[FM22] A Mercantile Approach IV: KAA Gent

[MarcxD]

Awards 2033

Not as much to note as last year, but still a few:

[MarcxD]

Netherlands NT 2033

Actually a weak performance in the group, but qualified which is all that matters of course.

Also that is my second Nations League win, once again beating England in the final.

Now for the real job next summer, the world cup which was the entire reason I took the job. 

The world cup group we have been drawn in is probably the easiest draw I have ever seen.

Edited July 29, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Transfers & Intake 2034

A couple of further sales, now we have made about 500M in sales this season. 

Jokinen was among the rotation used for the AML position and doing well, but the bid from Man City was too good to reject.

Musah had been a long time serving midfielder, but he was now fourth or fifth choice for the three CM positions I use. At 30 years old he was let go for a decent sum.

Szalai and Salinas were recent purchases but didn't play that much so they were let go as well.

I did spend some money. I signed one new talented young Brazilian in Lorran, an AML. (Part of the reason why I was fine with selling Jokinen).

The other three are very experienced but still really strong players, who should hopefully be a real boon for us in the title and CL runs this season. 

They go a bit against the style of getting in younger players with a view of profits, but after selling worth half a billion this season, I let myself spend a bit without worrying about making further profits there. 

As it's probably the last half year here coming up, I really want to finish with a bang.

Last intake seemingly the worst I've ever had, although of course the level of the squad is higher than ever so getting those high PA stars will be tougher than ever as well.

[MarcxD]

January - March 2034

While there have been a few draws, we are still doing really well overall. 

But Bayern looms large still.

[SixPointer]

22 hours ago, MarcxD said:

January - March 2034

While there have been a few draws, we are still doing really well overall. 

But Bayern looms large still.

100 goals for already! With only 22 against. Juggernauting your way to the title again!

No wonder the Turkish sensation is number one. What a player!

[MarcxD]

1 hour ago, SixPointer said:

100 goals for already! With only 22 against. Juggernauting your way to the title again!

No wonder the Turkish sensation is number one. What a player!

Thanks! We are certainly scoring insane amounts of goals but I remain wary until the last matchday with a rival like Bayern!

Yeah Isci is amazing. I did pay almost 20M for him (including bonuses) but he is obviously more than worth that. 

 

[MarcxD]

April 2034

Fantastic month - winning all league games and by some margin as well. Also managed to beat Bayern in the cup AND we are in with a real shot at making a fourth straight CL final. (Btw: the other CL semi final is between Bayern and RB Leipzig!)

With the one game remaining, we still have Bayern right there with us. Once again it will come down to the last matchday.

This time it won't be us, but Bayern who has to play Leipzig. We have it slightly easier with a home game against Frankurt. That should not pose too many problems 

 

[deltablue]

Hopefully you can hold them off.

[MarcxD]

On 31/07/2022 at 11:37, deltablue said:

Hopefully you can hold them off.

Thank you!

[MarcxD]

May 2034

We did it! A Perfect season! (except for losing the supercup earlier)

What a way to finish my stay here. Were so dominant in the league this year, although Bayern once again stayed right on our tail throughout. 

So many big goal scoring performances, and what a way to win the league with a 5-0 win...

Before also winning like that in the CL final. I was surprised to see Leipzig beat Bayern in the other CL semi final, and I think we would've had a much harder time had we had to face Bayern.

Treble and unbeaten in the league...

Edited August 1, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Squad / Post-season

Such a strong team, one of the best teams I've ever managed in any fm.

Yes, Thiago did score 52 goals this season!

 

[MarcxD]

Resignation / End of an Era

The club tried to convince me to stay, but I have been sure for a while. Köln has become one of the best teams in the world right now, flowing with cash.

While winning so much and seeing insane players developing is cool, I also want to get back to building a club up again, more like I did with VVV. Köln of course was already a pretty big club when I joined. 

I'm also sure whoever will follow me will have the opportunity to keep Köln at the very top of European football.

An overview of my years at Köln:

I've even become a club legend.

