[FM23] "Searching for my Rizla" – The White Star, Wisla Krakow

[g1nh0]

[FM23] "Searching for my Rizla" – The White Star, Wisla Krakow

Well after having a phase of creating several systems, I’ve decided to log the progress of my long-term save on here. I have to admit generally I find it quite tough to play several seasons in a save, especially solo. But with the new ME and the game being at a fresh stage, I’ll see how long I can go on for. It’s never really appealed to me starting right from the very bottom and playing with players I’ve never heard of before. I guess there’s time for that down the line.

It was quite difficult to find a team / location that stood out to me. I may move about at points in the save, though it’s not a given. But I’ve decided to begin in Poland with one of the fallen giants Wisla Krakow.

Part the reason was as a nation, I believe the furthest a Polish team has gone in the ECL was the quarters. (tell me if I'm wrong) Nevertheless, the nation needs significant building in the coefficients currently down in 27th place (very surprised about) but this club seems to be located in a large city of Krakow that should have a sufficient enough backing to try and progress if we can attract some more supporters. I also think there are a few decent sides all at a similar level, hopefully making each season a highly competitive one.

I guess if I had to identify the objective at this club, it would be to either try and make a step further and compete in the Semi Finals of the ECL - or achieve any form of European success. At this point, I may choose to move further on in my career.

Not sure what structure I’ll follow with these updates – guess it will be a bit erratic, but hopefully follow-able! Oh and yeah, I do like the Ratpack tune in case you were wondering  

 

 

Wisla Krakow

Were founded in 1906 who have won the top Division in Poland 14 times, Polish Cup 4 times, and made an ECL quarter final appearance all the way back in the 1978-1979 season.

With a stadium capacity of a little over 33,000 the Stadion Miejsksi, I hope I’m not dreaming that one day we can fill it up – but languishing in the second tier of Poland, I expect this may take quite some time to ever achieve.

Looks a nice stadium - I can definitely see myself enjoying sitting in the dugout here for a substantial amount of time.

 

Leagues Loaded

I don’t have the best Laptop, even this year’s game at times is stuttering watching games. I’ve loaded up just under 55k as a player database number, with the following leagues loaded top tiers only (except Poland being the two available) loaded:

Poland Div 1 / 2

Argentina

Brazil

England

France

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

Spain

Portugal

 

Hopefully this will be a large enough database, it runs at 3 stars.

 

Progress

 

Season	Club	League	Position	Dom. Cups	Euro Cups	Notes
1	Wisla Krakow	Poland – Div 1	1st	FA Cup Winners	-
2	Wisla Krakow	Poland - Ekstraklasa	1st	FA Cup Winners	UECL Winners	MOTY
3**	Wisla Krakow	Poland - Ekstraklasa	TBC	Super Cup Winners
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

** In Progress

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

Season 1 (Wisla Krakow)

Tactical Blueprint - 433

I have an idea of the blueprint I want to put in place at this club.  With the long-term aim of competing with the top clubs domestically but also in Europe, I'm looking to play a solid 433 formation but also in a more offensive manner (attacking mentality), so we're always likely to cause teams problems with the ball or in a quick transition on the counter.

I believe this is the sort of football I'll need to produce when playing in Europe against teams that will be likely superior to us, and we can always tweak things quite comfortably against the sides we are vastly inferior towards. My system is highly influenced on a less defensive Mourinho Chelsea, but rather than having a Target Man up top that will be effective at holding up the ball, I'll be wanting to have more of an Advanced Forward that has a bit of pace that can put the ball in the back of the net.

It may not be great for when we are placed under severe pressure, but I still think the structure will be solid enough to be good defensively, and perhaps being a little more potent when hitting teams on the break. I also think domestically where the quality will generally be a bit lower, we should be able to cope okay.

Squad

I’m very happy with the squad I have to work with. A nice blend of youth that can develop along with experienced heads.

My intention was to begin this save without any transfers, and to be honest I don’t think I’ll be looking to make any throughout the year. I tend to aim for a squad of 25, so those below will reflect the main players I'll be looking to rely upon this year.

A couple of long-term injuries, but nothing I don't think this squad is capable for compensating for - as long as we don't double or more in these!

Finances

At the moment we’re in the positive, although looking at the projection it does look like that won’t last for too long. So probably a wise thing to focus on what we’ve got.

Expectations

Our board are expecting immediate promotion back into the top division. So the pressure will immediately be on me to bounce back straight off the bat after being relegated last year.

We should have enough to get promoted, only severe injuries or being tactically inept will cause us to fail. Three teams can go up which is quite a number, with the top two sides gaining automatic promotion.

My expectations will be to do exactly that – whilst hopefully developing some of our finest youngsters in the process.

