[FM18] Basically Finnished FM18 in style

[turnip]

Season 1 - holiday
That first season on holiday when you've decided which country you'll start in is like a child's happy dream - full of potential, mystery and excitement. When you check your save on the designated date, who will have been promoted; who will have been relegated? If you've avoided the temptation to peek halfway through, it's like Schrodinger's Cat, except in all the ways it isn't.

 

Season 2 - RC Lens, French National
If you know you're going to start in the French National, after a year of holidaying, you know you'll have at least 6, possibly 7 newcomers to the league to choose from, out of 18 clubs in total. There could be some very small, part-time clubs, some potentially big part-time clubs (e.g. Le Mans) or some moderately-sized clubs that have fallen on hard times. But you don't tend to get a club like RC Lens. So when I saw they'd been relegated, my choice was all but made for me.

Transfers
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the under-performing cud-munchers who'd got the team relegated weren't overly keen on sticking around to stick it out. A quick look around the squad suggested that some of them could still play a decent part, so I gave them all a transfer value I thought was reasonable and ignored everything about them that wasn't a transfer bid. As it happened, the club's finances were in a very healthy position as it was, with a generous Transfer and Wage budget. Still, by the end of the window, we'd sold an ST (already agreed when I took over), an ML for £1m, a very good DC for £2m and a promising MC for £850k. I also signed a 15 year old recommended by my scouts from a National - 2 club for ~£16k. In return, I signed an AM RLC, a GK, two new  DCs and a DL, plus an ST and MC released by Real Madrid for free, bought another MC for £20k, another DL for £55k and a D R/L DM MC for £400k (from Liverpool). 

Note that the thread title comes from the fact that I tend to bring scores of triallists in when I'm in lower leagues. This season was no exception.

Once the winter window went on it's windy way, I'd already upgraded the GK for a younger, better version and signed a new AM L from a batch of Brazilian triallists. Seriously, that GK is bonkers good.

French National
The first quarter of the season saw me battling the malcontents in the squad as much as the opposition. It's fair to say that up until Christmas, those whiners barely spent a minute of game time looking anything other than "Looks Complacent" or "Seems Uninterested". After Christmas, it barely mattered, since I'd dropped all but one of them (the DR) in favour of players who actually put some effort in. Still, it turns out that if a player is good enough, a half-arsed performance can be good enough. We breezed through the season with nothing but my own growled expletives and muttered commentary to bother the team. We made somewhat hard work of the last few games - once we'd wrapped up the title - but that's just being picky.
Played: 34  Won: 27  Drawn: 6  Lost: 1  GD: +47  Pts: 87  Pos: 1st  League Winners!

League Cup
Knocked out in the Second Round to a Ligue 2 side; I couldn't have cared any less

French Cup
Despite my efforts to do the bare minimum to keep the board happy, the second-string sides I kept selecting somehow got through to the later stages. It was funny when we squeaked past Ligue 1 Caen in the 9th Round and bizarre when we thrashed EA Guingamp (also of Ligue 1) in the 10th. That set us up for wins against National - 2 and then Ligue 2 opposition in the 11th Round and Quarter-Finals, but we were unable to get past Ligue 2 Brest to reach the final. Which was a shame, because Reims (17th in Ligue 1) had beaten PSG in the other Semi-Final, so we may have had a chance of qualifying for Europe. 

Summary & Performances
A comfortable season in the league all around. We didn't really rely on the first team players I'd inherited, although 11 were still in my squad once the holidays started. Their performances were just so poor that there was rarely a convincing reason to play them. Their wages are all quite high, so I'm looking forward to them all struggling to get new clubs once I toss them overboard like the vermin that they are.
In terms of good performances, the AM RLC hit 20 goals for the season and even if 6 of them came from penalties, that's a good return from a player I picked up for free from an Albanian side. Our Spanish ST also got to 10 goals (thanks to a brace in the last game of the season) after his move from Real Madrid's B Team and his buddy from Madrid's also-rans, one of our MCs, also did well. The two new DCs formed a decent partnership alongside whichever DL was playing that week.
Notable kids this season include: 
* the 15 year old MC who turned 16, was thrown into a Cup game I was expecting/hoping to lose and did well enough to get a promotion to the First Team squad and end up with 13 appearances for the season - his attributes initially look a little unbalanced, but note that he's two-footed. My coaches reckon he's Ligue 1 material.
* a young DC whose attributes developed during the year to the point where at least someone on my staff reckons he's good enough for our First Team. I mean, not consistently, with those garbage-tier Mental attributes, but he had a few decent performances towards the end of the season (and some shockers)
* a young GK my backroom staff think could be superb; I stink when it comes to talent-spotting in young GKs, so I'll just nod my agreement and try to give him a loan next season so I can see what happens

* a young striker who made a few appearances towards the end of the season

In terms of the club's finances, it's worth bearing in mind that by the end of the season, our Salary Per Annum was almost twice that of the nearest big-spenders. All hail private investment.

 

Forgot to get a screen grab of the Youth Intake, so here are the players I signed to contracts:

DC - M. Puech

GK - O. Lemeur

DC - P. Fall

AMR - M. Blanchet

DL - G. Bernard

DM - F. Lopez

ML - R. Colin

MR/L - L. Soulard

[turnip]

Season 2: Part 1 - RC Lens, French Ligue 2
In the close season there was a takeover. Nothing really changed, though, which was nice. Also nice was the board suggesting that our Scouting Range be expanded to 'Wherever, I guess'. Awesome Kyrgyz, Tongan and Panamanian players beware - my scouts are on the prowl.

Transfers
The only players to leave were the ones I wanted rid of: a few clubs came in for my GK, but the bids were pathetic, so I rejected them all. Coming into the club were a couple of DMs, a DC from Leyton Orient, a young MC from Club Brugge I'd had my eye on and a young DR from Vit. Guimaraes. My scouts flew down to South Africa and returned with another MC, an MR and an ST that I may have mistaken for someone else. One interesting signing that I didn't pay much attention to at the time was a 17 year old Finnish ST who I threw into the U-19s without really noticing that he was possibly the best striker we had in the whole squad (and therefore didn't register him for the league). Idiot self.

£52k for this kid? Good deal right there.

 

 

£110k for this one? Some sort of foolishness down in Sath Efrika, surely?

 

French Ligue 2
We started in pretty good form. I'd fiddled with tactics a bit during pre-season and hadn't entirely settled on what our approach should be, so for the first half of the season that probably contributed to us sort of plodding through games, mostly just taking our chances more often than the opposition. On matchday 16, we beat previously unbeaten Montpellier 2-1 at home to go second behind them and went into the Winter Break in 3rd, a point behind both Montpellier and Nancy.

