[FM22] Come on you whites!

[KlaaZ]

Hi all!

After having two great spells, first in Norway and then in Italy, I've decided to play one more career before FM23 starts looking around the corner.

This is something that I've wanted to do for a long time, and now it's finally happening. I'll be managing the club I've been supporting in real life for a very, very long time: Oud-Heverlee Leuven. Been a season ticket holder for over ten years (since 2010, if I recall correctly), when they first got promoted to the top division in Belgium. I've seen some highs and lows with them, including two relegations. But we always bounce back, and now I'm eager to add to the list of highs in this game.

Leuven is a very pleasant town, and the one I grew up in. It's never had a big football club though, unlike most other bigger Belgian cities. That all changed in 2002 when three clubs, Daring Leuven, Stade Leuven and Zwarte Duivels Oud-Heverlee, merged into one big club and began their climb up the ladder. Incidentally, this is why the club colours are black, green, red and white. Black's Zwarte Duivels, red is Daring Leuven and green is Stade. And the white is the clean slate that binds them together.

Some of you may actually know the club, as it is currently owned by King Power, and therefore a sister club of Leicester City. Our last few seasons have been relatively calm. We had a great first year after promotion in 2020 and did quite well last season too.

OHL is looking to build one of the best youth academies in the country, and is doing quite well in that regard. Apart from the youth academy itself, it's set up a network of affiliations with smaller clubs in the region. All of this shows in the game, with state of the art youth facilities. 

More to come in the next few days if I find a bit of time.

[KlaaZ]

Oud-Heverlee Leuven, an introduction

OHL (pronounced Oh-Hasj-El, how the club's affectionately called by everyone involved) plays its games at a 10k seater stadium called Den Dreef, which is a reference to the street where it is situated. It's pretty much slang for 'the lane' or 'the country road'. Den Dreef has been renovated in recent years, getting two new stands, and there are plans afoot to further increase its potential to 12-13k seats. Thanks to the greenkeepers from Leicester and their expertise, we show off one of the best pitches in Belgian football. Finally, Den Dreef also hosts the games of both the women Red Devils and the Belgian U21 side, and it serves as an intermediary for Union Saint-Gilloise, who finished second last season and are playing their European games in Leuven.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den_Dreef

After easily surviving our first season in the Jupiler Pro League, we lost both our top striker, Thomas Henry, who went to Venezia in a deal running up to 6M, and Sowah, who was on loan from Leicester but was sold to Club Brugge in a 9M deal. In real life, the club had a hard time replacing Henry, who only left in the final days of the preseason, which partly explains why they only finished 11th. 

As stated earlier, there are some great facilities available at OHL, with the youth academy being exceptional and one of the best in Belgium, although that only started reaping results in recent years. At this point, there are two youngsters in the starting eleven (central defender Patris and striker Nsingi), with another starter, Keita, being sidelined with an injury. Keita is quite possibly our brightest prospect, with Leicester fans already comparing him to a future Youri Tielemans. He's definitely the player I will be looking to build the team around.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYj98UZsXRp/?hl=en

The biggest player is probably Xavier Mercier, captain and the guy who makes things happen. In real life, we were probably too depending on him which meant that in games where he didn't turn up, we were pretty much at a loss on how to cope with that.

 

Apart from that, the 2021-2022 squad is relying a lot on loans with potential future fees. There are seven loanies in the first team squad, which means rebuilding will be necessary after the first season. 

 

[KlaaZ]

Promising!

[KlaaZ]

This is interesting. It's the end of March and I just got a message that we're close to administration. We're 16M in the red, with the main reason being a lot of loans being paid of this season (6.3M so far, roughly 600k per month). If you take out the debt repayments, we only lost 2M this season so I'm hoping we don't get hit with the administration stick. 

[KlaaZ]

Season update coming, but this is too good not to share. Probably the closest finish I've ever seen. 

