[FM22] Poland - Build a Nation - Stop waiting 20 years for a team in CL groups. - Polonia Warszawa

[RoguPL]

Hello and welcome to my save. 

I had this idea of a save in my head for quite a while now, however I was still into my Sheffield save so thought I will do it in FM23. But yesterday my home team from Poland (Lech) have been thrashed 5:1 in CL qualifications against Qarabag Agdam. This is yet another year that Polish football will not be playing in Champions League.

 

The League

The last time that Polish team managed to qualify for group stages was in season 16/17, where Legia managed to qualify to groups and even finish third. For a time before that we would have to go back to season 96/97 !!!!! This is 20 long years of wait !!  We do have teams sporadically qualifying to EL group stages, but even that is classed as a huge result within our nation.

The Polish league is very specific. 

- We don't have dominant team, anyone can win with anyone pretty much. 

- Every year if any team manages to qualify to any group stage of any european competitions, they struggle badly in the league with playing every 3 days. 2 prime examples. Last year season 21/22 Legia played in EL groups and finished 10th in the league. Season before, 20/21, Lech played in EL groups and finished 11th in the league. But mostly teams can't even reach group stages and if any team does, it is counted as a huge achievement. 

- It is well packaged in TV, however the TV revenues are extremely low when comparing to other countries. In numbers is is about £60 mil which is shared across 18 teams in the league, to compare the lowest team in PL is probably getting more. 

- We have really nice stadium, thanks to hosting Euro2012 with Ukraine. 

- Any young player who can kick the ball straight or is fast runner is being sold abroad. The money from transfers is then somehow lost and no improvements are made, usually teams buy foreign cheap players who do not bring any extra quality to the teams or the league.

But lets have a look at where Polish League stands in rankings:

 

We are currently in 28th, however by looking at the packaging of our league, population of the country, stadium capacities and fans potential, I think we should be a lot higher. This is such an embarrassment that Polish team cannot even pass one opponent in CL qualifications. 

 

The Nation

The national team is doing better, but only a bit better. We can never perform to our expectations of players that we have, Except in Euro 2016 and except previous generations, we have always choked on big competitions, last few years being a good example. We have one World class player in Lewandowski who is already 33.  However he is not as clinical as in the club, probably due to quality of players that he has around him. 

We are currently 26th in the rankings, this is mainly due to our poor performances in big competitions. The problem here is also that we tend to win against smaller opponents and then lose against bigger opponents or teams with similar qualities.  We don't have preferred style of play, every game is soooooo difficult to watch. 

 

The Save

My idea of the save is quite simple and quite fun for myself. 
I will try and manage teams in Poland to the point where the facilities are going to be maxed out. After that I will be resigning at the end of the season and trying to find another job. In the meantime, if Poland job becomes available I will be applying.  

I have loaded quite a few nations to try and keep it realistic. Within Poland I have loaded leagues down to tier4. This is not a youth save, so I am not locking myself to youth only. I will be trying to raise teams and league reputation so that the teams can qualify to groups themselves. 

 

I don't know yet what team I will manage I guess you will find out soon enough

 

PS. I will try to continue Sheffield save as there is unfinished business there, however it is parked atm. 

Edited January 18, 2023 by RoguPL

[RoguPL]

Warta Poznan

I decided to pick Warta Poznan as the first club to manage. For 2 simple reasons. 

1. It is in my home town, I used to live few blocks from the grounds

2. I had my first football trainings as kid over there. 

 

 

 

 

[RoguPL]

Season 2021/2022 Preview

We are predicted to finish 16th. It's not great but we have one of the lowest budgets in the league. 

 

Facilities

Finances

We have some money in the bank but we have no transfer budget, Loans and freebies it is then, 

 

Teams in European Competitions

We have 4 teams in quali stages this season. Lets hope that someone can reach group stages.

Legia - Champions League - 1st Quali Round

Pogon - Conference League - 2nd Quali Round

Rakow - Conference League - 2nd Quali Round

Slask - Conference League - 1st Quali Round

 

Trackers

 

[RoguPL]

When I told you about league being even 8 draws in 9 matches in first round

[karanhsingh]

Nice, good luck with this! Will take quite some time to get the facilities maxed out at these clubs. 

[MattyLewis11]

Thoroughly enjoyed my time with Gornik earlier in the FM cycle, I wish you all the best in Poland. 

[RoguPL]

8 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Nice, good luck with this! Will take quite some time to get the facilities maxed out at these clubs. 

Thanks ! I agree! the main driver to build will be money from Europe and player sales.  This is sort of my way of build a nation save. 

 

6 hours ago, MattyLewis11 said:

Thoroughly enjoyed my time with Gornik earlier in the FM cycle, I wish you all the best in Poland. 

