Riebow

Olot UE Season Review (45/46) Europe We completed the challenge...almost! We never made it past the quarter finals before and I thought it would be our end point again when we drew Man City. We somehow managed to sneak two wins despite being 2nd best in both games. We had less issues with AC Milan, which we dispatched easiliy in the home leg. In the final we encountered Dortmund, an all by all manageable opponent I thought at first, but a look at their team saw that this was wishful thinking. They were by far the better team in the first half and we were lucky to be only behind 2-1 at that point. We were more dominant in the 2nd half without creating too many chances, but luckiliy an individual action from José Manual equalized close before the end of regulation. They then lost a man with a 2nd yellow card just before extra time: a golden opportunity. Unfortunately we were unable to take advantage and we had to settle for penalties. I don't believe ever to have won a penalty shoutout in this save, as the game refuses to deliver a player who can kick a penalty (the highest rating for penalties is 10). My pessimissm seemed to be justified and we lost 4-3 on penalties League Our fourth title and by far the easiest of the bunch. Barçelona and Real were shocking this season. We were also less dominant than previous seasons, but we were ahead so far and won the title with 4 games to spare. Copa Our second copa win and our second double. A 94th minute header by Joan Miquel Sollivelles gave us the cup win Youth intake It took 22 seasons but we were finally able to upgrade our Youth facilities to State of the Art! Our HOYD got poached to become head coach at Alaves so we had to look for someone else. Johannes Wimmer first intake was not spectacular. By CA it's about the worst in 6 seasons. There seems to be a talended GK, but we'll see in a year of 5 to see how they've developed. NXGN 3 players in the NXGN, but the first one only in position 9. We're playing less and less youngesters so I guess this makes sense Cyrille Delorge(AMRC; Perfectionist) A very exciting prospect, who I promoted to the first team. Unfortunately he seems to be quite injury prone which affected his playing time. Brahima Touré(DMC; Fairly Profesisional) Facunda Campenella(AML/STC; Fairly Ambitious) Best XI A lot of players with an average rating above 7. In goal Josep Lluis Guso has shared time with Robert Alsina, although his potential seems to be at about the same level. Emili Dominguez at left back is our best player, with an impressive 7.43 avg rating. Alfred Vazquez is an enigma, his attributes arent't that good and he's only a decent first division player, but his production... Joan Miquel Sollivelles followed up an injury ravaged season with the best season in his career, scoring 26 goals across all competitions. 5 Years ago Quite a good intake: - Is a first team starter: Miquel Angel Puigoriol and Fernando - Is a rotation player: Antonio Berenguer - is close to the first team: Jan Figueras and Oscar Lara Next Season This season we said goodbye to some long serving players, I might do the same next season as it's time to get the next batch of youngsters playing time. And oh yeah, win the CL.