[KlaaZ]

2021-2022: Season roundup

Transfers

Not a lot of work on the outgoing side as most of the deadwood has already been cleared. Yannick Aguemon leaves for Ajaccio for 190k, and during the winter break we sell youngster Patris (who in real life made great progress and is currently a first team regular) to STVV for 200k.

On the incoming side, we find a backup for the left back position in 29 year old Colombian Hector Quinones. He joins on a free after his contract at America de Cali ran out. On deadline day, we bring in an extra midfielder from Italy, as we sign Francesco Di Tacchio from Salernitana for 500k. And during the winter break, we loan Tomas Araujo from Benfica and sign a new goalie from Brazil, Luan Polli, for 89k. 

 

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Jupiler Pro League

We have a great start of the season, even going unbeaten for thirteen games. Highlights are opening with a 2-2 draw at Standard, beating Anderlecht, Genk and Club Brugge at home and grabbing a point at real life revelation Union. 

Unfortunately, Beerschot knocks us off our cloud and when we lose the next game at home against Gent and follow with a draw in Zulte Waregem, it seems like morale is crashing. We bounce with back with two wins against Seraing and Standard before losing again, this time in Anderlecht. The results become a bit more erratic, we win the next game against STVV 4-0 but then lose away at surprise package Charleroi, who are contending with us for the Champions Group. 

After the winter break we only have one blip in Januari when we lose away in Genk, but we win our other games and go on another unbeaten streak that lasts until the end of the regular season. We could even have ended as league leaders, but two draws on the final two days of the season against Seraing and Zulte Waregem put us in second at the start of the Champions Group, with Club Brugge ahead of us and Anderlecht and Charleroi on the chase.

 

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We start with a great win in Brugge, immediately closing the gap with the leaders, and when we win the next game at home against Charleroi, it looks like we may thread in the footsteps of Leicester City. But we can't cope with the pressure and a heavy loss in Anderlecht (5-2), followed by an undeserved defeat at home against Brugge stacks the odds against us. On the final day of the season, we have everything to win, and everything to lose. We play Anderlecht at home, Brugge has a home game against Charleroi, and we're three teams divided by only one point.

 

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Once again nerves overtake us and although Brugge is losing against Charleroi, we go 0-2 down against the giant from Brussels, which virtually makes them champions at that point. With four minutes on the clock, Tamari pulls one back though, and two minutes later youngster Vekemans puts his name in the history books by netting the equalizer. We push on but nothing happens, and finish the season tied with both Anderlecht and Brugge at 45 points, but finish second because they won more games than us.

 

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Belgian Cup

A very difficult adventure for us as we need penalties against Deinze and extra time against Beerschot to get into the quarter finals. In an even game, they are the more clinical team and beat us 2-0.

 

Finances and facilities

As stated earlier, we were in a very precarious financial position. Because of over 14M in loans that needed to be repaid, we were leaking even more money than usual and unfortunately, prize and tv money in the game does not really reflect reality (at least the latter doesn't), which means we only  got 1.3M from both combined.

This resulted in a takeover at the end of the season, with a Portuguese chairman entering the fold. No investments, but they did take out a 24M loan, to be repaid over 10 years, to clear the debt. I'm hoping that this, combined with European football, will be enough to stay afloat for now, but it means that I'll have to be very creative on the transfer market. Speaking of which, there's interest for Keita, who has a 30M release clause after we extended his contract, from Chelsea and Man United. I don't want to lose him but if he goes, it'll be for big money.

 

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I am however very happy that the new chairman agreed to expand the youth recruitment. We had a very good intake this year, which I'll disclose in another update, so I feel it's important to focus on youth development as much as possible, with the financial issues in the back of my head.

 

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[KlaaZ]

Transfer news

As we started the first season with a LOT of loanies,  the squad will get a major overhaul. My shortlist includes at least two CB's, a full back on each side, a few midfielders, a few wingers and a striker. Oh, and a backup goalie too. So basically, an entire team. 

The good news is, most of our homework is done before the start of the transfer window. Let's dive in!

