[FM 2022] Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg

[Reifi]

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg
╎ Chapter One: Starting a Legacy or a Tragedy? ╎



Welcome to Hartberg everyone! After my endeavors into Ireland I didn't expect the Top Tier of Austria to have around the same stadiums as what I would be seeing at a constant rate down in Ireland's second tier. It's weird though. I saw Salzburg and Austria Vienna's stadiums rival the ones of an NFL team. And yet ours looked like we had the lowest budget known to man. Maybe this is just because of the dynamic in Austria. If you aren't Salzburg then you can't challenge for the league. Unlike the big boys most of us aren't sponsored by active sporting companies hell-bent on making a soccer empire. In fact not even Rapid or the Violets could put on a good representation of the country even in our own Domestic league. Both in real life are in the relegation spaces and are heavily behind the one and only Red Bull Salzburg. I can't fully blame Salzburg though, they have a top notch scouting team with an amazing idea on how to bring in players and sell them for vastly higher profits. It took one Zealand stream however for me to stop everything I was doing before and start a FM Game whilst streaming to my friends on discord. And sure enough, I found Hartberg. The definition of an Austrian team who isn't a giant. One who can be built up but has a great hidden foundation. So, my friends... welcome to Hartberg! One thing to say though is that I have played around half the season already, so that's where we will start! As I plan to give 2 updates per season (one in the mid-season and one at the end) we should be fine.

Transfers!


We only made one piece of business during the window and that is signing Yuriel Celi on an end of contract transfer from Cantolao. The Peruvian is a true talent featuring 7 times already for the U20's and being touted as a near wonder-kid in FM. The best part is for his current contract I made sure there wasn't any release clause madness and he agreed to play without one! We just need to develop Celi to become a real star and by seeing those attributes it may not be too far away until Celi strikes gold.

Tactic (It's the one from Bray)


That's right! I'm doing something that fans of the Bray series truly lacked. Real statistical analysis! Or in other words occasionally showing how my "Objectively Best Football No Cap Goated Tactic #1" works and how we get along by using it. The big thing is that we run on a fluid and high-countering system. I'm not going to make my players work the ball into the box since it's really a trap for most unless their team can't finish from outside the box. Another big thing is that I don't want to risk losing the ball by striking it out front so instead I use short kicks and send the ball to defends, who hopefully take the ball for a bit before finding an oppertunity to start a drive by supplying the midfield the ball. I haven't been the best at explaining tactics so don't expect too much in the future, but I hope to talk about the system a bit more during the series.

Results!


With 4 games left to go in our campaign we sit in 4th with Admira Wacker Modling and LASK chasing our tail for the coveted 4th place slot. The top 3 is our goal but we will have to fight against Wolfsberger and Rapid Vienna to secure it and that is a tough result to be sure. However nothing is impossible and we just need to put some good results throughout the rest of the season! We play Wolfsberger in February after a game against last place WSG Tirol so what could go wrong?

[Reifi]

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg |
╎ Chapter One: Starting a Legacy or a Tragedy? ╎ Mid-Season  - 2021/2022


We did it. We made the champions group. However the problem is that at the end of our regular-season we did absolutely horrid. I switched to a Gengenpress however in the final 2 games and we won a game very convincingly before losing the next because of a controversial red card. However I still like the system more and if I can iron out the quirks we could easily be a Top 3 team. Another thing now is that the points are only 50% of what you had in the regular season. That means we are only one point off 4th place and 3 points off third. Let's finish this season strong, I'll talk about our end of season soon enough!

[SixPointer]

Solid first season 👍🏻 Am Intrigued about there hidden foundation?

[Reifi]

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg
╎ Chapter One: Starting a Legacy or a Tragedy? ╎ Small Youth Shenanigans

Youth Intake!


I was told this would be a poor intake, but this intake was absolutely marvelous! The best of the players might just have to go to Benjamin Avdic. However his personality wasn't the greatest so he's going into a mentouring group for a bit so we can drive his skills all the way to the roof! The other guy I really like from the intake is Tino Thiede who has a driven personality meaning he might just grow faster then Benjamin! The rest of the people in the list we signed but have nothing of special importance to note about. One last thing: Every single person except one Turkish man had an Austrian nationality! Building the club to build the country, amiright?

Edited December 2, 2021 by Reifi

[Reifi]

 

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg
╎ Chapter One: Starting a Legacy or a Tragedy? ╎ Europe Here We Come! S1 Review



That is right! We made the Europe Conference League and we did it without having to go through the European Place Playoff! LASK will be playing in the 2nd Qualifying Round for the Champions League whilst Salzburg only have to get a win in the final Play-off Round to secure an Austrian team in the Champions League. Wolfsberger meanwhile have to play in the Play-off Round of the Europa League to secure a place in that competition. Lastly we will be in the 3rd Round of the UEFA Conference League, where our board expects us to reach at least the 4th round of the competition. However if we can secure the group stage we could be making loads of money. The weirdest thing of all though is that Rapid Vienna lost the last game against SCR Altach meaning that Altach will be making it to the Conference League Qualifiers!



