[FM22] Peter X's career

[GreenTriangle]

I don’t know how interesting FM22 will be (compared to FM21), but I know that the surest way for me to find out is to start a long career. So, I'll start. But what club will I play with? I have over 2500 possible options (clubs), which means that the choice will be difficult. However, I had an idea : I could use UEFA country ranking. The 35 European nations playable in FM could be divided into groups and I could choose to play only by selecting clubs belonging to one of these groups. I chose level 3, which means clubs in countries whose coefficient is higher than 10, but lower than 22. In other words, I'll have to choose between clubs from Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Belarus, Poland, Slovenia or Slovakia.

Even so, I still have too many options, so I have to use additional restrictions. Because in FM all leagues are given a reputation and there is a kind of league ranking based on that reputation ... I can use that ranking. For now, I will avoid the "top 50" leagues and also those ranked below the 100th place.
So, there are still available those clubs that play in the second leagues in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Belarus as well as those clubs that play in the third league in Norway and Sweden. But here too there is a restriction : competitions in Norway, Sweden and Belarus will start in February or March 2021, while competitions in the other 6 countries will start in August 2021. I chose the second group of nations because I discovered that here there are already careers taking place in Sweden.

***

So, the beginning of 2021. I created an inexperienced manager (Sunday League player) but who already holds a license (Continental C). Sure, a career started without any badge might have been a bit more challenging, but that would have created the need to to take care of the players' morale every day. Honestly, I don't like to do that. Nor so often, and not now.

***

So, after creating the manager, I selected the 6 leagues in which I was going to look for a job ... then I went on holiday until July 1st. After returning from holiday I applied for all available manager positions. Between June 1 and October 1 there were about 15 clubs that needed a manager. I applied to all these clubs ... and I was completely ignored. No one invited me even for the interview. But after that ...

***

So, who is FK Zeleziarne Podbrezova ? A club whose team plays in the second Slovak league. A professional club having pretty good facilities and a fairly small stadium (only 4000 seats).

In fact, the stadium is not at all "small", considering that Podbrezova is a village. A slightly larger village, but just a village. It has only 4,000 inhabitants and is only slightly larger than the much better known Hoffenheim. In other words, the local stadium capacity is large enough to allow all inhabitants of Podbrezova to watch the team's matches.

***

Of course, because we are on October 19, the second Slovak league is in full swing. 15 of the 30 rounds of the competition have already been played, and Podbrezova is not doing badly at all :

Immediately after seeing the ranking I asked myself why the former manager was fired. After all, nothing seemed wrong. In fact, he was not fired. He left Podbrezova for a club (much better known) from the first Czech league, Viktoria Plzen. By the way, this manager is much better than me, which makes my employment a bit unrealistic. But, after all, it can be said that a much lower manager reputation can be a challenge.

***

To be honest, I initially thought that Podbrezova is a club that has never achieved significant performance. It's true, the team did not win any national competition, but it played for 5 consecutive seasons in the first league, which is more than remarkable for a club that represents a village having 4000 inhabitants. Moreover, the club has quite good financial possibilities, being able to attract good or very good players (at least for the 2nd league level). In fact, this aspect is also reflected in the media prediction, Podbrezova being considered the 3rd favorite to win the league.

Everything looks perfect, doesn't it ? Well, it's not. In fact, the club has debts and the overall wages paid are higher than the budget provisions. In some cases this would not be an issue ... but in June 2022 no less than 26 players' contracts will expire and, considering that only 36 players are employed at the club, it would be said that in a few months I could be in trouble.  A big trouble, especially since, at the same time, contracts of 16 of the 18 staff members will have to be renewed.

***

For now, expectations are quite low : we have only to rank in the "top half". But beceuse I don't know the real team's potential, I can't risk asking for more than that, at least until the winter break.

***

Our senior squad consists of 28 players. Some of them are very good and, overall, this squad seems to be good enough to try a promotion. However, some players could leave in the coming months, so for now my goal is much less ambitious : just a ranking in the top 8.