• Séga Coulibaly
  • Age: 26
  • Nationality: Malian
  • Position: Central defender
  • Former club: none
  • Fee: On a free transfer
     
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• Gaston Gonzalez
  • Age: 21
  • Nationality: Argentinian
  • Position: Left winger
  • Former club: None
  • Fee: On a free transfer
     
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• Manuel Benson
  • Age: 25
  • Nationality: Belgian
  • Position: Right winger, left winger, striker
  • Former club: Antwerp
  • Fee: Loan
     
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• Federico Navarro
  • Age: 22
  • Nationality: Argentinian
  • Position: Midfielder, defensive midfielder
  • Former club: Chicago
  • Fee: End of contract
     
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• Santiago Sosa
  • Age: 23
  • Nationality: Argentinian
  • Position: Defensive midfielder
  • Former club: Atlanta United
  • Fee: End of contract
     
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• Caju
  • Age: 26
  • Nationality: Brazilian
  • Position: Left back
  • Former club: Braga
  • Fee: 125k
     
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• Marco Carraro
  • Age: 24
  • Nationality: Italian
  • Position: Midfielder
  • Former club: Atalanta
  • Fee: 1.1M
     
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• Daniel Guedes
  • Age: 28
  • Nationality: Brazilian
  • Position: Right back
  • Former club: Santos
  • Fee: End of contract
     
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• Danilo Pereira
  • Age: 23
  • Nationality: Brazilian
  • Position: Striker
  • Former club: Ajax
  • Fee: End of contract
     
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We also renewed the loans of both Vlietinck (right back, right wing) and Araujo (central defender), and are looking to loan two players from Leicester to provide more depth.

[KlaaZ]

Welcome to Europe.  Ran them off the pitch for most of the game but a scorcher and some horrible defending already knocks us out of the Champions League.

[KlaaZ]

Transfer news

Our final signing before the end of August is Jailson, who will join us from Palmeiras for 250k. A bargain, in my opinion. Although he's a defensive midfielder, I'm planning to pair him with Araujo in central defense as he has all of the required attributes.

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[KlaaZ]

Season's done, update coming soon.

[KlaaZ]

2022-2023: Season overview

January transfer window

Only one incoming transfer in January. André Luis, a 26-year old Brazilian, joins us on a free from Cuiaba. Luis is a left footed right winger, who I hope will provide stiff competition for Benson. 

 

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More news on the outgoing side, with a few players unhappy with their playing time. Al-Tamari moves to Cyprus and joins Omonoia for 325k. Chakla goes to last season's surprise package Charleroi, now in a relegation spot because they couldn't cope with European football, for 1.1M. Quinones moves back to Colombia for 450k. And finally, Ouedraogo is loaned to AEL.

Jupiler Pro League

Our squad overhaul paid off. We actually were unbeaten before the World Cup break to find ourselves leading the table, including some very impressive wins: 3-1 away at Anderlecht, 2-0 away at Gent, 2-1 at home against Genk who contended for the title until the prelast game of the season, and a 3-0 trashing of Antwerp.

A very heavy January with nine games (including a cup game) saw us lose twice, but win all remaining six games with clean sheets to boot (including a 3-0 beating of reigning champions Club Brugge). February was more mixed with two wins, to draws and an avoidable home loss against Gent but we hung onto the league top spot for the remainder of the regular competition, despite losing to Club Brugge in the last game through a 90th minute free kick from Hans Vanaken.

 

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The Championship Group saw us against Brugge, Genk and Gent. A draw at home against the latter on the opening day had me fearing a bit of a form collapse but when we bounced back with a 2-0 win in Brugge, everything clicked. We drew away in Genk and then finished the job with three 1-0 wins to seal the title on the prelast day of the season at home against Brugge. Even a heavy injury for captain Mercier, who tore his hamstring, couldn't stop us.

 

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Belgian Cup

Our good form carried through in the cup. We beat Waasland-Beveren (2-0), Eupen (0-2) and Zulte (1-0) to face Brugge in two games for the semi final. We completely drove over them in Jan Breydel, but they pulled on back to only lose 1-2 and keep it interesting for the return. To no avail, because we sent them home from Den Dreef with a huge 4-0 beating.  Rezaei scored a hattrick in this game, against his ex-team.