To celebrate our best finish ever in club history, Brigitte thought it would be a great idea to spend 2M on... undersoil heating. Yeah I will hope to recieve that league money soon because I need other changed and Brigitte does not want to give them to me. And with no money... that means no transfers! So let's hope our president can turn her frown upside down!

Tactics!


This time I didn't just steal from Bray and instead made a sort of Gengenpress / Tiki-Taka system! Very basic, but Dario Tadic has been the perfect Target Forward for what I have been trying to achieve as a whole this season. My main thing though is making sure we play entertaining football without giving up the ball too often! Also nothing much to note about the other roles as well, all very basic and generic stuff in my system. However we made Europe this season, and if isn't shattered don't fix it!

 

Edited December 2, 2021 by Reifi

[Reifi]

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg
╎ Chapter Two: Not Quite the Best ╎ July - August 2022 / Season 2!




I felt my heart get a bit heavy at the start of the season, we lost to 3 straight opponents in July, and 2/3 of those games I expected to win. However I started off August on a great game against Pogon in the EURO Cup II Third Round. Or that's what you might've thought. See in reality that game was UGLY, none of us really making a chance. It wasn't until the game against SV Ried however that I realized that the tactic you saw at the end of last season was a fluke, and only worked because I managed to win against opponents by 1 point or drew. That couldn't stand, so we have now implemented a custom system that is set to play a more pressing style of football! After the first league away at Slavia Prague we immediately saw results including a 1-0 win against Admira, a 3-1 win against Slavia Prague (that confirmed we would be playing in the group stage) and an ecstatic 2-2 draw against SCR Altach. That's the narrative of this month, now onto the transfers!


Transfers!


We managed to get 2 great players for 56k in total and that one price was only compensation for the out of contract transfer! I didn't even realize it at first but we sniped Hromada from Slavia Prague, the same team we beat to get into the group stage of the EURO Cup II, so they must not be feeling great at all. The other transfer was a free one, but we managed to sign a 40 year old Spanish legend in Joaquin! Sadly though we let go of Marc Andre Schmerbock, Donis Avdijaj, and Thomas Rotter to get extra money. Our board is really tight on money we get, as we only take around 10% of transfer revenue to put into the budget. However I think both our replacements have a big edge of the players we missed. Now, let's show our new players!



Jaoquin has great dribbling, amazing first touch, spot on passing, beautiful technique, and most of all the heart of a natural leader. He's even getting paid less then our staff which is honestly insane and I would have gladly gave him more. The only problem is the age, but as long as he doesn't regress that bad we will be fine! The other player is 26 year old Slovakian in Jakub Hromada who is our new Mezzala. Again he has great passing and first touch but has the bonus of great physicals. We couldn't get him on the cheap in terms of wages but that was completely fine with me. But that was about all for the transfers! That's about all for the post, except for one thing... our group....


Group Stage


We weren't dealt an easy hand...

[SixPointer]

Good job qualifying!! Hopefully you destroy my rivals as well!

[Reifi]

12 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Good job qualifying!! Hopefully you destroy my rivals as well!

We can only hope to beat Feyernoord!

[SixPointer]

21 minutes ago, Reifi said:

We can only hope to beat Feyernoord!

Same goes with me 🤣

[Reifi]

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg
╎ Chapter Two: Not Quite the Best ╎ September  - December 2022 / Season 2!




First, let's talk about the Domestic league. After a not so good start heading into the season we found our form and are now 4th in the league! October was by far our best month as we only lost to RB Salzburg whilst taking a win off the 3rd place Sturm Graz. We are also through to the 4th round of the FA Cup where we will face against a team in the lower leagues! We can only hope for this luck to continue next month as we carry on our momentum throughout the year. This wasn't the only event we played in though, we need to talk about the Conference League!




With a result I am sure @SixPointerwill be happy with, we are through to the knockout rounds of the Conference League where we will face Rangers in a tough battle to get to the next round. We only barely made it through the groups however but beating Rosenborg twice was enough to keep them out of Europe. We even managed to beat Feyenoord on the final day 2-1! However I am very surprised that we were the only team to give Cukaricki all of their points, it must've been an easy game for the rest of them but not for us.

[SixPointer]

Superb result!!! 