Other Notes

One player I’m really looking forward to working with is our 20 year old Polish keeper Mikolaj Bieganski. I’m sure it won’t be long before some larger clubs will be interested in him.

 

 

 

 

[g1nh0]

Season 1 (Wisla Krakow)

Predicted second, and also matched by the bookies odds. It does look like Bruk are expected to comfortably top the league, but I'm hoping if we can make a strong start to the season, there's no reason why we can't push for top spot.

A Strong Start (Jul 22 - Aug 22)

A good pre-season with our single defeat coming against KGHM in the top division. We were able to take this good form into the start of our league campaign.

In the league we disappointingly dropped points at home to Podsbeskidzie after having taken the lead in the first half they scored with a late equalizer. However we more than made up for it by winning away from home against the favourites to win our division Bruk-Bet Termalica. This was a very solid and complete performance defensively, offensively and also in midfield. It may prove to be an important win come the end of the year even at this early stage.

We also made it comfortably through into the second round of the FA cup against a non-league side in Pogon.

 

 

[Deisler26]

I assume you weren’t ‘standing in a corner’ whilst searching lol

I haven’t heard that song in years! Good luck with this!

[g1nh0]

2 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

I assume you weren’t ‘standing in a corner’ whilst searching lol

I haven’t heard that song in years! Good luck with this!

Not in body mate, but in soul  lol. Cheers - neither had I until yesterday, a forgotten classic!

[SixPointer]

Great club choice!! I actually played around with them on the Beta after a trip to krakow. Some exciting young players you’ll need to nurture after years of financial mismanagement. Best of luck following

[DomD]

Nice to see another career in Poland.

[Hanys]

Fantastic idea for a save, Wisła is a great club with traditions and huge and hardcore fan base. It's really sad to see their fall now.

 

By the way, the furthest a Polish team has gone in ECL was semi final, actually. It was 69/70 season when Legia Warsaw managed to get that far but failed to beat the later-winners Feyenoord.

[g1nh0]

11 minutes ago, Hanys said:

Fantastic idea for a save, Wisła is a great club with traditions and huge and hardcore fan base. It's really sad to see their fall now.

 

By the way, the furthest a Polish team has gone in ECL was semi final, actually. It was 69/70 season when Legia Warsaw managed to get that far but failed to beat the later-winners Feyenoord.

Thanks for the info @Hanys Glad it seems like I've picked a great team to bring back to former glories. I guess I'll have to somehow try and make one step further this save if at all possible, although I would still be happy with a Semi Final spot I guess. I've not really looked to build a nation as such before, I sounds like this will be the perfect time to try and do that here.

 

 

[g1nh0]

Season 1 (Wisla Krakow)

Mid-point – Momentum Continued

In Control

After a really strong to the campaign, we’ve continued in the same vein. With the other sides in the division unable to maintain the levels of consistency that we’ve achieved, it’s led us to a very convincing gap of 12 points to second placed Bruk-Bet Termalica this year’s favourites for the title. We’ve now played each team once, with 17 games left of the season.

As within our first review, we had another disappointing draw at home but this time it ended all square at 0-0 vs Puszcza. In fairness, with the type of football I’ve decided to play I’m half expecting us to struggle at times to open teams that park the bus at our place. Despite having several set piece opportunities along with our opponents riding their luck at times, we weren’t able to find that way through.

Cup Upset

In contrast, after winning our second round FA cup tie vs Polonia we drew at our home stadium last year’s PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa winners Lech Poznan. What an exciting tie! I hoped this would attract more fans than our average attendance so far in the league (which is just over 15,000 and is surprisingly good).

Just under 30,000 ended up coming to watch us play, and it was well worth the trip. The game came immediately after our 0-0 draw, but we saved up a really good performance for when we most needed it. They had their moments in the game, but all in all we stifled them greatly – and with a couple of moments of brilliance from Hugi and Zyro occupying both our flanks, it secured us a highly memorable victory.

So the next stage will be the quarter finals - the draw hasn't been made yet, but it looks like two teams are in our division and one other outside of the top two tiers - at this moment I'm praying for a nice draw.

Edited November 10, 2022 by g1nh0

[SixPointer]

Phenomenal form!

[g1nh0]

Season 1 (Wisla Krakow)

Toughest Tie

Well, the draw was made very soon after the 3rd round matches. I can't say I'm too chuffed with it drawing another top side in Poland in Legia. But at least it's a home tie, and if we were ever going to face them then my choice would be a one-off game in front of our home fans.

It could prove to be a nice money earner too, given we are now in a negative bank balance which was always to be expected based on our yearly financial projections.

[g1nh0]

Just now, SixPointer said:

Phenomenal form!

Yeps things are going very well at this moment in time, didn't think it would have gone as well as it has so far. Hopefully it continues! 