Now that I've left Köln, I also wanted to take a look at how my former club VVV has performed since I left. I will try to do a former club watch update every time I change jobs, however many times that will happen.

A remarkable consistency for the first 5 seasons (especially the 71, 70, 70 and 70 points finishes!), not quite being able to keep up with the top 2 or 3, but sadly now they seem to have dropped off a bit.

[MarcxD]

Future plans

I've made a list of teams I can join (see the map in the first post in this thread), and will be looking to make a big jump down. Not particularly realistic after winning the CL, but I do want to build a new club up again, sporting and financially.

It will depend on which relevant team becomes available through the season, but I'll be looking especially at Denmark, Sweden and Poland. 

/

First however, I still have the 2034 World Cup to go with the Dutch NT!

[MarcxD]

World Cup 2034 prep & group

Yep, the squad is very old. A last chance for many of these players, including two who will retire after the tournament.

Decent start... 

 

[MarcxD]

World Cup 2034 2nd round & 3rd round

A really tough first game in the KO rounds, but we did manage to beat Brazil. 

Another close win against another South American opponent. Interesting to see Bulgaria beat Argentina...

[MarcxD]

World cup 2034

After losing the 2032 Euro final now we lost the world cup final...

A good run in at Netherlands in 4 years with two finals and two wins in the Nations League, but I think from now on this save will be fully club focused. So I have resigned and am now without any job.

Edited August 2, 2022 by MarcxD

[keeper#1]

Losing in the World Cup Final is what Netherlands does best!  Great run though.

[MarcxD]

3 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

Losing in the World Cup Final is what Netherlands does best!  Great run though.

That's right... although the AI Did do better than me and won in 2030! thanks! 

[MarcxD]

A new job...

Not an option for me, as it doesn't fit within the Hanseatic idea of course, besides there's no point making City even richer. But it is a sign of how high my reputation is now.

Why did the City job come up at all? Because Klopp (!) left the City job to become the new manager of ... Köln.

I had made a shortlist for myself of about 10 clubs in various leagues fitting the criteria of the save, and which were not in Germany and the Netherlands as I wanted a new league to learn, and an opportunity to really create something elsewhere again.

It took a bit of time but I found a job fitting the save.

(Not quite sure where they got that 4-4-2 from, however)

Lechia Gdansk (or Danzig as it's called on the map in the first post of this thread) is a club currently having a really tough time in Poland, but it totally fits the kind of club I wanted to join. Plenty of opportunity to build in a new league!

However, before I get to building, I need to make sure we survive the first season and not get relegated.

This is the state of the squad as I join. No big outliers with regards to CA, so I am thinking the general level probably won't be great as we're seventeenth! 

Let's see if me coming here with the gegenpress style will turn our fortune or if I'll need to wait until the transfer period (which is in February in Poland, but there are no games in January) to really turn things around.

[SixPointer]

Phenomenal stuff at Koln! And interesting club choice. I managed in Poland for a brief spell in FM21 and really enjoyed it. 

[MarcxD]

34 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Phenomenal stuff at Koln! And interesting club choice. I managed in Poland for a brief spell in FM21 and really enjoyed it. 

Thanks! Danzig was a major Hanseatic city so it really fit with the save and besides I think in my 10+ years of FM I've never managed in Poland before. About time! I should check out your FM21 thread if it's as good as your 22 one  

[MarcxD]

Tough beginnings.... October - December 2034

Well.... I didn't quite turn things around. Oops. Just the one win... I might be in over my head. Back to reality after thinking I cracked the game at Köln!

11 points behind safety....

With this squad there is no hope, so I NEED to renovate the squad as much as possible in the February transfer period. That is going to be tough, as I don't have much scouting set up yet at this level. We'll see!

[MarcxD]

Transfers / January - February

First of all, there were a lot of players who were sold. Just a lot of players I didn't particularly need. Two relatively big sales in Hannes Passage and Buchalik for a total of 2.4M there. Really helpful for the budgets.

