[FM21] CSA Steaua București - a Throne to Reclaim (Youth Only)

[LPQR]

Hello everyone   For those un-familiar with my usual FM exploits you can find details of some of my previous adventures below, most notably relating to the Sparta Bucharest editions:

- [FM17] Shield Wall - A Spartan Youth Challenge in Romania

- [FM19] Shield Wall - A Spartan Youth Challenge in Romania (Reloaded)

- The Spartan Way - a Tactical Identity Journey

- Attacking Football - Ironing out a Style

 

This time round, I've decided to return to Romania for a yet another youth challenge although in the context of a different narrative. For most non-Romanian people, the most notable Romanian club has to be Steaua Bucharest - a Champions League and European Super Cup winner in 1986 and with players like Balint, Duckadam and Boloni featuring in that side it's quite easy to understand why. 

The mad part in this story is that there are currently two active football clubs in Romania suing each other for the right to be called 'Steaua Bucharest'  

1. FCSB (operating as a major force in the 1st division), which is operated by George Becali since the establishment of his public share company in 2003 - the club was formerly named FC Steaua and is known for a few successful European Cup runs in the 2000's (most notably the 2006 run to semi-final where they were defeated by Middlesborough)

 

2. CSA Steaua București (3rd division), which was re-established in 2017 by the Ministry of National Defence, part of the CSA Steaua București sports club.

The original FC Steaua București team was part of the namesake CSA Steaua București sports club and belonged to the Ministry of National Defence. In 1998, the club and facilities were separated from the sports club and taken over by a group of shareholders in a post-Ceaușescu privatization scheme, allegedly leading to one of the shareholders acquiring full ownership five years later. However, CSA Steaua București sued the football club in 2011, claiming that this was a new entity; the two have since been in a legal conflict regarding the ownership of the Steaua brand and honours, which resulted in multiple court cases and the forced change of the name of FC Steaua București to FC FCSB in early 2017.

 

Need I say more? The challenge is clear: get back to the first division and re-establish CSA Steaua as the dominant Bucharest club and do it in a fashion that best showcases sporting ambition and local football development as the primary goals rather than operating mostly for profit as the case has been with FCSB in the last couple of decades. 

 

Youth Academy Players Only

Tactical Flexibility & Experimentation

Discipline & Athleticism

 

Current Club Trophy Cabinet

 

current club facilities

 

current squad

 

 

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by LPQR

[Hootieleece]

Always up for youth save in the Balkans!

 

Eastern Europe is heating up the Career Update Forum!

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Hootieleece

[sherifdinn_]

Well well well, what a pleasant surprise. I wasn't sure you'd return after FM17 but here we are. You're very welcome, I look forward to this save.

[karanhsingh]

6 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Always up for youth save in the Balkans!

Eastern Europe is heating up the Career Update Forum!

Indeed it is!

This is a great idea, and one of the clubs I strongly considered. Youth only will obviously be a huge challenge, but all the best!

[TheRobert]

I love the careers from Romania. Good luck!

[LPQR]

2 hours ago, sherifdinn_ said:

Well well well, what a pleasant surprise. I wasn't sure you'd return after FM17 but here we are. You're very welcome, I look forward to this save.

Thanks mate I've had some fantastic saves since then just couldn't get myself down to write about them. I'm sure this one will be a proper challenge though and the regularity of writing about it should add more substance to it.

[LPQR]

2020-2021 Mid Season

 

a pretty decent run in the first half of the season, especially in the cup, where we've made it to the 6th round only to be defeated by the bitter local rivals Dinamo Bucharest in what was the first official derby for the club since its' founding

 

a 3-1 loss is actually a decent result given how bloody far we are from Liga I quality

this leaves us second in the table for now - the main challenge in this league is definitely the NO2 teams of the big boys Dinamo & FCSB since they feature some excellent youngsters and at this point, represent the only beatable versions of those clubs for us

Youth Intake Preview

at this point the intake preview messages have to be interpreted accordingly in terms of perceived potential. when it comes to position variety I'm pretty happy with this, let's see what chocolates we get when the very day comes  

 

[LPQR]

an absolutely huge thing for the club at this point - given the pretty poor standing & financing of Romanian League & Cup competitions we will have to rely on match day income a lot for our financial stability over the next few seasons so having a 30k capacity stadium already is out of this world 

[LPQR]

First Intake

pretty decent intake at least in terms of personalities (happy with that GK) although none of them are good enough to make the first steam straight away - perhaps only the goalkeeper after a few U19 matches under his belt

 

[davehibb]

Great to see you back mate!

