FM21 Global (Less England) Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[jmarchand]

On 03/03/2021 at 05:03, Britrock said:

Please stuff AEK for me, they're a bit of a juggernaut in my save!

Consider them stuffed.

[jmarchand]

Great progress @aldojags, good luck on the Final. That's the first European-level final of the Challenge so far I think, we're all rooting for Spartak Pelven! 

Solid season @Biscotti, looking forward to see you play in your new stadium. 

@BritrockUp to Europe next! I feel you can make it!

[aldojags]

Thanks @jmarchandunfortunately i bottled the final, 2-0 down after 12 mins, lost 5-3! 
 

the night i got to the final, i was in amazing form, one of those nights where u dont want to turn the game off its going so well. When i went back on last night we were awful, newrly gave away the league, went right tk the wire afyer being 7 pts in front, scudded by Salzburg, lost to Ludogorets 5-1, and lost in Bulgarian cup final. 
 

i knew I shouldn’t have turned the game off that night!

 

also has anyone else noticed the crazy amount of passback mistake goals there now are since the update. I concedes 3 goals in 5 games from pass back to keeper that either went straight in, or were intercepted and they scored from it

[Britrock]

12 hours ago, Biscotti said:

Solid if unremarkable season there @Britrock, but it seems like heading in the right direction. Does it feel like you're still a long way from closing the gap to the top teams?

I think so, I didn't get beaten quite so badly by them this year as last year. It's going to be a long term project though, I'm buying players on frees while olympiakos spent £6m on a striker in January! My sponsorship increased by another 50% this year and I'm no longer bottom of the super league for that so we're trending in the right direction financially to get there at least. 

[Britrock]

9 hours ago, jmarchand said:

Great progress @aldojags, good luck on the Final. That's the first European-level final of the Challenge so far I think, we're all rooting for Spartak Pelven! 

Solid season @Biscotti, looking forward to see you play in your new stadium. 

@BritrockUp to Europe next! I feel you can make it!

We've got a 5th European place this year so there is a chance that if everything comes together we could sneak in somewhere! Fingers very much crossed!

Edited March 5, 2021 by Britrock

[Thebaker]

 

2021/22

Squad | Transfers | Table

This was a decent season where the club started well and kept going without being in the mix for the playoffs which wasn't too bad as they were predicted to finish last. Reached the semi-final of the federation cup which my board were not interested in. Lost in the 2nd rd of the copa del rey 0-1 at home to Celta Vigo.

With very few fans (most left to form a new club!) finances are proving to be an issue and the club has slid into the red over the season, even the sponsorship has gone down.

Up front Prendes on loan proved a cut above and Nieves came in towards the back of the season to do well. Verdu was my best player but he retired at the end of the season but he was costing a third of my wage budget.

Season	League	Position	Copa Del Rey	Federation Cup	Top Scorer	Attendance	Training	Youth	Junior	Youth Rec	Notes
2021/22	2nd Div B4	6th	2nd Rd	Semi-final	Ranchero (17)	376	Adequate	Adequate	Fairly Basic	Basic

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Thebaker

[SolnaRoyal]

 
FC Karpaty Lviv Season 2025/2026
Introduction - Season 2021/2022 - 2022/2023 - 2023/2024 - 2024/2025

End of season recap

Up & Down! 

Im sorry I have not been able to update that much during this week, a lot of work to do and I had to take a break after a few games when we were dead last in the league to restructure my tactics.
We started of the season with 1 win and 1 draw in our first eleven games, not only did we have several key players injured but the 4-4-2 tactic was starting to fall apart, I had to take a break for a few days just to rethink the whole approach. We moved over to a 4 - 4 - 1 - 1 as several of our key strikers were either injured or starting to loose their quality, we managed to pull through at the end and climbed to an all time high 7th place. 

Would we have been able to reach the EC2 spots if we did not screw up the first half of the season? We will never know, but I think we are on the right track and the goal will be to reach EC2 either by placing 5th (chances that Shakhtar or Dynamo wins the cup is very big every year) within 2 - 3 years if we just can tie down some quality in the team.

Most notable in the table is Olexandriya who was in 16th place before the last game against us, we maged to loose 2 - 1 and saved them from relegation. I really wanted them to get relegated so I could start using them as a team to send our kids too in first division. But the gods wanted something else. They are still paying us every year, so I´ll take the money and won´t complain! 

We also managed to reach the semi finals again in the cup, and of course we drew the hardest team we could Dinamo Kiev and lost 2 - 0 , if we had drawn Zora or Obolon we would have played in the final, but sadly yet another semi final exit. Can we keep the run up?

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

Transfers In and Out

What a year for transfers! 
We broke our record transfer fee this year when SLB bought Eugene Lobay for 2.4 million , several clauses and a 40% of profits sell on clause. This helped increase our bank from a meger 900k to almost 3 million!
And for once I took a deep breath and just spent 325k of this on transfers, most notably Trevor Smith for 250k, and 18 year old Sweeper Keeper that Im planning on flipping for a big profit after 2 - 3 years.

I think you all remember Claudio Manzi that I bought drunk? Well I managed to send him on a loan to Cesena with a fee of 26.5k and 90% of his wages, hopefully we can do the same thing next year and we will acually have made a profit on this deadweight. 

Spoiler

Ivan Vukcevic 
Free Transfer

With our new 4-4-1-1 formation I wanted to make sure we had 1 really good forward that could score and distribute the goals, this will also bring down our transfer fees in the future as we would only have to buy 1 really good striker instead of 2. (They don´t come cheap!) joined us as a free agent from Zeta in Montenegro. 27 apps and 7 goals / 6 ass with 6,79 rating. I think he can do much better next year if we can acually bring in some quality wingers. 

Spoiler

 

Trevor Smith
€250 000

One of our biggest splurges was on this young goalkeeper from Partizani, we already have one decent SK in the team and another decent GK. But there is something here that we can work on and eventually turn a great profit.
Played 12 games and averaged 7.17.

Another potenial 3M sale later on? Let´s hope so.

Spoiler

Robert Janicki

€76 000 - 91 000

As we needed to add some more quality on the top we got Robert on a free transfer to play as AM, but he can also play midfield and as a winger on both sides. So he adds a little flexibility as well.
He was a little bit on the older side (28) but I think he can make a great addition to the team. 12 apps, 3 goals and 1 assist. 7.06 rating.

Spoiler

Júlíus Magnússon
Free Transfer

We had to add some depth in our midfield but without overspending as our homegrown players are at the same level or better (Khal and Mikeehv) we brought on Júlíus Magnússon.
Had a tough start and only got to play 8 games before being injured with a broken wrist, the contract was a little bit too long in hindsight but if he can stay at this level for 2 - 3 years I will be happy with this addition.

Spoiler

Freddy Valencia
Free Transfer

A young prospect that already plays at a good level with a value of €850 000 was recommended by our new ass. manager, his contract was expiring so we brought him on. 
 Decent on the left foot gives us the chance to use him as an IWB, but he really needs to work on his crossing and dribbling. Adds a bit of quality and depth and acually did a good job this year.
Hopefully we can sell him for a big profit in 2 - 3 years to keep adding to the bank, he will also be counted as home grown (0-21) in a couple of years.

Spoiler

 

Current Squad

The current squad is very mixed and there will be several players released this year as we have reached the FGN limit and they just don´t fit in the team anymore. Enete is on that list, but I dont really want to get rid of him. If he can accept a role as a super-sub or backup then maybe he can stay on, but as of right now I don´t see a future for him here anymore.

Spoiler

 

Economics

Not much to note here, our balance sits at 2.18M after the sell of one of our youth prospects and the projection looks very good and stable, my goal is that we should have around 5.0M in the bank before asking for any new facilities or doing any big splurges on players (1M+ fee). We are sitting as a decent mid-table team with a value of 2.55M right now, while the big boys like Shakthar is 180M(!)
Hopefully some of the prospects that were brought on can bring in some decent fees in the future.