[turnip]

 

C'mon, Nancy... do it...

do it do it do it do it do it

[turnip]

[turnip]

Season 2: Part 2 - RC Lens, French Ligue 2
During the winter transfer window, we sold our last 'good' holdout from last season, the Ivorian DR. He'd been an unexceptional Captain and his new contract (£15k p/w) was a bit much given his unremarkablel talents, so £2.5m plus extras was decent enough. We also got rid of a few no-hopers from the squad for a net wage budget gain. In return, we brought in a Ligue 1 quality DC, a replacement DR, yet another MC, a Target Man and my standard glut of 'potentials'. Having been very short on good options for tutoring, I also brought in some Player/U-19 Coaches and set them to work immediately.

French Ligue 2
As with the first half of the season, we did well without ever really taking off. The worst run of games of the whole season (!) came when we won/drew/lost 2/3/2 games in all competitions between the end of February and the first couple of weeks of April. Other than that, though, as before our results often seemed to relate more to fortunate finishing than an overabundance of talent. Still, with 4 games to play, we found ourselves 3rd - three points behind 2nd (Montpellier) and four behind 1st (Nancy) - albeit with the easiest run-in. With 2 automatic promotion spots available, we took 10 points from those games, while Montpellier got 5 and Nancy could only get 4 and wound up in the Playoffs on goal difference. 
Played: 38  Won: 23  Drawn: 13  Lost: 2  GD: +36  Pts: 82  Pos: 1st  League Winners!

French Cup
We beat Ligue 1 FC Metz on the way to the 11th Round. That tie fell between a couple of important league games, so I sent the kids and we lost 4:2.

League Cup
Oh, did we lose in the first round? Sadface

Youth Intake

Obviously, Sullimann, Rouxel and Sene are the standouts. Note that Sullimann and Sene got bumped up half a star of PA once they'd signed. 
Other than those guys, we also signed Ipoua, Maffon, Dufresne, Brun, Molina, Galant and Maeyens. 

Summary and Performances
Three players got to 10 goals for the season, although Assists were spread around rather more (if you ignore Pires Silva). Pires Silva was our MVP for the season by a country mile. His Stamina is a key factor - we scored rather a lot of goals in the last 15-20 minutes of games; in no small part because he would still be galloping down the wing in the 85th minute, going past defenders like Bale vs Maicon.

Personally, I got a new contract in January and managed to get 'Develop Young Players' as a Philosophy through negotiations.
Then, once promotion was confirmed, they offered another new contract and agreed to upgrade Youth Recruitment as part of the deal - I probably could've got that anyway, but eh.

[noikeee]

Not wasting any time here I see. That's a decent start to a career. 

Lens is a great pick of a club to manage, I still vaguely remember them winning the French league. Bonkers that they were down to tier 3 in your game.

[turnip]

It's not yet Christmas, but a couple of matches to demonstrate how things are going so far:

Yeah, I still have no idea how we clung on for a draw.

 

We scored in the 11th and 15th minutes, switched to a Sweeper system at half-time and defended fairly comfortably for the rest of the game.

[turnip]

Season 3 - Part 1: RC Lens, French Ligue 1
The transfer window was a busy, but not quite hectic, one. I revamped a large part of the backroom staff, including getting rid of my Director of Football, only to find that I couldn't hire an improvement on the wages the board would allow - and that was something they weren't shifting on. Oh well.
Player-wise, the best signing was undoubtedly a Georgian DC I'd had my eye on for a while and who I was able to get in on a free and for surprisingly low wages. I also signed, in no particular order, a Tunisian DC, Slovenian MC, Colombian ML/ST, Cameroonian MC and Portuguese WBL/DM 'Born Leader'. I also signed a Norn Irish midfielder from Ballymena after being somewhat mysteriously linked with him in a media story. And then, with the transfer window winding down, Bremen stepped up their interest in our GK, we went back and forth on negotiations for a few days and then my Chairman decided to accept an offer that was... identical to my last negotiation. The result being: our GK left, so I replaced him with a German. 

French Ligue 1
A far better start to the season than we, realistically, had any reason to hope for. Except, I do think the first season in a new league after promotion is probably easier than it should be - whether this is the hold-over of good morale, or just the AI not taking you seriously as a club, I don't know, but I've seen it too many times in too many versions to think it's just a coincidence. 
Whatever the reason, by the time we broke up for Christmas, with 19 out of 38 fixtures complete, we sat 3rd in the table, on the magic 40 points mark; level on points with Monaco but with a far worse Goal Difference.

[turnip]

Season 3 - Part 2: RC Lens, French Ligue 1
The January window was relatively low-key. Sporting and Benfica came after our Georgian DC (who'd just missed 3 months with injury) and I negotiated up to £11.75m (+£4.5m and 30% of next sale). Not bad for 3 months of playing time after a free transfer. We might have had to fend off advances for our South African DC, but he was surprisingly happy to negotiate a new contract on £8k p/w. We replaced him with a UNIT from Palermo and a versatile lad from Sevilla. Other notable signings were a Ukrainian DL, a Belarusian ST on a free and an actual backup GK from ASEC so that we didn't have to keep putting 16 year olds on the bench. We also sent a bunch of players out on loan. 

French Ligue 1
One thing I hadn't really noticed when I wrote up the first half of the season - probably due to the nosebleed I got from the altitude - was the gap between ourselves in 3rd and OM in 4th. 12 points at Christmas, it didn't close. 2 weeks after losing to PSG in the French Cup, we played them in the league and won with a 4-0 scoreline that flattered us considerably. Then, aside from a couple of draws and Away-day losses to Saint-Etienne and OM, we kind of kept winning games right up to matchday 33 when we rather harshly put 4 past Lorient to seal at least 3rd place and Champions League football for next season. We then lost two of the last three games of the season to finish behind Monaco, meaning we'll have to play in the qualifiers. Still, an impressive, if somewhat bafflingly good effort all around.
P: 38  W: 25  D: 6  L: 7  GD: +37  Pts: 81  Pos: 3rd  Champions League qualification!

French Cup
We drew PSG at home in our only match and lost 1-2 after extra time.

League Cup
We were drawn against Caen and a backup XI lost 1-2.

Youth Intake

Another decent one. We signed everyone down to Mouhamed Fall on that list. 
The notable ones obviously being Delhaye and Andres, although Perrier looks pretty decent.

Performances and Season Summary
No 'All the Stats' screen for this season, since I rotated everyone and his grandfather in the squads at some point.
We had some very good performances from Khutlang at DC - new contract or not, big clubs are sniffing around again. His compatriot at MR - Masinga - also had a good season, although I admit to a little bemusement at how well he played all season. No such mystery over our ML; Pires Silva was just as good this season as last and earned himself a new contract as a result. In the centre of midfield, the Portuguese MC I signed in last year's January window was the pick of the best by a reasonable margin, and up front, one of our own - Maxime Bernard - had a good season and formed a natty little partnership with the Belarusian in the last dozen or so games. 