This is a save I've considered recently, along with Red Star or Partizan, Altinordu and Santos. i went with Santos...

Looking forward to seeing how you do!

[LPQR]

1 hour ago, davehibb said:

Great to see you back mate!

This is a save I've considered recently, along with Red Star or Partizan, Altinordu and Santos. i went with Santos...

Looking forward to seeing how you do!

long time, my friend, long time  best of luck with Santos, must be a joy to develop their youth!

[LPQR]

PROMOTION!

We've done it! We confidently win promotion to the 2nd division via playoffs after securing 1st place in our league group

 

Key Players:

 

The above represent the backbone of the team on which I will count to establish ourselves as a constant presence in the 2nd division starting with next season. With 23 goals in 24 matches, Chipirliu deservedly scoops our player of the season award. Even though he might not have the stats to replicate the same form next season, he remains our top arrow in attack and our entire system is built upon maximizing his ability upfront. The scouts give him and the rest of the above mentioned players a 'good 3rd division player' rating so let's see how they all do next year.

Sadly we are at a point where no players from the academy are nowhere near this level so the hope is on the old legion to deliver until we solidify our finances and manage to invest more in our facilities.

Speaking of which:

YEEESSSS 

I've asked for improved youth facilities as well since we are literally at the lowest possible level with them and got a blank NO but I'll take the recruitment and junior coaching increases for now. 

Our finances look healthy as we go into our 2nd season and hopefully increased match attendance will bring some extra cash in in the 2nd division.

I will do a tactical update at the end of the next season, but for now, so far so good

[walterjocoski]

it'll be a good one. 

good luck, mate.

[Muttley84]

Talpan has joined the FMCU 😆

Good luck, will be following!

[LPQR]

50 minutes ago, walterjocoski said:

it'll be a good one. 

good luck, mate.

cheers man, hopefully so!

5 minutes ago, Muttley84 said:

Talpan has joined the FMCU 😆

Good luck, will be following!

 thanks mate, good to have you on board

[LPQR]

Mid - Season 2021-2022

we start the second season in the newly promoted 2nd division with a media prediction of 17th

 

 

Our squad is exactly the same as the previous season with the only two players promoted from the academy being Albu and Ionita

 

Now... fast forward to 10th of December, at mid-season squad break time

 

 

We started the season with a loss to a fairly poor team which made me fear we will not make the grade in league 2 but boy oh boy how wrong I was! The direct, high press tactical set-up has worked wonders for us and I'm counting the team cohesion factors in as well to that success given the squad is exactly the same as last season (minus 2 added youngsters) 

 

 

Our best player has of course been the very same Chipirliu that got us out of league 3 with his exploits last season - 15 goals and 5 assists in 16 matches 

 

We've incredibly managed to guarantee ourselves a playoff spot already all this whilst a beautiful rivalry with Rapid Bucharest is taking shape in League 2  

 

To top the excitement off, I've gone and asked for improved facilities in mid season (which I never usually do for some reason) and then this happened:

 

A fantastic way to go into the new year, really, things couldn't have gone better then this

[LPQR]

Ahh, almost forgot!

Youth Intake preview

 

our second intake looks set to become a pretty good one, I'm sooo so happy that we have managed to get the youth recruitment & junior coaching increased just a couple of days before the intake preview - I really hope we will already see the fruits of those upgrades in this intake, fingers crossed

[flix909]

@LPQR You doing so well. How did you activate the third league?

 

[LPQR]

1 hour ago, flix909 said:

@LPQR You doing so well. How did you activate the third league?

 

Thanks mate, check this link: https://sortitoutsi.net/content/57287/fm21-romanian-liga-3-v10-by-fmro

 

There is one thing to keep in mind though even after following all the steps in the link- when you start the game make sure you have the first version of the database ticked, otherwise the file won't be recognized by the system since it's not compatible with the following database updates

[deez0r]

Good luck, love a good youth only challenge! I am doing one in Spain which is a tad easier than Romania!

[LPQR]

8 minutes ago, deez0r said:

Good luck, love a good youth only challenge! I am doing one in Spain which is a tad easier than Romania!

cheers! best of luck in Spain, I will keep an eye on your career!

