Carambau

In the sporting sense, yes - in the financial sense, sadly not...

FRESH FACES We needed to bolster our central midfield. In comes this young talent. He joins from our reserve team. The striker scored 16 goals in 42 games on loan at A. Tucuman last season. Now he is ready to join our first team. Loans, loans, loans for our talents. THE TEAM 2024 No changes in goal. Minissale is a good addition to our defense. We needed more in the middle of the park and we got more. Our talent Godoy wanted to be loaned out so we loaned him out. Coronel can hopefully live up to the expectations I have in him. And: I just noticed we only have Argentinians in the team. KEY PLAYER Having a good keeper pays half of the rent, they say. We have one. COPA DE LA LIGA & COPA ARGENTINA We played 2 rounds in the Copa Argentina and prevailed rather easily in both. The next round will be played against Huracan during the League season, so more of that later. A devastating run in the middle of the campaign. But we were able to pick us up again fortunately. We again qualified for the knockout rounds. Good stuff. Penalty shootouts seem to be our favorite thing... ...as shown again in the semi finals. But no penalties in the final. And also again, Boca are the much better team. We began the campaign in style, beating favorites Botafogo 4-1 at home. Shocked, they could not come back from that defeat and we held on. America de Cali wasnt that big of an opponent in the next round and so we made it to the group stage. There, we met two Peruvian and one Argentinian team, which we all held off to finish top of the group. Both Argentinian teams qualified. We will meet Brazilian heavyweights Internacional in July. But hey, we already beat Botafogo so no reason to be scared! YOUTH INTAKE 2024 This intake is even better than last year! A real wave of new talents here! The Liga Profesional de Futbol season is about to begin. And AGAIN, It´s going to be a real struggle to keep many of our players for longer than this season. We have to survive.

Thank you We are back in the downward spiral again unfortunately...

I hope you will find your inner love for austria soon I enjoyed playing the austrian leagues in the past - Only in those leagues you get rewarded in cash by the FA if you play at least 8 domestic youngsters or so if i recall correctly

Indeed

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE First of all: We were able to extend the contracts of two of the three above mentioned key players: Javier Cabrera and Damian Batallini signed new contracts after we received the prize money from the FA for finishing 6th. The third player was Carlos Quintana, who decided to end his career, which leaves a big gap in our defense the youngsters will have to fill. Also, striker Gabriel Avalos left us but he didnt play a role anymore lately and we relegated him to the reserves at then end of the season anyway. The rest of the departures mostly come from there - or returning loan players who didnt make the cut- , so no big losses but at least some more ease on the wage budget. FRESH FACES The central midfielder is promoted from our reserve team where he had an impressive last season so we decided to give him a chance in the professional squad. Another central midfielder. After a remarkable loan spell at Atletico Rafaela last season, he joins our squad to bolster to CM/DM position even more, as he can play both positions. More attacking options with this young striker talent who returns after a loan spell at second division Ferro Carril Oeste, where he scored 13 goals in 37 games last season. NEW GROUP, NEW LUCK Our group for this season. Seems easier than last year but I could be wrong. A TOUGH DRAW This looks like a tough draw but there are still 2 matches to be played. FRIENDLIES Looking good, the youngsters gel well with the team.

THE SEASON COMES TO A BITTERSWEET END Well, what can we say? We lost all of our remaining games. This made things more tense than I hoped... ...but in the end it was enough to finish in 6th place! This means we will start in the Copa Libertadores second qualification round next season. We are very happy with that outcome. Much better position than last year, although none of our players finished in the top ranks of the individual categories. There is no "I" in "Team" AN OVERPOWERING OPPONENT The board and the fans did not really believe in us having a chance in the cup final against Boca Juniors... ...and they were right. We never really stood a chance in the final as they made short work of us. At least we were able to score the odd consolation goal. Congratulations to the winners Boca Juniors! SEASON STATS & AWARDS It is hard to pick our best player this season: Maybe our keeper Lucas Chaves who more than once saved us from defeat, maybe Javier Cabrera who got the best average rating, maybe left back Lucas Villalba who got the most assists, or maybe our young striker talent Gaston Veron who scored the most goals? It is hard to tell, as this was a great team effort and everyone (except Gonzalo Siri) contributed. Youngsters Matias Lugo - who is already a mainstay in the team - , both wingers David Zalazar and Franco Benitez, above mentioned Gaston Veron and Matias Godoy did very well when called up. Godoys goal contribution is especially impressive: 8 goals & assists in only 16 games. Central defender Dardo Torres and striker Thiago Nuss at least showed glimpses of their talent. A lot of players will leave next season and more youngsters will join from our reserve/youth team. Interesting times here. The fans have spoken. YOUTH TEAMS Our reserves win the league. A very dominant performance, showing a possible exciting future of our talents. Enzo Vlaeminch especially being a dominant figure. Our U20s finish runners-up. Still a strong performance by the lads. And the top scorer (16 goals) is an Argentinos Juniors player: 16 year old Pablo Duarte.

