[FM23] - French football thread

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Le Mans FC Season 3 Season Review

Competitions

A nice comfortable mid table finish. Lucky 13 in our case with us finishing 13th in the league. We got 52 points which was 18 points more then we got last season so definite progress.

We got knocked out of the Coupe de France to Grenoble in the 8th roumd.

Star Players

Rory Wilson

This boy was our star man. He was just too good for Ligue 2. 

I highly reccomend you guys have a look at bringing this guy in. 

Aston Villa wont let me take him back on loan at the moment but hopefully in time they can be persauded as he really made a difference to our team.

Libasse Ngom

@karanhsingh your boy Ngom has really stepped up this season with 11 goals, 8 assists and had the best average rating for the club. 

He is excelling in his new role as an Attacking Midfielder.

Andy Varane has started strong for Lens who won the Ligue 2 title so he will be playing in the top of France next season and I am happy for him. 

I hope he goes on to play for France national team.

Next season is just to get up the table a bit higher so it feels like there is progress but I would be happy if we stay mid table again.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Ronaldo Beckham]

The curse of me bigging up a player continues as Ngom was sold to Southampton for £3m and 25% profit on the next transfer.

It was too good to turn down and a lot of money for a Ligue 2 team. 

This sale will greatly help our finances. 

He will be really missed as he was amazing last season but it leaves a place for one of our other players to step up.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Another sale I had to accept to help the long term finances of the club. It was another great deal for the club. Especially as he only cost us £100k.

My aim now is to scout all the top African leagues to find the next hidden gems in Africa.

[CaptCanuck]

10 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Le Mans FC Season 3 Season Review

Competitions

A nice comfortable mid table finish. Lucky 13 in our case with us finishing 13th in the league. We got 52 points which was 18 points more then we got last season so definite progress.

We got knocked out of the Coupe de France to Grenoble in the 8th roumd.

Star Players

Rory Wilson

This boy was our star man. He was just too good for Ligue 2. 

I highly reccomend you guys have a look at bringing this guy in. 

Aston Villa wont let me take him back on loan at the moment but hopefully in time they can be persauded as he really made a difference to our team.

Libasse Ngom

@karanhsingh your boy Ngom has really stepped up this season with 11 goals, 8 assists and had the best average rating for the club. 

He is excelling in his new role as an Attacking Midfielder.

Andy Varane has started strong for Lens who won the Ligue 2 title so he will be playing in the top of France next season and I am happy for him. 

I hope he goes on to play for France national team.

Next season is just to get up the table a bit higher so it feels like there is progress but I would be happy if we stay mid table again.

 

Pfft... Wilson didn't even score 30 goals Kidding. Nice job on the successful loan though, you never know how they'll go!

Impressive sale totals, that's a ton of money to bring in for Ligue 2 and as you say can really stabilize the club. Shame about Varane though, that would have been cool to have him in the side for 2 or 3 years before getting poached.

My players are so mediocre my sales total only 545k Euros in 3 transfer windows. Bakayoko 22yrs old with 63 league goals in 70 matches hasn't got a sniff Although I guess it does save me having to replace my good performers.

Edited February 20, 2023 by CaptCanuck

[Ronaldo Beckham]

9 hours ago, CaptCanuck said:

Pfft... Wilson didn't even score 30 goals Kidding. Nice job on the successful loan though, you never know how they'll go!

Impressive sale totals, that's a ton of money to bring in for Ligue 2 and as you say can really stabilize the club. Shame about Varane though, that would have been cool to have him in the side for 2 or 3 years before getting poached.

My players are so mediocre my sales total only 545k Euros in 3 transfer windows. Bakayoko 22yrs old with 63 league goals in 70 matches hasn't got a sniff Although I guess it does save me having to replace my good performers.

Yeah I would of loved to kept all the players I sold to build a team to progress the club but the finances at Le Mans like a lot of lower division teams are not the best and especially in France they are known as a nation of producing talented players so it just seemed like what would happen in real life.

I was very lucky to get the money I got for Varane, Ngom and N'Diaye. Hopefully Ngom and N'Diaye go onto to do well and get a big transfer so the club profits more.

I think I have been lucky with Le Mans and also I had a bit of knowledge of signing African players from Jogo's suggestions and videos I have watched on YouTube.

Ideally I want to have a team with 50% African hidden gems and 50% Academy players.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Yes I have changed jobs but here are the reasons why.

Troyes are a Ligue 1 side who have a better budget for me to bring African players and also produce better academy players.

I was doing terrible this season with Le Mans after selling my 3 best players and barely kept out of the relegation zone.

I was also constantly going over my wage budget to try improve the team.

I also fancied a change and Troyes seemed like the perfect team to take the next step.

The club was formed in 1986 so still a fairly new club. 

They have Superb Training Facilities and Excellent Youth Facilities. I do need to improve the youth recruitment and junior coaching though.

Media prediction of 14th but they currently lie 17th in the league. 

Their best line up also seems to set up perfectly for my Pochettino tactic I used for Le Mans.

