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[FM22] Ergotelis - We are Greek, but we aren't boring


noikeee
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So I got bored of Arsenal. New career time.

I've been searching for the next challenge and ended up settling on Greece. There seems to be all the conditions here for a fun run:

  • It's a fairly new league for me, I've only managed here briefly once
     
  • Not a lot of money in the league, but some serious challengers on the way up - clubs like Olympiacos and Panathinaikos
     
  • Foreign player rules that were neither too restrictive not too easy - we can have 5 non-EU guys in the match squad but that's it
     
  • The 1st division has the mini-league for the title at the end, which is a format I really enjoy in FM


I wanted to start in the 2nd division and a club caught my eye.

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Ergotelis are based in the island of Crete, not the mainland. As an islander myself I like this.

 

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They are a fairly big club for the 2nd division, with a pretty big stadium, which is a decent head-start. They have a bit of history of playing in the top flight etc, but no real silverware or European runs. Time for me to attempt to create its history.

The kits are cool. Black-and-yellow vertical stripes, love it.

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Club has a nice backstory for its creation being named after a legendary figure of ancient games.

Also interesting is its rivalry with OFI, the other big team from Crete. From Wikipedia:

Quote

During the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 a government legislation determined that every regional Greek city should be represented in professional divisions by a single football team. At that time, both OFI and Ergotelis used to play in the Second National division, and at the end of the 1966–67 season, had finished in 3rd and 10th place respectively. Despite both clubs having secured their place in next year's edition of the tournament, Ergotelis was relegated to amateur status by law. Furthermore, the teams remaining in the second division were granted the rights to sign any number of players from the relegated clubs, and thus OFI signed contracts with 5 of Ergotelis' best considered players at the time. Ergotelis' side claimed their relegation to be retaliation for allowing renowned left-liberal songwriter and composer Mikis Theodorakis to perform a concert in Martinengo Stadium, giving political dimensions to the already strained relations between the two clubs. In the years to come Ergotelis languished in the lower leagues, while OFI prospered. These facts have led to various controversies among the fans of the two clubs, especially since Ergotelis' come back, at the early 00's.

In recent years, both sides have shown good will in maintaining this rivalry on the pitch only. Furthermore, OFI fans celebrated Ergotelis' promotion and attended home games during the club's first season in the Super League. Ergotelis on the other hand, loaned their longtime scoring legend Patrick Ogunsoto to a financially weakened Beta Ethniki side OFI in 2010 for no fee, as an attempt to assist their prestigious rival in their struggle to once again return to the Super League.

They just seem nice.




Two principles will guide me through this career:

  • I will play attacking football. This is the easy bit, I've been testing stuff with Arsenal and have put something together, although honestly I stole most of it from the internet. As a Portuguese man Greek football evokes memories of that horrid Summer in 2004, we're gonna do something completely different and entertain spectators instead of boring them to tears. Bring attack to Greece.
     
  • I will focus on youth, by only hiring under 21 players. This will make squad building doubly challenging and force me to concentrate on our own youth players.



Also one more note - I'm planning for this to be a really stripped down thread. I know monthly updates make for a more interesting read, but it was too much for me in the last one. And since I'm playing pretty slowly nowadays... expect maybe a post per week.

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The lads

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Brightest of them:

Giannis Boutsakis (DM, MC, AM) - Classy playmaker, he's been here for 5 years already so knows the place. I play mezzalas not playmakers apart from the DM position, which isn't his strenght, so I think I'll fit him as mezzala.

Antonis Bourselis (MR, AML, AMC, AMR) - Pacey boy on the wing. Has determination, work rate, I like that. Will be one of our main goal threats.

Giorgos Sarris (DC) - Hard as nails centerback. Slow which is a major liability for me, but too good otherwise to drop.

 

The tactic

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If you come across something very similar to this in a very popular tactics sharing and testing online place, it's probably because I may have just stolen someone's tactic, and changed like 3 or 4 things.

I tested this for a while before abandoning Arsenal and it was FUN. Everyone runs forward and storms the area, apart from the 2 CBs and the DLP... who sometimes dribbles past the defence anyway. Of course that was with Jude Bellingham not Christos Voutsas the 40K€ rated DM with a 4 for dribbling, so there may be slight differences.

 

The cash

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Well I'm going for a challenge ain't I.

 

The league

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17 teams per group because, reasons?

This is not an easy league to get out of. Only the group winner advances... to a playoff. Granted if you lose that playoff you get into another playoff (against the team from the league above) and if you win that one, you get promoted, but still. You can win the league and not go up.

 

By the way. Don't forget. I can't hire players over 21. (because I've decided I'm gonna do that). This is a massive handicap at lower league level. Can't just hire random unemployed veterans. No, need to search for kids. And I've no idea how easy it is to attract talented kids to the Greek 2nd tier. I'm gonna guess probably not super easy. That's if we had money which we don't.

Edited by noikeee
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Pre-season 2021/2022

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New players:

Lucas Sena (DR, WBR) - Not sure if ideally suited to IWB/A but this young Brazilian is quick and has a few interesting attributes, big upgrade on the position.

Martin Ako (ML, MC, AML) - Another very talented player - a Cameroon international, even - that might not 100% suit the tactic perfectly, as he's more of a classic winger whereas I'm using inverted ones. What I'm planning right now is use him as mezzala... we were in need of a major upgrade in center midfield. Might be a waste of pace, not sure just yet.

