Barcelona'ing the way through the lower leagues part II - FM15 edition

[noikeee]

Only if the player has been at the club for 10 seasons...

Yeah that's a bit crap then.

If you're ever in trouble, always use the tried and tested "four four ****ing two".

I'm not a big fan of classic British 4-4-2, and am unlikely to ever use that. However, the tactic I ended up with isn't a million miles off that neither...

[noikeee]

About time I progress on something. Over the Summer a new board came in and took a loan that wiped out the debts - temporarily of course (we're leaking even more money now due to loan repayments). That situation allowed me to ask for a coaching qualification which they FINALLY granted, after 6 years of asking.

[noikeee]

2020/2021, Compostela

Transfers

I didn't really follow any particularly strict criteria this time, other than "try to hire as many quality players" as possible. It did take a lot of moves because I was changing my tactical setup and the squad needed to be adjusted accordingly... more on that later. Highlights of the signings were a trio of new centre-backs: Danish Mikkel Ravn, Serbian Milos Tanovic, and young Spaniard Francisco Javier Gallardo on loan; another hugely talented Spanish kid on loan named Miquel Maestro (winger/attacking midfielder); experienced Chilean winger Cristóbal Jorquera, and American/Dutch striker Kai Koreniuk. A curiosity is that I brought back Ángel García who I had hired a couple seasons ago and hadn't shown much - he looked a decent option for a backup on low wages.

Perhaps more important than all of that, was that I put very little resistance in selling our last season's best player Francesco Urso - I've learnt from the whole Misic saga 2 years ago there's not much point in trying to hold on to a severely unhappy player, and we made a fair bit of money, 550K is the most I've gotten for a player so far. A lot others went including former star Danilo Sousa Campos and centre-back Iago who had been with us for 6 seasons. Later in the season, I got a nasty surprise - 17 year old Dutch centre-back Daan van den Hoek who was progressing incredibly well was poached by Ajax by just 93K as that was his release clause, and he wouldn't discuss a new contract with me.

Copa del Rey

Let's do things a bit differently this time and split the talk by competitions - if my career progresses well, hopefully there'll be more competitions to talk about in the future...

We actually beat two teams in the Copa del Rey this year, which means we got the furthest yet. It wasn't really a "cup run" but still more than acceptable, particularly given we were knocked out by Osasuna who were a league above, and we hardly looked any worse than them.

Liga Adelante

After introducing a much more attacking formation which had looked extremely promising in the pre-season friendlies (not depicted here), I was hugely pumped up for the competitive fixtures. It no doubt made for an entertaining season. The first few months looked as if we were on the verge of greatness but not quite there yet - there were very few losses but too many draws. A playoff position was always within sight, but we couldn't hold on to it. Then a bit of a crash happened around December when we failed to win 4 times in a row. This dropped us to 11th and annoyingly the top 6 teams (playoff spots) were in epic form and picked up a distance from us.

I did some extra tactical tweaks and it worked! The second half of the season would be a long grind back up to the top, with slow progress, but the trend clearly was looking good for us as we won most matches. With 8 fixtures to go we were back into a playoff position and I even dreamt of automatic promotion (as the top 2 weren't far away). However then we wobbled a bit and ended up settling for 5th, qualifying mathematically for the playoffs with 1 match to go.

Given we had just had about 5 months of superb form, ending up with the best attack and the best goal difference in the league, I had reasons to be VERY optimistic into the playoff semi-final vs Elche. Unfortunately it just felt like it wasn't meant to be. The first match was even but two inspired moments from their forward Ismail Isa (a header and a long shot) made it a final score of 2-2. The second leg, away from home, was just plain bad luck - we had more chances, but our opponents simply scored 2 from long shots and another from a direct freekick, as we lost 3-1. What can you do against something like that?

What next?

I definitely feel like I've turned a corner and I'm much more confident for the future now. Surely it's a matter of time until we finally reach the top flight, and odds are it'll come next season.

That is, if my patience doesn't run out sooner. It's been 7 seasons of Compostela, 5 seasons of this league, and I've been having a look at many other clubs and places I could be managing in instead. My reputation has gone up quite a bit and I've even had my first job offer recently (rejected, I don't want to manage back home in Portugal at the moment). The original plan was to go up with Compostela and then move clubs after playing 1 season in the Spanish top flight, but I feel like I might leave at any moment now instead, as soon as something truly interesting comes up.

[noikeee]

Squad and tactics

This is such a revolution it needs a proper lengthy write-up.

You might recognize this setup. It looks suspiciously similar to Dafuge's all-conquering Canvey Island's tactics, doesn't it? Well that's because I rather unashamedly based my 4-4-2 wide diamond on it...

It's not the exact same, but the principles, the player roles, are very close. I did stubbornly insist on imprinting my own way by attempting to use one of my favourite FM roles ever - a "withdrawn inside forward" in the MR position (basically, a WM/S with "runs with ball more" and "cut inside"). It had been devastatingly successful back then in my FM12 days with JP Bertin for Torino, but this time it just seemed hugely ineffective as my players did very little with it. After some very stubborn 25 matches or so, I was forced to admit defeat and just go for 2 out-and-out wingers like Dafuge uses...

You might notice, however, I use "attacking" instead of his version which is on "control". I just wanted to get an attacking tactic to work as a recent thread on Tactics & Training Forum moaned it was too hard, so that prompted myself for a challenge to prove it wrong! I ultimately believe this plays out similar to Dafuge's, however, since I tone down the "attacking", at least when we have the ball, with team instructions. Here's the 9 TIs I'm using:

- Play Out Of Defence

- Whipped Crosses

- Exploit The Flanks

- Look For Overlap

- Close Down More

- Use Offside Trap

- Prevent GK Short Distribution

- Lower Tempo

- Be More Expressive

The idea is to keep some criteria with the ball, but fully embrace the risk and craziness without the ball by pressing like mad. That is indeed absolutely key to get it working. I once tried in a match to tell my DM/S to "hold position" and that was all it took for the whole tactic to fall apart dramatically - without my relentless bully in the midfield to press the opposition, they could just walk the ball much further into my very fragile defensive setup!

To be honest I find it a little bit borderline cheating to mimic someone else's setup like I'm doing. I always made my own tactics and this is maybe 20% my own at best. But hell, I've already endured 6 seasons of trying to make my way work, sometimes you need to accept defeat. More importantly, not only is this working better, it's A HELL OF A LOT OF FUN to watch. There's just a ton of chances around both nets. Anything can happen at any time. Player's goalscoring stats go crazy. I'm now hooked on FM again...

Just one more small nostalgia note - this isn't the first time I use a wide diamond. The FM12 days again, with Ajax...

Top 5 players of the season

5. Kai Koreniuk (ST) - I didn't expect much from him - I don't have a good experience with strikers with low determination. But hey, he looked a pretty good player otherwise. Surprisingly overtook all other candidates for the AF/A position and bagged 13 goals and 9 assists. However, his end of the season was a little disappointing as he finishes on a goal drought.

4. Milos Tanovic (DC) - Another guy that I was a little wary of, as when I signed him he had just 11 for jumping. Jumping used to be EVERYTHING in FM for a centre-back. Apparently not anymore - he just won his place in the team and asserted himself as a key man.