Incoming it was tough, and I am not building for the future yet. The highest level I could easily find quickly were loan players, mostly from Germany and the Netherlands. 

The early signs are extremely promising however, the new players really helping raise our level, combined with morale being better after winning some friendlies and some unhappy players leaving.

In my first months I got 5 points, now 7 straight points starting from the winter break. Continuing like this and we'll be out of the relegation places in no time! 

Edited August 3, 2022 by MarcxD

[SixPointer]

43 minutes ago, MarcxD said:

Thanks! Danzig was a major Hanseatic city so it really fit with the save and besides I think in my 10+ years of FM I've never managed in Poland before. About time! I should check out your FM21 thread if it's as good as your 22 one  

FM21 With ruch was short lived as I ran out of time to finish the Silesian uprising but I plan on returning one day!

[kingjericho]

Escaping relegation from a 11 point deficit is almost a bigger task than winning the league with Koln!

[DaNascimento]

After that successful time in Köln, i'm curious how you're doing in Gdansk and what business you're going to do. Some of the transfer amounts in Köln were crazy  Good luck for now for the relegation battle!

[MarcxD]

On 03/08/2022 at 12:09, SixPointer said:

FM21 With ruch was short lived as I ran out of time to finish the Silesian uprising but I plan on returning one day!

I know that feeling of unfinished business but new ideas are also always there!  Choices choices

13 hours ago, kingjericho said:

Escaping relegation from a 11 point deficit is almost a bigger task than winning the league with Koln!

Hah, it might be. However, Let's just say I think the Polish league has some room for improvement so comparing with overtaking Bayern... well tbh before the February games I had very little hope but now I think it should be possible to stay up. 

4 hours ago, DaNascimento said:

After that successful time in Köln, i'm curious how you're doing in Gdansk and what business you're going to do. Some of the transfer amounts in Köln were crazy  Good luck for now for the relegation battle!

Thanks man! Yeah, those transfer sums were insane. Kind of fun, as I pretty much never manage those kinds of clubs but also it was getting a bit ridiculous. It's funny to now think of a player being sold for a million as being a big deal. 

[MarcxD]

Intake

Not terrible, but generally the intake has quite low det. I will sign a new HoYD for next year to try and see if that can have a positive impact on that front.

//

[MarcxD]

March - May 2035

Well... we really did turn things around with the renovated squad! I am kind of shocked, to be honest. 

We went from being 11 points behind safety to being 9 points ahead of the drop. 

We had 12 points in december, and gained 30 points in the new year. Compare that with champions Pogon (who won a surprising title after Legia had a long streak going of winning titles), who went from 41 to 67. 

It's probably not realistic, but if we could repeat that kind of performance next season throughout, we could immediately challenge for the top places. I really did not expect this kind of upheaval. 

Certainly not all of my transfers were successes, but loanees Fjellro, Da Silva & Alilovic were hugely important. I also have been lucky with the fact that there are promising young homegrown players at the club, so that we could easily fulfill the league rules. (you need to have a u22 Polish player in your 11). 

Those need to be the players I build my squad around. I'll probably still need to keep some loan players around as that is the easiest way to access high quality players, especially with limited budgets.

Perhaps this is an explanation for how well we managed to do. The league quality seems to have had a large decrease recently. I remember earlier on in the save seeing Legia quite often qualifying for CL group stage, well now they haven't even been able to win the league. 21st is rough... 

Well, two things: of course we need to change this, and it should increase the speed at which we compete for European places. However that also means that when we do qualify for Europe, we first need to go through some qualifying rounds to gain the financial fruits from a European qualification.

It's too soon to say whether next year we can already compete for those places, but it's certainly possible. 

 

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2035

Not a huge amount of outgoings, however Adamski and Banasiak were decent rotational players and Benali was actually a first team staple last year, but I'm looking to upgrade of course and needed space in budgets to do so. The others are pretty much players I needed to get rid off for the same reason, freeing up wage budget. Some of those were failed transfers from last year, like Beukers and Antonisse.