With just these 2 signings we're now way above wage budget with the board making it clear being under wage budget is a key requirement. Well..... not ideal, I'm gonna have to be dead sure we perform on the pitch.

 

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Season starts late here. We smashed a lower league team in the cup, but otherwise we've been having friendlies waiting for the league to start.

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Ah Ergotelis, a nice club that I've managed in many versions. Just a shame that the fan club isn't a sizable one. Also, IRL, the owner has announced he's leaving in the summer and the players are unpaid :(

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On 12/04/2022 at 17:14, john1 said:

Good luck in Greece :cool:

 

On 14/04/2022 at 12:16, deltablue said:

This should be fun.

 

Cheers folks!

 

On 14/04/2022 at 12:25, Marios1999 said:

Ah Ergotelis, a nice club that I've managed in many versions. Just a shame that the fan club isn't a sizable one. Also, IRL, the owner has announced he's leaving in the summer and the players are unpaid :(

Are you Greek? I'm presuming you are, since why would you manage a random club like this in many versions :D 

Any tips about the Greek league and football system in FM? Only time I've been here was in FM18 in this league as well with Panserraikos, I remember it didn't go very well I got sacked. :D 

Edited by noikeee
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Yeah I'm the resident Greek of this community :D I'd say the best thing to do, is live off loan signings early on, as financially things are a bit tough. But regarding european places etc, the league stays high most of the time, so if you break into the SuperLeague, it's not that difficult to snatch a european place :brock:

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6 hours ago, Marios1999 said:

Yeah I'm the resident Greek of this community :D I'd say the best thing to do, is live off loan signings early on, as financially things are a bit tough. But regarding european places etc, the league stays high most of the time, so if you break into the SuperLeague, it's not that difficult to snatch a european place :brock:

Which is something I've not done at all as I couldn't find any players listed for loan, and also have self-limited to U21 players (usually those are the ones listed for loan, but not always). Now I'm facing a financial meltdown. :D 

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2021/2022 - Mid-season report

 

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I think this is going well. We've been chasing Kalamata for 1st place most of the season, finally overtook them recently but they're ahead again - but we have a game in hand. Levadeiakos are in the mix as well but seem to have stumbled recently too.

We've only lost 2 matches, one in the league precisely to Kalamata, and a frankly awful 3-0 home cup defeat to Trikala who are in the other group in this division. Dutch striker Tyron Conraad has been amazing with 16 goals in 14 appearances, I also quite like the performances of wide forward Antonis Bourselis with 8 assists.

Now I really really need to grab that 1st place and then win one of the playoffs to go up. That's because that's the only thing that's gonna save us from this situation...

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Club was already not great financially and I've been too greedy with the 2 signings I've made, it pushed the wage budget beyond what it should be. Half of my team runs out of contract this season and I can't renew anyone because I don't want to pay any money to anyone.

 

Tactics-wise I've done a couple minor changes, sorry for the annoying yellow plane icons and red names, they're all away on mini Christmas holidays, apparently.

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I've been toying back-and-forth with putting the IWBs on attack role (which is fun) or support role (which is more stable and the original tactic I've copied found inspiration from had it like that), and eventually ended up in this compromise of one each... which seems to be the best option, both on attack was too gung-ho and both on support too conservative. They end up nicely stacked like this, with the LB deeper near the CBs and the DLP, making a bit of a 3-man defence or 3+1defence, whilst Lucas is #YOLOing forward and joining the rest.

The other change which is more critical is on the right wing - that man has become a classic pure winger rather than another inverted one. What I found is that having EVERYONE inverted and occupying the half-spaces (wingers, fullbacks and mezzalas), whilst fun, made us a wee bit too narrow and too many of our chances were low-percentage half-chances because there was too little space. By using just 1 actual winger it suddenly frees up way more space on the pitch and everything just ticks better. It's not really about that one man staying miles wide and putting crosses in, he actually runs behind the defence to shoot at goal much like a IF or IW/A would do, but just being a wee bit wider frees up everyone else.

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2021/2022 - End of season report

Transfers

January signings:

Christos Vafeaidis (DM) - Loanee, not that good, didn't feature much.

Thomas Kastanaras (ST) - Another loanee, I didn't play him much as I had Cordeel banging in the goals upfront, but as Cordeel is now leaving (more on this below), I've renewed his loan for another year.

 

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Unfortunately the 2nd half of the season wasn't quite up to the same standards as the first. That terrible run in January really set us back and we played catch-up rest of the season. An inconsistent March and a couple more losses to AEK and Panathinaikos' B sides in early April and we were out of the title/promotion race, still salvaging a very respectable 3rd.

The problem here is I really needed to get out of this league the first season. Financial problems are piling up, and with too many of our players on short 1-year contracts, the reality is our main stars are getting poached right left and center by teams that can give salaries as high as 9.5K€/month when our highest wage is 2.8K€/month. Conraad (our star striker), Abdullahi, Neral, Servilakis and Patrinos all have moves out of the club confirmed, and our 2 highest rated players Lucas Sena and Martin Ako (the 2 guys I hired at the start of the season) will soon follow. Next year we will likely have a squad that is simply not as good, my optimism for progress isn't high.

 

Squad stats

Top players:

5. Antonis Bourselis (AML, AMR) - Nice haul of 10 goals and 12 assists from our inverted winger (on the left) who can also play as classic winger on the right.