Spoiler

 

Progression

Season	Predicted	Final position	Cup	Badges
2021/2022	12th	9th	First round	None
2022/2023	7th	3rd	Preliminary round	National C
2023/2024	4th	1st	First round	Continental C
2024/2025	16th	10th	Semi Finals 1 - 0 Dnipro-1	Continental B
2025/2026	14th	7th	Semi Finals 2 -0 Dinamo Kiev	Continental A

 

 Player of the season

9. Issiar Dramé 

The fans voted Issiar Dramé as player of the season and I agree, 24 apps and 2 goals and an average rating of 7.03 really show that he gives everything he can and is also available for over 90% of the games.
There is a quite a worry regarding is ability, but as long as he contributes we dont care about stars. This is the first time that the fans have not voted for Enete as player of the season and I think the era of Enete is slowly fading. 

GG Dramé.

 

Spoiler

 

Let´s keep pushing for that cup win and european spots!

Edited March 5, 2021 by SolnaRoyal

[rlipscombe]

22 hours ago, jmarchand said:

Consider them stuffed.

Wow....   

[Biscotti]

I feel like Tudela is enjoying his new role

FWIW, he didn't score any on the first day of the season.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Biscotti

[aldojags]

That's not a bad start to the season at all @Biscotti

 

GOod first season @Thebaker - are you getting that young Loanee back he looks great?

 

@SolnaRoyalgood season too, not far off Europe. Although Shaktar having an invincible season...they could be a tough nut to crack!

 

Also I love the bit about buying Manzi drunk - ive done that many times, u get up in the morning and think "WTF was I thinking" having been seduced by some scout report!

[Britrock]

On 04/03/2021 at 21:35, jmarchand said:

Consider them stuffed.

It's nowhere near as dominant as your result but I finally beat AEK!

Edited March 5, 2021 by Britrock

[SolnaRoyal]

1 hour ago, aldojags said:

That's not a bad start to the season at all @Biscotti

 

GOod first season @Thebaker - are you getting that young Loanee back he looks great?

 

@SolnaRoyalgood season too, not far off Europe. Although Shaktar having an invincible season...they could be a tough nut to crack!

 

Also I love the bit about buying Manzi drunk - ive done that many times, u get up in the morning and think "WTF was I thinking" having been seduced by some scout report!

Well this just happend in the cup, we draw Shakhtar in the secound round and manage to win on penalties, then we go a manage to draw Dynamo Kyiv in the quarter finals....
IF we manage to pull off another upset here I can acually see us winning the whole thing. 🤔

[jmarchand]

Interesting half-season so far, looking forward for a complete report. 

 

But this happened, after the Chairman wanted a way out for the last year or so. New owner comes in, blows 20 M€ on two players and they're offered 3x the salary of my highest earner to date. They look decent enough, but still. I don't think I needed another striker, I have a hard time playing them all at this time... I think I'm going to nickname them Charirman's Pet #1 and Chairman's Pet #2 and never refer to their real name ever again...

 

[jmarchand]

3 hours ago, Britrock said:

It's nowhere near as dominant as your result but I finally beat AEK!

Awesome. First win in many! Keep it going! 

[aldojags]

Spartak Pleven Season Review 2029-30

League Table - Competitions - Bulgaria Profile - Facilities - Finances - Club Info (I'm now a legend!)

 

Been with the club 10 years now, been a fantastic save so far, this season was by far the best yet. Won our 5th league in a row, and got to the Europa league final, where we were thumped 5-3 from Salzburg. Disappointed as felt it was a winnable game, but still at least we know that we have the quality to get to games like that. I almost feel like a Europa league win would be like a completion, as I just never see me holding onto a team long enough here to compete with the supergiants of Europe. My run has put me into top 30 of Europes teams, and Bulgaria now have 2 Champions league places, so hoping this can make a difference to league reputation etc. Levski, CSKA, and Ludogorets are all decent teams so they should be hopefully qualifying for Europe more often and hopefully that distracts them a bit in the league! 

 

Transfers-still a disaster, for 2 main reasons, 1 is I just love collecting young talented footballers then putting them in my u19's to rot, and 2, my board give away all my best players for £5-7m when they are worth 4 times that. But never mind, I always find more! 

 

In other random club info - my u19's got to semi final of champions league, and won the league again, I really do have some talent in there I should stop signing Serbians and Romanians and focus on my own guys! Michael Somolani is bein described as a wonderkid. He's very good, but I dont see that he's that good? Or is it just me? And he's too versatile, so I move him around a lot, never makes 1 position his own. And one of my ambitions for the save is to get home grown guys capped by Bulgaria, first one done, it's my right back Dimitrov. He broke his leg this year too so im proud this is how he bounced back. Knocked back a £3m bid from Inter Milan for him, dont want to let the home grown boys go, and I dont need the money. The board will prob give him away soon enough though!

Youth intake - crap again, look at those personalities too! So i sacked my HoYD. THis player apparently has potential to be like a top player for me - i do not see the attraction but I'll give him a year or 2 to develop and who knows. 

 

 

 

 

[jmarchand]

New owner doesn't like what new owner does. Insert shrugging emoji here. 

[Thebaker]

8 hours ago, aldojags said:

@Biscotti

 

GOod first season @Thebaker - are you getting that young Loanee back he looks great?

 

Unfortunately not, he's too good now and his wages are way above what i can afford (he was on a youth contract last season). the team is a bit short up front now as i have been turned down by a few players before the new season due to the low rep of the team.

[rlipscombe]

9 hours ago, jmarchand said:

New owner doesn't like what new owner does. Insert shrugging emoji here. 

[SolnaRoyal]

 
FC Karpaty Lviv Season 2026/2027
Introduction - Season 2021/2022 - 2022/2023 - 2023/2024 - 2024/2025

End of season recap

Against all odds!  

We have finally arrived! After an increadible season we ended up 3rd in the league with only 4 points between us as Dynamo Kyiv and the CL qualifying spots. They even had two more losses than us. I think we are on the right track. While the league itself was increadible and we managed to reach 3rd and get a spot in the EC2. 


The cup and how a bunch of rejects overcame Goliath

After being handed the hardest  possible draw in the first two rounds (Shakhtar and Dynamo Kyiv) we managed to beat both and advance on finally reaching the final and being up against our fierce rival in the Galicia-volhynia derby against Volyn.

The game started out the worst possible way and after 9 minutes À.Zuigeber (Zoidberg from now on) scored the first goal of the game and we were down 0 - 1. This is when we started to think that we had jinxed it by posting earlier that we would win the entire thing. Then at the 11th minute A. Kulinich scored for us and a sigh of relief spread in the room. But wait...another highlight? I. Vukcevic with a banger in the 12th minute! 2 - 1 ! 

And I did not belive it at the 13th minute I. Vukcevic broke free and scored once again 3 - 1 ! I was spammin the praise button, the other team was devasted and we could smell the fear. 
Vukcevic ended up scoring 4(!) goals this evening and the game ended 8 - 2 and Karpaty left as cup winner for the first time ever.

This means that we have qualified for the Europa League  third qualifing round and Karpaty will play their first games in europe under this management!

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

Transfers In and Out

 

Spoiler

Leonardo Altair 
EUR 150 000

Since we had to let the clubs favorite player go (Enete) we wanted to add some depth up front and in the AM(C) position, we had scouted Altair a few times before but finally pulled  the trigger. 
As you can see we had most of our attackers available for most of the season and I could not have Altair just sitting on the bench, so we sent him on a loan to Olexandriya for the rest of the season.
Future prospect and potential profit maker, could probably have bought something cheaper, but you know how it is when the scout report is bright green. 

Spoiler

 

Sergiy Kolomoets
Free Transfer

As I said in the last recap, we needed to add some quality in the winger positions, Sergiy came up with a contract that was nearing the end and we poached him for free.
Overall good stats and personality and a key piece in our sucess this year.
21 apps, 6 goals and 3 ass with a 6.92 rating

Spoiler

Anton Kulnich

Free Transfer

Another great addition to the team to bring everyone up to PL standards. Mostly plays either in CM or as a SS, even though he has poor finishing he contributes well to the team.
As I play him in several positions and  see him more as a fill out than the important player that he is supposed to be it´s hard to talk too much about him, but it´s nice to be able to send him back down to CM and let a young fresh SS come in and score some goals.

27 - 5- 7 and 6.89 average rating.

Spoiler

Betáo
Free Transfer

Another quality additon to the team, you can´t imagine how hard it is to find a decent wingback in Ukraine. This is one of the best pieces I could find that even though his crossing is awful has some very nice agility and teamwork.
Trying to retrain him to also play IWB to add some more depth to the defensive line so I don´t have to spend 2M+ on an Ukrainian IWB that is mediocre.
Betao came in late and "only" played 10 games so I do not have much to say about him right now.