A lot of new players, some first team or rotational and some even young players with potential (although we might progress too quickly for them to ever make it here, always worth a try for a low price). A few targeted loans as well, to have a strong and complete squad. 

A short but good pre-season, and I am quite positive about our chances this season.

We are still only predicted to finish in 13th place, so about where we finished last season. I think we can do a whole lot better, at the very least top half. 

Edited August 5, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

July - December 2035

I wasn't sure of it, but we managed to continue like we played in the second half of last season. We aren't always the best team, but we can go in any match and think we can win today. And we quite often did.

We did go straight out of the cup though, which was disappointing.

And... we're in a title race. At least for now. Very tight at the top between the top 4. With a nice lead of 7 points to the 5th placed, a realistic goal should be top 4 and European football qualification.

 

[Hanys]

Looks very promising so far. Pitiful games against Górnik Łęczna and Zagłębie Sosnowiec though.

[MarcxD]

23 hours ago, Hanys said:

Looks very promising so far. Pitiful games against Górnik Łęczna and Zagłębie Sosnowiec though.

Thanks. I feel like we can beat anyone in the league and simultaneously drop points against any one as well, so results like that are bound to happen

[MarcxD]

January - February 2036

I didn't sign any players, but there were a few departures. Nothing really of note, though.

Piszczek has a mandatory fee at Antwerp, so him and Howley are the first team squad players leaving.

Well, the league certainly scheduled us a lovely start to the new year, having to face Legia, Lech and leaders Pogon back to back. We started great by beating Legia 4-1 but two losses in a row throw us back a bit.

Though, to be fair, only 3 points behind and not having to face those sides again.

[MarcxD]

Intake / March - April 2036

It looks insanely strong, but quite a few of these talents don't have good determination (or outright poor). The new HoYD himself has decent determination, but has a balanced personality.

Also: there were more players than usual. 22 instead of the usual 16. Not exactly sure why. I've also had mentions of young players being poached by other clubs before the intake, so could we have had even more? I'll be interested to see if this happens in future years too.

Straight dominant wins in the league. No more slip ups... can we keep this up for one more month?!

One more month, 4 more games... the title race is very much on, Pogon (and Jagiellonia) dropping a ton of points as we are in our best form. It seems to only be up to Legia, the club's biggest club after all, to stop us from taking that title.

Edited August 8, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

May 2036

Damn. Lost to relegation battling Zagłębie Sosnowiec for the second time this season! 

It didn't help them, however, and it certainly hurt us! Legia won all their games in May, and so they are champions again. 

Still, 2nd is a great result over all, and we have a chance of making some money in Europe. We'll need to get through quite a few Conference League qualifiers however.

That second record is surprising, as 75 points is not that much really. I guess it means most often the Polish league has been competitive like this year with many teams being able to grab points from each other.

At least next year Zagłębie Sosnowiec won't be able to do that to us...

[MarcxD]

Squad 2035-2036

Loanees were important again. I'm going to start using less from next year on, however I can keep Laaksonen and Hammann without paying them any wages so they will stick around next year.

In the long term the key players really need to be the young Polish homegrown players. They are currently on quite low limited fees which were forced on my by their agents, so I hope no club comes in for them before I can get rid of them in new contracts.

[MarcxD]

Summer 2036

The first transfer periods at Lechia were about strengthening the team in the short term, and now I am starting to phase into a more long-term approach. That also means investing, but with the idea that it will all make the club money in the long term. Either through competitive success or resale of players. It's still a cross-over period, as we need to stay competitive at the top and be able to compete in Europe as well. But, I am also starting to sign young players for the future.

Continuing to renovate the squad, some players who were here from the start and some players that I signed that weren't quite successful for one reason or another. 

The only two transfers above 100K were Choliaris, whom I had signed for 70k last season as an option for left back, and Videira. Videira is a Luxembourger AML, but at 30 he wasn't really going to be the future of the club, so I am happy with the money we got. However I was not necessarily planning on selling him, as I also sold Rivero short before in that position.