Thanks !  I was following that ! 

[john1]

Good luck

[Kaan]

19 hours ago, RoguPL said:

- We don't have dominant team, anyone can win with anyone pretty much. 

After the first week, it is more like no one can beat anyone  Good luck

[RoguPL]

10 hours ago, john1 said:

Good luck

Thanks

 

7 hours ago, Kaan said:

After the first week, it is more like no one can beat anyone  Good luck

haha true !! 

[RoguPL]

I encountered an issue with the custom database that I am using. Although it allows the leagues down to tier 8, it screws up player registrations and adds some cup to polish top league which has been retired since 2008. 

In that case I am going to re-load the save whilst using a different database. Lucky I came around this before I really got started. 

[RoguPL]

S1 - July 2021

Friendlies & Ekstraklasa

We have won all our pre-season friendlies and managed to win our first game ! A good start to the league ! 

 

Polish Clubs in Europe

The season has only has started and we already have no teams in Euro Conference..... Although I can understand Feyenord result, the other teams should have been beatable. Legia by achieving 3rd round of CL quali, have guaranteed themselves a spot in Conference League group stages. 

Legia - 20/21 Champion

Rakow - 20/21 2nd & Cup winner

Pogon - 20/21 3rd

Slask - 20/21 4th 

[Hanys]

Always nice to start with a win. Zrel'ák can be a true beast in Ekstraklasa in early seasons.

You're getting me inspired to finally start a save with Polonia Bytom and share it...

[RoguPL]

3 hours ago, Hanys said:

Always nice to start with a win. Zrel'ák can be a true beast in Ekstraklasa in early seasons.

You're getting me inspired to finally start a save with Polonia Bytom and share it...

Yeah, he seems to be quite decent ! Scored 5 in 4 atm, we will he how he continues, I think he is the best player at Warta atm.

 

You really should do it ! Polonia Bytom has got some nice history in 50-60s where they clinched two titles ! You should get them back to glory  

[RoguPL]

 

S1 - August 2021

Ekstraklasa

Sensational month. Rakow result was a real highlight of the month. A bit disappointed with a result against Gornik as they should be fighting against relegation. We are currently 2nd and only goal difference of 1st., but what is happening at Lech ? !! :(:( I think it might be my next destination? 

 

 

Polish Clubs in Europe

Legia have dropped into Europa League after losing to Red Star to then win Playoffs against Riga.  They are also beating stereotypes of polish football where they qualified to EL and are doing pretty well in the league. 

Legia - 20/21 Champion

Rakow - 20/21 2nd & Cup winner

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Pogon - 20/21 3rd

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Slask - 20/21 4th 

Knocked out in 1st round of Conference League Qalification

[karanhsingh]

Good luck with the new beginning!

[RoguPL]

 

S1 - September 2021

Ekstraklasa

A nice thriller against Legia, we scored equaliser in last minute. Then full rotation team against Slask, and we are top of the league wit a point gap to Lechia ! This is starting to look really good ! I hope that we can keep this up ! 

Cup

I played my starting 11 against Wisla in the cup, but we failed miserably. Board is not happy as they expected us to reach 3rd round. 

Polish Teams in Europe

Legia have had awful start to group stages, They have also dropped pace in the league. 

Legia - 20/21 Champion

 

Rakow - 20/21 2nd & Cup winner

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Pogon - 20/21 3rd

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Slask - 20/21 4th 

Knocked out in 1st round of Conference League Qalification

[RoguPL]

Polish Teams Facilities. 

I pulled out what the facilities look like in Poland at the moment.

At the moment we have 39 teams who have Training Facilities on at least level 10. Out of which only 10 clubs are in the top flight, this is just over half of the league! There are some crazy ones on there like SMS lodz an MSP Szamotuly who are right in the top however their teams are lower then 5th tier.

We are nowhere near that atm, but with our good runs of form I hope that within few seasons this will change. I wonder how my work can improve this situation going forward? I know that this is a long shot, but lets see. 

[RoguPL]

S1 - October 2021

Ekstraklasa

Another great month ! and that result against Wisla ?? We lost against Lechia who are second but otherwise it all goes surprisingly well. Most of this is because of Adam Zrelak, he seems to be a diamond in our team contributing 12 goals and 6 assists so far. 

Polish Teams in Europe

In 3 games, Legia still didn't manage to win a game in the group . I guess this will be the end of their European voyages. 

Legia - 20/21 Champion

 

Rakow - 20/21 2nd & Cup winner

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Pogon - 20/21 3rd

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Slask - 20/21 4th 

Knocked out in 1st round of Conference League Qalification

Edited July 17, 2022 by RoguPL

[RoguPL]

Starting coaching badges   Don't know why but I started with nothing. 