Board expectations is to sign players under the age of 23, work within the wage budget and become an established Ligue 1 team.

The fans have higher expectations and want us to be a mid table team.

Finances aren't much better at Troyes with us projected to me over £30m in the red in the next 3 seasons.

My plan is to get that down as quickly as possible with player sales.

My 3 most highly transfer valued players are all classed as foreign so I will plan to sell them and promote within or sign players from the African leagues.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I just had a look at transfer clauses to sell to bring in extra money and found this nice one.

 

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I bought back an old friend in N'dri Phillipe Koffi for a bargain price of £64k

[CaptCanuck]

7 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Yes I have changed jobs but here are the reasons why.

Troyes are a Ligue 1 side who have a better budget for me to bring African players and also produce better academy players.

I was doing terrible this season with Le Mans after selling my 3 best players and barely kept out of the relegation zone.

I was also constantly going over my wage budget to try improve the team.

I also fancied a change and Troyes seemed like the perfect team to take the next step.

The club was formed in 1986 so still a fairly new club. 

They have Superb Training Facilities and Excellent Youth Facilities. I do need to improve the youth recruitment and junior coaching though.

Media prediction of 14th but they currently lie 17th in the league. 

Their best line up also seems to set up perfectly for my Pochettino tactic I used for Le Mans.

Board expectations is to sign players under the age of 23, work within the wage budget and become an established Ligue 1 team.

The fans have higher expectations and want us to be a mid table team.

Finances aren't much better at Troyes with us projected to me over £30m in the red in the next 3 seasons.

My plan is to get that down as quickly as possible with player sales.

My 3 most highly transfer valued players are all classed as foreign so I will plan to sell them and promote within or sign players from the African leagues.

 

Booooo! It's like that indie band you like during Uni that goes on to do ballads for Disney movies
Surely karma is setting up a Le Mans Troyes cup match now.

Edited February 21, 2023 by CaptCanuck

[Ronaldo Beckham]

6 hours ago, CaptCanuck said:

Booooo! It's like that indie band you like during Uni that goes on to do ballads for Disney movies
Surely karma is setting up a Le Mans Troyes cup match now.

Yeah I know but the players just didn't want to play for me anymore so I left before I got sacked.

Maybe one day I will return to Le Mans 

Yeah Le Mans will definitely beat me in cup lol.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I felt dirty leaving Le Mans FC for Troyes so I have decided to start a new French league save.

I looked a few teams with good youth facilities and looked at their notable players that have come through the club.

US Boulogne - Former players include Franck Ribery, Diafra Sakho & N'Golo Kante.

LB Chateauroux - Former players include Florent Malouda, Papiss Cisse & Rod Fanni

AS Nancy Lorraine - Former players include Michel Platini, Andre Luiz, Mustapha & Youseef Hadji

Nancy also a club Arsene Wenger manged.

Red Star FC - Former players include Alex Song, Moussa Sissoko, Abou Diaby & Steve Marlet

AS Nancy would be the easiest one out of the 4. Boulogne would be the hardest. 

I would pick Red Star FC but if I remember there are people in this thread that want to do a Red Star save so I don't want to put them off. 

This leaves me with one choice and that choice is LB Chateauroux.

Nice logo. Home shirt very similar to Crystal Palace's home kit.

They play at the Stade Gaston-Petit which in English is small Gaston stadium 

17,072 capacity stadium which usually averages 6,000-7,000 fans each game.

Chateauroux also have Excellent Training & Youth Facilities.

Above Average Youth Recruitment

Chateauroux are owned by Abdullah bin Mosaid Al Saud who is the founder of the United World Group which owns part of full ownership of a number of football clubs which are Sheffield Utd, Beerschot FC, Al-Hilal United, Kerala United and of course Chateauroux.

 

LB Chateauroux have not had much success but they did reach the Coupe de France final in 2003/2004 season losing to PSG 1-0.

They have only spent 1 season in the French Ligue 1 which was 1997-1998

Who was the manager that got them promoted you say ?

Well that man was French/Romanian coach Victor Zvunka who had 2 stints as Chateaurox manager. He was there from 1993-1998 & 2003-2005

He will be starting his 3rd stint at Chateauroux today.

I just spent the last half an hour trying to find a decent photo of his face to make my avatar as realistc as possible. That is his actual face on my avatar. 

Dediction indeed lol.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Ronaldo Beckham]

LB Chateauroux Club Overview

Club History

Best Line Up

Board & Fans Expectations

The board just want me to sign players that are under 23 years old, work within the wage budget and grow the clubs reputation. 

Oh and they also want me to gain automatic promotion to Ligue 2. Not asking for much are they lol.

The fans share the board's expectations of getting automatic promotion.

Hopefully I  can keep the board and fans happy.

Tactics

I am going to try to implement my Pochettino tactic. Hopefully the players take to it well.

Finances

Current finances look decent with £4m in the bank. Unfortunately we are set to be £5m in the red by the end of the 2024/2025 season. 

Hopefully that will get sorted if we get promoted first season.