3. Mikkel Ravn (DC) - However the other centre-back was even better. 2 red cards in the first few matches hardly gave me a great first impression, but this guy really proved consistent over the year and I pretty much never benched him.

2. Damir Zlomislic (DM) - Few players benefited as much from the tactics change as he did - basically just proved to me I was wasting a whole 2 players by trying to shield him with 2 MCs. The role of relentless midfield bully, who can also play a bit, fits him like a glove. We had matches he put in over 20 tackles! It was almost insane to watch at times.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Luigi Falcone (ST, MR, AMC)

But this guy bloody well did benefit from the new system too. That, and the captain armband I gave him at the start of the season. From a slightly unconvicing inside forward last season, Luigi suddenly transformed himself into a beast of a goal machine, finishing as the league's top scorer on 24, plus also making 10 assists. Even more remarkable given that I didn't play him as my most advanced forward, but as my deep-lying forward; and sometimes even on the right wing, or as a AMC. Okay, the 6 penalties he took helped his numbers, but still - fantastic season.

[b]Season   League                      Cups                       International                   Player of the season        Notes
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Compostela (Spain)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
14/15    Segunda B1 - 3rd            ----                       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
15/16    Segunda B1 - 1st            Rey 1st Rnd/RFEF Prel Rnd  ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)         Champion, promoted
16/17    Liga Adelante - 9th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)      
17/18    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
18/19    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 3rd Rnd       ----                            Julio Pleguezuelo (DC)
19/20    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Francesco Urso (MC)
20/21    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Lost in promotion playoffs

[noikeee]

Ways out

Here are the leagues currently active, including the 3 new ones I'm adding, starting this Summer. Any guesses as to where I'll end up - if I do move?

I haven't decided anything yet - got a shortlist of clubs in 6 or 7 different nations, not all the exact same type of club but the themes don't vary too much. It has to be a real challenge, it has to be somewhere I haven't managed in a long time, and preferably a likeable club (whatever I consider likeable). I'd also really really like a "fallen giant" type of club. There's several specific fallen giant clubs I never got round to manage in, and always wanted to. Oh, and the club has to actually rate me enough to hire me, too...

[noikeee]

Luigi Falcone leaves

I'm gutted - this season he has continued to be by far our star player, with 12 goals, our next top scorer has just 5. Of course taking the penalty kicks helps his numbers, but we'll still miss him greatly. What happened is that he asked for a move and several clubs were interested. Him being my captain, I didn't want a repeat of what happened a couple seasons ago when our then captain Josip Misic asked for a tranfer, I refused, and I had a huge rebellion within the squad that ruined our season. So this time I promised to let Falcone go and then offered him out. Everyone came out with bids that matched his release clause of 675K€ and that was it. To be honest it's not a terrible deal in purely financial terms, it's a decent fee (the most I've got for a player so far), he's 29, and was on high wages.

As you might conclude I obviously stayed at Compostela for another season. I did apply for a job back then in the Summer (Kayserispor in Turkey) but the club appointed someone else, so I figured my reputation still isn't as high as I thought, and I'd started preparing the new season with Compostela anyway. It's going rather well - we're 2nd after 19 matches, which would grant us automatic promotion if we hold on to it, but there's extremely tough competition from the likes of Real Sociedad, Celta and Racing. Let's see if we're able to cope with the loss of Falcone, and finally grab promotion out of Liga Adelante and into one of the biggest leagues in the world of football.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Getting closer again.

[noikeee]

Getting closer again.

Yes, but Celta and Sociedad are getting closer and closer *to us* as the season goes on. I've been playing a lot of FM this weekend and am now 32 matches into the season and the situation is the following: we're 1st on 64 points, Celta 2nd on 63, Sociedad 3rd on 62. 1st and 2nd go up, 3rd plays the playoffs. It's going to be really tight and I'm a little pessimistic we won't be able to hold on...

Meanwhile, I've played against lots of random known faces over the years but this has to be one of the most surprising ones. Wtf is he doing here instead of MLS or Qatar or in a beach somewhere?

[Greyfriars Bobby]

I just discovered your thread and read through it, with much enjoyment. I've never tried managing in Spain; I might have to give it a try sometime soon.

I also noticed you use the same formation I'm giving a try: the 4-1-2-2-1. I'm still trying to find the right role for my striker, and I've always been hesitant to try the Complete Forward. As you mentioned earlier, it's hard to get past the notion that unless you have a generational talent, it's not a good role to try.

The players you've used there have all seemed a LOT better than anyone in my team, however. I'm managing a small English club, at Level 9, so there's nothing remotely close to a generational talent. Still, I might be able to use a guy with approximately the same "shape" to his "attribute polygon" as your Complete Forwards have, even if the "polygon" isn't as big.

Anyway...KUTGW.

[noikeee]

I don't know if playing a complete forward at that low a level is a good idea. Players at that level usually have completely unbalanced attributes, and you might be better off trying to exploit a player that has 15 for pace and is rubbish at everything else, than someone who has 7 or 8 for every attribute you need.

Also I've recently abandoned that formation for a wide 4-4-2 diamond as it just wasn't working anymore. But it can work, check out Higgins' thread with Eibar, he managed to get some extremely good results out of something similar, with a complete forward too.

Thanks!

[noikeee]

This could be it, our glory day - just don't bet on it. We have slipped and have let Sociedad and Celta take the 2 critical promotion places, and the final fixture is the toughest possibly imagineable, away at the division's biggest club and strongest team by far. However it is also a fixture that keeps our future in our own hands, if we win we're promoted. There's also an outside chance we could still go through with a draw, if Celta lose at Tenerife.

[noikeee]

2021/2022, Compostela

Transfers

The 2 transfer windows were marked by 2 big sales of the 2 most important players in our squad: bully midfielder Damir Zlomislic in the Summer, for 400K; and later captain and top goalscorer Luigi Falcone in January for 675K. These were huge losses that we couldn't avoid as the players wanted out and I didn't want to unsettle the dressing room. We also again managed to get good money for many other lesser players. This put the club's bank balance above zero for a while, which allowed me to take further a few more coaching badges up to Nacional A license.

The replacements for Zlomislic and Falcone were Rafa Gálvez (DM) and the ridiculously-tough-to-spell Bauyrzhan Islamkhan (AMC/ST) but they were both a little underwhelming, specially the later. Perhaps our best signing was Ivorian centre-back Ryan Bidounga, whilst young winger Andoni Garrido on loan from would-be promotion rivals Sociedad was also quite important.

Copa del Rey

We were happily moving through the rounds despite fielding the backups in every match, until we came across Getafe. That... didn't go well. Getafe did end up winning the competition, so it puts us in a slightly better light, I guess.

Liga Adelante

First, there were the happy Luigi Falcone days. After a little blip early on, we soldiered on under the command of our Italian captain and broke apart all records of consecutive wins and undefeated matches, powering to 1st in the table. There was another momentary bad run in November/December but when Luigi left us in January we were back up to 1st again. It looked as if promotion and maybe even the title were within our reach.