Olot UE Season Review (44/45) Europe The quarter finals remain a hurdle we can't cross. We had a great campaign all things considered. We finished 2nd in the league phase, we gave us a bye week. I was hoping for a favourable draw, instead we've got Man Utd. We were lucky to only lose 1-0 in the first leg. In the return leg we played really well, and a great goal from Delfi got us into extra time, where Esteban scored an amazing free kick to see us through to the quarter finals. There we would meet Real Madrid. We hammered Real only a couple of weeks before, winning 4-1 at home so I was hoping we could repeat that. A equitable 1-1 at home meant all was yet to play for in the return leg. A very poor first half saw us down 2-0. We had to go all in and Andreu gave us a lifeline around the 65th minute. With momentum swinging we received a penaly in the 95th minute which would send us into extra time!!! Unfortunately Joan Miquel Sollivelles couldn't control his nerves and he missed the golden opportunity. Knocked out yet again. League In a season where Barçelona went undefeated, we somehow come away with our third title! We only had 1 loss ourselved (against Barça), but they had 9 draws against our 6. We had a 3 point lead on the last game, which was against... Barça. We've only been able to beat them 3 times in this entire save, mostly very convincing losses. We parked the bus for the entire game and just enerved them. It was enough to escape with a 0-0 tie and the title! Copa Our cup luck seems to have ran out, with another early exit. This time we were knocked out in the quarter finals by Girona on penalties (it would really help if this game would spawn some players who can actually kick a penalty). Super Cup We've got the result we wanted by losing in the semi's Youth Intake A lot of A's in the preview again, we're used to that. The intake actually looks pretty good! I'm excited to see how they will develop. NXGN A bit of a shocker that Emili Dominiguez didn't win it two years in a row. In fact Brahima Touré finished ahead of him in 5th place. Brahima Touré(DMC/MRC; Fairly Professional) Nicely developing defensive midfielder who has a great reading of the game. He played quite some games this season and that will only increase. Emili Dominguez(DL/WBL/ML; Resolute) My wonderkind leftback is unfortunately already close to full potential. He did break into the Spain national team though. Facundo Campanella(STC; Fairly Ambitious) Campanella made it on the NXGN list for the 2nd straight year, despite playing for my U19's. Best XI Robert Alsina's days as our number one Goalkeeper may be numbered as Josep Lluis Guso is coming for his spot. We finally have a 2nd player who's good enough to play center back on this level with Miquel Angel Puigeriol. We have another one in the rotation with Antonio Berenguer(althouh he's wanted by most top teams in Europe). We're set on wing back and defensive midfield. José Manuel had a lesser season for his standards, only scoring 7 goals. It was actually Henry Ike who was the better striker this season. 5 Years ago... 1. Josep Lluis Guso is on track on become our next starting goalkeeper 2. Desko Vlasblom made the team this season, but I couldn't get him the playing time I was hoping for, so I sent him back on loan after January. 3. Armand seemed to be a major prospect for the left wing back position only to be overtaken only a year later by Emili Dominiguez. With the amount of games we're playing he's getting plenty of game time as the backup. 4. Marko Stankovic finished his third season on loan in his native country of Croatia. He will get his shot next season, as I'm not entirely satisfied with our strikers behind Henry Ike 5. For Federico Alvarez it will be difficult to break into the team with the talent we have at left back 6. Antoni Sola and Pep are still at the club, but are more fodder to bulk out our B Team 7. The others didn't get signed Next Season We're close, I feel it. One of this years we'll get past the quarter finals!

Olot UE Season Review (43/44): A season of tears Europe We'll switch things up from now on and start with Europe as this is the last part of the challenge we have yet to finish. Once again the Quarter finals were the final stop and once again Newcastle was the culprit. We tied them 2-2 at their place, so everything was still to play for in the return leg at home. We seemed to be the superior team, but we couldn't get the ball in the net. Just when it seemed we would go to extra time, they hit us with a near post corner. A really undeserving loss and exit out of the CL. That Newcastle game... An XG of 2, but we were unable to score. League Another heartbreak followed in the league. We were top of the table for most of the season, mostly because we were 2 games ahead of Barçelona. However, unexpectedly Barçelona started to drop some points, giving us a 3 points lead on the penultimate game: a home game againt Barçelona. The match started as badly as could be expected and we were down 0-2 at half time. With nothing else to lose we went all-in Attacking and miraculously we fought back to 2-2. Wishing to keep the draw I reverted to a very defensive tactic with 3 CB's, with one in cover, and 4 DM's, hoping to prevent balls behind our defense. So obviously they score on a deep ball behind our defense. This game... NB: look at that gap between the 'big three' and the rest of the league.... Copa Our worst performance in the cup, where we were knocked out in the 4rd round against Huelva, who were bottom of the 2nd tier! We were up 0-2 and seemed to be cruising to an easy victory and somehow conceded three goals in the final 30 minutes. Super Cup A useless competition where we somehow managed to beat Real in order to get hammered by Barçelona in the final. Youth intake A lot of A's in the preview, but the actual intake was pretty dissapointing, more so because of the personalities. My HOYD is basically as good as is possible, so I guess this is just a bad roll of the dice. Joan Ramon was labelled as 'one of the most gifted players to come through our academy' so we'll see in a couple of years. I didn't sign many of them. NXGN After a short hiatus, we're back on top of the NXGN. This time the honours went to Emili Dominguez, with 2 more players in the top 20 Emili Dominguez(DL/WBL/ML; Resolute) 18 years old and already has the label 'Wonderkid'. I don't believe I've ever had this with a player this young. He became our starting left back by the end the season. I'm hoping he might become our first truly world class player. His Natural fitness of 5 is a problem though... Facundo Campanella(AML/STC; Fairly Ambitious) This one really surprised me, he finished 8th on the NXGN list, while playing for our U19's... Marko Stankovic(STC; FaIrly Determined) We don't lack in strikers. Stankovic has spent the past 2 seasons on loan in his native country of Croatia. Next season the plan is to find a good 2nd division team for him. Best XI Really our best season, with a lot of players well over the 7 average rating mark. Robert Alsina is still our number one, but I wished I could upgrade. He really let us down at the end ot the season. We have two exciting wing backs with Carlos Boriba and Emili Dominguez, while center back remains our achilles heel. There're some youngsters I will promote to the first team next season and hopefully one of them will account to something. The law firm of Sebastian & Esteban kept control of midfield, while Jose Manuel had another amazing season with 16 assists and 23 goals coming from the left wing. Joan Miquel Sollivelles had another major injury, so Henry Ike played most of the season as our lone striker. 5 years ago... It's fair to say the PA on Carlos Boriba was very misleading, as he easily ended up being the best of the bunch. Noa Bruneel has been unlucky in his development with some bad injuries and equally bad loan spells. Isidre was rated as the player with the highest potential, but is still playing at tier 3 level. Marçal is stil worth mentioning as a player who might make the team someday. At this point in the save getting a starter out of an intake should be considered a success as we're pretty much stacked on most positions save for GK and CB. Next season Rinse and repeat. It's Champions League or bust

