*** When will you realise...Andorra waits for you *** [FM16 youth challenge]

[iacovone]

End of Season 2031-32 - FS Massana - The Watchlist

Juan Carlos Munoz (YP22c) - Moved to Newcastle United in the summer after an unhappy year at Schalke and took a while to get going. Once he did he managed to score 7 Premier League goals and 11 in all competitions. Not bad but nowhere near what I'm used to seeing from him. That said, he's playing in a poor team so that might be half the reason. Newcastle finished 17th in the Premier League, just avoiding relegation. 

Jose Sarrio (YP17a) - This was his fourth season at Levante and it followed the previous ones in being decent, not bad, but nothing special. He's 29 now too so actually doesn't have too long left at the top level. That said he's helped Levante into the Europa League once again with another 6th-placed finish. 

[iacovone]

11 minutes ago, Jupjamie said:

Unlucky against Scotland

FM doesn't display it fantastically, but basically you can only be drawn against the other teams from Division D. The way it's supposed to work is to give smaller teams the chance to qualify for the Euros. Every division has a playoff of the four best teams who didn't qualify for the Euros, and they're seperate from each other - teams in division A will only play other division A teams in the playoff, so the only teams you could have been drawn against were Hungary, Latvia and Scotland.

 

You won your group so you've been promoted to Division C. The next Nations League campaign won't mean anything because you can't qualify for the WC from it and it's not this one but the one after that decides who goes into the Euro Playoff, so you may want to make sure you get relegated so you're back in the easiest division for the next Nations League, which will be the one that sends you to the Euro Playoff. I think that's your best bet at making it to the finals of a tournament, personally.

Oof right that's a little more convoluted than I was expecting but thanks for explaining JupJamie. So was the home draw random against Scotland? I think I may have to take the deliberate relegation then, yes  

[iacovone]

[Bedese]

The home draw is because you were seeded higher than them, but I spent like an hour searching on the internet and I haven't been able to tell whether that means you got the most points in the entire division or whether it's because you're ranked higher than them in the world. It's really not that clear  

[iacovone]

Just now, Jupjamie said:

The home draw is because you were seeded higher than them, but I spent like an hour searching on the internet and I haven't been able to tell whether that means you got the most points in the entire division or whether it's because you're ranked higher than them in the world. It's really not that clear  

Blimey. Oh well, I'm just going to crack on and put it down to a random fixture generator rather than dig any deeper!

This is our draw for European League Division C this coming year:



Might actually require some effort to get relegated  

[iacovone]

FFS. I spent the best part of two seasons convincing him to stay and signing him to a new contract and Celtic come along and do this. The plus is it's 50% sell-on, £2.5m over two seasons and £1m upfront but still, he's class and we have no back-up left-back  

[iacovone]

Well, add this man to the watchlist alongside Munoz and Sarrio! He'll do well here and hopefully develop at a much quicker rate than he was at us. It's good news for the national team but I'm still pretty gutted.

He made 162 appearances in four-and-a-bit seasons, scoring four goals and collecting 51 assists. Surprisingly this isn't enough to get him in our Best XI. Oh well. 

[oriole01]

It's been pretty exciting to read all these developments. So close to EUROs! Good luck anyway in Division C, I don't think you should try to get relegated if you feel you've got a shot at winning it. Really discouraging to see Sarrio getting older, I thought he would be world class. Can you check the CA and PA of some of these players that you've let go, just to give yourself an idea of how they might do? It's kind of hard to keep track of all your players now, but good luck to Velasco and Munoz abroad.

[iacovone]

Do you mean using an editor to find the CA/PA values? If so, I don't want to do that as it ruins the immersion a bit for me.

[iacovone]

Euro 2032 - Hosts: Belgium, Holders: Portugal



Poor England did all the hard work but lost to Czech Republic in the final! From the Czech point of view, they eliminated Italy, beat the holders Portugal and then the hosts Belgium, before seeing off England in the final. I think we can applaud them for that

[iacovone]

Here we go again...

[iacovone]

Pretty convincing away leg gave us an easier time of it back in Andorra and we're safely through. 



We meet Sparta Prague in the next round, who we've never played before. This won't be easy.

[iacovone]

Much better than I expected! We kept it tight at home, didn't concede an away goal and took a two-goal lead to Prague where we ground out a 1-1 draw! We're into the Champions League playoffs...