As he left, we, surprisingly, despite every single one of our forwards underperforming, held on! Or did we? It all started going a bit wrong at the end of February, when we went into a weird seesaw pattern of WIN-LOSS-WIN-LOSS-WIN-LOSS... with the losses coming at home and the wins away. Celta and Sociedad caught up with us and it was now a 3-way fight for 2 places. Then we lost to Celta and were left behind... only to recover with 3 straight wins. Unfortunately 2 of the toughest fixtures were left to the very end. We drew at Sporting and sparked the situation coming into the final fixture I explained in the previous post.

We were beaten pretty badly in the first half at Sociedad. They scored first and dominated the match. However Celta were losing to Tenerife which gave us hope - one goal for us would do. And it came! Centre-back Ryan Bidounga equalized for us in a set piece. We watched nervously, as Tenerife went 3-0 over Celta, knowing all we needed to do was to hold on to 1-1. Then in the 87th Sociedad's keeper had a massive blunder offering our winger Franck Junior Silinou the ball, who put us in front. I celebrated like an idiot in front of the laptop. Surely that was it? The win even gave us not just promotion but also the title.

Not so fast. Sociedad immediately equalised. To my dismay, Celta scored 2 in quick succession in the Canary Islands, and now another goal for either Sociedad or Celta in both matches would drop us back to 3rd. I watched in horror as Sociedad missed 2 sitters in injury time. Then came the final whistle. Then I checked the other result - it stayed 3-2 for Tenerife. We had just about scrapped through by the smallest of margins.

What next?

Well, this was tiring, and certainly one of the most nerve-wrecking promotion battles I've ever had in FM. After 6 long years of ups and downs we've finally climbed the last step of the ladder, and I've completed the Spanish Hero achievement on Steam (first time I ever get one of the "... Hero" achievements).

The board immediately announced the wage budget has jumped from 240K/month to 700K!! That is astonishing and absolutely tempting. However, I'm divided. My squad isn't that good and I'm a little scared of the massive jump in quality in the teams we're about to face. I've also been entertaining the thought of a move for a while and am always on the look for any new job openings. Maybe I'll see what can I set up with the new budget, and play a single top flight season for Compostela before moving.

The problem with Compostela is that despite the large stadium we're a tiny tiny club. We were still one of the least valuable clubs in the division, had one of the worst average attendances, and our tickets were laughably cheap, below even most teams in the Segunda B below. I expect a huge financial boost now with the promotion, but these are all very frustrating limits to my progress. Besides, I'm just craving for a new challenge.

[noikeee]

Squad and tactics

After the massive revolution of last season, this time... I sticked absolutely to the same. Hey, it's working.

Top 5 players of the season

5. Andoni Garrido (ML) - Looked pretty good in beginning of the season, but disappeared a little as it went on, an injury didn't help. 5 goals (despite laughable finishing skills!!) and 8 assists.

4. Ryan Bidounga (DC) - This new signing moaned he wanted a place, I tried him on, and... the guy he replaced (Mikkel Ravn) never came back.

3. Milos Tanovic (DC) - His average rating was 0.01 higher than his CB partner Bidounga.

2. Miquel Maestro (AMC, ML) - The best player from those that stayed and did the whole season. In the absence of Falcone he stepped up as the most influential attacking player, as the penalty taker, the set piece taker, and even sometimes captain. 11 goals, 15 assists, and it's gutting he's not really our player as Villarreal have got here an absolute gem for the future.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Luigi Falcone (ST)

Might've only played half of the season but just look at the difference in average rating to the next best player Maestro, and I really was forced to pick him. It's all the more ridiculous that he still ended up the season as top scorer on 12 goals. Yet to be replaced anywhere near convincingly.

[b]Season   League                      Cups                       International                   Player of the season        Notes
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Compostela (Spain)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
14/15    Segunda B1 - 3rd            ----                       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
15/16    Segunda B1 - 1st            Rey 1st Rnd/RFEF Prel Rnd  ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)         Champion, promoted
16/17    Liga Adelante - 9th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)      
17/18    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
18/19    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 3rd Rnd       ----                            Julio Pleguezuelo (DC)
19/20    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Francesco Urso (MC)
20/21    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Lost in promotion playoffs
21/22    Liga Adelante - 2nd         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Promoted

[dllu]

Well done! And Celta came so close to equalising towards the end - I wouldn't have been able to sit down for those final minutes...

Did they at least win the playoffs?

[noikeee]

They did! Beat Sporting on away goals in the final. It's a shame Deportivo got relegated, or we'd have 3 teams from Galicia in the top league next year.. all fighting not to go down.

[deltablue]

Good turnaround in the past couple of seasons.

[noikeee]

Good turnaround in the past couple of seasons.

Thanks.

Meanwhile, this is the only job offer I've got so far at the end of the season:

I'd love to go manage in Croatia, it's one of the most fun nations I've ever managed in and it's been a long time (haven't managed there since FM11!), but this is a little disappointing. Istra's got a wage budget pretty much on par with Compostela before the promotion (which has just been tripled), and have been jumping between 4th-6th in the Croatian league, even recently relegated for a single season. Yeah I can't really take that, and it's disappointing that my reputation matches me with this kind of clubs at the moment, I expected something slightly more competitive.

[noikeee]

Now this is a lot more interesting. Krasnodar don't have a tycoon but are absolutely swimming in money. A couple of their players are paid more than my entire wage budget last year. In fact, it's a little bit too much. This is a club at the peak of their history, they've been having some of their best seasons ever with even a 2nd place in the Russian league recently. Indeed, the only reason they even have an opening for a manager is because the previous guy just got poached to manage the Russian national team. I want to go somewhere where I can achieve something, not pick up midway from someone else's success. Also, I haven't enjoyed much the only time I ever managed in Russia before. Rejected.

[noikeee]

2022/2023, Compostela

Transfers

(Transfers)

People say you shouldn't hire too many new players at once as you risk unsettling your squad as it won't be gelled. That might be a factor, but we couldn't afford NOT to move a lot in the market. With a wage budget that had just been tripled, and a squad that I knew very well would be unable to survive in La Liga, there was no way I could afford to sit still. Instead, I hired... 19 players.

It was a total revolution, and we even spent actual transfer fees on players for the first time ever - Colombian striker Harold Villa became the first player I paid a fee for in this career, and eventually this turned out to be an absolutely fantastic decision. The most recognisable name from this whole bunch is probably veteran Brazilian DM Sandro of Tottenham fame, whilst many others would also claim heavy first team duties, namely: Danish GK Andreas Hansen, Belgian DR/DC Titouan Arnold, Tunisian DM Hamdi Amdouni (big prospect I picked up in January), Senegalese ML Doudou Mangni, 20 year-old German MR Samet Çamurdas, Belgian MR Rik Impens, German AMC Mete Balci, and Venezuelan AM/ST Darwin Machís.

Copa del Rey

Not a long run. I fielded a team of backups in the first leg, and a slightly rotated side for the second leg, and almost got away with it, but an inspired veteran Karim Benzema scored twice for Villarreal in the 2nd leg, turning the score around and knocking us out.

