[FM17] Stade de Reims: The Return of Champagne Football

[JD nawrat]

 

Welcome to my latest FMCU thread. My last one, based around making Hertha Berlin a force in world football, was sadly cut far too short due to a broken laptop. But today I finally got a new one and thus bought FM17 and am ready to start. All of my saves tends to be similar - taking a lesser team and looking to build them to the top. This is the same. My goal is to build Reims into one of the best teams in the world.

---

Once known as a great football club who dominated French football, Stade de Reims FC (commonly known as Stade Reims or simply Reims (pronounced 'rance', like France)) have fallen far from the dizzy heights of the inaugural European Cup final of 1955-56 and the same final just a short while later in 58-59. The team history almost forgot.

Founded in 1931, Reims have won six Ligue 1 titles (the last back in '62), two Coupe de Frances and a Coupe de la Ligue. They were one of the most historically dominant sides in all of football, dominating the French scene in the 50s and 60s and even developing and coaching great players who would go on to play for France, such as Just Fontaine, the record scorer at any World Cup (13 goals in just six games) and Raymond Kopa. 

Such was the beauty of Reims play back in the 50/60s, media outlets and fans alike crowned Reims pioneers of "Champagne Football" for their blistering and skillful attacks. 

But, things changed. 

The early 90s saw Reims enter a period of massive decline, beginning with their relegation from the top tier, quickly followed by liquidation. The club remained, but their state of affairs was so bad that they had to revert to amateur status and would continue to play as such for 7 years, before finally becoming professional again in 1999. The great historic club yoyo'd from the National to Ligue 2 until 2011-12, when they finally got promotion to Ligue 1. After over 30 years, Reims were back where they belonged until 2016 saw the former giants of football slain again and back into the lower leagues of French football.

Until now. Enter David Jourdain. The man who intends on getting Reims back where they belong to the top tier and eventually leading them to the promised land of Europe's Elite and finally clinching the Champions League trophy they never won. 

 

I've used the suggested levels of experience and coaching for the build of my manager. 

 

Career Goals:

-Gain Promotion to Ligue 2 (win title preferably)

-Win Coupe de France

-Secure Champions League Football

-Win Ligue 1

-Win Champions League

-Establish Reims as one of the greatest teams in the world

 

Updates will be as frequently as I can manage - probably every few days. I'll update at the end of each month with scores and anything else I deem share-worthy  

Thanks for reading and I hope you stick around to read more!

[JD nawrat]

I've had a look over my squad and I'm fairly happy with it all. I've got depth in every position except for CM and CB, so with the £1.3M I have to spend I'll be looking to bring in a good CB, maybe a starter, although I'd be happy to settle for a rotation because I have one great CB and two very decent CBs. I also want a starting CM, someone who can control the game going forward because my midfield is lopsided in favour of defence.

 

On the other hand, I'm delighted with my GK, FBs, WMs and DMs. Strikers - there is nothing outstanding but I have three STs who are probably in the top 10 in the league, including Gaetan Charbonnier who should bang for fun in Ligue 2. 

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: Start of Season - 2016/17

This update contains some of July (not much), August and transfer updates, of which there are a few. I haven't screenshotted pre-season stuff because frankly I don't care about it and I doubt any of you do, but I won all bar two, which were draws to my reserves and to top tier Toulouse, which was a pretty good draw I felt. I'll just get straight into the results, table, players of the month and signings. Here we go:

 

 

A brilliant start to the season, obviously. We've dominated possession in every game, we've outnumbered opponents' shots by about 5:1 and although we're leaking goals quite easily, we're banging them in for the most part. One draw in the cup which we smashed on penalties 4-2 with a full second string team on show. I'll take it! We are top of the league in terms of average possession, we're third for passes made and pass completion (the team top of these is 2nd for possession). Overall I couldn't be more pleased with how things are going. It's only 6 games into the Ligue and we're already smashing the opposition and establishing a good lead.

 

 

Player of the Month

 

3. Antoine Conte - The young CB has been quality for me so far. Despite the few clean sheets we've kept, Conte has scored an important goal in the season opener and looked very good in the rest. His average rating of 7.30 shows just how good he's been.

 

2. Pablo Chavarria - The Right Midfielder has been outstanding this season and although he 'only' has 2 goals and 2 assists to his name, he has been a threat to every team throughout every game. He's dominated his flank and terrorised defenders and that's why he has an average rating of 7.43.

 

1. Diego - The star man for the opening month of the season is undoubtedly my man on the left, Diego. Top scorer, top assister, an average rating of 7.74... the Brazilian has it all. He's too good for this division but if I can keep hold of him he can certainly take me places and hopefully back to Ligue 1. 

 

Transfers

We made some great deals in the summer, strengthening some key areas and also selling for a record fee. On top of that I also brought in some players who I feel can win games on their own...

 

Evander Sno - Free - Sno is someone I've seen in real life in the past through his time at Celtic and although he was never that impressive, he looks more than good enough to fill in at CM for Reims. He's a bit of a journeyman and he'll no doubt play for another club or two after I'm finished with him but on a free back-up signing, he'll do a decent job for me. Can't argue with his quality and he's still fairly young so he could spend a few years here, who knows?

 

Stuart Armstrong - £500k from Celtic - Armstrong might be one of the best signings I'll ever make for Reims to be perfectly honest. I'd say that his stats in-game don't represent how good he is in real life, but all the same he's a quality player who controls football matches. Had I signed him sooner I'd probably have him in my player of the month above, but he wasn't signed quickly enough to smash it. Since his arrival we've been class though and that's thanks to Armstrong's domination in the midfield. He was transfer listed hence the cheap fee. It also represents the club's record fee. 

 

Alaeddine Yahia - £120k from Caen - CB was one of the positions I identified as needing improvement and I took my time about it but I finally signed Yahia. He's well over the hill at 34 and probably only has one or two seasons with the club, but his mental attributes and his experience make him an invaluable asset to the team. He's on the slow side which could be an issue but so far he's done pretty well.