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Ronaldo Beckham]

@Jogo Bonito I had enough wages to sign your boy Boah again.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Alioune Ndour

He has been immense for me. 7 goals in 6 games. He scored 4 in the last game I just played.

He is currently on loan with a future transfer of £250k to Chatearoux lined up next summer. 

 

[karanhsingh]

Wow looks like I missed a lot of action. @Ronaldo BeckhamI actually liked the Troyes move tbh, but Chateauroux is also a good club to start off with. Ndour looks like a beast for this level! Best of luck.

[karanhsingh]

A quick update from Le Havre... half-way through season 3

We find ourselves in a race for champions league qualification this year - currently 2nd in the league and while I don't expect to finish there it would be great to grab a top 4 place.

In the Europa we finished 13th which means a play-off spot so our European journey continues. 

Bundgaard has been excellent as our new striker and is currently top scorer having plundered 17 goals already. Thiare is not far behind him with 13 although more of his goals have been in the easier Europa games. Kitala also continues his fine form and Sahsah has been a revelation on the left and our most creative player.

I am quite happy, the team is gelling together nicely.

Oh and we also managed to link up with one of my favorite teams in the game for academy products:

[Ronaldo Beckham]

5 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Wow looks like I missed a lot of action. @Ronaldo BeckhamI actually liked the Troyes move tbh, but Chateauroux is also a good club to start off with. Ndour looks like a beast for this level! Best of luck.

Yeah I just felt like it was the wrong move and not what I wanted to do with the save.

I will probably do a save with Troyes at some point as I really enjoy managing in France.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

5 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

A quick update from Le Havre... half-way through season 3

We find ourselves in a race for champions league qualification this year - currently 2nd in the league and while I don't expect to finish there it would be great to grab a top 4 place.

In the Europa we finished 13th which means a play-off spot so our European journey continues. 

Bundgaard has been excellent as our new striker and is currently top scorer having plundered 17 goals already. Thiare is not far behind him with 13 although more of his goals have been in the easier Europa games. Kitala also continues his fine form and Sahsah has been a revelation on the left and our most creative player.

I am quite happy, the team is gelling together nicely.

Oh and we also managed to link up with one of my favorite teams in the game for academy products:

Well done with Le Havre. You are doing really well.

I dream of getting a Ivory Coast/Ghanian club as an affiliate.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

First season youth intake with Chateauroux has turned out a Golden Generation which was unexpected in my first season there but I aint complaining.

I like the look of Gerard Dembele.

[CaptCanuck]

On 21/02/2023 at 09:23, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I felt dirty leaving Le Mans FC for Troyes so I have decided to start a new French league save.

I looked a few teams with good youth facilities and looked at their notable players that have come through the club.

US Boulogne - Former players include Franck Ribery, Diafra Sakho & N'Golo Kante.

LB Chateauroux - Former players include Florent Malouda, Papiss Cisse & Rod Fanni

AS Nancy Lorraine - Former players include Michel Platini, Andre Luiz, Mustapha & Youseef Hadji

Nancy also a club Arsene Wenger manged.

Red Star FC - Former players include Alex Song, Moussa Sissoko, Abou Diaby & Steve Marlet

AS Nancy would be the easiest one out of the 4. Boulogne would be the hardest. 

I would pick Red Star FC but if I remember there are people in this thread that want to do a Red Star save so I don't want to put them off. 

This leaves me with one choice and that choice is LB Chateauroux.

Nice logo. Home shirt very similar to Crystal Palace's home kit.

They play at the Stade Gaston-Petit which in English is small Gaston stadium 

17,072 capacity stadium which usually averages 6,000-7,000 fans each game.

Chateauroux also have Excellent Training & Youth Facilities.

Above Average Youth Recruitment

Chateauroux are owned by Abdullah bin Mosaid Al Saud who is the founder of the United World Group which owns part of full ownership of a number of football clubs which are Sheffield Utd, Beerschot FC, Al-Hilal United, Kerala United and of course Chateauroux.

 

LB Chateauroux have not had much success but they did reach the Coupe de France final in 2003/2004 season losing to PSG 1-0.

They have only spent 1 season in the French Ligue 1 which was 1997-1998

Who was the manager that got them promoted you say ?

Well that man was French/Romanian coach Victor Zvunka who had 2 stints as Chateaurox manager. He was there from 1993-1998 & 2003-2005

He will be starting his 3rd stint at Chateauroux today.

I just spent the last half an hour trying to find a decent photo of his face to make my avatar as realistc as possible. That is his actual face on my avatar. 

Dediction indeed lol.

 

 

I know I feel better you've returned to a 'lesser' club
With a brand new 12000-seater getting built a couple seasons in that should set you up nicely for the Ligue 1 push. Weirdly their manager took a pop at us at the start of the 24/25 season saying how we were pants and going down. So while hopefully you do well, in my save I really want to thump them next month.

