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FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge


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DodgeeD - congrats on european qualification - 3rd is a great achuievement. your chairman sounds like a pain in the arse but seem to have handled it pretty well.

Thanks rlipscombe. Bit of a Catch-22 with the chairman as I buy to replace what he sells but that brings the balance down and makes him accept bids again. :rolleyes:

Without last season's Liga Sagres Topscorers (36 league goals between them) we've struggled to score in the early games with lots of 1-0, 1-1 and 0-0 scorelines. We have found the goals in Europe though as shown by this surprise result. :cool:

And congrats on promotion Benjaminoo. :thup: Make sure you hang on to Kovacevic!

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Gutted with the Penalty that just happened...Ouaddou just stepped up to complete his hattrick, instead of my normal penalty taker Galiano, who needs one more goal to reach 25 career league goals for the club. Boooo!

With Jose Manuel adding a Hattrick, and a single goal from Afonso we managed to defeat Aves 7:1 for a new Liga Vitalis record, the biggest win is ours, still 9pts back in 5th.

and the funniest story yet: "Afonso thinks club is underachieving" - In a talk with the club newspaper he has said that he believes the club is below where it should be and he would lift his performances. This coming the day after a 7:1 victory. He also stressed that he has no desire to leave the club.

So now I play Varzim in my 2nd League Cup group match, in the first we dispatched P.Ferreira, so a win here will see us through with ease, though we go in as underdogs against the relegated team from last season.

A stunning strike from Motta provides the 1:0 victory and confirms us as the first qualifier into the third round.

Now after that result Motta has the same news story as Afonso, but he also does not want to leave and is going to try and up his level of play. Add Galiano to the list, it also gives them a SLT concern, but doesn't drop their morale.

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Wow, challenge completion, european qualification and big wins all round, shame it doesn't look like I'll have much to add.

Deltablue- RW Essen- Third Division- 2011/2012- Predicted: 10th (Part 1)

It was a relatively quiet summer, with a much better side there was no raiding of the trialists like last time and only 2 players, both dutch, arrived before the opener, for the right wing and up front respectively. However I did now have a front pairing of Pekhart and Rigters which was bound to serve me well. Despite going behind, the 1st game away at Heidenheim was a comfortable 3-1 win. However there was no repeat of last year’s run as I forgot to put my new DC in for the visit of Unterhatching and paid for it with a defeat that could have been much worse than 1-0. However things didn’t improve when he was put in for what was the 3rd match in a week, in the cup against parent club Oberhausen. We pushed them close for a while, equalizing twice, before they prevailed. Even a week’s rest didn’t help as Wuppertal tore us apart 6-1 in the 3rd league game. There were 2 wins in the next 2 games and there were signs of creeping back up but ground was lost with 2 defeats in the next 3. However the team (which in theory is a pretty strong one) finally got their act together with 4 wins on the bounce, followed by rescuing a point from being 2-0 down to Dresden. However while the gap to the top 3 had been slashed considerably (just 2 points having opened into high single figures very quickly), again a large section of the top half were very tight and we were still only 7th after all that (after 14 games), clearly there was a lot of work to be done. The run came to an end in the next game, and despite hitting back next the next game was against St Pauli, who easily won as expected to open up a 10 point lead at the top, and a game against bottom club Paderborn was wasted in a 4-4 draw (club and division record for high scoring game) before a comfortable win over Aalen put us back in 7th, 3 points from Aue in 3rd at the half way point.

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Renato Curi Angolana - Serie C1/B - Christmas 2013

Thanks to the takeover nearly all buying activity had to be delayed until the last 3 days of August. I managed to pick up a very good looking 19yo DC released from Fiorentina before the embargo but then I had to wait. And wait. And wait. Finally on August 29th I could restart siging players. First in, surprisingly, was an 18yo Brazilian ST on loan from Benfica. Was not expecting both them and him to agree to that. Another free young Italian DC was followed by a very good Portuguese MC who had been without a club for a year. I then made a purchase as I noticed a 19yo Swiss GK on my shortlist was listed so I snapped him up for £2k from St Gallen, potential to be much better than Gardette. The one big necessity of the Summer was a better MR and after a good look thru my shortlist I found one, he joined from Bari (reserves) for £500. Finally a Belgian D/WB/M L freshly released from Standard Liege joined. 3 days, 6 people.

On the way out were the first batch of youth products at the end of their contracts and my backup MR. Then came a couple of sales as the one youth freebie from last September who was not great, left for £10k along with my backup ML who I managed to make a small profit on. Another left sided player departed as Vicentini, a D/WB/M L who played well in the first 2 seasons but would not be needed left for £20k (to Venezia where he is averaging 7.68. Yikes!). Then the Kazakh I got in January who had proved to be pretty dire left for the same figure. And finally, 2 of my promising youths went to Pro Vasto on loan.

