[FM18] AFC, A Chainsaw Massacre (2019-2036) // Basque Bonanza (2037-2040)

[MarcxD]

February 2032

Well, I did lose that unbeaten streak against Man Utd. 1-2 in the away game is not that bad of a result though, so I'm still hopeful to go through. 4 Eredivisie wins elsewhere, so still very pleased how things are going.

To be fair to Ajax, they can make the CL for the first time in many years. We've got a huge lead and another title shouldn't be long in waiting.

[andychar]

Crushing it in the league, means can afford to rest your starting 11 before every Champions League game.

Oh and big shout out to Mozambique! 

[Icedemon125]

N.E.C are 4th . Doing good considering in real life they are in the second division.

[noikeee]

Fingers crossed for turning around the Utd tie. 

Mozambique, woah. The scenes!

[MarcxD]

4 hours ago, andychar said:

Crushing it in the league, means can afford to rest your starting 11 before every Champions League game.

Oh and big shout out to Mozambique! 

With many positions I've been doing that the entire season. The squad is relatively strong (at least for the Eredivisie) on most positions as long as there are no serious injuries.

Will be interesting to see if Mozambique can get any points. 

2 hours ago, Icedemon125 said:

N.E.C are 4th . Doing good considering in real life they are in the second division.

Yes, I noticed that too. This is by far their best season yet I think.

16 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Fingers crossed for turning around the Utd tie. 

Mozambique, woah. The scenes!

Thanks! 

Mozambique's presence is awesome but I still have no idea how they got to the Confederations Cup. 

[MarcxD]

Youth Intake 2033

While this doesn't look like the best intake ever, some very interesting things. An Italian and a Spaniard from affiliates and for some reason 2 Kosovan (Kosovar?) players! I have no idea why or how but that's cool. Also another Andorran.

Best player from the intake according to my coaches, and there's a lot to like here.

I like a lot of what he has to offer, but man the competition for the striker spot will be very harsh.

Same thing applies to him really.

I really like the look of the Spanish talent, hopefully he can have a bigger development than the coaches seem to think. 

Well, some things that are pretty interesting like his work rate and speed. Not much else yet, but perhaps. Have to love the name.

No idea how you would go pronouncing this, and at the very least he's brave and works for his team.

Predicted not be anything at all, even though his attributes could be worse I guess. Will very likely never come close to the first team but I will at least see how he develops over a few years, perhaps he can join a Jupiler League club at some point.

[MarcxD]

March 2033

Not the best month ever, with us losing an Eredivisie game for the first time since the start of the season and three 1-0 wins. The 1-0 win against Man Utd was enough to go through to the quarter finals of the CL though!

Exit AZ, Man City, Barca and others.

Up next will be another PL team, Arsenal who beat Barca. Tough but at least it's not PSG. Madrid derby as well.

13 points, 6 games to go.

To be fair, things are not helped by a sudden injury crisis.

Qualifiers for the World Cup started this month as well.

A very poor start against Bulgaria but a clean convincing win against Albania. Vos managed to score in both games, he has had a better season than last even though he's now more clearly than ever 2nd choice.

[henryzz]

6 hours ago, MarcxD said:

Mozambique's presence is awesome but I still have no idea how they got to the Confederations Cup. 

Can you summarize their performance over the last few years? It is possible they qualified by coming second to a team already qualified for example. Failing good progression somewhere it is probably a bug(random selection)

[MarcxD]

3 minutes ago, henryzz said:

Can you summarize their performance over the last few years? It is possible they qualified by coming second to a team already qualified for example. Failing good progression somewhere it is probably a bug(random selection)

They never got out of the group of a Cup of Nations or African Nations Championship, and I don't think they qualified for the Cup of Nations. That might actually be the reason since the cup of nations is scheduled to start a couple of weeks before the Confederations Cup so the game might just have picked a nation that didn't qualify. The last confederations Cup had Burkina Faso who also didn't qualify for that year's cup of nations.