[turnip]

Turns out, we didn't enter even the 'Best Third-Placed Bonusapalooza Qualifying Round' nonsense. Which is weird, since when I'd looked last season, it said we'd need to. No complaints, mind you; not about going straight into the group stages, that is. That's not the friendliest group stage group I've ever seen.

 

Oh, and:

Not unexpected, but still a shame.

[Muttley84]

8 hours ago, turnip said:

Turns out, we didn't enter even the 'Best Third-Placed Bonusapalooza Qualifying Round' nonsense. Which is weird, since when I'd looked last season, it said we'd need to. No complaints, mind you; not about going straight into the group stages.

If CL last year was won by a team which already qualified through its position in the league (top 4 of the top 4 leagues pressumably) then tbe 3rd place in the 5th league in coefficients (which should be France) goes straight to the Group Stage.

[turnip]

11 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

If CL last year was won by a team which already qualified through its position in the league (top 4 of the top 4 leagues pressumably) then tbe 3rd place in the 5th league in coefficients (which should be France) goes straight to the Group Stage.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

[turnip]

Here's the surprising state of play with 1 game to go in the Champions League group stage:

 

I could get 10 points, have the best goal difference and still fail to make the Knockout Rounds!

[turnip]

Season 4 - Part 1: RC Lens, French Ligue 1
The previous season was barely over when we got this Scout Report: a player rated 100 for £2.4m-£3.4m. That one didn't take much thinking about, I must say. Other than him (see below), we signed a Cameroon attacker for £50k (didn't take a screenshot because I thought he was way off first-team football; idiot self) a Honduran DR for £575k+, Spanish ST for £1.9m, Argie DC for £3.3m and a Dutch U-20 DC/DM/MC for compensation.
The DC was needed because Leverkusen came in for Khutlang; we went back and forth for a good couple of weeks on price before agreeing on £35m plus £4m in addons and 50% of profit on next sale. We also sold our Portuguese 'Born Leader' after his leadership style seemed to consist of 'more money for me - **** you'. 
I also restructured our backroom staff by allowing some contracts to expire and then entrusting our DoF with replacing them. Terrible idea. He's like a 16 year old with Daddy's credit card. 

 

 

Ligue 1
We started very well, helped by a (somewhat fortuitous 4-3(A) win against PSG. Despite rotating the squad heavily to give us our best possible chance in the Champions League, our weekend side did a remarkable job of being as effective as the weeknight warriors. And by "effective" I mean 'merciless winning machine'. We dropped 2 points each against Montpellier and Marseille before Christmas, which meant that we opened our stockings with a nic- WHAT THE **** DO YOU MEAN WE'RE NOT TOP OF THE LEAGUE? WE'VE DROPPED 4 POINTS IN 20 GAMES AND BEATEN THOSE OIL-DRENCHED PARISIAN PISSANTS PSG TWICE IN THE PROC-... WHAT THE ******** ****SACK DO YOU MEAN MONACO WON EVERY GAME EXCEPT THE ONE AGAINST US? WHAT THE ******** ****WAGON IS THIS?

[noikeee]

What tactic are you using? The rate of progress is absolutely extraordinary. Though it's kind of amusing that your form isn't good enough for 1st place. 

Did you still get through in the CL?

Escalante is a fantastic keeper, great signing!

[turnip]

Home:

 

Away:

 

 

Swap the GK for a SK-A if Schneider's playing - if I've got someone who can play as a Sweeper-Keeper on the pitch, then by jove that's what he's going to do.

Broadly, I'm coming around to the old 'Keep It Simple, Stupid' motto. I sometimes play around with the DLP, switching him to a BWM, but I'm not sure it really makes a difference; this formation is all about the Wingers and Strikers with the other players mostly there for Corners and defending.

[deltablue]

Good to see PSG no longer running away with it every time like I'm getting used to seeing. 

[turnip]

Season 4 - Part 2: RC Lens, French Ligue 1
We had a reasonably sedate January transfer window by my usual standards, bringing in Norwegian and Swedish midfielders plus a couple of youngsters. I had a pretty good, long, look at a bunch of different strikers - firstly going for an Argentinian,  but his moron of an agent started asking for £65k p/w just because a Chinese club had made a bid; by the time that idiot came crawling back begging to discuss terms, I'd opted for a Serbian who was a whole lot cheaper both on transfer fee (£1.3m) and wages. The Argentinian moved to Monaco on deadline day. Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid transfer-listed their Wonderkid defender (£3.4m) and there was a quite remarkable lack of interest, so I got him without having to pay through the nose on wages. 

It's worth noting that he can also play MC and he probably will since - injuries excepted - we're not really short on DCs.

Champions League
In a tricky group, Bayern ended up the whipping boys for no reason I can work out. We put 4 past them in both matches, even though it should be obvious how much luck was involved in the Away game. We were well beaten in Lisbon and unlucky to lose in Milan, leaving it all down to the final match. We took the lead courtesy of our former DC Khutsishvili scoring an OG (love you too, mate) before Maxime Bernard wrapped up a fairly even game.
Our reward was topping the group and getting drawn against Real Madrid. Yeah, **** you too, FM.

[turnip]

Season 4 - Part 3: RC Lens, French Ligue 1
We qualified for the Europa League on February 18th, when PSG beat Saint-Etienne (in 7th) meaning they couldn't mathematically catch us. And then we somehow qualified for the Europe League again after matchday 29 before confirming Champions League qualification a week later. I think something happened with the Coefficient that made Ligue 1 lose a qualification slot, or something.
Anyway, our second half of the season was significantly worse than the first half. We dropped 7 points. 
Yeah, I have no idea either. We lost 3-2 to Marseille - deservedly so - and drew against Toulouse (fortuitously) and Saint-Etienne but we just kept sliding on that aquaplane. Monaco had a pretty poor back-half of the season, too, so when we overtook them, they had no way back. We actually clinched the title on matchday 33 when we travelled to the principality, went 2-0 down and came back to win 4-2.
P: 38  W: 33  D: 4  L: 1  F:91  A: 26  GD: +65  Pts: 103  Pos: 1st  Champions!
I mean, seriously, check out Monaco & PSG's form. Losers.

Champions League
In the First Knockout Round, we went to Madrid and they pasted us. It finished 2-0 and even if they didn't have a host of great chances, it still could have been more. Back home, we gave them a game, got a 1-1 on the night and were dumped out of the competition with me trying to work out whether cheerful ambivalence towards tactical nuance is a good or bad thing.