The season started with a thrashing by Rimini in the Coppa Italia. Serie C1/B started with the visit of the only team to finish above us last year; Celano. This being the sort of match we would have to win to have ideas about staying up. 2 goals around h/t and that was achieved with ease. We lost at Potenza before we conceded a late equaliser to Bassano. Another draw and win later and we had got off to a very good start. And there followed, what I presumed to be, the first of several heavy defeats as we embarrassed ourselves at Grosseto. We somehow grabbed a point from nowhere against Ternana via a 93 minute equaliser before we gifted Portosummaga their first win of the season. An equally bad away defeat then followed.

This run was halted with a lucky win before we put in our best performance of the season beating Varese 3-0. And then it went a bit wrong; Virtus Lanciano, the leaders, were quite fortunate to beat us before we suffered our first home defeat of the season to SPAL. Another defeat and a dodgy away draw later and we were in the playout positions. 2 home matches closed out 2013; 2 late goals took out Rimini before we totally and utterly thrashed promotion chasing Crotone (unbeaten in 6) 5-1 :eek:; first goal after 17 seconds, 3-0 after 25 minutes, my ST made it 4 goals in 2 games. No idea where that performance came from.

So we are currently 13th. This is only 1 position above the playouts but that does not tell the whole story at all; we are 4 points above 14th and the playouts but equally we are only 4 points below 5th and the playoffs! :eek: This division is very tight; there are only 12 points from the playoffs to the bottom club. Who knows what is going to happen?!

The main problem so far is our away record; 2 points from 8 games is very very very bad (2nd worst in division), we have played well in quite a few away games but either their GK or our total inability to hit the target has so far halted us. Meanwhile at home, we have suffered only 1 defeat and have the 2nd best record. Napoli has been great and Quintero has been scoring more regularly than last season as well. Most of the new signings have been doing well, especially the 19yo DC and the new MR. Exceptions to this after the Belgian DC who signed right at the end of last season and will be sold in January after bad performances and moaning and the Brazilian ST on loan from Benfica who has proved to be pretty rubbish so far.

Obviously the objective is still relegation avoidance and if our away form could be improved that should not be a problem. Given we are only 4 points from the playoffs, that cannot be totally out of the question either but I will only start paying attention to the top of the table if we stay close for a few more games...

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Darmstadt - Minisav - German 1st Division - 2013/14

Table - Graph - Fixtures 1 - Fixtures 2

German Cup Final - Fixtures

Euro Cup Final - Fixtures

Transfers

Finances

Woah. That was just incredible. Almost went unbeaten. If we hadn't slipped up against Wolfsburg we would have tied up the league so much earlier. Played a weakened side against Bayern because the Euro Final was 4 days after. Spent big and it worked. Just need to get some European defenders in as the ones I have aren't too great. Oh and a back-up defensive mid as we came unstuck when Hernanes, Medel and Lazzeri (who is rubbish) were all injured.

Aim for next season? Complete the challenge ;)

Stadium is getting expanded. Well, we currently have 26000 (6100 seated) so we are getting 3900 seats.

Season			League			Position			Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11		    Third Division		  1st			    Automatic Promotion
2011/12             Second Division               1st                       Automatic Promotion
2012/13             First Division                6th                       German Cup Winners
2013/14             First Division                1st            Champions, German Cup Winners, Euro Cup Winners

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Well I may have dropped out of the League Cup in the 3rd round, but two record breaking home games against Maritimo & Benfica, both losses have made my team 167k profit so far in January, helps a little bit, but we need a lot more money. We lost 2:0 to Benfica & 2:1 to Maritimo with crowds of 10k & 5k respectively, a huge series of games for the club, we also defeated Boavista 3:1 in our only away match, a great showing as the only Liga Vitalis team to make this round. Hopefully I can do something in the league as we are currently not looking good back in 5th spot well off the pace with 14 games left.

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B.C. Branco January 2019 Update

We're just past the halfway stage in the league and with the transfer window closed, it's time for an update.

In the league, we are in a tight group of 6 teams seperated by just 6 points. Porto are clear at the top but they did have this slip up, much to our delight. A big improvement this season has been our performances against the Big 3. As well as the win over Porto, we've beaten Benfica and drawn with Sporting. However, we've dropped points against teams we were beating last season like Leixões and Rio Ave. That means we are 5th at present but well placed to move up the table.