[LPQR]

2nd Youth Intake

 

 

WHAT. AN. INTAKE! incredible position coverage (which is no1 priority atm) and a very very reasonable mix of personalities. The Vochin brothers look to be the real deal as well as Paduretu being a fantastic substitute for our CBs already. Really happy with this, the mid-season facilities improvements have absolutely paid off.

 

 

 

 

[theBlackPrince]

That looks like one hell of a first youth intake, should set you up for a while!! Liked the look of Vochin then saw his size and strength!!

[DIESEL.be]

You seem to be breezing through the seasons! 

[john1]

Cracking youth intakes  Starting the season well  

 

Welcome back too!  

[LPQR]

14 minutes ago, DIESEL.be said:

You seem to be breezing through the seasons! 

Had some time to kill today so blasted a season and a half   I also use instant result occasionally and that helps speed up the game

7 minutes ago, john1 said:

Cracking youth intakes  Starting the season well  

 

Welcome back too!  

Thanks a lot, good to be back yeah, I'm pretty surprised myself at how well things are going

[deltablue]

Nice early promotion.

[karanhsingh]

Going very well so far!

[LPQR]

Tactical Update & Season 2 wrap-up

Well, quite the season it has been (scroll down for final results). We started with a media prediction of 17th and I honestly hoped for a mid-table finish best case scenario. Our team still features League 3 quality at best as shown by the stats comparison to the rest of the teams in the 2nd division:

Overall

 

Attack

Midfield

Defence

 

 

Since the beginning of last season I tweaked and adjusted our tactical set up in order to transform the team into as much of a collective, efficient pressing block as possible as this would be the only chance we'd have at snatching results our way. The concept was the following:

- Two Banks of 4 defending with one striker dropping deep and getting involved in build up play

- Both forwards working to cover defensive ground & assist in pressing

- Compact & narrow team shape in defence, forcing opposition out wide

- 'The Surprise Element': moving the ball from defence to attack quickly, avoiding lost momentum due to unnecessary/excess passing

 

Tactical Creator Application

 

System Specifics:

The right Wide Midfielder - 'the half space master'

Given that I have selected 'much higher tempo' couple with counter & counter press elements with a positive mentality I would run the risk of turning the system into absolute 'hoof ball' so I wanted to create a bit of variety in terms of how transitioned manifested themselves as well as how build up play happens in the final third. The inverted winger's Width-related PIs have been left untouched in order to provide a wider passing option at some points in the attacking (far post presence) or build up (wing presence alternation with WB) phases. For the WM, however:

 

Having instructed the WM(A) to sit narrower, roam from position and to cut inside we have managed to obtain the above-shown movement and effect: Given that the (should be PF on the screenshot, not DF, old FM terminology :D) PF(S) is instructed to hold the ball he drops deep with his back to goal facing the on-running WM(A) and WB(A). Because the WM(A) is running away from the wing and into the half space this creates space for the supporting WB to attack. The DLP(D) acts as the deep passing option as supposed to (potential passing lanes for DLP marked black). Lines marked in red show the complete overload of the half-space produced by these movements as the 4 players have numerous passing options available and various ways of attacking space depending on each other's movements.  By instructing the wide player (in this case the WM) to also roam from position in addition to staying narrow and cutting inside we make sure he will make himself available as a passing option more often than usual. What this achieves is a productive way to recycle the ball towards an incisive opening in a high-tempo system and the occasional presence of a passing diamond towards the slight right of the midfield:

 

What I also wanted to achieve with this kind of movement is having players close enough to each other in order to combine & exploit passing options whilst not compromising width - the WM making space for the WB to hug the line and ensure full width coverage. Having instructed the team to defend & attack in a narrow shape as well as the wingbacks having in-built instructions to 'stay wider' we get the following positioning: concentrated number of players in midfield tightly close to each other and forcing opposition to defend inside (or risk numerical advantage) coupled with wide-remaining WBs always available for a DLP-inspired diagonal to open up space:

 

The above successfully illustrates what our attacking shape looks like. Our defensive shape looks like this, in line with the compact, narrow shape that forces the opposition on the flanks that I wanted to achieve:

 

'The Surprise Element': moving the ball from defence to attack quickly, avoiding lost momentum due to unnecessary/excess passing

In order to achieve this, I have gone for the following combination:

1) I have added a DLP(D) and a BPD(D) to the team responsible for providing long balls or medium diagonal balls. I have opted for standard passing directness in order to avoid going full hoof-ball and retain our team's passing options open depending on the situation.