As for our U19s team ... we have 3 promising players there, but that's all about it.

***

Did I mention we have 28 players ? Wrong, we only have 27, and this because (just two days after I was hired) one of our central defenders retired.

***

For now team cohesion is low because in the summer no less than 13 new players were brought. What's worse is that the managerial support is very low. My devastating (i.e : very low) reputation seems to have an effect. Unfortunately, a negative effect.

***

Until the winter break we have 4 more games to play. Three of them will be difficult because we'll have to play against the leader (Banska Bystrica), against the team ranked 2nd (Bardejov) and against a team from the first league (Michalovce, a Cup game)

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October - November 2021

It wasn't a bad start at all. Two clear wins and, in addition, a qualification for the 3rd Cup round.

For now, everything seems fine. There will be a long winter break (not less than 12 weeks). In my opinion, this team has a great potential, and if I could keep all the players, we would probably have reached the first league in a maximum of two years. However, it's obvious we'll not be able to keep our players and everything will depend on my ability to find cheaper (but good enough) replacements for some players.

***

One more thing : I'll try a kind of challenge. I'll only use certain tactical configurations, more precisely those configurations that involve the use of a single striker and also the non-use of an AMC, AMR or AMR. This means that I cannot use, for example, a 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1, 4-1-2-3 DM Wide, 4-2-3-1 Wide or 5-2-3 configuration. I also cannot use any strikerless configuration.

[GreenTriangle]

What was I saying ?

Quote

it's obvious we'll not be able to keep our players

Wrong ! The AI could have destroyed my team (or at least its morale) ... but it didn't. Due to lack of money I couldn't negociate a contract extension for any of the 26 players whose contracts will expire on June 30. I expected AI to take advantage of this by offering contracts to most of my important players. Or, at least, I expected AI to fill my e-mail with offers below the market value, thus setting off the unhappyness of various players interested in going to other clubs.
In fact, during this transfer window we lost practically no players. It's true, three of my players have signed contracts with other teams, but only since July 1, and of the three only one (Josef Spyrka) has a really good potential.

I received only one "dangerous" offer ($ 65,000 for Galcik, one on our U21 internationals, a player who, in my opinion, is worth at least 3 times more) and, for two weeks, Galcik was the only unhappy player we had in the entire team. But even in his case this dissatisfaction lasted very little time.

Of course, since we didn't lose or sell players, it was impossible to bring in any new player. Not even those free of contract. We wouldn't have been able to pay even half of the salary requested by any useful players. Therefore, the squad we're going to use during the spring season is exactly the one I found here when I was hired :

*****

March 2022

***

A pretty good month. We missed to qualify for the Cup semifinals, but in the championship we are only 4 points away from the 2nd place, the one that would allow us to play in the promotion playoff. However, a difficult month will follow : we'll play against three teams also involved in the fight for one of the first two places (Komarno, Humenne and Petrzalka) and and any lost match could significantly decrease our chance for promotion.

*****

Youth intake 2022

The preview was downright depressing : the future intake has been described as "an average intake" and the estimated number of promising players was going to be quite small. But what was the worst is just coming : we were going to receive 6 (six ?!?) central defenders ... but all of them were considered to be mediocre players. Moreover, none of players in this intake were going to be natural either as MC, MR or ML. And, because it was not enough, we were going to receive only one player natural on the right flank (DR, WBR, MR or AMR).

How was the intake ? Clearly better (and less depressing) compared to the preview. It's true, most of players we received are "low quality". But we also received 4 good or very good players, and one of them (Miroslav Horvath) seems to have a very high potential.

[GreenTriangle]

April 2022

***

First three games : 9 points out of 9. To be honest, we were lucky in the second game (we scored the winning goal from our only shot on target). But, overall, we played better than our opponents.

***

Last three games : 7 points out of 9. We missed winning the second game but I can't complain : 7 points out of 9. We missed winning the second game but I can't complain : we clearly won a decisive game (the one played against the leader, Petrzalka) and at this moment we're the main favorite for winning the league and promotion.