Spoiler

 

Economics

So with the signing of players that acually should play in the PL our wages have gone up quit a lot, and the projection of the balance is pretty worrying to read about. Hopefully we have some decent players to sell or that we at least manage to reach the group stages in EL to at least get some cash flowing in to the club. 
Upgraded our training facilities for 300K as they were terrible, other than that and the 150k transfer. Nothing crazy.

Spoiler

 

Progression

 

Season	Predicted	Final position	Cup	Europe
2021/2022	12th	9th	First round
2022/2023	7th	3rd	Preliminary round
2023/2024	4th	1st	First round
2024/2025	16th	10th	Semi Finals
2025/2026	14th	7th	Semi Finals
2026/2027	10th	3rd	Winners!	Qualified Europa League 3rd Round

 Player of the season

24. Robert Janicki 

Yes some players scored more goals and even scored 4 in a cup final, but overall this season Robert has been outstanding for us. 13 goals and 11 ass and only really missed two games in the league the whole season.
Pure quality this season and we hope he keep it up for  the next season!

 

Spoiler

 

Buy the tickets and travel across Europe with us!

[Biscotti]

Sorry - couldn't resist!

Great season, looks like you're approaching being able to compete with Shaktar/Dynamo. Hopefully a decent run in the Europa league will put you into a position where you're financially stable enough to keep growing.

[Britrock]

I finally have the big boys sniffing around one of my players. I signed this guy on a free from 1860 Munich in the summer and he's played pretty well this season, but he hasn't exactly set the world on fire. He has a £4.6m release clause and I fully intend to make them pay the full amount if they want him!

[Britrock]

2024/25 - Veroia end of season review

A season that started with such promise totally fell apart after the first two months and we ended up in the same place as last season. We went unbeaten for the first 10 games of the season and peaked with the 1-0 win over AEK, but from then on we won 1 game in the next 7! We alternated between wins, draws and losses for the next few months and then after a tactical switch we went unbeaten for the last 8 games of the season! We topped the relegation group with a slightly higher point total than last season so that's some progress.

Spoiler

I'm still fairly happy with the squad, but there are some contracts I'm just going to run down and let go and try to find replacements that are a) better, b) cheaper or c) both. Of the new signings, Brandl was the star and has all the big boys looking at him. Heimisson was good, but needs to improve his finishing and Kjartansson played well in my playmaker role. I've got good feelings about the two Icelandic players for next season. With the guys going out, Thomsen's wages meant I had to move him on asap and for whatever I could get for him (which turned out to be nothing) and Vitlis was a liability in a few games last season so I had to get rid of him. Okan wasn't going to get any game time so I moved him on as well.

Spoiler

Financially we're in a massive hole, the owner decided he didn't want to put any more money in so we're just getting further and further into debt. The income is still rising though, we made £400k more this year than last year, so at least things are looking promising.

Spoiler

Next year I want to push for that championship group again. I don't think it's a million miles away, I just need to find a tactic that consistently gets results instead of flaming out after 2 months! I've already got some new signings sorted for next year that should be improvements on the players they're replacing so it's about constantly improving year on year. The 4 year itch is a serious problem but I'm still enjoying this save and I think I can keep the interest levels up so hopefully we can bridge that gap at some point soon!

[jmarchand]

4 hours ago, Britrock said:

We went unbeaten for the first 10 games of the season and peaked with the 1-0 win over AEK, but from then on we won 1 game in the next 7!

That’ll teach you to brag about the win on the interwebs! The gods of FM are ever watching. 

[jmarchand]

Now we're talking. New owner might have stupid judgement, but sure has no problem upgrading facilities! 

[jmarchand]

OMG. 

 

Full report coming in soon, it's going to be interesting

[SolnaRoyal]

@jmarchandNice one! 👀

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Wow you have already exceded expectations. Well done buddy.

[jmarchand]

     

Season 9 - 2029-2030 | Takeovers and changing of the guard

Last season was a success, winning the league for the first time and breaking a long history of Dinamo domination. This got us qualified right away for the Group Stage of the Champions League, with the quiet hope of doing well in Europe. our group was progressing, led by Daniel Matas up front with 49 goals last year. It was quite an eventful year, so I'll 

Goals for this season:

1. Get a star midfielder
2. Qualify in our Champions League Group 
3. Challenge for the League title again
4. 15 points against Hajduk and Dinamo (only in the league)

 

Transfers

I figure I'll start with this, since there was quite a bit of activity on that front. My first objective was to get a star midfielder, everyone that I've had in the past were not very inspiring. To that effect, I brought in Mile Haramustek, 23 year old defensively-minded midfielder, who was unhappy at Hajduk, which set us back 3M€. We then landed Alexander Tolosa, from Colombian side Millionarios FC, for 1.6 M€. He was ever present at our right fullback position and performed admirably throughout the season. We then opportunistically landed Vito Matjevic on a free from Dinamo and Paolo Sanchez from Nacional in Uruguay. Both are strikers, the first one coming with great reports (and for free) and the second one with loads of promises, which I hoped would take the place of Leon Sipos when his decline inevitably comes or when Matas gets poached for a top club. It was a busier-than-expected summer window. 

The Winter window was where the action happened. Early in January, we're told that there is a transfer embargo set. No big surprise, the owner wanted to sell the club for 2 years now. It was relatively quick and the new board comes in, with the promise of signing Ladislav Hajek (MC from Sparta Prague) and Zakaria Talal (AMC, ST from VVV-Venlo in the Netherlands). I knew Hajek and our scouts rated him 75, but I had decided not to sign him as they were dime-a-dozen in this range. Talal looked like an interesting striker, but with Matjevic and Sanchez (and Matas, and Lambulic, and Sipos), that position was quickly getting very crowded. I called them Chairman's Pet #1 and #2 (CP1 and CP2 in the screenshots) and moved on. There were also a couple of opportunistic signings, notably James Heyes, who was on a month-to-month contract at Chelsea after a leg injury. Spent 2.3 M€ in compensations, which seems like quite a good deal.  

On the Out front, some of our players got some attention and I sold Marko Bulat and Avdo Spahic, two midfielders, for around 2.5 M€ each. They weren't bad, but were one step behind our new guys and starting to age a bit at 26 and 28 years old, so I cashed out on them.

 

Ultimately, I spent 10M€, our chairman spent 22.5 M€ and we got 3.7 M€ in player sales. 

 

Champions Cup

Straight into groups this time, I didn't have the stress of hitting a larger opponent in the preliminary rounds, which was a nice bonus. That is, until we were seeded 4th and drawn in the same group as Man City, PSG and AEK. I was hoping to finish 3rd in that group, and this is ultimately what happened, but not how I envisioned it. 

 

Spoiler

 

Coming into the group stage, we were plagued with injuries and missing 3-4 starters. We disappointedly loss our first match away at AEK 1-0, but then miraculously drew 1-1 at home against PSG, in a very even match. Against Manchester City, Haaland scored 5 goals in two matches against us, but we managed to squeeze a 2-2 draw at home, losing 3-1 at the Emirates, not bad. We then finally got our revenge on AEK with this beating...

At this point, qualifying would have needed me to beat PSG and have AEK beat Manchester, which I knew was not going to happen. So, third place in a tough group, it wasn't so bad and got us qualified for the EURO Cup's knockout rounds

Objective 2:  Qualify from our Champoins League Group - Failed

 

EURO Cup

That got us to the First Knockout Round, drawn against FC RB Salzburg, which I was determined to beat to avenge @aldojagsdefeat in his save. After an uneventful 1-0 win at home, we travelled to Salzburg and quickly took a 3-0 lead. At this point, they mounted a comeback and scored 2 in extra-time to get me nervous, but we were through with a 5-3 aggregate win. The match stats show the amount of pressure that they put on my defence, but Daniel Matas got in with two goals to secure the win. 

Spoiler

 

Next up, Basel. With no prior experience against them or any personal grudge from anyone from the forum, we played solidly, with a 2-0 win at home and a 2-1 win on the second leg in Basel. At this point, I'm looking at who,s getting knocked out of the competition and I see names like Milan, Tottenham and Arsenal, so I'm starting to think that I might have a chance to go all the way....

