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

[oriole01]

You're looking nearly unstoppable this season. This has remained a very good read, and I hope it comes with glory at the end of it. That does look like a really tough CL field though, no small teams left.

[MarcxD]

1 hour ago, oriole01 said:

You're looking nearly unstoppable this season. This has remained a very good read, and I hope it comes with glory at the end of it. That does look like a really tough CL field though, no small teams left.

Nearly is quite right :-) As for the CL... any team getting to the QF should be really good. Thanks for the positive words!

[MarcxD]

April 2034

We've beaten Barcelona, huge performance at home and didn't do that bad away. Drew with Man Utd in the semi's, while the money monsters PSG and Man City face each other in the other one. 2-2 At home is not a great result, but we were missing some of my best players like striker Meijers and midfielder Karaoglan. I have not given up hope doing the business away from home. Still unbeaten in the league as well, although it could've turned out differently!

Probably just going to miss out on 100 goals scored although it is still possible with one more game to go, away at FC Utrecht. It would be nice, but most importantly I just want us not to lose.

Huge milestone here, top manager in the Netherlands. Not even close to getting in the top 20 for Europe or the world though. 

[SmileFaceGamer]

17 minutes ago, MarcxD said:

April 2034Huge milestone here, top manager in the Netherlands. Not even close to getting in the top 20 for Europe or the world though. 

Well done. Reckon you should be higher do to emphasis on YPD, does that count as score or is it just trophies?

[MarcxD]

18 minutes ago, SmileFaceGamer said:

Well done. Reckon you should be higher do to emphasis on YPD, does that count as score or is it just trophies?

 

Cheers, pretty sure only trophies count but it does make me more proud to have achieved what I have so far.

[MarcxD]

May 2034

Nope. 

United (still managed by Mourinho....) went on and beat their city rivals in the final.

Unbeaten season is something to celebrate for sure. Couldn't quite get 100 goals, but oh well. Not the best points total, actually, thanks to the draws.

 

[Rikulec]

Congratulations on the unbeaten season. Next year could well be your year in the CL, fingers crossed.

[MarcxD]

Season Review 2033-2034

In many ways a fantastic season, unbeaten, a new stadium expansion, lots more big wins and goals as well. Once again just couldn't make it in the CL and the cup is just a nuisance. 

Full first XI+subs only youth only for the first time ever, and huge striker performances. Vos only got 16 appearances but 15 goals isn't bad is it... Meijers just better.

Fosu-Mensah could've gotten the record now but it doesn't count the stats when you're not in the team of the year. A few more years and players like Torres could get it. No Vos at all anymore in this all time team, weirdly, but players like Iallouchen are? Well, let's just say these things work in mysterious ways.

Interesting to see how many of the players are from the 19-22 years old generations, this could go on quite a while yet although we need a step up to get that CL win.

Awards/Records:

Huge, almost unbelievable year from Meijers. Also topscorer in the CL which I forgot to screenshot.

New shining light in AML van der Steen who has replaced Simanjuntak mostly as first choice AML.

Didn't win manager of the year after an unbeaten season, okay..

 

 

[MarcxD]

5 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

Congratulations on the unbeaten season. Next year could well be your year in the CL, fingers crossed.

Thanks man, I hope so. That little next step...

[SmileFaceGamer]

@MarcxD sounds like your becoming the Liverpoolof the UCL. Always saying next year will be your year, ecxcept you have a world class squad so it proberbly should be

[SmileFaceGamer]

11 hours ago, MarcxD said:

 

Didn't win manager of the year after an unbeaten season, okay..

 

 

Yup that makes sense

[john1]

Baffled how you didn't win manager of the year after unbeaten season and higher win ratio  

[MarcxD]

World Cup 2034, Squad & Friendlies

Some new names, the first XI has not changed really but here they are.

Gk & Defenders:

Still the same as it's been for years, some very good players.

Midfield:

The two MC's are AFC-grown, do take into account that Karaoglan's star ratings are based on the AFC squad. He's good regardless though. 

Wingers & Striker:

Still clearly the weakest part of the team, but good enough. If you can score 19 goals in one match... AFC stars for Meijers but quite good.

The first friendly in preparation for the tournament was really poor, one of the worst performances in a while.

A good send-off match before the tournament against Bolivia, they weren't rated that poorly on the rankings but we were up 4-0 after 18 minutess... and then we just stopped.

[MarcxD]

World Cup 2034 Groups

A decent opening win, although we didn't really play all that well. The 3 points though.

Got the second win and through after two matches to the second round. Disappointing to see Van Dijk getting a red card here though.