[RoguPL]

It's November and I have the new contract already
2 year extension 

[RoguPL]

S1 - November 2021

Ekstraklasa

Couple of good results especially Poznan Derby against Lech ! To then lose to 15th Termalica...  However Zrelak is still on fire scoring approx. 1 goal per 90 min

 

Finances

Our finances start to look a bit ropey......

 

Polish Teams in Europe

Legia has already dropped out of the group and chances for Conference League with 1 game to spare. They only scored 2 in 5 game...  They are doing surprisingly well in the league, so maybe they focused the league ? 

Legia - 20/21 Champion

 

Rakow - 20/21 2nd & Cup winner

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Pogon - 20/21 3rd

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Slask - 20/21 4th 

Knocked out in 1st round of Conference League Qalification

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by RoguPL

[RoguPL]

Poor intake expected but A rated golie. 

[karanhsingh]

Nice start!

[RoguPL]

S1 -December 2021

Ekstraklasa

A perfect month, we extend the lead over Legia to 7 points. This is shocking. Transfer window ahead but I am really worried that we are going to lose our star man Zrelak, and we have no budget to replace him atm. 

 

Zrelak scored 19 in 19 and also gave 11 assists. 

 

Polish Teams in Europe

Legia has lost the last game in the groups, the finished with only 2 points. They did however won few games in qualifying so they did rake up few coefficient points towards the league. 

Legia - 20/21 Champion

 

Rakow - 20/21 2nd & Cup winner

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Pogon - 20/21 3rd

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification

Slask - 20/21 4th 

Knocked out in 1st round of Conference League Qalification

 

 

[RoguPL]

18 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Nice start!

Thanks ! I am shocked myself, but that means that might be a bit easier to progress this club. 

[RoguPL]

End of 2021 year awards

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by RoguPL

[RoguPL]

S1 -January & February 2022

Ekstaklasa & Friendlies

Perfect break friendlies, not a single goal conceded, especially against German teams. In the league, a draw against Zaglebie who are really looking strong this season. IRL they  were barely safe.  We are 7 points clear at the top with 11 games of the season left. 

 

Transfer Window

It was very quite transfer window.  Actualy two months of transfer window because Europeans transfer windows starts 1st January and in Poland it is 1st February, so potentially we have two months of transfer windw. We had no cash, no wage to make much moves. also no wage to renegotiate better contracts. Adam Zrelak has unfortunately left the club to join RB Salzburg for 600k. We needed cash badly so had to let him go. Also Michal Kopczynski went to party in Ibiza, whilst we got 40K for him. He didn't feature much this season.  Despite the to leavers there will be more at the end of the season as we couldn't offer renewal contracts. 

Out's 

In's

Only one transfer in. Szymon Wlodarczyk, a 19yo striker to replace Zrelak, he is nowhere near quality of Zrelak atm, but he is polish, he is young and he has plenty of potential. Already scored 5 goals in 4 games. 

 

[RoguPL]

LAONS

So our secondary striker who also bagged himself 18 goals in 20 matches  is out potentially until the rest of the season, so with couple of days left of transfer window I was checking the available loans. 

 

Loans IN 

Alberto Ocejo on loan from Fulham, His contract expires at the end of the season, so depending how he does we might attempt to sign him

 

Pedro Rebocho, on loan from Lech, We have optional fee of 80k to sign him at the end of the season. I am really happy with him as I recall in one of my previous saves in FM22 he was really beastly in Lech

 

[RoguPL]

C completed, onto B Licence

[RoguPL]

S1 - March 2022

Ekstraklasa

Really painful month. 3 games 3 loses and 0 goals scored.  Our new loanie picked up an injury in his first game. Looks like we are chocking up right at the end. 8 games left and our safe cushion is gone now as are only 2 points clear at the top. 

 

 

[karanhsingh]

Still top after 3 losses is impressive!

[RoguPL]

8 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Still top after 3 losses is impressive!

I know ! our cushion at the top is gone however  The problem is that we lost against teams from everywhere across the table, top mid and bottom, so it doesn't build confidence. I hope we can turn things around. 

 

[RoguPL]

Youth Intake

Expectedly, nothing interesting to see. None of these will ever make the first team. 

[RoguPL]

Title Race

5 games left, I think it is quite even set of games for every team in the race. Can we do it ? 

[RoguPL]

S1 - April 2022

Ekstraklasa

A really good month. We are 3 points clear at the top. We have three games left and one o them is Lech which is toughest one. We are also not as clinicial as we were when we had Zrelak. 

[RoguPL]

W have done it !!! 

[RoguPL]

S1 -2021/22 Season review

Ekstraklasa

The end was really tough, we managed to win just by 1 point. But overall such a suprising season. I think this could be a one season wonder and next year we will struggle to win the title again next year. I am happy with what we have achieved so far though. 