I did very much like the look of the team though when I took over and it hasn't taken long for me to identify a few favourites and already grow an attachment to the club.

Most of the lads already here I hope I can keep at the club for quite a considerable amount of time be it first XI or in a squad capacity whilst improving our finances and putting the foundations in place to then really push the club forwards on a bigger scale.

 

 

[SixPointer]

2 minutes ago, g1nh0 said:

Yeps things are going very well at this moment in time, didn't think it would have gone as well as it has so far. Hopefully it continues! 

I did very much like the look of the team though when I took over and it hasn't taken long for me to identify a few favourites and already grow an attachment to the club.

Most of the lads already here I hope I can keep at the club for quite a considerable amount of time be it first XI or in a squad capacity whilst improving our finances and putting the foundations in place to then really push the club forwards on a bigger scale.

 

 

Wisla certainly need to build for the long term! So think it’s wise to have a plan for holding on to certain players but also about selling at the right time to increase profit 

[Rikulec]

Not a huge fan of Wisła, but I'm always happy to follow another career of someone clearly unaware of just how **** Polish football is in real life. Best of luck!

[Hanys]

7 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Not a huge fan of Wisła, but I'm always happy to follow another career of someone clearly unaware of just how **** Polish football is in real life. Best of luck!

@Rikulec imagine what fun would that be if anyone chooses Zagłębie Sosnowiec one day, being completely unaware... 

 

 

@g1nh0 Beating Lech in the cup as if it was a stroll in the park is an amazing result. Great work. No surprises about the league though, shouldn't be much of a problem.

You won't be doing much better financially as long as you don't establish yourself as one of the top clubs in the country and get some money from Europe, so don't worry too much about it as nothing or a little can be done.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Hanys

[g1nh0]

@SixPointerThat's the plan, I'm going to primarily look for Bosman's as well when investing - but when it comes to selling, that I will likely find more difficult especially if I feel they are key. 

@RikulecThanks - hopefully a thing or two may then humor you in the process

@HanysAgree, Europe is most important I feel and probably overachieving with a mediocre squad not costing much at all to assemble. I think with the cup though, it probably helps being underestimated by the position we are in. I can't imagine Legia will make the same mistake - though I hope they will!

***

In the mean time, here are our goals that knocked out last year's PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa Winners Lech

 

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by g1nh0

[RoguPL]

14 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Not a huge fan of Wisła, but I'm always happy to follow another career of someone clearly unaware of just how **** Polish football is in real life. Best of luck!

Absolutely agree with the above ! Me being a Lech fan, you can't follow that part of Krakow   On other note, I've been to Krakow to see Cracovia play Lech, with one of my friends who is Cracovia fan and lives in the area... to put it simply, you cannot be safe anywhere in Krakow when you go to see a football game. You can't wear your team colours around Krakow lol, unless you are on the stadium.  Doing this can result in a trip to A&E .

Anyway, Good luck with your save ! As it was said before, good to see another save in Polish league in the forum I wonder, are there any loans or debts in the club? 

[Rikulec]

8 hours ago, Hanys said:

@Rikulec imagine what fun would that be if anyone chooses Zagłębie Sosnowiec one day, being completely unaware... 

Yeah, we're going to have to explain quite a lot if someone does that.

[SixPointer]

9 hours ago, RoguPL said:

Absolutely agree with the above ! Me being a Lech fan, you can't follow that part of Krakow   On other note, I've been to Krakow to see Cracovia play Lech, with one of my friends who is Cracovia fan and lives in the area... to put it simply, you cannot be safe anywhere in Krakow when you go to see a football game. You can't wear your team colours around Krakow lol, unless you are on the stadium.  Doing this can result in a trip to A&E .

Anyway, Good luck with your save ! As it was said before, good to see another save in Polish league in the forum I wonder, are there any loans or debts in the club? 

I was just at the cracovia vs lech game a few weeks back that end 0-0. I went to krakow for the weekend and had to pick between the krakow teams as both were playing at home. I chose the 0-0, and wisla game ended 3-3!

was a very strange experience seeing both cracovia and lech ultras mixed together. But I know these are friends! Due to my save as Ruch a few seasons back I know abit about the polish game. 

[RoguPL]

1 hour ago, SixPointer said:

I was just at the cracovia vs lech game a few weeks back that end 0-0. I went to krakow for the weekend and had to pick between the krakow teams as both were playing at home. I chose the 0-0, and wisla game ended 3-3!

was a very strange experience seeing both cracovia and lech ultras mixed together. But I know these are friends! Due to my save as Ruch a few seasons back I know abit about the polish game. 