[CaptCanuck]

NIORT Season 3 (24/25) Start & Summer Transfer Window

Transfers

So how does the club get over the devastating final match day where we slid from 2nd to 6th? With some big summer signings of course!
And what happens when free agents turn you down, loanee clubs agree and the player doesn't or the player wants to come but the loanee club wants 50k a month? Well you end up with the transfer window we just had

Abdelli, the all-rounder AM we converted to a DM from the winter window was converted into a permanent member of the squad. 300k is a lot for Niort, but the 1.5k/pw wage was worth the initial outlay.
Speaking of AMs converted to DM, that's what Youssef has in store for himself. He didn't know it on the day but it's too late now. We're hoping he's not too lightweight, but we want a spark from the DLP role and hope he can provide it. Definitely no like for like replacement for the legend that is Charles Kabore, but sometimes you have to take what's available.

As the dates hint, we couldn't get anyone good (Cillard is 5th string CB cover) in and on deadline day we went back and got Matsima who played very well for us on loan last season and who we hope to sign on a free in January. Galves provided the RWB depth we haven't had in 2 seasons.

All in all, we moved some chairs around, lost our captain, and otherwise stayed the same, as the 18th highest wage bill in an 18 team league. Our 3.05M a half a million behind 17th Bastia and 15M behind Montpellier. 2 out of contract players in our squad indicates the overall 'strength'. It maybe best to convert our remaining 400k transfer budget into wage budget and sign up our starting 11 for as long as we can, we'll see how things are in Jan.

League start

Now to the league, well here we responded brilliantly to the end of last season by getting off to a cracking start. Bakayoko continues to Bakayoko; now with 71 Goals in 76 Matches for Niort. If his on-paper attributes were better we'd surely have lost him by now, as who wouldn't take a chance on a 6'4" 22yr old goal-a-game striker?

Edited February 22, 2023 by CaptCanuck

[Ronaldo Beckham]

50 minutes ago, CaptCanuck said:

I know I feel better you've returned to a 'lesser' club
With a brand new 12000-seater getting built a couple seasons in that should set you up nicely for the Ligue 1 push. Weirdly their manager took a pop at us at the start of the 24/25 season saying how we were pants and going down. So while hopefully you do well, in my save I really want to thump them next month.

Yeah I never saw it like that. I only picked them because they had good facilities. I never looked at their stadium until I did my introduction post 

Good start for you with Niort.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Jogo Bonito]

@CaptCanuck Obviously very unlucky how your last season finished up, but making a really good story with Niort. I like that it's taking time to get that success, lots of hard work and commitment but it will be a nice feeling when you get there. A cracking start to the new season, and Bakayoko is giving you real 'star quality' with those numbers. Personally I'd be willing on Lorient for the title, but with the likes of ASSE, Bordeaux and maybe even Montpellier, it will be tough competition.

@Ronaldo BeckhamBlimey. You've had more clubs in the last few days than I have had in FM23 combined! Shame you left Le Mans as I was really hoping you might get them to the top flight, but I can understand why you moved on. After your sojourn with Troyes, I hope you enjoy your time with the Castle-boys. Hopefully you might get more out of precious Percious too.

@karanhsingh It goes without saying that you're in a really good place there. I have yet to experience the mish-mash of the new European competition format, but I guess if you're still in it, there is little to complain about! KUTGW and good luck.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

LB Chateauroux Season 1 Review

Competitions

Best Players

Alioune Ndour

Ndour was amazing for me this season with 30 goals and also had the best average rating of 7.68. 

My aims for next season is to just stay up in Ligue 2 and the board agree.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@CaptCanuck Obviously very unlucky how your last season finished up, but making a really good story with Niort. I like that it's taking time to get that success, lots of hard work and commitment but it will be a nice feeling when you get there. A cracking start to the new season, and Bakayoko is giving you real 'star quality' with those numbers. Personally I'd be willing on Lorient for the title, but with the likes of ASSE, Bordeaux and maybe even Montpellier, it will be tough competition.

@Ronaldo BeckhamBlimey. You've had more clubs in the last few days than I have had in FM23 combined! Shame you left Le Mans as I was really hoping you might get them to the top flight, but I can understand why you moved on. After your sojourn with Troyes, I hope you enjoy your time with the Castle-boys. Hopefully you might get more out of precious Percious too.

@karanhsingh It goes without saying that you're in a really good place there. I have yet to experience the mish-mash of the new European competition format, but I guess if you're still in it, there is little to complain about! KUTGW and good luck.

Cheers mate. I didn't realize how many people were into me managing Le Mans to the top. I will definitely give Le Mans another try in the future.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

6 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Cheers mate. I didn't realize how many people were into me managing Le Mans to the top. I will definitely give Le Mans another try in the future.

 

Consider it a pit stop, and enjoy your new club in the meantime! 

[CaptCanuck]

On 21/02/2023 at 13:52, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Alioune Ndour

He has been immense for me. 7 goals in 6 games. He scored 4 in the last game I just played.

He is currently on loan with a future transfer of £250k to Chatearoux lined up next summer. 

 

This guy is a beast! Talk about your big, young, centre-forwards. He went 1 in 2 in the National league season and then had 27 in 37 in Ligue 2 in 23/24. He'll definitely start attracting some attention from the big clubs, he's ready for Ligue 1 now. Enjoy him while you've got him or at least give him a new shiny contract and hope he sticks around.

