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The youth intake proves lucky with one amazing defensive midfielder coming through. Julien Pla will join the first team straight away, looking like an absolute future midfield boss.

We end the regular competition in first place with 74 points, giving us a seven point head start in the Championship Group. We struggled a bit near the end, giving away a lead at Club Brugge and failing to score at home against surprise package KV Mechelen, missing a penalty in the process. Kortrijk is also in the top six, and is the only team that somehow completely outplayed us in a 5-3 goal bonanza. We're also into the cup final after a surprisingly nervous affair against Lommel and Oostende, both second division teams.

January transfer window Seeing as we're doing well, I wasn't bound on changing much, just tidying up the finances and such. That said, five players left the club, four of them because of playing time and one who was going to run out his contract. Goalkeeper Prévot moves to Spain for 1M, which is a nice plus to minimize the losses a bit. Holzhauser also leaves to Austria for 125k. Neither would be a problem, Leysen was our starter anyway and Siebe Schrijvers or Banzuzi can easily replace the tall Austrian. Three incoming transfers: One player who was out on loan and will go straight into the starting eleven, some depth in defensive midfield and a new backup goalkeeper. The loan returnee is Santiago Ramos Mingo, former Boca and FC Barcelona defender. He'll get a spot on the left in the three man defense. We also pick up Marco Ilaimaharitra from Charleroi for 110k and loan Jakub Stolarczyk from Leicester.

We're entering 2024 on a high! One loss, away at second place Genk in a game we dominated almost entirely, and a few draws. Apart from that, it's only wins for the Leuven boys. Cercle gave us a cup scare, taking us to penalties before finally admitting defeat. We get an away game at second division Lommel in the quarter final. Despite the loss against Genk we're still firmly seven points ahead. That doesn't mean much though, as Belgium has a wonky playoff system where the top six in the regular competition see their points halved and play each other again in the Championship Group. More good news from the youth intake preview. We don't really need wingers but defensive midfield and the striker position are two places where we definitely could do with some extra quality. Our current HOYD is not bad but also not great and has a balanced personality, so I'll be looking to replace him once he get closer to the end of his contract in the summer of 2025. Speaking of youngsters, because of the lacking squad depth and some injuries, we promoted Mathéo Parmentier to the first team, seeing him feature in 18 games this season, six of those being starts. Finally, Leysen was voted best goalkeeper and we took the entire podium for young player of the year. Brunes ended runner up for the Golden Boot.

A flying start of the season We flew through August and September on a high, kicking off the Jupiler Pro League in style by running our bus over a helpless Charleroi. Siebert scored on his debut and we actually got five different people on the scoresheet, which shows that we threaten in a lot of different ways. We continued this form all through August, faultless even away at Union and at home versus Antwerp, and even looked like continuing on this track until we stumbled in Mechelen. We actually had our first off day away at the Kakkers but fought back for a point with an added time equalizer from Banzuzi. This leaves us in a surprising first place, two points clear of Genk. We're only two points off the total points we have in real life right now, actually, which makes it even more impressive.

Preseason Not the toughest of competition, but a good preseason nontheless. Not really happy with the last result but undefeated is good and builds morale.

The transfers Not much to say here. We have a about 2.8M in the transfer budget and we spend most of it on a promising central defender from Germany, Jamil Siebert, who joins us from Viktoria Köln for 1.9M. He'll go straight into the starting eleven, playing on the right in the three man defense.

The tactic I've always been suckered into playing 4231 or 433 DM, but this time, I thought I'd finally try to get a three at the back going. This is how we'll be setting up. The only thing I'm considering is moving the AP to the right so create some more space for Maertens.

The squad The OHL players are, in my humble opinion, better than their real life performances let on. In goal, Maxime Prévot was picked up on a free from Sochaux to replace a disappointing Cojocaru. Furthermore, Leuven managed to reel in Tobe Leysen, a 21-year old goalkeeper from Racing Genk who is set to have a bright future at Den Dreef. This is him singlehandedly winning us a point away at STVV when we were down to ten men, and keeping a clean sheet in our last 0-3 away win at Westerlo. At the back, Ricca is the standout defender. In real life, he was out for months with a torn hamstring and sorely missed, but this isn't reflected in the game yet. Next to him, 22-year old Ewoud Pletinckx is another certainty. Apart from them, the club also signed Florian Miguel and Raz Shlomo to provide some depth, and we've seen the emergence of young Joël Schingtienne as well. As I will try to play three at the back, we'll be looking for one more defender with good ball playing skills. In midfield, there's plenty of attacking options but we lack a bit of defensive depth. With players like Maziz and Maertens, Leuven has great creating and scoring quality from the center of the pitch, but Misao is the only real holding midfielder in the squad. With Holzhauser, Schrijvers and young Dutch youth international Ezechiel Banzuzi, there's a wealth of options to choose from. We have a few very solid options on the wing backs as well. Mendyl on the left is a clear starter in the game. In real life, he's been a blessing and a curse, providing great attacking impulses but being a defensive liability and someone who easily picks up both yellows and reds, not to mention conceding the occasional penalty. He's on his way to Turkey now apparently, but the deal is not done yet. Covering for him will be Miguel, who is a bit less of an attacking threat but more stable without the ball, and Kiyine, who can pretty much play any position on the pitch. On the right, young Sagrado will be first pick with Thibault Vlietinck covering for him. We'll not use wingers this season, but we do have a few quality players there who will be retrained to other positions. Jon Thorsteinsson is a very cool headed Icelander who adds a bit of flair to this team. His counterpart on the other end is Konan N'Dri, a fast but small dribbler who can also play up front. Which brings us to the striker position, where we are probably most lacking. Our only real option is Jonatan Braut Brunes, famous not for his goalscoring records but because he's the nephew of Haaland. I'm hoping I can get more out of him than my real life counterparts as he's currently stuck on only three goals scored.