French Cup
We beat National relegation-fodder ES Wasquehal in the 9th Round and then managed Toulouse in Extra Time in the next round.

Coupe de la Ligue
A penalty shoot-out against Amiens aside, we had a pretty serene ride to the Final where we played PSG and created enough good chances to win 2-0.

Youth Intake

Okay, I guess. We signed everyone and, as happened last season, quite a few players immediately saw their Potential stars nudge up. Valverde and Noël only got Youth contracts, while everyone else has a Pro deal incoming.
The best prospects are Duboc and Fournier in particular. I reckon by the time he turns pro, Fournier will be good enough for at least the sub's bench.

Summary and Performances
I was expecting a harder time of things this season, but obviously that didn't really happen. As I tend to do when I have a team that's in Europe, I split the squad in half - with one bunch being the primary players for midweek games and the others being the weekend warriors. That generally worked pretty well and avoided any real burn-out. When injuries bit, I was able to either swap players around or bring in a young player.
We didn't really have an MVP this year, although the fans had to pick one anyway and chose Moretti. Bernard scored a bunch of goals, our wingers were creative, the midfield did... whatever it is they do and our defence conceded what I'm just now realising is a remarkably low number of goals for a team as attacking as we are. 
Signings of the season were probably Obradovic and Matip - scoring 30 goals between them at over 1 goal/90 minutes is fairly astonishing. Matip in particular, since at least a third of his appearances were as MR. Escalante was as good as he looked like he'd be and our new DCs were pleasantly reliable.

Squad stats:

We haven't been able to give any products from our Youth system much game time due to us kind of rocketing up the leagues (Bernard aside), but there are some coming along very nicely:

Cordoba is someone I'd ideally want to register for next season in the league; the problem being that he's considered non-EU and I can't justify giving him one of the 4 slots in the squad. 

Delhaye would already be in my team if his Crossing & Dribbling attributes were reversed. He's too young to be loaned out, but I'll try to give him some substitute appearances next season.

Sene would have had a regular place on the bench this season if I wasn't flush with strikers. I don't think he'll be a world-class player, but he'll be on the bench next season. 

In terms of transfers for next season, Masinga (MR) and Castro (DR) are out of contract and will be released as I think they've peaked. I could also do with a couple of new DC - Boulabiar and Pereda look like they've run out of improvement, while Moretti might be the biggest 'flatter to deceive' DC of the lot, in that he wins lots of headers and makes lots of interceptions due to his fantastic Pace and Jumping, but he can't tackle to save his life. I'll keep him if there are no better options, mind you.
I'm open to offers on a few players and I have a fairly well-stocked shortlist for most positions, so it could be a busy summer.

[turnip]

Okay, this is slightly stupid. We had to play a friendly against River due to us buying what'shisface last season. It's only a couple of days before the Trophee des Champions against Monaco, so I sent the kids.

 

And that's a strong River side, not far off full-strength. Bonkers.

(Particularly since the first team has been pretty rubbish in pre-season)

 

Also, with the changes to the club's reputation and with a fair chunk of our players now being full internationals, we now have 7 Wonderkids in our first team. I mean, I wouldn't call them all Wonderkids myself - maybe 3 of them - but knock yourself out, Mr Algorithmicplayerdescriptiongenerator.

[noikeee]

Still killing it. Congrats on the first title.

Your tactic is not that different from mine actually, slightly more direct maybe as I use inverted wingers and slow the whole playing style down a bit with a few more TIs, and support roles in both strikers.

[turnip]

Season 5 - Part 1: RC Lens, French Ligue 1
As discussed, Masinga and Castro left on frees, but were picked up quickly enough by Hamburg and Caen respectively. I wasn't able to shift Boulabiar or Pereda (I didn't try hard, tbh), but Moretti went to Saint-Etienne for what could end up being £5m. We also shifted our Sweeper-Keeper for £2.5m. 
I picked up a young Belgian DR from Club Brugge for £2.9m, a Winger from Huracan for £4m (complete bargain, see below), a promising-for-later-sort-of-okay-ish-for-now DL from Loko Plovdiv for £1.8m, young midfielder from Partizan and, with the close of the summer window looming, spent £3.5m to bring in a DC from Czechia.
A Romanian striker had been a top target for a while; we went in for him in the summer, but his club held out for higher bids, only for him to reject them. I arranged the transfer once the window had closed and he joined for £8m in January. Our Argie DC, Alvarez, headed to Bayern for £15.5m in Jan (I could have asked for more, but he was starting to whinge about a new contract, which irked me) and I replaced him with a Paraguayan kid (£825k) who should be better within a season or so. I also upgraded my second-string DL, with a kid from Hamilton who I got for £235k after agreeing a Bosman (love that 'Buy Now' button; when it appears, that is). And then, on deadline day I realised for the nth time that my midfield looks a little staid when McFerran isn't playing, so I splashed out just over £8m on a Danish kid from FC Kobenhavn I'd had my eye on for a while (and what the hell was he still doing at FCK when he was that good? The mind boggles).
 

 

Tictacs
In anticipation of league teams deciding to sit back a bit, I decided to tweak things a bit. Our more-attacking formation became our new tactic for Away games against top-half teams and our less-attacking was turned into the killdozer for teams likely to sit back. I also created, from scratch, a formation for games against teams better than us - the idea being that we would be more solid defensively, while still posing a threat going forward. 

Ligue 1
We had a good start to the season, scoring at least 4 goals in 8 out of 18 matches going into the winter break, including our games against PSG 
and Monaco. We drew against Rennes (fair enough) and Reims (lucky), lost against Bordeaux (unlucky); while winning at Amiens (lucky) and Lyons 
(94th minute winner a tad fortunate). Some quirk of the scheduling this season meant that by Christmas, Ligue 1 clubs had only played 18 games, as opposed to 20 last year. A bit weird, maybe related to international breaks?

[noikeee]

This FM (and FM17, happened there too) feels a hell of a lot different tactically when you reach the very top and the AI starts to play massively more negative, doesn't it? I don't think many people quite appreciate how much of a difference does that make, and how much it can force a manager to adapt. 

Nevertheless you seem to have adapted great. Can't argue against joint 1st place with a game in hand, even after adding a completely different formation to the tactical arsenal.

[turnip]

Season 5 - Part 2: RC Lens, French Ligue 1
French Cup
We beat a couple of lower league teams (and Metz) on our way to the Quarter Final where Montpellier ran rings around us in a 3-0 defeat.

Coupe de la Ligue
It wasn't until I checked our Schedule for the year that I remembered that we'd actually won this competition, beating Monaco, Paris FC, Bordeaux and then PSG in the final (2-0). 