*****

Petrzalka has a better goal difference, which means that in the next 3 games we'll have to get more points than them. But we'll have to play against two already relegated teams (Namestovo and Slovan U21) and this looks to be an advantage for us. 

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May 2022

***

Yes, we did it. And it was pretty easy. We had some troubles in the second game, but the AI helped us because it choose to keep a defensive approach even though it had conceded a goal in the 3rd minute.

***************

So, we promoted to the first league. Is it a good achievement? Yes, it is. Is it an exceptional achievement? Not at all. There are two reasons for this statement:
- we had (along with FC Kosice) the best team in the league. In fact, at least in terms of midfielders, we i think had the best midfield line in the league. It was easy for me to get good and very good results as long as the team was very good.
- the other favorite teams for promotion had a weak season. Absolutely all of them (Kosice, Skalica, Banska Bystrica, Bardejov ...). How could be explained this? I don't know. In any case, there was a clear difference between the way Podbrezova played in the first 15 rounds (when it was managed by AI) and the last 15 rounds (when it was managed by a human player). There were used the same players both in the first and the second half of the season and tactics I used were not very good at all (I used the same tactical configuration for our U19 team, a weak team, and results were mediocre).

***************

How did the team play ? Pretty good, considering it won the league. But, in detail, there were some interesting aspects. First, a comparative statistics :

It's obvious: we had the best defense in the league ... but not the best offensive play. The 4-1-4-1 DM tactical configuration has some limits. A very good striker is strictly necessary (we have three good strikers in our team) but he cannot play alone and sometimes my midfielders were not able to help him enough. Consequences : shots of target ratio was low (only 39%) and conversion rate was mediocre (only 10%).

***

In terms of individual players' performance ... I personally prefer a more detailed approach instead of a generic one as I can better see what worked well and what didn't during the entire season :

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What's going to happen next season ? Honestly, I have no idea. So far I have received some good news : the budget allocated for wages and transfers has significantly increased (from $ 500,000 per season to 850,000). This will allow me to renew some players' contracts but I don't know if I'll be able to keep them all at the club (probably not) and if the current team is competitive enough to play in the first league.

[abulezz]

Promotion in the first season - that is a downright success, especially as you went in not knowing how you were going to perform.

 

[GreenTriangle]

Spoiler

First of all, a review of some recently finished European competitions (national and continental). Since some people might consider this screenshots as being useless or spoilers, I'll hide these links :

England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain
Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine (Slovakia and its neighboring countries)
Champions Cup, Euro Cup, Euro Cup II

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June - July 2022

***

Transfers :

Obviously, nothing spectacular happened. We lost 4 players but we have enough good players in our squad to replace them. In addition, another veteran (Kukol) retired immediately after the end of last season. We brought only two players, both on loan, but only one (central defender Tumma) seems to be good enough to play in the first team.

*****

However, this period was not completely quiet. Why ? Because we have a very good player in our team, and his name is Galcik. Being a very good player (he has played 10 times for the Slovakian U19 national team until now) he is wanted by many clubs. But, unfortunately, these are not very rich clubs, so all offers we receive are not very high. I personally thought that for this player we could get around $ 250,000, maybe a little more. So, when two clubs (Ferencvaros, the Hungarian champions, and Viktoria Plzen, the 6th place in the Czech first league) offered 150,000 I was not satisfied at all. I asked for 750,000 hoping that they will either give up ... or will offer much more. Viktoria Plzen offered 200,000, after which they gave up. Ferencvaros, however, did not want to give up. After half an hour (FM time) of negotiations, during which at least 30 offers and counter-offers were made, was reached a sum that I considered extremely favorable for us :

I was very happy, especially since I worked really hard to get this result. But ... surprise :

Come on, man, what the ...
Of course, we'll not be able to keep Galcik for too long, especially since he is a very good player and, in addition, he definitely wants to play for a bigger club. But, unfortunately, I am almost certain that we'll never have the opportunity to get so much money. Why am I disappointed ? Because of the financial situation. The club's income are about 600,000 lower than the expenditure, and just the fact that the board partially covers these losses keeps us afloat. We got very little money as prizes and TV rights (around 100,000) and the only consistent income that we could get comes either from the sale of some players or from participating in continental competitions. That half a million would have been more than necessary for us.

