[FM24] Dievs, svētī Latviju

[Hanys]

As much as I would love to see Kolejorz with some European silverware, moving to Ajax seems to be a no-brainer. Legendary club, fantastic facilities, high reputation and budget, perfect to settle down for several seasons and eventually winning the Champions League. Also, probably no board that would sell your best player in the middle of the season...

With AZ you're the one to make the club legendary, even if they have already managed to establish themselves as a power in the Netherlands, there's still something missing. On the other hand, Lech doesn't seem to miss much when compared with AZ, it's mostly the league that needs to catch up.

Curious what you're going to choose, no bad choices here really.

[Rikulec]

On 15/12/2023 at 10:57, Hanys said:

As much as I would love to see Kolejorz with some European silverware, moving to Ajax seems to be a no-brainer. Legendary club, fantastic facilities, high reputation and budget, perfect to settle down for several seasons and eventually winning the Champions League. Also, probably no board that would sell your best player in the middle of the season...

With AZ you're the one to make the club legendary, even if they have already managed to establish themselves as a power in the Netherlands, there's still something missing. On the other hand, Lech doesn't seem to miss much when compared with AZ, it's mostly the league that needs to catch up.

Curious what you're going to choose, no bad choices here really.

Thanks for the input, you've got this pretty much spot on. Given everything you've said, I think the decision here is quite obvious.

[Rikulec]

You just don't say no to a club like Ajax. The board immediately accepted my demands of a £10K p/w wage, so I'm finally going to start making some proper money.

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - New Club - AFC Ajax

We're at a proper big club now.

Club Name: AFC Ajax
Nickname: De Godenzonen
Year Founded: 1900
Status: Professional
Stadium: Johan Cruyff ArenA (55,500 all-seater)

That's a good squad to start with, if a bit too big for my liking. Our star players are Nio Laevaert, Agustin Villegas and Alberto Carreras. They all seem to fit my system perfectly, which makes me really excited!

The club culture is so specific here that there's not enough space on my small screen to fit in all competition expectations! In addition to what you can see here, we're also expected to reach the latter stages of the cup. The board want me to develop young players and make a profit on transfers each season. Sounds like I've come to the right place!

The league has certainly been an interesting one since the start of the save with four teams seemingly battling it out for the title. No one has won it more than five times during this period, which shows that there's no real dominant force in the Netherlands at the moment. Perhaps it's time to change it. Right now we sit in 7th, just three points off 3rd. However, only a top two finish will give us a chance to fight for a Champions League place, so that's what we should be aiming for.

On a side note, I'm not the first Latvian manager in the Eredivisie! Former national team manager Dainis Kazakevičs is trying to keep Sparta Rotterdam up in a tough relegation dogfight. Fingers crossed he can do it!

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2037 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

A positive start with two dominant wins and two clean sheets. We've moved up to 5th, although the teams above us aren't dropping any points at the moment.

UEFA Europa League

We dominated the game, but couldn't take our chances and failed to score despite having almost 20 shots.

[Rikulec]

Given that I'm at Ajax now, I really hope than those A ratings might turn up as real wonderkids!

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - December 2037 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

Our great form continues and we close the gap to the top two, it's just three points between us and Feyenoord and Vitesse now. Granted, we haven't played any of the strong teams so far, but I believe it's just as crucial to keep winning against the weaker sides and that's precisely what we've been doing, not allowing ourselves to drop any stupid points that could cost us later on.

KNVB Beker

A comfortable victory over a lower league amateur side.

We got a favourable draw in the next round, we're hosting MVV Maastricht.

UEFA Europa League

What a result! Probably the biggest scalp of the save so far, and a well deserved win as well. It took us a while to break the deadlock despite creating a couple of great chances in the first half, but in the 74th minute finally a powerful strike following a poorly cleared corner gave us the lead and then we dealt the final blow with one of the last kicks (or headers, to be precise) of the game. We're already guaranteed progression and we've got two winnable games in January, so we might be looking at a bye straight to the round of 16.

[Hootieleece]

Do you play Lech by chance?