Who writes these scripts? We're facing Celtic for the first time, but more importantly we're up against the man we sold this summer already! Miquel Velasco (YP28a)! To be honest he's a benchwarmer at the moment but it's some coincidence that the first time we play Celtic it's after they robbed us of one of our best players! Anyway, we beat Hibs last year, I don't foresee us doing the same with the mighty Celtic...

[iacovone]

Really tight two games but they were just a bit too strong for us. It didn't help that we had Le Breton and Portilla out injured for both - two of our best and most creative players. That said to almost get a draw at Celtic Park was a proud moment and gives me hope that this group could make the CL group stage soon. 

Elsewhere, FC Encamp beat Albania's Skenderbeu Korce in the Europa League 1st qualifying round before losing 3-0 to Slovakian outfit Zilina. Lusitanos managed the same, defeating Macedonia's Horizont Turnovo 4-1 before losing to Czech side Jablonec. Can't help but feel they're really underperforming on the European stage. Finally, Sant Julia beat Bosnian side Siroki Brijeg 4-0 before falling 3-1 to Denmark's Odense. 

On the whole, much better. All three sides made it to the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League and we went close in the Champions League. 

EDIT: Totally forgot we get entered into the Europa League group stage!  

[iacovone]

Happy with this. It'll be a challenge and Galatasaray should romp it but I'm cautiously optimistic of getting a win or two...

[Bedese]

That's not a bad group you know. Might be able to sneak second...

[iacovone]

I. Do. Not. Believe. It. He's gonna stay! This'll mean I can get him to sign for an additional year (to 2035, a three-year deal)! I mean, this is remarkable - turns out, constantly rejecting bids/negotiating to astronomical non-negotiable levels tells your players they're not going anywhere. We've now managed to secure long-term deals on all our best players. We're growing!

[iacovone]

Scotland vs Andorra (European League Division C, Group 1) 



We had a chance at revenge against the Scots after they pipped us to Euro 2032 qualification earlier in the year but this went even worse than that 2-0 loss. Inevitably as we pushed on looking for an equaliser we were picked off and came away with a morale-damaging 4-1 loss

Andorra vs Albania (European League Division C, Group 1) 



We should have won this with the amount of chances and pressure created in the first half. In the end we had to cling on as youngster Francisco Andres (YP31a) saw red AGAIN. That's two caps, two reds . Anyway, doesn't leave us in a great position ahead of the final two games, as you can see below: 

[iacovone]

Honduras vs  Andorra (Friendly) 



Pretty tough fixture given our relatively small stature but a good chance to test ourselves against a nation almost completely alien to us. It was one of those games again really - we had most of the ball, missed some chances, but conceded a couple of goals as we fell to defeat. Not great preparation for our penultimate European League game. 

Albania vs Andorra (European League Division C, Group 1)



I think the man-of-the-match tells the story here. Although statistically we look like we've competed with Albania, we didn't really muster a good chance once all game. Albania on the other hand will be ruing Masson's heroics in the Andorra net as he denied them time and again. A decent point but not going to do us much good in the Group. 



So this is the scene. We've only got one home game against Scotland remaining and we need to win it to stay up. If we lose or even draw we're back in Division D. 



And with this slump we've fallen back down the rankings to 73rd. Alarmingly we've not scored in three matches and in fact only have 1 goal in five games, looking further back. Maybe we just need to throw caution to the wind a bit more...

[iacovone]

Terrible news for our former left-back

[sherwinriga]

31 minutes ago, iacovone said:

Terrible news for our former left-back

Not a good idea to lose this player for the Europa League and Nations League.

[iacovone]

Andorra vs Scotland (European League Division C, Group 1)



We've played Scotland three times this year and lost all of them now . There's something about them, they're just too good. 

Andorra vs Kuwait (Friendly)



No idea who in the FA scheduled this friendly but we took on the 105th ranked team in the world, Kuwait in Andorra and did very well. A nice confidence booster after the pretty woeful European League. 



So this is the final standings. Not a great performance from us, not even mustering one win. So we drop down to Division D, which even though I didn't want, is probably a good thing for our Euro 2036 hopes.

[brenosantos]

I'm reading your carrer since the start and I need to say that this is a great story so far.