On a sidenote, I hope this will be playable because I believe there was an issue with the financial side of Belgian teams in the game. Currently projected to lose over 12M..

Hi all! After last year's challenges, bringing glory back to Nancy and travelling around the world trying to complete a pentagon challenge (where I checked off three out of five before I got bored eventually) and a bit of a hiatus afterwards, I'm back for another journal. This time, it will start off as something a bit more relaxed, hopefully, and closer to my heart. I'll be managing the team I support myself and where I've owned season tickets for at least twelve years now. I won't place any restrictions on myself, as I'm still exploring the novelties of FM24 and as this will be a bit more of a laidback game. In due time, I want to win a European trophy with this club, and then possibly move on to another league outside of the top five to do the same (Norway, Austria, Denmark and Portugal are all on my list). The club I'm referring to is offically named Oud-Heverlee Leuven, but anyone in Belgium will refer to it as either OHL (pronounced Oh-Hasj-El) or Leuven. the club is actually a relatively new one, created through a merger of the three biggest clubs in the Leuven region: Zwarte Duivels Oud-heverlee, Stade Leuven and Daring Leuven. The reason for this is simple: Neither of these three clubs ever managed to get to the first division in Belgium, despite being situated in a bit of blank spot geographically in the Belgian football landscape. The merger happened in 2002, meaning it's actually one of the youngest clubs in Europe to play in the highest league (after RB Leipzig and Krasnodar). OHL first promoted to the top league in 2010/2011, which is also when I bought my first season ticket. Since then, it's been going up and down the leagues, but spent the majority of its seasons at the top level. Right now, they've finished in a lower mid table position for three seasons after their last promotion. In real life, we're struggling against relegation, but form is finally picking up with a five game unbeaten streak, including three wins and three clean sheets. The club is owned by the King Power group, which makes it a sister club of Leicester City, which famously won the Premier League against all odds in 2016. King Power invested heavily in the club's infrastructure and youth setup, which is finally starting to pay dividends. It sold Mandela Keita (who is now drawing serious attention from West Ham) to Antwerp in a deal nearing 8M, a club record, and has continuously got three academy players in the starting eleven: Central defender Schingtienne, wing back Sagrado and striker Nsingi. Despite the real life struggles, there is a general sentiment that the squad is better than the table shows and that the previous manager mismanaged it. This is in my opinion reflected in the game, where it looks like a mid table position should definitely be on the cards. Nevertheless, the media prediction of 15th is not favourable so I may be slightly biased in my opinion. OHL plays it home games at the King Power at Den Dreef stadium, or Den Dreef in short. The stadium was refurbished in 2011 with two new stands and houses around 10k fans on a good day. It has probably one of the best pitches in Belgium and quite decent facilities, both for the first team and the youngsters. I've already gone through preseason and the first two games, but I'll try to do a squad introduction and talk a bit about my tactical approach in the next update, which will probably land tomorrow as I'm taking the misses to a Michael McIntyre show tonight.

Fun fact, we went through after losing 1-2 at home and then drew.. Real Madrid, a team we haven't won against in five consecutive games if I'm not mistaken. 🙃

Well, I'm not going to call it yet but a brace from Moses (the second one thanks to a sloppy pass from Liverpool's GK and a lovely 30 yard chip) and an excellent counter through Barbosa and Zizic has given us an excellent position.

It's been a while, but we managed to progress to March 1st, and we're still in it to win it. We've had a perfect record in the league since December, highlights being wins at home over Atlético and Barça. Furthermore, we only conceded once in the league, at home against Alaves. Real is doing almost as well but they dropped the ball once away in Gijon, losing 3-1, which brings us four points behind with a game in hand. We finished first in the CL group stage as well, winning our last two games away at Old Trafford (3-0 baby) and at home against Lazio. The good news is that this means two games less to play. The bad news is that we drew Liverpool out of the unseeded teams.. Nothing to lose, I guess. We're also into our third consecutive cup final after beating Villareal in the semis. Fun fact, they managed to knock out Real and Barça even got whiped out by second division Cadiz, so we will play either Cadiz or Malaga in the final. Both second division teams, so finally a good chance at silverware! No big transfer news in January, only Mba leaves on a loan to Lille for some first time football.