Unfortunately Cracovia - Lech was one of Lech's worst games this season   It's funny with the ultras  They sort of try and make the away team feel at home. They even sing Lech's anthem at the beginning (at least did when I was there) Also all the chants are done by both groups. Fan relationship between Lech and Cracovia is really strong

[SixPointer]

19 hours ago, RoguPL said:

Unfortunately Cracovia - Lech was one of Lech's worst games this season   It's funny with the ultras  They sort of try and make the away team feel at home. They even sing Lech's anthem at the beginning (at least did when I was there) Also all the chants are done by both groups. Fan relationship between Lech and Cracovia is really strong

Yeah it was a very strange experience, something I would never seen in Scotland! But I understand the thinking behind it and the affiliations.

[g1nh0]

On 11/11/2022 at 14:02, RoguPL said:

Absolutely agree with the above ! Me being a Lech fan, you can't follow that part of Krakow   On other note, I've been to Krakow to see Cracovia play Lech, with one of my friends who is Cracovia fan and lives in the area... to put it simply, you cannot be safe anywhere in Krakow when you go to see a football game. You can't wear your team colours around Krakow lol, unless you are on the stadium.  Doing this can result in a trip to A&E .

Anyway, Good luck with your save ! As it was said before, good to see another save in Polish league in the forum I wonder, are there any loans or debts in the club? 

Cheers @RoguPL - the debt the club currently has is quite minimal which is due to end in only a few months time. But at this present time, we are now 1mil in debt in our bank balance. So the hard times could be starting - especially for myself, never been the best with my financial management

 

[g1nh0]

Season 1 (Wisla Krakow)

A Mixed Bag – (Nov 22 – Mar 23)

Since the last update, quite a bit has happened. There was the FA Cup QF game vs Legia to look forward to, along with our push to potentially try and finish the year unbeaten.

With the long break till end of February potentially being a hindrance to us, well what I would say is we certainly have seen our levels drop...

And this cost us the chance to go undefeated this year, with us losing two games in a row through sheer lack of indiscipline. Going down to 10 men and 9 men respectively for large parts of both games vs Gornik and LKS Lodz, it was just too much for us to turn around. I of course, given the nature of our demise was fuming – and I certainly let our lads know of my discontent.

But we go into April with a 17 points gap to second place with just 8 games remaining. A few more wins will see us gain automatic promotion in first place.

FA Cup Quarters - (Wisla Krakow 2 - 0 Legia)

With that said, our FA Cup QF game was a huge contrast. Without the lack of discipline and also us missing ten players for this game… yes 10 players!..we rallied as a squad and produced a fantastic performance to firstly put Legia out of their stride right from the start and never let them settle. We then took a 1-0 lead in the 41st minute and added a quick second right before half-time to really place them under pressure. They then eventually panicked going down to 10 men themselves early in the second half, which then made the tie effectively over.

By the end of the 90 minutes, they recorded zero shots on target in comparison to our eight, with our xG clearly showing our superiority in this one off game.

The game ended 2-0 to us, with Luis Fernandez our striker up top continuing to have a superb season. Without him, we’d have really struggled this year as our backup Angel Rodado has been absolutely dreadful this year whenever he's participated in games.

A Tough Semi Final to Come

The semi-final draw sees us unfortunately have an away tie against the team placed second in our division Bruk-Bet Termalica. We may have beaten them twice this year, but that is all the more motivation for them in front of their own fans to get one over us. So yes, I'm a little worried going into this one - especially as we have shown our vulnerabilities at times this second half of the season.

The other tie has non league Olimpia Elblag come up against top tier side Pogon, currently laying 3^rd in the Ekstraklasa.

[g1nh0]

Season 1 (Wisla Krakow)

A Memorable season? – (Apr 23 – May23)

Stepping into the last two month’s of my first season at Wisla, it promises to be a highly memorable one....

FA Cup Semi Final (Bruk-Bet Termalica 0 – 3 Wisla Krakow)

The first order of the day was our FA Cup Semi Final match vs Bruk-Bet Termalica. It was potentially a really tricky away tie against a side highly motivated to beat us this year.

The first half was extremely tight, but we were able to break the deadlock in the 37^th minute to give us the advantage.

We then came out in the second half with a spring in our step, and we definitely performed like we were the better side. A goal several minutes after the restart put us in control, and we added a third at the death giving us a 3-0 victory.

I was delighted to get this game out the way, as I just had that feeling it could have been one of those days where they would take the spoils. But credit to the lads, a great away performance that placed us in the final vs Pogon – who comfortably dispatched non-league minnows Elblag 4-0.

League Secured – First Division Champions 22/23

Meanwhile in the league, our immediate game after this semi final saw us come up against Skra Czestochowa. Rock bottom of the league and at home, this proved to be the game where we clinched the First Division Title winning comfortably 2-0.

So there were no surprises after amassing such a large points gap to this point. Our league form continued to remain good till the end, although we suffered a shock defeat at home vs Ruch in the run-in.