*****

Other details (maybe less interesting) : at the end of June our manager from the U19 team left for another club. Of course, I immediately looked for a replacement. I found something like that, but I thought that such a well-known former player have many other options than to come to a relatively small club in Slovakia. So, I gave up. By the way, 4 of our players already have the needed qualifications to become members of the staff, and two of them (Chleboun and Grendel) are almost as good as other members of our staff. In fact, Grendel is already both a first team player and an U19 team coach.

*****

Media prediction considers us to be the "number one" candidate ... for relegation. Which is not surprising, as our reputation is quite low and the assistant's report suggests that we have serious issues in terms of technical skills and other important attributes (composure, temwork, work rate).

The board seems to be aware of these issues and, although it has high demands in terms of club culture, it has requested me for this season to reach a not very ambitious objective, "fight bravely against relegation".

*****

So, these will be the players we will use trying to survive in the first league ... at least until January, when the transfer window will open again :

Normally I use a whole list of ... lists, but these lists may or may not be useful. In any case, these lists can provide a more detailed view of players' strengths and weaknesses.
As for the U19 team ... although the March intake seemed to be quite poor, it seems that the initial assessments were too pessimistic. We have 5 or 6 good players in this team. It remains to be seen if I'll be able to develop these players as close as possible to their maximum potential level.

*****

Friendlies

We played only two friendly games, both against some not very strong teams (Inter Bratislava just promoted to the second Slovak league and ROW Rybnik plays in the Polish lower leagues). We couldn't play more because we didn't enough have time and, in addition, because the great manager (myself) did a stupid thing. I have scheduled so many physical trainings and with a so high intensity that we have constantly had between 6 and 9 injured players, some of them being very important players for the first team.

I don't like this schedule at all. In the first game we'll meet Slovan (the champion team, and the only Slovak team that last year was able to qualify for the knock-out stage of a continental competition), then, in the next game we'll play against Senica (a team ranked 3rd in the last edition of the league). In any case, the team is quite well trained and its morale, although not perfect, is good enough ... for now.

***************

July - August 2022

***

Wooow ! 7 points out of 9 ! We did not lose the game against Slovan and we won at Senica. I didn't expect that.

***

6 points out of 9. What can I say? Obviously, we are in very good run of form. Unfortunately this form may end quickly, given that in the last game our opponents played at a level much closer to the way I thought the opponents in the first league would play.

***

We are in 3rd place ... but I have no illusions : we still don't have a team capable of fighting for a top 3 place. At least for now, our goal will be the same as before the first league game : to avoid relegation.

Edited November 1, 2021 by GreenTriangle

[GreenTriangle]

September 2022

***

Four games, zero wins. I was expecting it, because we were too lucky during the last month.

For a newly promoted team (like us), even the 4th place looks to be a remarkable achievement. A good thing: the team's morale was not seriously affected by this series of less good results.

***************

October 2022

***

Wow, in the 4 games in the championship we got 10 points out of 12 possible. It's not bad at all. Of course, we were lucky in that match against Slovan because normally Slovan played much better than us and should have won. But we also had bad luck when Slovan equalized from a penalty in the 89th minute.

We still keep that 4th place. The championship will be interrupted until the end of December as the Slovakia national team has qualified for the World Cup. An interruption that doesn't really suit me (because we're in a good run of form) but that could will give me some extra time to prepare for the January 2023 transfer campaign.

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Teams' stats after 13 league games :

***************

[GreenTriangle]

Quote

could will give me some extra time to prepare for the January 2023 transfer campaign

Waste of time. After analyzing over 200 potentially "transferable" players, I realized that we don't have enough money to bring in better players than those we already have. A good player asks for at least 40,000 per year (salary, fees, bonuses), an amount way too high given that the club has debts of over $ 600,000. Before we can bring players we'll have to sell players, but small sales are not useful to us. We'll only sell a player if we can collect at least 100,000 (or more) as a result of that sale.