[Jogo Bonito]

34 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

LB Chateauroux Season 1 Review

Ndour was amazing for me this season with 30 goals and also had the best average rating of 7.68. My aims for next season is to just stay up in Ligue 2 and the board agree.

I missed this post but well done on a great season. Poor Le Mans, the jilted partners left to wallow in mid-table by their cold-hearted former manager.

Great contribution from Ndour, he looks an ideal striker for French lower league clubs.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

46 minutes ago, CaptCanuck said:

This guy is a beast! Talk about your big, young, centre-forwards. He went 1 in 2 in the National league season and then had 27 in 37 in Ligue 2 in 23/24. He'll definitely start attracting some attention from the big clubs, he's ready for Ligue 1 now. Enjoy him while you've got him or at least give him a new shiny contract and hope he sticks around.

Yeah he is immense and only 22 years old. I hope he makes the step up in Ligue 2.

39 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I missed this post but well done on a great season. Poor Le Mans, the jilted partners left to wallow in mid-table by their cold-hearted former manager.

Great contribution from Ndour, he looks an ideal striker for French lower league clubs.

Cheers mate. Yeah my promotion was bittersweet when Le Mans didn't do well.

Yeah Ndour seems like a player who will go onto play for bigger teams in FM and maybe in real life.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Bought in some familar players after been given a £1m transfer budget. 

Libasse Ngom

Amadou N'Diaye

I also have Prince Ndlovu coming in soon as well.

 

[CaptCanuck]

@Ronaldo Beckham - my scouts seem to be African-rich at the moment (December 2024), these 2 look like potential major contributors:

• Since he's out of range in Portugal you'll either have to pay for it, wait for your own scouts to get around to him or take my word for it  ... but if you need a LWB/FB Moustapha Seck from Senegal is very impressive. His wages aren't much and at least in 2024 wants to leave his club for playing time and is 'extremely interested' to come to Ligue 2 (either transfer or loan).
• Another guy my scouts just pointed out, Emmanuel Banda, all-rounder attacker (AF, W, AM, CM) from Zambia. Played Ligue 2 and then Sweden. Looks like he could be available out of contract or cheap transfer Jan '24 or Summer '24

[karanhsingh]

18 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Well done with Le Havre. You are doing really well.

I dream of getting a Ivory Coast/Ghanian club as an affiliate.

Or Senegalese! 

9 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@karanhsingh It goes without saying that you're in a really good place there. I have yet to experience the mish-mash of the new European competition format, but I guess if you're still in it, there is little to complain about! KUTGW and good luck.

Cheers. Mish-mash is putting it mildly tbh, but the good thing is that UCL clubs don't drop into the UEL anymore. So as a middling club you then actually have a chance of winning the thing.

9 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

LB Chateauroux Season 1 Review

Competitions

Best Players

Alioune Ndour

Ndour was amazing for me this season with 30 goals and also had the best average rating of 7.68. 

My aims for next season is to just stay up in Ligue 2 and the board agree.

 

Wow, that was quick! Well done 

4 hours ago, CaptCanuck said:

@Ronaldo Beckham - my scouts seem to be African-rich at the moment (December 2024), these 2 look like potential major contributors:

• Since he's out of range in Portugal you'll either have to pay for it, wait for your own scouts to get around to him or take my word for it  ... but if you need a LWB/FB Moustapha Seck from Senegal is very impressive. His wages aren't much and at least in 2024 wants to leave his club for playing time and is 'extremely interested' to come to Ligue 2 (either transfer or loan).
• Another guy my scouts just pointed out, Emmanuel Banda, all-rounder attacker (AF, W, AM, CM) from Zambia. Played Ligue 2 and then Sweden. Looks like he could be available out of contract or cheap transfer Jan '24 or Summer '24

Strangely, Seck is not on my save even though I loaded up most players from West Africa. Banda is already valued at over 10m!

[karanhsingh]

10 hours ago, CaptCanuck said:

NIORT Season 3 (24/25) Start & Summer Transfer Window

Transfers

So how does the club get over the devastating final match day where we slid from 2nd to 6th? With some big summer signings of course!
And what happens when free agents turn you down, loanee clubs agree and the player doesn't or the player wants to come but the loanee club wants 50k a month? Well you end up with the transfer window we just had

Abdelli, the all-rounder AM we converted to a DM from the winter window was converted into a permanent member of the squad. 300k is a lot for Niort, but the 1.5k/pw wage was worth the initial outlay.
Speaking of AMs converted to DM, that's what Youssef has in store for himself. He didn't know it on the day but it's too late now. We're hoping he's not too lightweight, but we want a spark from the DLP role and hope he can provide it. Definitely no like for like replacement for the legend that is Charles Kabore, but sometimes you have to take what's available.

As the dates hint, we couldn't get anyone good (Cillard is 5th string CB cover) in and on deadline day we went back and got Matsima who played very well for us on loan last season and who we hope to sign on a free in January. Galves provided the RWB depth we haven't had in 2 seasons.