[MarcxD]

April & May 2033

No, once again European success wasn't to be.

Biggest points total ever, most wins ever records. In the end both Ajax and NEC weren't able to get CL football, but they did get EL. Ajax won the cup. Katwijk didn't make it through the play-offs and their manager Memphis (!) was fired.

Another Dutch club did manage to get the first European trophy since the start of this save, just too bad it wasn't us. They did very well, especially in the tie against Bayern. They should be able to do better domestically, but that damn Miguel Herrera has done something I haven't achieved yet. 

There's always next season.

[MarcxD]

Season Review 2032-2033

Best Eredivisie season so far, but disappointment in the CL and in the cup. Stadium was mostly sold out.

A bit expensive but easily affordable. This means that the stadium is now going to be expanded to its maximum, so a new stadium will be needed if the board wants to go bigger after this.

The first XI completely youth only, for the first time ever. Meijers started well but slowed down a bit during the season. Did very well in the CL though.

 

Meijers the only player to be featured not from the two finalists PSG and Arsenal.

Fosu-Mensah needs 10 more matches to be the player with most appearances, I gave him a new back-up contract so it is still possible. Might have to watch out for some  other players after a couple of seasons though. Since the tactic is still using the DM with Van Dijk Torres is now used as striker while Meijers has not even made the sub bench.

Most striker to me are the player values, Karaoglan 71M! Only a few weeks later now it is 45M though, so very volatile. Have never fully understood how they work..

Some more awards, especially for Meijers. He won footballer of the year but got second in talent of the year.. Also I did not win manager of the year for the first time in 9 seasons.

 

[MarcxD]

June 2033 - WCQ

Two world cup qualifiers were scheduled to be played only two weeks before the confederations cup started.

Up first was a routine big win against one of football's minnows, Liechtenstein. AFC AML getting a hattrick is perhaps the one noteworthy thing about this match.

A poor draw away in Scotland followed, which means that they are still 1st in the group and we second. Not the best preparation for the Confederations Cup, where I plan to go for a more offensive approach.

[MarcxD]

Confederations Cup - Groups

Squad built for the 4-2-3-1 (AMC) and a few more AFC players given the chance.

The first match against New Zealand was my 700th game in charge. 

Quite pleased with how we played and we could've scored more.

Another convincing win followed and we were already qualified for the semi-finals after two matches. 

We were really dominated by Brazil, only 39% possession is really shocking. Did get another two goals in though, so at least we're scoring.

Losing to Brazil actually was not that bad though, because it means we'll be facing USA in the semi-finals while they have to face England!

New Zealand and Mozambique both without points as you would expect although they did both manage to score at least once. 

[MarcxD]

Confederations Cup Semi-Final

Wow, while FM can give you disappointments (see the finals from last year) it can also give you things like this, a winner in the 96th minute! We definitely deserved the win. Another final!

Please, please, please let me get what I want.

England managed to beat Brazil so the final will be a replay of last year's European Championship final! Revenge!

[MarcxD]

Confederations Cup Final

Yes! Finally won a final, great performance! Had some luck with a red card for England. Really happy with the goalscoring prowess above all. And a trophy with the national team, really pleased with that. 

 

[yatesiboi37]

Amazing win in the Confed Cup! Been following this story for a while and felt I needed to leave a comment of appreciation!

How do you think you'll get on in the next Euros/World Cup?

[Rikulec]

Finally.

[john1]

Congrats on winning the league  And Confed Cup with Holland

[MarcxD]

20 hours ago, yatesiboi37 said:

Amazing win in the Confed Cup! Been following this story for a while and felt I needed to leave a comment of appreciation!

How do you think you'll get on in the next Euros/World Cup?

Thanks man, I appreciate that. Hard to predict really, I would say that the team is relatively strong although not perhaps as strong as a Brazil, England or France but on a good day we can beat any nation... so a bit of luck, and the national team could very well win some more trophies.

19 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Finally.

 

12 hours ago, john1 said:

Congrats on winning the league  And Confed Cup with Holland

Thanks!