Obviously, you didn't wanted to drop down in the Nations League, but Andorra is showing signs of improvement and that's great.

P.S: I would like to have the .xls of this model below, can you send me in a PM? It looks more organized than mine.

[iacovone]

So the European campaign is over for this year but I'm pretty damn happy with how it went. Our Champions League showing was great, knocking out big-name Sparta Prague before losing to Celtic in the playoff. In the Europa League we were dealt a fairly good group and did our reputation no harm, defeating Kobenhavn home and away. Sadly our performances against Dnipro meant we went out on results against them. Over the two games though, they were much the better side, so fair's fair. 

[iacovone]

59 minutes ago, @brenosantos said:

I'm reading your carrer since the start and I need to say that this is a great story so far.

Obviously, you didn't wanted to drop down in the Nations League, but Andorra is showing signs of improvement and that's great.

P.S: I would like to have the .xls of this model below, can you send me in a PM? It looks more organized than mine.

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it. The best bet on the table would just be to copy it as you see it. It's a google doc rather than an excel spreadsheet so not sure how to share it right now!

[iacovone]

Thought I'd share the squad depth screen as I recall someone commenting that it was hard to know/keep track of who my players are now. As always, if you ever want a screenshot of a player just shout and I'll happily plonk one in here. 



As you can see the star men haven't really changed for years. Ruben Noura and Moises Arroyo are the two mainstays of the team with almost 750 league appearances between them now. Javier Martinez is also part of this group but though once our main centre-back he's dropped down the pecking order now.

Elsewhere you've got the next generation behind Noura & Co. in Noa Le Breton, Jose Perez and Maximillien Masson, all key players (though Perez isn't really firing this season), and beyond them you've got the rising superstar Jorge Portilla. That's about it for now but like I say if you're interested in screenshots on anyone above, just let me know  

[tyler16]

Finally caught up, great stuff all around mate. The new update format looks great. 

It's crazy that even with the all the positive steps you've taken, you've only reached the CL groups once. Still a looooong way to go.  

[Tullem]

All set to qualify for Euro 2036 then (Hope I'm not jinxing you!)

[iacovone]

5 hours ago, tyler16 said:

Finally caught up, great stuff all around mate. The new update format looks great. 

It's crazy that even with the all the positive steps you've taken, you've only reached the CL groups once. Still a looooong way to go.  

I know, I know. I try not to get too depressed about that! I feel like we're on an upward swing at the moment with the title last season and a Europa League group stage appearance. Our most important players are hitting their stride - first gen around the 24/25 mark, second gen around the 20-22 mark - so they're learning, have a lot of experience and will be approaching their peak in the next few seasons. Fingers crossed! And thanks for the comment tyler  

1 hour ago, Tullem said:

All set to qualify for Euro 2036 then (Hope I'm not jinxing you!)

Well! Let's see how it goes tullem. The tough thing is the Andorra squad is almost entirely made up of Massana players. So my players just don't get a rest all season. International breaks just mean another two games and that can lead to fatigue and injuries - it's tough to balance right. What we need is three or four very good future internationals through the next five youth intakes. That too much to ask?  

[iacovone]

World Cup 2034 Qualifying



Going by the rankings and seedings (we were a 3rd seed) this was still a pretty tough draw. Germany will obviously top the group, then it's a scrap for a second-place spot. I doubt we'll have enough but I think we should aim for 3rd given our seeding. Still think it's going to prove to be difficult but we'll see how we do. 

[deltablue]

I don't think it looks too bad, Germany aside.

[iacovone]

You might be right @deltablue, I think I'm just a bit peeved there's no obvious whipping boys. Armenia should still be decent, even as bottom seeds. 

[iacovone]

It was coming. After a dominant couple of years, Borini's Lusitanos lost their crown last year to us and are currently languishing in 6th with barely a hope of qualifying for European football. In terms of big-names, I doubt the league will see someone like Borini for a while.

[sherwinriga]

15 minutes ago, iacovone said:

It was coming. After a dominant couple of years, Borini's Lusitanos lost their crown last year to us and are currently languishing in 6th with barely a hope of qualifying for European football. In terms of big-names, I doubt the league will see someone like Borini for a while.

It seems that they finally begin to lose hopes after the European competitions. Despite beating Horizont Turnovo and losing to Jablonec, they were outclassed completely. Let's hope that Borini will join to your team as assistant manager and waiting to see who will be the new manager for the former champions when La Massana will tag youth prospects later.

