yipster1986 Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 It's the closest eligible stadium to Verviers in Belgium. that 10M loan is going to be a pain though... how many years on it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 1 hour ago, yipster1986 said: that 10M loan is going to be a pain though... how many years on it? 10 years from 2020 to 2030, so maybe we can manage with it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yipster1986 Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 5 minutes ago, Muttley84 said: 10 years from 2020 to 2030, so maybe we can manage with it. Sure! With a bit of intercontinental football next season at the rate you're going Nah, I predict this is the point you'll struggle. Anderlecht, Genk, Club Brugge, Standard and Gent are the bigger clubs which will most likely battle for European tickets most of the time with Antwerp coming up strong. There is also this weird playoff system here in Belgium where, after regular season, your points get cut in half and you have playoff groups. edit: ofcourse you're about 3 years into your save so the balance of power might've changed during those 3 years Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 45 minutes ago, yipster1986 said: Anderlecht, Genk, Club Brugge, Standard and Gent are the bigger clubs which will most likely battle for European tickets most of the time with Antwerp coming up strong. As said before I am ahead a bit with the save, but boy you sure are spot on in some aspects :)) Stop knowing what the future reserves for my save P.S. This is our tactics. Nothing fancy, just defaults mostly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 Second intake of the career, and another good one I might say. If only we could have gotten some defenders in there as well that would have been a perfect intake. But we did received good options in the wingers positions, and of course another good goalkeeper. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 Kinda real expectations from the board, could not ask much more from them really. Maybe just not to sell anymore youngsters. And a new partnership with a lower league club ahead of season start. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 Not much to happen this season in the transfer activity, but at national level Brugge have been extremely active on the market. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 When we got the fixtures list and we saw that we gonna meet 5 out of the 6 championship playoff teams from last season in the debut we feared the worst. Somehow we managed to pull out not only two wins against Zulte Waregem and Gent but also draws against Anderlecht and Genk. So we started the season pretty good and are in the mid table but there's a long road ahead of us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 21, 2019 Author Share Posted April 21, 2019 Just when you are so happy of the way things are going... then this happens. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 21, 2019 Author Share Posted April 21, 2019 Despite the injuries streak we went undefeated in September and October, passing another round in the cup also. We are now sitting in 5th but only 3 points away from the leader. This season so far is like a dream come true for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 21, 2019 Author Share Posted April 21, 2019 Our good run did enough to convince the board early in the season, and if nothing spectacular happens I will be here until at least 2022. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 21, 2019 Author Share Posted April 21, 2019 It was all going well till mid-December, and then followed three straight defeats away from home, one at Genk and two at Antwerp. So we are out of the cup but remain in the championship playoff positions in 5th. One cant help but notice that some of the youth players have begun to get on the score-sheet just hoping they wont get poached away from us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yipster1986 Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 I am thoroughly impressed! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 Despite our good run of results the finances are still looking bad. We had a huge increase when promoting to the first division, but then kept bleeding money each month until we reached the red again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 1 hour ago, yipster1986 said: I am thoroughly impressed! You jumped a bit to conclusions as we had a terrible January. Funny thing is that we picked points against the strong opposition, drawing to Club Brugge and Standard Liege, but lost to Union Saint GIlloise and Saint Truiden. Some interested from the big clubs has unrest the young players (especially Bodin 19f), and with six games to go we have slipped out of the championship playoff places. Only a point to that place, but actually four teams battling for the last two spots: us, Antwerp, Standard and Kortrijk. Our goalscoring record is on par with them and I do fancy our chances, just have to pick up some wins in the remaining matches. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 The last six matches of the regular season were not that great for us as we only won against Oostende. We finish then the season in 8th and some mixed sensations for us. On one hand we feel disappointed we didn't not reach the championship playoff, where we spent some time of the season. On the other I feel like we overachieved this season by finishing mid-table at not having any relegation emotions. Now comes the group in the European places playoff, but already decided to use it in giving more game time youth players and experimenting a bit with formations and roles. Will have to see what comes of the next 10 matches. I never realized seasons in Belgium are so long - minimum of 40 matches in the league could be the first division in Europe with the highest number of games, I don't know any who would have more than 38. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgevolker Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Hi, I'm a little bit envious about you're youth intakes in the first two years. I play now 12 Seasons with Brescia and I manage to improve Training and Youth Academy to the top level, also Youth Training. I won the Title two times in a row and I'm still looking for a good own youth Player. With FM Touch it seems impossible. Every year I get only 3 Players with nothing more then 2 stars. I wish you the best in your save and I'm curios about your next youth intake. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 23, 2019 Author Share Posted April 23, 2019 7 hours ago, sgevolker said: Hi, I'm a little bit envious about you're youth intakes in the first two years. I play now 12 Seasons with Brescia and I manage to improve Training and Youth Academy to the top level, also Youth Training. I won the Title two times in a row and I'm still looking for a good own youth Player. With FM Touch it seems impossible. Every year I get only 3 Players with nothing more then 2 stars. I wish you the best in your save and I'm curios about your next youth intake. I would assume that having a Serie A winning squad would make it difficult for your youth players to break it trough. Probably if we put a 5* from mine in your team he won't be higher than 1*. So its all questionable here. Fully agree with the second part, as intakes in Touch are so small, simulated through 10 seasons in a lot of european countries outside the top five and 2-4 players is the average across them for lower league clubs, but in Belgium (dont ask me why) I found the average higher around 6 thats why I picked them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 We rotated and experimented a lot in the European places Play-off, therefore not very upset that things didn't lead to extremely good results. Although we finished 5th out of 6th we were only 3 points off the winner (which is a surprising Beveren which we beat both times in the playfoff). Beveren also only managed to avoid direct relegation in the final stage of the regular season and are now two matches away from playing in Europe next season, this showing how strange the Belgium system can be sometimes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 The same system as least season and mainly the same players as except the striker position the youths were not able to consolidate their place in the first team. Bodin is something out of this league, and although he wasn't the highest rated player (not even the best striker) in the intake is pretty much now the best player we got and attracting a lot of attention from bigger clubs (PSG, Milan or Man City), so it will be a wonder if we manage to keep him in this summer. He isn't good enough to play for any of that level teams, but will do wonders if he stays another season for us. Will just have to wait and see how things go and the attitude of our board. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 Our HoYD was only signed last season so he only provided an intake, but decided to retire. Despite our status as a first division team could not find someone to satisfy my needs so had to settle for the guy below, hopefully he can provided us with some quality regens. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 We are back home in Virton on a decent enough stadium of over 8000 (I really dont think we need much more than that), but the loans are going to be detrimental to our budget. Still no facilities upgrade in this 3 years that have passed since I am at the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 This intake is not as good as the first two, but still got at least four players good enough at this moment. What's interesting is that in each of the three intakes almost half of the guys had a second nationality and that makes it a bit tricky when they get called to the U19s of that nations. Must be a Belgium thing cause I never seen so many dual nationalities before in my careers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 The expectations are pretty normal, as we are still predicted to finish dead last in the League and not much is expected from the cup either. You can notice how we are almost 1 million under the wage budget, but really nothing to spend it on. And the board made a partnership with Bastia, but do not know how much benefits we can have from it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 I don't see hows that's relevant information for our gaming experience, but I guess FM needs to align to the political correctness promoted by the ministry of truth. Oh well, back to regular footballing business. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 More players leaving the club with the most notable one being Morris who was our starting goalkeeper in the last three editions. We now have 3 decent young Gk so decided to give them a chance and cash in on the player. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 26, 2019 Author Share Posted April 26, 2019 Not really sure what to make of this season debut as we only won one and are sitting in 12th, but I guess its expected that once we integrate more young players and give them game time results are going to be a bit bad. Hope not that bad that we end up in the relegation battle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 26, 2019 Author Share Posted April 26, 2019 I can smell trouble. Or at least unrest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 26, 2019 Author Share Posted April 26, 2019 We continue our oscillating form in the League by winning against Lokeren, Oostende and St. Gilloise and loosing at Brugge, Liege or Genk. We also passed another round in the cup after a drama win in the over-time. Somehow we are only 3 points away from the last championship playoff place, but more important we are looking pretty safe from relegation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 26, 2019 Author Share Posted April 26, 2019 I would consider it a miracle if we manage to keep hold of him after the winter transfer period. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joagamecube Posted April 27, 2019 Share Posted April 27, 2019 Very interesting save! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 We continue our up and downs. We are out of the cup after a defeat at Gent. We only suffered a single defeat in the league at Brussels, other than that we were pretty satisfied of our form. We are now sitting in 7th, only 3 points of Antwerp and a championship playoff position. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 This is the level of offers we are rejecting for him. So far the board has not intervened in this, but I might be the one selling him in the summer. He only got 18 months more of contract and he won't sign any contract with us. If the situation doesn't change might be forced to sell him, as I dont want to lose him on a free. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 Despite our spectacular win against them Antwerp managed to increase the gap for us till the 6th place to 4 points. This was not due to their spectacular form but mainly to us loosing totally unexpected (but deserved) at Lokeren and not managing to beat Oostende. Still 6 games left in the league and we have a much easier schedule than them. Anything can happen! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 Somehow we did it. Our easier schedule really helped, and with 4 wins and 1 draw from the last 6 matches we catch the last championship playoff spot. Now, we don't have great expectations for it, just try and be competitive and make some money out of it, while our young players gain some valuable experience. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 I think it is safe to assume we were a very consistent team in the playoffs. That is consistent in losing matches, indeed. Only managed 3 draws and therefore finished in 6th, miles away from the top of the division. Well, at least we got full stadiums against Gent and Standard, and now can think about next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 Still Bodin leading the line for us, and seriously dunno what we will do after we lose him (which is bound to happen soon). A lot more young players given chances this season, and gonna push some of the older ones out also this summer, but hopefully can find a balance between the young and old allowing us to keep improving the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 Some steps back for Belgium football which is a bit strange. In my previous careers almost always clubs from the nation I was playing in were overachieving in the European competitions and raised the nation as a whole. Doesn't seem to be the case here. Maybe they need us qualifying for Europe to achieve some better results? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted April 28, 2019 Share Posted April 28, 2019 Well maybe the Ukrainians are over achieving... You need to overachieve in Europe to balance things out. Vitreon winning the Champions League...anyone! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 This is a smaller intake with just 6 players, but 4 of them are probably going to make an impact in our team, including the cherry of the pick, Lamine (you can see his screenshot below). I have never received before in an intake someone who is already the best player at the club by current ability but he seems to be the guy. Already the Wnt icon appeared next to his name so for sure he's a quality one. Also satisfied of getting a decent DC we missed that for a while. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 Some more news about the club. We are still predicted to finish last and therefor the board expectations are in the line of that. We are still under spending but have increased some of the wages of the young players. Started out the cleaning period by disposing the veteran luxembourgouis (is that a word) striker Aurelian Joachim. The board made another affiliation this time with a Bulgarian team, not sure how much benefits we draw out of these links. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 It finally happened, we lost Bodin. I have chosen to negotiate and accept the offer with the most money upfront and so he leaves for Milan. 13 million is such a nice sum and hopefully we can invest this in the facilities at the club. Some other players leaving the club also to make room for the youths with the best potential. New season starting up soon very excited about it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 The worst debut of a season in our time at the club. We could only score one goal and are really struggling sitting now last in the league. We also had a very short pre-season due to the World Cup 2022 so did not had a lot of time to experiment life without Bodin. Hopefully we can bounce back to a decent form soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 While our league form is abysmal, our finances never looked better. We are in such a good financial position that the board finally agreed on our first upgrade in 4 years, the youth facilities benefiting from this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 We continue our bad run of results and our only luck so far is that Kortrijk and even Beveren is playing equally bad as us. We only won a game at Mechelen in the league and another one in the cup. To many draws at this point of the season, and we are not helped by the fixtures congestion due to the World Cup. Have played 7 games in October and its been rather difficult for our players to keep a good fitness. And the board agreed to upgrade training facilities also. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 29, 2019 Author Share Posted April 29, 2019 The poor run of results only got worse after the break due to the World Cup (where Belgium was so bad it barely got out of the groups before losing to Spain in the 16th round). Tried two new different systems, a strikerless one and one with two up front, and against Antwerp and Anderlecht even played with 5 at the back. The results were heavy defeats all around. Relegation seems like a real possibility at this point of the season. Board confidence has decreased a lot, our only hope coming from the fact Kortrijk are just one point above us. If only we could sneak past them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted April 29, 2019 Author Share Posted April 29, 2019 Seems like I didn't had enough to keep us in the first division and with the relegation came the sack. I was actually expecting the club to keep me despite this, after all we were predicted to finish last and I took them from the 3rd league. But things are as they are, and another career finishes before we can achieve some important results. Guess I am not really that good at FM. End of story. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillHoward42 Posted April 29, 2019 Share Posted April 29, 2019 Never managed in the Belgian league so never took much notice... always seem to have a good handful of teams fighting at the top rather than one/two outstanding teams which is usually the case across European Leagues! Really good progress though and an enjoyable read! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherwinriga Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Wow! That's another unfortunate ending with another sack. I believe that you need to push through the limit when you're managing a good team that is suited for you. Hopefully, you'll have another charm in your new save. Are you going to run a new save in a different country? Also, are you also planning to lock this thread soon? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev'o Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 22 hours ago, Muttley84 said: Seems like I didn't had enough to keep us in the first division and with the relegation came the sack. I was actually expecting the club to keep me despite this, after all we were predicted to finish last and I took them from the 3rd league. But things are as they are, and another career finishes before we can achieve some important results. Guess I am not really that good at FM. End of story. Don't give up now! There's still time to start with another club! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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