4. Giannis Boutsakis (MC) - Really good season from one of the better players from the original squad. 11 goals and 13 assists as mezzala.

3. Giorgos Sarris (DC) - Highest average rating on the team (7.36) from the veteran centerback, getting a bit slow though.

2. Lucas Sena (DR) - Wonderful season from this Summer signing who proved superb as IWB. Wanted by teams as prestigious as Panathinaikos, no way he can hold on to him.

1. Tyrone Conraad (ST, AML) - Superb season from the Dutch striker with a total 22 goals, 20 of them in the league. Another player we couldn't hold on to.

 

Youth intake:

This was a surprisingly strong youth bunch, branded as "golden generation" and I think at least the following 2 guys could go far (for the level of Ergotelis)

Christos Kontothanasis (ST) - Pacey boy, can finish, perfect AF.

Antonis Stamatiou (MC) - Needs to develop a bit to become first team useful, but the passing/vision combo is really tasty.

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Pre-season 2022/2023

 

Transfers

Mateus Peres (DM) - One of several different players I hired that can play DM, he's okay.

Marios Tzavidas (ST) - New striker on loan from Atromitos, giving us a duo of Tzavidas-Kastanaras to play the position, with the massive problem that neither have pace... which led me to eventually hire another guy later on.

Lukas Kengbo-Meynot (DL, DC, WBL) - Can provide very good cover both for the LB and CB positions.

Andrea Astrologo (DM, MC) - Potentially fighting for a first 11 slot as DLP.

Zakaray Lamgahez (DC, DM) - Possibly one signing too many, I'm looking back now and I think I'd have passed him by, will just be cover. It was a signing at the time I was struggling to find enough players and was unable to scout properly a few of them.

Lucio Berrón (MC) - Pace! Looking decent for mezzala, should be a starter.

Jordan Konango Mbon (DR) - With Sena and Neral gone I was starting to get really desperate for a RB, and brought this kid on loan unable to scout him well. Turned out a bit underwhelming.

Louis Poznanski (DL, DC, WBL) - New starting leftback, looks solid.

Bence Várkonyi (DC) - Should start at CB, the one issue is I'd have liked better passing ability to play as BPD, really not suited to that. One of the better signings.

Victor Maffeo (DR, WBR, MR, AMR) - Absolute best I could find to replace Sena as RB really late in the transfer window, still not quite to the level of the Brazilian player that departed, but not a million miles off.

Azeez Balogun (ST) - Last minute signing, the Nigerian stiker (on loan from... São Paulo??) has pace and that should make him stand out as starting striker. Finally an actual clear upgrade for a position.

 

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(note: RW Charles Kwateng is new too, he was a part of the squad but was out on loan, now returns)

 

So all in all I am not super happy with the transfer dealings, we seem to have hired a lot of 2.5 star, 3 star players, and nobody really that stands out as a big upgrade. But that's what you get when I've self-limited to hiring U21s and 3 starting 11 players (RB Sena, MC Ako, ST Cordeel) have left on frees.

We do have better depth but promotion might be difficult. I'm looking at perhaps slightly improving on our points total, maybe grabbing 2nd place instead of 3rd, something like that seems realistic. We did hold on to a core of players that were a part of the initial squad - the likes of Boutsakis, Bourselis, Tselios - who do have quality. So I don't expect a major step back, but unless all the kids really develop (always a possibility we can hope for when running such a transfer policy) we don't have reasons to believe in a huge step forward neither.

 

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3 hours ago, Marios1999 said:

Have you worked on some sort of attacking corners routine for Sarris? Because he scores some goals when something is set out for him

Not specifically, though I have my CBs attacking near post / far post and he's scored a couple goals last season. 

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Our starting midfielder as mezzala next to Boutsakis, the position I have least cover in, recalled because I was... playing him in the wrong role. **** off game.

Worst thing is he was on a totally free loan (we weren't paying any wages) and I'm way way way over wage budget so can't replace him (unless I find another player on a similar scheme which is very rare).

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6 hours ago, noikeee said:

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This should help.

 

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This didn't help.

Giving in one hand and taking away with the other. FM can be hellish at times! Great link to have should see you become a base for their talent to prosper 

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10 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Giving in one hand and taking away with the other. FM can be hellish at times! Great link to have should see you become a base for their talent to prosper 

Idk, I haven't made it to the winter transfer window yet so it might change, but the assholes currently don't want to loan anyone as they have a B team! Who play in our division!

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2022/2023 - Mid-season report

 

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Pretty much the exact mirror of last season, last year we were 2nd with 33 points from 14, now we're a provisional 1st with 30 points from 14 but quickly going to be overtaken when Kifisia win their match. Our results look great but any defeat is a big blow - I probably committed a bit of a mistake going with the 1st 11 to try to surprise Olympiacos and produce a major shock in the cup, this led to tired legs and the defeat in the league to Kallithea, which could be very very costly.

It feels like we're just a tiny step below where we need to be, to win this league and escape, but it's not clear what can I do at all to force that step. I've been too greedy with wages again and now I can't renew anyone's contracts, and I can't see how can I improve the squad much on the transfer market, on this league, for as long as I stick to the only-U21s transfer policy. It's a grind until we get lucky and just about escape, I guess?

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2022/2023 - ALMOST end of season report

 

Transfers

I got a few guys on totally free loans (no wages).