I spent a bit more money than I got in, mostly due to one transfer in particular. Szövetes is a Hungarian midfielder who will be one of the strongest players in the team. At 26 he is not necessarily a player I am planning to develop further and sell for big profits, but he should be a mainstay in my team for the next couple of years. Mats van Overbeek is another central midfielder incoming. Obviously with me using 3 CM's I need quite a few strong players in that position. 

Otherwise for the first team I signed Da Silva, who was on loan in the first season I was here. A good option as wingback on both sides and still young. 

Boye & Bozic are young players for the future.

As far as the loanees are concerned, I signed Hack as an AML to bolster that position, and I didn't plan to loan more players. But in the end of the transfer period with the wingers leaving I needed to sign some options there as well, without having real options scouted already. So I pulled the trigger on two Dutch wingers, van der Kraan as a back-up AML and van Beijnen as an option as AMR.

Our reputation still isn't great, but our odds aren't that much worse than most of the league outside of Legia who are clearly seen as the big favorites. 

With the strengthening of the squad I think however we should have a good chance of toppling them if we can get into a form like we did last year.

An early summer camp in the Netherlands where we played some amateur sides, and a few more friendlies to get ready for the Conference League qualifiers. Good stuff to get the tactical familiarity, team dynamics and morale going.

[MarcxD]

July - August 2036

With the league also starting in July, we had quite a hectic schedule. When we were drawn with Besiktas I did not have high hopes, but I guess they aren't at that high a level (also they had to play in the second round qualifiers of ECL) as we beat them quite easily. 

The two teams we had to beat after that were smaller clubs in stature than Besiktas, and we also managed to deal with them as we qualified for the group stage! We did however need a bit of luck against Molde. 

I don't think the draw is kind to us, with Anderlecht and Guimaraes being the clear favorites here. If we can grab points against Olimpija and maybe a draw elsewhere maybe we can go through in second?

[Hanys]

On 09/08/2022 at 13:00, MarcxD said:

At least next year Zagłębie Sosnowiec won't be able to do that to us...

Typical FM-style end of the season 

Thank God they got relegated anyway. By the way, a little trivia - Sosnowiec is the town everyone makes jokes about, a place no one would ever like to go to. Total ****hole 

 

Great campaign in Europe though, beating Besiktas like that is phenomenal. Group seems tough at first but maybe you'll sneak some points at home from bigger clubs.

[MarcxD]

4 hours ago, Hanys said:

Typical FM-style end of the season 

Thank God they got relegated anyway. By the way, a little trivia - Sosnowiec is the town everyone makes jokes about, a place no one would ever like to go to. Total ****hole 

 

Great campaign in Europe though, beating Besiktas like that is phenomenal. Group seems tough at first but maybe you'll sneak some points at home from bigger clubs.

Thanks! Also for the inside information. At least we don't need to go there this season then! 

[MarcxD]

September - December 2036

September was sort of rough although it looks worse than it was because we started the Conference group away at Anderlecht, probably the toughest game of the 6; and our first Cup game was immediately against Legia. Losing afterwards to Radomiak was annoying though.

We dropped a lot of points in October as well, but we didn't lose any more games for the rest of the year and had some very strong results in Europe, including a WTF 6-1 home win against Anderlecht!

They still went through, but that game meant we do so as well!

Even though we dropped quite a few points, we are in first and by quite a margin. Interestingly, last year we were on the exact same amount of points at this stage. But we were fourth then.

It definitely seems the other clubs really are competitive with each other. Although, to be fair, it is surprising to see Legia that far down. 

Hoping to get that first title here.

With the conference league money coming in, and also some prize money last year from the league, we now have the ability the upgrade the facilities.

With the intakes already seeming to be quite strong, there is real potential for greatness with homegrown (and bought) talent, I'm hoping.

[TheRobert]

Congratulations for second place in Conference League!

[MarcxD]

On 10/08/2022 at 20:56, TheRobert said:

Congratulations for second place in Conference League!

Thanks mate!

[MarcxD]

Transfers

Outgoing there wasn't too much happening of note.