All in all, we moved some chairs around, lost our captain, and otherwise stayed the same, as the 18th highest wage bill in an 18 team league. Our 3.05M a half a million behind 17th Bastia and 15M behind Montpellier. 2 out of contract players in our squad indicates the overall 'strength'. It maybe best to convert our remaining 400k transfer budget into wage budget and sign up our starting 11 for as long as we can, we'll see how things are in Jan.

League start

Now to the league, well here we responded brilliantly to the end of last season by getting off to a cracking start. Bakayoko continues to Bakayoko; now with 71 Goals in 76 Matches for Niort. If his on-paper attributes were better we'd surely have lost him by now, as who wouldn't take a chance on a 6'4" 22yr old goal-a-game striker?

Also I just checked and Ryan Bakayoko has a grand total of 2 career goals on my save... so well done for getting a beat out of him!

[Ronaldo Beckham]

8 hours ago, CaptCanuck said:

@Ronaldo Beckham - my scouts seem to be African-rich at the moment (December 2024), these 2 look like potential major contributors:

• Since he's out of range in Portugal you'll either have to pay for it, wait for your own scouts to get around to him or take my word for it  ... but if you need a LWB/FB Moustapha Seck from Senegal is very impressive. His wages aren't much and at least in 2024 wants to leave his club for playing time and is 'extremely interested' to come to Ligue 2 (either transfer or loan).
• Another guy my scouts just pointed out, Emmanuel Banda, all-rounder attacker (AF, W, AM, CM) from Zambia. Played Ligue 2 and then Sweden. Looks like he could be available out of contract or cheap transfer Jan '24 or Summer '24

Cheers for the recommendations. I have gone for Moustapha Seck. Hopefully have him signed up soon.

Unfortunately Emmanuel Banda has gone to HNK Rijeka on my save but I have shortlisted him and will look to bring him in if I get promoted to Ligue 1.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Unfortunately Seck wont come to me @CaptCanuck as Ligue 2 is beneath him lol. I will aim to bring him and Banda in if I get promoted to Ligue 1.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Anyone doing a French league save might want to look at bringing this player from Le Mans.

I know I got a decent amount for him in my Le Mans save but I just come across him on my LB Chateauroux save and he is currently at Napoli.

Only cost Napoli £150k and currently valued at £23-£27m. I hope Le Mans got a % of the next transfer as he looks like he will go on to become a star player for a big Europeon club.

 

[CaptCanuck]

2 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Unfortunately Seck wont come to me @CaptCanuck as Ligue 2 is beneath him lol. I will aim to bring him and Banda in if I get promoted to Ligue 1.

Ha! Give him another season when he's stuck playing on their B team and hopefully he'll be happy to get out.

I decided to kick the tires Dec/Jan transfer window (24/25) just to make sure I'm not over-estimating his gettableness :-) If I didn't have a LWB I'd use 1 of my 2 self-imposed 'foreigner' slots for him:

[CaptCanuck]

7 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Also I just checked and Ryan Bakayoko has a grand total of 2 career goals on my save... so well done for getting a beat out of him!

Ya it's one of those weird things, where he just fits at the 'tip of the spear' so to speak, enough pace, big hops, tall, and with important composure and determination. He sat on the bench the first 10 matches of season 1, lol and TBF he can flat-track bully lesser clubs with his physicals, which was really apparent season 1 with a lot of poor teams.
If I was looking for a striker I'd never have picked him up based on these abilities. He's doing what you'd expect the attributes of a player like Alioune Ndour to do.

With Seck, I am assuming it's because he's never been capped and only played in Europe and most of that in Sweden? I've not been able to find a few folks mentioned in this thread as well.

Edited February 23, 2023 by CaptCanuck

[CaptCanuck]

Niort Season 3 Update (Winter window and first half of the season)

Like the previous season, the fast start cooled, but at the end of the transfer window we're sitting nicely in 2nd. Les Verts went on an 11 match unbeaten run to take first, while Lorient have 5 straight draws after beating us with 2 stoppage time goals. Speaking of late goals, that's our dropped points via losses and draws below, notice a pattern? To say some of those have been frustrating would be underselling it a bit, especially ASSE, Lorient, and Bordeaux; those were roll the chair away from the laptop moments.

Winter Window

After the damp squib summer window, the winter window saw things actually happen, including making "proper" (for Niort) money on sales, collecting 800K from our starting RWB who was going to play out his contract and a promising teenage CB who had ideas above his station.

To offset that we added Alakouch from Metz to be our new starting RWB. We give up a bit of physicality and defense and gain some technically and in attack. Although listening to these 2 you'd think we're too attack focused:

And then finally, we found ourselves a midfield reducer in Nuno Pina! Since the more esteemed Ligue 2 clubs kept nicking our attempted loans and signings, I took a page out of Todd Boehly's book. I saw that the lesser Ligue 2 teams during the last day of the transfer window were getting players from the Portuguese 2nd division, so I went to the league's leading tackler stats and went for another half-blind foreigner transfer, since it worked out well with the keeper. I could see the range of his attributes and he was in the last 6 months of his contract... it was meant to be.