Champions League
Took 18 points out of 18 from a group including Barcelona (2-0(H), 4-2(A)) Zenit and Basel; won a tremendously entertaining game 5-4 at Stamford Bridge before comfortably winning 2-0 at home. That gave us a QF against Man City, because I guess oil money just can't leave us alone. We drew 1-1 at home in a tough game and were then somewhat lucky to only lose 2-1 in Manchester.

Ligue 1
The fixture list had us playing PSG and Monaco early in the year and once we'd lost 1-0 to Monaco, we were still a couple of points ahead of them in the league. They, like last season, dropped a few points here and there. We, also like last season, didn't really. Eight straight wins after that loss had us sitting pretty at the top and we thrashed Nice 5-0 at their place to seal the title with 3 games remaining. I fielded a team mostly composed of Academy graduates in the final game (8/11 players, I think) and we drew 1-1.

Summary & Thoughts
As the general lack of pictures shows, despite our success, I wasn't really feeling this half of the season. I'm at that stage with the club where we're not big enough to keep hold of our best players when a big club comes calling, we don't have the financial muscle to award hefty contracts to keep potentially world-class players happy (Obradovic) and despite promising the board I would develop young players - which I have - the overall progression of the club has meant that even the best ones have barely been able to keep up with the demands of the squad. Idrissa Sene the only real exception this season.

So, yeah, I'm gonna quit and find another small club to take over and hopefully do something a bit more planned with. I'm definitely leaving Lens in good shape - they've got £61m in the bank even before prize money comes in, some very valuable players to swell the coffers with (when they're inevitably sold), a wealth of talent in the Reserves and U-19s and a very competitive Academy.

[turnip]

I took over as manager of Tubize, in Belgium, just after Christmas.

They were 3rd in the First Amateur Division and the board were looking for promotion.

Our form was pretty good. We were never exceptional, but did what we needed to do in reaching the Playoffs and...

 

We did the second half of the job well enough and won promotion.

 

 

 

I quit the next day.

[noikeee]

On 26/05/2018 at 15:30, turnip said:

I took over as manager of Tubize, in Belgium, just after Christmas.

 

[noikeee]

And wait a minute, I had missed this.

On 26/05/2018 at 15:30, turnip said:

I quit the next day.

That's another quite unexpected twist too.  

[turnip]

I applied for a few jobs in the summer - Belenenses & Academica in the Portuguese 2nd tier (yeah, beats me), Charleroi & AA Gent in the Belgian 1st, plus a couple of others - but no-one bit.

I did get the job of the Croatia U-21s, though. I took over before the U-21 qualifiers started up again and we were pretty good in a group of pretty average teams (although we needed 3 late goals to beat Albania).

 

Still, no-one sane plays FM to manage an U-21 international team, and I applied for the odd interesting job as and when they came up.

December ticked around; the Calendar told me I had 173 days until my next fixture - a friendly against Kosovo U-21s (the highlight of anyone's career, surely); Salernitana (bottom of Serie B) decided against hiring me and so I applied for a few more jobs.

Anyway, I had one more interview and:

 

Turns out, choosing someone else instead of me was a bad idea. Who'd've thunk it? The Charleroi job was available as well, but screw those guys.

[turnip]

Season 7, Part 2 - KAA Gent, Belgium Pro League A
I inherited a squad dead last in the division, because that's apparently what the person the club hired instead of me was capable of. Not only that - not only - but they'd ballsed up the Champions League and then found a way to fail in a Europa League group with Hoffenheim, Krasnodar and Luzern AND been knocked out of the Belgian Cup. Bear in mind Gent were runners up in the league last year. I assume the board did some sort of background check to make sure they weren't actually hiring a saboteur, 'cos nice work, moron.

Transfers

We sold Tony Johnson - a long-term Gent player who 'wanted a new challenge' - which basically funded all of our signings, and we also got rid of a few players whose contracts were due to expire, for small sums. 
In the opposite direction came: well, a lot of young players. On a free transfer, Junior Mora came from Paraguay (see below) and we took 4 from Brazil, one from Togo, one from Wales and an experienced MC from Chile who was signed mostly for Tutoring, but also as a decent Backup player. 
Akinyemi and Morales should be good players in a year or two, but we had some loan bids, so off they went.
Jalland (see below) was brought in to give us another option at MR (a position he doesn't play), while Kominek was out of contract in Czechia and was, therefore, pleasantly cheap. Jose Andres (below), meanwhile, was a player on loan from Lens (where I'd had high hopes for him) who makes for a good option at DC, DM or MC and even DR or DL at a push. The fans reckon I overpaid, but I didn't.

 

 

Pro League A
Anywho, I took over a couple of weeks before Christmas (after matchday 16) and started by giving Lierse an Atomic Wedgie at their place - running out 6-1 winners. By the time the Lierse Head Coach's proctologist had confirmed that the damage was temporary, we'd comfortably beaten new bottom-feeders KV Mechelen 3-0 and had one of those oddly uneventful 2-0 wins against KV Kortrijk that were so familiar while I was at Lens. We followed those results up in January with 4 points, meaning that the closing of the transfer window saw us sat in 6th. 
The squad as it was, including the players I'd brought in, was simply much better than most other teams (excepting Genk and the lavender arseholes) so we basically just steamrolled everything up to the split and then steamrolled everything after it.
We actually hit 1st spot the match before the split - beating the perfumed purples 3-0 to be ahead on goal difference - and although we drew the first 3 games of the Championship Group, we won the next 5 to ensure we'd finish above the Pot Pourri Gang on the basis of 'Games Won'. And basically every other metric. 
P: 40  W: 22  D: 9  L: 9  GD: +38  Pos: 1st  CHAMPIONS!

Players
The man who got most of our goals (26) is a Brazilian Wonderkid we had on loan and is highly unlikely to return: he's far too good for this standard of football. Next on the list is a (now) 34-year old Italian who bagged 16 - his contract is up in the summer and I'll let him go - and once you move past the player I've thrown out on the left-wing all year, we're back to two more loanees. So we're in desperate need of a 3 good strikers, as there's no-one quite ready to step up from the U21s. 
Also: wingers, as both Jalland and our ML are a little 'square peg, round hole'.

Youth Intake
I didn't get a screenshot of the intake itself because I was drunk and forgot.
It's a decent intake in total, with quite a bit of dross and a few players who look promising (and have Promising in their description).
Becker might be a decent GK in future, but needs work, particularly on his Communication.
De Meyer looks like he'll be a Pro League-standard player down the line, but I'm not seeing anything special there.
Similar-ish with Poppe, although he looks like being well-rounded, with a lot of Technical attributes 2-3 points below 10.
Van Hoecke, therefore, is the stand-out with a good spread of attributes for his age. He'll need a tutor with good Composure, though.