Liga Adelante

I was hugely concerned at the beginning, as I knew that was when the biggest risk existed of a non-gelled squad underperforming and tanking our morale, also we had an absurdly tough run of fixtures right in September, facing reigning champions Valencia, Real Madrid, Villarreal away, Barcelona, and tycoon-owned Sevilla. Once we survived that rather well (even taking points from Real), and won a couple of matches afterwards, I knew I'd be alright.

We entertained the tought of a top 10 finish for a while but then a long bad run over the Winter and early Spring killed any hopes of it and dragged us down. We were never really under threat of relegation, as even at our worst we still had a 7 points advantage over the teams in danger, and it made for a boring season of constant midtable mediocricity. In the last couple of months we picked up a handful of wins and started climbing the table, top 10 again looked seriously realistic, but we ended up settling for a still very positive 11th.

(Positions Graph)

What next?

I played this season rather quickly, not because I enjoyed it that much (unlike last season's absolutely thrilling promotion battle), but because I just wanted to get it over with, and started playing the matches on quicker settings. Despite the large amount of work I've done rebuilding the squad, making it much more competitive and very sustainable for the future with lots of long contracts on affordable wages and several young prospects, my heart and mind haven't been in Compostela for a while.

I spent the whole season declaring interest in several jobs I thought were interesting, but frustratingly wasn't approached by any club. Most clubs I declared interest in didn't consider me at all, but one particular club said they'd be thrilled to hire me but couldn't afford the compensation fee. This made me think renewing my contract at the beginning of the season was a mistake - made me less affordable. I decided to run out the season with Compostela then step up the job hunt, once that happened I directly applied for a couple of jobs. The Compostela board were unhappy and forced me with an ultimatum, so I decided to resign from my position, putting me on the market after 9 long and successful years at the club, in which we climbed from the 3rd tier to becoming the 11th most competitive force in the top Spanish league.

[noikeee]

Squad and tactics

This is an extremely attacking setup for a team that's one of the weakest in the league, but after 2 seasons of great results in the league below, I had to continue being faithful to it, and it paid off. We conceded a ton of goals but also scored enough to be competitive.

Top 5 players of the season

5. Doudou Mangni (ML) - A quality loan signing that scored 6 goals and made 9 assists from the wing.

4. Milos Tanovic (DC, DR) - This was a weird season for centre-backs. We shipped so many goals that the players occasionally had awful matches and runs of form, and I also had two great alternatives to the usual duo in Titouan Arnold and Francisco Javier Gallardo, so I ended up rotating CBs a lot. Yet, they were also some of the players that had the best ratings in the team.

3. Ryan Bidounga (DC) - To further make this point, Bidounga played even less than Tanovic yet ended up with the highest average rating in the whole squad.

2. Darwin Machís (ST, AMC) - Another fantastic loan signing of an experienced player, this Venezuelan guy was a little disappointing when I played him as AMC but excelled as a deep-lying forward, forming a brilliant understanding with Villa, scoring 15 goals and putting 9 assists.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Harold Villa (ST)

In pre-season I switched around the 4 new signings Villa, Machís, Jonathas and Bishop as strikers, as they all looked equally good in theory, yet as the matches started, I quickly realized one name of this lot was absolutely undroppable and a level above everyone else. Harold Villa became our one main source of goals, and fought for the league's top scorer award up until the end. There was no way he could beat Neymar who played in a superb Barça side managed by one of the all-time greats Brendan Rodgers (I'm not making this up), but still finished third in that prize, with an excellent 24 goals.

[b]Season   League                      Cups                       International                   Player of the season        Notes
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Compostela (Spain)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
14/15    Segunda B1 - 3rd            ----                       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
15/16    Segunda B1 - 1st            Rey 1st Rnd/RFEF Prel Rnd  ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)         Champion, promoted
16/17    Liga Adelante - 9th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)      
17/18    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
18/19    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 3rd Rnd       ----                            Julio Pleguezuelo (DC)
19/20    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Francesco Urso (MC)
20/21    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Lost in promotion playoffs
21/22    Liga Adelante - 2nd         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Promoted
22/23    La Liga - 11th              Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Harold Villa (ST)

[noikeee]

Chapter 2 - The Star of Anatolia

Saturday, 17th of June of 2023, Kayseri, Turkey

Welcome to the industrial city of Kayseri in Central Anatolia, Turkey, where I have just been appointed as the new Kayserispor manager, after negotiations over the last couple of weeks with a few different clubs.

This club doesn't have quite the exact profile of what I'm looking for, yet it definitely seems interesting enough. My main preference was managing a club that had a long history and wanted to be revived to its better days and further beyond, instead Kayserispor is a club whose recent history is the brightest. Founded first for all purposes as late as 1966 (I'm not going to bore you with the details of the various different forms and names the club has taken over since), as far as I can tell they only reached the top level of Turkish football for the first time in 2004, and their most competitive ever season has been as recent as 2021/2022, two years ago, when they finished 4th. However a drop to 10th this season that just finished, ended up costing previous manager Metin Diyadin his job. Kayserispor has also won the Turkish Cup in 2008 and reached the final in 2020. Its European adventures have been modest, never going past the Europa League Group Stage or the 1st round of the UEFA Cup in its previous format.

Financially-wise this is a strong club, with a 4M€ transfer budget and a 1.27M€/month wage budget being almost identical to what I was being offered for the next season in Compostela, this club has got a little more money in the bank too. The downside is that obviously the Turkish league isn't as competitive as the Spanish league, the upside is that they have much better facilities than Compostela, with a 32864-seater stadium built as recently as 2009, "good training facilities", "good youth facilities" and "above average youth recruitment". This is one of the reasons I decided to sign for Kayserispor, the other is that I was just excited to manage in Turkey, as I've never managed a Turkish club before. Turkey was definitely right at the top of my list of leagues I wanted to manage in. The recent rule changes mean you can now have a whole 14 foreign players in the squad, which should make it comfortable to dabble in the transfer market, whilst still giving you a minor challenge of having to fill in almost half of the squad with Turkish players. This sounds good.

Squad

I'm yet to know my team particularly well, but the following players appear to be my stars:

Erick Torres (ST) - This Mexican veteran appears to have just had a superb season with a total of 30 goals scored, winning him the top scorer award in the Turkish league. We might be overreliant on him - despite a player performing as well as he did, Kayserispor still finished 10th, remember.

Falcão (DC) - Excellent teenager centre-back on loan from Benfica, I'll try my best to renew his loan but the signs aren't very positive I'll be able to do it right now.

Lebogang Makhoba (ST) - I'm pretty sure I also had a star South African regen forward named Makhoba back in my FM11 days managing Olimpija Osijek from Croatia, anyway this guy looks to have pretty good skills but isn't using them to his best with some crap ratings - let's see if I can get more out of him than the previous manager.

One of the most exciting things about this club is the youngsters and these guys stand out at the moment: Saffet Aydemir (DM), Gökhan Gürel (AMC /ST), Nurullah Sengül (AMC / MC). As a comparison, and to explain why I never posted about youth intakes in Compostela, this is the best youth product I ever had in my previous 9 years: Gael (DC) ...