Not really a "plan" but I just hope that we get enough money from the FA after the season is over and that those players havent signed for any other club by then...

HARD WORK, HARD WORK Velez Sarsfield showed us that we still need to learn a lot. But we picked ourselves up after that, worked hard and won the two following games. 3rd position and three games to go. We could really pull up a sensation here. LATE GOALS SECURE VICTORY It was a tedious game, nothing really happened until the last few minutes, when we managed to break the deadlock via a penalty (VAR was right this time) and score two late goals. We will face the big boys Boca Juniors in the final now.

There are quite a few who are already playing regularly, like Matias Lugo (22) or striker Thiago Nuss (22), but they have been already part of the first team squad when I took over. Godoy is getting more and more games and benefits from it a lot, he could become a possible starter next season. Zalazar, Benitez and Dardo Torres get some minutes too and they are doing well when getting on the pitch. Thing is, a lot of older players will leave after the season and thats the time when those youngsters will get a to play a bigger role Havent had that yet in my sales... sounds a bit unfair.. "a club that is financially crippled"? check

THE RESURGENCE Six games this month, we managed to lose only one of them. Most of it were tight affairs with the better ending for us. We developed the strength to hold on to our lead once we score. We find ourselves in 2nd place after a great october. A THRILLING CUP QUARTER FINAL WITH A HAPPY END FOR US We took the lead after 64 minutes but Zalazar got sent off a little later. With literally the last attack of the game, 2nd division side Gimnasia scored the equalizer. We held on with 10 men and reached the penalty shootout. Our first player missed but then everyone scored for us and we went on to win. We will meet Godoy Cruz in the semi finals.

THE SLUMP We failed to score in the first three matches of september. At least only one match was lost, against a dominant River Plate side. Against Estudiantes and Banfield we were lucky not to concede but we happily took those two points anyway. Against Rosario it was a much closer match but we lost it in the end thanks to a last-minute goal. Fortunately we found our scoring ways again in that match. Which paid out in the next game when we scored four goals against Racing to defeat them 4-2. A much needed win to close this month. We fell down to 6th position. Still a good place for our standards. CONTRACTS RUNNING OUT At the moment, we don´t have the means to extend the contracts of 3 of our key players. Granted, Quintana will maybe retire after the end of this season anyway, but Batallini and Cabrera are two of the best wingers in the team. I just hope they won´t sign anywhere else until the season is finished and we get the League prize money shoveled onto our balance (which is as of now by -1.6M).

Nice to see you here, @Dereka Our facilities are indeed very bad, there is a lot of room for improvement! Sadly, by now our balance has gone into the red again and we can´t afford to do something there... But this is the plan for the future for sure!

A FANTASTIC MONTH We started the month with 4 draws in a row (see previous post for the 1st draw in that series) but then something clicked. We butchered Central Cordoba with a hattrick from your young talent Matias Godoy 4-0 , went on to beat a strong Huracan side at their home, won our home game against Atletico Tucuman quite comfortably and defeated San Lorenzo away, with us leading 3-0 after 19 minutes already. Bringing in the young players from time to time surely paid out well, Godoy especially had an excellent game against Central Cordoba. We got the momentum now, we must keep it going. We sit in 4th position with one game in hand which could see us go top. After a third of the season this is looking quite good for us. FINANCES & CO. As we got some cash from the FA when the League started, I decided to ask the board for a bigger wage budget to ease our pressure and they surprisingly said yes. For the first time in this save, we have a positive wage budget and our overall balance looks good too. We can build on that. So the first thing we did was to extend our number one keeper´s contract, as it was running out at the end of the year. Glad we were able to keep him.

FRIENDLIES & START OF LIGA PROFESIONAL DE FUTBOL Two draws and one convincing win in our pre-season friendlies, some improvement. Another youngster from our reserves joins our first team squad to bolster our central defense. Dardo Torres impressed in the reserves, now he has to show this on a bigger stage. A great start to the league, We seem to play better away than at home though. Both wins were never in danger but we could havve lost the 3rd game easily. Quintana to the rescue! We sit in 5th place. But there are still soo many games to play. Boca and River not having the best of starts. Also, the 7th round of the Copa Argentina went down and we qualified for the quarter finals by beating Racing at their home base. It was nice to see youngster Matias Godoy feature on the goalscorers sheet.