Plan
The plan has to be to make the Champions League group stages. Belgium is 11th in the club coefficients (behind Ukraine, Turkey and Russia), which sucks, but the coefficients are fairly tight, so there's scope for the situation to change in the near future. 
What I'd like is to try to have 2 XIs by the start of the season - so we can be competitive in the league and in Europe. Funds might be tight, though, so we'll see what's feasible.

[turnip]

Season 8, Part 1: July - September. 
KAA Gent, Belgian Pro League A

Summer Transfers

I released a bunch of players who were soaking up the wage bill.
In return, we signed a creative player from Anderlecht, two Uruguayans - a DC and an attacker, a MR from Chelsea, another creative player (this time a Peruvian), another DC and then a GK at the end of the window. Realising that I now had 3 creative midfield players, I was pretty happy when Wolfsburg came in with a decent offer for Junior Mora. 
 

 

 

There weren't any good strikers available within my budget, so I went back to Lens and took Maxime Bernard and Paul Matip on loan for the season.

Domestic Competitions

A good start to the season, although our groundsman is already having to remove 'Bus Parking' markings from the pitch after matches. Took me a couple of matches to notice, mind you (the downside of using Instant Result). 

Europe
We went straight into the Champions League groups, making that part of the plan easy to complete! It's a tricky group with Hoffenheim, Inter and Tottenham, but having been comprehensively outplayed in Milan, we got a deserved 1-0 at home to Spurs. If we can nick 3rd in the group, I'd be delighted.

[noikeee]

****ing hell, what an incredible turnaround last season.

Very tricky CL group now but with the kind of signings you're making, you're gonna quickly catch up with the leading pack in Europe, that's some bonkers players for Gent...

[turnip]

 

Another potential nailbiter for the last group stage match. We've got the advantage over Hoffenheim on the head-to-head (courtesy of a mad home game) and the AI doesn't tend to field a team of kids even when first place is guaranteed.

**** it, let's go for the win. Death or glory was good enough for The Clash, after all.

[turnip]

Season 8, Part 2: October - January(ish)
KAA Gent, Belgium Pro League A

Winter Transfers
We brought in yet another creative midfield type, this time a Colombian. We also signed an experienced Uzbek Striker for a rotational option and for Tutoring. (He promptly said he had no interest in tutoring the first 2 players I suggested and then essentially told me to sod off when I went back a few days later with a different name. Charming guy.) A new ML was on the cards and I eventually went with Marjanovic. I agreed the signing of a new striker in the summer from Atletico, and then I found a young Hungarian kid available - he's signed but gone back on loan until the end of the season.
 

Domestic Competitions

The march goes on, but we still can't get rid of Anderfeck, who are a meagre two points behind us, having also failed to lose a league game all season. Their goal difference isn't too shabby either - +41 after 22 games; we're ahead of them on that metric as well, mind you.
We're due to face Standard in the Belgian Cup Final.

Europe
We lost to Spurs on matchday 6, but Hoffenheim also lost to Inter (both games 3-2), so we went through in second. Spurs then leapfrogged Hoffenheim into 3rd. Poor Hoffenheim. Our reward involves a trip to ManUre. Yeah, **** you too, FM.

[turnip]

We may have already gone out of Europe [/massivespoiler] but here's a result that caught my attention

[turnip]

Season 8, Part 3: February - May
KAA Gent, Belgium Pro League A

Domestic Competitions
We started February well, with a 0-0 draw at home to Theywhoshallnotbenamed and a 1-0 loss to Club Brugge before we bounced back by disassembling Tubize and Waasland-Beveren in 5-0 and 6-1 wins. Thankfully our nameless nemesises (nemeses?), having overtaken us at the top of the table, also dropped 3 points - this time against Standard - and we overtook them again. Thereafter, we were the footballing Terminator in the league, winning every remaining game in the main league and Championship Group. We tried to **** it up on the final day against Standard, but scored a couple of late goals to win 2-1 and finish the season 21 points ahead of second. 

Cups & Saucers
We drew 1-1 with ManUre at home and lost 2-4 in Manchester.
The Belgian Cup Final was a more sedate affair and we got an easy 2-0 win.

Players

(Doesn't include Gerson Luy because he was injured, and I can't be arsed to take the screenshot again)

Lenny Mathieu was a player I promoted to the Senior Squad in the summer so that he could be a perma-sub. Then he started a couple of games because of injury, started scoring and never stopped - going at a goal every 88 minutes. There weren't any revelations elsewhere in the squad, although note Michael Martinez' Passes/90 - my coaches also think he's World Class and I suspect he'll leave in the summer if he doesn't sign a new contract.

Weekday XI
                Emil Ivanov

Garli        Kominek        Havlik        Helgason

Matip        Luy            Andres        Kantaria

            Freire        Bernard
            

Weekend XI
                Emil Ivanov
                
Baeyens        Mustakas    Bougrissi    Messaoudi/Geerts

Stroud        Martinez    Gislason    Marjanovic

            Verheyden    Mathieu
            
Youth Intake

An okay, if un-spectacular intake. A couple of promising players in Evrard and Jabrane. I was able to give Jabrane a couple of sub appearances towards the end of the season and in the one substitute run-out Evrard had in the first team, he was pretty unlucky not to get at least one assist.
    

Summary & Thoughts
There's a delicate balancing act to be had while managing in Belgium - you never have enough money or clout to buy outstanding players [ignores signing Martinez this season] so you have to rely on good-but-not-yet-brilliant players and hope you can eke enough out of them before they move to a big club. Alongside this, you have to have enough good Home-Grown players to meet your league and European commitments, with the proviso that all of the best Home-Grown players seem to get teleported to big clubs the moment they start to show a little potential.

Realistically, I could put together a team capable of making the Champions League Quarter-Finals with £10m and £50k p/w free in the wage budget, but I wouldn't then have a decent enough team to guarantee the league. It's frustrating and rewarding in equal measure and, for me at least, what makes managing in Belgium fun. 

[turnip]

Champions League.

Drawn in a group with AC Milan, Bayern and Porto.

 

My response was a slightly hysterical laugh.

[turnip]

This was looking like being a frustrating match. 0-0 with over an hour played, 2 first-half substitutions due to injury, and pretty much the whole team playing like roadkill.

Sometimes, though, that last change just works

[turnip]

Season 9, Part 1: June - October
KAA Gent, Belgian Pro League

Transfers

Self-control, an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function, self-control is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's behavior in order to achieve specific goals.