Goals

I'm still in a transitional period as the previous season ends so the board hasn't told me yet what they want to acheive for the next one. I presume 10th isn't good enough, so I'm aiming possibly at an European qualification place, or at least fighting for one. Short-term I want to sort out my squad, it's not terrible but a little on the old side, indeed one of the philosophies the board ask me for was to "sign young players", I've little doubt I'll be able to accomplish that.

On the long-term, ultimately the goal is to break into the top 4, currently occupied by the 4 biggest clubs in Turkey: Galatasaray, Besiktas, Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor. I want to take this club higher than it's ever been before and that means bettering the 4th place of 2 years ago, and going past the Europa League group stage, once (if) we return to European competitions.

[nie jem frytek]

See you leaving must have been very sad day for Compostela supporters.

[noikeee]

See you leaving must have been very sad day for Compostela supporters.

I guess, yeah. I'm the one that doesn't sympathize much with them - bunch of gloryhunters, that lot.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Very good season in La Liga.

And a nice looking stadium in Kayseri.

[deltablue]

Great work in Spain.

[noikeee]

Very good season in La Liga.

And a nice looking stadium in Kayseri.

Great work in Spain.

Thanks.

Something very strange is happening in the new season in Turkey:

... this isn't even our biggest win so far.

[oneronaldo]

Well thats a change, considering your difficulties in getting Compostela to score, or retaining your main goalscorers:D:applause:

[deltablue]

Looks like you're having plenty of fun

[Nobby_McDonald]

10-0 isn't even your biggest win? Bloody hell!

[noikeee]

Well thats a change, considering your difficulties in getting Compostela to score, or retaining your main goalscorers:D:applause:

I haven't had problems scoring for almost 3 years since I changed tactics. However, despite using the exact same instructions, the way my Kayserispor team interprets my current tactics is VERY different from the way the Compostela players did...

Looks like you're having plenty of fun

Absolutely.

10-0 isn't even your biggest win? Bloody hell!

I was being a bit cheeky there - the 10-0 wasn't our biggest win, but it was definitely, by a long way, our best win. The backstory on that is pretty funny, more shall be explained when I finish the season and write the full report.

[oneronaldo]

I suppose Keegan-ball maybe translates better into Turkish than Spanish?

[noikeee]

2023/2024, Kayserispor

Transfers

(Transfers)

The Summer transfer window was marked by a bit of a mess - our star forward Erick Torres wanted out, and I first refused, angering a few players that sided with him. Eventually I caved and sold him for 4M€... annoying another set of players. Thankfully captain Erik Sabo wasn't too bothered by the saga, which I think was a key factor in the whole thing not escalating into a mutiny. It was still a massive gamble, as he had scored tons of goals last year. Later, Erik Sabo himself left too as he wanted more first team football and I didn't rate him particularly high. The other big sale was forward Lebogang Makhoba who proved underwhelming and went for 1,9M€.

A large amount of the Torres transfer went into a 22 year old Dutch AMC named Hennie van Oeveren - becoming my most expensive signing of my career yet at 3,8M€. That proved a bit of a waste as after a strong start to the season his performances dipped badly. The direct replacement for Torres was a big bargain however - Bulgarian striker Stoyan Nedkov arrived from Holland too, but for a mere 375K€ and proved a massive success. Ecuatorian left-back Jimmy Vallejo was another great signing; whilst I also invested a considerable amount of money in some Turkish players that weren't good enough to be starters in theory, but filled in the quota of Turkish guys. Finally, it's worth mentioning the loan transfer of right-winger Eduardo San Miguel, from parent club Athletic, who shone brightly all year long; and Chilean Joel Rivera who became a direct competitor to van Oeveren at AMC and an alternative for the ML position.

Super League

It didn't take long for me to realize that my new bunch of players clicked fantastically well with my tactics. The combination of high morale from pre-season (I always set up friendlies against crap teams so we can score a lot and make the players happy), a more talented squad than my Compostela side, and weaker opponents in the Turkish league than in the Spanish league, clearly made for more success instantly. We shot up to first place immediately with 5 straight wins, and whilst we also suffered some random shock defeats that came without warning and ruined the pattern of us being unstoppable otherwise, an incredible result happened in early November that convinced me this team was the real deal - the utterly unbelievable 10-0 thrashing of Kasimpasa.

This was a very weird league though, and not just because of our performances - Balikesirspor were just as much surprise title contenders as we were and ran us close for the earlier stages of the season; whilst the big 3 Besiktas, Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe underperformed all year long; and the 4th biggest club Trabzonspor were so bad they ended up relegated. Speaking of weirdness, the calendar scheduled matches against the big 3 in 3 consecutive fixtures. This marked our first bad run, which ended by reliquishing first place to another surprise side, Mersin I.Y., as they beat us.

That didn't last. We went on an amazing run of 10 undefeated matches right after that, and opened up a considerable advantage over everyone else. Rizespor (yet another surprise) were now the closest challengers, and when we lost against them, it cut our lead from 8 to 5 points IIRC... but Rizespor fell apart in the final fixtures. Finally the big clubs came charging and it was Galatasaray who now went after us, but it was too late. We needed only one point from the final 3 fixtures against the big 3, and got that done soon enough with a draw at Besiktas. KAYSERISPOR ARE TURKISH CHAMPIONS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR HISTORY!!!

(Positions Graph)

Türkiye Kupasi

As if the league wasn't weird enough, the first cup match topped all bizarreness charts. There was already a huge gap in talent between ourselves and poor lower league Adiyamanspor, but there was a bug in the game and they showed up with just 9 men on the pitch. FM indicates 2 of their players were substituted in the 1st minute, but nobody came on from their bench to replace them. It sparked a totally farcical scoreline of 15-0, with 13 goals coming before half time.

Then the cup... has a group stage. We nearly bottled it there with some crap results as I fielded a backup team, but still qualified in second place behind Mersin, who were the league leaders then... after beating them in the final dead rubber 6-0 away. It wasn't the last memorable hammering of our cup run - a frankly unbelievable 5-0 thrashing of Besiktas followed, away from home again.

We unconvincingly barged past Balikesirspor in the quarters, setting up a difficult semi-final against Galatasaray. We scrapped a lucky draw away, and then again had more accuracy than their strikers in the return match, beating them 4-1 which put us in the final. I just had to smile when I knew when the final opponents were - Kasimpasa, who we had trounced 10-0 in the league. Predictably, we beat them 3-0 in the final, and KAYSERISPOR WIN THE DOUBLE!! This was also only the 2nd cup in the club's history, 16 years after the last, and only the 3rd ever time we played in the final.

What next?

Well, this wasn't on the program. It was a shocking season that was tons of fun to play, but now I've already achieved almost every long-term goal I wanted at the club, in only my first season, so I don't really know what happens from here. I'm leaning towards staying for a while, as I'm enjoying this, and there's also the added bonus of having a few gem homegrown players I want to see how much further can I develop them. But all doors are open and I've just had a huge reputation boost personally, so I expect to see job offers.

For now, attention turns to settling this club as a big one in Turkey, by attempting to renew our title; and also trying to have a good run in Europe as I'll have my first go at the continental competitions in this career.

