Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 Investing money when we're in the black and making a profit anyway is a very good early sign! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 I've got a raise from £150 p/w to £210 p/w, but I'm still by far the lowest paid manager in the league. For comparison, Riga's Tamaz Pertia is on £4,6K p/w, which is even more than the national team was paying me! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga A little bit of everything, we're certainly not the juggernaut we were in the middle part of the season anymore. Frustratingly, we threw away a two-goal lead to lose at Valmiera. Latvijas Kauss Yes! Proper cup drama in this tie against our fierce rivals. We grabbed the lead, then fell behind, then equalised in the 94th minute to take the game to extra time, then somehow miraculously avoided conceding twice towards the end of that extra time, and finally won on penalties. Get in! In the final we're up against RFS. This is Metta's second ever cup final appearance after a defeat in 2024. Youth Intake Meh. Puriņš does have some decent starting attributes, but his poor personality and low determination make him very unlikely to develop. Rolands Puriņš Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 They've never finished above 6th before, so this season is already quite an achievement. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 The new board want me to maintain the best youth system in the country (which we apparently now have). It's good that they're backing it up with upgrades, we now have exceptional junior coaching and excellent youth recruitment. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 The big day has arrived. RFS are the favourites here, obviously, but as you all know, on a good day we're a team that can beat anyone. We need to be at our best here, that's for sure. There's also the additional context of the long-time RFS manager Viktors Morozs being under heavy pressure despite having advanced to the Europa Conference League group stage. Seeing as they're in a terrible position in the league, this could be the game that tips the scales one way or the other. As for us, there's no pressure here really. It would be great to round off this season with some silverware, but if we lose, the world isn't going to end and that's also what I told the players. Let's get out there and enjoy the moment. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 What a **** way to lose the final. We gave them a good, even game, but as soon as we lost our main man Lizunovs, I knew we weren't going to edge it out. To make things worse, our young left back Salkic gave away a cheap penalty to allow RFS to take the lead from the spot. We managed to equalise after half time, unfortunately they got another goal and we just couldn't find a response to that. Well, I guess it wasn't to be. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga Two good wins against lower half teams combined with Auda's shock defeat to Jelgava put us above our rivals in the table. We need a point in our final game at home against Riga to ensure we finish 2nd without looking over at Auda's game against BFC. Latvijas Kauss We're left wondering what could have been if Lizunovs hadn't come off injured. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga A disallowed goal in the first half, an unlucky deflection that allowed Riga to take the lead right after the break, a dubious second yellow card for Rozentals, and a poorly defended stoppage time corner have cost us here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 3rd place and an ECL berth is nothing to sneeze at unless you end up playing Conwy in the Play in rounds. LOL! The ECL money should help you build up the squad. It was life changing for Conwy and we didn't even make the main group stage. (We took home over $1.2M) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Review - 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga Results (Mar-May) - Results (Jun-Sep) - Results (Oct-Nov) Competition Performance: 3rd Given the club's stature and our pre-season expectations, I'm happy with how we did in the league. We introduced a few talented young players into the team and brought in some reinforcements to guide those youngsters, and that philosophy fired the club right up to its best ever league finish and highest ever points total. We're also going to make our debut in European competition, which is another great milestone. Latvijas Kauss Competition Performance: Runners-up A very good cup run for us, we eliminated two strong sides before falling to an unlucky defeat in the final. Squad (1) - Squad (2) Like I said last season, there are some standout players in here that pretty much single-handedly decide games for us. Our policy is to introduce our own academy products into the first team and also bring in talented youth players from other Latvian clubs and we've done well to rejuvenate the squad this season. We could spend some money in winter, improve our quality and maybe even push for the title, but we're going to continue our policy with maybe a few additions here and there. Ņikita Parfjonovs and Deniss Stradiņš are getting released at the end of their contracts. Transfers (1) - Transfers (2) - Finances I'm reasonably happy with our transfer dealings. Lizunovs tore the league apart while Sulainis and Aizgrāvis significantly improved our quality. On the other hand, our record transfer Papakuls has been a huge disappointment so far. We've made a profit despite spending over £1M on upgrading our facilities, which is amazing for a club of our stature. We're also starting to spend plenty of cash on maintaining our youth system since the last upgrades though. Player of the Season 1st - Valerijs Lizunovs - he's the perfect striker for our systems and he has the numbers to back it up. 28 goals in the league alone made him the competition's top scorer with an incredible average of one goal per 75 minutes. His injury in the cup final will forever be written in Metta's history as a huge "what if"... unless we come back next year and win the damn thing! 