 

Enzo Zidane - £550k from Real Madrid - Zinedine Zidane's son plays for my team But seriously, he's a young French player with good potential. After selling Kankava (see below) I had to bring someone in and Zidane looks like exactly the sort of player I want to use in order to create Champagne Football. He's capable with both feet and he has ability with the ball. Exactly what I want in my midfield. He's also my new record fee at an additional 50k over Armstrong's deal. 

 

Jaba Kankava - £2.2M (rising to 3.1M) to Ajax - The Georgian international was in top, top form for me at the start of the season. 2 goals and 4 assists in 5 games... Typing that out I almost feel silly having sold him. But at 30 years old and for 2.2M, possibly 3.1M, it's hard to say no. It's a record selling fee for us and will help us strengthen. I only spent a quarter of the fee on bringing in Enzo, but the rest of it will no doubt prove useful down the line come January. 

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for the month of September:

 

Some of these teams are doing pretty well in the league so we'll no doubt have it quite difficult but given how we've started I genuinely feel like we can bag some goals for fun against these sides

[higgins]

An historical club that deserves Ligue 1 football, good luck with this, I remember Kiei and Siebatcheu being both really promising last year.

[JD nawrat]

On 26/11/2016 at 09:33, higgins said:

An historical club that deserves Ligue 1 football, good luck with this, I remember Kiei and Siebatcheu being both really promising last year.

Kyei is pretty good and Siebatcheu looks good but is on loan at another club (not even sure if I agreed the loan or if he was already there tbph :D). 

 

Next update incoming shortly. Decided to cut out the player of the month stuff because I cba. Game is going slowly enough as is without me screenshotting more rubbish

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: September - 2016/17

This update follows the month of September. After a blistering start to the season I was eager to see if we could keep it up, and things went pretty well to be fair. Here we go:

 

 

So our brilliant start to the season continued nicely but kind of petered out towards the end of September. We looked amazing against Tours and Ajaccio (I actually beat them 3-0 but my FM crash dumped and I hadn't saved so replayed and won 2-0) which was satisfying and Stade Brestois were probably the better team but we did well to take our chances and win the game. We then followed this up with two massively disappointing draws. Both games we took a lead thanks to sublime direct free kicks and then let in ridiculous goals. I really need to work on our defence as it's clearly the issue with the team at the moment - we can score fine most games (although goals are also evading us recently) but if we can't keep a clean sheet then it doesn't mean a thing...

 

 

We're still flying at the top with a hefty gap between us and the chasing pack so soon into the season so despite two disappointing draws, I'm ecstatic with our overall form. My only niggle is as I said the defence - 11 conceded in 11 is very unlike me on FM. Perhaps my determination to recreate champagne football is leading to us neglecting our defensive duties... I'm sure it just requires the correct balance. Anyway, what I've noticed is that consistency doesn't seem common in Ligue 2, so as long as we keep winning/drawing most, we'll be back to Ligue 1 in no time because even when we draw we still have a good chance of opening a bigger gap at the top which is crazy.

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for the month of October:

 

We got lucky to be the only Ligue 2 fixture in the next round of the Coupe de la Ligue, and a home tie against Brestois gives us a very good chance of continuing through the competition, but regardless of what happens there I've met board expectations so I'm not too fussed with the competition in all honesty. Really we should be winning all 4 this month but our small dip in finding goals might be an issue - injury to star LB Bouhours doesn't help and neither does my DM Devaux's insistence on getting suspended for picking up three bookings in his last 10 (more like 9 in his last 10 the mad man). 

 

Still, can't complain with how it's going. Onwards!

[ManUtd1]

Glad to see someone running a SdR save!  I hope to make my way to them...eventually...in my re-started save!

Following

[JD nawrat]

1 hour ago, ManUtd1 said:

Glad to see someone running a SdR save!  I hope to make my way to them...eventually...in my re-started save!

Following

Cheers! I noticed your save earlier, hopefully I reach CL success with Reims before ya  

 

October update incoming...

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: October - 2016/17

This update follows the month of October. After a solid September we hit a couple of draws and so October was a test of my ability to make sure we could get back to winning ways and keep up the previously fantastic form... Here we go:

 

 

October continued how September ended - with a draw Thankfully that was the last of them for the month as we followed it up with three great wins. They were hard and we had to grind, but we managed to do so and keep clean sheets at the same time which is always pleasing. The goals have definitely dried up but Diego and Kyei both being injured is killing me. Thankfully Diego is back to full fitness and can play next month. Four clean sheets in four games is definitely pleasing though and we've progressed through the cup yet again.

 

 

A top month leaves us top of the table and flying - things are going great and the gap at the top looks to be staying as big as ever and probably increasing slightly. I'm trying not to focus on it too much but it's hard not to; we are smashing it big time  I hope we keep this up until Christmas and if we do it won't be long before the title is ours. Perhaps optimistic to be looking that far ahead, but the plan was always to get promoted preferably by winning the title.

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for the month of November:

 

Two tough teams in here but also facing a relegation contender and a mid-table side... could be very tough because all of them are going to be pushing for a win. The Coupe de France also kicks off and we've got a nice easy tie, it should be an opportunity to field a second string team. Things are still looking great though and I can't wait to get into November, I'm pretty sure we'll be in just as strong a position come the end of the month! 

[noikeee]

Nice choice of club, I think most of us enjoy these careers around fallen giants. Looks as if you're finding Ligue 2 a bit too easy to be honest! I reckon the real challenge will come next year.  

[ManUtd1]

On 11/29/2016 at 21:45, JDownie said:

Cheers! I noticed your save earlier, hopefully I reach CL success with Reims before ya  

I suspect you will!  I've got a long road ahead with Malmo, and then SdR would have to be available as a destination...

Great start to the season, by the way 

[JD nawrat]

Cheers lads!