Olot UE Season Review (42/43) League: Our reign in Spain has ended! To be honest, there was just no competing with Real this season. They went undefeated and only lost their first point after 23 games. We actually had a very good season, finishing with 5 more points than last season, when we won the league. We're lucky to have taken advantage of some down years of the big two to steal away some titles. Copa Or the one where our midfielder played a shocking pass backwards to our goal keeper, only to have it intercepted and for Barcelona to score the winning goal... in the 89th minute. Perhaps the most devastating loss I've ever encountered while playing FM. Europe Again a decent run, where we knocked out two fellow compatriots in Vigo and Valencia. Man Utd was just a bit too strong. Super Cup yes, this also happened Youth Intake A great preview, the intake as well looked decent. We'll revert back in 5 years NXGN Well, no winner this season. Three players made the list though Armand(DLC; Resolute) The big prospect of the intake two seasons ago. Already looks very good, and has played some games this season. Unfortunately the next season the best prospect was another left back and could be even better. Desko Vlasblom(MC/AMRC; Resolute) Away at our affiliate ADO Den Haag, he's developing nicely. Probably still a year away to make it to the first team Noah Bruneel(AML/STC; Fairly Sporting) It took some time, but a season on loan at Beerschot saw some nice development. I'll probably let him roast there for another season. Best XI Our defense remains our achilles heel, especially at center back. Antoni Juvanteny is the only quality player at the position. Wing back was an issue for a very long time, but we have some excited prospects (especially on the left) which could turn the position into a strength. We rotate a lot in midfield; the big surprise there was Alfred Vazquez: it's his first season in the first team, spending some seasons away on loan. He was initially meant to be a squad player, but he ended up with whopping 7.37 average rating, 17 goals and 6 assists! It's things like this which makes the save so much fun. Speaking of surprises, 'old' Robert Pujadas (he's 28) had a great season, scoring 20 goals across all competions; He's now leading in appearances (395) and is two goals away for being the all time goal scorer (although he has competition from Jose Manuel). What a legend. 5 years ago... This was actually a decent intake with quite some players who became decent squad players. I've ended up signing all 16 of them. - Joan Raimon Rodriguez Vazquez: has a long name, but also won the NXGN last season. He's a decent rotation player on the right wing - Andreu Saitor: I was so excited when he came through, finally a center back with high potential and a good personality. Alas the position is cursed, he has barely improved since. - Eloi Pujol: might just not be good enough. There's to much competition up front - Aldo Catalano: Still at the club technically, but always out on loan. Could be a decent player for a bottom of the league team, but not for us - Alfred Vazquez: as mentioned above, an amazing first season in the first team. A player who is vastly overachieving his attributes - Mathijs Smit: a very good looking play maker, who I really need to give some more playing time. Might overtake Jan Porte as the backup RPM - Are still at the team and have a chance: Juarry Ricciuli and Giel Verschuere (as our 3rd GK) Next Season: It will probably take a couple more seasons before we can properly compete with the English teams in the Champions League. We definitely have plenty of talent up front, but lack talent at the back. To be honest, while are squad is very good, we don't have any world class players like Real or Barça has. Hopefully this will change in the coming seasons. Vamos!