IN:
    

OUT:

Camporro (ST);  Londono (DR);  Hernandez (DL);  Baez (ML);  Zhukovskiy (ST);  Abdel Aal (MC/L);  Romano (MC)

Domestic Competitions
Dropping 4 points by the end of October would be good in most circumstances, but much like Monaco (while I was at Lens) and Anderlecht last season, we find another team squatting on the 'First Place' stool. I'm going to blame their lack of injuries because I'm a spiteful man (and because I loathe Anderlecht). 
We did beat them in the Super Cup, though (4-1) and are through to the Belgian Cup 7th Round after brushing Mouscron aside.

Europe
Drawn in a group with Bayern, AC Milan and Porto, we're on 6 points from 3 games, thanks to Home wins over Bayern and Porto. That does leave me kind of needing a win at Home to Milan if we're going to go through, since I don't fancy our chances in the remaining Away games.

Sundries
Emil Ivanov threw a mini ****-fit at the end of the transfer window over a new contract and somehow conspired to break his leg not long after it closed. I've brought in a veteran Brazilian GK as cover until the end of the season.
We've also had back-to-back stadium expansions, so we're now at just over 35k capacity.

 

Also, thanks to all the players I sold, we have no 'Team Leaders'. Oops.

[turnip]

Season 9, Part 2: November - January
KAA Gent, Belgian Pro League A

Transfers
We sold Kenneth Baeyens to Leverkusen for £10m+, shipped the whinging Ivanov off to France for £3.4m and waved goodbye to Mustakas after Arsenal coughed up £15m+20% of his next fee. So far, so simple.
The interest in Baez started in December (with PSG) and by the end of January, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Bayern and Arsenal were all watching. I signed a replacement on a free (Green, see below) in expectation of Baez leaving and then... nothing happened. Monaco also failed to come in for Camporro, while Martinez hasn't had the dreaded 'Wnt' appear at all so far, so I threw a pile of money at him and he agreed to a new contract without a Min Fee clause. 
The main signings other than Green were a new actual backup GK, an Ecuadorian attacker (£3m) and the replacement for Baeyens (£3.6m). 

        

Competitions
Three remarkable Champions League matches to close out the group. The win over Milan was deserved, but 5-0 seems harsh, while our 3-1 win in Portugal saw us ride our luck more than a little. Our reward for topping the group is to head back to Portugal to take on Sporting. 

The  league looks like it's been a doddle, but we've had some late winners in there. 

 

         

[turnip]

 

[turnip]

Season 9, Part 3: February - May
KAA Gent, Belgian Pro League A

Domestic
We won the Cup easily enough, brushing aside [checks notes] Waasland-Beveren 4-0 in the Final. 
In the league, we dropped 2 points on the last day before the split, and then lost to Anderlecht on the first day after the split, but besides that it was straight forward enough. We sealed the title with 3 games to go with a dull 2-0 win over Club Brugge.

Europe
We lost 1-0 in Lisbon, but played well to win 3-1 at Home - they scored in Injury Time to make it look more nervy than it ever really was. 
That meant we got another £5m and a Quarter-Final slot against Chelsea. 
We won 2-1 in London in a slightly smash-and-grab-ish match and then rather comfortably won 4-2 at home, despite playing the last 30 minutes with 10 men, scoring our 3rd and 4th goals in the last 10 minutes. Again, they scored the last goal of the game to make it look close, so maybe there's some concentration issues to work on.
    

In the Semi-Final, we drew Juventus; probably a better draw than Arsenal and certainly better than PSG. We won a bonkers Home leg 6-3, with Camporro bagging 4 goals. The Away leg was less bonkers, but still crazy by usual standards and we came back from 2-0 and 3-1 down to draw 3-3 on the night. Not to be out-done (by much), PSG beat Arsenal 7-4 on aggregate.
    

In the Final, we bossed PSG to go 3-0 up and although we conceded twice in the second half it wasn't enough to stop us from sealing the deal.

CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE, MOTHER****ERS

Players & Summary

A very surprising season, all things considered. Our full-backs did the job I expected, but the squad my AssMan picked for Europe was eclectic to say the least, so it was a surprise how well Havlik and Andres played at DC. Martinez was the heart of our midfield and Romano did well as a BWM despite having basically none of the characteristics required for the role. Our Wingers did the job I was hoping they would, and did it remarkably well. Up front, Camporro was streakiness personified while Mathieu had a harder time of things promoted to the Midweek line-up. Zhukovskiy was consistent throughout the season while Kiraly was kind of rubbish until I can only assume Santa bought him some magic boots - he ended the season by scoring in 12/13 games he played in. Again, worth noting that Kiraly, Zhukovskiy and Camporro all hit the 90mins/Goal mark for the season. 

In terms of transfers, I am - again - expecting Baez to move. His agent isn't remotely interested in signing a new contract and there are still half a dozen big teams (who didn't win the Champions League this year) interested in him. Camporro too, I wouldn't be surprised to see leave. I'm expecting a bid or two for Martinez, but no Min Fee makes him a big ticket item this year. 

[turnip]

Season 10, Part 1: June - October
KAA Gent, Belgian Pro League A

Transfers
Out: Gerson Luy came back from his loan at Sporting only to get sold to Atletico Madrid for over £15m. Martinez was the subject of a few bids and eventually made me happy by signing for Inter - who'd agreed a '40% of next transfer fee' clause in addition to the £35m or so they ponied up. Our GK - Segers - went to Spal for £10.5m and an eye-watering £125k p/w wage and Vallejo joined him for £5m, while Freire and Zhukovskiy went to Marseiile for around £22m combined. Camporro agitated for a move for most of the summer but finally agreed a new contract.

In: We picked up Peruvian, Uruguayan, Russian, Austrian, Guatemalan and Egyptian attackers, Belgian, Colombian and Serbian midfielders, Colombian, French, Czech and Brazilian defenders and an Argentinian GK. Some of them went off on loan. I dunno, it was all a bit of a blur to be honest.

Note the lack of Sergio Baez in the above, by the way. Yeah, he's still here and I still have no idea why.

Competitions
Top of the league - not by much, but there you go. The Weekend squad is the weaker of the two, so it's never much of a surprise when they drop a few points. 
In Europe, the Super Cup win over Monaco was nice and we started our Champions League campaign well by pummelling Sparta Prague and Real Sociedad before our two games against Benfica saw us pick up 4 points.

Squad Review
Goalkeepers
    

Toth is first choice and has more potential, according to my coaches. Guzman is a decent backup, though.

Centre-backs
    

    

Kominek and Havlik are a good pairing at the back, as you might expect given they also (sometimes) turn out for their country together.
Andres was solid enough in Europe last season to make the starting spot his, while Mitrovic was always better in the middle than as a try-hard full-back.

