Gundo's FM09 European Adventure Challenge™

[PluckaDuck]

July 2009

Word has spread around Wales about Ton Pentre, and their ambitous plan to win the Champions League within 20 years. They have been assigned a colum in the 442 magazinge each month, displayiong their ups and downs through the month

Major Signings

. Burrows has appointed Aled Rowlands as his assistant manager.

. Striker Gareth Williams was brought in on a free transfer and appears to look like a great signing.

. Defender Wyn Thomas was a prearranged transfer when Burrows was appointed manager. He also looks very good.

Friendly's

. Tyler's first match in charge, was a 1-2 loss against Aberystwyth.

. The next game, was a 0-0 draw against Airbus.

Next month

. Ton Pentre begin their league season at Newport away on August 15. This is apart of a difficult stretch of 4 matches in 9 days.

. Burrows will look to add to his squad mainly in the midfield department, With a focus on both of the wings which have been lacking in the opening friendly's.

Until next month, Good bye, and get aboard Ton Pentre!

[Razer82]

Newington - 2009/10

Interesting season for us, we started with a huge rep and no money, but with the cash injection of 8.5m, we could suddenly afford whoever we wanted.

We finished first, quite easily really, and we have turned pro for next year, board expecting top half, should be quite a bit harder.

Turning pro whilst being in the Northern Irish First Division is amazing, I remember that it took about 10 years to have enough money to turn pro on 08. You're going to storm the league now.

[PluckaDuck]

August 2009 Review

It has been a pretty disapointing month for Tyler Burrows at Ton Pentre. Despite playing some positive and attacking football, they just haven't really got the results they were after.

Matches

Ton Pentre 1-2 Newtown In Tyler Burrows first ever match in the WPL, he was subject to a 2-1 loss at the hands of Newtown, in front of a 202 person strong opposition crowd. On the 91st minute, Gareth Williams opened up his Ton Pentre account with a stunning lobbed goal that was only a consulation.

Ton Pentre 1-3 Carmarthen In the Welsh Premier League Cup, Ton Pentre lost away to Carmarthen. Burrows' team looked in trouble from the 2nd minute when star signing Gareth Williams hobbled off with a knee injury that would keep him out for the next 4 weeks. But that saw the entry of exciting new prospect John Maguire who picked up a 79th minute goal on his debut.

Ton Pentre 0-2 Bangor City Ton Pentre were very disapointed after a 2-0 loss infront of their own fans at the hands of Bangor City. Burrows was lucky his side didn't lose by more, after Dean Johnston was sent off after just 34 minutes.

Ton Pentre 0-1 Aberystwyth Ton Pentre continued their poor form at their very own Ynys park. Burrows's team had plenty of chances in the first halk, but just couldn't get the decisive goal. Then after Aberystwyth went up seconds before half time, Ton Pentre hardly turned up in the 2nd hald playing defensive, meaningless football.

Signings

Mark Williams was the only signing from August and looks to have gone a long way to fixing Ton Pentre's defensive woe's. Coming in on a free from UWIC, he looks to be a good deal.

There has been strong word that Burrows is on the verge of making a historic signing by completing the deal of 15 year old central midfielder Sam Suckling for 24 thousand pounds. Although Burrows wouldn't supply the young stars details until the deal had gone through, told us at 442 'Sam will definetly feature very heavily for many years to come'.

Until the end of the transfer window, Burrows should definetly be looking to sign a new goal keeper, as well as complete the Sam Suckling purchase. A central midfielder should also be on the cards to add depth.

Players

This has certainly been a break through moth for 16 year old starlett Jon Maguire. Coming through the youth team, Jon scored on his debut, and has recieved rave reviews from the coaches at Ton Pentre

Kristian Orchard has been a revelation at left back this season. Defending very well he and Wyn Thomas have been standouts in an otherwise disappointing defence.

Tactics

Burrows has certainly been experimenting with his tactics. He started with a 4-4-2, before moving to a 4-1-2-2-1, and the last match he played a 5-4-1 long ball game, with young Jon Maguire playing up front alone. This has certainly appeared to a be a weakness in Burrows' armoury and is currently looking for a new one to try.

Season Tickets

Ton Mentre sold 55 season tickets for the season and are hoping that good performances will generate more fans to come on game day.

Next Month

Ton Pentre have a break until their next game, which is away to Portmadog on September 12, followed by a Cup game against Haverfordwest. There are 4 matches for Ton Pentre in September.