[Bedese]

I actually think that's quite a good group. Northern Ireland are a pretty weak second seed. Israel might be a bit tricky, but you've got a shot there I reckon.

[iacovone]

Maybe @Jupjamie. I think I'm being overly critical after a bad year in charge of the national team. 

[iacovone]

Youth Intake - 2033



This will forever be known as the year of the midfielder. Look at them, they're EVERYWHERE!



Ivan Lopez is the best of the intake and I love his versatility; he could become a good back-up at AMC for now and maybe even first team if Portilla leaves us. Needs some work on his technicals. 



Cedric is a more expansive midfielder, with good technical stats but at 5 foot 1 and less than 8 stone, we need him to get growing !



Ivan Garcia looks well-rounded and someone to keep a close eye on as well. His pace lets him down but he's good good fundamentals. 

This intake was much better than last year's and we're pretty set in central midfield for the next two decades I'd say. Disappointed to not get a left-back through though, that's our problem position. Next year, with any luck!

[iacovone]

Israel vs Andorra (World Cup Qualifying, Group 8)



This will look like a great result but leading 2-0 at half-time we really should have seen it out and grabbed the win. That said, this was always going to be a tricky match for us so I'm thankful we avoided defeat because we really came under pressure at 2-2. 





So after two rounds of games, here's the table. Maybe our draw in Israel was better than I thought, they drew in Germany! Elsewhere, Northern Ireland responded well to their defeat to Germany and put Armenia in their place (hopefully the group whipping boys). We host Germany and Northern Ireland in the next set of games and I reckon we need three points there.

[sherwinriga]

What a nice youth intake once again and a great draw. I notice about what happened to Lusitanos after the loss of Borini. Is Borini was signed by La Massana as assistant or not? Hope you get at least more than 10 points in the next 6 games.

[iacovone]

21 hours ago, sherwinriga said:

What a nice youth intake once again and a great draw. I notice about what happened to Lusitanos after the loss of Borini. Is Borini was signed by La Massana as assistant or not? Hope you get at least more than 10 points in the next 6 games.

No Borini has no interest in joining us because of the rivalry with Lusitanos! He wants to coach in his next role, rather than manage so we'll see where he ends up. Season review on the way  

[iacovone]

End of Season 2032-33 - FS Massana - Competitions

Lliga Grup Becier: WINNERS! 

Analysis: It's been a challenge in recent years to repeat win the title so I'm delighted to report we won it with three games to go. We were helped by Lusitanos dropping way off the pace and sacking Fabio Borini but there were still challenges from FK Santa Coloma, who had a real resurgence this year, jumping from 7th to 2nd. Aldosa also did well improving from 5th to 3rd. Encamp and Sant Julia also fell away so there was a lot of change at the top this year. 

Copa Constitucio: SEMI-FINALS

Analysis: Another year of disappointment in the Andorran Cup. The board still value it as a competition so we really should be aiming to win it every year but a 1-0 home lost to Encamp and 2-0 on the road saw us comprehensively beaten. Encamp went on to beat Extremenya in the two-legged final. 

Champions League: PLAYOFFS

Another good run in the Champions League saw us eventually defeated in the playoffs by Celtic in a close encounter. I didn't expect a win here so to push them close and only lose 3-1 on aggregate was a proud moment. 

Europa League: GROUP STAGE

Analysis: We were dealt a fairly generous group and I fancied our chances of a couple of results. Group whipping boys Kobenhavn were beaten twice and we picked up a point against Dnipro. Sadly our results against them meant we missed out on making the last-32 this time around but those results helped the bank balance and our coefficient. 

Supercopa Andorra: RUNNERS-UP

We played Lusitanos, the winners of the Cup the season before (it's a weird format, you play at the end of the season but it's last year's league winner vs last year's cup winner...) and won the home leg 1-0 with a late tap-in. Despite that advantage, Rafael Munoz, our best centre-back had a mare in the away game and we fell to a 2-0 defeat, losing the chance to secure another trophy. Not happy. 

[iacovone]

End of Season 2032-33 - FS Massana - The Players

Squad Statistics

Top goalscorer: Jose Perez (YP26c) top the charts for us again but was poorer than last year, scoring just 19 league goals compared to his 31-goal haul last year. To be fair the goals were shared around a bit more this year but I feel like he's plateaued at 22-years-old.

