KlaaZ

What a lad!

Some early transfer news! Our scouts came across a 16-year old striker, currently playing for SK Beveren in the second division. He's already a starter there, scoring five goals in 14 appearances. As he doesn't feel like joining us permanently yet, we set up a loan deal with an optional 500k future fee which, as far as I'm concerned, we'll definitely use if he changes his mind. He already made his debut on January 1st in the Cup against Sint-Truiden, coming off the bench twenty minutes before the final whistle and scoring too. I have high hopes for this lad.

It's january first, and despite the additional load of European games, we're doing just fine. We're leading the league again and survived the hectic December schedule quite well. Our only loss was away at relegation threatened Eupen in a complete offday. Apart from that we drew in Union, Antwerp and Cercle, which can happen. That said, we're nine points ahead of second placed Genk, so all is well. Our new signings have done fairly well. Full backs Fridriksson and Zehnter have established themselves well, the latter making us forget Mendyl quickly. Up front, Miguel has scored twelve goals in nineteen appearances in the league, and four in the Champions League. But the most impressive arrival is Ronaldo Deaconu, who scored twelve goals and assisted eight in the league, and has two and two in Europe. Speaking of the Champions League, we kicked off great with an 0-8 trashing of Qarabag. A heavy but logical 1-3 loss at home against the Parisian giant was always on the cards, but we bounced back with a 0-1 holdup in Naples and a very clean 3-1 victory over their neighbours from Rome. We then got our butts kicked by Bayern but a 2-0 win over Salzburg keeps us contending for making to the knockouts. With Athletic at home and Nice away, we still have everything to play for! In other news, our upgraded training facilities are ready and the board approved for some more improvements. I still don't have the option to improve our youth facilities though, so we'll have to be patient. The good news is that King Power also agreed to increase junior coaching spending and youth recruitment. Which brings us to the youth intake, which promises a few midfielders and a winger of quality, and talks about another golden generation. To improve our chances going forward, we also hired a new U18 manager, Kolo Touré. The Ivorian former defender has an excellent personality and prefers the 433 DM, which we play.

Pla also broke the record of youngster CL player.

That went better than expected, especially since I played the bench. To be fair, the game was quite even until Ndri scored the third, afterwards Qarabag completely collapsed.

One more player out, and one more player in. We sold Ezechiel Banzuzi to Gent as he needed to play and we currently have way better options in midfield. If he succeeds there, we have 50% on any profits so fingers crossed. On the incoming end, we bring in Ben Nelson on loan from Leicester because Siebert ran into a lower back stress fracture which will keep him away from football for about two months. We also kicked off quite well in the league, only dropping points away at overperforming Cercle Brugge. We didn't deserve to win in STVV but two clear penalties saved the day. Apart from that, I can have no complaints with solid victories over Anderlecht and Antwerp. Miguel has hit the ground running, scoring four in six appearances. Maziz is also doing way better from the left with another four roses. And I'm really happy with Deaconu's contributions on the right, being PotM three times so far. Next to the pitch, the board have agreed to expand the stadium to 13k seats, which is the maximum. I was hoping to build a new one in a few years, but because of the 2024 built bug, I'm worried that it might not happen. Anyway, the recent results leave us in first place although Genk, who we play next, have a game in hand and could therefore still top us. In Europe, we go straight to the league phase of the Champions League. The draw has not been kind to us, but I'm hoping to at least grab something against Qarabag and maybe cause an upset when playing Salzburg or Nice. Finally, we also signed a new HOYD. I can't complain about the last one because we got Julien Pla, but as we're playing a 433 now I wanted someone who had it as a preferred formation. He'll be replaced by Claudio Vivas, who has been employed in the past in various roles all throughout South America. He's a model citizen too, a nice bonus!

Hard agree with this. You have a lot of creators (DLF, W, IW, AP, but who is supposed to score your goals?

Job offers pouring in but I have no intention of going yet.

Some more transfer news after Ricca and Mendyl's deals are finalized and there is money in the cash register. We bring in 20-year old midfielder Mads Enggard from Randers FC in a deal totalling 4.4M including installments. I'm very excited about this kid, with excellent mentals and room to grow. We'll work on his strength to turn him into an absolute midfield monster.

Not the best of preseasons, although we did lift the Super Cup after a penalty shootout victory over Genk. Both Deaconu and Miguel looked good on their debut with an assist and a goal respectively. The 5-1 beating we got from Gent, who were relegated last season, was really hard to take. We were actually the better team for most of the game and started off really well but then conceded twice in a minute on a corner and after losing the ball at the back, and another seven minutes later.

Done, thanks!

Assuming this is a bug and if so, where do I log it?

Ehm, what?