[Fitzaay]

Any word on them NI Save games being uploaded?

[MadWoodster]

Irishresearcher mentioned earlier on in this thread that it would be Tuesday before he would have them.

I have run a few seasons through myself but it is only Newington who seem to get promoted.

Not sure if this is as a result of any change the patch made? But it seems impossible to get anyone else promoted.

[Fitzaay]

Ah, I might jump into Dafuge's challenge on the laptop while I wait. Missing Albert Foundry

[Gundo]

I'm afraid I won't be able to do this until next tueday now - had it all planned to do in 'work' - then got in this morning to find all the computers are being moved to a new office. darn.

I'm away to england until next tuesday, but when im back I will get it sorted for you.

Cheers,

Mark

That would be great, the Northern Ireland players would really appreciate it I'm sure.

[djmac174]

Playing with you chaps in spirit, as I can't get screenshots to work, have went Zvezda-BGU in Belarus.

[spotg]

NK Sampion 2009-10 Season Review

There were quizzical looks among the 45 hardcore fans of NK Sampion. Not only had they secured back-to-back promotions to reach the Second Division, beyond their wildest dreams, not only had the entire management and coaching staff that had taken them there magically disappeared, but their board had hired a complete lunatic to manage them.

Danilo Spotgic's claims of having taken Krka and Sencur to multiple league titles and consistent qualification from Champions League groups were patently absurd. After all, both sides are still mired in the Third division. And yet, somehow, he convinced the chairman to take him on.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/Profile.png

The odds were heavily against them. A club with no history, who play at a 500 capacity stadium on the outskirts of Slovenia's 3rd city, Celje, very little is known about them outside of the town, and even in the town, most football fans interests end with top flight side Celje. Indeed, even simple matters like the teams colours are only known to a select few, and their appearance in the Second Division had the bookies and media completely flummoxed. With only 5 contracted players, one of whom a loanee from Celje, it was clear that work was needed, and their odds for promotion reflected that. At a mammoth 5000-1 and odds ranging from 50-1 down to 8-1 to so much as win a single game, they were being written off left, right and centre, and predicted to finish last by a street.

Spotgic took the obvious step. Begged his chairman to set up a parent club link with a top flight side, to get some free, quality players in, and hired some scouts to scour the nation for talent. You can only imagine his surprise when the chairman said "nah. Don't want to do that. Just don't see the point of getting in lots of high quality players for free, and being paid 5k for the privilege", and it could only be doubled when his scouts came back and said "there are only 71 players in the entire world who want to play for you". Including this, old before his time striker..

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/BlazFuks.png

Some were hired, and a backs to the wall attitude was adopted. The side was patently not good enough, and all of Spotgic's tactical acumen would be needed here. A defensive 4-4-2 diamond formation was selected, with the hope of stealing the occasional 1-0, and getting enough points to stay up.

The first nine league games brought 5 draws and 4 defeats, despite only scoring 4 goals, and Sampion were only being kept off the bottom by the woeful, fellow-promotees Jedran Dekani. A fortunate home draw against minnows Beltinci in the Pokal Hervis was the only bright spot, a 3-0 win entitling us to be beaten at Livar in round two.

Pokal Hervis - Round 2 - Board Pleased

However, October saw Spotgic enrol in a tactical training course, courtesy of a shadowy group known as the TT&F, and the fruits were immediate. a 1-0 win over Bonifika, a 3-0 win over Olimpija and a 1-0 at Jedran Dekani saw Sampion go into the winter break in 7th, and 5 points clear of the relegation zone.

However, the money was running out. The club was spending 1600 a week on wages, and with only 400 people coming through the door, each paying £1 for the privilege, they were quickly into the red. No reinforcements could come in. Only players willing to take a pay cut could extend their contracts, and with four tough away games in a row looming on resumption in March, no chickens were being counted.

And indeed, after the winter break, two points from a possible 18, saw Sampion back in the bottom two. But there was a potential saving grace. They were only 2 points behind Bonifika with six games each remaining. Sampion had to play the bottom team, Jedran Dekani, and Sampion at home, with two more games from which points could be garnered. Bonifika had a really tough run in.

The home game with Jedran Dekani saw Sampion out of the relegation zone again, with a late late winner from 20 yards from a sub, his first goal for the club, seeing them home by 1-0. But two defeats saw them back into 9th, a point adrift of Bonifika, ahead of the vital game.