He's proper old school Nigel De Jong type and not like the modern all-rounders, so we'll see if he helps or hurts. If it's not working out, we can try him on the right-side of the back 3 and if worse comes to worse, we sell him in the summer and hopefully break even or make a few Euros.

13 league matches left, after an 11th round cup match with Lyon... we start the run in against ASSE let's see how it goes!

Edited February 24, 2023 by CaptCanuck

[karanhsingh]

6 hours ago, CaptCanuck said:

Niort Season 3 Update (Winter window and first half of the season)

Like the previous season, the fast start cooled, but at the end of the transfer window we're sitting nicely in 2nd. Les Verts went on an 11 match unbeaten run to take first, while Lorient have 5 straight draws after beating us with 2 stoppage time goals. Speaking of late goals, that's our dropped points via losses and draws below, notice a pattern? To say some of those have been frustrating would be underselling it a bit, especially ASSE, Lorient, and Bordeaux; those were roll the chair away from the laptop moments.

Winter Window

After the damp squib summer window, the winter window saw things actually happen, including making "proper" (for Niort) money on sales, collecting 800K from our starting RWB who was going to play out his contract and a promising teenage CB who had ideas above his station.

To offset that we added Alakouch from Metz to be our new starting RWB. We give up a bit of physicality and defense and gain some technically and in attack. Although listening to these 2 you'd think we're too attack focused:

And then finally, we found ourselves a midfield reducer in Nuno Pina! Since the more esteemed Ligue 2 clubs kept nicking our attempted loans and signings, I took a page out of Todd Boehly's book. I saw that the lesser Ligue 2 teams during the last day of the transfer window were getting players from the Portuguese 2nd division, so I went to the league's leading tackler stats and went for another half-blind foreigner transfer, since it worked out well with the keeper. I could see the range of his attributes and he was in the last 6 months of his contract... it was meant to be.

He's proper old school Nigel De Jong type and not like the modern all-rounders, so we'll see if he helps or hurts. If it's not working out, we can try him on the right-side of the back 3 and if worse comes to worse, we sell him in the summer and hopefully break even or make a few Euros.

13 league matches left, after an 11th round cup match with Lyon... we start the run in against ASSE let's see how it goes!

Good going there, although I see my main man Jamal Thiare got one over you  

But hope you can stay in the top 2 till the end of the season... play-offs in France are a real pain in the you know what.

Your new Cape Verdean destroyer looks good!

[karanhsingh]

So at Le Havre, we are now at the end of season 3. Here is a quick catch-up.

The second half of the season started well, but then turned into a bit of a train wreck.

I really am not sure what happened, but I am hoping it's not the tactic as I'd like to continue with the same shape next season. Also tbf we did have a tough run of games. In the Europa league, we fought hard but went out against eventual winners Dortmund.

Somehow though, while we slipped down from 2nd position in the league, we still managed to just about stay in the top 4 and thereby secure Champions League qualification for next season.

In terms of player performances, our Danish duo of Bundgaard and Sahsah were both excellent. Bundgaard in fact finished as the 3rd top scorer in the league and totally grabbed 27 goals for us this season. Sahsah got 9 goals + 11 assists and helped himself to 2nd spot in the NxtGn list. Kitala & Thiare also hit double figures for goals. Joao Neves was immense in midfield and is now valued at over 50m, I am interested to see if any big clubs come in for him this summer. At the back, it was a real break-out year for Amadou N'Diaye who is finally coming into his own ( @Ronaldo Beckham) and Arouna Sangante our home-grown youngster continues to be an absolute rock for us.

[karanhsingh]

Also we had a much better in-take this year, and we may have our first bona fide star to come through the academy.

Yes, I have high hopes for Ayao Ayivi, a young French-Togolese DM who can also play at the back. In fact, I plan to groom him as a ball playing center half and will definitely be giving him a debut soon indeed. This is also one of the reasons I hope to continue with the current 3-4-3 formation so he can slot in easier into one of the wide roles.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Nice to see N'Diaye doing well for you.

He is doing well for me at LB Chateauroux as well.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Everything is coming up Millhouse at LB Chateauroux with us in a title race with Le Havre who are 5 points ahead of us as we will settle in 2nd place after 16 league games played.

Our main man Alioune Ndour is destroying Ligue 2 with 15 goals in 10 games so far.

He is a goal machine and still only 22 years old.

I would love to keep him at the club for the next 10 years and have him set club and league records.

[CaptCanuck]

5 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Good going there, although I see my main man Jamal Thiare got one over you  

But hope you can stay in the top 2 till the end of the season... play-offs in France are a real pain in the you know what.

Your new Cape Verdean destroyer looks good!

Ha! Yeah since we took Kitala, someone else had to score their goals

We had a predictable loss to OL in the Cup, but 1st Ligue 2 match post window and we thump ASSE to leap frog them into 1st place. New guy scores his first goal and gets in the team of the week! If only you could have a new player every week for their inevitable 'debut goal'.

