by a harsh start to life in the top division?

[/Quote]

So as you can see we had a reasonable pre-season, we look like we can find the net easily enough, but defence is our problem. This is hardly surprising to me as our defence is made up of 3 Viitorul Youth products and its eldest player is just 21 years old. They look very raw but they definitely have potential and hopefully can rise to the occasion.

Our start to the season is genuinely horrific! Just look at this:

Just for some context, Dinamo Bucharest are expected to finish 5th, with Rapid not far ahead in 4th. I then welcome Vaslui (3rd) before facing reigning Champions (who are expected to win again) CFR Cluj. The only saving grace is that I don't face Steaua (predicted 2nd) until later in the season. Playing four of the top five is not a nice way to start the season and I could well end up bottom of the league with a horrific goal difference and a broken-hearted set of kids. This could be interesting.

[deltablue]

At least you'll get them over with earlier.

[D0bi]

At least you'll get them over with earlier.

That's very true!

Managed to rush through this season, and I'm performing brilliantly, so two quick updates to come.

It started brilliantly, we went 2-0 up against Dinamo Buc. and looked rosy until our youth showed itself with two late goals resulting in a 2-2 draw. What followed was slightly more expectable, as we succumbed to 3 defeats in a row against the very best in the division.

Results then started to pick up with a 3-2 win against relegation rivals FC Brasov (who spent over £600,000 in the transfer window) before a really spectacular game against Astra. We went 2-0 down quickly and we got battered all game. With 10 minutes to go I changed it up and went 2-1-3-4 and on overload mentality and it worked spectacularly, with three late goals coming in quick succession to give us the victory.

We then managed to scrape a 1-0 win the Romanian Cup against CS Tunari, although we lost in the following round 4-1 to second division side Damila after playing a very youthful side.

Back to the league and we managed yet another 3-2 win, helped by two really early goals to leave us sitting a couple of points above the relegation zone.