Bonifika came out all guns blazing, and took an early lead, but then disaster struck for them as a man was sent off for a wild challenge. Immediately Spotgic saw his chance and abandoned the cautious diamond formation, pushing up the wingers and having a real go. Reward came with a headed goal from a corner just before half time to bring us level. The second half was a stressful affair. Chance after chance went begging until, on 90+5(!) our striker went clear and slipped the ball home! We had won a vital match, and were out of the bottom two with only two games left.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/SampionvBonifika-Izola.png

Bonifika had two horror matches left. Home to the runaway league winners Interblock, who had lost once all year, and away to second placed, and Pokal Hervis winners, Bela Krajina. So surely Sampion were safe, regardless of their results.

And so it turned out. Bonifika lost both their last two games, and with the pressure off, Sampion had a 4-0 romp at home to Aluminij to celebrate. And it turned out to be a double celebration, with a landmark for Striker Rekic..

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/RekicScores.png

Slovenian Second Division - 8th - Board Delighted

League Table - http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/SlovenianSecondDivision.png - Survival!

Finances - http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/Finances.png - Very very worrying

Squad - http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/SquadRatings.png - Loanees ftw

Transfers - http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/Transfers.png - No money. No-one leaves.

Best Eleven - http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd307/spotg/BestEleven.png - No surprises

Progress

                                        P         W       D        L        F       A       Pts           Pos
2009-10 Slovenian Second Division        27        6        8        13      20      30      26             8th

Aims for the new season

Stay up. That has to be all. Find some money from somewhere to keep the club afloat. Maybe sign the odd player with a bit of potential!

[cookie15]

Very short update......more to follow!

Lillehammer improve on last season to finish 4th!

A more detailed report to follow at some point. I'm just keen to try and get the boys promoted, next season for sure!!!!

[DodgeeD]

Good start to the FM 09 campaign there spotg. Survival is all that matters first season, hopefully you'll be able to get some better players over the summer.

I'm nearing the end of the first phase of the oerly-complicated 2nd Division in Turkey and in with a chance of making the Championship Group. Will post a mini update if I get to the winterbreak tonight.

[DodgeeD]

Yalovaspor, Mid-Season Update (Dec 2009)

After a summer of frantically trying to put a squad together, we began the second division first phase not too sure what to expect. An encouraging pre-season was ended with a dose of reality as we lost three our first four league games and got knocked out of the cup. But then my side seemed to click and found their stride and out together an impressive 10 game unbeaten run, which saw us go as high as second in the group. It was tight though with just 4 points seperating the top 5. Crucially, we lost to Vanspor in our penultimate game, effectively ending our hopes of reaching the Championship Group in the second part of the season. A draw in the last game confirmed that but a quick look at the Group E final table confirms how tight it was.

As far as I understand (the league system is a bit complex so I may be wrong ), the top two teams are now set to compete in the Championship Group with the top two from the other groups. The remaining 7 teams will now play each other home and away again with the bottom two relegated and the top side getting one last shot at promotion through a play-off system. However, don't be surprised if I come back with a completely different story once the season is over!

[CoachFlu]

Alright, it's that time of the year again!

A new FM, so I'm gonna try this challenge again. Had a lot of fun with it last year, and almost finished it - but not quite...

As some of you may recall, I was in charge of Verbroedering Meldert (Belgium) last year and made it to two consecutive Champions League Finals around 2030-ish or so, but lost them both - first one to Liverpool, second one to Real Madrid.

Shortly after that my computer's power supply went poof, and after a few weeks of waiting for the repair guys to finish with it, it turned out that the hard drive was damaged as well (somehow). So that was the end of the Meldert career. Haven't really played much FM since then at all, really.

But heck, new version, renewed desire to play. So Ulf Chaoc has ressurrected, now as manager of KVV Heusden-Zolder (again in Belgium).

Heusden-Zolder background.

With some sort of Second Div. league restructuring happening, only one new team got promoted to the Third Division (despite 5 teams relegating from it), so I had to reload a few times to get a team I was happy with - one without a recent history at this level.

This'll be Heusden-Zolder's first appearance in the Third Division in their history. Nevertheless, the board immediately expects a safe mid table finish. Hopefully I didn't pick a team with a slightly over-ambitious chairman. On the other hand, the media seem to agree with those ambitions and predict the team to finish 9th. With no staff and just 13 amateur players at the club, that's a questionable prediction, but I'll do my best.