Evagoras Antoniou (DC, DR) - One of 2 kids from Panathinaikos. He was okay, didn't play much.

Alexis Koutsias (DL, DR, WBL) - The other Panathinaikos kid, didn't play not even once, I signed him before I could see his attributes.

Mark Bushaj (MC, AMC, ST) - Albanian forwardy-midfielder from Hajduk, he's been more exciting, doing really nice as mezzala, 3 goals and 4 assists in 12.

Xavier Simons (DR, DM, MC) - The only Englishman on the Greek islands not on holidays, I've been playing him as IWB and he's been great, scored two monster long shots.

 

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Well look at that we're into the bloody playoffs!! This was by no means the perfect season, I thought we had completely bottled it when we lost to Kifisia, but then Kifisia incomprehensively went downhill in the final few weeks of the season whilst we kept winning.

We end up sealing the title in bizarre circumstances - as this is an odd-numbered league, we are the team that doesn't play in the final day, so we won it in the penultimate round which is our actual final day.

Panserraikos await us in the big one... if we win that we're promoted, if we lose it then we face the team that finished penultimate place in the division above.

 

Youth intake:

Another bunch of pretty decent players coming in.

Vasilis Apostolakis (DC) - Centerback that's already very commanding in the air at the age of 16.

Giannis Misargopoulos (AMC) - Workhorse of a #10, not too sold on him yet but my staff love him.

Orestis Tsatsopoulos (DR) - A mercenary, that's always fun. Decent physicals and decent mentals which is the bit the kids hardly ever have.

Edited by noikeee
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2022/2023  - Actual end of season report

 

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Well this turned out to be surprisingly easy. We dominated both matches and that was it.

Strange that I started this season wondering how many years it would take, and feeling we weren't making any progress, yet seal it the same year.

 

Squad stats

Top players:

5. Giorgos Sarris (DC) - Still important but entering the twilight years of his career. Leaving on a free transfer at the end of his contract, so won't follow us to the Superleague.

4. Giannis Boutsakis (MC) - A very good season from the ever solid midfielder with 10 goals from MC - just one behind top scorer striker Azeez Balogun - and 5 assists.

3. Charles Kwateng (AMR) - On course for being player of the season during most of the campaign, with the most total goal contributions on the side (9 goals and 12 assists), but a late season serious injury and a not particularly amazing average rating means I'm gonna choose someone else.

2. Antonis Bourselis (AML) - Slightly more talented than Kwateng and pretty much equally as important on the other wing, a total of 10 goals and 8 assists.

1. Bence Várkonyi (DC) - A super solid season on loan from MTK, unfortunately we're gonna lose both of our centerbacks pairing as MTK want to recall him.

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Pre-season 2023/2024

Transfers

So we got promoted and I awaited for my new transfer/wage budget.. once you get promoted into a much wealthier league you get more money to spend right?

Right?

Wellll... the pre-season weeks went by, they went on and on, and nothing. Still the same 43K€/month for wages the board had given me before we knew we were going to be promoted. Which is nothing. The next poorest team in the league is paying 11K to their best players. Olympiacos are paying 242K to their single highest earner.

Loads of players have been given automatic wage rises for promotion, so all the budget was immediately gone. That was, the few that remained and hadn't left on a free. I had like 13 players apart from the youth graduates, all nowhere near ready.

End result is I had to desperately build a squad without spending a single penny on wages. This meant desperately going through ANY squad in Europe that would loan us ANY player on zero wages...... most of them without being able to scout them, or having time to.

This was NOT a fun pre-season. Honestly, I believe the lack of wage budget re-adjustment is a bug, plain and simple. The board demands me to avoid relegation yet gives me less than a third of the money to spend than the next shittiest team.. how? Sure if we don't have the cash, fine, but then just don't have any expectations at all.

 

Magomedkhabib Abdulsalamov (AMR, ST) - Before the "issue" had revealed itself, I was moving for some players, and this guy was signed before I knew we were going up at all. Pacey. Can do a job on the wing and upfront.

Luiz Freitas (MC, DM, AMC) - Decent mezzala option. Might well start.

Breno Bidon (MC, DM) - Possibly the signing of the season, now rated best player in the squad. Looks like a class DLP in the making, I was unable to give him more than 1 year of contract though, I will be attempting to renew this as soon as I can.

Tiago Carvalho (DC, DM) - This was when the desperation started to set in, and I started hiring EVERYONE I could. I had no centerbacks, so this was specially a problem area. Unfortunately he's not good enough and I can't terminate the loan. I'm not paying anything, anyway.

Fabio Baldé (AML, AMC, AMR) - Decent-ish IF/winger but some extremely low mental skills are a problem.

Amir Feratovic (DC) - A lucky break, I hired him without seeing his skills, but it looks like he'll fix the hole at CB.

Corentin Louakima (DR) - Mediocre RB, all pace and nothing else.

Bilal Mazhar (AMR, ST) - Decent-ish winger/striker but lacks the dribbling to be effective as winger and lacks aerial ability to shine upfront.

Bob Omoregbe (AML, AMR, ST) - Yet another of those okay-but-nothing-special wide forwards, can't cross or dribble, all pace.

Filippo Tripi (DC, DM, MC) - One of the best new players. More suited to DM but will have to play CB next to his fellow Roma loanee Feratovic, as they're both by far my better CBs.