We ended up with a total of 89 points and will now be looking forward to competing back at the top level of Poland where this club belongs.

FA Cup Final (Wisla Krakow vs  Pogon) / Attendance 58,500

So to our cup final, played at Narodowy, Warsaw with 58,500 in attendance. This could already be a gateway to really help push the club forwards at an accelerated rate as I then realized checking the rules out for this final, the winner would book a place in the UEFA Conference League Playoffs 2^nd Round Qualifiers. This would be potentially great on the financial side, but at the same time our squad would likely suffer in the league.

Also the winners of this competition would win GBP 911k. The loser would get GBP 138k. We are over 1mil in debt at this point, so a cup final victory with the promotion I expect would really help us on this financial front.

A Dirty First Half

As with our other finals, our team surprisingly seemed more than capable of controlling games against the top sides of the Ekstraklasa. But goal action was quite infrequent, with both sides looking solid and not giving much away.

The highlights really were the 4 bookings, 3 for them and one for us. They also lost their left back in Freilich through injury. So heading into the break it ended 0-0.

A Moment of Brilliance

Onto the second half, it carried on in much the same manner as the first. But we were racking up our shot count, whilst Pogon weren’t really getting anywhere near to threaten our goal.

It seemed we were going to be the side likely to break the deadlock – but all that would be needed was a moment of brilliance at their end, be it a strike or a counter attack to end our cup dreams.

But luckily for us – that  special moment was produced by us, working the ball from the keeper eventually saw an excellent ball played in by Piewka that left Duda in one on one vs the keeper, who then produced a cool dinked finish over the onrushing keeper giving us the lead in th 71^st minute.

Slowing things down and using our solid midfield trio to manage the game, we saw this game out comfortably until the end giving Wisla their second trophy of the year – with only the Ekstraklasa left needed to complete the domestic set under my management. This was also the first taste of FA Cup success since 2003.

 

FA Cup Final (Wisla Krakow 1 - 0  Pogon)

Here’s the goal which deservedly saw us win the Polish FA Cup and book our place in the UEFA Conference League.

 

Our Best XI for the year

-Luis Fernandez was our main man this year, scoring 32 goals in 38 appearances, and quite early on in the season I decided to renew his contract for a few more years. He initially played second fiddle, but it only took a few games in for me to realise this guy is great at putting the ball in the back of the net.

-Alan Uryga was very important defensive. Initially playing at CB, he ended up playing the DM role in the later part of the year when Basha was suffering a number of injuries.

Otherwise it was an excellent squad effort - with the exception of Angel Rodado our backup striker. I ended up freezing him out of our main squad letting him rot in the under 19s.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by g1nh0

[RoguPL]

Congrats on promotion and winning the Cup !  

That means Europe next season  You might be able to repair your finances

[g1nh0]

5 hours ago, RoguPL said:

Congrats on promotion and winning the Cup !  

That means Europe next season  You might be able to repair your finances

Cheers m8 yeah the cup and the Conference League spot wasnt expected for sure. No idea how much clubs get competing in the top tier but hopefully things will improve fairly sharply - the financial projections look much healthier next couple of years. Doubt I will invest much at all this Summer though, and it'll be a lot of fixtures to handle. May be a mediocre season next one due to it, but hopefully may be able to push a little further in the third year.

[Rikulec]

Getting to the Ekstraklasa is a game changer in terms of finances, good job.

[g1nh0]

5 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Getting to the Ekstraklasa is a game changer in terms of finances, good job.

Cheers - Yep defo seem on the money there, my bank balance is looking quite healthy at the moment. And with room to fill more peeps in our stadium I'm hoping our finances during the course of the year won't diminish as quickly as it was last season. Guess I'll learn a little more after playing out this second year.

[g1nh0]

Season 2 (Wisla Krakow) 23/24

Squad

The fact we showed we could beat the best teams already in Poland last year, leaves me optimistic of my decision to not need to invest much this year.

We did need an improvement in the DM area as I was in the end having to use my best CB in that position. I also desperately wanted to find a backup striker.

In both cases I was able to bring a guy in (Striker on loan from Bayern - Copado and Gul in the DM slot) – and a bonus was we actually had a couple of good midfielders out on loan last year which will further strengthen the first XI. (Kuveljic and Fazlagic).

I also brought in a left back (also on loan from Bayern - Herold) who should improve our first XI slightly and some quality depth on the flanks and up top in Gordon Wild.  From all the dealings and return of players to our club, we’ll have 3 new regular starters. Otherwise the first team is pretty much the same as it was last year.

The potential extra games in Europe will though definitely place a strain on the squad. The question is whether we have the depth to play so many games.