Currently rounding up some staff members so I can start looking for some bargain players. Will report back once the team has taken shape.

[PluckaDuck]

Ton Pentre Breaking news

Due to poor results and lack of confidence in manager Tyler Burrows, 442 have dumped Ton Pentre from their monthly update. Instead they will be featured in 3 editions a year, September, January and June. Sorry for any inconvenience

[gaijin]

Now annoyingly in Switzerland there seems to be some kind of bug where the AI teams aren't giving their new signings squad numbers so they're all ineligible. ie. Servette, predicted 2nd, lie bottom of the table in 16th. Here is their squad.

It doesn't seem right to carry on with this, it is happening with most of the other teams but just not as severe, so will probably start again in a different country again!

Although admittedly wasn't doing too well anyway!:o

Has that been reported?

[gers51]

Has that been reported?

Forgot about that. I'll just go and do it now.

On another note thinking of heading off to Ireland this time. Just holidaying now.

[yababo]

Decided to give this a go in Greece. I am the new manager of Niki Volou

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u181/Yababo/NikiVpersonal.jpg

The link below is what our stadium looks like.

http://www.stadia.gr/nikivolou/nikivolou4.jpg

Have got a full squad but no staff.

Will update at end of first season.

[CoachFlu]

Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. August 9th, 2009

The first league match is still three weeks away, but we just played our first competitive match - the 3rd round in the Belgian Cup, which we scraped through on penalties.

I'm reasonably optimistic about the squad I managed to build. After releasing a handful of seriously overpaid youngsters from the U19 squad, there was plenty of room in the wage budget to put us in decent shape.

The squad is 37 players strong now, including some loan players - a few from our new parent club, Second Div. team FC Brussels, and a few from local First Div. team KRC Genk.

That should arm us against all the injuries the game can throw at us - quite a few of them already, so far.

A standard first eleven will have to take shape in the next month or two, so I'll just list a few of the players who will probably have a key role in the squad.

Davy Theunis - our team captain. Has a good amount of First Division experience, mostly at Beveren, and will be our first choice DC.

Geoffrey Claeys - our most high profile signing. Ex-international who never really managed to live up to the promise he showed at a young age. He'll play the left back position at Heusden, but there's competition for that position and with Geoffrey's poor pace, it will remain to be seen whether he can hang on to the spot.

Junior - Another player with some First Division experience as an Anderlecht youngster, but after that his career kind of stalled. He can now pick it up again at a lower level.

Kurt Van De Paar - Another ex-Anderlecht youngster - long ago - who had a few good seasons at FC Twente and then ended up in the lower Belgian divisions. Stamina is a slight concern, but for now he'll be our first choice AMC.

Sampson Twum - one of our young strikers, and I just love his name (Nigerian second nationality). Hopefully his combination of pace, flair, technique, dribbling and first touch are enough to off-set his complete lack of other abilities.

This is just a small pick from the bunch, because to be honest I'm quite impressed about the quality of the players I managed to sign, so it's quite possible that several others will end up claiming a key role in the squad. Hopefully I'll remain so optimistic once I've played a few league matches.

[gers51]

3rd time lucky hopefully!

Taken over as Salthill Devon in Ireland. Only 6 or 7 senior players to start with and only a £4.7k wage budget mean it could be a long and hard season coming up.

[Gundo]

Now annoyingly in Switzerland there seems to be some kind of bug where the AI teams aren't giving their new signings squad numbers so they're all ineligible. ie. Servette, predicted 2nd, lie bottom of the table in 16th. Here is their squad.

It doesn't seem right to carry on with this, it is happening with most of the other teams but just not as severe, so will probably start again in a different country again!

Although admittedly wasn't doing too well anyway!:o

Are you sure there aren't registration windows in force in Switzerland or is it just AI teams having the problem?

[gers51]

Are you sure there aren't registration windows in force in Switzerland or is it just AI teams having the problem?

I don't thinkso because I was able to just give squad numbers to any new signings and they were eligible to play straight away. Even not during the transfer windows I was still allowed to change the squad numbers.

I went through a few of the AI teams after that and none of the teams I went through had registered any new signings, although they had played a couple of games because they were eligible for the Swiss Cup.

[Gundo]

I don't thinkso because I was able to just give squad numbers to any new signings and they were eligible to play straight away. Even not during the transfer windows I was still allowed to change the squad numbers.

I went through a few of the AI teams after that and none of the teams I went through had registered any new signings, although they had played a couple of games because they were eligible for the Swiss Cup.