***

Six of our young players were called up to the U18, U19 and U21 national teams (I didn't count the seventh one, Tumma, because this guy is loaned to us from Spartak Trnava). But what bothered me a bit was the fact that our local star and the potentially most wanted player we have (Galcik) was not called up, which could reduce the interest of other clubs for him.

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December 2022 - January 2023

***

Youth intake preview. According to our DoF (which is also employed as HOYD) it seems that we'll have an "excellent" intake and we'll get at least four good or very good young players. I hope it will be as he says.

***
At the end of the year, the various awards winners were nominated. Of course, we didn't win anything, which is perfectly normal. However, I found something interesting : so called "team of the year" (that is, the best eleven players in the Slovak first league). This team consists of players from only two clubs (Slovan Bratislava and DAC Dunajska Streda). In other words, in the first league there are only two very strong teams ... and another 10 "small" teams that, at best, can qualify for continental competitions.

***

The 2022 World Cup is over. France won the competition again, this time winning the final against England. By the way, England played a truly epic semi-final.

***

The club's owner wants to retire. I presume I should be stressed, as a possible takeover could take place exactly after the transfer window (January 10 - February 28) opens. However, I'll not be stressed at all because I do not intend to "use" that transfer window.

***************

6 points out of 9. Pretty good, although we played poorly in the second game and mediocre in the third.

***

It was expected. Now we played better, but we didn't win any points. It's always very nice () to lose when an opponent shoots twice during the 90 minutes ... and scores two goals.

***

There are still 4 rounds to play, after which the 12 teams will be split into two groups (the first 6 will play in the "Championship Group" and the last 6 in the "Relegation Group"). Considering how the table looks, we have a 99% chance to rank in the top 6. An excellent achievement for a newly promoted team.

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February 2023

***

We lost the first game (a deserved defeat, we played extremely bad) ... but we won 7 points out of 9 in the next three games.

*****

As expected, we qualified for the "Championship Group". What will we do next? The opponents will be very strong and the difference between us and the team ranked 3rd (8 points) is too big to think of a ranking in the top 3. So, our only goal at this time is to keep this 4th place. It could be a achievable goal, especially since the team has a very good morale.

***************

March - April 2023

***

Quote

The club's owner wants to retire.

It was just a rumour .

***

Youth intake 2023

Our DoF/HOYD said we would have an excellent intake. He was right. We really had an excellent intake : we got 6 players who seem to have a high potential. However, there are also less positive aspects : all of these guys have a lot of work to do to reach that potential, either because their attributes are distributed in an very unbalanced way, or because their personality is not exactly as would be desirable.

***************

Back to the championship. We played the first 4 games in the so-called "Championship Group". Three draws, one defeat. Interestingly, the team played poorly against less strong opponents, but managed an exceptional game against the strongest team in the league, Slovan.

***

Wow, we gained another 6 points (out of 9 possible). Not bad at all !

***

We weren't able to keep that 4th place ... but we're only one point away from the 3rd place ! Not because we would have played very well, but for the former team on the 3rd place (Zlate Moravce) played really poor, only 2 points got in the last 6 games.

***

Some very good news : Slovan just won the Slovak Cup. Does it matter to us ? Yes, it can be important because only four teams from Slovakia will qualify for European competitions. The champion will play, of course, in the Champions League qualifying rounds and other 3 teams in the Euro Cup II qualifying rounds. Usually in Euro Cup II can participate those teams ranked 2nd and 3rd in the championship, as well as the Cup winner. But if the Cup winner is already ranked in top 3 then all teams ranked in 4th to 7th place will participate to a so-called "European Playoff", winners of this playoff being qualified for Euro Cup. We can't lose the 5th place, so ...

***************

May 2023

***

Yay, we beat Slovan ! And not everywhere, but right on their stadium, in Bratislava ! 