 

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The final saw us against Standard Liege and although we were once again by far the better team, our finishing was letting us down. An early penalty was erased by Cimirot's equalizer and when Danilo Pereira put us ahead in the 63d minute, Standard once again equalized to take us into extra time. Luckily, Daniel Guedes scored what proved to be the winner through a fabulous free kick to avoid penalties. 

 

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Europe

Europe was where it all went wrong. We went out in the third qualifying round against Braga despite being the better team in both games, and the Europa League group stage was a horror show as well for some reason. We finished last in a group with Dinamo, Midtjylland and Real Sociedad, losing both home games against the smaller teams and only grabbing one win in the last game at home against the Spaniards. Disappointing.

 

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Finances and facilities

We managed to convince the board to improve our training facilities at a time when we were about 4.5M in the green, and we also improved our youth recruitment. The board also decided, on its own (magic!) to start expanding the stadium with an additional 3k seats (which is a 30% gain). We ended the season about 10M in the red, part of that was offset by our sponsorship though, so the actual balance now is -4.3M. Luckily, becoming champions has its perks and will give us access to Champions League money next season (as we auto qualify for the group stage). Nevertheless, we'll be prudent in our spending, even if we do get a 3M transfer kitty this year. We've done well so far on bargains, loans and free players and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. 

 

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Players and performance

We had a very good transfer season, with most new players delivering immensely. Danilo Pereira was our main man, and after a rough start he started shining, becoming the league's top goalscorer with 18 roses.

 

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Rezaei scored 15 out of 17 starts, which is also rather impressive. Federico Navarro felt like our missing link in midfield and has a very solid season as a ball winning midfielder, earning him the interest of AS Monaco. In central defense, Jailson formed a strong duo with Araujo, who's loan we'll extend for another season (although we're in talks with a player who can probably replace him permanently). On the backs, Cuja and Guedes won the battle for a first team spot. Benson was okay and will join us permanently as his contract at Antwerp ran out. He's homegrown and can play in multiple positions which gives us a bit of an edge. Finally, captain Mercier will probably be phased out next season as he turned 33 and is starting to decline a lot physically.

Youth intakes

We have a few potentials from last year's intake, and one very, very, VERY promising striker from this year. Donato Rubino could maybe get a few games off the bench next season, and Walid De Vos actually made his debut this year. 

 

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[KlaaZ]

Transfer news

Not much on the outgoing side so far. Santiago Sosa isn't happy with his playing time and goes out on loan to Eupen for a monthly fee of 145k. That's it so far.

Apart from signing Benson on a permanent three year deal, we bring in two more players. Gabriele Gori comes on a free from Fiorentina, and we pay 250k for the services of Mario Gila, a 22-year old central defender from Real Madrid. Apart from that, I'm looking for another goalkeeper. The rest of the squad looks fine for now.

 

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There are also two deals that will go through in the summer of 2024, that I'm very excited about. The first is Jhon Jairo Perez, a young Colombian defender from Atlético Nacional who looks promising, with some great mentals. The second one is a young African midfielder, Germain Sako, who we found in Ivory Coast at ASEC Mimosas. 

 

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[KlaaZ]

We're doing very well, but this is something that happened last season as well and I don't really know how to fix it. Might be down to player quality? 12 xG out of four games is very satisfying, but the fact that we consistently underscore our xG is not. 

[KlaaZ]

Our rotten luck in Europe continues. I really don't know what I need to do to turn this around, it's disheartening really.

[KlaaZ]

Transfer news

Two more incoming players! We found a backup goalie in France, with Gautier Larsonneur joining us from Caen for 400k. Behind the striker, we found a more exotic addition by loaning Wanya Marçal-Madivadua from sister club Leicester.

 

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[KlaaZ]

Another installment of our proud tradition of choking in Europe.