 

For some reason quotes aren't working, but I definitely do enjoy a career around fallen giants @noikeee. I dunno why but there's something highly satisfying about it  And it is easy at the moment but I don't doubt that things will get a lot harder next season. We have a good bunch of players and a good squad wage so I have hope that we'd do something but obviously I'll be looking to improve the squad considerably to do more than just survive... hopefully

 

@ManUtd1 - when you put it that way I definitely should, but given I'm opening FM once every three days or so it'll probably take about a month just to finish this season so you might beat me on that factor  

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: November - 2016/17

This update follows the month of November. After what can only be described as a dominant beginning to the season, we were looking to continue that as we got closer and closer to the halfway point of the season. A few tough games were waiting for us in November... Here we go:

 

 

The month got us off to a flier. Auxerre crumbled before us and Diam-whatever they're called were part-timers 3 divisions below us or something mental. I had 5 missing through international duty plus a further 4 injured and my makeshift team (including a LW at LB and a CM at CB) still smashed it. Things then got a bit disappointing. 19th place Bourg-en-Bresse should've been a very routine smashing. We had all of the ball but their park the bus antics made it impossible for us to break them down. We struggled to get any clear chances and they walked away with a point. And the result in the Sochaux game was much of the same - despite them being 5th when we played them, they played like a team fighting relegation. They had two shots and scored one, and to rub salt into our wounds, we missed a 90th minute penalty Lens actually surprised me by being rather attacking - they had 17 shots to our 13 and 54% possession, which is the first time this season we've had less of the ball than our opponents. The openness of the game favoured us though and eventually my decision to play on the break paid dividends - we cut them open a good 3/4 times in the last 20 minutes as they pushed harder for an equaliser but we couldn't score. Thankfully our defence which has kept 8 clean sheets in the last 9 (featuring 7 in a row before Sochaux spoiled the party) stayed strong.

 

 

A month where we win two draw two sees us maintain a 12 point gap at the top, which is why this league is so easy for us. We have consistency to win the majority of our games and everyone else is taking points from each other. I guess this is how it feels to be PSG in real life  With one game left before we hit the point of having played every team once, I'm genuinely struggling to see where we might lose a game in this league. I mean, we will, I have no doubts about that, but the lack of competition means we can probably lose 5/6 games from now til the end of the season and still top the league. 

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for the month of December, before the winter break:

 

Two cup games and two league games. I'm intrigued by the Nancy tie because they're sitting 9th in the tier above us - it's probably going to be our biggest challenge of the season (unless we beat them) so I'm keen to see how we cope with them. At home I sort of fancy our chances, silly as it sounds The other three games should be automatic wins to be fair. 

 

Lastly, I apologise for the updates taking so long. Think this is my first update since last Tuesday Hopefully be picking up from now on though! 

[noikeee]

Still making a complete mockery of this league. What's your secret? Can you give us some hints on what tactical setup are you using?

By the way, speaking of giants, that club logo you're putting on every post is bloody giant, too. 

[JD nawrat]

5 hours ago, noikeee said:

Still making a complete mockery of this league. What's your secret? Can you give us some hints on what tactical setup are you using?

By the way, speaking of giants, that club logo you're putting on every post is bloody giant, too. 

I need to resize it but I can't be arsed in all honesty  I'll sort it tonight if I can be bothered. 

 

I'm switching my midfield setup quite frequently because no single setup is working for me, I change to something and it works for maybe 2/3 games and then it goes bad and that's where the draws come in. Then I change it and get a stinking 3-0 win before another draw about 2 weeks later. Maybe I should just persevere with one setup and hope the draws are just hiccups but I genuinely feel there's a midfield system for my team that will mean we win every game, silly as it sounds. I'm also struggling with the ST spot - originally I was using DLF/S and my strikers were scoring tap-ins but not being involved in play so I tried TM/S and found they were more involved but scoring less. So I've tried CF/S and they're neither scoring nor involved  Might need to try Trequartista which was my go-to ST role on 16, but it required skilful, quick strikers. The guys I have currently are big lumps  

 

Im playing a 4141 Control with Very Fluid and it is very fluid, the reason why we're dominating the league I feel. 

 

I'll share my tactics later tonight  

[JD nawrat]

Tonight...8 days later... same thing. 

 

Anyway here's my tactics, both the team instructions and the player roles. The Trequartista as I said before isn't what I have been using but it's what I will be trying. 

 

 http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/110733623801965367/0CCAA787A94452416E5D2ACD655392C7FDCC1F17/ <- Player Roles

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/110733623801965614/872D6C8723B7E62DC613CB14F2D9A80123F2A48F/ <- Team Instructions

 

Gonna play through December at least just now, hopefully get properly into February or March this playthrough. Will update the thread in an hour or two no doubt. 

[ManUtd1]

Good luck in December, @JDownie.  I look forward to reading of your victories in the morning 

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: December - 2016/17

This update follows the month of December. It feels like a long time since I last played so I'm not even sure how November went, but December had a couple of big challenges and it would allow me to gauge how we'd fare for the rest of the season and for next season too... Here we go:

 

 

Well! A draw at home against Niortais the only blight on what should have been a flawless month. Gutting too because they had 2 shots and the goal came on the 92nd minute with a peach of a volley from 25 yards. Absolutely mental goal, and wholly undeserved. But we did beat two(!) teams in the league above us and we also got a good win in the league too which maintains a healthy gap at the top. The results against Dijon and Nancy were massively satisfying. We dominated both games too. To think that these teams were 14th (Nancy) and 10th (Dijon) in Ligue 1 at the time of playing them... we could easily have cut it in the tier above I reckon. Gives me great confidence for Ligue 1 next season because let's be honest here, we're not going to fail to get promotion at this point... at least, we bloody better not  

 

 

Our lead of 12 points is cut to 10, but I'm hardly concerned. It's still stupidly easy. It's quite obvious that Reims were Ligue 1 last season but even I wasn't expecting to walk it this much. Can't see us not winning the league from here. Probably do it with at least a 10 point gap too, would be disappointing if we let the other teams catch up to us to be honest. 