Olot UE Season Review (41/42) League: A single image speaks louders than a 1000 words... The season is long, the laptop is slow. The grind continues, although I still really love this save. It's amazing the depth we possess. We're able to play a fully rotated squad and still manage to win league games. We retain our league title and firmy establish ourselves as one of the top teams in Spain. It helps that both Real and Barça have fallen off a bit. We win the title with the lowest point total in 'history' (I think they mean from when the save started). We were 6 points ahead of Real with 3 games to play. We then lost to Vigo and our next game was against Real. A defeat would basically hand them the title, but we've been so clutch the entire season. We won that game 2-1 and secured the title. Copa Another image: We win our very first Copa! It was a nerve wracking affair. We won 2-1 after extra time against Vigo, with Henry Ike bagging the winning goal. Our very first double! Europe A good European run, which saw us knocking out Benfica and Liverpool before succumbing to Newcastle in the quarter finals. The second leg might have been the most thrilling game I ever played on FM. We came back from a deficit three times to finish 3-3 in regulation. We missed two enormous opportunities in extra time and then go out on penalties after our GK missed the deciding one. We now know we can hang with the elite teams in Europe Super Cup As if we don't play enough games, there's also the Spanish super cup which is played smack in the middle of the season. We managed to beat Barça before losing to Atletico Madrid in the final. Youth Intake The preview promised central midfielders, instead we've got an incredible talent on the left wing back position. Emili Dominguez is the biggest talent to come out of the academy. He arrives with a score of 70 in my excel formula. Emili Dominiguez(Resolute; DL/WBL/ML) NXGN: As is our habit, one of our players wins the NXGN. Joan Raimon Rodriguez Vazquez wins the NXGN for the 2nd year in a row despite playing less this season due to injuries. Joan Raimon Rodriguez Vazquez (Balanced; AMR/STC) Best XI It's odd how I win the title and the cup, but only have 4 players with an average rating above 7... We rotate between a 4222 narrow and this tactic below depending on the opposition. In goal Robert Alsina has taken over from Emili and has solidified the position. They're stil no world beaters, but they do the job. On defense more of the same, although I did started to bring in Carlos Boriba on the right. He's 19, lightning fast and has 5 star PA. He wil become the starter next season. In midfield we have a lot of decent players we can rotate between. Dellfi should be our best player attribute wise, but I feel underwhelmed. We have two very good BWM's in Sebastian and Armando Esteban. Jose Manuel was our leading scorer once again and made the difference in many games. He's 12 goals away from being the all time goalscorer. Sollivelles was less impressive than the previous season. In attack I have plenty of options with Henry Ike, Robert Pujadas or Oussama Elyounnoussi 5 years ago... I was not that impressed with the intake 5 seasons ago, but it has actually delivered some decent players: Kike Gil is a speed merchant on the wing. He has trouble finding playing time, so he went out on loan in the 2nd half of the season to Sporting Gijon in the 2nd tier. He's still developing nicely, so he might one day become a starter. Sebastian became a starter rather early and is a very nice BWM, but he's getting competition from his fellow graduate Armando Esteban, who seems to have the higher ceiling and a better personality. Armand Gasol is another player I just can't find the playing time with all the talent up front. I was unable to register him, so he threw a tantrum. He was out on loan at Athletico Pamplona, but didn't really impress. His future is very much up in the air. Other than that, Nicky Otto, Oscar and Pep Balleste are still at the club. Otto might develop to become our 3rd string GK, for the others their future probably will be somewhere else Next season It's CL or bust at this point. We have won everything there's to win domestically (save for the super cup, but who cares).