The Quarter Final saw us drawn against Shakhtar, which I really wanted to give a proper beating to give some joy to @SolnaRoyal. In the first leg at home, we got a very closely fought 1-1 draw. We held our breath and went to Ukraine, where we really dominated the game, but got frustrated by their defensive efforts. It went to extra-time, where Daniel Matas (who else!) came in big at the 112th minute and lobbed the keeper who had ventured too far trying to intercept a long pass from Altair Torres. Brilliant, we were through! 

We were up in the Semi Final against PSV. After getting beaten by PSG in the past two years, we were up for revenge on the letters PS. The first leg was played in Eindhoven and it was special. I mean, special even for Daniel Matas. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Yup, you're reading that right. 6 goals (and 1 assist) for my star striker. I was extra-thrilled. 

On the return leg, PSV came back with a vengeance. Really. I had rotated the squad a little bit, but not that much. But they really came back hard at us. I was squeezing my keyboard all the way to the end, but we made it through on aggregate by 1 goal. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Compared to that, the final against Inter was anticlimatic, a 2-1 win in a very even match. We dominated the first half, then they started applying more pressure, scoring at the 67th, but we did not break. And with that, we won the EURO Cup! 

In these 9 matches, Daniel Matas rose to the top of the striker table with an impressive 17 goals. Our midfielder Fran Tomek also led the competition for assists, partly because of that...  

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

League Performance

Nothing much to report in the league, to be completely honest. Dinamo came back to its former self, cruising the league and winning it with 12 points in front of us, who came in second. My conclusion is that to win the league, we really need a perfect season because Dinamo is still neck and shoulders above the rest. We let a few easy games slip though, wins that turned into draws and a few losses against clubs we should be beating easily. It was never really close, by match 14th, we were in second place and stayed there all year. 

Notably bad this year was our defence, with 42 goals against. It's the third best total in the league, but ways off from Dinamo's 19 goals against. 

Surprising is Sesvete, who finished 3rd and climbed above Hajduk. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

I had 2 objectives in the league this year: 

• Objective 3: Challenge for the league title 
  • Not quite. 
• Objective 4: Get 15 points against Dinamo and Hajduk in the league
  • 3 wins, 4 draws 1 loss (3-2 against Dinamo) - 13 points
  • 15 points is an ambitious target year in year out, but if I want to be successful in the league, it's what is needed. 

 

Croatian Cup Performance

Slightly disappointing year, lost in quarter final against Sesvete. Previous board was disappointed about it, but they left after I lost, so nobody cares now.

 

Croatian Super Cup

Again, nobody cares, lost in shootout to Rijeka. It's the first time in forever (since 2004) that Dinamo was not part of the final.

 

The Team

I'll try to make this section a bit differently (let me know if you like this better or not!), might be easier to digest and give a bit of light to players which were a bit overlooked in the past. Here is our best 11 for the year, including substitutes. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Strikers

The star of the show here, and of the team, is without a doubt Daniel Matas. I thought it was unreasonable to expect another 50 goal season from him, turns out that it was, but it's back to back 40+ goals season. At 20 years old, that's insane. I live in fear of losing him, but he's signed for until June 2033 with a 60 M€ release clause. Since I've fended off a bid from Liverpool last year, he briefly pouted but was not approached by other teams since.   

Vito Matijevic, signed on a free from Dinamo, was my second best striker, with 23 goals and 8 assists. Quite similar to Matas, only he is older and less talented. Now valued at 5.5 M€, I'll be tempted to move him should I get a decent offer for him. Matja Lambulic was unfortunately one of the victims of the emergence of others. He stalled quite a bit this year, even regressed a bit and found himself mostly in the rotation role, even more so after Talal (Chairman's Pet 1) came in.

You will notice that Leon Sipos only made 4 appearances. It's a bit of a sad ending for him with us, but he suffered 2 major injuries, one in a match against PSG and one in training, which sidelined him for a total of 5 months from the end of last season and the beginning of this one. He has never really recovered and is looking to move on this summer. He still has it and can light up a Second League side, but his time at the highest level is unfortunately done.  

 

I'm including a full screenshot of Matas here because I think he's insane and I believe that he should be properly documented. 

 

 

Attacking Midfielders

Our 4-3-1-2 tactic calls for a creative midfielder who can play through balls and hit our fast accelerating strikers just behind the defence. Most of the time, this role was taken by Aldair Torres, who has taken over Tino Laus in the past year or so and who will not be renewed, after 218 appearances for us, ever since the start of this challenge. You've been good Tino. Not spectacular, but very serviceable. 

 

Midfielders

In our midfield, I tend to play a DLP - Support, a CM - Defend and a Mezzala or Advanced Playmaker with either the support or attack duties. Not the ideal setup, but I try to adapt that to our players. Sometimes, the CM-D drops a bit deeper in the DM position when I feel I need an extra set of legs in the back. Not the ideal setup I think, but it's been working sufficiently well for us in the past few seasons. 

 

Mile Haramustek fills in the CM - D role, a new signing from Dinamo, as mentioned above. In the second part of the seasons, I've been rotating him with Felipe Lecaros, freshly imported from Universidad Catolica in Chile, and who can also play Centre-Back when I need him. In the DLP - Support role, Fran Tomek has been holding the fort in the past few seasons. Again feeding off the scraps of Dinamo, he's been ever present and is a reliable delivery-man of balls over the top of the defence to the run of Matas. In the AP-A role, Mikel Jusuf is a very promising Albanian whom I signed this summer for 2.5 M€ from Dinamo II. Hes' been playing great in the first part of the season before breaking his leg in March while playing an international match. He's out 4-6 months in total, but I hope he'll be recuperating well. 

You see the two Chairman's Pet in the middle of the pack here. They weren't spectacular last year, but I'm willing to give them a chance. 

 

Defence and Keeper(s)

I run a very vanilla defensive line, without that much rotation, unfortunately. We struggled a bit this year and I will be trying to make adjustments next year. The rock of the defence is Samual Paintsil, a Ghanaian who has been with us since 2025 (3 more years and he'll be eligible for Croatian nationality!). Strong, maybe a bit slow, but good in the air, he is currently our vice-captain. A note here on our Full Backs, which are important since there aren't any other wingers. Boris Kordic has been holding the fort on the left side for 3 seasons now and has been ever present as I don't have much more options over there. On the right side, I've signed Alexander Tolosa, who's been named our first Wonderkid at the end of the season. Lots of assists this year and only 20 years old, he's a keeper for the future! 

 

Our Keeper, Nemanja Mijailovic, has been in ok form this year, but is showing signs of plateau-ing. I've started to give a bit of games to Milan Stojkovic, a youth prospect from 2026 who is highly rated, at only 18. He has attracted a low bid from Milan, which I rejected. I'll try to give him more games next year and I hope that he'll develop nicely. 

 

 

Youth Intake/Progression

Another Golden Generation this year, with actually very promising players with good personalities this time. No Daniel Matas v2 as far as I can see, but some promising youngsters in the back. Here is a quick look at most promising part of the crew. 

A look at who were previously featured in that column... 

Josip Strljic - AMR ST - Went on loan at Kustosija, turned 17 over there and played mostly with their youth setup. A mistake, but I wanted to get him some playing time in something else than friendlies. 

Max Tauer - AMR | MC- I kept him as a rotation option in the squad, scored his first goal for us at the end of the year, but was not a factor, really. He's at the bottom of the Midfielders screenshot above, if you look for him. 

Vice Vukusic - ST - Played with Osijek II (Third League) and scored 10 goals in 33 appearances. Not bad, but I hope he'll get some time in the First League next year.   

Milan Stojkovic (YP26) - GK - Developing nicely, looking forward to use him as my next preferred keeper. 

 

Awards

• Daniel Matas - EURO Cup Golden Boot, EURO Cup Player of the Season, Croatian Player of the Year (calendar year award and this counts players abroad too!), First League Team of the Season
• Boris Kordic: First League Team of the Season (2nd time in a row)
• Alexander Tolosa: First League Team of the Season
• Me: First LeagueManager of the Year (for the 4th time!)