However I definitely spend some money to further strengthen our team, and also got quite a few youngsters in, with European scouting now being done more prolifically. As we obviously don't have much money to spend and our reputation isn't great, it's fun to look at the lesser leagues of Europe and see if there's any potential there. So that's why there are players coming in from Luxembourg, Macedonia and Belarus. While I signed a load of South Americans when at VVV, I'll probably try to focus more on European players here at Lechia.

The two 'big' money transfers in Daouda Yao and Chris Hagerty are also the two transfers that are directly relevant to the first team. Hagerty is a Welsh striker at 24 and Daouda Yao an Ivorian central defender at 20. Both of those came to my attention through their agents I believe. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

January - February 2037

Not the greatest of starts to the new year with us dropping a few points. But we seem to be back in it again, and we managed to even get a round further in Europe by beating Brondby. 

Making it more exciting for ourselves by letting Pogon especially catch up. And as long as there are 5 teams within 10 points of us, a lot of things can still happen...

[MarcxD]

March - April 2037 / Intake

Once again a lot of players with seemingly great potential, but also once again with a couple of them having low determination.

Amazing result against Feyenoord, as the Dutch league is now really quite strong. It finally took a PL side to overtake us. Financially this has been good, but tbf the KO rounds of the Conference League don't give that much money.

In the league we have been decent, but still inconsistent. Very convincing wins are followed by points dropped.

With one more game in April to go...

The top 6 is still within 10 points of each other!

With all the other teams being even more inconsistent than us, we have a nice but small lead going into the final stretch.

We have two tough games remaining, away at Lech and at Legia. If we lose both those, things might get hairy. Otherwise I think we should be champions.

[MarcxD]

May 2037

After three straight wins, we were already champions!! So I let my young players play the last two games, which maybe was a bit overkill as they didn't manage to win those games.

After a poor season overall for Legia, they did turn out to be the best of the rest, but look at how close the battle was between positions 2 and 6! Pogon was perhaps the key competitor for us throughout the season but in the end they didn't even get European football.

As for us, with 68 points we got 7 points less than we did last year when we finished in second. Not quite the dominant championship seasons I had at Köln!

But more importantly - my first Polish title! May many more follow. CL qualification next year. With a lot of luck in the draw we might have a chance at some lovely CL money. 

This is the last year of the loanees, as I am not keeping Laaksonen and Hammann. Hack, however, will stay as I am buying him. It's not necessarily the stars, but his insane performance that let me to that decision.

Nelson Janga and the three young homegrown players Grzeszczyk, Kostyrka and Grabowski were also very key this season - and hopefully they can keep that going in the future. However, I am wary about their development not quite going as fast as I would like. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Summer Transfers 2037

To start off with, I had my first takeover happen this career.

The new owners want to sign two midfielders from the UK. Not exactly the kind of transfers I would do, but I have chosen not to try to cancel those deals. The 950k they've put in almost pays for those two transfers, so I'm not going to complain.

As I said before, I have decided to keep Julian Hack permanently at the club and bought him from Freiburg after his great performance scoring and assisting last season on loan.

The other signings are mosty talents for the future, but there are two or three that will be relevant for the first team right away. Mbala is another new central midfielder whom I had already signed before the new owners decided to buy two more, but they will all get game time. 

Zahriev and Dolezal are a bit more of a question mark, but they should both feature; they are a young striker and a young winger from Bulgaria and Czechia respectively. 

Still not really any big business outgoing. The influx of money is mostly prize money so far. I do hope to get some nice sales in the next few years though.

A big increase, and only Legia is now deemed to have a higher rep. 

[MarcxD]

July - August 2037

Two key things:

We have qualified for the Champions League! The draws in the champions path were pretty easy, to be fair but we definitely did our job.

The other thing... I have lost another supercup. I am not sure how many tries this is now, but a national supercup seems to be my kryptonite this save!

Whatever group we were drawn in was going to be ridiculous, but yeah if we get anything more than 0 points it would be a strong result. The money is going to be so important to further get those facility upgrades in.