Mattia Sangalli (DM, MC) - Really good midfielder but doesn't really suit the mezzala role and I have a better DLP in Breno Bidon. Might end up playing mezzala either way because his mentals are too good but it's definitely not the best use of his skills.

Lars Kleiner (DR, WBR, AMR) - Lowly rated by the game but there's something in here, I like him. I have absolutely zero backup leftbacks so am attempting to train him there, could do well since we use IWBs.

Danny Schmidt (AMC, ST) - Late find and could turn out to be a critical one. I think he looks like my best striker on paper although the parent club wants me to play him as... enganche? 

Enrique Pereira da Silva (DR) - Probably a player I could've done without - I now have 4 rightbacks - but you know, deadline day desperation. All pace, heaps of pace in fact, but little else.

 

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For the absurdity of the position I found myself in, I think I ultimately managed to just about squeeze in a barely coherent squad. Major problem though is at goalkeeper where Tzelepis - loaned out the last 2 years - is a massive downgrade on the guy we had before, who left on a free. And generally anyone below 4 stars (so EVERYONE apart from Tripi, Bidon and Schmidt) is rated as a "Superleague 2 player" so not up to the standards of the division.

This is a critical, make or break season. If we don't survive, I am almost certainly sacked. If we do, then I suspect next season when the budget is updated, will be much, much easier and the foundations will be set for the coming years.

Edited by noikeee
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2023/2024 - Mid-season report

 

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This started much, much better than I imagined. We breezed through September and October, ridiculously lasting until matchday 8 until we were finally defeated. We even briefly topped the table!

Last couple months, specially December, were a bit of a return down to earth though, and much more like what I was expecting from this season. We have just dropped out of the top 6 which gives access to the mini-league that decides the champion. However my goal for this season is to not finish in the last 2 places, basically, even penultimate place would be enough for me as long as we then win the playoff, so... so far so good.

One issue is I'm already bracing myself for completely rebuilding the squad again for next season. The only non-youth player I have on a permanent contract that I'm actually interested in retaining is Breno Bidon (DM) and he's not interested in renewing. Almost every single player is either on loan or leaving!

Finally, one more thing to talk about. This looks tasty:

 

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On 16/05/2022 at 05:55, SixPointer said:

Doubt you’ll be worrying much about finishing in the bottom two places with such a good start!

My vague worry was that points are halved at the point the league splits in two. But it turned out to be far from a real concern, as I'm about to post.

On 16/05/2022 at 08:28, Bigpole said:

bidon in my panatha save is magic (mezzala on support) 

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He's fantastic. I'm really gutted I couldn't sign him beyond just a 1-year contract as there's very little chance we can hold on to him. Roma and Benfica are interested...

You inspired me to try him as mezzala, thanks. :D I was playing him, somewhat bizarrelly, as centerback now. I have another really good DM (Tripi) whose parent club manager really insisted in having him play as DM or he'd be recalled, and I have a problem with lack of CBs, AND I have a surplus of midfielders. So it made sense to adapt him as CB but he's been rubbish there and definitely not the best use of his abilities (though he's better at jumping reach in my game).

On 16/05/2022 at 12:09, Marios1999 said:

And a tribute to Ergo fans

Bookmarked to play this on the background when we reach our first final :D 

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2023/2024 - End of regular season report

Transfers

One thing I didn't mention at the beginning of the season is Panathinaikos cut their link with us, and I arranged for Hamburg to be our new senior club. I hadn't taken much use of this link, but now in January did bring 2 extra players on loan:

Hannes Hermann (GK) - Not amazing but an upgrade in goal.

Tom Sanne (AMC, ST) - Quite nice upgrade upfront (on paper at least), where Danny Schmidt has been a bit unconvincing. Has 4 goals in 9 starts for us which is okay.

 

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Well turns out we were more than fine, and just managed to clinch 6th in the regular season, qualifying for the top half mini-league... ahead of the likes of Panathinaikos! It wasn't our most convincing run fo form but that trio of consecutive straight wins, over Atromitos, PAS Giannina and Lamia, gave us the needed push.

 

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I was convinced points would be halved for the Championship Group (like they are in Belgium)... apparently not.

10 matches until the end of the season as we face these 5 sides twice. This means there's 4 Crete derbies this season! OFI also qualified.

I don't think there's much to play for here. OFI are miles ahead and it'll be tough to catch them for the final European place. 5th would be nice but also pretty meaningless. Either way I'm pretty amazed we managed to clinch 6th place at worst this season!

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17 hours ago, SixPointer said:

OFI always reminds me of the legend that was Ronald Gomez from CM 00/01. Absolute bargain and a goalscoring machine. Takes me back to my youth and we’re my obsession with the game began. 

That was the second version of the game I played I think. Comes from a long way back for me too! But i don't remember that player. 

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2023/2024 - End of season report

 

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We kicked off the championship group a bit badly with 2 losses, and I briefly thought we just didn't have the ability to compete against teams of this level. But then... we didn't lose again.

Admitedly we only won twice too - including beating the eventual champions PAOK - which didn't lead to a huge rise through the table. We did overtake Aris, to come 5th, a club record high position, and just miss out on Europe. Given the goal for this season was to SURVIVE in this division at all costs, I am happy.

Now I turn my attention to completely rebuild the squad again... I hope we'll be given a decent wage budget this time.

 

Squad stats

Top players:

5. Antonis Bourselis (AML) - On paper this level should be too high for him, but he doesn't seem to give a ****. Our best attacking player with 9 goals and 8 assists.