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for the month of January, next year:

 

Our reward for beating Nancy is a match-up against another Ligue 1 side (to be expected to be fair, there's only one other L2 side in the Quarters - AC Ajaccio who battered Montpellier despite being a midtable L2 side aha), St-Etienne. I'm very intrigued by this tie, because it will be very interesting to take on a team as good as they are. They currently sit 8th in Ligue 1 but there's no doubting how good they are. I would not be surprised to lose this game but our home form in the cups is quite something thus far, despite it not being great at home in the league. Funny to see our league form lately having so many draws, really. 4 of our 6 draws in the league are at home  We also have a game against Brogo (who? yeah, no idea :D) - they get the home tie because they're more than 2 divisions below us. Should be routine for us so will be nice to make it into the last 16 of the Coupe de France. 

 

PS. Resized the image at the top (well, rather, found a new image). Hope that's a little less damaging on the eyes

[JD nawrat]

Well it was tense and for the most part we had our backs to the wall, but we somehow won with a bit of luck! Their wingers ripped our FBs apart time and time again but we managed to get there in the end... huge victory and it means we are in a cup semi-final

 

 

Ajaccio are somehow into the semi-finals as well after they knocked Toulouse out on penalties. If we draw them in the next round it gives us a massive chance of making it to the final. The other two semi-finalists are OM and PSG, so I don't fancy our chances against either side, home or away

 

We got OM. Away. Big test for us, not sure what to expect. If we win then it's been an amazing cup run. If we lose then it's been an amazing cup run. We can play them with nothing to lose, which is great. They're also only 6th in the League, so it's not like they're doing anything special. Still going to be the toughest game of the season to date, though. Game is played in January so will either update as part of the monthly update or will make a separate post if I win and I'm gassed about it

[JD nawrat]

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Unbelievable scenes. Armstrong scores after 40 seconds from the edge of the box with a pinger top bins, then we hang on for the rest of that half as they pile the pressure onto us. Halftime I tell them it isn't good enough (I mean...it was, but I wanted us to get at them :D), they come out flying and we score a pen. Unbelievable man. Can't believe we got this far let alone into the final. The team is so ready for Ligue 1 football. 

 

PSG in the final. Welp. They beat Ajaccio 2-1. Up 2-0 inside 20 mins with a red card to Ajaccio (penalty), and Ajaccio somehow make it 2-1 with 30 mins left but can't find the equaliser. Crazy stuff. 

 

Oh and that's us 31 games undefeated. Not lost a game in charge of Reims yet

[the--dud]

Enjoying the thread! Best of luck for next season in Ligue 1

[theFOOTBALLlover]

On 22/11/2016 at 12:26, JDownie said:

I've had a look over my squad and I'm fairly happy with it all. I've got depth in every position except for CM and CB, so with the £1.3M I have to spend I'll be looking to bring in a good CB, maybe a starter, although I'd be happy to settle for a rotation because I have one great CB and two very decent CBs. I also want a starting CM, someone who can control the game going forward because my midfield is lopsided in favour of defence.

 

On the other hand, I'm delighted with my GK, FBs, WMs and DMs. Strikers - there is nothing outstanding but I have three STs who are probably in the top 10 in the league, including Gaetan Charbonnier who should bang for fun in Ligue 2. 

How do you determine the difference between each players? Do you have a formula or just base it on the opinion of the scouts/coaches/assistant?

[noikeee]

I wouldn't put it past you to beat PSG in the final!

[JD nawrat]

9 hours ago, theFOOTBALLlover said:

How do you determine the difference between each players? Do you have a formula or just base it on the opinion of the scouts/coaches/assistant?

I just look at each player and know what I want for each position. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. At the start of the season I ran Conte/Weber as my CB duo but after a few months had to play Conte/Jeanvier and despite Jeanvier being 5'11 and having average aerial ability, our clean sheets have doubled and he's a threat in the box.

 

@noikeee the final isn't until April unfortunately. I can't see how we possibly PSG but if we did manage it it would be one of my best FM achievements without a doubt. I've pulled off some pretty spectacular results in the past but nothing quite like winning a national cup with a lower tier side and beating teams like OM and PSG  can just go into the final and play like we have nothing to lose, if we do get beaten then no harm done, we weren't expected to get this far let alone win. As long as we avoid a cricket score I'm happy  

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: January - 2016/17

This update follows the month of January. The month was really just about making sure we kept all of our players through the transfer window and looking to maintain half decent form so we didn't lose grip on our stranglehold on the league... Here we go:

 

 

Quite frankly, a fantastic month. One little blight was a draw to Red Star and to be honest we were lucky to get that draw. They bossed us about the pitch and should've scored a few goals. But I suppose everyone has a bad game now and again and we got a lucky point. We surrounded that draw with big wins including the aforementioned cup semi-final. Huge month. 

 

 

13 points clear with 15 games left to go. Even if I lose 5+ (and let's face it, that's unlikely) games then we'll still hold onto the league. It's pretty easy right now. The focus is entirely on winning the title as soon as possible and then doing as much damage as possible in the cup competitions. If we can get to the final of the Coupe de la Ligue then I see no reason why we can't go this far in the Coupe de France

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for the month of February:

 

Mostly league games so things are going back to normal. Looking to win all of them of course but as long as we get wins in most then the lead at the top won't be hurt (certainly not by much). 

 

As I type I've still not completed the transfer window - I have unfortunately sold Antoine Devaux who has been a rock at DM for me. He was tempted by an offer from Young Boys and saw it as his final chance to challenge in Europe (not sure what sort of challenge Young Boys will give...). I tried to convince him to stay but he wasn't interested. A decent 800K for him will allow me to reinvest in the squad, I currently have 1.8M to spend and I'm looking to blow most of it on a young DM to play the spot for the next 10 years. I'll update this if/when it is suitable to do so. 