[KlaaZ]

Transfer news

No major leavers during the winter break. Only Ouedraogo left for Sweden in March, in a deal for 875k.

On the incoming side, we signed four young players on a free to bolster the U18's and in the hopes of picking up a future gem. Two players stand out, young Spaniard Bruno and Norwegian striker Nyhagen. We also bring in Jandro Orellana on loan from Barcelona to provide some more depth in midfield.

 

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[KlaaZ]

2023-2024: Season overview

Jupiler Pro League

Won it again, and how! I feel we're very much clicking tactically and that this will only improve when we get even better players, especially offensively as we're still underscoring our xG (86 xG, 'only' 80 goals scored). 

We were on top from start to finish, ending the regular season with only one loss at home against Genk. Highlights were a spectacular 0-5 trashing of Brugge (who had a really disappointing season) in their own grounds, and coming back from 2-0 behind to beat Standard at Sclessin 2-4.

The Championship group had us start with a comfortable 10 point lead against Anderlecht, so we managed to clinch the title after only two games, with four to go. Lost one of the remaining four games, a heavy 3-0 beating from Standard, and finished the group 13 point ahead of Anderlecht.

 

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Belgian Cup

Survived a scare against Kortrijk in the sixth round, only going through on penalties. We then beat Zulte (4-0) and Eupen (5-1) to meet Anderlecht in the semi finals. A 2-0 home win put us in a great place to reach our second consecutive cup final but we had an abysmal game in Anderlecht, where we threw away a 0-1 lead, were 3-2 down, picked up a red in the 86th, gave up a fourth goal in the 90th minute and then another in extra time to see us knocked out. Disappointing.

 

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Champions League

We qualified directly for the group stage (a slot which we'll lose in 2025  ) and went up against Porto, Bayer Leverkusen and Arsenal. We had some good games but once again were unlucky to lose at home again the Portuguese and Germans. We only picked up one point, in the final game against the Portuguese.

 

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Finances and facilities

We made a bit of profit thanks to the CL money but life is still hard financially. We used it to improve our training facilities and got our junior coaching and  youth setup improved. The sale of Rezaei also provided some much needed relief. To bolster this, we'll start to gradually sell some players for profit as we're in the process of finally signing a few very good young guys from abroad. 

The good news is that there are plans afoot to build a new stadium, although it's not detailed yet. Very curious to see the numbers!

 

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Youth intake

One very standout player in this year's youth intake, a young central defender from the town itself.

 

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Meanwhile, both Vos and Rubino have been promoted to the first team and are making minutes off the bench.

 

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[KlaaZ]

Transfer news

I'll handle the incoming transfers later, but we've decided to cash in on a few players. 

The first one to go is Jailson, our makeshift central defender who joined from Sao Paulo for 250k two years ago. After two excellent seasons, he's shipped off to Turkey in a deal worth 22M. Danilo Perreira is also moving to Turkey where he'll join Sivasspor for 14M. He was entering his last contract year and wanted unreasonable wages so we had to cash in. Furthermore, Sosa moves to Red Star for 5M and Gaston Gonzalez signs for Sheffield United for 6M. Both players were surplus to requirements. 

All players had a percentage on their transfer arranged but we still made a very healthy profit. Jailson is the only one who commanded a transfer fee when he joined, the others were free players.

[KlaaZ]

Transfer news

Sadface. He had a release clause and didn't want to sign a new deal, there was nothing I could do. 38M is a lot of money though.

[KlaaZ]

Life got in the way but I finished another season, so here we go!

Transfers

We already spoke about the outgoing transfers in the previous two updates. They made sure we had a healthy transfer budget to work with, but I did try to spend it rather prudently, on youngsters who hopefully one day will be sold for big money.

Simon Roger Tshibuabua: At seventeen, Simon is already capable of being part of the A squad and will definitely get some game time. He comes over from league compatriots Charleroi for a hefty 9.5M, a record transfer for the club. As he's Belgian, he has the additional advantage of being homegrown.

