Constantine Posted October 3, 2021 Share Posted October 3, 2021 Struggled to get into FM save of late. Like, started a new one about 30 times and quit it. Not the first time this happened. I found that writing about it helps a bit. Keeps you focused on that game. So here we are. Why Bastia? Well, one of my Discord mates has Paris FC save ongoing, really fun one so he recommended me France as a starting point. Not a big fan of the league but considering all the fun my pal is having trying to beat PSG... I wanted in. We were going through clubs in lower tiers of French football and both of us liked Bastia. Couple of really good, really cool players played for them in the past, colors are alright, shield is nice enough. That was about it. One major trophy and nearly men on a few occasions... Bastia just got promoted back into National and expectations are already high. Media predicted us ending up 7th, Board want Top Half and looking at the squad... They might be onto something. Team is rather old-ish, with a lot of players on the wrong side of 30's. Defense is a problem, as Bastia have no proper left back. Not exactly pleased with cover either. More on that later, I'll show you our best eleven in a separate post. But midfield and our strike force... Can't really complain. They seem decent enough for this level. Finances are good. For now. But from my experience, in lower leagues, things tend to get real bad, real quick. To close out this OP, here's my avatar. No badges, no past experience. Just a wrong guy at the right place, ready to prove the world wrong. That's what this FM fantasy is about... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 3, 2021 Author Share Posted October 3, 2021 Squad Review As I said before, I like a lot about this bunch. There's real quality in here. But lot of them are getting older, slower so not a great fit for type of football I prefer. But with transfer window turned off for the summer, we're stuck with each other till January. According to Team Report, this is Bastia's best lineup. And I agree with good part of it. But here's how I'd set it up. GK Vincensini is out #1. Not even a contest as Lombardi is few years past his peak. DEF He's young, pretty raw but there's a nice, little player in here. Perhaps our best defender. Will make for a good pairing with Bocognano. We need him on the left. Our captain and leader is competent to play there. Our other options for this side are properly dire. MID Not exactly suited for midfield maestro, that Xabi Alonso type of role I like to have but Tom will have to do for now. Will fit rather nicely into BBM role. Lots of things to like about Sebastien. Nearly complete player. One of the oldest at the club. One player that has Star status. Our highest earner. And huge part of largest social group. My worst nightmare. His legs will be gone by January so playing on the wing is not an option. That's why I'm fitting him in midfield three, praying to all gods he'll perform so we can move him as fast as humanly possible. ATT Best candidate for AMR Inside Forward. When he recovers. Santelli's counterpart on the opposite side of the pitch. Sebastien's gonna spearhead our attack. Brilliant mental attributes. The rest is... Enough. Hopefully he'll bag quite few of them... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted October 3, 2021 Share Posted October 3, 2021 I know the feeling about starting and stopping. Did that with Barcelona, stopping after the first game for some reason. This feels like a good beginning playing in France 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 3, 2021 Author Share Posted October 3, 2021 Sporting Club Bastia August 2020 Championnat National We had a rather decent preseason, winning three games, drawing two, losing only first one (heavily, though) to Antwerp. Main goal was fulfilled, went through it without picking up any new injuries, fitness built up to decent levels, fully ready to take on National. And we started splendidly. Two wins outta two, pretty much a dream start for newly promoted sides. Bonus points for style, as we bloody played both of these teams off the pitch. Now let's see can we keep this up... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 3, 2021 Author Share Posted October 3, 2021 Sporting Club Bastia September 2020 Championnat National Three out of four. I'm happy with that. Very generous of us to gift Stade Briochin with their first victory of the year but hey, we're nothing if not the nice guys. Still holding out on top. Though it is way too early for it to matter much. Coupe de France I know nothing about our first Cup opponent. Which means I think we should be getting past them easily. Which also means we're getting knocked out on penalties. Because FM. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 3, 2021 Author Share Posted October 3, 2021 Turns out, we can sign players before January. Found out on accident, after seeing news on "Twitter" feed about some other club making signings. Left back is the weakest area in our squad so getting Guenouche was a no brainer. He will easily slot into our first XI, as soon as he build up his fitness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackripper Posted October 3, 2021 Share Posted October 3, 2021 Joined Monaco after stints at Celtic and Feyernood and after 3 years of building my squad i have taken over PSG as the dominant team in France, It was meant to be a journeyman save but the French league is great so dont feel the need to leave and want to build a force on the European front aswell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 4, 2021 Author Share Posted October 4, 2021 20 hours ago, jackripper said: Joined Monaco after stints at Celtic and Feyernood and after 3 years of building my squad i have taken over PSG as the dominant team in France, It was meant to be a journeyman save but the French league is great so dont feel the need to leave and want to build a force on the European front aswell. That's the plan. Build an European powerhouse, destroy PSG and maybe then move away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 5, 2021 Author Share Posted October 5, 2021 Sporting Club Bastia October, November & December 2020 Championnat National Got carried away a bit last night on Discord, time just flew and when I finally took notice, I was deep into December. So here it is, three in one. Unbeaten October, few bumps on the road in November and triumphant return to form to close out 2020. Still 1st on the National ladder, with our points advantage increased. Not much to complain about... Coupe de France I joked about it but ****ing hell, we were so, so close to the abyss. Nearly went out on penalties. Luckily, boys took my criticism seriously and massively improved in next few encounters. Rivals weren't exactly at our level but we did out job properly and fulfilled board's expectations. Got through to the Ninth Round. Where we have a League 1 club waiting... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 6, 2021 Author Share Posted October 6, 2021 Sporting Club Bastia January 2021 Transfer Window Things were quiet, up until the deadline day. Caen, Chateauroux and Sochaux went all in for Guidi, we had a nice little bidding war going on so we got a great fee for one of ours top earners. Haven't had the time (nor any viable target, really) for full transfer hence Billy Koumetio. Loanee from Liverpool will stay here til the end of next season, with us paying only peanuts in wages. Because what other clubs ask for is often based on the state of your wage budget. Not sure that's how RL works but FM seemingly does. According to my experience, that is... Here's Billy. Still raw but a bag of potential. Championnat National Another unbeaten month, with our lead slightly increasing. More of this, please. Let's wrap this promotion up without any shenanigans. Is that too much to ask for? Coupe de France We were lucky to take an early lead. Nimes battered us, squeezed us into our half. Hell, into our penalty box. Scored well deserved equalizer, could've scored two more but Lombardi was up to the task. But justice prevailed when we got to the penalties. Nimes through, deservedly. But we held our own. Lots of stuff to be proud about. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIMN Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Good stuff. Da Silva seems to be tearing it up for you! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 8, 2021 Author Share Posted October 8, 2021 Sporting Club Bastia February 2021 Championnat National Billy scored a goal on his debut, had an assist and smashed in a game winner away at Orleans. Early days but he's been fantastic so far. Annecy is catching up. We failed to beat them at our turf and then stupidly dropped the lead v Avranches. C'mon lads, focus. Don't throw it away now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 8, 2021 Author Share Posted October 8, 2021 On 06/10/2021 at 10:20, GIMN said: Good stuff. Da Silva seems to be tearing it up for you! Yeah, Seb's been immense. Toyed with the idea of bringing in Faupala to take over but Da Silva just couldn't stop scoring so I dropped it. Our wage budget is stretched enough as it is... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 8, 2021 Author Share Posted October 8, 2021 Sporting Club Bastia March 2021 Championnat National Unbeaten month but with Annecy breathing down our necks, just one point separating us. Why are we like this? Away trip to Laval was perfect representation of our season so far. We had a nice, cushy, three-goal lead twice in that game, only to kick the bucket and drop it all in the Extra Time. Yes, we conceded two goals post 90 minutes. Sweet Jesus... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 8, 2021 Author Share Posted October 8, 2021 Sporting Club Bastia April & May 2021 Championnat National We made it harder that it has to be. But two week rest til final game really made all the difference for us. Robic and Seb Da Silva got back on their feet and finally injury free, propelled us into League 2. We're going up!! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 8, 2021 Author Share Posted October 8, 2021 Now the real game begins. And endless contract negotiations. Not looking forward to that. Especially with finances such as ours. Which might be the reasoning behind this. Though I think it'll get better, once that L2 money kicks in. I had planned to do better organized Review but I'm currently exhausted, had a lot of work to do and a long drive home. Apologies for that. Will rectify that for the next one. Team as it is now. Lots of changes are expected. We have quite few older gentlemen in the squad, which I don't think will cut it at the professional level. Two Sebastien's must stay. Da Silva and Salles-Lamonge. Key players for us, especially the latter. It was so enjoyable watching him play. Those are first players I'll offer Pro Contracts to. Few other I'd like to keep. We'll see, in the next couple of weeks... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 11, 2021 Author Share Posted October 11, 2021 Sporting Club Bastia July, August & September 2021 This is gonna be long one... Don't know what's the weather at you guys but we had three days of non stop rain. Not much to do but stay over the weekend with some snacks and a lot of FM. Transfers took a while to wrap up and things got bit outta hands after that. (I started a new, youth only save but that doesn't matter, side project only) Transfer Window We did some bit of business. Nothing major. You all know that gotta be a lie. Brought in to play right back. Until we got a better one. That we got better backup too. So Rosario's gonna switch over to left side. Bastia graduate back home, after being loaned in last year. Lens let him go without a fight. Definitely has a place in our front three. Easily our best defender. Raw but there's enough good in there to get bit excited about his future. Spanish Callum Gribbin. Young man with exciting future ahead of him. Brilliant player, so happy he chose us ahead of Paris FC. Used to be a lot better in past edition, if I'm not mistaken. Still, he could be an useful backup. Polyvalent player, could do great job in number of positions... If he turn out to be quarter of a player his dad was, Theo will be fantastic acquisition... Is it just me or he used to be a lot better? Still, our new #1... This little man took my defense apart every time my Deportivo side played him. Every. Single. Time. Of course I went for him. Suck it, Levante!! Backup for Arribas, turned out to be a starter since Sergio picked up a nasty injury during preseason. Captained already mentioned Deportivo side to two back to back titles in Primera. Here's hoping for a repete... Risk-free and rather cheap rotational option. Sebastien Da Silva didn't want to renew his contract and we needed a proper replacement. In comes Kun... Another used-to-be-great-in-past-FM's player. Left sided CD. Way better than Koumetio. Matsima got his partner in crime. There is it, folks. New Bastia. Bunch of kids with an adult here and there. Legit excited for this team. Potential is immense. Ligue 2 BKT And it shows. Unbeaten so far. Defense is struggling and it will til players gel together, til they get to know each other. If they're this good now... But let's not get ahead of myself. Step by step. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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