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: February - 2016/17

This update follows the month of February. Following a fantastic January, we had to look to seal the Ligue 2 title as soon as possible. Some relatively tricky ties lay ahead of us so it would be a good test of where we are at, especially after a key player left in the transfer window (news on replacement at the end of the post)... Here we go:

 

 

Uhhhhh... yeah Pretty  bad month, clearly. We absolutely spanked Borgo and apparently used up all of our goalscoring ability in the process. Four stale, stale games where we either looked great but couldn't finish or we looked dire but stole lucky goals and got draws. The result against Ajaccio especially was very lucky - we were 2-0 down inside 20 minutes and I was pretty certain it was the end of our undefeated run. Until Diego scored a beauty of a free kick and Enzo came off the bench to volley home in the dying minutes of the game. Brestois would've been the real chance to go one step closer to the title given they are our closest challengers but it was a boring game with no chances for either team... not a terrible month though, as the league table shows.

 

 

We've dropped 10 points in 4 games and we still hold an 11 point lead. The standard of this league is pretty terrible  I hope we pick our form up though because had we converted draws to wins the title would be wrapped up in the coming weeks.

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for the month of March:

 

A good test against Metz who are the tier above; they currently sit 16th so compared to the teams we have played in cups so far it should be a win, but our abysmal draw-happy form means I am not quite as confident as I perhaps would normally be. The league gives us some decent competition in the form of relegation battlers and promotion chasers. Valenciennes and Clermont Foot in particular will be tough games but none of them will be especially easy I don't think. Hopefully we find our form and start to score again. Ibrahima Baldé is back from injury which should mean goals come back to the team thankfully; Pefok just isn't quite good enough at the moment.

 

With regards to replacing Antoine Devaux, we spent fairly big on replacing him. I looked for young, exciting but already rather capable talent, but the asking price for some of these was in the region of 3-7M. So I went for another man in the division who is close to the prime of his life - Ousseynou Cissé. He's not the quickest and he's not determined nor composed; I'm a little concerned that I've not signed the greatest player available to me. But his versatility in playing CB and DM means that I can easily keep him for a long time and use him in both spots to great effect; he's big, strong, he's good in the tackle and he's a team player. He's going to be a good player for us. A £1.3M signing makes him by far our record signing but he's going to be a good player and will hopefully prove worth every penny.

[JD nawrat]

So our wonderful 36 game undefeated streak has finally come to an end...

 

 

...and I am ****ing fuming

 

I don't know what's happened to the team. Well I do. Johann Carrasso (GK) recontracted and part of the negotiation was a promise from me that I would strengthen the midfield. I lost Devaux, I signed Cissé, Carrasso is not happy. He says I haven't done as I promised. The majority of my players feel I've mis-treated Carrasso and done him wrong. The guy who's just managed them to a 36 game undefeated streak has done the goalkeeper wrong. He's playing terribly and there's certain players who are also playing terribly and it's totally jeopardising the team and the season. We haven't won in 5, we've won once in our last 7, and the team seem to not give a ****. It's frustrating and maddening and my only somewhat irrational response is to drop Carrasso for the foreseeable future; rotate out the players taking his side and and simply weather the storm. It'll put our cup final Vs. PSG at risk, but I'd rather have folk giving it their all and not doing that well than have good players who are underperforming over something so ****ing stupid as this. 

 

e: 19 of 24 of my players in the first team squad are in support of Carrasso and unhappy with my treatment of him

[the--dud]

This is why I NEVER promise to strengthen an area! its completely unreliable what is sufficient or not for those promises... 

[JD nawrat]

Not at the end of March yet but had some really bad news that both Diego and Carrasso are missing for the Coupe de la Ligue final Vs. PSG through injury. Coupled with 5 key players being one yellow away from suspension means I'm basically putting a B team out in the game prior to the cup match. Might be the end of our undefeated league streak

 

March update will come in fairly soon. 

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: March - 2016/17

This update follows the month of March. February was our worst month of the season so far and March represented a chance to straighten that up and correct some poor form. There weren't any particularly hard matches awaiting us but being undefeated after so many games means you are a team to be scalped... Here we go:

 

 

And we were well and truly scalped. Mugged by Metz then scrappy draws, scraping past a team near rank bottom and then another loss. Our season is very quickly spiralling out of control. Numerous saves in my FM time have saw my teams smash it until March/April then collapse. This team is collapsing sooner. Welp. We aren't scoring, we look devoid of creativity and we're getting smashed and scraping draws if we're lucky. Needs to pick up big time or Ligue 2 title goes bye bye

 

 

7 to go and we stand 11 clear... Even with Brestois' game in hand this should be routine. But our form is so poor, we've got so many key players missing... I don't know what to expect to be honest. I still think we'll get promotion, automatic, too. But title winners doesn't feel so comfortable as I thought it was a couple of months ago...

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for the rest of the season; May only has a couple of games so I'm just going to conclude the season and report on the whole thing:

 

Biggest game of the season incoming. Expecting to be thrashed. The league games I think we need at least 3 wins or else we won't win the title. Simple as that for me. 

[JD nawrat]

Well the final went pretty much as expected...

 

 

Pleased that we didn't get hammered 10-0, that we actually scored and that we didn't have to park the bus for 90 minutes (although we might've done a bit better tbf :D). Slight frustration that we had probably the better chances and only scored once, but oh well. Didn't even expect to make it this far so can't complain at losing out on a trophy I never thought we'd be close to. 

[SirManager]

You're smashing it to be fair. Following this. Great updates.