Very annoying to throw the lead away and to see Karaoglan getting a red card. With back-up midfielder Geerken and AMC visser also suspended for the next match there will be some improvisation needed.

Hosts Japan eliminated in the groups, elsewhere mostly interesting to see Italy defeated. 

Since Turkey did just that little bit better against South Korea and Ivory coast they are through as first, we are second. Which means we'll have to face Germany in the second round.... Elsewhere surprisingly Brazil didn't qualify.

Uruguay and Mexico big losers as well. 

[MarcxD]

World Cup 2034 Second Round

Fantastic result after a bad start, with quite a bit of changes to the team thanks to suspensions.

We face England next after they beat Switzerland... replay of the Euro final a while ago. United States strong again, beating Spain and Argentina is out as well.

[MarcxD]

World Cup 2034 Quarter-Final

Wow, we were pretty lucky but made it to 2-2 and got our revenge on penalties after losing the Euro final on penalties as well.

Colombia beat Chile after a thriller, but most remarkable are the two final quarter finals perhaps, Croatia beating France and the Americans beating Portugal. We'll be facing Croatia and Colombia faces the USA. 

[MarcxD]

World Cup 2034 Semi-Final

Fantastic win thanks to a Meijers hattrick, we go to the final!

Colombia beat the USA very comfortably as well so we'll be facing them in the 4th World Cup final the Netherlands has ever played, could this finally be the first win...

[MarcxD]

2034 World Cup - Final

Yess!!! World Cup win, amazing. A great final win, which had enough tension since the 1 goal lead remained the same for 60 minutes of the match...

Best player, topscorer, goalkeeper and 3 players in the first XI of the tournament. 

[oriole01]

Excellent World Cup performance, you guys really turned on there against some big sides. Meijers looks absolutely world class.

KUTGW!

[ManUtd1]

Tremendous stuff in here, the World Cup run in particular!

[Rikulec]

[kidthekid]

Amazing!!!!!

[Deisler26]

Congratulations dude!

[MarcxD]

21 hours ago, oriole01 said:

Excellent World Cup performance, you guys really turned on there against some big sides. Meijers looks absolutely world class.

KUTGW!

 

20 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

Tremendous stuff in here, the World Cup run in particular!

 

16 hours ago, Rikulec said:

 

11 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Amazing!!!!!

 

2 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Congratulations dude!

Thanks guys!

This is turning into one of the more interesting careers I've had, 15 seasons in now not counting the 2 holidayed seasons at the start and no plan of stopping soon. 

[john1]

Congrats on winning the World Cup  

[noikeee]

Excellent job winning the world cup!! Finally the Netherlands get one!!

[yatesiboi37]

Superb work with the World Cup victory!

What is the main aim with AFC? Champions League? You seem to be bossing the league at the moment. 

[MarcxD]

On 30-12-2017 at 19:47, john1 said:

Congrats on winning the World Cup  

Cheers

On 30-12-2017 at 19:57, noikeee said:

Excellent job winning the world cup!! Finally the Netherlands get one!!

Thanks, finally indeed, 60 years after the first final in 1974...

On 30-12-2017 at 20:11, yatesiboi37 said:

Superb work with the World Cup victory!

What is the main aim with AFC? Champions League? You seem to be bossing the league at the moment. 

Thank you. Yes, a CL victory and further growth as a club (reputation) and seeing through more youth development. 

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2034

Things did not really go according to plan this summer.

Domestically we're expected to win everything pretty much but continentally still the board doesn't expect much. Nice budgets.

Liverpool came in with an offer for Sam Vos, and since he was replaced as starting striker by Meijers I decided to sell him, the offer was good I think. I did take a risk, since Meijers still had a limited fee for this summer (it would go away in september). 

And wouldn't you know it, Chelsea came in and paid his limited fee. Oh. Sold my two best strikers. Oops.

The other transfers are mostly loans, South Korean prospect was sold to Utrecht when they came in with an offer since he's just never going to be a mainstay here with some of the other prospects. I also tried loaning out a bunch of players in the reserve squad to international affiliate clubs that I have to make the youth intakes a bit more varied, they are in leagues that aren't loaded but otherwise they would play in the reserves and they also play in an inactive league so worth a try I guess.

This guy is now the best striker at the club, as I said before there are multiple big talents at the club but obviously he has some way to go... also his jumping reach is so lacking that he probably never gets to the absolute top

We had a fantastic pre-season, great wins in the friendlies including a 3-0 over Real Madrid. Meijers played that match though. Also another supercup.

pretty harsh CL draw, we should qualify of course but Atletico and Inter will not be easy.

