[FM 18][Closed] Chip chip chip away in Lithuania

[kidthekid]

love the progress.

[rodesire]

5 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

love the progress.

Thanks buddy!

[Sheriff7]

2 hours ago, rodesire said:

 

Once the old stadium has finished its most recent refurbishment I decided to ask the board for a new stadium and kept pressing until they actually agreed.  Shoutout to @Sheriff7 for inspiring this thread back in the day.

Looks like we'll be getting a 7k seater that should be ready for the 2037/8 season.  If the expansion capacity is anywhere around 10k that should be enough to start playing all the European matches at home at long long last.

My pleasure mate!! You've done amazing job there, much better from me and you keep going!!  Congratulations!!👏👏👏👏

[noikeee]

That Europa group seems pretty tough to me considering you were 2nd seeds... not very lucky there IMO. Good start though.

[rodesire]

5 hours ago, noikeee said:

That Europa group seems pretty tough to me considering you were 2nd seeds... not very lucky there IMO. Good start though.

Well, we should have beat Wolfsburg away at the Edin Dzeko arena and the other two teams are roughly our level, so I am not sure I got a bad group.  It's true I didn't get any whipping boys though.

[WillHoward42]

Enjoying this story!!

[rodesire]

16 minutes ago, WillHoward42 said:

Enjoying this story!!

Welcome aboard!

[rodesire]

October 2033 | Kretingos Grūdai

After a seismic September, October seemed like a very calm month.  We won all domestic games, lost to Wolfsburg in the first half playing 4-1-4-1 and then started recovering having switched to more attacking 4-4-2.

Our Žalgiris rivalry seems to have become even fiercer with the game acknowledging just how much we've been tip-toeing around each other.

The league tables are unchanged.  We're perfect domestically and just about holding onto the second place in Europa League.

[rodesire]

Lithuania Update

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

Boom! Lithuania finished the World Cup qualifier in fourth place behind The Netherlands, Austria and Norway.  Next thing I know, Auri Skarbalius, the long-reigning manager is out!

Obviously, I apply and get the job pretty easily.  The cherry on top of the cake is the huge salary, about 20 times higher than my club job.

In all fairness to Auri, who is still Lithuania's all time HoF leader, he didn't do too badly, although some squad selections were dubious at best.

And here are our 4 best players for the national team. A goalkeeper, who's way past his prime, my former centre-mid with no technicals, no physicals centre-mid and a Europa League-level defender with single-digit caps.  We also have almost no serviceable wide players in defense or midfield, so this is going to a really hard ask to get this team anywhere in the next cycle or two.

[rodesire]

November 2033

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

A lot more quiet on the club side this month.  The facility upgrades are now complete, we're up to good training / great junior facilities with more updates to be done next autumn.

It's almost embarrassing how well the team played this month.  We got FM'ed by Wolfsburg, 6 CCCs against a dodgy pen for them resulting in 0-1 loss. The second squad decided to jingle our fans by barely winning all month whereas first teamers swatted away Koralas in the Cup and then followed it up with a Greek tragedy, securing safe passage to the knockout rounds for us. 

Remarkably, we are yet to not win a game domestically, with the gap to Atlantas  ballooning to 13 points.  Zalgiris are 19 points off the pace and I would love a scenario where their manager would get sacked just for Auri to come back. Koralas are just behind Kauno Zalgiris at the bottom of the table, so they may survive yet too.

[rodesire]

December 2033

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

We had a perfect month this time round with the team firing on all cylinders and playing really good football.  I feel like restricting my wingers and defensive mid from shooting has improved the shot selection a lot, so whilst we have fewer shots, we get more on target and concede a lot less of rebounds/blocks.

We are still perfect domestically heading into the winter break, the gap to second is now 15 points.  Žalgiris is now 24 points adrift and could well miss out on European spots.  I am very surprised their manager's job is still listed as stable.  In the Cup, we will entertain our second division feeder team and in Europa league we got FC Kobenhavn, who have topped their EL group, so whilst I am happy with the match-up in general, I am not too confident of progressing any further.

Internationally, it's awards time!  Having swiped all the silverware last year, this year Bayern only got a single Footballer of the Year with the fantastic Yan Luis claiming Ballon d'Or and World Player of the Year.  Keep an eye out for the Daniel Sanger, the boy is 22 and could be winning awards for a decade now.