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2033

It's interesting to see I'm still not expected to win the league, top 4 is enough. 

This will be the new normal, loaning players out, mostly around the 18-21 year mark, getting some money out of it and hopefully some game time in the Jupiler League or for some the Eredivisie will help their development. Any players on last year of their deals and there's really no future for them I sell. I do keep track of all of the ex-players that have come through the youth intakes via a shortlist, might do a little update post about that after this season.

A similar group like last year, we face Chelsea and Basel again but Monaco should be a bit tougher than Celtic last year. Since we went through that group very easily last year I'm hoping we can do that again. 

Pretty good pre-season with a fantastic super cup win against Ajax, absolutely smashed them in the derby. I am hoping that this is a sign of things to come and we can hopefully start getting some bigger wins, pretty much the only thing that's lacking from our successes in the league.

[MarcxD]

August 2033

Very happy with this start, lots of goals in the first 2 matches and Feyenoord might be the club I've had the most trouble with domestically together with PSV so to get a win over them is always nice. 

We are the only team who has a 100% score after the first four matches but PSV is right up there, along with surprisingly FC Twente. Not a good start for Ajax (or Dordrecht...) 

[MarcxD]

September 2033

Slightly disappointing to not having been able to continue the winning streak and dropping some points, although on the other hand not losing against PSV and Chelsea is not bad either. Through in the cup and a good home win against Monaco followed which made it a pretty good month in the end.

Quite a few goals conceded but as long as we keep scoring more it's all good. PSV the only other club still unbeaten.

Two decent home wins in the qualifiers, could've perhaps scored more.

[MarcxD]

October 2033

A very good month with a lot of convincing wins and a ton of goals, and even a drop in goals conceded outside of the NAC match. Looking very good in the CL as well.

Good lead but PSV has played 2 games less and is also still unbeaten. Remarkable to see that NEC is now in the bottom 3 after almost getting CL football last year.

A routine win over Albania, and then we played Liechtenstein at home. A good match to get some goals in...

!!!

Certainly one of the biggest wins I've ever had, and the biggest international one for sure. Scoring 4 goals between the 35th and 39th minute.... 

Some records broken, of course! Remarkable that Scotland had that record, and Meijers 8 goals... Vos replaced him in the second half (for fitness reasons) and got 4 goals in as well... so Meijers possible could have had 10 goals here. Better to have him fit for AFC though.

[Sheriff7]

5 hours ago, MarcxD said:

October 2033

A routine win over Albania, and then we played Liechtenstein at home. A good match to get some goals in...

!!!

Certainly one of the biggest wins I've ever had, and the biggest international one for sure. Scoring 4 goals between the 35th and 39th minute.... 

Some records broken, of course! Remarkable that Scotland had that record, and Meijers 8 goals... Vos replaced him in the second half (for fitness reasons) and got 4 goals in as well... so Meijers possible could have had 10 goals here. Better to have him fit for AFC though.

Come on man you could stop in 6 or 7 goals!!!  You must wish to not play against Netherlands in my save because i will smash them for revenge!!

[Rikulec]

The biggest win I've ever seen on any FM was 15:0. Amazing stuff.

[karremansje]

Incredible !!!!

 

Love your career !

[SmileFaceGamer]

On 27/10/2017 at 22:05, Deisler26 said:

Ah! My fellow Dutch league plower!

Will be following and good luck!

Let the War (huh! Wajilik good for?) begin

see what I did there, no, ahh I should go to my muddy hole

[yatesiboi37]

19-0 is an absolute destruction! I'm assuming Liechtenstein have no good players at all on your save? 

What is the final aim with AFC?

 

[BoxToBox]

'kin hell! That game against Liechtenstein....

[SmileFaceGamer]

On 01/11/2017 at 10:09, MarcxD said:

February 2021

Awesome month, for the first time ever 3 league wins in a row.

We're definitely save now.

We could even have gotten a play-off ticket.... but FC Oss was randomly chosen over us! 