Unfortunately, both Trnava and Zlate Moravce won in their turn, so we couldn’t take much advantage of this great victory. In addition, we lost our best central defender. And since we don’t have many good central defenders, it would be said that it is a heavy loss.

***

We should have won this game ... 

Our chances of climbing to 3rd place are now ... zero. In the last round we'll meet (away) a much stronger team than us, Dunajska Streda, so ...

***

Oh .... We played pretty well, but we had to take a lot of risks. And their striker decided that this must be the best day of his entire career (4 goals scored from 4 shots).

***

Final standings. 5th place. A pretty good achievement, especially considering that we have qualified for the "European Places Playoff"

Our next opponent : MFK Ruzomberok. A team that ranked on the ... I don't know which place. Because this looks like a bug. Although the championship was split into two groups, it seems that the game "forgot" about this split immediately after the Cup final was played. Normally, FK Senica was supposed to be ranked 6th, but ... some teams from the "Relegation Group" started to be ranked in the top 6 after that final.

By the way, something about another bug : during the previous season Podbrezova played in the second league. Being a second league team, it could not have affiliate links with other clubs whose teams play in the same league. However, although it theoretically was being not possible, we had two such links. And we still have those links, but with the only difference that in both cases we requested (and it was accepted) to become the "senior affiliate" club.

***

European Places Playoff - semi-finals :

We were extremely lucky. Extremely. The first half was all right, both teams playing at the same level. In the second half, however, Ruzomberok had enough chances to score at least 2-3 goals ... but they missed, and we scored two goals from the only two significant chances we had. Finally, the only important thing is ... we qualified. The opponent in the next game, the decisive one : Tatran Liptovsky Mikulas.

***

European Places Playoff - final :

So, we qualified for Euro Cup II. An important achievement, and not because we would have any chance to get extraordinary results, but because we'll be able to earn some money. Money we really need, given that the overall balance is ... painfully negative right now.

***************

Wow, we even won an award ! In fact, not "us" but our striker, Marek Kuzma :

However, there is a problem : Marek Kuzma is 34 years old. So, he will retire soon. Two other important players, Erik Grendel and Jakub Chleboun have already announced their retirement in the coming few days.

***

Best eleven and players' stats :

***

Teams' stats :

***

Transfers :

***

The overall budget (wages + transfers) at the beginning of the season was about $ 850,000 per year. What will be the budget available for next season ? Slightly smaller, about 810,000. Which means we have to earn as much money as possible by playing in the Euro Cup II.

[abulezz]

Qualification to Europe is a big one - hopefully next season it'll be automatic. 

[GreenTriangle]

Spoiler

A review of some recently finished European competitions (national and continental), season 2022 - 2023 :

Champions Cup, Euro Cup, Euro Cup II

England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain

Slovakia 2, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine (Slovakia and its neighboring countries)

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June - July 2023

***

At the end of the season we lost three important players: Grendel (central defender or defensive midfielder), Chleboun (central defender) and Bardos (left defender). As a result, we had to bring in some good defenders, especially because we were going to play in the continental competitions. I think I exaggerated a bit : we brought no less than six defenders. However, as five of those players are only on loan to us it is possible that in the coming months some of them will be recalled by their clubs. The fact that we are affiliated with Internazionale Milano was a great advantage for us because Italian teams have a lot of young players and some of them (those who do not have a very high potential) are even willing to come to to a smaller club (like us). Overall, we brought in a very good player (Lyberakis) and five other players who might (or might not) become key players in the future.

We have a fairly balanced squad (at least for now) and we also have a few young players who could become first team players in two or three years.

Compared to other teams in the Slovak first league, we do not have a very good team at all. However, unlike last year when we were considered the number one candidate for relegation, our image is somewhat better now. The club's reputation has grown a little and the squad's quality level is a bit better.