[rodesire]

This danish club is going to be tough to beat he said, we will struggle he said..

[rodesire]

February 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

Winter break was rather uneventful. There were a couple lowball bids for Panka and Klimavicius but nothing happened in the end.  On the pitch we had a short prep for the Europa League restart and then won all our competitive games with 4 clean sheets to boot.  Very happy how we are performing especially given that most of the team is still a bit lacking match fitness after the break (should have had an extra match or two before Kobenhavn games)

Our prize for dispatching the Danes is a date with Villareal who are currently 7th in La Liga.  There were a couple more upsets in Europe with Lech and PSV progressing on away goals against Sevilla and Bilbao. No such nonsense in UCL where Porto and Spartak Moscow are the only representatives outside big5. However, they both lost their first leg matches by 3 goals, so that will be the end of the road for them.

[rodesire]

Youth intake 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

It's been a year since I last upgraded my youth facilities and I think we may just be starting to hit our glass ceiling.  Still a golden generation but not a ridiculous one at that.  Also note, there is only one kid who travelled more than 20 miles to join us.

Klimavicius is the star of this intake, he's got ridiculous skills and whilst he's listed as a CD, I am planning to train him as a BBM or BWM.  Also need to get his personality to at least fairly professional.

Kloniunas is a yet another good goalie coming out of our academy.  I am not sure how to deal with 2 great and 2 good goalies as I don't really want to sell any of them.

Vaiciunas and Juska are fullbacks that are at least a year away from the first team but will probably be second choice next season given how bad my backup options are this year.

Overall, plenty of potential, but boy are those personalities awful!

[rodesire]

March 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

This month featured my first Lithuania games as well as the last 16 of the Europa League.

The greatest thing that happened this month was not doing well in the league or debuting as the nation's manager.  It was Zalgiris manager finally getting the sack.  It took him two thirds of a season languishing in lower mid-table but it finally happened.  It looks like their preferred replacement is an even worse manager, so this could be the beginning of the end for Zalgiris.

Back in Kretinga, we just can't stop winning domestically! Solid wins against everyone except Suduva, who almost stole a point late on.  In Europa League, it was the usual story.  We dominated first leg just to be pegged back by a dodgy penalty.  In return leg, we quickly went 2-0 down but managed to recover to 2-1.  I threw the players forward, we hit the bar and then quickly conceded twice more.  Till next season then.

These results leave us firmly atop the league table, with the gap at 17 points with a game in hand.  We'll be potentially meeting Zalgiris in the cup semifinals, so a chance to make then even more miserable.

 

National team affairs were slightly less exciting.  We do not have a single international level winger and way way too many centremids.  As a result, I am struggling to find a good formation to accommodate them all and win games.  I tried 4-3-3 cheese against Armenia but couldn't make it click at all which was a bit devastating.  We then managed to hang on against NIR with a 442 narrow diamond.  I think the narrow diamond or a variation of it could be the solution to doing well in Nations League.

[rodesire]

April 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

April is always crazy in Lithuania due to awful scheduling of the cup and the close of the regular season.  This time round we played 8 league games and a cup match including 3 fixtures in 4 days.  All of this meant my squad got really depleted and we finally dropped points in the league before actually losing for the first time domestically.  It was a long time coming but I am still annoyed as I was only 10 matches away from an invincible season.  We were also on 26 match winning streak before the draw and unbeaten in 37 in the league.

Overall, not much to play for.  We have secured the league and the game bugged out congratulating the team after every subsequent league match.  This also affected the HoF where I suddenly have 10 A Lyga titles (actually it's only my 6th top division title).  In the cup, we're facing Zalgiris in the second semifinal leg at home as that's the only competition that matters any more.

One thing I missed is the demise of Koralas. Despite me pumping 1.5mil into the club and them being 5 point above Kauno Zalgiris just 2 months ago, they will be relegated after the next match unless they win by 7 goals.  The other thing is Zalgiris doing extremely poorly this season.  Barring a magic recovery it will be the first time in 25 years they didn't make top3 in the league.  It is also looking likely that they will miss Europe altogether despite us potentially getting an extra place for one year.

[rodesire]

May 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

England is in vogue again! Liverpool have clawed their way to a Europa League victory whilst Chelsea overcame a truly difficult path on their way to the Champions League trophy.