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims - End of Season Review: 2016/17

Overall my debut season in France went extremely well. There's a lot I'm not happy with, but there's a lot I'm very happy with. I'm basically just going to break down league results and standings, cup results, do a quick review of the three best players of the season and look at transfers this season. I'll then lay out my objective for next season and we'll be all done and I can smash through the pre-season of 17/18  Without further ado:

 

Ligue 2 - Champions

Standings | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

Winning 9 straight at the beginning of the league made things very easy to begin with. I don't recall exactly how we were doing back then but I know we were probably about 10 points clear straight away. By that token, it's quite disappointing that we ended up winning the league by only 5 points but our second half of the season form was disastrous - to give you an idea, the first half of the season we won 13 and drew 6. The second half we won 7, drew 10 and lost 2. Not great But we got there in the end. As I've alluded to throughout the thread, I lost the dressing room to be quite frank. Christmas onwards was a big struggle. It's something I'm going to have to address to the fullest to make next season in the top tier as smooth as possible and ensure the club continues to develop and improve. If I don't manage that, then who knows if I'll even be writing a season review at the end of next season

 

Coupe de la Ligue - Finalists

Results

Obviously I am immensely proud of our performances in the league cup this season. We had no right to get this far and the teams we beat along the way were massive scalps. Winning the league with relative ease is one thing, but so far this stands out as our biggest achievement and there's a good chance it will remain that way for a while. Next season I want to try and win it again, but I have to be realistic and that probably won't happen. Still, I would've said the same about this season so we'll see how it goes.

 

Coupe de France - 11th Round

Results

We were expected to make the 10th Round, we went further. For that I'm pleased. We lost to a team in the division above and for that I should not be too upset, but we should have beaten them. We dominated the game and we shouldn't have lost it. To see that RC de Lens are in the final (against PSG) angers me too, because that's what we should have done. But oh well. Always next season

 

Players of the Season

3. Julian Jeanvier - Jeanvier didn't start the season as a starter, but he quickly made his way into the team's automatic choices due to fantastic performances. He won Fan's Player of the Season with 34% of the vote and it's not a decision I struggle to understand. He was brilliant to be quite frank. I expect he'll be a massive player for us next season.

2. Hamary Traore - I haven't picked players based on their average ratings or anything, just on who I felt stood out and made a real difference. Traore got quite a few assists from FB and he was a big reason for us being the best team defensively in the league. He's been capped by Mali (he starts the game as declared for France) and I'm quite pleased because he deserves to play for a national team. I'm expecting him to be a big part of next season and probably the next few seasons in all honesty as he is a quality full back.

1. Diego - This guy was the standout by far for me. The fans gave him 29% of the vote for FPotY but I felt he should have walked it. He was a constant thorn in the sides of all teams he faced and he finished the season as top goalscorer. Without him I'm not sure we would have been anywhere near as good as we were this season. He's a fantastic talent and will undoubtedly be one of the top men next season.

 

Transfers

Overall I'm happy with how the transfers went this season. We made very good signings in general - I'm not disappointed with a single one of the men I brought in. Evander Sno wasn't really important to the team but for a free I could afford him to end up on my bench and being loaned out at some point. Armstrong, Zidane, Cissé and Rossi bolstered our midfield massively and give us a solid foundation for next season to be a great success. I'll obviously need improve our strength in depth, I feel that we don't have a great deal of strength on the flanks or in the DM spot, so I'll have to try and sign guys for these positions. 

In terms of people leaving the team, I didn't really want to let Kankava leave but the deal was too good and he was quite old (31 iirc) so it made sense. Devaux is basically the same situation, although I had no control of him leaving as he was basically threatening to spit the dummy out. We made good sales; we brought in good players; we made money overall. I am very happy with our dealings this season.

 

Squad 1 | Squad 2

 

Next Season

All things considered we have to build on a fantastic first season. We need to secure top flight status and if that means finishing one point above relegation then so be it. Ideally we'll finish somewhere above 14th but that could be a bigger ask than I realise. In terms of cups I just want to do as best as possible. And in terms of what I need to do, getting in at least one more CB is essential, as is a pair of good FBs. A top striker is absolutely necessary and the main point of strengthening; a top goalkeeper might be just as important if Carrasso isn't willing to put this petty crap aside and try to help the squad. Good players out wide are important, hopefully we'll get a good winger or two in the window. 

 

In terms of budget, I've been given an appalling 100k p/w additional wages (pretty good tbf) and a measly 550k transfer budget, which is less than we had this season ffs. I'm hoping that we will get a much better budget whenever we are given prize money etc but this was the early amounts set out by the board. Not good enough to be honest and if that is all they give us I reckon our best hope is avoid relegation and nothing else. But we'll see. 

 

2016/17 Preview will come up soon enough, plan to blast through this pre-season in the next few hours but whether or not I take long depends on what the board give me to work with. If nothing, then it will indeed be a quick pre-season  

[JD nawrat]

I don't know what prompted this but it is a massive relief!

 

 

Struggling to find players. For some reason, we earned a measly 800k for winning the division and we paid out over £2M for squad winnings We're barely in the black in terms of club finances so I can't imagine we'll be getting any more money. I'm looking to sign free agents and loan deals basically. The transfer list isn't even a viable option ffs! 

 

So far, Gedion Zelalem has signed for us on a free. A good young, promising talent who could be a star in a year or two. He bolsters CM and gives us another option off the bench. I'm also in the middle of agreeing a deal with an experienced Ligue 1 CB (played for Montpellier I think, his name was something like Mongongu, I can't really remember ) and for Fabian Monzon to rotate LM with Diego. He's quite old but he's fantastic in all departments physically and mentally and he has the versatility to play both LM and LB. 

 

I'm contemplating a formation switch to 4411 instead of 4141, it wouldn't keep us so strong defensively but it would give us an edge going forward and I think outscoring opponents might be the way forward this season. I'm not 100% sure on the decision, it's something I'll need to seriously consider. Perhaps a more solid defensive is more important for the first season, drawing is far more important and better for the team than losing, and that's probably more likely with a solid defense, whereas being attack heavy might win more but will also mean we lose more undoubtedly. I'll think about it. Who knows. Depends on what I can sign I guess... 

[JD nawrat]

Some disappointing news in Hamary Traore leaving us to join Lille. 

 

 

He was someone who could have been at the club for a good 6-7 years I feel, so to lose him is gutting. Lille originally offered 2.5M which I managed to get up to 4.4M + 800k after 50 league appearances + 400k if he wins the Coupe de France + 30% of any profitable sales on him, so all in all it's a fantastic deal but he was such a quality player for us and I only receive 30% of the 4.4M and despite begging the board twice to increase this percentage they're not having any of it. Not sure how good 1.3M (give or take, I'm not good at maths) will be for us. Even 2M of it would've made a huge difference. 