I see, sounds strange that. Good luck in your new game.

[DodgeeD]

First season at Yalovaspor done and it went much better than I expected. Full report on it's way tomorrow

[Icelander83]

I don't thinkso because I was able to just give squad numbers to any new signings and they were eligible to play straight away. Even not during the transfer windows I was still allowed to change the squad numbers.

I went through a few of the AI teams after that and none of the teams I went through had registered any new signings, although they had played a couple of games because they were eligible for the Swiss Cup.

You should try making a new manager and take over one of those teams, see if you can register the players. If you can then it's definately an issue with the ai management.

That said, I'm starting in Norway, more info as and when I have it.

[DragoLT]

I think im going to start this one too, it sounds like a great challenge and a way to find the very best of FM im thinking about starting in Greece, because ive never tried to play down there

[Icelander83]

I have started in Norway, taking over a team called Klepp (chosen as the most famous insane asylum in Iceland is called Kleppur)

And so it begins again!

[gers51]

You should try making a new manager and take over one of those teams, see if you can register the players. If you can then it's definately an issue with the ai management.

Still had the save game so tried that there with Servette and I was able to give all of the players squad numbers and they were eligible straight away, so think it must be a problem with the AI teams.

Also just finished my first season in Ireland, will post an update shortly.

[DragoLT]

im starting with Aigaleo ir Greece

[gers51]

End of Season Update 2009 - Salthill Devon - Irish Division 1

At the start of the season I had only about 10 players, most of which were nowhere near good enough to compete and help the club attempt to avoid relegation, therefore a major overhaul was need with 24 signings made throughout the season. Although since the players I inherited were so bad I couldn't give them away, so they sat in the reserves taking up a chunk of my wage budget, meaning as I went about building a new squad I went quite a bit over the £3.3k budget. The media also had good faith in our ability to stay up!

With a whole new squad in place for the start of the season, understandably the team didn't gel straight away with just 1 win in the first eleven games, although there was a few draws in amongst that due to our inability to put games to bed and conceding late goals.

Throughout the rest of the season though we started to put some results together and pull closer to the teams above us, before this there were us and another team cut adrift at the bottom. We managed to finish comfortably away from the bottom spot in amongst a whole bunch of teams narrowly seperated by just a few points.

A few screenshots:

• Finances - Poor because of too much money being spent on the wages
  
• 1st team squad
  
• League Table
  
• Form Graph - Showing how we picked up our form later in the season
  
• Vinny Faherty - Top Scorer
  
• Darren Meade - Neither striker is very good technically but are good physically and managed a far few goals between them
  
• Shaun Holmes - Probably our best player statistically and contributed a few goals from the left hand side of midfield
  

So hopefully next season we can push on up the table, not many new signings should be needed as this group of players seem to be gelling nicely.

[rlipscombe]

solid 1st season gers51 - survival is the main thing. Holmes looks a good player for you - good at set pieces is always a bonus.

good luck next season.

[gers51]

solid 1st season gers51 - survival is the main thing. Holmes looks a good player for you - good at set pieces is always a bonus.

good luck next season.

Cheers!

Yeah, he's scored all of his goals from free-kicks and had a few assists from them aswell, so he's a good player to have.

[freek_teek]

Alright, it's that time of the year again!

With some sort of Second Div. league restructuring happening, only one new team got promoted to the Third Division (despite 5 teams relegating from it), so I had to reload a few times to get a team I was happy with - one without a recent history at this level.

The league is getting reformed next season. I don't know how it's implemented in FM but it is supposed to be something like this.

-> The first division will feature 16 teams (18 at the moment):

This is implemented in FM09: teams 17 and 18 at the end of the 08-09 season are relegated to the second division. Numbers 16 and 15 are in a play-off with numbers 2 and 3 of the second division, the winner of the play-off will play in the first division for the 09-10 season. The champion of the second division is automatically promoted.

->From the 09-10 season onwards the first division will have two play-off's after the regular season. The first six will play a play-off for the title and the european qualifiers. The second play-off will be between the numbers 7 to 14. The winner from that play-off will play the last team that qualified for a UEFA Cup-ticket from the first play-off, home and away. The winner will get the European spot.

->Number 16 will be relegated, number 15 will play in the second division play-off with the winners of the three periods. The second Division champion will be automatically promoted.

I don't know how this will impact the number of teams in the second and third division.

I guess the Belgian FA thought the periods system alone wasn't confusing enough.