 

Finances

The bank is happy. Still, I have to be mindful of the wage budget as I could easily go overboard, but things are looking good now. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Goals for next season:

1. Improve defence
2. Qualify in our Champions League Group 
3. Challenge for the League title again
4. 15 points against Hajduk and Dinamo (only in the league)

Other News

• We're officially building a new stadium. Still too small for European Competitions, it will not cost me a leg and an arm. They're naming it the GOSK Dubrovnik Stadium, which is a bit disappointing after all I've done to raise the profile of the club... Hopefully we'll get another stadium at some point in the future and the owners then will see the light... 

• Mura, my Slovenian affiliate, played in the First and Second Qualifying Rounds of the EURO Cup II this year. I might want to send more youngsters this way... 
• We played our European matches this year in Rijeka's stadium and not in Poljud (Hajduk's). It's a net decrease of 26000 seats, which reflects in 200 k€ less in gate receipts per game, which is a shame. 
• I'm having trouble playing every non-EU player that I sign, bumping against the 5 player limit frequently. This time, I won't have a surprise country that joins the EU to save me, though. 

 

Croatian Clubs in Europe

It's really been a great year for Croatia in Europe.  

• DINAMO WON THE EURO CUP II. 
  • It's going to be a great year for our coefficients.
  • After being knocked off by Borusia M'gladbach in the Champions Cup Playoff, they finished 3rd in their group in the EURO Cup (behind Herta BSC and Milan), but trickled down to the EURO CUP II, where they had a great run, beating Krasnodar (??!??), LASK, PAOK, CSKA Moscow and RB Leipzig in the final. 
  • Good job Dinamo. 
• Hajduk got a pretty decent European run this year too, finishing on top of their EURO Cup II group, then losing to Lech in the 2nd Knockout Round.
• HNK Gorica got knocked out of the Euro Cup II in the 4th Qualifying Round, still winning 3 rounds along the way. 
• RIjeka, after their Croatian Cup win, got to the EURO Cup II Groups, won their group!, and reached the Quarter Final, where they were knocked out by CSKA Moscow. 

This is my road to more Group CL spots, the mythical 6th spot...  Depending on how well we're doing this year, we can probably overtake Russia as their big 25/26 year will fall off the cliff. However, Portugal is still a long way off as they are very consistent performers. There is no more places when we reach 7th place, though. 

• European winners: 
  • Champions Cup: Chelsea (beating Liverpool in a shootout, it was their 4th straight final)
  • Euro Cup: GOSK DUBROVNIK!!
  • EC II: Dinamo

 

Season Progress

Season  |   League    |  Position (media pred)  |   Croatian Cup   |    Europe     |  Euro Position |  Avg. Att   |  vs. Dinamo/Hajduk |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21/22   |    2nd      |       7th (18th)        |   First Round    |     N/A       |       N/A      |     302     |         N/A        |
22/23   |    2nd      |       1st (18th) - PROM |   First Round    |     N/A       |       N/A      |     342     |         N/A        | 
23/24   |    1st      |       4th (10th)        |    Semi Final    |     N/A       |       N/A      |     817     |    4 pts (1-1-6)   |
24/25   |    1st      |       4th (9th)         |   Second Round   |  EC2 - 1st KO |       271      |    5012     |    4 pts (1-1-6)   |
25/26   |    1st      |       3rd (8th)         |   !! WINNERS !!  | EC2 - 3rd Qual|       218      |    1137     |   11 pts (3-2-4)   | 
26/27   |    1st      |       2nd (5th)         |   !! WINNERS !!  |  EC - 2nd KO  |       112      |    6115     |   10 pts (2-4-4)   | 
27/28   |    1st      |       2nd (4th)         |      Final       |  CL - Group   |       85       |    6973     |   14 pts (4-2-2)   |
28/29   |    1st      |       1st (4th)  - WIN! |    Semi Final    |  CL - 1st KO  |       51       |    8001     |   13 pts (4-1-3)   |
29/30   |    1st      |       2nd (2nd)         |   Quarter Final  |  EC - WINNER  |       30       |    4420     |   13 pts (3-4-1)   |

 

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by jmarchand

[Biscotti]

That's an incredible season in Europe there @jmarchand! A shame things weren't quite there domestically, but it's always a little tough when you need to split your focus and don't have quite the depth of squad to cope with it. Matas is an absolute beast!

 

FWIW, VVV-Venlo are Dutch, not Belgian

[aldojags]

@jmarchandwhat a run in Europe, that PSV tie, you must have been ill near end of 2nd leg!

 

glad you avenged the Salzburg result for me, I owe you one! 
 

Feel sad for Sipos, but all good stories must have an ending, he was great for you for a few years, but you have outgrown him! 
 

matas- not much to add, he is going to be a world class striker, if he’s not already! 
 

i really like that keeper, he’s going to be a starter for sure, get him in the team and playing every week and you have a starter there for 15 years! 
 

i’ve just hit the winter break in my latest season, finished bottom of my CL group, only managed 2 draws with Marseille, beaten twice each by AC and Barca, hammered in fact. I feel so far away from qualifying, I do not lay a glove on the “big teams”. Finishing bottom is a disappointment after getting to Europa final last year! 
 

anyways we go again next year!! 

[Thebaker]

@jmarchandwell done on the euro cup win. That ground seems a bit small for your attendance, was it influenced by the change of ground for europe. At least it was cheap.

[Britrock]

@jmarchand Incredible run in Europe there!  I particularly enjoy how you avenged everyone else in the thread's struggles on your way to the cup! The Croatia coefficient should be massively improved with two wins which will help with the push for CL places.

I've just passed the Jan transfer window and someone finally came in to match Brandl's release fee. He ended up moving to Inter for £4.6m, which is going to be a big loss. He was fantastic on the counter with his pace. I've signed a Welshman with similar pace but his technical and mentals aren't quite as good so it might take a while for him to be as effective. I also sold Muamba Mbuyi for £1.6m as his 9 pace had turned into a liability and every highlight seemed to be him making a mistake. Those two, combined with a new chairman taking over and using a bank loan to clear our £4.2m debt, means we've got almost £5m in the bank for the first time ever! Shame Brandl left after the Greek transfer window had closed so I couldn't get a replacement in though! We're pushing for that Championship group place though, and Europe is a possibility if we can keep some good form for the rest of the season...

 

[jmarchand]

6 hours ago, Biscotti said:

That's an incredible season in Europe there @jmarchand! A shame things weren't quite there domestically, but it's always a little tough when you need to split your focus and don't have quite the depth of squad to cope with it. Matas is an absolute beast!

FWIW, VVV-Venlo are Dutch, not Belgian

Arf. yes, I'll correct that. Europe is complicated, there's too many countries (but I could have read what the game tells me...). In my neck of the woods, it's easy, there's two, Canada and the US. And sometimes, I'm not even sure that people in the US know that we're just north of them... 

That's what I love about playing in Croatia: it's a challenge in Europe playing against the big guys, but the league isn't a walk in the park either. there's a good balance there that we might not have in much smaller countries. 

4 hours ago, aldojags said:

Feel sad for Sipos, but all good stories must have an ending, he was great for you for a few years, but you have outgrown him! 

It was a good run for him. Let's take a moment to appreciate his contribution to the team. He's had a good run. 

5 hours ago, Thebaker said:

@jmarchandwell done on the euro cup win. That ground seems a bit small for your attendance, was it influenced by the change of ground for europe. At least it was cheap.

Thanks! In league ties, we were rarely selling out, I think it happened once or twice when we were playing Dinamo. The rest of the time, we're in the high-2000 spectators, so a stadium that size kinda makes sense. The board was initially planning for 4300 seats, but when the announcement was made after our EURO Cup run, it magically gained 1400 seats. Oh well. that's still smaller than the minimum requirement for European matches, so I hope we'll be returning to Split soon instead of Rijeka's stadium (it's a 3 hour drive from Dubrovnik to Split and a 6 hour going to Rijeka!). 

 

4 hours ago, Britrock said:

@jmarchand Incredible run in Europe there!  I particularly enjoy how you avenged everyone else in the thread's struggles on your way to the cup! The Croatia coefficient should be massively improved with two wins which will help with the push for CL places.

 

Thanks, playing against these other European saves that give you trouble was a great part of the fun of this season and of writing this report! The screenshot of the coefficients that I've put there does contain our successful runs, so no further jump is expected soon. That being said, I'm almost at the point of letting good players to the likes of Sesvete and Rijeka so they can compete better on the big stages. But then, I'm hoarding strikers like there's no tomorrow, so maybe one of them will go to these other clubs and make an impact there too. 