***

Objectives set by our board are not very ambitious, however I was reluctant to ask for a change in season expectations as the club's financial situation is precarious anyway and it is more possible to lose some of the players than to bring in better players than we already have. By the way, the match attendance has significantly increased as a result of the promotion to the first league but the additional incoming we got are not enough because we have a small stadium and the team does not have many supporters. In addition, yearly prizes and TV rights are relatively low (around 150.000, much lower than we would need to rebalance our budget).

*****

The draw for the second qualifying round of Euro Cup II took place. I was hoping for an easy to beat opponent. Unfortunately, we are going to play against a team that has a higher reputation than ours and that is made up of players at least as good (or maybe better) as the ones we have :

Before the first official game we played two friendlies. We could have played more games but I tried to avoid some injuries. In addition, the morale and cohesion are already high and we didn't need to play more friendlies to improve them.

******************************

July - August 2023

***

Hey, yes! We defeated Maccabi Haifa and qualified for the next round. But ... we were very lucky. We scored the equalizer in the 85th minute, then Maccabi scored a denied goal and, finally, on penalties, our goalkeeper (and the inaccuracy of our opponents) brought us the qualification. As for the championship match ... Slovan destroyed us. They could even score more goals, but they probably didn't want to focus too much because for them a more important game (in the Champions League qualifiers) would follow after a few days.

*****

Our next opponent is, according to the scout, as the same level as the former opponent, Maccabi. We need good luck again ...

*****

The draw for the fourth round also took place. If we somehow qualify we'll meet either Trabzonspor (Turkey) or Cuckaricki (Serbia). That hurts. Both possible opponents are much stronger than us. In addition, both leagues from Israel or Cyprus (which is not even in the database) are not loaded. This means that Maccabi and Apoel have a small staff (Apoel does not even have a manager) and their squads are just minimal (16-18 players available). On the other hand, however, I loaded (and are playable) both leagues in Turkey and Serbia. So, I hope to win against Apoel. That would be a good enough achievement.

*****

We played well in Cyprus. Really well. Unfortunately, Apoel also played well and defeated us, 2 - 0. Our chances of qualifying are now very low, almost zero. In the championship we met a new promoted team (Banska Bystrica) and, although we missed about 4-5 chances to score, we barely got a draw.

*****

Well, we defeated Apoel. And, again, we were lucky and our goalkeeper, Zoldesi, proved to be a master of avoiding goals from penalty kicks. In the championship, as usual, we played well and only got a draw.

*****

Our next opponent in Euro Cup II : Cukaricki Belgrade. It's not a very well known team but in the previous season it ranked second, ahead of a (theoretically) much stronger team (Partizan Belgrade). Even if we'll not qualify for groups it can be said that we achieved a very good performance, especially since we already got $ 236,000 for participation (1, 2) and we will get another 118,000 after the 4th qualifying round.

*****

The first leg in the Euro Cup 4th qualifying round meant a win for us, but that's because we scored from the only two goal chances we had. In the second half our opponents crowded us in our box, but either they didn't hit our goal, or they tried too much long shots. We didn't play very well in the championship match, but this time we won.

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Yes, we did qualify ! We'll play in the Euro Cup II groups ! We were  lucky ? A lot. We don't have a very good team and the manager is not an expert either. (I'm not sure that if I would try again we would pass round 2 or, in the best case, round 3).

So, we got the 118,000 for participating in the 4th qualifying round and, more importantly, we got almost 3.5 million for participating in the Euro Cup II groups. As a result, the club's overall balance has significantly improved :

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Everything looks very nice, but we still have some problems. For example, in the championship we are only on the 8th place. Sure, the chances of relegation are low, but anything is possible if we'll continue to play as we've done it until now.

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The draw for the Euro Cup "groups" also took place. We'll meet Napoli (we definitely need a bigger stadium !), Vorskla Poltava (Ukraine) and HJK (Finland). I have no illusions about qualifying, but I think that a 3rd place (and, of course, some extra money) would not be an impossible goal to achieve. 