Finances

Following our promotion, our current bank balance is certainly looking a lot healthier. The cup win last year also helped. But it will be a season of not spending much in the market, hoping to bring some financial stability to the club. In fact, I've made 300k from sales this Window, and chuffed to get rid of Rodado, although FM being FM, given he's joined a domestic rival in the division, so he's bound to score against us!

We now have just under 1.7mil GBP in the bank, so I guess I’ll be able to evaluate things a little more after the current year, and if things go well we may be in a position to start looking to actively invest in a bit of quality in the areas we need.

Projection  wise, it does still look like we'll need a couple of years in the top flight for things to stabilize. So I will definitely need to keep an eye on how we are faring financially over this period.

Expectations

Our board want us to avoid relegation, the media predicts us to finish 13^th, and the bookies reckon we can make eighth. So quite a spread of expectations from different people.

My expectations, well it’s hard to judge. I’ve had a look at the value of our squad compared to the champions Rakow who we face away in the Super Cup Final. All their players are significantly valued higher than ours.

If things go well, it would be great to hit a top half finish this first season back in the top flight.

Other Notes

Unfortunately I have seen the 2^nd round qualifier draw for the Conference League, and we’ve drawn Belgian giants Anderlecht! So yeah, no expectations here. I expect we could exit this competition early – but on the plus side, it will certainly increase our chances of having a good league campaign.

The one concern I do have this year is how well we will fare at home. Last year we performed better away, but that will be harder in this division. We naturally are playing a little more defensive, and I may need to adjust things slightly if we are struggling to perform well at home.

[DomD]

Congrats on the promotion and cup win. That will set you up nicely for next season. Drawing Anderlecht in the ECL is tough, but like you said, going out early might be a blessing in disguise.

[SixPointer]

Congratulations on the first season! Anderlecht Is a big ask but stranger things have happened 

[Deisler26]

Congratulations on the promotion!

[g1nh0]

@SixPointer @Deisler26 cheers both! 

Well, gotten a glimpse to see how this season will fare. I think a top half will be a reasonable objective, although we performed well we will likely lack the quality to consistently complete with the better sides over the full course of the season following our 2-0 defeat vs Rakow in the Super Cup Final. It will be a miracle to get through Anderlecht based on how this game went. 

They currently have Jan Vertonghen in their squad - but super Jan is injured and I think for both legs hopefully

Season 2 (Wisla Krakow)

Rakow 2 - 0 Wisla Krakow - Super Cup Final

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SixPointer]

I’m looking forward to the first holy war of your journey!! I adore city rivalries especially when there is only two big teams and they really hate each other! Maybe something to do with the Scottish league. Rangers - Celtic. Hearts - Hibernian 

Edited November 15, 2022 by SixPointer

[Deisler26]

Unlucky on the Super Cup loss

[g1nh0]

@SixPointer had to google that one  KS Cracovia, will be now lookin forward to those ties  sounds like quite a tense rivalry between the two sides?

@Deisler26 it was, felt we deserved a little more at times. was a very tight game, but they just produced moments of quality we never really looked like having to break them down

But In Other Current news...(S2)

Wisla Krakow 4 - 3 Anderlecht (Agg) - Uefa Conference League Q2 Qualifiers

Two superb performances the first being a 1-2 away leg win over in Belgium and a 3-3 home draw in Krakow saw our Polish lads stun the Belgian giants in Anderlecht to book our place in the Q3 qualifying round.

I'll be honest here, if we ended up going out I would have been fuming. We got what we deserved at their place, and were by far the better team at our place. Practically every shot they had on target went in, which made it a very tense last few minutes of added time in this game.

But our two flank players of last year Hugi and Zyro proved to do enough damage and we deservedly hung on. Our next tie in this competition is vs MSK Zilina from Slovakia

 

[g1nh0]

Season 2 Progress (Wisla Krakow)

UCL Group Stages Reached

After our heroic performances against Anderlecht, we comfortably dispatched MSK Zilina 6-1 on aggregate, to then book a place against another well known Belgian side in Standard Liege again that would prove to be a very difficult task.

Here we had the home tie as the first leg, where we were 3-1 up...but our players bottled it with Liege scoring in the 88th and 91st minute to take back to Belgium a valuable 3-3 away draw.

Onto the second leg, I have to admit I wasn't optimistic given how although we were better in the first leg, you couldn't begrudge them taking something away. But for this second leg, it was as if Standard were a complete different side, one that chose not to turn up.

We played a brilliant second leg and were fully deserved 0-2 winners on the night, in which the home side failed to have a shot on target. 

Standard 0 - 2 Wisla Krakow (3-5 agg)

A Tough Draw

Well with our name in the hat for the group stages, we have a group that there will be no chance of progressing from as you can tell from the quality below. But I'm hoping it will be a good experience for the club, giving us a taste of European football in these stages which in turn I hope will provide motivation for the lads to try and reach this level of football once again in the future.