[noikeee]

Squad and tactics

Nothing new, same setup as in Compostela... much better interpreted by this squad, however! I think it's the highly ambitious personality of all my current players that leads them to never stop wanting to score more goals, when we're already winning comfortably. It's a bit all-or-nothing though, we always either seem to annihilate the opposition or have a bad day.

Youth intake

We have a good academy and this year's bunch sparked this guy - Artun Han (AMC / MC). Not a giant prospect but might be useful.

What I'm hugely excited about, is the progress of 16 years old DM Saffet Aydemir who I gave a considerable amount of playing time this season. He developed immensely, scored 3 goals (awesome for a DM!), and is by far the biggest player we've got for the future. However he's a bit cocky - earlier in the season he was already complaining he needed first team football!!

Top 5 players of the season

5. Ahmet Yilmazgil (ST) - Started the season as 6th choice striker (!!), but then Sanocki got injured, Makhoba and Acosta underperformed, Arboleda wasn't anything special neither, and I started giving him a go in the cup as the cup has tighter restrictions for foreign players. He ended up absolutely tearing everyone apart in the cup scoring a ridiculous 13 goals in 11 appearances. In the league he struggled to score and strangely made a lot of assists instead.

4. Falcão (DC) - Our goalscoring numbers raises eyebrows, but behind the madness we quietly had a solid defence and the kid on loan from Benfica personified this. I did manage to hang on for him for this season, but sadly Benfica asks for too much money for next year now. We'll miss him and will be watching his certain rise to world class status closely.

3. Stoyan Nedkov (ST) - I was already following him at Compostela but was a little unconvinced, when we were out of a striker now in the early season I reckoned 375K€ was worth a punt. It was a good call as Nedkov excelled both as advanced forward and DLF, becoming our top scorer on 28 goals and also making 19 assists. Great year, the only thing missing was a tiny bit more consistency as he stopped scoring for a while in mid-season.

2. Eduardo San Miguel (MR) - Another hugely successful signing, albeit not permanent, but one we already have secured for next season again as parent club Athletic agreed to let us keep him for another year. The coaches tell me he's inconsistent, but quite frankly I never noticed that as performed the whole season, 16 goals and 14 assists being great numbers for a winger.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Orkan Çinar (ML)

I feel a large share of this season's success was about the wingers and the guy on the left contributed with even more goals (17) and assists (23) than the guy on the right. Orkan was extraordinary in the earlier part of the season, I think he had 15 assists by November or something silly like that, and ended up with some truly extreme numbers. I don't think I'll regret giving him the large wages he recently asked for in a new contract.

[b]Season   League                      Cups                       International                   Player of the season        Notes
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Compostela (Spain)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
14/15    Segunda B1 - 3rd            ----                       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
15/16    Segunda B1 - 1st            Rey 1st Rnd/RFEF Prel Rnd  ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)         Champion, promoted
16/17    Liga Adelante - 9th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)      
17/18    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
18/19    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 3rd Rnd       ----                            Julio Pleguezuelo (DC)
19/20    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Francesco Urso (MC)
20/21    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Lost in promotion playoffs
21/22    Liga Adelante - 2nd         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Promoted
22/23    La Liga - 11th              Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Harold Villa (ST)
[b]*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Kayserispor (Turkey)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
23/24    Super League - 1st          Türkiye Kupasi winners     ----                            Orkan Çinar (ML)            Champions, won the double

[Nobby_McDonald]

Very well done Noikee.

[deltablue]

That was quite a surprise!

[noikeee]

Very well done Noikee.

That was quite a surprise!

Thank you.

I'm posting only yearly updates by default, but here's a quick one on how the new season's going by mid December:

- I find players in this version of the game (FM15) are difficult to handle, which is a pain in the arse but realistic to an extent I suppose. This year's problem was young Turkish centre-back Malik Söyüncü, who was a fantastic signing for 900K€ last year as he's now developed into a brilliant player and a key starter, somewhat unexpectedly. He got the attention of a few clubs, asked for a transfer, I promised I'd let him go when a bid would come but didn't expect them to come immediately in the same day. I rejected them which was a big mistake as half the squad got unhappy. To fix the situation, I offered him out for his release clause (5M€), which a few clubs were willing to pay, and he chose to join our title rivals Fenerbahçe in next January. The players haven't forgiven me yet but I hope the issue will be resolved once the transfer is done.

- The league is nothing like last season, with Besiktas, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray fighting for the title and few upsets. We have had our attention divided with the Champions League and the squad harmony arguments, and are merely 3rd after 12 matches, 7 points behind an impressively consistent Besiktas (although they have a game in hand). The board are strangely demanding as they expect us to qualify for the Champions League again which means we need to finish at least 2nd, if we're to meet that.

- While the league hasn't been going great and the atmosphere in the dressing room is a little tense, there's been one extremely positive news to report: we somehow sneaked out of a difficult Champions League group!

Highlight was the last day shock home win over Arsenal 3-1, Arsenal have got an excellent squad featuring a Scottish striker named Eddie Miller that seems Messi/Ronaldo level. We now await the draw for the round of 16, our opponents will be one of: Roma, Man City, Benfica, Liverpool, Sevilla, Werder Bremen and Inter.

[noikeee]

I've been getting job offers all season long, but the type of clubs has just gone up a notch with some seriously tempting offers. I rejected Tottenham's as I once managed them and didn't enjoy it much; but Lyon is an interesting one - they've got an amazing youth setup, a regen that is one of the best forwards in the world, and I'd love to win the French league as that's something I've never done. It's not an "easy" out neither as they've got some debt at the moment, with a big negative balance of 29M€. This is still March and I'm currently fighting to win all the Turkish competitions, if I manage to convince Lyon to sign me only at the end of the season then that might just be the right move for me...

I'm still enjoying Kayserispor and have one more year of contract, but when I first signed for them my long-term goals were to win the league and to go past the Champions League group stage - I've already achieved all of that. There is the entertaining challenge of seeing how much further can I get some of my current youth players to develop; and I suppose I could try to stay here on the long-term to make Kayserispor a true force in Europe (but I'd rather do that elsewhere tbh), so it's really 50/50 on moving or staying here for a while longer.

[shantebellum]

Absolutely smashing it with Kayserispor, great results! I would also try and see whether Lyon would be willing to appoint you at the end of the season, as I'd like to see how far you manage to go with Kayseri in the Champions League No reason to stay more than until the end of the season though, if you think you've already achieved your goals and rather see yourself somewhere else. Great stuff!

[noikeee]

Huh, this is very interesting too... How about trying to win the first Champions League by an Eastern European club (in the modern era)? Shakhtar certainly are one of the best positioned clubs to try that. Downside is that there's very little internal competition as Shakhtar are on course for 9 consecutive Ukranian titles at the moment. The only reason the job opened up is that the previous manager went to Tottenham!

[noikeee]

Absolutely smashing it with Kayserispor, great results! I would also try and see whether Lyon would be willing to appoint you at the end of the season, as I'd like to see how far you manage to go with Kayseri in the Champions League No reason to stay more than until the end of the season though, if you think you've already achieved your goals and rather see yourself somewhere else. Great stuff!