Olot UE Season Review (40/41) League: Unbelievable, but in our 17th season at the helm of Olot UE we win our first silverware and it's La Liga! In what ended up being an off year for both Barcelona and Real, we were the surprise package. At the halfway mark we were 7 points behind Barcelona, with the likes of Real, Betis and Atletico all separated within two points. We were simply unstoppable past New Year, losing only one single league game, while Barcelona kept dropping points. With still four games to go, Barca dropped points again, giving us the chance to win the title in our game against Real Sociedad. It was a nervous affair, but season revelation Joan Miquel Sollivelles scored the only goal of the game (and got sent off), delivering our very first league title!! Copa: We made it to the semi-finals, but lost to Atletico Madrid in a close affair Europe Some mixed bag of results. We were knocked out by Napoli in the knock-out playoff stage Youth Intake Some exciting prospects, but a bit disappointed with the personalities and the lack of different nationalities. NXGN Another winner of the NXGN award. This time the honour went to Joan Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, while Sebastian finished third for the 2nd straigt season. Joan Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez(AMR/STC; Balanced) Sebastian(DM/MC; Balanced) Transfers Abdou Niang got upset because I rejected offers from Saudi-Arabia. To be fair to him, he could make about 5 times more over there. I then promised he could leave in the next transfer window, which he did to ... Betis. Suddenly he wasn't interested in the middle east no more. He was a good player, but a bit injuriy prone and on a position where we have some depth. Best XI What I love in this save is that I have new players coming in the starting XI every season. Last year it was Antoni Barri. This year it was Joan Miquel Sollivelles. He started the season as a depth player, but simply played himself into our starting XI. Despite not that much playing time he was still somehow our leading goalscorer by New Year. He quickly became one of my favourite players: tall (1.94m) with great technicals and just playing incredibly most of the times. I started rotating my goal keepers with Robert Alsina seeming to win out, but he had a couple of major injuries, which resulted in Emili playing the majority of the games. Antoni Juvanteny remains our rock at the back and luckily for us pretty durable, because the drop-off behind him is pretty steep. In midfield we saw some young players breaking through in Sebastian and Joan Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez. Upfront we had the luxury of being able to rotate between Henry Ike, Jose Manuel and Robert Pujadas. Joan Miquel Sollivelles(AMC/STC; Fairly Loyal) 5 years ago... Speaking of the devil... It was 5 years ago when Joan Miquel Sollivelles came through our intake and he was billed as the best talent of the year. He really developed nicely and I never expected him to be such a gamechanger. We lost Sami Briand last season to AC Milan. Raimon Freixanet has spent the season on loan at Multivera in the Federacion 1. Emili Puigoriol is our starting left back and the first player of this intake to make into the first team. Oussama Elyounoussi had some nice development on loan and will be a squad player next season. Next Season With the challenge 50% done there is only one more thing to do: winning the Champions League so that's where my focus will go to. I don't think we have the team yet to win it, but then again I also didn't believe I could win the title this season...

Olot UE Season Review (39/40) League: Same amount of wins as last season, but we finish one spot lower. We started the season well, hammering Barcelona 3-0 at home and I though we might be on for something special. Especially as the Big Two took a slow start. However, we couldn't keep the form going with a 5th place finish as a result. Copa: No luck again this season, as we were knocked out by GIrona on penalties in the quarter finals. Europe A much better run in Europe, narrowingly missing out on automatic qualification. We were knocked out by Barcelona rather handily in the round of 16. Youth Intake The preview was good as always, but I'm really happy with the intake. A 5 star PA Goalkeeper is much needed. Other than that there's a Perfectionist wing back who looks really promising. Our foreign affiliates also produced us players from The Netherlands (through ADO Den Haag), Croatia (Lokomotiva Zagreb), Chile (O'Higgins) and France (Sochaux) NXGN We keep our run going and have another winner on the NXGN list. This time the honours go to our up and coming left back Emili Puigoriol, while Sebastian finished 3rd and Oussama Elyounoussi 49th Emili Puigoriol (LB; Spirited) Sebastian (DM/MC; Fairly Professional) Oussama Elyounoussi (STC; Balanced) Transfers Before the season ticked over, we lost promising playmaker Sami Briand. I was planning to give him more playing time this season, but AC Milan poached him for a measly 15M. Spain and obligated minimun release clauses keeps getting me. To make matters worse: at the beginining of the season we lost our main goal scorer Alejandro to Almeria for 47.5M. Again, I didn't do a good enough job checking the minimum release clauses so we lost two valuable squad players. Best XI A switch in tactics once again, this time going for the Brazilian box, trying to take advantage of the talent at front. Goalkeeper remains unsatisfactory, although we did conceed much less than previous seasons. Antoni Juvanteny (DC/DM; Fairly Professional) is our stud at the back and even made it to the Spain Euro's Selection. Other than him, everyone else are rated as good second division players. Emili Puigoriol had a good season, leading the team with 12 assists and still has some room to grow. Delphi is not on here, but he's our best midfielder and wanted by Bayern. He only has 2 years left on his contract and refuses to renew. Antoni Barri is the breakthrough player of the year and can play everywhere in the AM strata. Henry Ike has become our best attacking option, scoring 16 goals this season. 5 years ago... A lot of 5 star PA, let's have a look what has become of them: - Andreu Alena: spent the previous season on loan at A Coruna in the second tier. He's a bit a victom of the fact that I'm not using wingers at the moment. He still has 3.5 PA, so might become a decent squad player - Oscar: he was on loan at Alicante in the 3rd tier and finally showed some development. Still has 4.5 PA, so he might be a late bloomer. - Antoni Juvanteny: our rock in defense and Spanish international! - Pep Juncosa: Spend the previous season on loan with our affiliate Tarragona in the 3rd tier. I will give him a shot as a backup next season - Henry Ike: The 2nd wonderkid from this intake. He's our best attacking option, but I worry he might already have hit his ceiling, not making any progress this season. - Antoni Barri: broke through in the first team this season and I had to reject offers from PSG. He still has 5 star PA next to his 3.5 CA Overall a massive intake and perhaps the best one yet of the save Next Season Spain is hard. I honestly don't know if I ever will be able to compete with Barcelona or Real Madrid. Even so, we keep on going!