Cracovia 3 - 1 Wisla Krakow

Meanwhile in the league, unfortunately for us just a few days after saw us travel to our derby rivals Cracovia. We certainly lacked that potency going forward in this game, and defensively at times we were shocking. I can only give the excuse of a European hangover after our win in Liege as the cause for our standards to have dropped in this game after.

That said, it's been a very good start in the league. Considering our objective is to avoid relegation, it looks like we may have aspirations not only just for a top half finish, but maybe even compete for a European spot.

It is very early days though, and if we suffer any injuries to key players it can certainly ruin the good run that we've shown domestically so far.

 

 

Other Squad / Transfer News

There was a spanner thrown into the works before the deadline day in the transfers. One of our kids I was hoping would in a season or two be our first team IWL Piotr Starzyński. But a couple of big clubs had been after his signature.

I had rejected a few bids, till the point the board themselves accepted a 2.7mil bid from Hertha Berlin. This in turn led me to try and find someone of a similar age that could have the potential to play in this position. I was able to find Llanez on a deal for 115k. Although not as good, he still has the potential to play at a good level and recently is American capped.

Additionally, I thought I would see if there was any other players at a reasonable cost in the market that could be a good long-term investment given I now have a surplus transfer budget from the sale. Arrey-Mbi a 20 year old CB seemed to have a lot of experience at top clubs on his CV including Chelsea and Bayern. 

At the cost of GBP 400k, I thought it was worth snapping him up. He hasn't had much first team experience, but I intend to give that to him here during the league campaign.

It wasn't ideal making this rushed transfers, but I think I've done reasonably okay given the circumstances. Time will tell to see whether these will prove as good ones.

 

 

 

[Deisler26]

I like Bright. I like him a lot

[SixPointer]

Great stuff in Europe! Although the fans won’t be best pleased with the score in the holy war. 
 

big bright was a standout for me last year at Sparta Rotterdam. Mega consistent!

[DomD]

Nice work getting to the group stage. Some tough opponents waiting for you there.

[g1nh0]

On 18/11/2022 at 15:49, DomD said:

Nice work getting to the group stage. Some tough opponents waiting for you there.

Cheers, yeah I can't say I'm too optimistic with that group lol. Best chances will probably be against Fiorentina for an upset. Will next update after Xmas period, all my games will have been played by that point. Too bad 3rd spot in the Conference League means nothing

[g1nh0]

On 18/11/2022 at 15:28, SixPointer said:

Great stuff in Europe! Although the fans won’t be best pleased with the score in the holy war. 
 

big bright was a standout for me last year at Sparta Rotterdam. Mega consistent!

Cheers - yeah I was seething with that derby result, our worst performance of the year was saved up for that game!

Good to know with Brighty, started off a little shaky but I guess that's because he hasnt had much first team football. Hopefully he'll sharpen up pretty soon. Felt I needed to invest some of the funds somewhere to try get as strong a position as I could this year and there was definitely room for improvement at CB.

[g1nh0]

Season 2 - Xmas Update (Wisla Krakow)

Overachieving

After our strong start to the league campaign, despite having European distractions the squad have remained extremely consistent domestically.

We have made the FA Cup Quarter Finals which recommences next year, but also in the league after 20 games played we sit top of the tree 3 points ahead of favourites Lech Poznan.

It’s effectively a dead heat between us, as in our first meeting we beat them 1-0 at home. With the expectancy of losing away, we would be tied on points with an equal head to head which seems to take precedence in Poland over goal difference. As things stand we also have a superior goal difference.

Strong Attendances

What was a pleasant surprise is our average league attendance at over 21,000 per game – which I did not expect, and perhaps I didn’t realize how large a club Wisla Krakow perhaps is.

Having this support should certainly help going forward in being able to attract and afford players good enough that we can consistently challenge for European spots and domestic honours.

Against the Odds

Meanwhile in the Conference League, we were given a really tough group with Fiorentina Spurs and Shamrock Rovers. I would have expected us to beat Shamrock twice, and perhaps try steal a shock win vs Fiorentina – the most optimistic viewpoint.

What actually ended up happening was us drawing at home to Shamrock Rovers and registering an away win there. We also did a somewhat unbelievable victorious double over Fiorentina! However we lost our away game vs Spurs.

The way the results went, meant we would need a point vs Spurs at home to quality. Unfortunately they struggled vs Fiorentina whom were favourites to top the group assuming we wouldn’t beat Spurs.

Fiorentina unsurprisingly beat Shamrock Rovers, whilst in the mean time we took a shock 2-0 home lead against Spurs...

Spurs Comeback Enough?