Closer to home the month started with even more drama, as Suduva sacked their manager despite sitting comfortably in P3 in the league. The replacement they hired is arguably even worse, so it could be a few bad years for Suduva in the making.

Meanwhile, we had a few fixtures to go through and we defeated every single team. Once again it is not the most exciting brand of football but it is incredibly efficient and it seems to translate well to Europe.

We were irresistible this season in the league, equaling all-time record for points in a season.  Zalgiris ended the season in P6, their lowest in 25 years.

We also won the FA Cup, comfortably dispatching Atlantas in the final, that's our second treble of the save wrapped up. My latest win propelled me to a very fraudulent top of national Hall of Fame.

Our kids also stepped their game up and captured a domestic double with a potential invincible season on the cards.

[rodesire]

Awards 2033/4

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

Once more a clean sweep of all the domestic awards for us.  Manager of the year for me again, Panka winning U21 and Lithuanian Player of the Year, whilst backup ML wins league's best player award.

Ankudinovas becomes the player of the season having scored a bunch of goals in May, totally undeserved but hey, fans have no memory.

Squad-wise, strikers had a stunning year with 4 hitting 17 goals or more and we were also very good defensively.  The squad depth is definitely getting better too with our second string almost going the whole season unbeaten domestically.  There are more young guns coming through and with a bit of luck I can see us challenging for Europa League quarterfinals in a couple years time.

[rodesire]

World Cup 2034 edition

This year's edition featured 32 teams from around the globe as Japan hosted the World Cup for the second time ever.

Croatia and  Netherlands were the only notable absentees, whilst Scotland made it to their second consecutive World Cup having cracked top15 of FIFA rankings earlier this year.   Wales also made it for the first time since 1958.

No significant upsets in the group stages too with only USA, Denmark and Scotland potentially feeling aggrieved about not qualifying through.  Japan managed to top their very easy group but still got rewarded with a Brazil tie due to Portugal topping group B on goal difference.

It was quite frankly a notoriously conventional World Cup with all classic sides making to quarter-final and France lifting the trophy having defeated Spain 2-0 in the final.

[rodesire]

June 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

It's the offseason, all the players are happily on holiday while I am planning my next step in world domination.  This is a quick summary of how we've done so far in 16 seasons at Kretingos Grudai.

Last season we reached last 16 of the Europa League for the first time, really dragging the team and nation's coefficients up.  This means, top division is now a 3* league, so hopefully more good players on the opposing teams.  Better coefficient also means that this year's league is going to have even more influence on teams' finances as we got an extra UCL spot for 2035/36 season.

Meanwhile, the board is expecting even more this year.  A domestic double and at least a round in the Champions League.  It is not unreasonable, but certainly ambitious.

Last but certainly not least, we have been granted permission to build a stadium less than a year after we started planning.  Building it will only take a year too, so next season we'll be operating at a 7k facility.  I hope we expand it to at least 10k, that would allow us to play all European matches at home for a lot more revenue.

My only problem, it's not named after me despite me being the only legend at the club  

[Sheriff7]

Finally mate you took national team  job!You deserved it much sooner though.... Amazing progress with the club.. 

[rodesire]

5 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Finally mate you took national team  job!You deserved it much sooner though.... Amazing progress with the club.. 

Thanks buddy, I had to sleep on the national job offer as the team is not amazing atm.  We have no good wingers and 8 of top10 lithuanian players are AMC/STs.

[rodesire]

July 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

My son has finally been handed his debut, almost a year to date I wanted to involve him in the first team.  He has overcome his potentially career threatening injury and had a splendid year with U21s.  He's already rated as my best defender with nearly boundless potential.

And speaking of boundless potential, last year's leading light Paukste has been developing ever so well:

Anyway, it's a short pre-season time where we went to Poland for our first ever tour. It didn't go well and we got well beaten a couple times.  We then got a decent result in first away leg in UCL.

[rodesire]

August 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

It was supposed to be a nice easy summer but I had forgotten that some of my players had (at the time reasonable) release clauses.  Now they're all reaching the market values and the sharks started circling.  This time I lost arguably my best keeper for paltry 300k.

Domestically, we managed to lose the super cup to Atlantas who have invested money from us really well and are well on their way to consolidate their second place from last year.  We also just about navigated the Champions League qualifiers though we needed a couple of injury time goals to get through in the end.