Olot UE Season Review (38/39) League One more win than last season and another 4rd place finish. This was the first season where we were able to both beat Real Madrid and Barcelona (their only loss this season!), but at the same time we would drop points against the bottom teams of the league. Our defense is still very poor, conceding more goals than some teams in the bottom of the league. The loss of our GK Jan Catala a couple of seasons ago still hurts (even more because he's just riding the bench at Atl Madrid). I'm still very much enyoing the save, but good lord how will I ever be able to best Barcelona in their current state? Copa Unfortunate to draw Barcelona in the quarter finals. We gave them a good game, but they were once again too strong Europe Our first season in the Champions League and it went... badly. I want to say I mostly played a rotated squad, but we played our best XI against Man City and got absolutely destroyed. It's safe to say we're still a couple of seasons off. Youth intake The preview looked amazing. Promising Full-Backs? Yes, please! In the end the most promising players are again in the more attacking parts. I'm dissapointed about the personalities coming through, which makes me think I should switch HOYD. I love the addition of two more Belgians though NXGN Henry Ike(AMLC/STC; Fairly Professional) wins the NXGN-award for the 2nd consecutive year. He's joined on the list by Emili Puigoriol (LB; Spirited) and Sami Briand (DM/MC/AMRC; Fairly Professional) Henry Ike Emili Puigoriol Sami Briand Best XI I'm not sure what to make of Emili. We concede way too many goals and he has already peaked. Unfortunately there's no-one at the club to challenge him at the moment; Puigoriol took over at LB in the 2nd half of the season and is progressing nicely. My most promising CB (Antoni Juvanteny) is not on the list as he was injured for 3 months, but he's about the only CB with 5 star PA. Delfi is our metronome in midfield, just an amazing mezzala. We might see some more competition for the other 2 spots in central midfield. Alejandro is still progressing at age 24, which is nice to see. However, now he has half of the saudis chasing after him. Henry Ike is our new wonderkid, but wants to leave the club. I dismissed him and now he's upset. He still has 4 years left on his contract so I hope he will change his mind by then 5 Years ago... Not an amazing intake to be honest. Of the players coming though only Josep Lluis Puigdollers is a regular starter and that's mostly because of the lack of talent at CB. Lu Carrasco is a good squad player with room for improvement. Vitinho has promise, but had two major injuries this season. He's a borderline squad player, but I will probably look for another loan opportunity. Miquel Angel Puigmal looked like the best prospect, but never developed and is now at Vallecano B. The other 5 star potential player, Sergio Alvarez, has the same issue: he's not really developing despite playing plenty of football out on loan. Next Season: We keep going. We still haven't won any silverware. The copa del rey is probably the most realistic, but we would need a season where Real Madrid/Barcelona bows out early. In the league we will keep competing for Champions League football. In the Champions League we will try to do a bit better than last season. Vamos!