Full-backs
    

    

Londono was my pick for DR in Europe, but my AssMan obviously didn't get the memo. His perpetual Angriness during games is pretty funny. Matousek isn't much of a defender, but I'm hoping he'll develop.
Hernandez is great - consistent, solid at the back and a threat going forward - while Gaitan has done well so far. 

Central Midfield
    

    

Blin has done well so far this season and might tie down the spot for a few years to come, while Dillen was a toss-up with Verheyden over who would be in which squad - Verheyden won by virtue of enjoying Big Games.
Romano is still being wasted as a BWM, so I should probably bring someone else into the squad so I can unleash him. Verheyden is also not quite at his best in central midfield, but his performances are fine, so I don't really care.

Wingers
    

    

Steve Green is a solid ML, while Samarenkin is another non-winger I'm forcing out on the touchline. Performances have been decent so far. Duncan Stroud was injured at the start of the season and his contract expires next year, so I'm phasing him out.
Sergio Baez is a class apart, while Moschetti (Uruguayan when I signed him) has done well as a little glass man on the other flank.

Forwards
    

    

Kiraly is a very useful player to have up-top, while Plasencia has made a decent start to the season.
Camporro is a pain in the arse off the pitch, but enough of a wrecking ball on it to almost justify his new wages. Mathieu keeps improving as a player and I finally got rid of his Min Fee clause, at the expense of a hefty chunk of wages. 

Youth Prospects
    

    

    

Van Hoecke and Jabrane are permanent bench-starters this season and I always try to give one of them game-time if I'm managing a match. 
Geirsson has 4+1 potential according to my coaches, but he's been on loan basically since we signed him, so I have no idea.
Alberter was signed as a replacement for Camporro (for the Weekend squad, anyway) until the big Spanish princess decided to stay, so I farmed him out on loan to La Liga where he's making regular substitute appearances. 

[turnip]

 

Camporro's on 20 goals after 10(1) appearances so far this season...

[turnip]

Season 10, Part 2 - November - January
KAA Gent, Belgian Pro League A

Transfers

There was lots of talk of moves as December rolled on - Baez was off to Barcelona, Mitrovic to AC Milan, Camporro to Chelsea. I signed an Austrian DC as a replacement for Mitrovic and, like Camporro last window and Baez the window before that, no bid materialised. I should probably stop being pro-active; clearly it's wasted when the AI is this moronic. 
I'm not complaining: Mitrovic is going at 7.82 and Camporro's 28 goals from 17 appearances have his average rating sitting at 8.31. Of course, even that pales in comparison to Baez - from 17 appearances, he has 6 goals and 15 assists at an average rating of 8.59. His bio calls him "truly one of world football's global superstars", and he's playing in Belgium. Belgium. Madness, I tell you, madness!
    

Competitions
Little of note in the league other than the usual wins. We're coming up against some inventively defensive formations these days, to the point where I sometimes wonder whether I really need two DCs set to 'Defensive' (other than the fact I'd forget to set them back if a team started being more attacking). 

In Europe, we got a point in Lisbon, did our best Big Bad Wolf impression against Sparta Prague at Home (huff and puff, then blow it all down) and got a somewhat flattering scoreline on our trip to Spain. 

The Club World Championship was straight-forward enough, but it was nice to win it anyway. 

We unconvincingly won the first leg of the Belgian Cup Semi-Final and, due to the rescheduled league matches (from the CWC), the second leg isn't until March. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the Wednesday before the Final usually takes place. In fact, if we get through to the Champions League Quarter-Final, I think one of the legs will be on the same date.

[john1]

I genuinely thought you was going to stay at Lens   Congrats on winning the league with Gent  

[turnip]

When your team has a flair for the ultra-dramatic:

 

[turnip]

Season 10, Part 3: February - May
KAA Gent, Belgian Pro League A

Domestic
We'd threatened it last season, but this year we went unbeaten. We just had too much strength and depth. Our record isn't dissimilar to last year's, but we just turned our losses into draws and apparently conceding 3 fewer goals across the season made all the difference.
We also beat Anderlecht in the Cup Final, 3-1. Deserved, but not exactly thrilling.

Europe
We lost 1-2 to Chelsea in the First Knockout Round, but easily won 3-0 at Home.
Another pretty straight-forward game saw us beat Napoli 4-1 at Home. We lost the return leg 0-1, which was a bit harsh.
A first-half hattrick from Mathieu saw us to a 4-0 win over Bayern, in a pretty even game. We lost 1-3 in Germany, but I'd put a 16-year old in his first ever game into the team as a BWM, such was my lack of interest.

As seen above, we won the final at the last possible moment(s), but it was probably deserved, on chances.

So that's that, I suppose. As you can tell, my motivation to keep going with Gent is near-zero. My interest now will be in how big the firesale is in the summer window. Baez won't leave - he broke his leg in the Champions League Final, but at least a dozen of the first team(s) are likely to be heading on their way if past AI managers are anything to go by.

Meanwhile, I'll move on somewhere else and see what's available.

[noikeee]

Well even if it's over that was a decent stint with Gent.  Just the odd back-to-back Champions League whilst world champions as well. Great job.

That was a crazy good squad by the end! 

[turnip]

Season 11, Part 1: June - October
HNK Hajduk, Croatian First League

I added the Croatian, Serbian and Romanian leagues to see what jobs would come up. I debated Dinamo and Partizan (and FCSB) but opted for Hajduk - so there's at least one domestic milestone (dethrone Dinamo) to reach before the European stuff begins.

Transfers
Not much money to spend on fees or wages, but Kaiserslautern took a ML off our hands for £1.2m, which gave me a little leeway. I brought in a DL and an attacker from Colombia, an ML and DC from Germany, a Mozambican D/RC, a few youngsters and a couple of Croats. 
The core of a decent team was already here, just a bit patchwork.

Domestic
With 14 games played, we're in 3rd - 3 points behind Lokomotiva and 2 behind Dinamo - with a game in hand. We're also unbeaten (6/7/0) but teams are defending against us, so I'll already rolled out the Killdozer formation. We're struggling a little to break teams down, but that's reasonably understandable given we're also in Europe, so it's the B-team doing a lot of the work in the league.
Cup progress has been steady so far - played 2, won 2.

Europe
There's something rotten in the coefficient of Croatia. Not a fan of starting any sort of campaign on the 6th July, I must say. We drew some decent teams in Qualification for the Europa League - CSKA Moscow, Austria Vienna, Dinamo Bucharest - but any alarm bells were largely muted. We're now in a group with Genk, Partizan and Zenit (easier than I'd expected); we've won all 3 games so far, scoring 10 goals and conceding none. 

    

    

[raz4la]

It's interesting how many good players you get to sign to your teams, a lot of them are either from South America or from Eastern Europe. How is you scouting setup? Just going through what the scouts says or doing something else then that?