 

e: not sure what's happened, but my budget has gone from around 300k to 4.4M - and I definitely only received 30% of the Traore sale. I've not sold any other players or adjusted budgets either. A bit confused but it's great news for us, feel that this can really help us strengthen the squad. 

 

Second edit: Spent quite a bit of that 4.4M, got to season expectations and the club have given me an additional 1.7M on top of what I had remaining. Pleased to say I've brought in about 5 players, with another one awaiting confirmation and am looking to bring in a winger with about 1M left to spend. I'm also looking to move on a player at the club which will give me an additional 2M or so to spend, so could be looking at yet another signing if I'm able to wrap up this business. Season is looking very decent at the moment. 

[noikeee]

Congrats on going up although the 2nd half of the season was difficult. I'd definitely prioritize defending over outscoring opposition in the 1st season in Ligue 1 IMO - not sure switching to 4-4-1-1 is necessarily a good idea, although it can be as solid a formation.

[JD nawrat]

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

Congrats on going up although the 2nd half of the season was difficult. I'd definitely prioritize defending over outscoring opposition in the 1st season in Ligue 1 IMO - not sure switching to 4-4-1-1 is necessarily a good idea, although it can be as solid a formation.

I think if I had more balanced midfielders then I wouldn't hesitate to go 4411; my midfield is currently 2 good DMs and 6 quality attacking CMs though, so it'd be a ballache to balance I think. 

[JD nawrat]

I've got to the end of August, the transfer window is closed and my season is underway. I'm going to post my transfers for the summer - my ins and outs - and then in a post after I'll detail how the start of the season has gone for us

 

Transfers IN

Gedion Zelalem - Free (Arsenal) - First in was young midfielder Zelalem. I've seen him a few times irl playing with Rangers and I know from FM he's regarded as a bright prospect. Getting him on a free gives us additional choices in the centre of the pitch and gives us someone for the future too which is obviously important to me. He's probably only going to get 15-20 appearances this season but at this stage of his career that isn't necessarily a bad thing. And in case of any suspensions or injuries, I've signed someone I feel I can rely on to do a job.

Cedric Mongongu - Free (Montpellier) - Mongongu has played almost every season of his professional career in France (all but one, in fact) so he brings in knowledge of the league he's playing in and he's a free signing. Can't really argue with that. Physically he's more than capable, he's experienced and he can be a real rock at the back for us with key attributes all being good for the CB position. He's likely to start almost every game and I think I've signed a really good player for nothing here.

Jason Cummings - 750k (Hibs) - The first of three Scots I brought to the club this summer. Cummings looks like the sort of player we've been needing up top - quick, good on and off the ball and able to find the net more often than not. At only 750k it was a no brainer and I'm hoping he can lead our team to glory this season and for the next few. He's a talented player, I just need to make sure I get the best out of him. Grejohn Kyei and Ibrahima Baldé will probably be unhappy at playing second fiddle to him, but given they couldn't hit double figures in the lower tier last season, my concern is more about scoring goals than pandering to them. 

Enock Kwateng - 1.5M (Nantes) - Kwateng represents our record signing and probably our riskiest of the summer. After Hamary Traore left I had some money to play with but I also had a gap at RB that needed filling. Physically and Mentally, Kwateng is extremely well balanced and at only 20 has plenty of time to improve these areas. Technically he isn't the most gifted, he's perhaps too rough around the edges to attack properly but his strengths are knowing what to do and when to do it, and defensively he has the right tools to hold his own. I've changed my tactics up somewhat to account for his lack of attacking quality, but I'm hoping that in a season or two he'll be the real deal in all areas. He certainly has the potential. 

Fabian Monzon - Free (Catania) - My third free signing of the summer was former Lyon LB Fabian Monzon. At the age of 30 he's definitely a short term option but his technical ability is unquestionable and I'm sure he'll do a job for us in LM, rotating with Diego. I have doubts over his physical ability - particularly stamina - but I'm sure that for free there's not a lot that can go wrong with this deal. 

John McGinn - 700k (Hibs) - My second Scottish signing was central midfielder McGinn. He's the complete package in terms of being able to attack and defend and as a box-to-box midfielder I am very confident that McGinn will be a big player for us. Costing only 700k means that regardless of what happens he'll be a good signing as I can always rely on the likes of Armstrong and Enzo Zidane should McGinn fail to adapt to life in France. He's young and he likes to control the centre of the pitch and I'm fairly sure that in a year or two he'll be a very important player for us.

Zinedine Ferhat - 525k (Le Havre) - Now I have Zinedine and Zidane at the club  Ferhat was a bit of a forced buy. I didn't have much money left at this point but I desperately needed another RM. I looked for weeks before having to settle for Ferhat, but when I signed him I realised he was actually a pretty decent little player. I'm not sure he'll be a long term signing but at only 525k he can't be a disaster. 

Barrie McKay - 1.3M (Rangers) - My third Scottish signing and my final signing of the summer. McKay has a bright, bright future ahead of him. He's fantastic on the ball, he's physically in great shape and although there's questions about his mental ability, I have no doubts that McKay will be a big signing for us. I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops here and I hope he can be a quality player for us for seasons to come. 

So just the 8 signings this season...so far. A total of 4.8M means that the average price for our signings was a measly 600k. And I truly feel the squad is much stronger than it was this time last season, which is always a great feeling. I've added great strength to the team in general and I feel I've improved in some key positions. The only position I'm truly annoyed about is RB, but losing someone as good as Traore was never going to be easy to replace, so I can't complain. And the fee we received for him allowed the majority of these deals to go through, so it's for the greater good that we are without him.

 

Transfers OUT

I'm just going to quickly list the key ones, as a lot of people left including some loan deals but those aren't massively important bar one or two...