4. Amir Feratovic (DC) - I pillaged the Serie A looking for loan players in the Summer and that turned out really well. This Slovenian centerback whose parent club is Roma, was our best defender on paper and also the highest performing in practice, with an average rating of 7.06.

3. Giannis Boutsakis (MC) - Another player that should really be out of his depth by now, and by the end of the season I had benched him for Breno Bidon as mezzala, but Giannis still turned out to have the highest av. rating of the whole team somehow which is a bit baffling. 7 goals and 3 assists.

2. Filippo Tripi (DM, DC) - The other loanee from Roma, Filippo proved to be super solid as CB next to Feratovic but then his manager complained he wanted him playing as DM, OR ELSE (was about to be recalled). So he had to be moved up to DM DLP... and he kept playing excellently.

1. Mattia Sangali (MC) - Feratovic and Tripi were great but the best Serie A signing was Sangali. Absolutely superb season from the Sampdoria midfielder with 8 goals and 10 assists.

 

Youth intake

Golden generation and all that, my staff were all really hyped up for this bunch of kids, let's see how they develop. Note that Apostolakis (last season's CB) is already breaking into the first team, and Neziri (MC) plus Theodoritis (MC/AML/AMR), two players that hadn't caught my eye initially in previous intakes, are also hovering around the first team squad.

All these players have 5 stars of PA:

Claudio Salvemini (GK) - Bad personality (unambitious) but he looks really promising for this level. 1.5 stars of CA only as of now, but he only just came up. This is the player I like the most.

Giannis Kozoronis (DM, MC, AMR) - Bit odd combo of positions, guess mezzala in the making?

Tasos Perysinakis (DM, MC) - More of a ball winner than a DLP which is what we use, but we'll take it.

Odysseas Tsitsibis (AMC, AMR) - All pace and not so much skill, I don't like this kind of players much.

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2024/2025 - Pre-season report

Been away for a few days because I've caught ****ing Covid. Before that happened, I had hired like a billion players for Ergotelis. 

 

Transfers

I will not include the screenshots of Tripi and Feratovic, 2 players that were here last year on loan but I fortunately managed to convince to join permanently (not our other star man Sangali though); nor goalkeeper Hermann who Hamburg were willing to loan us out again. We actually made money for players, backup DM Luiz Freitas went for 110K and our youth product Theodoridis, who I never knew what to make of, for 37.5K + clauses. And of course, Breno Bidon fled to Saudi Retirement Fund FC for no money at all.

 

Hassan Diab (MC, AMC) - Not a great player to start with, this was a loan I had lined up for a while but before I could see his stats, he's a bit rubbish.

Riquelme (MC) - Well this isn't a bad replacement for Breno Bidon at all. This Brazilian with an Argentine name that comes from the MLS, has a missile of a long shot and is determined to use it, which should suit a mezzala well.

Juan Ghia (MC, AMC) - Not quite up to the same standard of Riquelme but possibly useful, this is a technically very gifted player but physically flimsy.

Júlio Cesar (AML, AMR, ST) - Pretty promising striker that we poached out of the Brazilian lower leagues, and who has a German nationality for some reason. Should be a starter.

Joel Agyekum (DC) - This time we managed to get some more useful loans from our parent club and I quite like the look of Joel, even though his pace is low which doesn't suit our slightly high line.

Hugo Novoa (MR, AMR, AML, ST) - On paper now one of the squad's biggest talents, but I am suspicious of how to use him as there are some glaring weaknesses - poor mental stats is very bad for a forward if I want him to attack the space, and the low strength is a concern as well. Still, quite a coup. Arrives straight from RB Leipzig.

Kelsey Owusu (ML, MR, AML, AMR) - Another of our Hamburg boys, possibly fighting for a 1st team slot but most likely it'll be a bit too much for him. Also he's a dwarf, which isn't ideal.

Ziga Laci (DC) - On loan from AEK, adds depth to the CB position, decent player but unlikely to start.

Shea Charles (DC, DR, DM, MC) - On loan from Man City, can do a bit of everything without super excelling at anything. City insisted he has to play CB which is annoying.

Mike Aidoo (DR, WBR) - On loan from Inter, decent wingback, has pace but limited otherwise.

James Balagizi (DM, MC, ML, AML, AMC) - On loan from Liverpool, I have no idea what to do with him but got him in as his wages are cheap, and he can do just about anything.

Damián Canedo (DC, DM) - On loan from Barcelona, now this kid I really like the look of, looks like a stellar ball playing defender and can do well as DLP as well.

Alessandro Confuorto (DL, WBL) - On loan from Atalanta, now one of 3 good options we have for LB, it's not very clear which of the 3 I should play.

Juan Ruiz (ST) - Yet another loanee (from Famalicão), is a pretty powerful forward, can fight for a first team slot.

Kasper Paananen (AMR, ST) - Loanee from Bologna, another new name to add firepower to our attack, pretty nice all-rounder kind of player.

Ernest Bytyqi (DL, DR, WBR) - 17yo kid that goes to the U19s, PAOK had released him, but he might have something in him.

Juan Esteban Rueda (MC) - A bit of a last minute transfer, I actually paid money for him, maybe not worth it on hindsight, I remember a couple seasons ago I nearly snapped him up and Panathinaikos stole him from us, I guess I wanted to put that right. Possibly fighting for a place as mezzala.