I see you also jumped on the Ajax train? Are you going to use any ideas from @MattyLewis11 thread in yours?

[Rikulec]

12 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Do you play Lech by chance?

I see you also jumped on the Ajax train? Are you going to use any ideas from @MattyLewis11 thread in yours?

Not Lech, but we actually play Shakhtar and Dundee United, who coincidentally I've already played (and beaten) as Lech manager. 

To be honest, I don't have the dedication or ability to suspend my disbelief to play FM the way Matty does. I'm pretty much doing my usual thing, that is getting rid of overpaid players, getting the finances in order, bringing a ****ton of wonderkids in and just moving forward.

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - January 2038 - AFC Ajax

Friendlies

Just the one game to build up a bit of fitness following a short Christmas break.

Eredivisie

We've now won eight games in a row, seven of which have been under my management. Just one team remaining above us in the table.

KNVB Beker

A bit too shaky at the back for my liking, but we're through.

The reward for us is a huge home game against PSV in the quarter final.

UEFA Europa League

We go straight to the round of 16 as one of the three unbeaten teams. What's notable is that two of my former clubs, Lech and RFS (in 24th), have made it through to the round of 32.

Transfers

The usual clearout begins. None of the players we've sold were starters.

Seven new players come in.

Alexander Bartos - he could grow into a really good player, but even now he should do the job in most league games for us if called upon.

Sergejs Ščaņicins - a hopeful punt, he's probably Latvia's most talented players at the moment.

Hubert Jeziorski - a good player for rotation, still with some room to grow.

Carlos Pereyra - our new starting left winger. I have some really high hopes for him.

Frederik Andreassen - another hopeful one for the future.

Stefan Frodl - not much current ability, but my scouts and coaches say he's got a lot of potential. How neat would it be to have a starting player from Liechtenstein?

Nikola Ćulibrk - the biggest purchase of the transfer window and a great young centre back. He could grow to become world class.

In addition, Sven Robben has been promoted to the first team.

[Rikulec]

Maxing out on both fronts. 

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - February 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

Losing at home to Go Ahead Eagles was a shock and definitely not what we needed ahead of the tricky away game at AZ, but we bounced back and our march to the top of the table has been completed. Now it's all about staying up here and March is a big month as we play Feyenoord, Heerenveen, PSV, and Vitesse.

KNVB Beker

Two very good performances and clean sheets send us through to the final against Vitesse. Looks like it's a straight up duel between us for the two domestic trophies!

[Rikulec]

We've got one player on the list and it's Adrián Reguera. There is, however, something else I wanted to show you. This year's winner is Rudiarth Naveda, who looks... not bad, I guess. But now look at the 2nd placed Álvaro. I mean, what the actual ****? The guy literally looks like one of the best full backs the world has ever seen at 19 years of age... and he finishes 2nd? And he's still somehow at bloody Real Valladolid? What's going on here?!

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

A slip up in Eindhoven was made up for by a confident win over Vitesse to put us back on the top of the table at the end of this quite frankly ridiculous month. With six games to go it's all in our hands, but Vitesse are hot on our tail.

UEFA Europa League

We got the worst possible draw here. We did manage to put up a decent fight here and were actually not that far off, but Man Utd's clinical finishing made a world of difference in the first leg.

Youth Intake

Jackpot!  We have a few decent looking players here, but Roossien is absolutely amazing and I can see him becoming a world class player in the future. Something in my gut tells me that he might get fast-tracked to the first team!

Roy Roossien

David Janáček

Lester Gumbs

William Nygren

[Rikulec]

Not only are we battling it out hard in the league with this year's big surprise package Vitesse, but it's also them who are the final hurdle on our road to cup glory. We're the slight favourites here according to the bookies and the way our league game went recently seems to back this up. As always though, we have to remain focused and be at our absolute best if we are to see this out.

[Rikulec]

And there we have it!  It wasn't the most exciting game for the neutrals, but winning is what matters in the end and we did just that. It was none other than our midfield maestro Carreras who popped up with the game winner, although I felt like it was a rather tame shot at the near post and the Vitesse goalkeeper could have done better there.