 

 

[MarcxD]

August 2034

A really good start and Juan scored 5 goals in the first 3 eredivisie matches so perhaps nothing to worry about then!

Ajax start unbeaten for a change, bad start for PSV and Katwijk is back in the Eredivisie with 3 draws.

Got this message as well, I think the highest number of players called up, at least that I can remember. Some more were added later actually for the u20 squad.

[MarcxD]

September 2034

A conflicting month for me, even though it looks good. Still perfect in the Eredivisie and a gigantic cup win against FC Utrecht (who are now in the Jupiler League). 5 away games and 1 loss, not that bad, right? Still though, I can't shake the feeling that there isn't much of progress. That barrier between us and European success is tough to break. Perhaps I can't ask for much more after selling my two best strikers, and things are looking good! I guess I'm just impatient.

This obviously looks fantastic already. I'm going to be honest and a little bit more negative though, and say that I would've liked for there to be more of a harsh battle between us and clubs like Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord throughout the years. Ajax back to 8th, PSV only winning 3 of their first 7 matches.... They have been the clear best clubs in Holland as long as I've lived and longer before that. While it is interesting to see Ajax drop down to the sub-top or even mid-table in some seasons it really should not be happening. 

Anyway, excuse my rambling.

There were two international matches, two 2-0's and convincing displays of the football I want to see.

About that, the football I'm playing: In the tactic I've let go a bit of the possession-based stuff I've done most of the time but it can still be there. Just that bit of directness at times can't hurt.

[MarcxD]

October 2034

Okay, can't find any reason to be displeased with this! 

Still perfect!

Really punished Germany and a good enough performance against USA for some more strong results with the national team.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Have I missed seeing this Tony Ventresca chap who's putting in PoM performances?

[MarcxD]

11 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Have I missed seeing this Tony Ventresca chap who's putting in PoM performances?

Well spotted. These were actually his first games for the Netherlands, which is why I haven't mentioned him before. 

From birth he's an Italian but he played for AZ for six years and chose to become Dutch since he wasn't capped yet. He has since moved to Napoli but with a lack of great AML's and some injuries I gave him a chance. As you can see he's done great here but he's already 31 so the only tournament he realistically can play outside of the Nations League is Euro 2036.

[noikeee]

Why on earth would you sell your 2 best strikers on what's essentially a youth challenge?  Specially when you're seemingly just missing a tiny extra bit of talent to win the Champions League.

It seems like you're handling these losses fine so far though.

[MarcxD]

2 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Why on earth would you sell your 2 best strikers on what's essentially a youth challenge?  Specially when you're seemingly just missing a tiny extra bit of talent to win the Champions League.

It seems like you're handling these losses fine so far though.

I wanted to sell one of them (Vos) to give Justin Juan a chance to develop in the first team, I certainly did not want to sell both of them but I took the risk that a club would come in for Meijer's limited fee. Chelsea did... 

We'll certainly miss Meijers in the CL but I hope with the amount of games Juan will play this season he can be great in one or two seasons from now

[MarcxD]

November 2034

5 games without conceding, 6-0 away in the CL and no losses - can't be too mad at that. 

Especially when you take into account that this happened at the start of the month, so if I'm still counting Vos and Meijers the 4th best striker in July played most games this month.

Obviously doing fantastic, interesting to see Heracles up there as our closest rivals and the traditional Dutch top 3 behind them.

I/AFC broke a bunch of records this month.

While this is a nice little streak, it is a bit bizarre that this took until 2034, in my sixteenth season as AFC manager.

This is a really amazing record though, when you take into account that the Dutch clubs do well in Europe and the 3rd best competition in Europe now for a few years.

A lovely new milestone - I want to reach at least 1000 games as a manager before turning to a new career.... not necessarily saying that I will quit this save around that time though! I've not decided yet.

I also got this message, I didn't even know they were being upgraded. Pretty sure they were already at the max, so no idea what happened here really.

The closing of the nations league group was also this month.

Not too shabby of results, although not quite as dominant as I would like perhaps.

100% performance in the group though, and we'll face Spain, Belgium & Italy for the title. Remarkable to see France get relegated from division A. 

[MarcxD]

December 2034

Going from almost unbeaten for 1,5 season in the Eredivisie to this. Ouch. One of the problems was that after Justin Juan back-up striker Villareal got injured as well, and there just were some poor performances. But this is unacceptable. Out of the cup, and another loss in the CL, and gave our domestic rivals some hope in the league.

Still in first, but lost most of our buffer.

Still managed to end second, but only just. 