Emmanuel Roggerone (DL, DC, MC) - The other last minute transfer, there's something in him but I don't know what, LB seems the best fit, specially since we play IWB - he's a very good passer. However I hate slow players going up against opposition wingers.

 

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These many players definitely give us an upgrade, lots more depth, but possibly not quite the huge step-up you'd expect by multiplying our wage budget by 6. We did lose Breno Bidon and Sangali who will be missed.

Nevertheless for this season I think we can solidly consolidate ourselves on the top tier, and perhaps push for a top 6 place again.

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Note that I'm maintaining my only under-21 signings policy, except if they were already here on loan last year - I am considering the now 22 year olds Tripi and Feratovic, to be effectively on a continuation of their journey with the club.

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2024/2025 - Mid-season report

 

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Looking good, specially the last couple of months we've been on a roll. Striker Júlio César has been a massive hit and he's fired home 12 goals already, but in general we just seem to have a bit more quality than last year overall. And I'm bringing in more players in January that I'm quite excited about.

We seem to be comfortably on route to make the top 6 and the championship stage, I believe Greece has also gained an European place this season so we are looking quite likely to make Europe. Seems a bigger step over last year than I expected, if Olympiacos go on a bad run we could even find ourselves as outsider title challengers.

The cup exit is the lowest point of the season so far, not nice to get beaten by a club from the division below, I rotated for that match so that's my excuse. Been playing everything on "instant result" lately to speed up - these bad results I can then claim it's the assistant manager's fault. :D 

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2024/2025 - End of the regular season update

 

Transfers

We brought in yet another 5 players in January:

Stefan Guder (DC, DM, MC, AMC) - Bit of an unnecessary loan, hasn't really played yet and isn't that good.

Ayoub el Ouali (DL) - Solid leftback, I've been starting him now but there isn't much between him and the guy we were starting before, Roggerone.

Volker Adelwart (MR, AML, AMR) - Pace!! Lots of pace!! I haven't played him much because there's Novoa ahead of him doing alright on the right wing. On the left wing I'd have liked better dribbling and finishing if I wanted to play him (as IW)

Svenne van Gestel (MC, AMC, ST) - Signing of the window, this Belgian kid is excellent. Arrived being unable to play MC and I've already retrained him to the position in just slightly over 2 months, and has already gotten 4 assists and a goal as mezzala.

Moussa Doumboya (WBR, AMR) - I'm adapting him to rightback, I think he could be marginally better than Maffeo at it, however Maffeo has been having a superb season so there's really no point switching as it is.

 

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I think we can already say we're one of the best teams in the country now. We seem a little too far away to be able to steal one of the 2 Champions League slots from Olympiacos and AEK, but if we hold on to 3rd we'll be in the Europa League which is just fine with me. 4th and 5th go to the Conference League, and there's another Europa League slot through the cup that may or may not end up assigned to the league.

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9 hours ago, noikeee said:

2024/2025 - End of the regular season update

 

Transfers

We brought in yet another 5 players in January:

Stefan Guder (DC, DM, MC, AMC) - Bit of an unnecessary loan, hasn't really played yet and isn't that good.

Ayoub el Ouali (DL) - Solid leftback, I've been starting him now but there isn't much between him and the guy we were starting before, Roggerone.

Volker Adelwart (MR, AML, AMR) - Pace!! Lots of pace!! I haven't played him much because there's Novoa ahead of him doing alright on the right wing. On the left wing I'd have liked better dribbling and finishing if I wanted to play him (as IW)

Svenne van Gestel (MC, AMC, ST) - Signing of the window, this Belgian kid is excellent. Arrived being unable to play MC and I've already retrained him to the position in just slightly over 2 months, and has already gotten 4 assists and a goal as mezzala.

Moussa Doumboya (WBR, AMR) - I'm adapting him to rightback, I think he could be marginally better than Maffeo at it, however Maffeo has been having a superb season so there's really no point switching as it is.

 

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I think we can already say we're one of the best teams in the country now. We seem a little too far away to be able to steal one of the 2 Champions League slots from Olympiacos and AEK, but if we hold on to 3rd we'll be in the Europa League which is just fine with me. 4th and 5th go to the Conference League, and there's another Europa League slot through the cup that may or may not end up assigned to the league.

Would have to agree, great to see you sit proudly above some of the biggest clubs in the country. 

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2024/2025 - End of season report

 

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As the "championship group" unfolded, it started to appear as if we had a chance of still making it to 2nd place and nick the 2nd Champions League slot. With 5 matches to go we were 1 point behind AEK... and then we lost twice.

We now looked set for a 3rd place and about to face Olympiacos, we were about to be a part in their title celebrations... except we beat them. Delaying Olympiacos' party for another week, in which we were about to face 2nd place side AEK themselves... and if we'd win that was our chance. We'd overtake them.

And we did just that! A 2-0 win again, Ergotelis up to 2nd, and Olympiacos now champions - on our terms. One match to go still though, and AEK faced an easy fixture vs Asteras Tripolis whereas we had to play Panathinaikos away. But fear not, we were inspired. 3-0 win and into the Champions League! Early stages of the competition, but still.

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Squad stats

Top players:

5. Filippo Tripi (DM) - Another good season from the Italian DLP, 5 assists, 7.16 ratings.

4. Hugo Novoa (AMR) - Despite the high talents of the Spanish forward, I sort of expected underperformance from the beginning due to his low mental abilities. However his technical skills and his consistency led to still a pretty good season, with 8 goals and 7 assists.