ETA: Followed by the other inevitability of a new signing

Edited February 24, 2023 by CaptCanuck

[CaptCanuck]

4 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

So at Le Havre, we are now at the end of season 3. Here is a quick catch-up.

The second half of the season started well, but then turned into a bit of a train wreck.

I really am not sure what happened, but I am hoping it's not the tactic as I'd like to continue with the same shape next season. Also tbf we did have a tough run of games. In the Europa league, we fought hard but went out against eventual winners Dortmund.

Somehow though, while we slipped down from 2nd position in the league, we still managed to just about stay in the top 4 and thereby secure Champions League qualification for next season.

In terms of player performances, our Danish duo of Bundgaard and Sahsah were both excellent. Bundgaard in fact finished as the 3rd top scorer in the league and totally grabbed 27 goals for us this season. Sahsah got 9 goals + 11 assists and helped himself to 2nd spot in the NxtGn list. Kitala & Thiare also hit double figures for goals. Joao Neves was immense in midfield and is now valued at over 50m, I am interested to see if any big clubs come in for him this summer. At the back, it was a real break-out year for Amadou N'Diaye who is finally coming into his own ( @Ronaldo Beckham) and Arouna Sangante our home-grown youngster continues to be an absolute rock for us.

That's an impressive season with or without the slide. Always good to have those secondary goal sources.

Your league table has me less worried than I'd previous been about surviving promotion if it comes. PSG clearly ahead, then a half-dozen quality sides and then a bunch of dross. Looks like the last 6 or 7 spots in the table could go in any order.

It was nice of you to take it easy on Derry City in the return leg :-)

[Ronaldo Beckham]

This seasons youth intake wasn't as good as last seasons with just 2 x Elite Talents coming through but that is still potentially very good players for the club and some good players that could get better.

My Elite Talents

Fred Koutangouna

Romain Chabrier

[Ronaldo Beckham]

LB Chateauroux Season 2 Review

Competitions

Back to back promotions was an awesome achievement but I was so close to winning the Ligue 2 title. @karanhsingh your bloody Le Havre pipped me to the title by 1 point 

Best Players

Alioune Ndour

Alioune Ndour is an absolute beast of a player and a definite weapon up front with 43 goals from 30 games this season.

He also got the best average rating for the club with an 8.07

Signing Of The Season

Souaibou Marou - Free Transfer From Coton Sport

9 goals from 7 games. He would of got more if it wasn't for having Ndour up front. Can definitely score more next season if I give him more game time.

I have no idea what is going to happen in my first season in Ligue 1. I imagine the step up wont be an easy one. I will just hope to stay in Ligue 1 by the end of next season.

The board just want me to attempt to avoid relegation so they must think it will be a miracle if we stay up.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Record Sale For LB Chateauroux

£9m for a player I signed on a free transfer. £5m upfront with the rest in installments with 25% profit on the next transfer.

He was an amazing find from Nigerian side Remo Stars.

I will soley miss him but he wanted Champions League football and I couldn't guarantee it him as soon as he wanted so I sold him while his stock was still high.

My team is a lot weaker without him and unfortunetely the small amount of the transfer I got I had to put in the wage budget. 

Hopefully I can find another hidden gem in Africa to replace him.

I also managed to sign a former FM legend for me inParfait Guiagon who scored the winning goal for me in the Coupe de France final for FC Metz.

I can also sign him on a permanent deal for £2.7m.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Ronaldo Beckham

[karanhsingh]

11 hours ago, CaptCanuck said:

That's an impressive season with or without the slide. Always good to have those secondary goal sources.

Your league table has me less worried than I'd previous been about surviving promotion if it comes. PSG clearly ahead, then a half-dozen quality sides and then a bunch of dross. Looks like the last 6 or 7 spots in the table could go in any order.

It was nice of you to take it easy on Derry City in the return leg :-)

Thank you! Haha yes re Derry City we pretty much played our youth side in the return fixture. I'm quite happy with the season overall certainly, just hoping the end of season form does not carry over. 

4 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

LB Chateauroux Season 2 Review

Competitions

Back to back promotions was an awesome achievement but I was so close to winning the Ligue 2 title. @karanhsingh your bloody Le Havre pipped me to the title by 1 point 

Best Players

Alioune Ndour

Alioune Ndour is an absolute beast of a player and a definite weapon up front with 43 goals from 30 games this season.

He also got the best average rating for the club with an 8.07

Signing Of The Season

Souaibou Marou - Free Transfer From Coton Sport

9 goals from 7 games. He would of got more if it wasn't for having Ndour up front. Can definitely score more next season if I give him more game time.

I have no idea what is going to happen in my first season in Ligue 1. I imagine the step up wont be an easy one. I will just hope to stay in Ligue 1 by the end of next season.

The board just want me to attempt to avoid relegation so they must think it will be a miracle if we stay up.

 

Wow well done Le Havre! And of course you as well Ligue 1 is not that bad. Will definitely stay up.