Our reward for doing that is still being a fourth seed but getting a moderately bad group.  Porto are a tough third seed but they only got out of group stages twice since the beginning of the save and never went past QF in Europa League either, so we may just have a chance against them.

Overall, not much has happened, it's all to play for.  Oh, and I think the bookies may actually be right for once trying to predict who's going to be best player in top division this year.

[rodesire]

September 2034

FK Kretingos Grudai / Lithuania

This was the first month with me leading the national team at competitive fixtures.  We just about went unbeaten in friendlies, so I was a bit worried about our fixtures against Moldova and Slovakia.

Well, it proved to be completely unfounded as we thrashed both teams without too much effort in the end.  My young star Paukste was given his first 2 caps scoring three times in total.

This leaves us way ahead in the Nations league table, with the next set of fixtures in a month's time.

Back at the club level our increased reputation significantly shortened our UCL odds from 500-1 to 200-1 this year.

We were visiting Bayern in the opening game of the UCL group stage as I realised they have just moved into their new arena, absolutely huge space in fact.

In other news, Zalgiris opened their new stadium and it's a beauty!  Two-tiered stands all round with a bit of expansion space, it seems.

In addition, this marked my 700th game at the helm of the club.  Unfortunately, my players did not get the memo as we slumped to an awful defeat.

Realistically, the whole month was not great.  My players kept getting injured and I was daft enough to sell a lot of average players over the summer leaving me with just 38 contracted guys on senior+junior teams.

As you've probably noticed we have already dropped as many points this season in the league as we did whole last year and the table looks bad.

[rodesire]

October 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

Our slightly disappointing shitshow continued this month in international arena.  We played well in both games but couldn't finish against Iceland and then my relatively inexperienced backline got shredded to pieces by Moldova.  Yet, still somehow we're topping our Nations League group, so maybe I won't get sacked after all.

At the club level, the plays are something out of Mourinho book, boring boring football and we keep conceding.  The UCL was hit and miss having been destroyed by Barca after the Portuguese held us at home.  Did I mention losing to Stumbras having been 2-0 up after 70 minutes?

Miraculously, we're not too far off the pace in the league, P4 but only 5 points off the top.

[rodesire]

November 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

We had two more Nations league games against our nearest competitors, so points were vital.  We got the job done but only just.  Both games were tense and perhaps got lucky against Iceland.

Anyhow, 3 more points meant we finished top of our group and got promoted to Division B for next time!

At the club level, we stopped messing around and started producing more even if still a bit unconvincingly.  I really do believe that league rep rising is making other teams stronger and they're very happy to splash out on expensive free agents looking for any edge.

Whilst Bayern was painful, it wasn't as bad as Besiktas' match against ManU.

Overall, we managed to claw our way to the top of the table domestically and need to defeat Porto away to continue continental football after the winter break.

[kidthekid]

Didn't take long until you were back on top again. Nice run of form

[rodesire]

3 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

Didn't take long until you were back on top again. Nice run of form

Thanks, my job security had dipped to very secure for the first time in 5 years though  

[rodesire]

December 2034

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

Christmas Eve was the time for the Euro2036 draw.  Thanks to our performances over the past year we got to the third seed somehow.

The draw was interesting... We were drawn with Estonia and Albania which both have to be 6 points.  Then we got assigned Ireland from pot 2, arguably the weakest team there. Finally, the Netherlands.  They're a powerhouse again with a three-time Ballon d'Or winner Coumans leading them but not the most difficult first seed if I am honest.  All in all, a very very beatable group and I deserve a sacking if we don't finish in second.

Back at the club, our depleted youngsters finished their U19 Champions League campaign on 3 points with a couple more close matches that could have gone either way.

The seniors actually went unbeaten this month.  I was contemplating how to fit all my players at both club and international level and decided to make a switch to 4231.  Boy did it work well, we started scoring even against the tightest defenses.  The conceded goal column flatters us a bit as my keeper had to bail me out repeatedly.

Anyhow, we're now 9 points clear at the top now and with the new batch incoming after the winter break, the title is ours to lose.

[rodesire]

Winter break 2034/5

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

Not much happened this winter, our U21 assistant manager got poached and I have arranged a sale of one of my older defenders to Suduva for the time his contract expires.