Olot UE Season Review (37/38) League: We improve one spot and finished 4rd and qualify for Champions League football for the first time. As you can see our defense is a huge problem, conceding 52 goals, which makes it near impossible to compete with the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid. Copa del Rey We made it to the semi-finals, but were knocked out by Real San Sebastian Super Cup Don't care about this made up competition Europe Our B team had a very inconsistent run of games in Europe, failing to beat Olimpija Ljubijana or Trabzonspor, but hammering Roma 6-1... We made it to the quarter finals, but stranded against Stuttgart losing 5-2 AET. Youth Intake An amazing preview with loads of A's piqued my interest. The actual intake looks unimpressive based on the stars, but is actually our best in terms of average CA. At this point of the save a 5 star PA would imply a star La Liga player, so it's normal they would be rather rare. It's nice to see some different nationalities. We get two Belgians due to our affiliation with Beerschot and a Dutchman due to our affiliation with ADO Den Haag. The Italian could be because of our Italian HOYD. NXGN Out of nowhere Henry Ike wins the NXGN award. He forced his way into the rotation and looks like he could become an absolute star. Here he is. I'm hoping he can improve his mentals to become a star La Liga player Transfers This came out of left field. Atletico Madrid matched the release clause of our starting goalkeeper so we had to let him go. They paid 50 Million and... put him on their bench for the entire season! Catala was an amazing goal line keeper, with great reflexes and agility Best Xi Jan Catala unfortunately left us, which means Emili had to take over. Once upon a time I would have thought he was the more talented one, but it seems he won't improve beyond a decent first division player. Robert Pujadas had a banger of a season with 30 goal contributions from midfield. Henry Ike made it on our Best XI, despite not being a regular starter for us. I rejected a bid from Barcelona for Jose Manuel, which made him upset. He has a promise he can leave if someone matches his release clause, which happily hasn't happened yet. 5 years ago... The intake gave us our star player Jose Manuel and that in itself made it a good intake. Jan Rosanas is also marked as a Wonderkid and divides his time between CB and DM. As was expected the top rated prospect with a bad personality never developed. Ricardo Gomez still has a 4.5 star PA, but his personality might keep him down. Let's see if we can mentor him a bit instead of going out on loan. Next season Our first season in the CL. I doubt we can win it at this stage. I feel we have plenty of talent upfront, but lack a bit of talent at the back to allow us to compete with the best teams in Spain. Either way, we're not yet abandoning this save!

Olot UE Season Review (36/37) League Another year of solid improvement, finishing 5th. At the moment there are still 4 teams clearly better than us, but Champions League football is getting closer and closer. Copa del Rey Our second final but we came short yet again. We were down 1-0 after only 5 minutes so we were chasing basically the entire match. We finally tied on penalty in the 80th minute and I thought momentum was on our side. We kept going attacking, only to run into a counter in the 91st minute. A huge disappoint and still no hardware in this save. Europe Due to the shenanigans with the coefficients, we actually were qualified for the Europa League instead of the Conference league, which is actually a bit disappointing as I though we had a better chance of winning that one. We mostly played a heavily rotated squad, but still finished 7th in the group stage. We then had the worst possible draw with Chelsea and were knocked out subsequently. Youth Intake A couple of nice prospects, but in general the talent level is disappointing compared to our facilities. NXGN 3rd time is the charm for Jose Manuel, who wins the NXGN in his final year of eligibility. Here's our little wonderkid, who had a banger of a season Best XI Jan Catala is our stalwart in goal. Enric leads the league in assists with 15, but is only a 2 star CA player. The same is said for the wing back on the right side. Especially against the better sides the lack of talent on the wing backs hurts us. Our center backs are rather average as well. There is some talent in the U19s, so let's hope one of them can step up next season. Delfi improved massively and has his eyes set on a transfer. Jose Manuel is just on another level, scoring 22 goals in the league and finishing as top scorer! 5 Years ago... At the time this looked like an amazing intake, but it's just another proof how important personality is. Cheick Gomis looked like the biggest prospect, but is just messing around on loan or in the B team. Jose Luis Fuertes is a nice little striker who I want to develop more. Eloi Balcells is one of those players that just keep on having 5 stars PA but never seems to improve. Delfi was by far the best player of the intake and is a starting mezzala. Robert Alsina is developing nicely and might one day challenge for the starting goalkeeper position. Enric Zorilla is in the rotation for the right wing back spot, but probably doesn't have more than 2nd division potential Next season We finished our 13th season at the helm of Olot, but still haven't won anything. We've close twice in the Copa del Rey. Will three times be the charm?