But then this woke them up a bit and in addition to bringing on Perisic Ndombole and Sonnie off the bench they suddenly looked a lot more threatening. They then registered two quick goals in the second half and with 20 minutes left to go the game was tied at 2-2 - and I was feeling the pressure.

Trying to stem the tie we brought on some fresh legs and tried to even further slow things down. Spurs had a couple of late chances but they weren’t clear cut, and with time running out we were able to hold onto the draw which saw us finish second in the group – knocking our Spurs who ended up third.

Other News

Still looking at our available transfer budget, after having enough time to evaluate the two Bayern youngsters with us I decided to end up placing bids to bring them in on a permanent deal. Bayern agreed, so both LB Herold (GBP 300k) and durable Winger / Forward Copado (GBP 200k) will be with us next year.

I also felt that given our strong league position, if we're going to continue to compete with Lech Poznan this year then the biggest weakness in our squad is adequate left back depth. So I decided to bring in Angolan capped 23 yr old Roosken from Heracles for GBP700k. I did try to bring in a Polish left back capped 16 times, but his wage demands were just too high for us - so I had to reach out abroad.

Although we probably lack real quality on the right flank first XI and a natural goalscorer backup for the striker position, we should undoubtedly be able to cement at least second place in the league, and put in a strong challenge for first place. A bit of luck with keeping our striker fit, and we have the potential to produce a shock this year.

The biggest concern I have, is teams will likely adapt to us now and I'm not sure we quite have the quality going forwards to break down the very stubborn teams. 

 

[g1nh0]

Season 2 (Wisla Krakow) - Feb / Mar

A Gap Appears

After the Xmas break we were able to get back into our stride very quickly – whereas Lech Poznan struggled suffering two defeats in a row immediately.

Our good form continued, and coming into the last two months of the season with eight games remaining, we have amassed a 10 point gap. We’ve done well to not let things slide too as our striker Fernandez suffered an injury putting him out for six weeks, which at this point he still hasn’t returned. We are in fact currently in all competitions, undefeated in 31 games with the last defeat coming away to Spurs away. In the FA Cup, we're also now through to the semi's with a home tie booked vs WIdzew Lodz currently struggling in our division.

Meanwhile in Europe, we drew Fehervar in the Knockout Qualifier who we beat 6-4 on aggregate, and then from Portugal VTSC 5-1on agg in the last 16. We’ve drawn AZ from Holland in the quarters, with the reward being a tie vs Sociedad or Lazio, teams at a level well beyond us.

I never imagined we’d make the knockouts, and with CB Mbi actually not included in our European squad we’ve done so well to get this far – and after his shaky start to his career at Wisla, he’s starting to show his quality and he’s been a rock at the back ever since.

Edited November 21, 2022 by g1nh0

[SixPointer]

Absolutely flying second season, no chance whatsoever of second season syndrome

[g1nh0]

Season 2 Update (Wisla Krakow)

Wisla Celebrate Title!

With four games to spare our lads didn’t capitulate, holding our nerve well to win Wisla’s first Ekstraklasa title since 2011.

We also did it away at Lech Poznan our closest challengers in a superb team performance where we were by far the better side fully deserving of our success.

This leaves us with a Polish cup final to participate in after winning our Semi Final vs Widzew Lodz and also a Conference League Semi Final against Lazio after we beat Dutch side AZ 7-5 on agg.

Lazio 1 – 0 Wisla Krakow / First Leg

Well, I think we’ve found the side that will likely put us out of the Conference League. The first leg has been played at the Olimpico and Lazio were completely dominant. We failed to register a shot on target, with only one attempt all game.

However it was only a penalty that saw them gain a 1-0 advantage to take to our place converted by Immobile. The gulf in class is clearly evident between the two sides, but football can be a funny game. A set piece goal and a Lazio red card is what I’m praying for in the return leg then maybe anything can happen….I know, being stupidly optimistic

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

1 hour ago, SixPointer said:

Absolutely flying second season, no chance whatsoever of second season syndrome

Yeah we really held up well didn't expect the title first year back in the top flight, and still a little bit of the season left to complete. The transfers certainly helped I think, as I've had the depth to compete well in everything this year.

[Hanys]

Last time Wisła played against Lazio at Olimpico, they have put up a little more of a fight  By the way, it was probably one of the first games I clearly remember watching with my dad 

https://youtu.be/hvF6mYnZTFc

[g1nh0]

27 minutes ago, Hanys said:

Last time Wisła played against Lazio at Olimpico, they have put up a little more of a fight  By the way, it was probably one of the first games I clearly remember watching with my dad 

https://youtu.be/hvF6mYnZTFc

Haha, yes we certainly struggled in the away tie. Frustrating to not provide any offensive threat. I was scared of Immobile killing off the tie in all honesty by playing more expansive.

Remember a few of those Lazio names, a game in my favourite decade that I loved football in the earlier 2000s.