I've managed to get Lyon in the bag at the end of the season if I want to. But, I still might not take it. I agreed to something in the job interview that might give me a lot of trouble later on, and I'm having second thoughts now. Might end up at Shakhtar instead or even stay in Turkey!

[nie jem frytek]

I would go to Lyon. I've managed there once and it was the only time I've won Champions League in FM.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Go to Lyon. It's not far to go skiing in the Alps.

[noikeee]

The Lyon chairman wants me to "guarantee squad harmony". I've been having problems with that every other season for my whole career. I really don't want to end up sacked for some stupid crap that has nothing to do with results...

[DavidBeckham]

So you're heading to Ukraine then?

It is certainly harder to maintain squad harmony on this version

[noikeee]

So you're heading to Ukraine then?

It is certainly harder to maintain squad harmony on this version

Maybe.....

[noikeee]

2023/2024, Kayserispor

Transfers

(Transfers) (1)

(Transfers) (2)

Such transfers, much wow.

When the transfers don't fit in a single screen, that means there's been quite a bit of wheeling and dealing. To be fair that's only really because I released on a free like 20 kids, and another 20 were sent on loan by the Head of Youth Development (who also decided on his own to sign and even BUY a couple of kids, btw), but still.

We had accumulated plenty of prize money last year so went on to splash it. First signing (and most expensive) was AMC Süleyman Sahin who had been the brightest star in Rizespor's wonderful campaign last season. He replaced Hennie van Oeveren who was offloaded to Sochaux... and turned out to be every big as average as that Dutch kid, sadly. He was not the only guy we spent a lot of money on - young French goalie Jacques Mbarga, defensive midfielder Burhan Sen (a test to see if Turkish second nationality counts as not-foreign - sadly not) and Brazilian wonderstriker Claudinei all arrived for considerable sums. But our best signing was undoubtedly a freebie - Belgian centre-back Alec Dierckx proved a great player.

Fast forward to January and with the whole saga of Malik Söyüncü's 5M€ transfer to Fenerbahçe, we had more cash to spend. Fellow Turkishman Sertan Berker was the direct replacement, whereas the sales of squad players José Carlos (DC, DM) and Marcel Tissot (ST) opened up another two spots that I filled in with Eurico Nicolau and Mauro Velázco.

TFF Super Cup

An eventful match to kickstart the season. I thought we were up against easy opposition, as Kasimpasa are the club we famously beat 10-0 last year, but they equalized the match twice until we finally got the winner with 15 minutes to go. KAYSERISPOR WIN THE TURKISH SUPER CUP FOR THE FIRST TIME!

Super League

A much tougher league campaign that it may seem from glancing at the fixtures. Yes, it's true we only lost 3 matches. However we had much better opposition than last year when all the big 3 clubs seemed intent on comically underacheiving - this time they were all on it. Also, from the very beginning it was clear we had lost the joy in our football as we no longer benefitted from last season's status of underdogs. We had a lot more pressure resting on our shoulders and nobody gave us space to play in. We were particularly unconvincing the first few weeks, and got further troubled by the whole Malik Söyüncü transfer saga which sank the squad harmony slider to its lowest setting. Yet we were hardly ever far from the top, never dropping lower than 5th and always just a couple of points behind.

We kept on doing our thing - winning most matches and occasionally drawing one here and there. We kept on climbing the table until we finally hit 1st place for the first time at the peak of our season, a great run in February/March in which we beat Galatasaray 5-1 and Fenerbahçe 4-0. We'd never look back. There was a feeling of limping through the run of matches that remained, we certainly never reached the wild heights of last year's 10-0 wins. But we reached the real decider match vs Besiktas, our closest challengers, with a points advantage, and further increased it with a 3-0 win. The following match vs Göztepe confirmed us as champions, and we still had another chance in hand vs Rizespor in the final fixture if necessary. KAYSERISPOR RETAIN THE TURKISH TITLE!

(Positions Graph)

Türkiye Kupasi

There was not much of a story in the group stage - we just won everything quietly with all the backups in the pitch. Again there was hardly any resemblance to the wild days of beating lower league sides 15-0, but the wins counted the same. The next two rounds vs Gaziantepspor and Istanbulspor kept the same vibe.

This put us in a semi-final vs Fenerbahçe, our first genuinely difficult opponents. The first leg didn't go well as we had a good result of 2-2 in our hands but then they took their chances and scored another 2 in the final 15 minutes. I was skeptical we'd be able to turn it around in the second leg, but to our delight we scored twice in the first half and were ahead on away goals. Fenerbahçe scored just before half-time, however, that seemed to kill my players' belief and a disappointing 2nd half without goals knocked us out.

UEFA Champions League

Most of it I've covered already in that quick midseason report. We started with two defeats, but hardly disgraced ourselves just conceding two goals. A surprise win in Glasgow and another 2 draws kept us somehow in contention... if everything would go our way the final match vs Arsenal. Absurdly, it did. Arsenal's world class players didn't show up, we sensationally beat them 3-1, and in the other match Celtic beat Monaco in a thrilling 3-2 with a 82nd minute goal - and a draw there wouldn't have been enough for us.

Our luck ran out when we knew the next stage opponents: reigning European champions Man City, who have also won it in 2021 and 2020; and would make it to the final again (at the time of writing yet to be played, vs Juventus). We had a decent showing in the first leg managing to "only" lose by 1; but the returning fixture was a catastrophy. Ponce, Aboubakar, Volland comfortably controlled the match and scored 5 just in the first half alone. A final result of 6-1, aggregate of 8-2, wasn't a very pretty way to finish our European adventure.

What next?

I retain a slight hint of regret for having been unable to return this team to its glorious attacking play of last season; and for the mildly humiliating way the Champions League run ended. However this was still another season of overacheivement, even in the national competitions alone, the board and the media might've been far more demanding than last year, yet they only expected us to finish 2nd/3rd.

After all, in my 2 years in Turkey, I have won the club's first ever two national league titles, the club's first ever Turkish Super Cup, the 2nd ever Turkish Cup, and the first ever Champions League presence with even a brief escape into the knockout rounds. We've grown both in status and wealth to be right next in line to Galatasaray, Besiktas and Fenerbahçe. The job is done.

[noikeee]

Squad and tactics

Same as ever. To my surprise, however, despite the usual hugely attacking setup, this season we seemed far more impressive defensively than going forward!

Youth watch

This year's youth intake was quite a nice bunch. There's no outstanding player but plenty of potentially useful guys:

Haluk Akkaya (DC / DR)

Engin Yüksel (GK)

Sahin Nayernazli (MC / AMC)

Eren Erulas (DL)

Önder Demirel (MR / ML)

Hüseyin Metin (GK)

Meanwhile Saffet Aydemir continued his progression as our regular 2nd choice DM; whereas this year I started introducing Gökhan Gürel upfront too, and to my delight he delivered some great performances, specially in the cup, scoring a total of 9 goals, getting 4 assists. He improved his skills immensely as the season went on.

Top 5 players of the season

5. Mauro Velázco (ST) - This January signing made an odd habit of playing badly yet scoring lots of goals - I'm okay with that! Scored almost as many (15) as Claudinei and Nedkov who were here all season long.