[SolnaRoyal]

 

 
FC Karpaty Lviv Season 2027/2028
Introduction - Season 2021/2022 - 2022/2023 - 2023/2024 - 2024/2025 - 2025/2026 - 2026/2027

End of season recap

Shakhtar Donetsk..  

Last season we managed to win the Ukrainian Cup wich placed us in the third qualifying round for the Europa League, our first opponents were Young Boys from Switzerland, a team that I know have been competing quite well in Europe in real life. The game was not what it was hyped up to be, we won the first game and drew the second leg and ended up with a 9 - 3 scoreline in total and so were on to the play-offs. Not at all what I expected to be honest.

In the play-offs I knew there was an opponent that I really wanted to draw, and that team was Hammarby IF, a team that only ever won the Swedish league once (2001) and nothing else. They are also one of my most hated teams here in Sweden since I am a supporter of their local rivals AIK (we acually lost the derby against them this Sunday 😒). Either way, of course we had the luck to actually get them in the play-offs and I was ready to get back at them...well in a video game at least.

And boy was I proven wrong, after the Young Boys beat down I thought it would be smooth sailing but there was goals, goals and more goals from both sides. In the end we did end up winning the games 5 - 7 and I am glad we did. I could not take another loss (virtual or not) against this team. 😂



On to the group stage, we could not have asked for a harder group to start our European tour with to be honest, with Tottenham and Villareal in the same group our only goal was to get the third place to be able to qualify for the Europa Conference League. We did do better than expected and managed to steal a win away from Villareal, draw against Tottenham and go on and beat St. Gallen 3 - 1.
In the second legs we could not manage to hold on and managed to lose against both Villareal and Tottenham, wich ment that the last game against St. Gallen would be crucial if we were to move on from the group stages.

We take an early lead against St.Gallen and hold on until the very end of the game when they score and the game ends 1 - 1, we were knocked out of the group stages, and with Villareal clinching a win against Tottenham we would have to shift our focus towards Europa Conference League. 
All in all a decent performance that did give us a spot in the first knockout round in the Europa Conference League, with our wins and draws we acually made some money here as well.
 

Moving on to the first knock out stage of ECL were we were up against Astana from Kazakstan, an easy matchup that we ended up just steam rolling the other team, we have to remember that Ukrainian Premier League is now ranked 10-11th in the world and Kazakstan is plenty of spots below us. So even if Karpaty does not sound like a giant, they sure are for Astana. And now they know it. But we are ready for the second knockout stage!

In the second knockout stage we were pinned up against Ludogrets from Bulgaria and once again there was not even a game to talk about, 8 - 0 ! We are really on a roll and both the attacking line and defensive line seems solid at the moment. Clearly the lower ranked leagues are being vacuumed of talent from teams like Shakthar, but I still expected a harder game here. What could possibly stop us?
 

Oh ****...
The quarter final draw was in and we got Leeds, Marcelos Bielsas project that stayed up and climbed the English PL now stood between us and the Semi Finals.
I held a team talk, rotated the squad to the max in the league to keep them in shape for this game. Now we were not only feeling jaded but the injuries started piling up after a long season with both European and domestic games.

 

The game starts of slow and both teams are having a hard time getting anything towards goal, the dreams of a draw against Leeds United on their pitch starts building up as we move in to half time.
I give the boys the longest and most thought out team talk in half time, "I expect you all to win here today"...moral sank faster than the Titanic. What was I thinking?
Second half is on and still there is nothing, the dream starts becoming reality as we move in to the later stages of the game. My players are exhausted and the youngsters that are being thrown in to the game as cannon fodder just can´t cope with the high profile game. !BOOM!   A. Robertson scores in the 73rd minute after a misstake from one of our young centerbacks, I start spamming the encourage button any time it´s available.

ONE MINUTE LATER A.Kulinich scores 1 - 1 and the dream is on.

Sadly Raphinha scores in the 85th minute after yet another misstake from our youngster. Game ends 2 - 1 to Leeds and we have an upphill battle to fight back home in Ukraine.
I sign out for the night and ask myself why I put that youngster on.

On another note, I noticed that Djurgårdens IF was also playing the quarter final against Bayer 04, AIKs biggest rivals here in the Stockholm region. Another IRL rival this far in to the competition? And only 0 - 1 against Bayer 04?
I think my scouts will have to have a look over in Sweden during the winter break.

 

 

The second leg.

I rested the team before the second leg, rotaded the squad and got ready.
Back at it in Ukraine the game started of the exact same way, slow and not much going on...until the 47th minute when Portyanko scores the first goal. The aggregate is now 2 - 2 and we have that one away goal from England.
The stress starts setting in but I stay calm and don´t change anything up in the tactics, Leeds keep pushing and pushing while our goalkeeper saves like a maniac. 89th minute and Leeds have a free kick outside our penalty box. 
I´ve been playing this game for too long, "This is a goal, for sure"...

IT HITS THE POST! 
Praise praise praise and back to very defensive and move everything back, shape! We grind out the last minutes of the game and beat Leeds. 1 - 0
We are now in the semi finals of the Europa Conference League, after one of the most stressfull games I have ever had in FM. Unbelievable!

Semi finals were played against A. Bilbao, another hard game. I´m going to keep this a little shorter as I feel the post is turning in to a book.
The first leg at home was smooth sailing with a 4 - 0 victory, I have no idea what A. Bilbao was doing but they just did not stand a chance. We took our chances and they did not.
Finally! I can rest my players in the second leg as it should be impossible to loose this one now...right?
 

Absolutley trashed in the first half, dropping a 4 - 0 lead to a 4 - 4 at half-time and it could even have been a 5 - 4 if I. Córdobas goal was not checked by VAR as offside.
My players were done, trashed, broken and ready to go on vacation (This game was played in the end of April, right before the league season ends in May).
I said to myself that I had plenty of luck in the tournament so far and that I should be happy, changed a couple of players at half time to have someone above 60% at least.

The second half starts of with neither teams having any energy to do anything and we move in to overtime. Then out of the blue this happens:

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Robert Janicki, the player of the year last season is done. He is not loosing his chance to play in an European final, completes a hatrick in about 10 minutes and we are back in the lead!
I apologize for the bad quality screenshots here, but while this was happening I was spamming one of my friends in the chat of what was going on.
But also something worth mentioning that happend in the 99th minute, the same young player that almost lost us the game against Leeds were back at it.

Luckily we could ride out the storm and complete the task, we were in the final!
Looking at the other games we could see Djurgårdens IF almost beating Slavia Prague, just missing out. We would have to meet Slavia in the final.

 

The Final

The game of a lifetime for some of our players, the first european final ever for Karpaty. And nobody expected us to be here. Not even me.
I have rested my players once again, in the meantime giving up the league to Shakthar once again (more on that later) but a chance like this will not come again soon. I know it is only EC2 but this is huge for us.

The game itself was nothing to write home about, we went on the pitch and did what we had to do, we came this far beating both Leeds and A. Bilbao. There was no way we were going to loose to Slavia Prague who had an ever easier path to the final. Portyanko scored two goals and it was smooth sailing the rest of the game. 0 - 4 and we could go home to Ukraine as champions.

We had done it! we had won the European Conference League!

 

Team stats at the final:

Spoiler

A fantastic result for us, and as I´ve gone on too long about our european titel I will have to summarize the rest of the season very briefly here:
Shakthar stole the league from us, they stold the cup from us and they stole the Ukrainian Super Cup from us.
Well in reality they did not really steal the league, we lost the top spot in the middle of the season and just did not have the depth to compete with both them and play in Europe.

They are running a massive wage budget every year that requires them to enter the Champions League group stages (direct spot for 1st place in Ukraine) to break even / be able to play in the CL.
Dynamo Kyiv had their spot taken away from them this year since they did not meet the requirements, and I think this is the key to break down Shakthar. Win the titel and steal their CL spot, do this a couple of times (easier said than done) and they will have to sell off most of their squad not to go deep in to debt.