Olot UE Season Review (35/36) League: What a season. I started the season intending to build the squad around our talented winger Jose Manuel (intake of 33), but initially he could barely scratch a 6.5 rating. Since we lack natural wingers I reverted back to a narrow 4132. The team gradually improved over the year which resulted with us going undefeated in the last 12 games. We drew 1-1 against Barcelona (by comparison on average we lose 6-0), but we kept the best for last. With only one game to go we only had a one point lead on Atl Madrid for the last European spot. Unfortunately that last game was against Real Madrid... We held a team meeting motivating them with the prospect of European qualification and boy did it work! We played an incredible first half and were up 2-0 at half time! We did some nervous defending in the 2nd half, conceding a goal in stoppage time but it was enough: our first win against one of the big two and European Football for tiny Olot! Copa del Rey A nice cup run, but unfortunate to come up against Real Madrid in the quarter finals. Youth Intake First intake of the new HOYD and we see a slight drop in average CA. I guess it takes some time to see the effects of that change. We were promised some full backs, which would be nice because we lack depth there. The intake did mostly what was promised: two elite talent left backs and one very promising striker in Joan Miquel Solivelles Transfers A vey quiet year on the transfer market with only loads of loans out NXGN Jose Manuel made the list for the 2nd straight year, finishing third. He's still developing well and is getting more and more playing team. Mostly as an advanced forward though as I don't use wingers at the moment. Jose Manuel (Intake of 33; Light-hearted) Best XI Finally some players with an average rating above 7. Delfi had a great 2nd half of the season and is now seen as a Wonderkid by the media. Alejandro was our topscorer with 12 goals, while Jose Manuel had a breakout season with 11 goals. 5 years ago... An interesting intake. Ouakrim was the highest rated player but never developed and is on his way out. We had two Wonderkids who already left: Pep Figueras went to Vigo for 22M and Ignacio Iglesias to Sevilla for 27M. Abdou Niang and Destiny Ogar have been doing well out on loan and they will join the squad next season. Emili is a really good goalkeeper, he might be better than our current one, so I really don't want to hamper his development. He was out on loan at Granada in the 2nd tier, but I might keep him for the next season and make him our European/cup goalkeeper. Next season Our first season in Europe. As we won't have many changes to win the conference league, I want to see if we can go all the way. I will need to keep a bigger squad and send less players out on loan to deal with the extra matches.

To be fair, teams in the top Amateur division in Belgium shouldn't be professional to start with. There's a clear demarcation between professional football (1a Jupiler Pro League and 1b Challenger Pro League) and amateur football in Belgium. That's really the main issue with the finances in Belgium, is that the wages don't make sense. Most players should be on non-contracts with appearence fees or semi-pro in my opinion. I'm curious if they will rectify this in the next data update.

Olot UE Season Review (34/35) League. We're average! A good start to the season saw us competing for European football, but in the 2nd half of the season wins were far and between. We finish on a very respectable 11th place. Copa del Rey Because we made the final the previous season, we entered the Copa in the 3rd round. In the quarter finals we were unlucky to draw Barcelona. This was the closest to a non-lose we've ever come, so progress! Super Cup Apparently in Spain the super cup is played with 4 teams. As this was a mid-week game, I couldn't care less. Youth Intake An exciting intake with 6 elite talents. Personalities are also much improved. It would be nice to get the freak prospect, but I like the talents coming through. Transfers We lose another player because his release clause was too low. Ignacio Iglesias left for 27M to Sevilla. He's the second Wonderkid we lose. Here he is: NXGN Another entry in the NXGN list. A bit surprised it's Jose Manuel. He's an incredible talent, but I'm bringing him along slowly. The game does seem to rate him. Here he is: Best XI Again no player with an average rating above 7. We see a change in goal, with Jan Catala taking over. This is the tactic I experimented with early in the season, build around Alejandro as a shadow striker. 5 years ago... I was excited when I got the intake and rightly so. Pujadas, Lorente, Alejandro, Jan Porte and Jan Catala are all starters right now Next season We need to be a bit consistent and then I think we will be able to compete for European football. We keep going!

Don't worry about that. I'm doing a youth only save in Spain and I was very surprised when almost none of my players were eligible. You can just put them in the lineup and they will get registered anyway!

Olot UE Season Review League Not an easy season, but another year of survival. We're renting the stadium of fellow Liga 1 team Girona, which meant a lot of our games were moved, resulting in shorter weeks. Especially at the end every game felt like a struggle. Copa An amazing cup run where we made it all the way to the final! Unfortunately for us Celta da Vigo was just that little bit better. Shoutout to third tier team Castellon who kocked out both Barcelona and Real Madrid in back to back games! Ah, Cup magic Youth Intake An exciting preview made me dream of an amazing intake. In the end it was much more average than I expected. We'll circle back in 5 years! Transfers One major transfer. Pep Figueras moved to Vigo for a record setting 22M, which matched his release clause Here he is. After his move, he received the Wonderkid monniker! NXGN Our first entry in the NXGN list. Robert Pujadas finished third, while old friend Pep Figueras finished 5th Robert Pujadas Best XI No player with an average rating above 7. We'll probably see some kind of changing of the guard next season, with some players from more recent intakes taking over. Next season Try to win a couple of more games and develop some more players for the first team.