[GreenTriangle]

It seems that Slovakia will have only two teams in the group stage of European competitions : us (in Euro Cup II) and Slovan (in Euro Cup). The other two teams, Dunajska Streda and Trencin, were both kicked-out in the qualifying stage. As for the chances to get through the group stage ... these chances are small both for us (because we don't have a really good team) and for Slovan (who have a good team but were unlucky in the draw, they having to play against some very difficult opponents).

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As a result of qualifying for the Euro Cup II groups the club has already raised over $ 4 million, so I thought that some of this money could be used to improve our facilities. Unfortunately, the board did not agree it at all.

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September 2023

We won 6 points out of 6 in the championship, but in the second game we played poorly. As for the game against Napoli ... we lost 2 - 0 but, yay, we were lucky. We could easily have conceded 5 goals. Or even more.

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I don't know what's going on, but we're playing weaker and weaker. We got two points in the championship (both undeserved) and an unspectacular qualification for the next Slovak Cup round.

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For now, we are still fighting for the 3rd place, but considering the fact that we are in a bad run of form, a possible ranking in the top three might be a way too ambitious objective.

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The transfer window closed on September 21. We didn't bring any new players anymore because some of our important players are already unhappy due to the fact that they don't play as much as they would like. Unfortunately, we couldn't improve the staff either. I would have needed a coach, but the board did not agree. I can’t understand why, given that we have over $ 2 million in the bank and, in addition, the current wage expenditure are small enough so that there is no danger of exceeding the budget in case of hiring a new coach.

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October 2023

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We managed to get a draw in the European groups (0 - 0 against Vorskla Poltava, away) ... but we lost both legue games  

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Yay, we got our first european win ! But I shouldn't be too happy because HJK Helsinki has been easily defeated by all their opponents, Napoli scoring no less than 7 goals against them in the previous game. In the next game (a Cup game) we beaten a mediocre lower league team.

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In the league we have no chance to rank in the top 3 but we still have a chance to get past the European groups ... if we'll be able to get 6 points in the next 3 games.

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Theose reasonably good results in the Euro Cup II groups brought us a gift of another $ 800,000 (1, 2). As a result, the board became more receptive to requests, accepting an increase for our junior coaching budget.

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November 2023

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Slovan destroyed us in the league game. I wasn't upset because it was to be expected, Slovan having a much better team. But I was really annoyed to see that we couldn’t cope even with HJK . A shameful defeat ...

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The defeat against HJK was annoying enough to justify a team meeting. The team reacted quite well, and results of the next two games (one win, one draw) were very encouraging. Even the defeat against Napoli was bearable, considering that we didn't concede a lot of goals.

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In the last game of the group stage we'll play (at home) against the team currently ranked 2nd, Vorskla Poltava. We need a two goals difference win and, given that Vorskla are better than us, we need also a lot of luck.

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Slovakia's national team missed out on qualifying for the European Championships, although they managed to finish second in the qualifying group. The biggest surprise of competition : Albania won "its" group and will play in the final tournament.

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December 2023

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In the first game we were going to meet a weak team (Zlate Moravce, 11th place). Consequently, we played offensively. Unfortunately, Zlate Moravce played even more offensively than us and won the game. We played slightly better in the next game, although after the first 45 minutes we were led (0 - 1). As for the decisive match in the European cups ... there is not much to comment on. Vorskla defeated us very easily.

***

3 games played, just one point won. We are in trouble, especially because the 4-1-4-1 tactical configuration doesn't work at all now and at this moment I have no idea what other configuration I could use. I have to remind : at the beginning of my career I decided that I can only use one striker and no AMC, AMR or AML.

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There are still 3 rounds to play in the regular season and we still have the chance to fight for a ranking in the top 6 and, therefore, for a qualification in the elite group. However, I don't know what I should do next : immediately abandon the 4-1-4-1 configuration or abandon it only if we'll miss the qualification ? Should I sell some players and buy others or to rely only on our young players from the U19 team ? I have no idea for now.

Players' ans teams' stats :

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Youth intake preview. Our DoF believes we'll have an "excellent intake." Personally, I don't see what is so "excellent" because it seems that most of those players we'll receive will be mediocre.