3. Victor Maffeo (DR) - The attacking RB certainly overperformed this season, reaching 7.32 ratings and grabbing 7 goals and 6 assists. He did take a few penalty kicks but still.

2. Giannis Boutsakis (MC) - This should not be happening, on paper Giannis is not good enough for this league, but as the season went on I simply couldn't ignore him as he was vastly outperforming all my other midfielders. Finishes the year with the highest ratings of the team (7.48), 7 goals and a brilliant 13 assists. He does take corners but plenty of those goal involvements came from open play. Sensational.

1. Júlio César (ST) - Despite Boutsakis' brilliance, I have to pick another guy as player of the season, as the teenage Brazilian-German striker was just sensational, scoring 22 goals. Big, big future in front of this guy here.

 

Youth intake

Bit of a ****** intake this time.

Christos Provydakis (DL) - 2.5 stars of potential (+1 white star), this is the best we could do this year, there's 6 different older players in my U19 squad with a higher potential than this. Still, who knows.

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Pre-season 2025/2026

 

Transfers

"Only" 10 new faces this Summer, which is considerably less than last year. Progress, yay. We're also relying less on loans as we "only" brought in 5 new loans and renewed only 1 of what we had (Barcelona's DC/DM Damián Canedo). Ok, that's still a lot, but again, progress.

To try to smooth the catastrophical situation of our finances, we sold 2 players for decent money. LB Lucas Kengbo-Meynot went for 300K, and MC Riquelme for 800K. And we're still in the red. Yay.

The new guys:

Theo Sander (GK) - The new keeper, Danish. He's quite good but I've got another Nordic new keeper coming in in January that I think will be even better...

Noah Pesch (AMR, ST) - New backup all-round forward. Not our most inspiring signing but he adds depth.

Ralph Nathaniel (MC, AML, AMR) - Pacey boy on loan from Frankfurt. Playing on the left wing even though I think he's a lot better as a classic winger on the right, because for now I don't have a better IW on the left.

Elias Solberg (MC, MR, AMC, AMR) - A bit more well rounded than Nathaniel but nowhere near as fast, on loan from Sampdoria. I'm also adapting him to AML and he's another alternative there, plus adds cover as right winger and even MC mezzala.

Emre Demir (ML, MC, AML, AMC) - Now this guy is more of a traditional winger on the left but also quite good as mezzala, which is where I'm playing so far and he's already looked great at it. Very gifted technically, bit lightweight when it comes to any defending though.

Mateus (AMC, AMR, ST) - 18yo Brazilian versatile forward, I'm adapting him to mezzala, he would be great but the issue here is lack of pace which is a bit rubbish, pretty much every position on my team needs pace.

Luca Fink (DL, DC, DM, ML) - The only Hamburg loanee we have this season (they're still our parent club), he is very versatile but I see him more as a CB than anything else. Should be a backup for now, I think we have better options as you'll see.

Sékou Guerbas (DC) - Oof, the Belgian market has been really good for us lately and here we find another gem. At the age of 18 Sékou has a lot to grow and already looks like a starting CB for us. We managed to beat Schalke 04 to his signing!

Paetur Isaksen (AMC, AMR, ST) - I signed him before I could see his whole skills as my scouts were raving about him, I think I overpaid in wages, he is a pretty good backup for Júlio César as ST and can do a job on the wing, but he isn't super amazing.

Nunzio Giordani (DC, DR, DL) - On loan from Milan, I think he looks like a brilliant CB in the making even if my staff don't rate him much, however there's a problem, he's on a youth contract and I remember last year any youth contract loanees were unable to play in the Greek league. Might do European fixtures only!

 

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Pretty similar starting 11 to last year - Barcelona's Emre Demir and CB Sékou Guerbas are the biggest additions - but I think we have much better depth now, and less reliant on loans as we're now building up more players of our own that we could sell later. An unspectacular but steady improvement...

 

Now of course, the pretty big news this season is that we start our competitive matches much earlier as we're in the early Champions League rounds... and the first round went like this:

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Hectic and even first leg in Prague, but we just destroyed them in the return. Emre Demir has looked amazing, and the new Belgian CB Sékou Gerbas has scored twice already. That's what we want from our signings.

The draw for the next round... I didn't think that was very nice.

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Ouch, pretty tough.

The win over Sparta Prague was pretty critical as now we've guaranteed a slot in the Europa League group stage at worst. To make it to the CL groups we're gonna need to beat Nice AND the next team that comes after them, which seems unlikely, but some kind of an European group stage is guaranteed now!

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We tried. In the first leg we put a good fight but after the red card it was tough, we still limited it to just 1 goal to try to overturn back home in Crete.

In the 2nd leg, we were better, we took the lead twice which would reset things. But twice Nice drew. And overall adding up both legs, they were the better side, to no wonder given they have players like Lucas Moura, Felipe Anderson, Sambi Lokonga, Amine Gouiri, a 38 year old Luis Suarez, etc.

We head to the Europa League groups, which is nice enough of a prize.

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Well we did have a draw. Group stage drawn in the 17th of September, first match to happen the 18th of September!!

Think we have an outside chance of sneaking into 2nd place behind Atalanta here. We've beaten a club from Prague already, why not do the same to their rivals.

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