At some point probably, but I won't transfer this save. 24 looks promising but I usually wait for a few updates at least. 🙂

On to some better news! With Madonsela being very injury prone and not deemed good enough, we needed a new striker to backfill for Moses with the very hectic schedule we play in. Our first obvious candidate was Santiago Mba, the youngster making his debut in the league last year and scoring three goals during our campaign. Unfortunately, Mba tore his hamstring halfway through July, leaving him on the sidelines for several months. So Erikson Barbosa, out on loan at Niort last season, got his chance and was promoted to the A team. Barbosa was introduced to the fans in our opening game against Elche, where he came in for Moses fifteen minutes before the end of the game. Another sub later, he got his first start against Olympiacos and repaid my faith with a brace in a 3-0 victory. Fast forward to January and he's now five goals in Europe and six in this league, developing very well and looking better and better. Finally, despite being only 17, Lucas Mendoza has made a very solid impression at left back this season, emerging as a first team starter. With the transfer window open, we took our precautions and extended Matic' and Moll's contracts, both of them signing improved new deals until the summer of 2038 and with a release clause of 220M. Right back Idris is wanted by Inter and Arsenal, Real Madrid is fishing for Dordevic, just like Moses. Here's to hoping I can keep the squad together..

We're doing well, very well, insanely well even, and it's still not good enough to dislodge Real Madrid. On December 31st, they drop their first points, winning 18 (!) games in a row before that. They also beat us in our own ground, our other loss coming from a defeat away in Atlético. Elche are so far the surprise of the season in third, when they played us they fielded eight or nine players from their own academy! In the Champions League, we're looking really good for now. We dropped points in Brugge but beat (among others) Arsenal, Monaco and Leipzig. Our last two games are Man United away and Lazio at home. It would be nice to go straight to the round of sixteen.

Right, I've let it sink for a while and I'll try to see where this goes a little while longer. A mid season update is coming.

I think I might give up on this. We're doing well, but Real Madrid top the average list for pretty much every player attribute there is and are looking pretty much unbeatable. I mean, we're 10 games in and they've scored 32 goals, and conceded three.. The same goes for the CL where I feel there is some kind of glass ceiling that I just can't break through.

One more deadline day deal! I waited this long because there was interest in Moses and I wanted to make sure that he would stay put before using a big chunk of my transfer budget. But on the final day, nothing happened so we decided to splash some of the cash to bring in a very good right back as Idris is very on and off. Martim Fernandes joins us from Porto in a 36.5M deal and will become an instant starter on the right. A great all round player, I'm very happy to have him. On the outgoing end, young Marin goes on loan to second division Almeria to get som experience under his belt. We also started the season with two wins and a loss, away at Madrid. Our first two games, at home against Elche and in Madrid, were far from great and I was worried a bit until we recovered in a solid performance against Bilbao. Only headache is Moses, who has yet to score and got some shocking ratings in the process.

On the outgoing side, Lobo leaves for Naples as he was unhappy at being only a cover player for Moll. We get up to 63M, a fair amount. Central defender Giraldez is also surplus to requirements despite his more than decent performances as a cover player last year, with the arrival of two new central defenders. He'll join Espanyol for 4M.

Four more new signings: Three midfielders, on of which comes on loan and a very decent left footed defender. Our first newcomer is a young defender from Malmö with a very acceptable 2.6M price tag. A bargain, I think, at only 18 years of age. Young Durmish will join the first team squad straight away and looks like a prime candidate for one of the central defender positions, possibly as a replacement for the ageing Nianzou. Secondly, we loan a player from Manchester United who will be the main candidate to replace Thorne for now, until my other prospects improve a little. Finally, we bring in two Spanish midfielders. Ivan Marenya joins us from Cartagena in a 2M deal, and 18-year old Ivan Marin comes over from Mallorca for 12.75M.

It's a LOT of money, but if he hadn't had that release clause, I never would have sold him really. He's a type of player that is very hard to find. Defensively strong with good feet, decent finisher, relatively good in the air. It's far easier to replace a good striker. But we'll make do!

Thorne is officially off to Manchester City for 170M. We tried offering him a new contract, but he wanted a whopping 475k per week, a fifteenfold increase on his current salary and absolutely not possible. 45% of his revenue goes into the transfer budget and we'll use this to both try to bring in a replacement, since we're already very tight in defensive midfield, and invest more heavily in defenders. On the incoming side, we welcome four new faces. Leguizamon is probably the biggest fish. he was already on my radar last season while contracted to Barcelona and for some reason, they decided not to renew his contract. He has a one year extension clause so I had to wait until he actually left before offering him a deal but for some reason, nobody else was interested. He'll become a rotation option for Moses up front. Our other big signing is 24-year old English defender Dalipi, who looks like a great ball playing option at the back. The two other players are young kids who will either go out on loan or join the U19. The Albacete lad has a 4.4M option fee which we'll probably pay at the end of the season.

It's a sad day.