2nd - Dmitrijs Bitāns - okay, I certainly didn't see that one coming! I promoted this youngster from our academy mostly to make up the numbers, initially I never meant him to feature in more than a few occasional games here and there. However, once he got his chance, he proved that it's him who deserves a spot in the starting XI. He's been developing at a crazy pace, and 12 assists in the league is a new club record. I'm really excited for this lad! 3rd - Peter Jacko - a good season for our Slovakian winger. Some decent performances both in the league and in the cup, although admittedly there were also games where he kind of switched off and didn't really do much to help us. If he can be a little bit more consistent next season, he's going to be one of our stars. Next Season Continue to improve and stay true to our identity and philosophy. We should be aiming to consolidate as a top half side, maybe challenge for the European spots again if things go well. At the same time I'm still looking at the RFS job though. Morozs hasn't been fired after the final league game, but his status remains insecure. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 32 minutes ago, Hootieleece said: 3rd place and an ECL berth is nothing to sneeze at unless you end up playing Conwy in the Play in rounds. LOL! The ECL money should help you build up the squad. It was life changing for Conwy and we didn't even make the main group stage. (We took home over $1.2M) Thanks mate! The money will certainly come in handy, although I'm probably going to invest it in the facilities rather than transfers. Last season we spent about a tenth of our budget because of the philosophy I'm following. We're not big spenders and it's not going to change regardless of how well we can do in Europe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 Up to adequate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 It has happened! A long-time servant, having joined the club as an assistant manager in 2019 and taken over a year after, has been fired after managing just over 500 games. A big moment for RFS... and potentially a chance for me to take over at the one club I really want to manage. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 It seems like we got another upgrade. I got no further confirmation, but a massive £1,4M has been taken out of our account. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 Nice work at Metta after leaving the national Job. RFS is clearly somewhere you want to go. But I feel like you’ve started a nice project at Metta and the board seem to be backing you. Big decisions….. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 Go for RFS. You can easily take them further 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 5 hours ago, SixPointer said: Nice work at Metta after leaving the national Job. RFS is clearly somewhere you want to go. But I feel like you’ve started a nice project at Metta and the board seem to be backing you. Big decisions….. Thanks mate! It's a big decision indeed, however I'm always going for the realistic approach here. RFS have much more resources, a bigger reputation and are basically the biggest club in Latvia now. It could take a few seasons to get Metta to this point, even though I feel it would be enjoyable and the project could be a really interesting one. On the other hand, with RFS I could do a similar thing, but on a much bigger scale. I've applied for the job and we're going to see what happens. 4 hours ago, Deisler26 said: Go for RFS. You can easily take them further That's the intention here, hopefully their board see it the same way as you do! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 They took their time, but finally after almost a month's wait I've got my interview offer. And while I may not have won any silverware yet, I hope guiding relegation-threatened teams to cup finals and top three finishes in the league can convince the board that I'm the guy for the job! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 I eventually signed for £700 p/w. Still pittance compared to some other managers' earnings, but I guess I have to prove myself first. Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - New Club - FK RFS This is a huge moment and a turning point for the save. I've got a proper big job now and it's time to bring in some silverware. Club Name: FK Rigas Futbola Skola Nickname: RFS Year Founded: 2016 Status: Professional Stadium: Valdas Dambrauskas Arena (5,546 all-seater) I both like and don't like the squad at the same time. We have plenty of quality in pretty much every position apart from goalkeeper (one of the first things I'm going to have to address). We have some amazing players for this league, the best ones according to the coaches being Baudouin Van Winckel, Romāns Pakulis, and Pablo Moreno. On the other hand, many of those players are European foreigners with little re-sale potential and we just don't seem to have enough Latvians in the squad. I'm going to try and reshape this a little bit, focusing not only on domestic talent, but also bringing in young players from outside of Europe to become a gateway for them to the bigger leagues on the continent. I might also sign an experienced, established player every once in a while, but mostly it's going to be all about developing players and selling them for a profit. That's the philosophy I'll be looking to instill while at RFS. As you can see, we're the most reputable club in Latvia and I'm going to do everything in my might to keep it that way. I've already outlined my idea for this project in the paragraph above. The board also want me to sign players from local rivals and sign players under 23 for the first team, both of which I'll be happy to do. This is the big one, guys. All aboard! 