 

What’s that second table about???

[MarcxD]

On 12/26/2017 at 19:12, Sheriff7 said:

Come on man you could stop in 6 or 7 goals!!!  You must wish to not play against Netherlands in my save because i will smash them for revenge!!

Hahaha I wish you all the luck with that

23 hours ago, Rikulec said:

The biggest win I've ever seen on any FM was 15:0. Amazing stuff.

 

20 hours ago, karremansje said:

Incredible !!!!

 

Love your career !

 

1 hour ago, SmileFaceGamer said:

Let the War (huh! Wajilik good for?) begin

see what I did there, no, ahh I should go to my muddy hole

 

1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

'kin hell! That game against Liechtenstein....

Thanks guys!

1 hour ago, SmileFaceGamer said:

What’s that second table about???

The Dutch 2nd tier is divided into 4 periods, the winner for each period gets a play-off spot, so that table is a period table

1 hour ago, yatesiboi37 said:

19-0 is an absolute destruction! I'm assuming Liechtenstein have no good players at all on your save? 

What is the final aim with AFC?

 

No, most of them are grey players but still...

I want to win the CL at least once and get to about 20 years as a manager at the club. I have no definite end-point, but I do have another idea for a save that I want to do in FM18 so at some point this will end.

[MarcxD]

November 2033

Got this message at the beginning of the month. 40K seats, full expansion capability reached. Going upwards and onwards ever more.

Absolutely fantastic month, perfect results and some huge wins, best of all: a 5-1 demolishing of Chelsea. Definitely through in the CL now!

Huge lead, PSV got their losses now we're still the only club unbeaten. A full season, could it be?

Two very decent wins to finish the qualifiers. Of course the 2034 World Cup, hosted by Japan, will include the Netherlands.

[john1]

Fantastic month with AFC  

[MarcxD]

18 minutes ago, john1 said:

Fantastic month with AFC  

Thanks man, it definitely was.

[MarcxD]

December 2033

Extremely happy with the form right now, one big win following the other. I definitely think we have made a big step forwards this season.

Finished first in the end, with pleasing enough results. Very surprised to see Basel getting that third place over Monaco since Monaco made it much more difficult for us than Basel did.

3 Dutch clubs in the First KO round of the CL, I think for the first time. Some very tough games though, with Vitesse and PSV playing the two giants from Madrid. We play Dortmund, have not seen them getting a lot of huge results in Europe I don't think but will certainly not underestimate anyone here....

More than halfway, 11 points lead and a very good goal tally. Most of that is because of Eelke Meijers, who is having a absolutely ridiculous season.

38 goals before January in club matches!! Sure, 9 penalties, but fantastic nonetheless. League, CL... and of course we can't forget his 8 goals against Liechtenstein. 8+ average so far except for the CL and even there he's close. I feel kind of bad for Sam Vos who looked to be destined for greatness but has simply been overshadowed now. Really curious to see what kind of a goal scoring tally he can come up with if he stays fit.

The 2034 World Cup groups have also been drawn this month, and they are interesting:

Our group seems pretty kind although it's also hard to predict. Interesting to see Canada, Iraq and Uzbekistan at the World Cup. Poor Uzbekis though, facing Spain, Brazil and Costa Rica...

[KlaaZ]

That's one sexy striker, very jealous!

[kidthekid]

Great progress. So much has happened from having two players from Kosovo to winning the Confederations cup and trouncing Liechtenstein. 

[andychar]

Great stuff! That result against Liechtenstein. Looks like a decent World Cup draw as well although your that far in the future I could be wrong!

[Minuy600]

I really doubt someone will get an even bigger result than you against Liechtenstein.

[Timetxu]

The progress is just a joy to behold! 

I do am a bit amazed that SI hasn't put the new World Cup structure in there, with the 48 teams and all...

[MarcxD]

12 hours ago, KlaaZ said:

That's one sexy striker, very jealous!

Thanks! 