Our bank has increased since Europe and we are now sitting on EUR 9 000 000 in the bank, so we have a stable ground to stand on when we are going in to the CL qualifier next season. (Dreaming about those EUR 15 000 000 for entering group stages)

 

 

Transfers In and Out

A pretty quiet transfer window both in the summer and winter. Most notably the loan of Eugene Lobay that we sold a few season ago to SLB, due to all the injuries we had to bring him in on a loan. 
Horacio and Portyanko are great players that came as free transfers and was a big reason why we did so well this year. 

Other notable things is that we let Julius Magnússon go, he was not pulling his weight and I needed both the wages and the FGN spot to keep improving the team. A pretty good deal as we brought him on for free and let him go for EUR 525 - 675k.

Spoiler

 

Progression

 Player of the season

Karpaty FC

Yes I know, cheesy. But really the whole team just pushed through injuries and kept on beating expectations the whole season. 
It is impossible to say who should be the player of the season this year, Robert was a very close contender with his hattrick against A.Bilbao but there was so much other stuff going on.


Lets see if we can bring down Shakthar soon, we want that title! (Also thanks for beating them for me 😘)

 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by SolnaRoyal

[Britrock]

Wow, everyone's winning European titles! Great job @SolnaRoyal I need to get in on this action!

[jmarchand]

Congrats on the EC2 title, @SolnaRoyal. I love it when all the team comes together to the point that it's hard to pick up an MVP. 

[Biscotti]

Great stuff, @SolnaRoyal! Allow me to add to the forward progress of the challenge with a bit of a spoiler:

Only one game left to play.

[jmarchand]

And while we're on the subject of defying the odds. 

[rlipscombe]

Some great progress - loved reading your stories @jmarchand and @SolnaRoyal.  If i hadn't just got Sheffield Wednesday into the Premier League i'd be ready to join in right now - looking forward to your next reports.  Shame for Sipos but i guess that's what happens sometimes when clubs develop and outgrow them...

[Britrock]

2025/26 - Veroia end of season review

This was a very productive season, although it didn't have as many highs and lows as the past few. We started with a lot of draws. A LOT of draws - 8 of our first 12 games ended in a draw, with a remarkable 7 of those being 1-1. We hit a purple patch at the end of November through December, stumbled a bit through the rest of the season but somehow ended up in 4th place and back in the Championship Group. Unfortunately we were just as successful as our last trip a few years back, racking up 0 wins and 5 draws to go along with 5 losses which saw us drop down to 5th, but that's good enough for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round! I will be happy if we can take that and qualify for the actual tournament, but we're in the lap of the gods with the draw I suppose. But finally some real progress!

Results against the big boys were mixed, but improved. After 11 games, we finally registered a win against Olympiakos and then promptly beat them in our 12th matchup as well! We beat Panathinaioks again this year and drew with them, meaning we actually have the better of that head to head record. Against OFI we're equal on 5 wins, 3 draws and 5 defeats. AEK are proving a little trickier - there was a crazy 4-4 draw where we lead 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 at 90 minutes but somehow couldn't hold on, and later in the year they spanked us 6-2. PAOK are the steamroller though, we're yet to beat them in 12 attempts, the best we've managed is 3 draws.

Spoiler

The transfers were a mixed bunch this year. The big news were the guys leaving - as mentioned earlier Brandl's minimum release fee was activated by Inter and Mbuyi Muamba went to Guingamp. Brandl was sorely missed for the second half of the season, the other guys just aren't good enough without him. In terms of the guys coming in, Alonso Martin was an absoute wizard for the first half of the year but somewhat disappeared down the stretch while Nijhuis joined us in January and was the main reason why we drew a lot of games late on. Without him saving endless shots we'd have been absolutely battered by way more teams. The rest were more rotation or future prospects - Ieuan Jones is absolutely rapid and Valmas ended the season as the first choice striker (although I really need someone more dominant to play there).

Spoiler

In terms of stand out players, Heimisson was fantastic for the first half of the year then totally fell apart after Brandl left. I don't know why, as it shouldn't have had that much of an effect as they're on opposite wings, but he was very disappointing after Christmas. Nijhuis ended up the highest rated which is a first for me in FM history I believe, a GK with a rating over 7.0! It's a bit of a sad end to the season as quite a few players I signed in my first transfer window with Veroia will finally be leaving us this year - Joao Victor, Vangelis Theocharis, Francis, Luka Sanikidze and Ilias Polimos all joined before our first year in Super League 2 and have hung around either as starters or rotation guys right up until now. But finally we've improved to the point they're no longer good enough.

That leaves one player from that first transfer window who is still playing for us, and in fact is still starting regularly. Malam Camara, signed from Famalicao for £27k, has played 139 games over 5 years and averaged a very serviceable 6.99. He sits at the base of our midfield and does the dirty work well. He's reliable and is rarely ever seen making mistakes. He's club vice captain and has me as one of his favoured personnel. I have no idea how my scouts picked this guy out 5 years ago and how we ended up with him, but I'm very happy he's ours.

Spoiler

Financially we're in the black for the first time, the sales of Muamba and Brandl doing most of the work while the new chairman taking out a £4m loan cleared the old debt. I managed to convince the board to invest in the facilities so we're getting upgraded training and youth facilities in the summer, while they improved the junior coaching as well. Being in profit means we can actually spend some proper money on wages, Nijhuis is the first player who has over £4k a week wages! Small, baby steps but hopefully we can start to attract some real talent now!

Spoiler

The aim for next season is to qualify for the Conference League proper and then qualify for Europe again through the league. I've lined up various transfers already for the end of the season that will hopefully continue to push us forwards.

[aldojags]

Fantastic @SolnaRoyalwhat a run!!! 
 

some heavy wins and classic nail biters there, destiny!!

[Biscotti]

Francisco | Sestao River Club | Spain | 2036/37 (Season 16)

Once again projected to be strugglers, I set myself an objective of being in the conversation for a playoff place, even if we didn't quite get there. This would represent a bit of an improvement on last season, and I didn't feel like it was being over-ambitious. In the end, we were actually on course for automatic promotion and I was left wondering what could have been after final-day results went our way and we managed to throw away a lead to drop us down into the playoffs. That loss to Castellón really kicked us in the teeth, as they were then our semi-final opponents in the playoff and we crumbled terribly - not even scoring a goal on our way out.

Despite the disappointment, this is definitely a good season, and I feel like the scatter graphs give a very clear indication of where we are at our weakest:

   

Clear to see that we've been great at both creating and converting chances, and really good at preventing teams from making chances, but when those chances do come at us they are scored far too often. I feel like blame for this can only really be pointed at one position, so I'm in the market to spend a decent chunk of money on a goalkeeper over the summer. Luckily our transfer business this season means we've got a much bigger transfer budget than at any previous point in our time here. It's still another year until we move into our new stadium, so I'll have to keep an eye on what we're spending a little, but I'm optimistic that with the right signings we could very well get promoted next season.

League | Transfers | Youth Intake | Fixtures Part 1 & Part 2 | New Records/PotS | Finances | Best XI (All-Time)

I would be remiss if I did not start my player highlight without mentioning Emerson Tudela. I originally signed him for £17k, and in January his release clause was met while he was unwilling to negotiate a new contract with us. £1.3m feels like a really low fee considering he had scored 18 in 18 at the time he left us, but it's not like I could do anything to fight it. Luckily, Roberto Lázaro stepped up to the plate to fill his absence and walked away with some goalscoring records. I originally brought him in on an eye-watering £10k-a-week over the summer with the intent of playing him at number 10 to cover for the loss of Muça, he turned out to be the perfect fit at the spearhead of our attack. He has a £12m release clause at present, but I'm expecting him to be looked at by bigger clubs in the very near future. Sitting alongside him in attack was still a very strongly performing Mohamed, who was contributing exactly as you'd hope your link striker would contribute. The real engine of the team this season was Vincenzo Di Vaio, on loan to us from Lazio. He was a little bit of an emergency signing, as we approached the end of the transfer window and I realised I'd not signed anyone who I really felt was a good fit for the box-to-box role. The bid was made based on a DoF recommendation and I'm so glad that he turned out to be a good fit. I'd like to keep him around, but we may need to pay full-whack so I'm going to have to give it some consideration.

Of our own products, Xabier Larrazabal (YP12) was again the only player to be a true regular, but I'd like to give a mention to Mikel Muñoz (YP15) who stepped in to fill in for injury cover and became both our youngest ever player and also our youngest ever goalscorer. This year's crop had a 'keeper called Pedro Dulce (YP16) who certainly isn't going to solve my problems with conceding right way, but I'm hopeful he can be moulded into a very competent goalie eventually despite his awful personality.