[Reifi]

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg
╎ Chapter Two: Not Quite the Best ╎ 22/23 End of Season Review

Tipico Bundesliga


In the top flight we managed to pick ourselves up a champions league qualifying place! It wasn't without some drama however at SK Rapid Vienna drew on the final day to FK Austria Vienna to put us in front despite a 4-0 loss to RB Salzburg. Did I also mention that RB Salzburg want my star player Yuriel Celi and now have Ronald Koeman as manager? Yeah the chapter title is sticking there for a reason. It was a really good season besides though and we defined ourselves at a Top 3 team at last! We even got to the Semi-Final of the FA cup in which we failed only on penalties to Wolfsberger. Meanwhile Salzburg lost to Sturm Graz in the same round so we're basically like enemies now. However that was far from the most exciting part of the season. To get to that though, first we need to talk about a transfer I made.

Transfers


This is Tomas Chory! Our new star striker that I signed on a free (80k or so compensation) after I found out that Mario Tadic was regressing and not putting in the results I truly needed him to. So I signed Tomas, a total Target Man who can take a corner like nobody else could. Sadly he didn't get much chances to truly head the ball but his striking prowess alone made him the top scorer for us in the league with just half a season of playing time! I can only hope for Tomas to continue his excellent form onto the next season which could bring a lot of changes for us whilst we move away from Dario.

Euro Cup II


Yes you are seeing this correctly, we made the final! We took a draw against Glasgow Rangers to penalties and won them 6-5 to take us onto the next game against Feyernoord. If you remember, they were in our group before and we beat them! Well @SixPointermight just be happy with this again as we beat them 2-1 to advance to the Quarter Final! We lost 0-1 at home against Mainz 05 but managed to take our win away with a blaster by Yuriel Celi before once again winning 6-5 on penalties. Our Semi-Final game would be against Partizan where an amazing Away leg would set up for the chance to go to the final of the competition away. And who else would take us to the final but new signing Tomas Chory with a great header! That meant we would be facing Atalanta in the final who ultimately scored a goal early and then made the game boring from there. However we could not be happier at our results. We not only boosted ourselves up but Austria as well and now we are taking our talents up the ladder of European football! Let's go for something great next season!

[Reifi]

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg
╎ Chapter Three: The Rift in the Writing ╎ Another Chapter Begins


This feels a bit weird. I'm re-doing the format I have used for writing somewhat. More words and bigger images. I think we have hit a point in this save where I am starting to hit my success. We haven't achieved the closest and so far biggest goal to hit but after getting to the final of the EURO Cup II it wouldn't be unfair to think we are close to potential domination of Europe. These next 2 or so seasons could be yet another big turning point for TSV Hartberg. I hope you all stay with me as we go through this journey together. Who knows where we could be later on in our career! For now though, let's win a Tipico Bundesliga title!

[SixPointer]

On 07/12/2021 at 16:33, Reifi said:

Rewrite the Standard | TSV Hartberg
╎ Chapter Two: Not Quite the Best ╎ 22/23 End of Season Review

Tipico Bundesliga


In the top flight we managed to pick ourselves up a champions league qualifying place! It wasn't without some drama however at SK Rapid Vienna drew on the final day to FK Austria Vienna to put us in front despite a 4-0 loss to RB Salzburg. Did I also mention that RB Salzburg want my star player Yuriel Celi and now have Ronald Koeman as manager? Yeah the chapter title is sticking there for a reason. It was a really good season besides though and we defined ourselves at a Top 3 team at last! We even got to the Semi-Final of the FA cup in which we failed only on penalties to Wolfsberger. Meanwhile Salzburg lost to Sturm Graz in the same round so we're basically like enemies now. However that was far from the most exciting part of the season. To get to that though, first we need to talk about a transfer I made.

Transfers


This is Tomas Chory! Our new star striker that I signed on a free (80k or so compensation) after I found out that Mario Tadic was regressing and not putting in the results I truly needed him to. So I signed Tomas, a total Target Man who can take a corner like nobody else could. Sadly he didn't get much chances to truly head the ball but his striking prowess alone made him the top scorer for us in the league with just half a season of playing time! I can only hope for Tomas to continue his excellent form onto the next season which could bring a lot of changes for us whilst we move away from Dario.

Euro Cup II


Yes you are seeing this correctly, we made the final! We took a draw against Glasgow Rangers to penalties and won them 6-5 to take us onto the next game against Feyernoord. If you remember, they were in our group before and we beat them! Well @SixPointermight just be happy with this again as we beat them 2-1 to advance to the Quarter Final! We lost 0-1 at home against Mainz 05 but managed to take our win away with a blaster by Yuriel Celi before once again winning 6-5 on penalties. Our Semi-Final game would be against Partizan where an amazing Away leg would set up for the chance to go to the final of the competition away. And who else would take us to the final but new signing Tomas Chory with a great header! That meant we would be facing Atalanta in the final who ultimately scored a goal early and then made the game boring from there. However we could not be happier at our results. We not only boosted ourselves up but Austria as well and now we are taking our talents up the ladder of European football! Let's go for something great next season!

Superb season! Champions league football delivered and a superb conference league run! Great stuff