In more relevant news, the irresistible Marco Coumans has become the unanimous Footballer of the Year in all three major awards.  That's his third World Player of the Year,  second Footballer of the Year and third Ballon d'Or.  Quite a career for Bayern Munich stalwart, one of 4 strikers this year to hit 40 goals or more in all competitions. 

[rodesire]

February 2035

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

We're coming out of a winter break, so I arranged a few friendlies with my feeder clubs to give them some cash and gain some morale in return.  The two league games were oddly scheduled just 52 hours apart but two different elevens were enough to break down the defenses both times.

Unsurprisingly, CPU struggled with the fixture congestion, so we increased our lead to 13 points now.  If things continue in this vein we may wrap the title in early April, though I do hope someone pulls away and actually poses a challenge for us to keep my players a bit more motivated.

[rodesire]

March 2035 | Youth intake

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

Youth intake time!  It's another golden generation and whilst it looks amazing on star ratings alone, this is very much an experimental year with most players having awful awful personalities.

I am very excited about Klimavicius, he's a natural partner on the right wing for Vasiliauskas from 8th generation.  Jurevicius has decent physicals but need a hell of a lot work on everything else, so it'll be interesting to see how much he improves with tutoring and plenty of game time in U21s.

Baranauskas is this year's best keeper.  Great key technicals already and arguably the best personality of the lot so far.  Last but not least, we have a foreigner.  I have no idea why an Italian (I have no Italian staff) but here we are, a left back, not exactly a star in the making but could be a decent backup for years to come.

 

On the pitch we were pretty solid with a flawless month and it seems like early season jingles are way behind us now.  Even the cup game, that we had 28 players away on internationals went fine with us coming back from an early goal whilst handing out debuts to 7 players.

We're now 16 points ahead of Zalgiris in P2, Dziugas finally won a game but will be relegated in a couple weeks time.  In the cup we drew Zalgiris v Atlantas tie winner, so that'll be a fun semi-final.

[kidthekid]

wow, those personalities are something else. At least you didn't get spineless. 

[rodesire]

14 hours ago, kidthekid said:

wow, those personalities are something else. At least you didn't get spineless. 

yeah, i am a bit miffed.  My HoYD is fairlyPro with 12 for determination, might be getting the chop after this shitfest.

[rodesire]

April 2035

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

First thing, thank you everyone for supporting me and this thread, it's been a great few months.  Thank you for your votes over the last couple of weeks, here's to more success with Lithuanian underdogs.

 

The month started with the Euro qualifiers.  Our group is fairly nice this time round with Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia and Albania making up the rest of the teams.  Still, the opening match was a stark reminder how far we are off the top teams with Netherlands really shredding us to pieces and winning by three clear goals.  We clearly struggled to pick up the pieces after that defeat but just about managed to get through. We  had to come from behind at Albania to get our qualifying campaign back on track with my sub striker scoring twice to bail me out.

Three points funnily enough propelled us to P2 in the group which is roughly where we wanna be.  Ireland could only draw against Albania, so the next double header against them could seal their faith.

Back at the club we had a bit of a sobering experience. I got FM'ed twice by Zalgiris, feeling slightly concerned about both matches against them.  We had good chances, plenty of CCCs, passing the eye test and then they just scored a couple 25 yarders and an odd counter. Then Suduva came with narrow 4-3-3 and my defense just fell apart, feels bad.

This means the lead in the league is down to 13 points with 7 to go.  I should still secure the title with ease but I am mildly worried about the cup tie as we need to Zalgiris away to progress.

[Sheriff7]

Great comeback against Albania!Sure you can secure 2nd place against (propably) Ireland...

[rodesire]

6 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Great comeback against Albania!Sure you can secure 2nd place against (propably) Ireland...

Thanks, buddy.  You'll have to wait for that one cos it's still a couple of months away.

 

May 2035

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

May is usually a fairly relaxed month as we seem to wrap up the title in April and win the first cup semi-final by enough to not be worried too much.  This time round though, there was a bit more drama.

It kicked off as usual, with my U21s finally clinching their league title, 8th in a row, unbeaten season yet again.

Among the seniors, my key striker finally calmed down, so I managed to resign him to a longer contract with a bigger release fee, hopefully he'll stay for a while longer with us.