COPA DE LA LIGA & COPA ARGENTINA We played 2 rounds in the Copa Argentina and prevailed in both, albeit very luckily. Both times the opponent was a so-called "smaller" club (although second division side Patronato de Parana are the current cup holders!), but we needed penalties in both matches to win. Nevertheless we made it through to the 7th round where we will meet Racing Club. That said, we played our reserve players in those 2 games so maybe that can serve as an explanation. A convincing run in the Copa de la Liga for us. We manage to beat some of the stronger clubs on our way. It was rather surprising that we qualified for the next round... ...where we lost to Estudiantes after penalties. Good show, guys! It sure was way more than what we expected to achieve here. TRANSFERS & FINANCES More players leaving to ease our wage bill. And we got quite some transfer money in as well. In a surprise transfer, our backup keeper Lanzillota moved to Premier League side Newcastle United. Sadly, I seem to have jinxed it and Strasbourg snatched away our playmaker Alan Rodriguez! It was impossible to keep him at the club as he was already threatening us that he would go on strike if we blocked his transfer. Despite the transfers and the cash injection our balance is still around 0. The wage deficit decreased a lot but still is way too high. TEAM NEWS A lot of first team players, under the leadership of Torrén, were unhappy about the sale of our midfield maestro Rodriguez. We had to hold a team meeting about it and ...I wasnt very successful in appeasing them. Let us pray this wont backfire on our performance in the future. It is nice to see that I was able to convince at least 4 players and there is also Javier Cabrera who was on my side from the beginning. In come the young players! As players were leaving the club we had to bolster the squad with players from our reserve team. Gonzalo Siri is a fine goalkeeper with lots of potential. He will compete for the backup place behind our number one keeper Lucas Chavez with fellow youngster Miguel Acosta. Matias Godoy had some great performances in his reserve games and he is developing well. Welcome to the first team squad, Matias! YOUTH INTAKE 2023 A fantastic intake this year! The players are looking great, hopefully we can help them reach their potential. The new pibe de oro? The Liga Profesional de Futbol season is about to begin. It´s going to be a real struggle to keep many of our players for longer than this season. We have to survive.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/kolo-muani-replaces-injured-nkunku-frances-world-cup-squad-2022-11-16/

PRE-SEASON Happy new year! The pre-season went ok for us, we still need time to gel but there are more positives than negatives there. COMING UP The Copa de la Liga will be played before the League season starts in July. There are two groups and the top 4 teams each qualify for the quarter finals. THE TEAM We have a clear number one and a great prospect as well. Maybe we will get rid of Lanzillota soon. Our defense seems pretty aged but never forget how valuable experience is. Here we got our engine room. Rodriguez and Batallini really make the team tick. And there are some good talents like Lugo and Zalazar too. In attack we have one experienced striker and two talented youngsters. KEY PLAYER Our playmaker. I wonder how long we can hold on to him until the big clubs from europe come calling. THE TACTICS We value a quick technical play.

Absolutely

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT THIS SEASON? Last season the club finished 24th of 28 teams in the league table. However, in Argentina relegation is decided by the average points from the last 4 seasons. We luckily had two top 12 finishes during that time period so we were never in danger of going down. But we aim to finish much better this season. But this is not going to be easy when we take a look at our finances. This is not looking good. We had to load off players with high wages respectively loaned them out which we did to our best possibilities, but still the wages are at 236.609K. Our balance isnt looking good either. So there is even more pressure to do well this season. We need to perform to get the money in. And I guess there won´t be any new signings this season because of that.

Argentinos Juniors were a mostly mediocre club in the argentinian league in the 70s, or more a club threatened by relegation every season. After HE started playing for them in 1976, they started to improve year after year and managed to finish 2nd in the league by 1980. HE was sold to Boca in 1981 for the record fee of 1M, and the club was almost relegated in the following season, only saving themselves on the last day. The following years saw them finish in midtable positions. Then, all of a sudden they won the title in 1984, the "Metropolitano". This was due to the couragous attacking style of manager Roberto Saporiti. However, after the title win he was replaced by Jose Yudica, who had worked wonders with small clubs like Quilmes and San Lorenzo in the past seasons. This seemed like a match made in heaven. As argentinian champions, the club qualified for the 1985 Copa Libertadores. This is when their greatest hour came: They won the title 5:4 after a penalties against colombian club America de Cali. And this is when the decline began: They were relegated from the Primera Division in 1996 and have been switching between those two divisions since then. Now is the time to write history again. Joe Baxter takes over.

Hi @SixPointer ! Great to see you here I had a similar experience before starting this save, but for me it was just their regular wikipedia entry which encouraged me to start a save with them. I have always adored Maradona (one of my first football experiences as a kid was seeing him get sent off against Brazil at the 1982 world cup), which might also be a factor here

"On Thursday 20 October 1976, fans of Argentinos Juniors and a few traveling Talleres de Córdoba fans witnessed probably the most important debut in the history of Argentine football. With Argentinos losing 1–0 the manager, Juan Carlos Montes sent on a 15-year-old debutant named Diego Armando Maradona making him the league's youngest ever player until his record was broken by Sergio Agüero in 2003. Argentinos lost the game but Diego went on to propel the club forward over the next four years and to achieve great successes with other clubs and the Argentina national team. In the 1979 Metropolitano Diego became the youngest topscorer in the history of Argentine football with 14 goals, he went on to become top scorer in the following three tournaments, matching José Sanfilippo's record of being Argentina's topscorer on four consecutive occasions. " (source: wikipedia)

Loving your career so far Could you maybe include to display the goalscorers in the results?

Interesting idea just one thing: It must read "Ostdeutscher Sieg", with an "r" as "Sieg" is masculine. Will be following this