[font=Courier New]| Pos   | Inf   | Team                |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Porto               |       | 17    | 13    | 2     | 2     | 47    | 14    | +33   | 41    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Benfica             |       | 17    | 11    | 3     | 3     | 31    | 10    | +21   | 36    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Leixões             |       | 17    | 10    | 3     | 4     | 27    | 15    | +12   | 33    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Sporting CP         |       | 17    | 9     | 5     | 3     | 29    | 17    | +12   | 32    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | B. C. Branco        |       | 17    | 9     | 5     | 3     | 32    | 14    | +18   | 32    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Nacional da Madeira |       | 17    | 9     | 5     | 3     | 25    | 13    | +12   | 32    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Rio Ave             |       | 17    | 9     | 3     | 5     | 31    | 21    | +10   | 30    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Braga               |       | 17    | 8     | 3     | 6     | 22    | 21    | +1    | 27    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Belenenses          |       | 17    | 7     | 4     | 6     | 24    | 26    | -2    | 25    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Vit. Setúbal        |       | 17    | 5     | 4     | 8     | 20    | 25    | -5    | 19    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Trofense            |       | 17    | 3     | 5     | 9     | 19    | 29    | -10   | 14    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Olhanense           |       | 17    | 3     | 4     | 10    | 17    | 32    | -15   | 13    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Fátima              |       | 17    | 2     | 6     | 9     | 18    | 37    | -19   | 12    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Beira-Mar           |       | 17    | 1     | 7     | 9     | 8     | 26    | -18   | 10    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Naval               |       | 17    | 2     | 4     | 11    | 10    | 33    | -23   | 10    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Penafiel            |       | 17    | 2     | 3     | 12    | 12    | 39    | -27   | 9     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[/font]

In the cup, we have reached the quarter final and we will face Boavista, the only non-Liga Sagres side left, at home so we have a good chance of making the semis. In the League Cup, we got a bye to the third round group stage and picked up 7 points from our three games including a win away to Sporting. In the semis, we will face Sporting again as they qualified as the best runners-up. Porto and Benfica were eliminated in their groups though so, if we can beat Sporting again, we have a good chance of winning.

In Europe, we finished runners-up in our group after taking 4 points off Salzburg, winning home and away against APOEL and beating Chelsea at home. We were outclassed at Stamford Bridge but qualificaiton was already assured by that point. We face Galatasaray in the 1st knockout round.

Star of the season so far has been David Pons. He's really excelled since I tweaked my tactics to give the AMC more freedom and is averaging nearly a goal a game. :thup:

Also worth noting: Vicinius has only featured on rotation so far but he is now described as a 'wonderkid'. :cool:

One bonus of being in Europe is that we have turned in a profit every month through gate receipts and TV revenue. That meant I was able to spend a bit in January without too much fear of the chairman selling to make up for it. The following three arrived:

Franque (ST) - only 18 and rated as the club's top striker already.

Roberto Dominguez (DC) - only 16 but looks like a star of the future. A bargain at 1.5mil too!

Iñaki Aurtenetxe (AMC) - I had no decent back-up for Pons so I got this guy. If Pons' form continues, he may be no more than a bench warmer though.

On with the rest of the season. A cup win would be nice but I have to focus on the league as Portugal has only 2 Champions League and 3 Europa League spots for next season.

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Deltablue- RW Essen- Third Division- 2011/2012- Predicted: 10th –Finished: 15th- German cup: 1st round (Part 2)

The remaining games of the year were a win and a defeat, which actually took us up to 5th but now 6 points adrift. In the first game after the return, a late equalizer prevented revenge being taken against Wuppertal (though there isn’t much that properly avenges that humiliation), which pretty much set the tone for the end of winter as that was the first of 7 games during which we only got 1 more point, by which point we had dropped to 10th. Injuries to a few players (not least Rigters in the Wuppertal game) didn’t help matters. That run of 8 games without a win (including the last game before the break) set a club record. Rigters returned for the game against Jena which broke that poor run in style, for despite going a man down after only 8 minutes, we won 4-0. This took us back up to 9th but being 10 points and 6 places adrift with 10 games to go we weren’t going to be going anywhere fast this year, as opposed to St Pauli who with a 16 point lead at the top were definitely going up very fast. The only other joy to be had was 2 games later with the wonders of a ‘no pressure’ half time talk saw a 2-1 deficit against Trier turn into a 4-2 victory. After that it was a record-breaking 6 defeats in a row. Having already put on a 16-yr old with a PA still measured in silver stars at right back during a game (you should see how bad the regular guy was doing), with Pekhart injured for the penultimate game against already relegated Paderborn and Aalen I put in a 15yr old forward just for the sake of trying something different. That didn’t do much either though a 1-0 win was scraped once I took him off, though a defeat against just-as-doomed Aalen meant the season ended on as poor a note as it had been heading for a while.