Next up is Sevilla, perhaps not the harshest draws we could've gotten but it won't be easy, certainly not if things don't improve in January and February. Feyenoord and PSV the other 2 Dutch teams who managed to qualify for the KO-rounds, but they probably won't make it to the quarters.

Oh, about that second striker who got injured this month?

He won Golden Boy. 

Sure, great stuff when he has played but no way should he be even among the longlist for the award

The group for the next qualifiers has been drawn as well, really easy tbh. 

[Sheriff7]

Amazing progress mate..You will cruise in European quilifiers...

[Rikulec]

Woah, didn't see that coming. Hopefully you can recover quickly.

[MarcxD]

13 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Amazing progress mate..You will cruise in European quilifiers...

Thank you, qualifiers definitely should be easy

12 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Woah, didn't see that coming. Hopefully you can recover quickly.

Me neither! Cheers

[MarcxD]

January 2035

Two friendlies including a testimonial for Paul Fosu-Mensah and it seemed we got our groove back with a 6-1 demolishing of Heracles (in second place!) but we lost another match against Feyenoord at the end of the month. Sure, it's one of the tougher matches in the Eredivisie, but still disappointing of course.

3 Points lead on Heracles, 4 on Feyenoord and 5 on PSV. Perhaps this could be much more of an exciting title race again.

Besides the matches January is obviously a transfer month (as we're seeing IRL a bit) and some stuff definitely happened.

I let go some more players, mostly loans but I did sell another player. Asyrow is one of 3 AML's in the first team but I did not see much future in his development so was quite happy when Ajax came in with an offer. 

But a bigger financial windfall came from this transfer, former youth player van Dijk has gone to Manchester City for 130M euros, one of the biggest transfers in the game so far. A nice 31.5M for us, which means that the total money we have got from the transfer is 81.5M. Not too bad.

[MarcxD]

February 2035

Fantastic month, great wins to start off with and a good 3-1 home win against Sevilla in the CL.

Heracles still keeping up, for now at least.

[MarcxD]

Youth Intake 2035

Wow, a fantastic intake by the looks of it! Only down-side is that there are only two players from the many affiliate clubs I have, but another Andorran and perhaps a good one?! A Korean as well, but a terrible one.

His PPA is rated as the best, good mentality and a lot of decent attributes to start out with, that's for sure. Not too excited about his physicals (jumping and strength) but not a lost cause by any means.

French-Polish wonderkid in the making, perhaps?! A lot of things to like here, for sure. Key striker attributes like finishing, first touch, heading and composure already strong and while not the tallest he is somewhat able to jump. 

Like the look of this guy as well, could always use another midfielder.

I was hoping for more with his PPA to be honest. Doesn't look that good to me, but hopefully he'll prove me wrong.

There are lots of decent to good defenders already at the club, in the first team actually, so it will not be easy for him. But definitely some stuff to like here.

[MarcxD]

March 2035

Not great, some more points dropped but two big wins and through in the Champions League.

Especially the De Graafschap game was hard to take....

Heracles had had a terrible month though so we're looking much better for the title again. 7 points lead, 6 games to go. I must reiterate though that things are definitely made much easier by not having much of a battle with the other big clubs.

They did do well in Europe though, getting to the quarter finals when I predicted they would crash out. Call me Marcstradamus. Man Utd kicked us out of Europe last year, which calls for revenge. I don't see it happening though (reverse jinx in effect.. hopefully)

Can't be displeased with this start to the qualifiers.

[john1]

Not bad March month  

Has Heracles got rich owner?

[MarcxD]

1 hour ago, john1 said:

Not bad March month  

Has Heracles got rich owner?

Cheers.

No, they've not even invested that much. Just had a good season, perhaps profiting from no European football. 

The only good player they have is this wonderkid on loan from Ajax

He really is amazing, kind of shocked Ajax haven't kept him tbh. But elsewhere Heracles is pretty much average.

[MarcxD]

April 2035

Resting most of the team before the two matches against Man Utd hurt us in the league, two more losses, but perhaps it helped just enough to get a great result in Manchester and to hold on to that win in the home game! Through to the semi-finals!

We'll be playing Feyenoord, who beat PSV in the quarters. A Dutch club in the final no matter what, and it better be us!

Even though we lost twice a six points lead with two more games to go so really the title is in the bag.

[kidthekid]

Despite the key losses and injuries, things seem to be going well, even though it's not quite as easy as in the past

[noikeee]

Tomasiewicz looks absolute class, great timing too, for a player like that to pop up, after selling the strikers.  

Good luck for the CL, I'm actually a bit surprised that you've managed to get that far this year, Feyenoord are obviously beatable too, it'd be quite ironic if this was your year despite the squad having got weaker!