Chelsea came in with an offer and I negotiated to see what they would offer, apparently 55M going to 72M. It would be the most expensive player I've ever sold, most expensive player sold from the Eredivisie and there are multiple very talented strikers at the club and within a few seasons one of them might just be as good as Meijers. Might also not be, and none of them are close to his ability now, so I am not going to sell. I certainly don't need the money. Hope he won't get too upset.

4 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Great progress. So much has happened from having two players from Kosovo to winning the Confederations cup and trouncing Liechtenstein. 

Thanks man. Hopefully more to come.

1 hour ago, Minuy600 said:

I really doubt someone will get an even bigger result than you against Liechtenstein.

I should hope not..

1 hour ago, Timetxu said:

The progress is just a joy to behold! 

I do am a bit amazed that SI hasn't put the new World Cup structure in there, with the 48 teams and all...

Thanks all! I guess they only put things like that in when it's 100% sure (well except for Brexit)

3 hours ago, andychar said:

Great stuff! That result against Liechtenstein. Looks like a decent World Cup draw as well although your that far in the future I could be wrong!

Cheers. Ivory Coast is ranked 33rd, South Korea 24th and Turkey 18th so we should be able to beat them. Turkey has one of the better strikers out there though, and the other teams also have some decent players so it's not going to be super easy either.

[john1]

I think you should have cash in on Meijers  

[noikeee]

I've had some big wins in friendlies, but nothing like a 19-0 and certainly not in a competitive match. Bloody hell. 

[MarcxD]

38 minutes ago, john1 said:

I think you should have cash in on Meijers  

Could perhaps still do so in a year or two, when the other prospects have gotten closer to his ability. He's still only 21 years old, mind.

31 minutes ago, noikeee said:

I've had some big wins in friendlies, but nothing like a 19-0 and certainly not in a competitive match. Bloody hell. 

Haha yeah it was extraordinary, no other matches have come close

[MarcxD]

January 2034

Good friendly win, but not the best performances against Feyenoord. On paper this was pretty much the toughest month you can imagine domestically, with 3 away games against 2 of the best teams in the country right now. So with that in mind not too bad of a month, no loss.

It means we're still unbeaten, I am starting to believe the first unbeaten season is a real possibility. Couple more months to go still of course, and I don't want to jinx it.

Didn't sell Meijers but did get some money in from loan deals. I had actually loaned Becker out in the summer to Vitesse but he wasn't playing there at all so I recalled him and hopefully NAC's manager will be more willing to play him. Verhoeven is the oldest youth player that's still at the club but he's now the 3rd choice AMR so I offered him to any clubs willing to pay 1M loan fee for the rest of the season, Ajax did so.

[Fola]

This is fantastic mate. I can never get my head round people are so good at this game- I would of been sacked in the first season. Keep up the great work mate, this is a really good read.

[MarcxD]

18 minutes ago, Fola said:

This is fantastic mate. I can never get my head round people are so good at this game- I would of been sacked in the first season. Keep up the great work mate, this is a really good read.

Thanks man. To be fair, there are better players here on the forums!

[MarcxD]

February 2034

A bunch more of good wins in the league! A crazy loss in the Champions League but 3 away goals so still confident that we can go through. 

PSV dropping away so 12 points lead now on AZ. 8 more matches. 

[MarcxD]

Youth Intake 2034

Two 5* prospects, some other nationalities thanks to affiliations and two more Andorran players. Not too bad.

Not immediately that exciting to me but hopefully he'll show that he's worth those 5 stars soon.

I like him better although a lack of strength, bravery, leadership etc is not that great for a MC.

One of those goalkeepers that is awful with the ball with 1 technique and first touch. 

I got pretty excited looking at him until I saw his jumping reach and strength. Oh dear.

Both Andorrans seem pretty terrible to me but they'll get their chance to grow.

[MarcxD]

March 2034

Again out of the cup... But the rest of the month was great. Through in the Champions League.

Almost champions.

PSV and Vitesse are out, and we face Barcelona. For the first time!

Two decent friendlies win with the national team as well this month.