siiriainen

**FM22** Ittihad Riadh Baladiat El Hadjar (IRB El Hadjar) (Championnat National de Football Amateur, Tier 3 Algeria) On The Pitch Championnat National de Football Amateur Group C: 5th Place (of 16) Coupe d'Algérie: 2nd Round Entering the season we were tipped to be relegated. I don't blame the bookies for that prediction because I entered the season with only 17 players on the roster, and the bookies didn't know I wasn't going to be signing anyone! By the first game of the season we actually only had 11 players, just enough to field a full squad, as my team is semi-pro so and many of my non-contract players got quickly snapped up. So I headed into the first game expecting a struggle for the season. Well, to my surprise we ended up comfortably upper mid-table, and even flirted with the promotion playoff spots for most of the first half of the season. We hit some bad form midseason but I am more than happy with a 5th place finish, all things considered. In the Algerian Cup we got embarrassed 0-6 in the first round we played, as we had a tough draw against WA Tlemcen who were a recently relegated team from the 1st division (and ended up comfortably getting promoted from the 2nd division this season). In terms of individual performances, considering we only had 11 players everyone pulled their weight for the most part (we'll get to the one part that didn't). Bilal Houhou was the main star for us, picking up 27 goals in the season for us despite only having a finishing of 4! Our goaltender Dalil Zidane was also great, and if you look closely you can see he picked up 11 goals as I put him on PKs and direct free kicks for a laugh and he excelled. The one weak spot on the roster is Karim Dahmani. As I said, we only had 11 players on the team, and unfortunately none of them were left backs, so Dahmani took the short straw and became my designated left back on the squad since he was also the only left footed player on my squad. Well his lack of ability defending showed and he played terribly, the most remarkable thing though is that he picked up 5 red cards over the season, along with 9 yellow cards. I don't think I've ever seen a player pick up that many cards in a season, and when you lack the players those suspensions sure are felt. Thankfully our youth intake has some players that can play left back (although no long term options imo). Off the Pitch Transfers: No transfers in of course, but we lost 6 players against our will on frees Finances: -$17,213. Slowly leaking money, but not super concerned yet. Youth Intake An incredible youth intake with two obvious standouts in this class: Mohamed Saïdi and Abdelmalek Amrouche. Unfortunately they play in a position that is already a strength for the team and they play a similar type of game, but I won't say no to them replacing the players I was using prior as they both already are better options. I signed everyone from the intake, as I've been repeating, we only had 11 players on the squad so I'll take any reinforcements I can get. Next Season's Expectations Based on the surprise 5th place finish, I don't see why we can't push for a promotion playoff spot this year. We already were a young team and now we have some reinforcements on the squad to rotate players in and at least make some substitutions. I'm optimistic about a top 3 finish this year.

**FM 22** Ittihad Riadh Baladiat El Hadjar (IRB El Hadjar) (Championnat National de Football Amateur, Tier 3 Algeria) Season 1 - 2022/2023 - A New Beginning Round 2, lets go, hopefully a bit more success this time. Club Background: Located in El Hadjar, a town of 37,000 people in north east Algeria, Ittihad Riadh Baladiat El Hadjar (better known as IRB El Hadjar) was founded in 1975 and has had little to no success in their history. Just promoted into Algeria's third tier, the team has a newly built stadium with a capacity of 3718 that is owned by the club (not sure if this was mirroring real life or if it happened in game), but basic and poor facilities, including basic junior coaching and youth recruitment. Will a new manager from Albania who doesn't speak Arabic or French be able to return this team to glory using only players from the youth academy and eventually win the CAF Champions League or will he be sacked midway through the first season? Only time will tell. Algeria's third tier, the Ligue Nationale du Football Amateur, is a completely amateur division with no foreign players allowed - not that that is much of an issue for me since I'm not signing anyone - split into 4 different groups. We are in Groupe C of the league. Each group has 16 teams and they play each other twice, with the top team promoted into tier two while the bottom four are relegated. The 2nd and third place team enter a promotion playoff to try to join the 2nd division. The board at IRB El Hadjar are a realistic bunch, knowing their limitations and only expecting to avoid relegation. That's fine with me since that's my goal too!. The team only has 17 players and are in a completely amateur division so the challenge will be keeping bodies on the team and collecting enough points for survival until we can get a youth intake for the next season. In the meantime, it is time to hire an assman and Head of Youth Development and seeing what the shape of this squad is like before the season kicks off.

Actually, false start on this one. My only GK got poached by another team and I had to play with one greyed out and the sack was coming soon. Will restart and go again

**FM 21** Hamra Annaba Club Sportif (Ligue Nationale du Football Amateur, Tier 3 Algeria) Season 1 - 2021/2022 - A New Beginning Club Background: Located in the third largest city in Algeria, Annaba (which is a costal city near the border of Tunisia), Hamra Annaba Club Sportif was founded in 1944 and was just promoted to Algeria's third tier. Although they currently play in the amateur divisions, the team had a spell of success in the 1960s and 1970s with league title from the top division in 1964 and the football association's top cup in 1972. The team has a decently sized 15,000 capacity stadium (no idea if it comes close to a sell out), but basic and poor facilities, including fairly basic junior coaching and youth recruitment. Will a new manager from Albania who doesn't speak Arabic or French be able to return this team to glory using only players from the youth academy and eventually win the CAF Champions League or will he be sacked midway through the first season? Only time will tell. Algeria's third tier, the Ligue Nationale du Football Amateur, is a completely amateur division with no foreign players allowed - not that that is much of an issue for me since I'm not signing anyone - split into 4 different groups. We are in Groupe C of the league. Each group has 16 teams and they play each other twice, with the top team promoted into tier two while the bottom two are relegated. Despite being freshly promoted the board at Hamra Annaba Club Sportif are an ambitious bunch and seek a top two finish in the league. Since the team only has 17 players (that are vulnerable to be snatched for free since they're amateurs) and are only just promoted, this may be a tall order. Hopefully the board is sympathetic. Time to hire an assman and Head of Youth Development and seeing what the shape of this squad is like before the season kicks off.