FC Vaduz - In for the Long Haul

[jcricky]

Introduction

 

Liechtenstein is one of the only countries in the world that does not have a national association football league. As a result of this, the 7 clubs that exist play in the Swiss football league system. This is similar to Swansea and Cardiff playing in the English leagues, and Monaco in the French system. However, there is one major difference.The Liechtenstein clubs are only given ‘Guest Club’ status in the Swiss system, meaning they do not participate in the Swiss Cup and can’t represent Switzerland in continental competitions. This means that they can only qualify for Europe through winning FL1 Aktiv-Cup. 

 

I have taken over recently relegated FC Vaduz, in the Brack.CH Challenge League. They have won the aforementioned FL1 Aktiv Cup, a world record, 48 times but have never qualified for the group stage of a European Competition. That changes now. We are massive favourites to win the league, with the bookies pricing us at 1/10. 

FC Vaduz have only been in the top flight of Swiss football 5 times, 2008/09 where they finished 10th with only 22 points. They then returned in the 2014/15 season where they managed to stay up in 9th position. The following year they did one better and finished 8th, their highest ever finish in Switzerland. Unfortunately, their stay in the top flight ended there, as in the 2015/16 season they were relegated for the 2nd time. They wouldn’t return for another 3 seasons, where their stay, once again, was short, relegation in the 2020/21 season. In real life they are 4th, let’s see if we can do better. We’ll have to if we want to keep our job…

Additional Files: I am using some of Nik33's realism packs: Club Colours, Competition Colours, Agents, Awards Pack and the Trophies Pack. 

Edited Saturday at 07:50 by jcricky

[jcricky]

Board Vision

 

The board are AMBITIOUS. Within 5 seasons they want me to be the most reputable team in Switzerland AND have developed the best youth system in the country. This will be tough, Basel and Young Boys are both great sides, and have dominated the league for the last 12 years. We'll really need to perform well in the Conference League to give us a cash injection to catch up with the big boys.

 

[jcricky]

Personal Targets

Despite the board's ambition, I have also set myself the following targets. This will be a long term save. But I believe that I can turn this club into a real European powerhouse. First up this season is to achieve promotion and win the FL1 Activ-Cup. 

 

[jcricky]

Coaching Tree

<soon>

[Sheriff7]

Good luck in a very weird,difficult and beautiful job.I managed them and Liechtenstein many times in past versions.

[MattyLewis11]

Best of luck with your save with Vaduz 

[jcricky]

Pre Season

Pretty rough pre season for the lads. Winning 1, losing 4. However, if you look at the quality of opposition, I don't think we can be too disheartened. These friendlies were already in place before I arrived, and didn't see much point changing them. Next season we'll have more of a mixture. 

[jcricky]

July 2021

 

We drew Ashdod in the Europa Conference League Second Qualifying Round. A side who came 3rd in Israel last season. I was confident going into this even if the bookies didn't think we stood a chance. The first leg was insane, Djokic smashed it scoring 4 goals in the first half. We were 4-1 up at one point, but let them back into the game in the second half. At 4-3 it looked like they may nick a point but new signing Model Richards scored on his debut to ensure a 2 goal lead for the second leg. In the league we dominated Kriens, but just couldn't finish our chances. A superb penalty from Gajic, was followed swiftly by an equaliser (their first shot all game), but the man of the moment Djokic, stepped up late on to secure the 3 points away from home. The second leg away in Israel was dull but I'll take it, through to the next round where we play Norwegian giants Molde FK.

[vara]

will follow closely! i've a bit of interest in Vaduz and the whole Liechtenstein setup.

good luck!! the European HG requirements certainly get harder and harder as you go along.

[haier_fm]

Seems like you're in it for the long term.

Best of luck!

[TelcontarTargaryen]

I love youth saves or small nation saves. Good luck.

[jcricky]

August 2021

2 early draws in the league followed by some really emphatic wins over Aarau and Yverdon. We went 2-0 up inside 15 minutes v Molde but couldn't hold out. The away leg was much more one sided, former Hull City striker, Yannick Sago scoring 4 against us across the two legs. I'm not overly bothered as our draw was tough. If we beat Molde we would've faced Antonio Conte's Tottenham. 

[jcricky]

Transfers

Outs first, Tunahan Cicek was in the last year of his contract and didn't have any intention of signing a new deal. As one of our top earners, I took the decision to offload him ASAP. He ended up leaving on a free to Lausanne-Sport, in the Super League. The only other player to leave permanently is Gianni Antoniazzi. He went to divisional rivals Thun for 30k. We had two better options than him at left back, and at the age of 23, he's probably not going to improve much more. Five youth prospects left on loan, the only real one of note is Elvin Ibrisimovic.

Onto the ins, just the three players, coming in for a grand total of £0. Immanuel Pherai came in on loan from Borussia Dortmund, he can play across all of the midfield. He joins after a year on loan with PEC Zwolle, in the Eredivise, where he played 27 times. Next up, Andre Ribeiro, a 24 year old who was released from Grasshopper Zurich. Another versatile player who can fill several different positions, he came in as a replacement for Cicek. Last up, 21 year old Rodel Richards. A Spurs Academy product who was released at the end of the 2021 season.

[jcricky]

September 2021

A disappointing 2-1 loss at the start of September, was followed by 2 wins and a draw. We really struggled for goals in this month, but we at least had some points on the board. In the defeat to Thun, our starting GK (Benjamin Buchel) was on international duty. Our backup chucked two in, thus the loss.

 

[jcricky]

October 2021

We started off poorly, losing 1-0 tp Kriens. This prompted a switch of formation, from 4-2-4 to 4-3-3. We went up 2-0 early v Schaffhausen then threw that lead away. October really was Dario Ulrich's month, scoring 5 in 5. Yago Gomes scored twice in the cup, and has been given more game time since then. 

[jcricky]

November 2021

Only three games this month but 3 solid wins, which put is in and amongst it with the top 2. The victory over Thun put some distance between us and them.

[jcricky]

December 2021

3 games before the Winter Break. 2 clean sheets v Wil and Kriens, both sides in the bottom half. A 1-0 loss to Xamax ended a good run. Milan Gajic got sent off and we couldn't get into the game after that.

[jcricky]

Winter Break UPDATE

We're in second going into the winter break. We should be top but a few rocky performances in September halted our progress. I'm confident we'll catch Winterthur and end up winning the league, especially if we keep scoring goals at the current rate. During the mentioned rocky patch, some of the players came to me and said they were concerned I was losing the dressing room. I got them back onside, but at that point I was really worried for my job. 

Looks like we're getting an average youth intake, hopefully we'll get at least one decent player that can play for the first team. I've promoted Ferhat Saglam from the 2nd team as he was doing unbelievably well, 7 goals and 10 assists in 14 appearances. Simone Rapp will be leaving in January (hopefully) as he has no place in my team.