Basque count: 2 players (At least 10 starts, or 20 games overall)

Edited March 12, 2021 by Biscotti

[aldojags]

Spartak Pleven Season Review 2031/32

Competition Review -  Facilities - Manager Profile - Finances (filthy rich) - Bulgarian Profile

 

Frustrating season overall, after last years run to the Europa League final, I completely fell flat on my face in Europe - knocked out in Group Stage of Champions League, with a whopping 2 points! Won the league, but went down to the last day of the season, which when you look at the money I have spent, is not good enough, I should be light years in front of everyone else, but Levski have been a really close competitor to us for a few season, so credit to them. But i still won the domestic treble, just not as dominant as I should be considering I can buy any player I want in Bulgarian League, it's incredible to think how tiny I used to feel compared to Ludogorets, and now I am regularly loaning them 3-4 players a season that are 3rd-4th choice in their position for us just now.

 

Player of the year - Roman Oraze - can't see me keeping him for long, he is top class. Other favourites this year, Akehurst, and Korac, who are both briliant!

 

Transfers - Lost some of my best players, but what's new. Signed some great youngsters too, few of them getting wonderkid status - main highlights are Seone, Gonzalez, and Sorensen (made my usual mistake of not realising a certain country was non EU - this time it was the Faroes!) But he does look quality for 18, but he already wants away! 

 

Youth System - Preview - Intake Summary - Full intake

 

My favourite player from intake - Botev

Upgraded my facilities - now state of the art, and my board expectations now mentions "maintain best youth system in the world", which is pretty encouraging. I am bringing through some decent players now, my best two so far have been Dimitrov - who I knocked back several bids from both Milan clubs this year, he got his first Bulgarian cap. And returning hero Zhivko Tenev, back at the club after leaving us few years back to go to Inter Milan, returned via Man Utd! He barely gets a game, but I like having the home grown boys around the club! I am annoyed with myself, Velchev been out on loan this year in Bulgarian premier league, scored tons of goals, got called up to Bulgarian first team, but I didnt realise his contract was up, and I've lost him on a free! To be honest, he wouldnt' have got a game had I kept him, but I just hate the idea of developing youth and losing it for free, got to pay more attention!

 

Can I also ask all your opinion on Karabalut, who has been out on loan, there's something about him I really like, I know he looks average, with crap natural fitness, but that determination, I just like the look of him! It may be because he was the first non Bulgarian ever to come through my ranks however! 

 

My under 19's continued their incredible run, winning the league again, and getting to 2nd knockout round of Champions league (after getting to semi's last year), so I am really proud of the youth, I need to play them more and stop signing Uruguyans and Serbians!

 

 

Next season, i need to try and get another run in Europe, I feel like top 2 in the group stages is beyond me, but if I could finish 3rd, I feel another Europa league run is possible. It's first season that Bulgaria now have 2 qualification places for Champions League, so hopefully this is the beginning of increasing profile of Bulgarian league, as I'm still getting messages about how players don't want to come here as it's poor infrastructure etc and poor standard of living, so I hopefully can change that by boosting our reputation as a nation. I also think if Levski had the Champions league distracting them, they'd be less of a problem for me in the league!

Edited March 12, 2021 by aldojags

[rlipscombe]

@aldojags - For me, Karabalut looks decent mentally but has a lot of work to do technically.  He is only 17 though so has time on his side...

[aldojags]

1 minute ago, rlipscombe said:

@aldojags - For me, Karabalut looks decent mentally but has a lot of work to do technically.  He is only 17 though so has time on his side...

Yeh I think it's the mentals that I'm in love with, for someone so young it's impressive.

 

But yeh to look at as a footballer his attributes dont blow me away, but I dunno, I think im gna keep him around the place as a good role model with his high determination!

[Biscotti]

@aldojags At 17 I think it's perfectly reasonable to keep hold of him a little longer to have chance to develop. Those mentals are obscene, but unless the other areas of his game come up to meet them he's not going to be a top star.

Very jealous of Oraze, though. He looks to be a proper world class player and I can see why you feel it's going to be tough to keep him!

[aldojags]

19 minutes ago, Biscotti said:

@aldojags At 17 I think it's perfectly reasonable to keep hold of him a little longer to have chance to develop. Those mentals are obscene, but unless the other areas of his game come up to meet them he's not going to be a top star.

Very jealous of Oraze, though. He looks to be a proper world class player and I can see why you feel it's going to be tough to keep him!

THanks! Same could be said for Lazaro, he'd score goals in any team!!

The Lazio boy too - bringing him back would be good if you could he looks quality, and still only 21

[Biscotti]

 

Uhhh....

 

(That was their B team though, but it was a league match)

[Thebaker]

@aldojags with Karabulet i would give it another year. If his attributes don't show a big improvement i would sell him on as he is not got the technical and physical attributes to make it at the top level.

[Britrock]

2026/27 - Veroia end of season review

Spoiler

A fantastic season that was a tremendous step forward from last year. I bought in 3 new defenders and a new DM in an effort to improve defensively, and it paid off handsomely. Combined with a full season from Nijhuis in goal, we went from conceding 54 goals last season to 32 this season, which propelled us to 4th in the division and only 11 points from PAOK in first. We were even 3rd, and ahead of Olympiakos, until the final game of the season. Unfortunately our last 2 games were Olympiakos and AEK, and we ended with two defeats and Olympiakos overtaking us on the final day. But 4th qualifies us for the Conference League again, so we get another attempt at Europe next year. We had a sensational 16 game unbeaten run towards the end of the year which gave us a nice cushion to 5th. OFI and Panathinaikos have fallen off a bit, Panathinaikos especially who were closer to relegation than the Championship Group.

Spoiler

Our European adventure was somewhat short lived this year. We beat Cyprus' Famagusta in the second qualifying round but came up against Romania's Cluj in the third round and they were too good for us, so sadly we didn't meet my objective of making it to the Conference League proper.

Spoiler

As noted earlier, we were busy on the transfer front, bringing in a variety of new players. Bastian is our new DM, replacing Camara, and he was solid as a rock. Jack Proctor is another rapid Welsh wideman, joining up with fellow countryman and Barry product Ieuan Jones. For some reason, I now have 2 Welshmen and 3 Icelandic players in my team - not the countries I would have expected to be signing players from! Craig McFall was probably the star player for me this year. He was top scorer and a constant threat, I'm not really sure how we managed to sign him to be honest! Florian Camus was signed from a Belgian amateur team, same as Fortuin was a season or two ago. He joined up with Koulierakis to form the second best defense in the league. Kristjansson is another one of my Icelandic cohort and he was great at RB. The RB in my formation is essentially a winger and just as important going forwards as defending and he was perfect for the role. Strukovic was signed to play up front, but I'm still searching for a good player to take the false 9 role I use in my 433. He was good,  but he wasn't lighting the world on fire. Parreno was recommended mid-season by a new member of staff and I couldn't sign him quick enough. He performed OK in the second half of the season, but I'm hoping for better next year.

Spoiler

After those transfers the squad is good enough now to reliably get into the Championship Group. To make the next step towards PAOK, AEK and Olympiakos we have a big jump to make financially. Our salary per annum is just over £3m while those guys are at £22m, £15m and £25m respectively. That is a huge deficit to try and make up and it shows in quite a few of our meetings!

Alonso Martin is still the standout player, creating and scoring almost 20 combined goals this year, Koulierakis is consistently one of the best performers and finished second in the Greek player of the year awards while Nijhuis won best GK of the year.

Spoiler

Financially, the £5m we had in the bank has all gone and then some! Our wage bill grew from around £50k to £70k and income didn't really change that much to make up for it! The ground is only 6k capacity and we're almost averaging 5k now so we're going to need a new one in the next few years. Hopefully we can get in to Europe to bring in some extra cash!

Spoiler

Objectives for next year to make it to the Conference League proper while cementing our place in 4th. The board has started to recognise the progress that we've made, the objectives for a few years in the future are "work towards being recognised as 'best of the rest'", which is quite the jump as even this year it was only avoid relegation!

Edited March 14, 2021 by Britrock