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - April 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

Nine points for us and just seven for Vitesse, which gives us the smallest bit of breathing space. Three games to go.

KNVB Beker

My first piece of silverware in the Netherlands.

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - May 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

The win over RKC Waalwijk combined with Vitesse drawing at home to VVV Venlo meant that we were crowned champions with a game to spare. That means that after Latvia and Poland, the Netherlands have become the third country that I've conquered on this save. 

Transfers

Dennis Overmars has been moved into the first team.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Rikulec

[Rikulec]

We've now won three league titles in the last five years. 

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Review - 2037/38 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

Results (Aug-Nov) (red line marks my arrival) - Results (Dec-Mar) - Results (Apr-May)

Competition Performance: Winners

When I took over, the team were sitting all the way down in 7th, eight points behind the league leaders. To be honest, I have no idea how that happened because this is an absolute juggernaut of a team compared to our Eredivisie opponents. I seem to have proven that by winning eighteen games, losing only two and drawing just once to overturn the initial deficit and run away with the trophy. A great performance from the lads.

KNVB Beker

Competition Performance: Winners

We went all the way, beating our arch rivals PSV among other teams to grab the first trophy of my tenure.

UEFA Europa League (Aug-Jan) (red line marks my arrival) - UEFA Europa League (Mar)

Competition Performance: Round of 16

We blitzed through the qualifying rounds and the league phase without losing a single game, but then we got an awful draw and a heavy defeat at Old Trafford knocked us out.

Squad (1) - Squad (2)

The squad definitely has plenty of quality in every position and there's not much to complain about from the traditional perspective. Given that we're Ajax though, I'd definitely like to have some more academy products there. At the moment it's just de Winter, Overmars, Robben, and Nijkamp, none of whom are actual starters. There's a lot of work to do if we want to make Ajax more... well, Ajax.

Transfers (1) - Transfers (2) - Transfers (3) - Transfers (4) - Finances

Man, that's a lot of transfers. I was only responsible for the winter window, but in general we made a profit of over £60M while also bringing in some top quality players such as Ćulibrk and Pereyra. Life is good.

We're in a very comfortable financial position with over £50M sitting in our bank account, although we've already agreed to spend most of that on a new batch of wonderkids coming in.

Player of the Season

1st - Alberto Carreras - our best player in terms of sheer performances and one of the best in terms of ability as well. The Spaniard is in his prime years and he's just recorded his best individual season of his career so far. Juventus have been sniffing around him, but I really hope we can keep him, this guy is going to be very difficult to replace.

2nd - Nikola Ćulibrk - even though he's only been here for half a season so far, his influence on the quality of our defensive play has been immediate. His value has also skyrocketed, we bought him for just over £10M and he's already worth more than five times that. I firmly believe this is a world class centre back in the making.

3rd - Nio Laevaert - with 23 goals in all competitions, the Belgian becomes our top scorer this season. He's a fantastic striker and a great player to have, but he also seems to be slightly inconsistent. Moreover, he's worth around £70M and there are a few clubs interested, which means it might be worth cashing in as this would more than finance the incomings that we've already lined up.

Next Season

You probably won't be surprised to hear that we're going to have quite a big squad overhaul. Some really exciting players are coming in and I'd love to create an Ajax team that the streets will remember, something in the vein of the 18/19 side that reached the Champions League semi final or the 30/31 side that won the Europa Conference League. We should be aiming to retain both domestic trophies and also hopefully make an impact in the Champions League.

[Rikulec]

State of the art training facilities. 

[Rikulec]

Our players have won the Player of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year awards. We've also got no less than five players in the Team of the Season, although it seems quite dumb not to include Carreras there.

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Preview - 2038/39 - AFC Ajax

Board Expectations:

Eredivisie: Win it
KNVB Beker: Not specified
Johan Cruijff Schaal: Not specified
UEFA Champions League: Not specified

My Expectations:

Eredivisie: Win it.
KNVB Beker: Win it.
Johan Cruijff Schaal: Win it.
UEFA Champions League: I think we have enough quality to be aiming for the knockout stages.