2) 'Pass into space' instruction in combination with 'much higher tempo' will make the entire team choose to favour the quickest available open space to pass into rather than hold on to the ball for too long, analysing potential openings

3) Due to the extremely urgent tempo & pass into space instructions I have also added 'play out of defence' instructions in order to avoid Centre-backs by-passing the midfield and in order to utilise the creative abilities of the DLP(D) dropping deep.

 

The Pressing Forwards

As mentioned before, the goal being to achieve a collective pressing unit and have our forwards involved in all phases of play naturally leads to the selection of the Pressing Forward role for both our strikers.

 

The PF(S) with his 'hold up ball' and pretty static movement in this system acts as the second pivot (the first being the DLP) helping us centralize play around a focal point in the attacking phase whilst the DLP does the same in nearly all phases (play from back, possession control, high camp in opposition box). The PF(A) is given much more freedom in terms of movement as he is supposed to be the primary attacking spear and is given the 'roam from position' instruction in order to move freely in finding space to attack and opening up for the final ball.

Both of them contribute massively to defensive & possession phases and that shows in the following stats:

1. Our PF(A) & PF(S) combined recorded more than half as many interceptions (43) as our CM(S) & DLP(D) combined (77) in nearly as many matches

2. We conceded the 2nd least number of shots as a team this season which shows how well the team is organized towards keeping the opposition from getting space for a shot

3. We're 2nd placed for number of interceptions which also proves the efficiency of the unit in a high/mid press set-up

 

 

Season Results:

 

The WM(A)

 

The PF(A)

 

 

The PF(S)

And yes, our PF(S) is the very same Ionita that we've got in our first youth intake.

 

Youth to watch

Ciprian Vochin is taking some massive strides in terms of attribute development whilst playing for the U19 team and I believe, ladies and gents, he might be more than ready for the first team already given that our next best first-team midfielder looks like this:

 

To wrap it all up, it has been an unbelievable season for us gaining back-to-back promotions and making it to the semi-finals of the Romanian Cup with the level of quality available in the team and already looking forward to 1st division matches where we can make some substantial cash from our stadium alone. Oh, and about that:

It looks like we have amazing local support and filling up the stadium quite nicely.

Edited June 23, 2021 by LPQR

[Hootieleece]

Sleeping Giant......definitely!

Great Season!

It shows what can be done with good players working as a team.....instead of putting out 11 prima Donna Wonderkids!

 

[LPQR]

2 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Sleeping Giant......definitely!

Great Season!

It shows what can be done with good players working as a team.....instead of putting out 11 prima Donna Wonderkids!

 

working as a team for sure, as for the good players part... things are pretty bleak   I honestly think this season might have been the biggest over-achievement I have managed in FM21 given how flipping far we are from the rest of the league in terms of quality. What has definitely helped though, and what I love about a youth save, has to be the team cohesion factors - this is a team that has enjoyed great success together last season, many intra-squad personal relationships are being built, players counting each other as friends, partnerships on the pitch, etc. 

[karanhsingh]

Amazing season and those attendances are fantastic! Hopefully you can invest the funds into improving all the facilities. 

[LPQR]

5 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Amazing season and those attendances are fantastic! Hopefully you can invest the funds into improving all the facilities. 

 

I've asked for another round of improvements, got this accepted for now, which I'm pretty happy about - from fairly basic to good academy coaching in 2 seasons is a progression rate I'll take any day

 

Also, in other news

This is very very good news since the TV rights money we will get increase the higher the competition is in the ranking list (from my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong)

Also, this is what the CL looked like this year - the highlight has to be RB Leipzig eliminating PSG in the first KO round (only to take a massive beating in the QF from their rivals)

 

[LPQR]

and here it is, the massively awaited TV rights payment for featuring in the 1st division of Romania 

20 bloody thousand pounds - the good news is that will be enough to pay Chipirliu's wages for the entire season!

[LPQR]

 

gotta love these odds! 2000-1 compared to 150-1 for the team predicted to finish 1 spot above us. I think in FM  this translates into 'absolutely no f*** way, like no, no way'

 

[Muttley84]

Botosani won the league last season? Damn that is a surprise. I think you will easily avoid relegation, just curios is FCSB seen as a rival for you?

[LPQR]

17 minutes ago, Muttley84 said:

Botosani won the league last season? Damn that is a surprise. I think you will easily avoid relegation, just curios is FCSB seen as a rival for you?