Fixtures were relatively easy this month with lots of rotation involved but we still went unbeaten, with only Suduva's 433 causing us trouble again.

This leaves us way atop the league table with just one match to go.  My protege, Atlantas battled their way to P2 and Champions League qualification, so it'll be interesting to see how far they can go.  Before the end of the season, we will be facing Stumbras in the Cup final which should be good fun.

[rodesire]

June 2035

FK Kretingos Grūdai | Lithuania

Summer internationals featured a double header against Ireland.  I decided to shuffle the team a little bit and drop all the old guys whose physicals would have fallen off the cliff in a year's time.  Ended up selectin 7 uncapped players and 10 more with under caps.  The games themselves were strange. We beat them 4-1 playing 442 v 442 and then lost 1-2 in away leg when Ireland whipped out narrow 433 that I mirrored.

The only big positive was blooding in a number of kids and most of them doing well in first match and then older guys messing it up away.  I even capped a guy I haven't played in the league yet!

This set of results means we have a H2H advantage against Ireland but could face problems trying to get to P2 and then be one of the better second placed teams.  The Netherlands were playing Nations league finals, so they've got games in hand.  Meanwhile Albania crushed Estonia twice and are leading.  Ireland is also only 2 points behind with a game in hand on us.

At the club level, we finished the domestic season with a couple wins, both very late winners but we got there in the end.

Stumbras put up a good fight in the finals but quite frankly their path was extraordinary as they didn't face a single top division opponent since November in the cup.

The league table shows a couple interesting things this season.  Yes, we have now won 6 titles on the bounce but this is probably the first time we significantly regressed on our YoY point total.  There is also a big3 starting to form behind us with Atlantas, Zalgiris and Suduva all getting stronger and breaking away from the rest.

You may have noticed that Zalgiris is in P3 with only Europa league football next season.  I was wondering whether their coach would get the sack and indeed that happened.  The new manager seems quite similar to the old one in terms of stats and his only achievement has been achieving a bounce-back promotion with a recently relegated side, so we'll see if he brings any actual improvement to the team.

In other news, I asked the board for a commercial affiliate, so we'll see if this brings in any money.  We also expanded our data facilities as I didn't want the directors to steal away another few milions.

[rodesire]

Around Europe 2035

My European universe has stayed exteremely consistent with the football of late 2010s almost 20 years later.

In Premier League, 2 out of 3 promoted teams form Championship usually go down every season, and few survive beyond 3 seasons. The big 6 has expanded with Southampton landing a tycoon a few years back and starting to flex financial muscle more and more.  At the top it's same old, ManU, City, Chelsea and Arsenal are the only teams to have won the title since the start of the save.

La liga is even more of a snoozefest.  Barca has won two titles since the save began and all others were sweeped by Real Madrid; they even went unbeaten this year.  

Serie A is a bit interesting.  Yes, Juve did go on a 9 season winning streak but in general the top is very competitive, like in EPL.  The leading teams are still the same ones though - Roma and Milan teams, Juve and Napoli.  The interesting addition is the continued rise of Novara who promoted in 2026 and have kept climbing.

Bundesliga has been huge in this save with Bayern becoming the biggest club in Europe.  They've done the UCL treble, won the title as many times as RM have since the beginning of the save and have had 5 of the last 8 Ballon d'Or winners.  Neverkusen are getting better though and together with the franchise they're probably the biggest threat to the club who just moved into their new Beckenbauer stadium.

Ligue 1, PSG-land.  This was the closest season in 10 years, last time PSG didn't win the title.  There might just be a tide shifting with PSG players getting on a bit and OL and OM waiting in the wings with a few very talented kids.

Champions League only had big5 teams in the knockouts this year with the usual suspects powering through.  Arsenal did make quite an impact beating Bayern in quarters.

The fun league of Europe had a lot more diversity with most major clubs (looking at you, Southampton) falling away early.  Lazio lifted the title over Levante who had a dream run all things considered.

[rodesire]

2034/35 Awards

Abunch of awards for us as usual, with the manager of the year and three major player awards.

The switch to 4231 seems to have been very successful as I have managed to put great team out every week and win yet another title or two.

I still haven't really stopped rotating the squad as more capable kids played as much as their lesser counterparts.  Once again, I had a clearout which means the average age is down to 20 in the first team.