I will be starting a game in Belgium soon, as I want to see how this influences everything. (And it's been a long time since I played my home league.)

Good luck, CoachFlu and don't be suprised if the league turns out something completely different than what I just wrote. I don't think anyone in Belgium still understands what the plan is, so you probably can't expect SI to do any better.

[CoachFlu]

Good luck, CoachFlu and don't be suprised if the league turns out something completely different than what I just wrote. I don't think anyone in Belgium still understands what the plan is, so you probably can't expect SI to do any better.

Haha, yeah. I'm in Belgium and I don't have a clue. Though admittedly I haven't been following it closely - there have been so many ideas put forth the last few years that I adopted a "I'll see it when it happens" attitude eventually.

I assumed they were gonna go with the one where halfway into the season the top half of the league becomes First Div. A and the bottom half First Div. B, in order to let the top teams play each other a bit more often. But I guess they scrapped that and went with a playoff system... Oh well. I'll see it when it happens.

From what I can tell, that playoff thing isn't implemented in FM yet (which would be understandable, heheh). At least it's not mentioned anywhere in the league rules, though I'm only in November '09, and those rules aren't always the same as what is actually coded. I'll keep an eye on it at the end of the season. The First Division (called "Pro League" in FM) did get reduced to 16 teams.

No change in the Second Division system, as far as I can tell, except that there were 19 teams in it in 08-09, now back to the standard 18. That's not related to the restructuring, it's a different issue altogether (the Geel-Namur promotion playoff debacle last year).

Apparently this 19 --> 18 change is not going to happen IRL, but I think that's a recent decision (and a weird one) by the Belgian FA, so we can't blame SI for not getting that right either.

Anyways... heheh. All a bit muddy, for now, but what it comes down to when starting this challenge in Belgium: only one new team promotes to the two Belgian Third Division leagues at the end of the 08-09 season. So make sure to save before the switch-over date - if you want options, you'll have to reload.

[freek_teek]

Anyways... heheh. All a bit muddy, for now, but what it comes down to when starting this challenge in Belgium: only one new team promotes to the two Belgian Third Division leagues at the end of the 08-09 season. So make sure to save before the switch-over date - if you want options, you'll have to reload.

It's a bit strange, normally the 4 champions of 4th Division should get promoted automatically. with the twelve period-winners playing in a play-off. I just checked and this play-off is played. Matches are drawn around 6th of may, so if you want a particular team you can try reloading then (altough I tried a few times and it were mostly the same teams that were picked). The first match of the play-off is 17 may. So theoretically you should be able to guide your team to 3rd Division that way. There are three rounds played. the teams that finish 14th in 3A en 3B enter in the second round. on the final day the two winners get a place in 3rd Division. However this doesn't seem to work in FM09. Woluwe-Zaventem and Lyra were the winners in my save. Woluwe remained in 3A, but Lyra never were promoted.

There were two new teams in my save. I reloaded a few times KSK Hasselt seem to be the team that comes up most of the time, followed by Patro Eisden, Heusden-Zolder and Sprimont. I'll try a few more times and see if there are more.

[CoachFlu]

Ah, I stand corrected indeed. Two new teams in my game as well.

And yep, Witgoor won one of the playoff finals and never promoted to 3rd.

Weird. I wonder if it's a bug or an intentional "keep-the-correct-amount-of-teams-in-those-damn-confusing-Belgian-leagues" reshuffling manoeuvre.

[Supermas2]

Was initially going to go for Poland again, after my success there last year with TKP Torun, but with the league issue, have opted for Serbia - so will set that to holiday in a minute.

[freek_teek]

I think it's the second. I just checked the rules for the second division in 09-10 and only the team in 16th place has to play in a relegation play-off (as opposed to 14th-17th in 08-09), so there will be a maximum of 3 teams relegated from the second division. With 2 champions, one play-off winner and 4 teams automatically getting relegated in 3rd division this frees up the 4 places for the 4th division champions and a possible 2 extra for eventual 4th division play-off winners.

I think I'll holiday untill 2010 and pick a team than to profit from the extra choice.

edited to add:

I just noticed the first division play-offs are in the game: they are not in the rules, but in the fixtures menu, there are dates for "champions group" and "European places extra playoff" starting in april.

This should be interesting

[CoachFlu]

Ah, good to know! Can't wait to promote to the First Division now. Then I'll actually get to see how it works and be able to impress family and friends with my intelligence as I explain the new system to them.