Yeah, these are the joys of the Romanian playoff system  You can start bottom of the playoff group and still end up champions...

Yes, rivalries with FCSB, Dinamo & Rapid all show up which makes it pretty interesting to play in Liga 1 with so many matches classed as 'the Bucharest Derby'

[Hootieleece]

1 hour ago, LPQR said:

and here it is, the massively awaited TV rights payment for featuring in the 1st division of Romania 

20 bloody thousand pounds - the good news is that will be enough to pay Chipirliu's wages for the entire season!

That is worse the Slovakian TV Money....at least the Slovakian TV money pays my salary!

 

[LPQR]

Mid-Season Developments

Finally! We convince the board to a dish out a significant outlay for improving the youth facilities

 

as well as junior coaching & youth recruitment

I really like that in FM21 you can push the board for these kind of upgrades more than once a season. For a youth-only save it's absolutely crucial to get the facilities upgraded a notch just before the youth intake preview is generated and that's exactly what we've managed to do in the last couple of seasons.

 

Youth Intake Preview

One good Romanian central defender? And a full back? Yes please! We are in desperate need of coverage for these exact positions as players from the old guard are starting to get... well, old and I don't think I will be able to count on them anymore after this season.

[LPQR]

Season 3 youth intake

I guess at this point I've learned not to be fooled by 5 star potential anymore  None of the players marked as 5 star potential in previous intakes are nowhere near of even 2nd division quality level even after regular match practice for a couple of seasons.

Even so... here are the top lads in this intake:

Isztvan Pusztai

 

Antonio Letchin

 

Adrian Bocsa

 

Cristi Mindirigiu

 

Daniel Suleap

 

Out of all of them Letchin is classed as 'the one to watch' by the staff and I tend to agree - he already displays a decent set of attributes and has the right personality to keep developing further. Apart from that, I'd say Pusztai, Bocsa and Mindirigiu look pretty decent even though I'm pretty appalled at the mix of personalities/low determination we've got in this intake, overall.

 

 

[DIESEL.be]

Fantastic read here; I really dig the tactical analysis of your 442 and proved that I'm overthinking things quite a bit. Really interested to see how you'll hold up with your 2000-1 quotation; that seems nuts haha

[LPQR]

15 hours ago, DIESEL.be said:

Fantastic read here; I really dig the tactical analysis of your 442 and proved that I'm overthinking things quite a bit. Really interested to see how you'll hold up with your 2000-1 quotation; that seems nuts haha

Thanks mate! definitely starting simple and gradually adjusting until you get what you want to achieve is a pretty solid way of achieving success in FM in terms of tactics. That being said, a simple formation doesn't necessarily mean the system is simple - at the end of the day there are hundreds of styles of play that can be achieved with the same 442. Just think about how a simple decision of having wingers and non-overlapping fullbacks vs. wing backs and wide players cutting inside can make a huge difference in terms of how all of the phases look like and how the team approaches each of them. I personally like Lobanovskyi's system used back in the day at Dynamo Kyiv & USSR NT in terms of both, aesthetics and the principles of collective approach (maybe even communism to some extent ) it uses.

Edited June 25, 2021 by LPQR

[LPQR]

Season 3 Wrap-Up

Champions Play-Off

 

League

 

Romanian Cup

 

What a season, ladies and (mostly) gents! I'm pretty chuffed with this - 2000 to 1 odds, huh?  Not only did we manage to smash the playoff and finish 3rd and also get to the final of the ROC but most importantly....

 

 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME - we've now qualified to play in the EURO cup playoffs! I don't care if we go out in the first round (which will most likely be the case), the $$$ we will get from participation to the playoff alone will be an absolutely huge boost for our finances and long-term development.

Key Players

Our main striker Chipirliu (original squad) pulled of another great season -17 goals and 10 assists in the 1st division is a monster of the result compared to what much better forwards have achieved for teams like FCSB, Dinamo, Viitorul & Universitatea Craiova

 

Valeriu Marinescu (youth2022) has been given a starting spot at 15 years of age and has put in some excellent performances, scoring 12 and assisting 5 this season. Having re-trained him as a striker, the decision has entirely paid off, really happy about that!

 

 

C Vochin (youth 2022) became our best midfielder in the team after being promoted from the U19 team and has been an absolute pillar of our success this season. His Determination and Bravery have played a huge role in the centre of the midfield in our combative, pressing approach.