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Preview - 2034 - FK RFS Board Expectations: Virslīga: Challenge for the title Latvijas Kauss: Win it UEFA Europa Conference League: Be competitive My Expectations: Virslīga: Win it outright, no questions asked. Latvijas Kauss: Win it. UEFA Europa Conference League: We're in the league path, so we might get an impossible draw and crash out early on. Let's just try and get as far as we can. Budgets: Transfer: £5,706,102 Wage: £65,119 (currently spending £46,690) Balance: £6,341,295 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 Well done getting the RFS job and good luck with the season ahead! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 2 hours ago, ToMexico!! said: Well done getting the RFS job and good luck with the season ahead! Thank you! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 Making RFS a steppingstone club is a realistic vision for the future. I hope it goes well for you. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 3 hours ago, Hootieleece said: Making RFS a steppingstone club is a realistic vision for the future. I hope it goes well for you. Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Pre-Season - 2034 - FK RFS Friendlies A perfect pre-season, including two big wins against domestic opposition. Some of you may have also noticed a familiar name on one of the scoresheets. Transfers Five in and eight out as we make a decent profit and make the squad a little bit more domestic-based. Dainis Strods - an RFS academy product that I brought to Grobiņas back in the day and that I gave his international debut finally returns home. Dmitrijs Bitāns - I couldn't pass up on him after I saw his development last season. Aleksandrs Kalniņš - another hopeful one for the future. Sergejs Šabala - I might have overpaid a bit here, but he'll get his chance to prove himself at centre back. Jeremias Machava - he didn't really impress on loan at Riga last season, but I have faith in him. In addition, Andrejs Vasiljevs was promoted to the first team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 15, 2023 Author Share Posted November 15, 2023 Yet another thing to be excited about as we open our new stadium, named after a club legend Valdas Dambrauskas. I've already posted about him in the FMCU General Discussion thread, this guy is a proper legend and a name that should be much bigger among the FM community. Basically he's a Lithuanian with no real playing past who decided to become a football manager. He won some money on a Lithuanian game show similar to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and travelled to England to earn his badges and also a university degree. Then he returned to Lithuania and after successful periods with the national U19 side, Ekranas, and Žalgiris Vilnius he moved to RFS, where he worked as the manager for three years and won the Latvijas Kauss in 2019. From then on it's been a proper FM-esque journey for him as he was snapped up by HNK Gorica in Croatia, then he moved to the Bulgarian giants Ludogorets, then to the legendary Hajduk back in Croatia and now he's ended up at OFI in Greece. I can say his story has been inspiring, both for this thread and for me personally. All hail Valdas Dambrauskas! 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 16, 2023 Author Share Posted November 16, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2034 - FK RFS Virslīga A solid start with two wins from two, the only team yet to concede. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomD Posted November 16, 2023 Share Posted November 16, 2023 Congrats on the move to the mighty RFS! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 16, 2023 Author Share Posted November 16, 2023 32 minutes ago, DomD said: Congrats on the move to the mighty RFS! Thank you! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 16, 2023 Author Share Posted November 16, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - April 2034 - FK RFS Virslīga Look at all these clean sheets! That's definitely something I'm not used to on this FM and something that doesn't seem to happen very often on this match engine. We're absolutely flying at the moment. The highlights of the month were Machava's hat-trick at Valmiera and Bitāns' performance at Riga, where he assisted Machava 19 seconds into the game before banging in two goals himself. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherwinriga Posted November 16, 2023 Share Posted November 16, 2023 On 15/11/2023 at 07:28, Rikulec said: What a **** way to lose the final. We gave them a good, even game, but as soon as we lost our main man Lizunovs, I knew we weren't going to edge it out. To make things worse, our young left back Salkic gave away a cheap penalty to allow RFS to take the lead from the spot. We managed to equalise after half time, unfortunately they got another goal and we just couldn't find a response to that. Well, I guess it wasn't to be. I'm not impressed with that loss when you're still in Metta, but I'm surprised that you finally got the hot seat to manage that team recently! I hope that you'll finally turn things around for RFS because this is definitely going to be more exciting that you'll lead them to Latvian dominance for sure! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 16, 2023 Author Share Posted November 16, 2023 13 minutes ago, sherwinriga said: I'm not impressed with that loss when you're still in Metta, but I'm surprised that you finally got the hot seat to manage that team recently! I hope that you'll finally turn things around for RFS because this is definitely going to be more exciting that you'll lead them to Latvian dominance for sure! At least that loss gave RFS European football this season, so there's an upside. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 16, 2023 Author Share Posted November 16, 2023 We're breaking records already. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 16, 2023 Author Share Posted November 16, 2023 The previous one was a club record, now we've got the league record as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 16, 2023 Author Share Posted November 16, 2023 We're up to good junior coaching and above average youth recruitment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 16, 2023 Author Share Posted November 16, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - May 2034 - FK RFS Virslīga Complete and utter domination. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 Boo, we have a poor intake coming up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 Some positive news on the European front though as we get an opponent from either Armenia or Kosovo, we should be the favourites either way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - June 2034 - FK RFS Virslīga We've reached the halfway point of the season and only dropped points once. Only a total disaster could stop us. Transfers We raise over £900K in player sales, reduce our wage bill, and also offload some deadwood. Rosa was a good starting player, but he can be replaced. Four new players in. Some big club names on that list, even if it's the Uruguayan Liverpool FC. Dane Ireland - his contract ran out and his agent came to us. Could break into the starting XI if he develops well. Matthew Bolanos - a no-risk punt. Maybe he can grow and play a role for our first team, maybe not. One way or the other, I like that we now have a player from Gibraltar. Pedro Hernández - that's the kind of player I want to sign. Hopefully we can help him develop and move on to a bigger European league. Mortan Olsen - we snap up a decent young Faroese winger from lower league Jelgava. He should get his chance to shine in the first team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 Shrewd moves in the transfer market. I hope they pay off 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 11 minutes ago, Deisler26 said: Shrewd moves in the transfer market. I hope they pay off So far I've struggled to really implement my desired transfer strategy due to a poor reputation, we just can't attract the calibre of players that would make us bigger money in the long run. We probably need a couple of league titles and regular appearances in the European group stages to really get this going. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 We beat one more club record. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - July 2034 - FK RFS Virslīga Oh **** off. Poor match sharpness after the World Cup break, too much rotation and general bad luck all come together to ensure we don't finish the season unbeaten. Of course it came right after I posted about the record too. Latvijas Kauss An easy win against lower league opposition. UEFA Europa Conference League It was a bit closer than the scoreline suggests, but clinical finishing has put us in a very good position going into the return leg. Transfers Four more players out as we keep bringing in money. One old player returns to the club and another one is going to stay a little bit longer. Adewale Oladoye - an experienced midfielder who played for RFS for six years before leaving for the Slovakian league returns to Latvia to become a valuable rotation option. Renārs Dusmanovs - there's another Latvian left back I really want to sign, but he won't be available until the end of the season, hence the loan back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherwinriga Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Rikulec said: Virslīga Oh **** off. Poor match sharpness after the World Cup break, too much rotation and general bad luck all come together to ensure we don't finish the season unbeaten. Of course it came right after I posted about the record too. Oof. That's a slap to the face after losing that game to one of the worst teams in the league this season SMH. I hope that you'll expect some payback on them as long as you can take your frustrations out there and become aggressive to win again. <facepalms> Are you also going to post the World Cup results from 2026 to 2034? I want to see how does it looked like and how Latvia been doing well at that time. Can't wait to see some of your players going to play there in the near future as long as you develop them to the top! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 10 hours ago, sherwinriga said: Oof. That's a slap to the face after losing that game to one of the worst teams in the league this season SMH. I hope that you'll expect some payback on them as long as you can take your frustrations out there and become aggressive to win again. <facepalms> Are you also going to post the World Cup results from 2026 to 2034? I want to see how does it looked like and how Latvia been doing well at that time. Can't wait to see some of your players going to play there in the near future as long as you develop them to the top! A time will surely come when we give Super Nova a proper beating, be sure of that! Here are the World Cup winners: And the Euros: Latvia haven't come anywhere close to qualifying for any major competition. In fact, they've dropped to 137th in the world ranking and even drew a game against San Marino. Things are not looking good there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 18, 2023 Author Share Posted November 18, 2023 We're putting some of our money to good use. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted November 18, 2023 Share Posted November 18, 2023 Absolutely flying at RFS! Shame about the defeat, but helps keep the feet on the ground. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 18, 2023 Author Share Posted November 18, 2023 4 hours ago, SixPointer said: Absolutely flying at RFS! Shame about the defeat, but helps keep the feet on the ground. Thanks! It would probably be too much to ask for an unbeaten season at the first time of asking! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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