[rodesire]

2035/36 preview

We have been very successful as a club on the pitch and luckily, the board has really pulled through and improved the club off the pitch too.

Our UCL adventure last year had a double edged effect.  We earned lots and lots of money but it meant the nation's coefficients went down and we also lost a bunch of money to the directors.

Overall, the league rep is still growing with top division now rated at 3* and second division at 2* (higher than A Lyga at the beginning of the game).

We have finally completed the new stadium and moved in.  This only took two and a half years from planning to first game but it seemed like eternity in-game.

The stadium itself is a fairly basic one-tier, four-stand stadium that can have its capacity doubled to 14k seats.

In other news I have already secured a stadium expansion that should almost be enough to sustain the team even without deep European runs and I have renegotiated out Chinese affiliate deal to include youngsters too.

[rodesire]

2035 Squad review

Hopefully, I can make this a biennial event with national team reviews coming every other year as we prep for major tournaments too.

First off, the most promising youngsters:

I have not one but two incredible goalies in my U21 team.  Both are about to turn 17 and have different strengths.  Jonauskis is more of a sweeper keeper and definitely needs a lot more match experience, whereas I am almost tempted to loan out Baranauskas as he seems to just need a bit of match experience to make the big leap.

The two great outfield players in U21 are both defenders.  Vaiciunas has mean mentals for a Lithuanian kid and should be able to pick up the pace fairly easily, especially if the tutoring goes as expected. I am struggling a bit more with Klimavicius, who seems to be gaining a lot in Physicals but not in technical ability, might convert him to an anchor man if i can't make him a CB.

~~~

On the senior front, I have been really blessed with strikers:

Paukste and Panka are two of the biggest stars in Lithuanian football and it's easy to see why. They're quick, can finish and score boatloads.  Unfortunately, I think they have both pretty much maxed out already, so it will be a matter of keeping them happy rather than exploiting any potential.  Their backups are Pilypas and Paulauskas.  They're both strangely good at scoring goals even though they shouldn't be.  Pilypas has an incredible streak of almost a goal a game whilst Paulauskas got 90 despite not playing regularly and is a top2 all-time in assists too.

In wide midfield areas, there's been quite a lot of turnover.

Vasiliauskas is our second star of the club and all-time assist leader with 80 goals and 83 assists in 149 club games. Alisauskas and Jasaitis have both had their chances but haven't really exploited them.  Mickevicius is a relatively late bloomer who slipped under my radar in U21s to develop mean pace and is a great impact sub.  Finally, Klimavicius looks to be an insane talent and I'll do my damnest to keep him around as long as I can.

Centremid is just as packed as the other areas of the squad.

Skinderis, Arlauskis and Karcemarskas are all limited but perfectly capable of handling a Lithuanian team, whereas Butkus, Paukste and Baranauskas are called upon for European requirements.  There isn't much potential there, so we may stagnate a bit longer than I would like at least for 2-3 more years.

Defensively, our wingbacks are the weakest link, just look at them:

Mirauskas is not good enough to play but Paulauskas is crazy inconsistent, so he can't bear more than 2/3 of a season.  On the right, it's even more complicated. Klimavicius is kinda the best one right now but Jurevicius is incredibly talented and that leaves Baranauskas in no man's land even with excellent mentals and physicals.

It's a much better situation in centreback area:

My son and Vasiliauskas have played well and are ready to be the defensive pillars for the next few years.  Meantime, Lotuzys and Alisauskas are tutoring as much as they can before begin sold as the youngsters progress from U21 squad.

The area we're most spoiled at is goalkeepers:

yes, Jankauskas should be released if it wasn't for his resolute personality.  But look at all the others, Kloniunas is a star in the making, just needs better one-on-ones.  Urba spent a season at Atlantas and came back to claim the number one spot that is currently Butkus' to lose.  He's not amazing but does the job ever so well and been a calming presence in many games whilst pulling off magical saves time and time again.

[rodesire]

2025 Pre-season

A very quiet pre-season for once with only significant sale being Paulauskas leaving us for Stumbras for 100k.

Our rep is growing ever more as top player odds are shortening for a number of fairly decent kids.

Fixture-wise we navigated the UCL playoffs before I found myself 4-0 up on aggregate against AIK, so I did my best to implode and we did concede 7 goals in 45 minutes, thus falling down to Europa League.  Hopefully, I'll get more coefficient this way and have a chance to bring home some spring continental football.