4. Joel Rivera (ML, AMC) - A strange case of not impressing much for about a whole year (he arrived in January last season) then only really exploding the last few matches of the season, where he hit an amazing run of form. Benefitted from the also odd disappearance of my last year's of player of the season Orkan Çinar, whose performances had dropped from amazing to just about alright. 10 goals and 16 assists for Joel.

3. Stoyan Nedkov (ST) - Scored less than last year, but continues to be an important part of our setup, and like Joel Rivera also showed up when needed in the decisive run at the end. 19 goals and 10 assists.

2. Alec Dierckx (DC) - I already suspected he was better than the 3 stars my scouts and coaches rated him, now everyone thinks he's great. Had some incredible performances in the Champions League, and has the highest average rating of my whole squad. He became the perfect replacement of previous centre-back Falcão who we couldn't hold on to.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Eduardo San Miguel (MR)

My coaches are right, he's inconsistent. His performances are very on-off-on-off. Thing is, if you repeat that pattern all year long, that's a lot of matches he'll be "on". With a total of 23 assists he equaled Çinar's impressive record of last season; and also disguised our strikers' poor performances a lot of times with 11 goals. Will be missed in Turkey as he's about to return to Athletic.

[b]Season   League                      Cups                       International                   Player of the season        Notes
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Compostela (Spain)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
14/15    Segunda B1 - 3rd            ----                       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
15/16    Segunda B1 - 1st            Rey 1st Rnd/RFEF Prel Rnd  ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)         Champion, promoted
16/17    Liga Adelante - 9th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)      
17/18    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
18/19    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 3rd Rnd       ----                            Julio Pleguezuelo (DC)
19/20    Liga Adelante - 13th        Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd       ----                            Francesco Urso (MC)
20/21    Liga Adelante - 5th         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Lost in promotion playoffs
21/22    Liga Adelante - 2nd         Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Promoted
22/23    La Liga - 11th              Copa del Rey 4th Rnd       ----                            Harold Villa (ST)
[b]*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Kayserispor (Turkey)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
23/24    Super League - 1st          Türkiye Kupasi winners     ----                            Orkan Çinar (ML)            Champions, won the double
24/25    Super League - 1st          T. Kup. 1/2f, TSC winners  Champions League 1st KO rnd     Eduardo San Miguel (MR)     Retained the title

[noikeee]

What the hell happened here!!! I've never seen a Champions League final like this!!!

[deltablue]

Best CL final ever!

[noikeee]

Chapter 3 - Thrown to the Lions

Wednesday, 25th of June of 2025, Lyon, France

Surprised? After much indecision, and some new job offers (even Real Madrid approached me at the end of the season!! I was also mildly tempted by an offer by Panathinaikos), I ended up reverting to my original plan and taking over Olympique Lyonnais. As for Shakhtar, I had a particular plan I wanted to implement there, but after some consideration I realized it would take too long and wouldn't have been that much fun. Maybe some other time. Anyway, I had already kept Lyon in waiting until the end of the season, and didn't want to be the dick that left them without a manager for months only to say no.

That's a shot of Lyon the city, and a mockup of the 58000-capacity Stade des Lumières, which was built for Euro 2016.

It's easy to understate just how big of a leap this is in my career. Lyon are not quite the happy plucky club you know in real life, they've grown a fair bit since. They're hardly the all-conquering beast (at national level, at least) of the 2000s; but they're right behind PSG and Monaco who have both emerged as giant superclubs. It's hard to explain what has prompted this increasure in status as the results don't fully match up, with a single title in the last 10 years, in 2019; and only twice having gone past the Group Stage in the Champions League in the same period, both times falling in the knockout stage. But they do have some incredible players, truly world class, indeed one of them narrowly missed out on the Ballon d'Or recently. I think it's the profile of their players that has boosted Lyon this much; nevertheless they still come on the back of a relatively positive season - even after firing their manager mid-season in wait for me - in which they finished 2nd, 3 points behind Monaco who have won the Ligue 1 the last 3 years.

One thing stands out from their club profile: money. They're absolutely swimming in it, with a bank balance of 70M€!! Weirdly, this was not the case at all when I agreed to sign for them a few months ago, as they had a negative balance of -29M€. The answer probably lies with the fact a new board has taken over the club this month, I presume they've invested a ton of cash. This also effectively means I was hired by a board that isn't here anymore, which I'm not sure is a problem or changes anything, as I'm still judged on the same philosophies I had agreed to: keep squad harmony, and play youth players. I could do with better transfer and wage budgets though, they seem to still be the same as when the club had financial problems...

Squad

I've been given a wildly unbalanced squad with a lot of old, underwhelming players on high wages, a lot of promising talents, and a small bunch of star players that are... absolutely amazing. Here's who I see as my best players:

Igor (ST / AMLC) - This guy is just insane. Has scored 150 goals in 226 appearances for the club, had an average rating of 7,84 last year, is valued at 51M€, came 3rd in the Ballon d'Or two years ago, and at the age of 25 is already a club "legend". I can only presume he's going to feature heavily in my plans... in fact he's a large part of why I ended up signing for Lyon, I want to manage a superplayer like this!

Olivier Lievens (M/AMR) - Almost as good as Igor, Olivier is the other big beast of a player we've got in our squad. However, I've got quite a bit of a problem brewing here, as both Real and Barcelona are after him and he wants to leave. With the board philosophy of "keep squad harmony" I cannot afford to try too hard to retain him at the club. I might well just try to squeeze as much money out of Real/Barça as I can and let him go. Thankfully we've already got a good backup in the squad in Bruma, although he's 30 years old.

Alexis Blin (DM / D/MC) - "Tenacious defensive midfielder". This guy looks like an excellent well-rounded player that can do the job both at DC and DM.

As for our youngsters... I really cannot list them all. There's endless guys with 3 stars, 4 stars of potential, not counting the "black stars". It's amazing, no wonder the board wants me to play them as much as possible. This is the "short" list of our better prospects: Salah Derrag (ST), Abdelaziz Abdouni (GK) (notice the weird surplus of quality keepers homegrown at the club), Fodé Kamaté (DR / D/ML), Cedric Linord (DM / MC), Fabien Collomb (AMC / MRC, AMR), Bruno Hamon (ST / AMRC), Paupol Mutombo (DR / WBR), Moktar Chartier (DM / D/MC). Absolutely incredible!

Goals

The previous board wanted me to win the title outright as my minimum goal, despite the fact the club hasn't done that for 6 years... no pressure! Thankfully the new board only wants Champions League qualification, which sounds reasonable, but I'm still wary of the squad harmony thing, and there's an awful lot to do to clean up the squad. With a short transfer/wage budget that seems difficult. But I suspect I might have money to play with, if Real/Barça pay a proper fee for Olivier Lievens, and/or if I ask the board very nicely about the 70M lying unused in the bank account...

Either way, my short-term goal is simply to not get sacked, at least until I get rid of the squad harmony thing. Long-term? I want to win the bloody Champions League. That's what a club with "worldwide" reputation should aim at.