Highest rating: Francisco Jesus Ortega was our best performing player for the third consecutive year, notching 14 assists from right-back. On paper he's a weak link, on the pitch he's essential. 

Hot prospect: Francisco Andres (YP31a) was touted to reach the top when he came into the academy two years ago and he really stepped it up this year at the heart of the defence. He's still just 16, has a load of development to go through and hopefully some growth too. 

Notable impact: It was always going to be hard to replace Velasco after his move to Celtic but Gustavo Tomaz (YP27a) took to the task well, morphing from a back-up full-back to a dependable member of our defence. We could still do with another left-back through the academy but for now I'm happy with Tomaz. 

Worth a Shout: Moises Arroyo (YP21c) had a fantastic year, making the switch to inside forward effortlessly. For a man who once notched 31 assists in a season it's bizarre to see this fall to just four but his 24 goals from wide marks him out as a great asset. Still. 

[iacovone]

End of Season 2032-33 - FS Massana - The Club

General - Facilities - Finances - Competition Overview - End of Season Awards - Overall Best XI

OTHER BUSINESS:
- Sant Julia sacked Fleki after their 6th-placed finish
- Relegated At.America must have clicked the wrong button because in the space of an hour they went professional and then reverted to amateur status
- We paid our new directors a whopping £1.6m!
- We were also hit with a tax bill of £700,000 for a profitable season
- But prize money and broadcasting revenue was at £8.5m this year, a £5.4m increase on last year!

 

[iacovone]

End of Season 2032-33 - FS Massana - The Watchlist

Juan Carlos Munoz (YP22c) - Scored 18 goals in 41 games for Newcastle - not a bad return - as the Magpies finished 9th in the Premier League; a big improvement on last year's 17th. 

Jose Sarrio (YP17a) - he turned 30 this year and played more games than ever, appearing 53 times for Levante! They finished just outside the Europa spots in 8th but made it to the last-16 of the same competition, losing over two legs to Galatasaray. 18 goals is a decent return but as I've said before he isn't a natural goalscorer. 

Miquel Velasco (YP28a) - Disappointing first year away from Massana as he damaged his cruciate ligaments while on loan in Turkey. Hopefully he'll have a much stronger second season at Celtic. 

[iacovone]

Great year from a club perspective as we improved our training facilities and made a significant leap up the European rankings. The league continues to grow, although we're still some way off being a 2.5* league. Good to see the TV money rise again and you can see our finances are in a great position. Also, attendances rocketed this year - largely thanks to our run in Europe. 

The downside is the national team (more on that soon). 

[iacovone]

Andorra vs Germany (World Cup Qualifying, Group 8)



Munoz set the Andorran goalscoring record as we took a shock 2-0 lead against Germany and...then it all went wrong. I tried to have us hold on til half-time but they scored just prior to the break and it hit us hard. Second half they blew us away and we came away again ruing the state of our defence. 

Andorra vs Northern Ireland (World Cup Qualifying, Group 8)



ARGH. Again we've gone 2-0 up and this time without Munoz who picked up a minor injury and yet again our defence has cost us! I don't know where it went wrong but our mentality was clearly all wrong and Northern Ireland not only pulled it back, they beat us. I need to change things...





Two hugely disappointing results leave us in a perilous position. I can't see us making second-place now and to be honest until we shore up our defence we're not going to do anything on the international scene. A really frustrating international break. 

[iacovone]

A nice tie to kick off the new season as we once again aim to get back into the Champions League group stage. Reminder that we've only made it once (back in 2024-25)...

[iacovone]

One for you sherwinriga!

[iacovone]

Easy enough win here after a 2-0 victory in Ireland. 



Not ideal at all. We've been drawn against Celtic one round earlier than last season. And as a reminder, we lost 1-0 at home and 2-1 away so we're going to need to improve to have any chance of making the playoffs.

[iacovone]

. This will take a LONG time to get over. We've gone from losing 3-1 on aggregate to losing 7-0 on aggregate in 12 months. My high-risk strategy away from home saw us lose 4-0 but more annoyingly miss TWO six-yard clear cut chances. Had to go for it at home and we got battered again. Gutted doesn't come close to summing it up.