Not much happening in the league table but we did lose our opening match having had an awful game.

Almost forgot, the super cup win means I have finally overtaken Auri Skarbalius as best ever Lithuanian manager.  Only took 16 years, including 6 years of total domestic domination to get there.

[rodesire]

2035 September - Lithuania update

Only 4 more official matches till the end of the EURO qualifying as we sit precariously in third place.  Next up fixtures against Colombia and a crunch match against Estonia.  I decided to field a bunch of debutants and try out a new formation which quickly backfired with 10 shots on target against up in first 30 minutes.  A bit of a reshuffle save our faces a little bit and we could have snatched the game had our strikers not misfired.  None of these mistakes against Estonia though.  The boys were clinical and made sure we left with 3 points and a much better goal difference this time.

Meanwhile, Croatia decided to send Liechtenstein back to Nations League dvision Z.

[rodesire]

September 2035

Something odd happened to Atlantas as they went all the way to the fourth qualifying round in Europa League.  What's even more odd was that their games got delayed by a week meaning the draw happened at the same time as my international fixture.  I think we were the second seeds and the group is really quite nice in the end.  Nantes are stronger than us but could be beaten if they get complacent.  We should really beat BATE comfortably but Partizan could be a tough away day.

Meanwhile, our board seems to not care about facility upgrades any more as they kept getting postponed more and more.  Not sure what is the deal with that as we have the money to buy anything at this point.

Anyhow, back on the pitch the boys did alright.  We drew the first blood against Partizan and managed to just about FM past Zalgiris in the league to keep the ball rolling in the league.

Strangely, none of the strikers are really firing on all cylinders this year as it's a lot more of a team effort scoring goals now.  Anyhow, we're around the top of A Lyga table and doing well in Europe early on too.

[rodesire]

2035 October internationals

Before I wax lyrical about my team, just wanted to share a couple of nuggets of pure FM out there.

Kazakhstan is leading a group after 6 matches. A group that contains Norway and Croatia.  They won every single match so far.  Against both Norway and Croatia they managed to score their only shot on target and then defended for their lives.  They are guaranteed to finish at least third and if they get at least a win against Cyprus and Malta they will probably go through in second as one of the best qualifiers.

Meanwhile, French striker Kevin Mercier has become the first player in this save to score ten goals in a single game.  I don't even know where to start on this one. Never seen anything quite like it.

Back in Lithuanian camp we faced a crunch tie against The Netherlands and Albania.  I knew that we didn't have much of a chance against the former, so I threw on a couple of youngsters and surprisingly we only lost 1-0.  The match against Albania featured a full-strength team and we quickly took the lead.  Despite my best attempts we could not score more and we almost paid the price as our keeper had to save a one-on-one in 94th minute that would have almost certainly closed the door for us in qualifying.  Still, we survive to face another day.

This leaves us in second, just ahead of Ireland who are yet to meet The Netherlands for the second time.  Should they fail to take all three points, we'll be in pole-position to qualify for the EUROs.

[rodesire]

2035 October

A relatively straightforward month for the club side as we faced all kinds of opponents this month.  We could not prevent Nantes from beating us in France but responded really well with a measured win over BATE in Belarus.  The league took care of itself as we ground out a couple of narrow wins.  Then, we finished the month with a flourish to hopefully kickstart a very busy November.

Not much change in here as we're top of the league domestically.  I don't see anyone challenging us in the near future unless Zalgiris or Atlantas spend their fortunes very well.  In Europa League, we're in second halfway through the group stage and should progress should we beat Partizan in Serbia.

[rodesire]

2035 November internationals

Just a final match in the EURO qualifying group, just a single friendly before it is all that stands in our way.  We defeated Kazakhstan with a workmanlike performance before delivering a final blow to Estonia.

Regardless, it would all be for nawt if Ireland won their final clash against the Netherlands.  However, they lost 1-3 which means we finished second in the group.

A look at the second placed table was enough to send nation leaping as we qualified for EUROs directly only for the second time ever.  Next summer will be bittersweet as veterans will be saying their goodbyes whilst the new generation is not quite there yet.

[Sheriff7]

Excellent work mate!