[442to445]

Well after 75 odd loads, Dinas didn't pop, so I took the next best thing...

[DodgeeD]

Yalovaspor, 2009-10 Season Review (Turkish Second Division)

As summarised earlier on this page, having assembled my squad from the free agents and bargain buys available, I surpassed all expectations in the first part of the season by taking Yalovaspor to 5th in our First Phase group, a mere 3 points off qualificaiton for the Championship Group.

In the New Year, the second phase began with the same group minus the top two, who had joined the other winners and runner-up in the Championship Group. They would battle out for direct promotion while we would battle for top spot and a shot at promotion through the backdoor play-off route. We were locked in a tight battle with Erzurumspor and Belidiye Vanspor all the way. It seemed like we had thrown it away when we lost to Vanspor with 2 games to go. However, Erzurmspor would lose their next match and Vanspor would finish thier games before us meaning we were in pole position heading into the last match. However, an immediate apperance in the play-offs was not to be as we drew our last match to relgated Karsspor and Erzurumspor won, leaving us 2nd and missing out on the play-offs by a single point. Gutted but would have been more than happy with that at the start of the season so no complaints.

Our season ended there and over the summer I will be looking to add some depth to the squad and let some of the weaker players go as I now believe we can push for promotion. At the club, the finances are stable with 100k still in the bank. The board have again given me a much higher transfer budget, which I will again leave largely untouched. They say there is not enough money for any improvements at the club yet though and see no point in having parent club. Nevermind - I only used two loanees last season and I can manage without.

Fans' Player Of The Year: Enes Erciyas - one of my few purchased players, the Belgian-Turk agreed to come to us from Premier Division side Manisaspor and was easily our best player. He had a non-promotion clause of 250k which is now active but I'm hoping to persuade him to sign a new deal.

Signing Of The Season: Konstantin Alienkov - although foreign players are not allowed in the 2nd Division, players from 'Turkic' nations like Kazahkstan, Azerbijan and Uzbekistan are and so I brought this U-21 player in on a free. It took him a while to settle but once he did he scored some vital goals. He even got called up to the Kazahk national side, thus becoming Yalovaspor's first international player!

The Best XI is a fair reflection of the season as that was my first choice line up.

Aims for next season: Reach the Championship Group; have a mini cup run.

[5ergio]

Good first year with Yalovaspor DodgeeD. Shame you missed the playoffs with 1 point. The so called "Turkish nationed players" can make a huge difference if you can find a good one, however they are dispatched as soon as you hit Premier Division and have the possibility to sign 8 foreigners Still coping with uni these weeks, I think I'll wait before the mega transfer patch till feb to have a go at this with Goztepe, they have a good history to begin with

[spotg]

The second season is actually proving harder than the first, with both Krka and Smarje coming up and doing well.

Luckily, I've sorted things out tactically a little better, and we've started to score goals, including a 70 yard belter from my keeper, so after ten games we're just about afloat in 8th.

Good start DodgeeD. Interesting to hear about the Turkish league too - don't know much about it all out there. Particularly interesting that Kazakhs, Uzbeks etc aren't "foreign".

Slovenia suffers terribly from being part of the EU, and only allowing 1 non-EU player in the team in the Second Division, but also being in Eastern Europe and the old Yugoslavia, and as such not at all attractive to any foreign players at all, with the exception of the odd crap Croat, Bosnian or Serb.

Not that Sampion can sign anyone from abroad yet. We have a total of 471 players interested in coming to the club! On a large database! With all Slovenian players retained!

[CoachFlu]

Heusden-Zolder, mid-season update

December 5th, 2009

Mid-season table.

A very smooth first season, so far, at least results-wise. After a bit of a win-one-lose-one start, we gradually snuck closer and closer to the playoff zone.

Whether we can stay there in the second half of the season remains to be seen, but it's not a big concern. Anything near mid-table and I'll be pleased.

One mistake I've made was hiring a female physio, since many of my players are all too eager to get injured. Luckily I have a large squad, so we haven't been in real trouble yet.

Finances are a concern, as the balance is below zero and still dropping. The large squad isn't helping in that area, but since I'm only using 75% of the wage budget, my conscience is relatively clear. With nobody worth enough to sell, it'll be a matter of sticking it out until the attendance level goes up.

[GazTheDoood]

One mistake I've made was hiring a female physio, since many of my players are all too eager to get injured. Luckily I have a large squad, so we haven't been in real trouble yet.