The transfer window is going to be an interesting one. With a wage budget of only 211k, there are two players who are a huge burden to the budget. Ricca is on a whopping 25k, which is more than 10% of the entire budget, and Mendyl is also more expensive than he should be. I also have my doubts about Schrijvers but until we can find someone of equal quality. The same goes for Brunes, who can leave for the right amount of money. Our first order of business will be moving some of these people on. Shlomo moves to Cardiff for 1.4M. Mandela Keita was on loan at Antwerp with a permanent transfer arranged afterwards, so he's out the door as well (unfortunately as he's one hell of a midfielder). We found a taker for Federico Ricca, he's currently awaiting a decision on his work permit for a move to England where he'd join Derby for 1.5M. Not the most of money, but it would free up a lot of wages. Cojocaru is also on the move with three clubs making an offer, and we've accepted a 7.25M bid for Mendyl. There's also interest for Ramos (Leicester, Bochum) and Pletinckx (Leicester), but I'll only sell when an insane offer comes in. both defenders are still under contract until 2026, so I feel we're in a strong negotiating position. If an insane bid would come in, I've already got a few replacements on my shortlist. All of this combined would net us a solid 10M. We've used a part of this to improve our junior coaching and invest in the training facilities. The rest will go towards strengthening the squad. Speaking of which.. Our first order of business was finding a good striker to provide competition for Brunes, or replace him. I had a Spaniard on my shortlist but he wasn't interested in joining us in January yet. Winning the league and the cup changed his mind and as he was end of contract, he's a freebie too. Mallorca also put in an offer but he made a wise decision in the end. Enter Miguel De la Fuente, or Miguel, 24 years old, from Alaves. An all rounder with no real weaknesses, he feels like a great addition. Most of the wage budget we freed up on Ricca will go towards bringing him in, but I feel it's worth it as he's rated as a leading Jupiler Pro League striker. He's also consistent and likes big matches, two big pluses. He wanted a 10.5M release clause, which I felt was on the low side but considering he's coming over for free, he'll hopefully net us a hefty profit in the future. In our search for more quality on the wings, we came across Ronaldo Deaconu, a 26-year old Romanian playing in Poland. Just like Miguel, he had been on our radar for a while but we couldn't convince him in January. He joins us now though for 250k. The fact that he can play anywhere in midfield or on the flanks is a huge advantage. To replace Mendyl, we went shopping in Germany where we loan an excellent looking Aaron Zhenter from Augsburg. Good footballer, decent tackle, quite fast and a lot of room to grow. He comes over on loan with an optional future fee of 5.75M. Hopefully, 2024-2025 will net us enough profit to make this a permanent deal if he makes good progress. Finally, we brought in a new right back. Sagrado did really well last year but hasn't really progressed much and I think Vlietinck is sub standard for our new standing. Valgeir Fridriksson joins us from Malmö FF as we activated his 1.5M release clause. 22 already but great all round stats both going forward and defensively. He's also an Icelandic international. If an opportunity presents itself, we'd still be in the market for another striker (and then selling Brunes), maybe a winger and very maybe a central midfielder. But all in all, I think our homework is done and done well. And in time too, contrary to real life Leuven who have struggled for years to have their transfers done in a timely fashion before the start of the league.

To counter your point, I just became champions of Belgium and won the cup in my opening season with a team predicted to end in 15th place, with only one additional signing. I played a mid block 3-4-2-1 on balanced almost the entire time. So no, not everything else is a struggle.

Some more statistics.

Defensive masterclass. Would have included Ramos but he was on loan until January.

End of season overview Final league standing Top of the league, most goals scored, least conceded. Only Standard had more xG than us but they played an additional playoff game against Anderlecht where they racked up an additional 3. That said, they were our toughest opponents in my opinion. We played the 3-4-2-1 most of the season but changed to a 4-3-3 DM near the end as we were stalling going forward. Player performances An outstanding first season from Haaland's nephew Brunes, who netted 23 goals in the league. Maziz also did quite well with eleven goals and nine assists, and Mendyl on the left wing back got eight and eight. At the back, Tobe Leysen kept an amazing 23 clean sheets. Squad changes Next season, I'd like to move firmly to the 4-3-3, which will mean investing in wingers. Mendyl wants to move to a bigger club, we've put a 9.75M price tag on his head. Central defender Shlomo was surplus to requirements after Siebert arrived and will move to the Championship in a 1.4M deal. There's also a lot of interest for Ramos, mostly from the Championship and the Bundesliga 2. If possible, I'd also like to offload Ricca as he's on a ridiculous 25k per week.

We also won the Cup, deservedly beating Genk in the final! A double in the first season, not bad. Will do an end of season tonight.

Just out of curiosity, can you screenshot your physical, mental and technical comparison to the rest of the league? Think it's under squad planner-comparison. Just asking because I've been in your shoes with Sevilla in FM23, and in hindsight I always overestimated my own squad. We were good, but Real was like top of almost every attribute ranking and it was only after seeing that I could put things into perspective. 🙂

It's done, in style! With four games to play and nine points ahead, we had to beat Kortrijk and hope for Antwerp to falter a day later at home against Standard. The game couldn't start off worse for us though, when we gave away a penalty, converted by Ambrose. Siebe pulled us level just before the break but in the second half some defensive clowning allowed Ambrose to score his second of the game (wrongly labeled as an owngoal, no idea why). Substitute Ndri scored the equalizer in the 77th but it looked like a draw was all we were going to get. Not ideal, especially since we play Antwerp away next. But in the 95th, Kiyine sent Schrijvers into space. He squared the ball to Brunes who slotted it first time into the far corner to grab us the win! One day later, Antwerp failed to break down Standard and got stuck in a scoreless draw, making the gap eleven points with three games to play and crowning us champions of Belgium!

Victory in Genk, but at a cost. We lose Maziz for seven to eight weeks with sprained knee ligaments, meaning he will not participate in the remainder of the campaign.

This is exactly what I was afraid of. Three games in and we only found the back of the net once. The game against Kortrijk was an absolute dud with neither side creating anything. We justed edged KV Mechelen and were the better team against Antwerp but couldn't find the back of the net and ran into a last minute penalty. Them and Genk are trailing us by five points now, and we have Genk away next..

Thanks! I don't think we're out of the woods yet, but it's looking good. Our main issue is lack of depth, we tend to drop points once we have to sub a few players of the starting eleven. Considering the Championship Group has a game like every three days and that we face KV Mechelen and KVK Kortrijk, both of which we struggled against, I wouldn't call it just yet. But I'd rather be seven points ahead than seven behind, that's for sure. I'm also not sure if the title guarantees a CL group stage ticket, that's also a potential 20M difference.