 

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Nemanja Jovic: A former favourite of mine in another save at Bodo/Glimt, he was still at Partizan with a buyout clause of 4.7M. I had been looking to strengthen the left wing as Schrijvers kept underperforming. 

 

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Ramon: An younger and already better version of Caju, Ramon will gradually replace him on the left. We paid Fluminense 4.5M for his services.

 

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Jandro Orellana: Already at the club on loan, we knew what he was capable of and when Barcelona let us know they only wanted 2.2M for him, we didn't hesitate in the slightest. Will be our main midfield choice until Simon or another midfield prospect is ready to take over the reigns.

 

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Liron Ezra: A strong, physical striker with potential to grow, Ezra was spotted at Norrkoping a while ago. At first I was hesitant because I don't want to block academy player De Vos, but I believe we'll probably sell Gori at the end of this season for a lot of money so that issue was off the table. He cost us 2.1M, and remained at his club until the end of the season there.

 

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Dejan Zukic: A steal at 1.7M, as he can play both the left wing and behind the striker. Adds depth to the squad.

 

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Duvan Mosquera: One for the future but I'm very excited about this kid. Might play Jovic out of the team sooner rather than later. At 1.6M, another steal really.

 

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Johan De Wilde: Similar story to Simon, but a lot cheaper. De Wilde joins us from Club Brugge for only 1.5M and looks like a great, homegrown prospect.

 

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Jhon Jairo Perez: We stay in the cheap lane, Perez is one of two Colombian defenders who joins us this season. He'll be loaned out to get more game time. 725k from Atlético Nacional.

 

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Ivan Castano: Our second steal Colombian defender, and the better of the two for now. Bought for 650k from Aguilas Doradas, will go straight into the first team!

 

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Luis Angel Carreazo: A potential Colombian left back from Junior, on a free. Was highly rated by my scouts but needs work. A low risk transfer at 600k, so we could afford to gamble.

 

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Germain Sako: Potential world class and straight from Ivory Coast giants ASEC. Will hopefully be an anchor in our midfield for a long, long time. 200k, peanuts.

 

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Agustin Almendra: Argentine midfielder to provide depth in midfield, with a 1.7M clause if we become champions again. Very all round player.

 

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[KlaaZ]

2024-2025: Season recap

Jupiler Pro League

We're consistently winning the league now. Finished on 58 points in the Championship group, one more than last season, and became champions with four games to go which is a new record. Also set a record for league wins in a season. Not unbeaten yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Belgian Cup

Opened with an easy 1-8 win at amateurs Houtvenne, before beating Seraing, KV Mechelen and Oostende to the final. In that final, we gave away a lead twice to take us to penalties, but we kept our nerve and won the shootout.

Super Cup

Won this one too, in a 5-2 goal bonanza over Anderlecht.

European football

This is where it gets interesting. We drew a group with Lazio, Leverkusen and Shakhtar, which meant third place was a possibility. Opened with a 5-0 trashing of the Ukrainian giant, and then somehow stole a win in Germany. When we followed this with a 1-1 draw at home against Lazio, I actually thought we would make it to the knockout round. We lost both in a close game in Rome and (undeservedly) at home against Leverkusen, but could still clinch it on the final day if we won in Donetsk and Leverkusen lost at home against Lazio. The Romans did their job, but we only managed a 3-3 draw in a game where Shakhtar scored three goals out of five attempts. Either way, we went to the knockout stages of the Europa League for the first time!

There we beat Norwegian Molde, before stumbling over Atalanta, although we almost caused an upset.

Finances and facilities

At the end of the season, plans for a new stadium were released. 24k seats, almost doubling the current capacity, for 28M. Building the OHL Stadium (very original, I know) will take 2 years.

Youth intake

It looked like nothing spectacular, but then I saw a young Bosnian/Belgian kid. Kasam Ilic is a 15-year old defensive midfielder and will probably join the big boys already next season as he's just that good. 

 

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PS: Screenshots will follow, I've had a rough week and I'm a little tired now.