Budgets:

Transfer: £60,340,678
Wage: £1,365,759 (currently spending £979,740)
Balance: £106,725,160

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Pre-Season - 2038/39 - AFC Ajax

Friendlies

A good pre-season with just the one narrow defeat to last season's Champions League winners.

Transfers

Some of the sales were planned, some weren't, some were just offloading a bunch of deadwood from the reserves. I certainly wasn't planning to sell Salazar or Carreras, but the goalkeeper kicked up a huge fuss and I wasn't going to turn down £58M for a 30-year-old. All in all, we've sold players for over £270M this summer.

Nine new players join, including one absolutely massive transfer - and that's a guy you've already seen before.

Glenn Derks - he's being severely underrated by my scouts and coaches, possibly due to his one-footedness. He's a perfect fit for the left-sided Mezzala role in my tactic.

Claidel Wijdenbosch - I probably overpaid for this one as he's only a second choice goalkeeper, but he's young and homegrown.

Rubén Torres - a very good player who can still improve. Our new first choice defensive midfielder.

Lucas Díaz - another bargain, a direct replacement for Laevaert and hopefully another great Uruguayan striker in Ajax history.

Stefan Johansson - I'd love it if he was a little bit faster, but there's still a lot to like about him.

Martin Villar - not a player I initially identified as a target, but after seeing his scouting report it was a no-brainer. What a player.

Kryštof Ptáček - another Czech wonderkid. What is it with FM and Czech wonderkids?

Álvaro - it feels wrong to spend so much as the Ajax manager. It feels wrong that he hasn't been signed by a top club yet. This guy is an absolute monster and I just couldn't pass up the chance to snap him up for his release clause. Quite possibly the best player I've actually ever managed on FM!

Petar Lucijan Antolković - I'm taking a gamble here and making him our first choice goalkeeper. Fingers crossed he can develop quickly.

Moreover, Roy Roossien and Rafael Silva have been promoted to the first team squad.

[Rikulec]

We start the season with a nice warm-up and a chance to grab our first trophy early on. Vitesse should provide a good test for our largely newly assembled team.

[Rikulec]

It was clear that we're not firing on all cylinders yet and it's gonna take some time to unleash our players' full potential. Still, it was enough to win fairly comfortably and claim another trophy.

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - July 2038 - AFC Ajax

JC Schaal

A solid start to the season.

[BML]

Yeah, that full back is worth every single penny. Incredible stats and a MC to boot!

[Rikulec]

26 minutes ago, BML said:

Yeah, that full back is worth every single penny. Incredible stats and a MC to boot!

I'm pretty sure we should be able to make a profit when the big clubs finally recognise Alvaro. This guy is easily worth twice the amount we paid for him!

[DomD]

Congrats on the double and great to see you get Alvaro!

[Rikulec]

8 hours ago, DomD said:

Congrats on the double and great to see you get Alvaro!

Thank you! Normally I wouldn't allow myself to spend so much money on a single player with Ajax, but I think you can see why I did it.

[SixPointer]

What a journey you’ve been on my friend! Great to see the success from such humble beginnings 

[Rikulec]

56 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

What a journey you’ve been on my friend! Great to see the success from such humble beginnings 

Here's hoping my real life journey goes in a similar way!

[Rikulec]

Our Champions League fixture list is here. We seem to have avoided the absolute biggest names, but we're still going to get a proper test and a good benchmark of where we currently stand in Europe.

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - August 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

Not exactly the start we expected. Feyenoord were ruthless in exploiting every weakness and lack of understanding among our defenders and Go Ahead Eagles are slowly starting to become our bogey team. This is somewhat understandable given how much we've revolutionised the squad in the summer, with so many new players and youngsters coming in it's natural that they'll need some time to gel together. I just hope it happens sooner rather than later. We're already showing glimpses of world class play here and there and the NAC Breda result is a positive sign (although we played against ten men for an hour).