 

 

Grigore Ionita (youth 2021) has finally mastered the PF(S) role and has been very good alternating presences with Marinescu and Chipirliu.

 

 

E Pacionel (original squad) has really improved this season in terms of attributes and is the greatest DLP(D) in our team. The partnership with Vochin in midfield proved to be a success as the two players complement each other - one is more combative and ball-winning and the other more technical and playmaking.

 

 

Youth to Watch

Paduretu (youth 2022) has also been promoted to a starting spot this season and has put in some very good performances. The worrying part is, however that his attributes have not improved nearly as much as I have anticipated and we might be looking at a pretty low PA in this case, despite the great personality & determination.

 

Antonio Letchin (youth 2023) has been given some playing time in the first team due to the severely declining attributes of our ageing first-team defenders (Beta & Wallace). Pretty good development rate and wanted by the big boys in the league - both good indicators of his potential which I'm excited about.

 

Cristian Negru (youth 2022) has also been given first-team playing time in order to develop (hopefully) our next star on the WM(A) position. Pretty good improvement in his physical & mental stats however technical aspect is left to be desired.

 

Club Development

we get a massive 545k from our fantastic fans who, at this point, are really keeping the club alive in terms of finances. Literally responsible for bringing in more than HALF of our income this year!

 

We had, yet again, the highest average attendance (and by some distance) and that played a huge role in our finances.

 

Our finances look great and we are back on track after they took a massive hit in January following the cost of upgrading the youth facilities

We finalized the youth facilities upgrade

And our overall facilities look like this atm:

 

And finally, we have muuuuch better odds for the new Liga 1 season 

[Hootieleece]

Well you are the "Sleeping Giant" of Romanian Football!

But is is good to see you aren't getting too much success too soon.

KUTGW!

 

[davehibb]

Good stuff mate! You'll be contending for the title next year, if not running away with it.

If Europe doesn't get in the way. Should hopefully be some extra cash for you at least.

[LPQR]

On 25/06/2021 at 13:00, Hootieleece said:

Well you are the "Sleeping Giant" of Romanian Football!

But is is good to see you aren't getting too much success too soon.

KUTGW!

 

 

On 25/06/2021 at 13:07, davehibb said:

Good stuff mate! You'll be contending for the title next year, if not running away with it.

If Europe doesn't get in the way. Should hopefully be some extra cash for you at least.

At the moment it really looks like the original squad is driving performances and what's worrying is that these guys are all in their thirties now and declining quickly. Also apart from Vochin we don't have any youngsters that actually managed to step up to at least a good 2nd division level so most likely it's going to be tougher from here on but let's see, I hope I'm wrong

[LPQR]

Season 4 Start - Euro Play-offs

First of all, the new season begins with some pretty fantastic developments:

Which, somehow, means that we now get a LOT more money from TV rights compared to last season:

I'm assuming this is also tied to the number of matches featuring CSA Steaua that will be televised and the fact that given last season's performances the number of televised matches will increase. This is absolutely huge for our finances.

 

EURO cup play-off

We get Besiktas as our first opponent in the very first round which, some might argue, is a pretty tough draw. And then this happens:

 

1st leg

 

2nd leg

Chipirliu scored our away goal in the last minute of added time and, honestly, this entire round was so enjoyable to watch 'as a fan' I almost felt like it was real football 

 

 

Third Round

1st leg

 

2nd leg

 

Fourth Round

first leg

 

second leg

 

And that is where our very first European adventure has finished. I'd say pretty amazing stuff, tbh, given that we technically had no chance to even get past he first round. We were lucky to get a somewhat weaker opponent in the 2nd round so I'm very happy with this. Also, we got around 250k in prize money and an additional 145k from gate receipts so finances are looking absolutely monstruous compared to where we were just a few months ago. This, in turn, helps us get these upgrades:

 

 

 

[Muttley84]

It would have been a miracle if you reached the group stage with Chipirliu, Enceanu or Pacionel as main players. Still good money for the budget and increased the profile of the club.

[LPQR]

22 minutes ago, Muttley84 said:

It would have been a miracle if you reached the group stage with Chipirliu, Enceanu or Pacionel as main players. Still good money for the budget and increased the profile of the club.

absolutely agree, the first match with Besiktas is still a miracle for me and finances look great thanks to playoff participation

[john1]

What a run in Europe  No harm in losing to them  Nice money to bring into the club