Classic. :D

[Ready Freddie]

Newington 2010/11 Season Summary

2nd in Irish First Division

League Table | Confidence

We celebrated our first season as professionals reasonably successfully, however until the last game of the season it looked like we might win the title, but it wasn't to be, losing 2 - 0 in our last game, and missing out by a single point.

We made a few new signings, mostly people who my assistant reccommended, but the team is running really well, and we're still way under our wage budget.

The cups went well, we got knocked out of the Antrim Cup in the first round, which annoyed the board, but we won the Irish Cup, pretty big considering I was like 10-1 in the final, the board only expecting the 6th round.

We'll have a new stadium for our first season in the Premier Division, and hopefully a few new signings come July.

I've created this table for future updates, I think it's a nice touch.

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|Year   |Competition                      | Pos|Pts|Other                       |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2009/10|Second Division                  | 1st| 68|Promoted to First Division  |
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|2010/11|First Division                   | 2nd| 51|Promoted, Won Irish Cup     |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ready Freddie]

Just discovered we're in the EURO Cup next season. Awesome.

[Razer82]

Well done on the back to back promotions Freddie. I was surprised to see you finish 2nd in the league, would have thought being the only professional team in the league you'd have stormed it.

Good luck for the Premier League & Euro Cup, you'll certainly need it for your first trip into Europe.

[Icelander83]

Here we go for the first update, a whopping two months of PRESEASON! Haven't played a single game but I have a lot of text to throw out there as well as a huge amount of one screenshot! So, without further ado I present to you:

Klepp, season 2009: The prequel!

"With no real competition histort of note, Klepp are a club with a trophy cabinet waiting

to be filled!

Quite a good message for someone who's looking to build a legacy.

The assistants team report shows 2 players with 7 stars, Austli (striker) and Fadnes (MR)

with Schjerven (dc) on 6 stars as well as Randby (MC). Bad news include a three star

goalkeeper and a two star left back! An offer was promptly made for one of the left backs

my ass man suggested to adress this problem.

Incredibly enough we are only expected to avoid relegation, meaning we will have to be

better than 3 of the other 13 teams in our group of the Second Division. Lucky for us there

are only two "B teams" in the group, Valerenga 2 and Viking 2, meaning we are essentially

competing agains 11 other teams if my prior experience is anything to go by.

The club staff consists of me, an ass man and a GK coach so adverts have been sent out for

a coach, a fitness coach, a scout and a physio.

Things seem set for a downturn when our star striker leaves on a free transfer, rejecting

the contract I offered him as it was only half of what the other team offered.

A contract has been agreed with the most qualified physio to apply for the job. I was

really impressed with his ideas about acupuncture without needles and massages without

touching. Well, not really, he doesn't really seem to know anything about physiotherapy but

he'll probably be useful in the concession stand on match days.

The board reject my new coach, saying we don't need another coach. Rumour amongst the lunch

ladies suggest the proposed coach had a history with the wife of someone on the board.

The candidate for the scouting position is approved, however, and just as well. He seems to

be very adept at judging how good players will become, if I had to rate him on a scale of..

say.. 1-20 he'd be a definite 14.

The board come to me and tell me there are two clubs interested in forming a connection to

our club. How do you spell B-I-N-G-O? Lilleström are chosen as they seem eager to send

players out on loan.

Remember how I said things looked like going sour when my star striker left? He was

promptly joined by my other star player, Fandnes (AM R). Joy

I went to Lilleström to watch their players train and then put in a whole lot of loan

offers. Hoping to get some defensive reinforcements and a midfielder who can actually pass

the ball. Also put in a loan offer for a striker who's a beast in the air, smelling the

sweet stench of non-relegation if I can get him in.

Just brilliant.. Non of the Lilleström players would come within a mile of our club hq,

never mind play for us.

Just before the start of our friendlies we signed http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/pp217/dmjonsson/Gundo/2009/march-gundo.jpg, breaking the bank in the

process. Well, not really, paying 3k up front with 8k over 24 months (in Euro). He's young

and he's got the quality I value most at lower levels, immense versatility.

And so the friendlies are set to begin

[Icelander83]

Oh, and anyone care to tell me how to do the thing where I put a text that appears instead of the link itself? would have thought the "insert link" thingy would do that but apparently I was wrong.

[spotg]

I've just found the website of Sampion.

Take a look at their ground.

http://www.simersampion.si/igrisca