Edited December 26, 2023 by Rikulec

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

We're still far from our top form and the wins against Willem II and Cambuur definitely weren't very confident. What matters at this point is that we're winning games though. Five wins in a row leave us only behind Feyenoord on goal difference.

UEFA Champions League

A disastrous start in Europe for us. Dortmund are probably one or two seasons ahead of us in terms of team development and the Rosenborg game was a classic FMing, including a penalty missed by Reguera. It's gonna be really difficult to progress now.

[Rikulec]

A rare feat for me on FM!

[Rikulec]

[SixPointer]

A few poor results so far but no doubt about it you’ll bounce back!

Alvaro looks like a real monster 

[Rikulec]

13 hours ago, SixPointer said:

A few poor results so far but no doubt about it you’ll bounce back!

Alvaro looks like a real monster 

That's the downside of building a whole new team based mostly on youngsters, the first few months are always going to look like this. We do seem to be getting better though.

Alvaro is incredible, unfortunately his poor natural fitness means I have to rotate him all the time to keep him more or less fresh for the more difficult games.

[Rick87]

Just read through your career, I was particularly interested in the Latvian leg of your story as I remember a very enjoyable save with Skonto Riga on an old FM (I don't think they are around anymore?). Congratulations on landing the Ajax job and on your redevelopment of the squad.

[SixPointer]

4 hours ago, Rikulec said:

That's the downside of building a whole new team based mostly on youngsters, the first few months are always going to look like this. We do seem to be getting better though.

Alvaro is incredible, unfortunately his poor natural fitness means I have to rotate him all the time to keep him more or less fresh for the more difficult 

crazy to think this wonderkid has pace to burn looks the most complete player yet he’s never brother to keep himself fit. Maybe he like a casual cigar and beer after the match 

[Rikulec]

4 hours ago, Rick87 said:

Just read through your career, I was particularly interested in the Latvian leg of your story as I remember a very enjoyable save with Skonto Riga on an old FM (I don't think they are around anymore?). Congratulations on landing the Ajax job and on your redevelopment of the squad.

Thanks mate! Yes, Skonto unfortunately went bankrupt in 2016.

1 hour ago, SixPointer said:

crazy to think this wonderkid has pace to burn looks the most complete player yet he’s never brother to keep himself fit. Maybe he like a casual cigar and beer after the match 

Haha, that's more common than you'd think.

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

The performances are slowly getting better, even if the tight scorelines don't really prove it. We had to rotate quite a bit this month and we've also had some injury problems up front, so to grab 13 points from 5 games is a good achievement here.

UEFA Champions League

We were two goals up and flying, unfortunately Arsenal pulled themselves together and managed to escape with a draw. The performance is definitely a positive sign though.

[Hootieleece]

What is going on in Champion's League with Ajax?  Are you securing the Eredivisie first and rotating for Champion's League and considering it bonus?

[Rikulec]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

What is going on in Champion's League with Ajax?  Are you securing the Eredivisie first and rotating for Champion's League and considering it bonus?

Nope, I'm actually playing my best XI possible in the Champions League and rotating for the league games. I think this team simply needs more time to come together. The Arsenal game was a positive sign. Bear in mind that this team is still not much more than a bunch of kids from all over Europe and South America that are only starting to try and make a name for themselves in the footballing world.

[Rikulec]

Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

We keep getting the results while others don't. Utrecht was a frustrating game though, we were so dominant that they didn't register a single shot, and yet we failed to score.

UEFA Champions League

Newcastle are a top side now and we properly FM'd them to escape with a late draw. Galatasaray, on the other hand, was a wonderful game for us with Jeziorski popping up with a hat-trick from out of nowhere.

[Rikulec]

Germany would certainly be an interesting direction for me at some point in the future. Not necessarily a mid-table side though, all due respect. Interview declined.

[Rikulec]

We had a fun day in the cup.

[Rikulec]

Another promising intake to look forward to.

[Rikulec]

And we're also going to invest a ton of money into a stadium expansion. Makes sense when you consider that we sell over 50,000 season tickets each year!