Hamary Traore - 4.4M (5.5M) (Lille) - Our star defender, second best player of last season, Traore left us for Lille. I couldn't turn down the offer we received and despite him being as good as he is, the decision was easy to make. I'm hoping that in a season or two we'll be in a position to bring him back, but if not then we'll live. 

Antoine Conte - 1.4M (1.9M) (Nantes) - Essentially we swapped Kwateng for Conte. With Mongongu coming in, I had 5 CBs and Conte was the one who I could make most profit on. He also didn't strike me as a must-have player. While he's not bad at anything, he's not great at anything either. It was an easy decision to decide he was the one to go, even if he is quite young and did fairly well last season.

Pablo Chavarria - Loan (Konyaspor) - Despite being fantastic for me last season, I felt that whoever played RM could've had a bigger impact. Ferhat coming in and being on a similar level to Chavarria but 5 years younger made me realise that I probably didn't need Chavarria as much as I thought I did. And then when I saw McKay was available it meant that Chavarria basically wasn't needed, so I shipped him out. Bizarrely nobody was interested in him, not even in Ligue 2 where he scored 9 and assisted 8, but hey ho. He probably won't play for us ever again which is a shame but then I don't really need him so I don't care all that much, truth be told.

 

Only 3 major departures this season, although in reality 25 people left the club. We netted a total £6.25M from sales, meaning we had an overall profit of about 1.5M in the summer window from transfer activity. 

 

August update will come fairly soon I hope

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: August - 2017/18

After promotion and a busy transfer window, we were keen to get the season kicked off and hopefully with a strong start... We faced a real mixture of teams so it would be a good and early test of where we were at in the opening month. Here we go:

 

 

An interesting start, at least We done well to get a draw out of Nantes after going behind three times - what a debut for Jason Cummings! The Montpellier game was fantastic, both sides had lots of chances. I was pleased with how we recovered from poor defending and we cut them open plenty of times ourselves, although if not for an Enzo half-volley in the final minute we'd have taken a draw. A massive win and our first in Ligue 1 PSG went more or less how I thought it would. They've strengthened big time after failing to win the title last season (Monaco pipped them) so they're bigger and better than before...welp. A good win Vs. Lorient followed by a solid draw Vs. Lyon made for a very good opening month. Couldn't have asked for much better really. 

 

 

We sit in a very solid mid-table position with a great start behind us. I reckon that if we can keep up these sort of results - although they aren't very consistent, they are good - then we can expect to finish within 3/4 places of 10th, and that would be great. It's still very early though of course. I am annoyed at Brestois starting so bloody well though They beat Lyon away from home which is a fantastic result. Buggers.

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for September:

 

 

A mixture of winnable games and some real tests. I'm looking forward to it already

 

[noikeee]

Solid start!

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: September - 2017/18

A solid start to the new season meant that we had to try and follow it up with similarly strong performances. We had some difficult ties but it was a good test for our early season form. Here we go:

 

 

Failing to beat Lorient was very tough to take - they sat near the very bottom of the table (in fact I'm sure they had 1 point at this point from 5 games) so to only get a point was bitterly disappointing, but at this point not losing is a good result for us I feel. We're predicted 18th, as long as we can surpass that then I'm happy We actually beat Bastia 3-0 but a crash dump required replay and we only took a 1-0 win which was gutting, but I can't complain. A great win. And we followed that up by battering Lille. We actually led 3-0 at one point and almost allowed them back in but we stayed strong and got a good win, so I was delighted. They aren't doing well this season but they had just beaten PSG 1-0 in Paris so I was expecting a tough one. A draw Vs. St-Etienne was good. Losing to Bordeaux was tough especially since we went from 1-0 down on the 51st minute to 2-1 up by the 55th, only to concede two late goals and throw it away

 

 

An extremely good position to be in so early in the season. I am delighted with how it has started to be honest, and I'm hoping we can keep it up but realistically it's not going to happen. If we can find some consistency once our fixtures get 'easier' (ha!) then I'll fancy our chances. At the moment I'm just trying to avoid losses as much as possible. That's the key to survival right now. 

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for October:

 

A quiet but difficult month. Reigning champions Monaco will be a brutal tie. Hopefully we avoid embarrassment, it's my only ask to be honest Victory in the others is definitely possible

[Pompeyboyz]

Damn...

 

You beat me to this one....I was just playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 and passed a sign for Reims and knowing their former European Cup final exploits wondered if they still had a team to try and bring back the glory to. 

 

But low and behold your thread was top of the unread

 

Good luck, i shall be following keenly

[noikeee]

Couldn't have gone any better so far, really.

[JD nawrat]

 

Stade de Reims: October - 2017/18

It seems this is my first update in two weeks! Jesus. Hadn't realised it was so long ago. My bad guys. The good news is that I have been playing tonight so I can at least update you at last if you're still reading out there... Here we go:

 

 

We aren't consistent at the moment, but we are winning a fair amount of games and we are upsetting some of the bigger teams. A draw with Monaco was huge and to beat Rennes 3-1 despite them being overwhelming favourites was most pleasing. The loss to Nantes was mind boggling. We were up 2-0 and then conceded 4 in the second half. No idea what happened to us but not too bothered - our focus is on the cup at the moment.

 

 

We are exceeding expectations brilliantly at the moment and I'm fairly confident we can secure a high finish in the league if we can keep this up. We're about a third of the way through the season and already my focus is on where in the mid-table we will finish. Relegation isn't a concern in the slightest, which is a great feeling to have but I have to be careful that it doesn't lead to complacency.

 

Last thing to cover is the fixtures for November:

 

An interesting month incoming. OM are sitting down in 12th, Guingamp aren't far behind us, Dijon are dead last and Toulouse aren't doing well. We could conceivably win all four but realistically we won't stand a chance of doing that

One last thing to note - Barrie McKay won Ligue 1 player of the month for last month, with an average rating of 8.20 from 3 games, scoring 3 and assisting 2. What a beast