 

Puchar Polski

Quick sign out of the cup this year. Board weren't happy as they expected us to reach 3rd round. Need to improve on that next season. 

 

Squad by AVG Rating

Rebocho is on the top with just 9 games played. We have optional clause to keep him and I think that we are going to. Castaneda also high, with his 19 goals scored. He will be leaving at the end of the season though. I will have to purge through some players though, so hopefully we can sign decent replacements. 

 

League Awards

 

New Stadium Incoming

 

Finances

Income

Expenditure

 

Interesting League stats

Salary Per Annum 

 

Avg Attendance

Fouls Made

Red Cards

Yellow cards

 

Tracker

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by RoguPL

[karanhsingh]

Super stuff! Very well done 

[RoguPL]

On 25/07/2022 at 04:24, karanhsingh said:

Super stuff! Very well done 

Thanks ! next season is going to be more tough as we don't have depth and don't have much money.  I am scouring end of contracts atm for some freebies. 

[RoguPL]

Poland on European Stage in 2021/2022

National Team 

National team did quite well, Finishing second in the group was sort of expected. They also managed to win the minicup and qualify to WC 

 

Polish Teams in Europe

Legia - 20/21 Champion

Legia have done pretty well despite only getting 2 points in the groups. A lot of valuable points for coefficents.

 

Rakow - 20/21 2nd & Cup winner

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification. A bit disappointing.

Pogon - 20/21 3rd

Knocked out in 2nd round of Conference League Qalification. Again disappointing that went out in second round. But they played against Feyenoord so they are sort of explained. 

Slask - 20/21 4th 

Knocked out in 1st round of Conference League Qalification. I feel like they should have enough quality to get further. 

 

This is not good start in terms of rankings 

 

Tracker 

 

 

[RoguPL]

First step ! 

[RoguPL]

Second step ! 

[RoguPL]

CL Draws are in already its only June.

We get Dudelange in 1st round and Dinamo Zagreb if we win the first round. I think with Dudelange we have chances as they are semi pro team. but with wonderkid packed Dinamo it will be big test .

[RoguPL]

[RoguPL]

CL Qalification 1st round and Super Cup 

Crazy results against Dudelange :O second leg I rotated as much as I could and still won 7:0. Winning Super Cup is a nice bonus On to the league now.

[RoguPL]

S2 -2022/23 Season Preview

Ekstraklasa 

Bookies have us finishing mid table. I hope to fight for european spots again this season, As we didn't make much team improvements yet. We just replaced some loanies with prospect players. I will do transfer window update at the end of transfer window. Also we are not the worst in terms of sponsorship income  thats nice. 

 

Teams in European Competitions

This year again we have 4 teams in qualifications. Lets hope that we can get 2 teams in group stages. Because we have passed 1st round I think that we have bigger chances of getting to some group stages. 

Warta Poznan - Champions League - 1st Quali Round

Legia - Conference League - 2nd Quali Round

Rakow - Conference League - 1st Quali Round

Pogon- Conference League - 2nd Quali Round

[RoguPL]

S2 - July 2022

Ekstraklasa

We had a falstart in the league. but then managed to turn things around. With game in hand we are currently 7th. If we win our game in hand we would be 3rd -4th what is not too bad considering we are playing every 3 days and don't have much squad depth. 

Champions League 

This is absolutely shocking ! We had a very even game against Dinamo at home but then destroyed them away.  We play Olimpija Ljubljana next and they are defiinitely beatable. Being in 3rd round guarantees us place in Conference league group stages.  

 

Polish Teams in Europe

Overall I think we are doing great, aproaching august and we have all 4 teams in 3rd quali rounds. I see a lot of points to coefficients. 

Pogon - 21/22 Cup winner

Pogon managed to turn around an away result to go through to the 3rd round. They will play against Anderlecht so I think it will be really tough for them to advance.

Legia  - 21/220 2nd in the League

Convincing win against Dinamo Minsk gets then to 3rd round of qualifying where they will play agains Qaurat Almaty

. 

 

Rakow - 21/22 3rd in the League 

Wow, Rakow managed to go past Partizan Beogard to qualify to 3rd round. 

 

 

[RoguPL]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE !! 

We went and don't know how we have done it !!! We are going to be sleeping on money now lol Didn't expect to do this in second season :O 

 

It's really tough group, I think that all these teams are on completely different level to us. So even getting 3rd will be very difficult 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by RoguPL

[RoguPL]

Transfer Window

Out of last seasons first team we have only lost Frank Castaneda who scored around 19 goals last season. On the incoming side, most of these players are young with potential and they already are jumping in to starting 11. 

 

OUT 

 

INs