While probably not quite my worst half of a season ever it wasn’t far off. And the news gets worse, while there was a small monthly profit last season, this season featured much larger losses, though most of the spring saw them considerably smaller. Some players would be lost on a free in the summer (which would at least create the possibility of having a smaller squad and wage bill if I decided to gamble on that), including Pekhart who would otherwise be one of my more saleable assets. Squad morale and board confidence had dropped considerably (though at least the latter wasn’t that low). Tough times ahead.

League

Transfers

Squad

Finances

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Hey folks, first time I've done a challenge like this, hoping it goes well as I don't have much experience with LLM.

Anyways, my team :)

.: SSC Venezia :.

sscvenezia.png

I love Venice and when I saw this team come up from Serie D I knew I had to take them to glory. Since this is my first time doing a LLM game I probably wont get this done quick, but I'll try my hardest :)

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Well another season bites the dust and we dropped to 4th on the final day this season, very disappointing as next season will be our 5th season in the Liga Vitalis. Disappointing, but hopefully we can crack it going forward, Manuel & Afonso both signed on again, now I just need to try my best to build a team around them as the rest of my team are not as good as I think I need now. My full season report will be up between 24 & 48 hours from now.

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Its Rlipscombe I tell you. Last season he was Real Oviedo and it was the Fav club, the season before he was Como and lots played as them. ;)

well what can i say??? i'm a trendsetter..... ;)

Good luck Terra - just don't do better than i'm doing.... :D

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Well another season bites the dust and we dropped to 4th on the final day this season, very disappointing as next season will be our 5th season in the Liga Vitalis. Disappointing, but hopefully we can crack it going forward, Manuel & Afonso both signed on again, now I just need to try my best to build a team around them as the rest of my team are not as good as I think I need now. My full season report will be up between 24 & 48 hours from now.

Unlucky mate - fingers crossed you can boost the quality over the summer and get that promotion next time out... :thup:

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Just about to start the season. Brought in Adrien of Sporting CP and Sakho :cool:

Hopefully we can win the league again plus get a good showing in the CL :thup:

Being helped on our way to our 3rd consecutive German Cup win. We got 3rd division side Ahlen in the first round. 5-0. Now we face 2nd division side St Pauli who we beat 2-0 in the first round last year. The less 1st division sides the better!

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28v909k.jpg

Angri - 2015/2016 - End of Season Review

Predicted Position: 15th

Actual Position: 4th (Promoted through playoffs)

Average Attendance: 4358

Season Ticket Holders: 1146

All my hopes for the team came true this season in Serie B, which i think was in part to there not being many major changes in terms of personnel. Certainly i did bring in a few guys throughout the course of the season, but nobody who majorly affected the team or how i played, more to provide better cover in case of injuries etc. Practically everybody i brought in was free, the only exception being Francisco Maldonado, whom i paid 8k to Athletico Madrid for. turned out to be a decent move, as he's now attracting major interest from my Serie A rivals and valued at 1.7million!

As for the games themselves, i knew that if i could squeeze a few more wins out than the previous year, i would stand a really good chance of getting into at least a promotion place. And thats what happened! My playoff journey started with the semi final against Vicenza, which admittedly went better than expected, winning both legs with relative comfort - Leg 1/Leg 2. Then on to the Final, and 2 matches against Chievo, a really worry. After the first leg, i will admit i thought my chances were fairly slim, but i knew if i could get a good start in the 2nd leg id be in with a shout, as my away form had been surprisingly good this term, whether down to a slight altering of tactics or even the team talk i dont know, but however, i managed to come through the 2nd match with flying colours, winning 3-0 and taking the Final 4-2 on agg!! The Serie A dream had just become a reality!! :D

Notable players for this season were:

Francisco Javier Flores - chipped in with his fair share of goals this year (21 in 35 appearances), seems to be the perfect foil for the main man Ripamonti

Farid Lemaire - ever present in midfield, and yet again one of the stars of the season, scoring 10 goals and an Av. rating of 7.07

Sebastian Mila - think his experience helped the side through a few tricky situations this year, and can hit a mean free kick from time to time! however, with some new faces arriving for the new season his chances may be limited this coming year

Pierre Lamothe - new GK picked up following the sale of Manuel Bender by the chairman last january, eventually took over from Andrea Conti as first choice and may remain there for the new season

Zlatan Muslimovic - another of the older generation who, when called upon, did his job very well...from 18 appearances, he scored 11 league goals and 9 assists, a real impact player when something was missing in the dying minutes of the game. Chances may be further limited by recent activity in the coming season, but i'll get to that :D

Marko Nikolic - again the rock at the heart of the defence, led the line pretty well and was consistent in his performance all season. Not sure whether he'll be able to make the step up to Serie A level, but time will tell

Nicolai Skjerve - another solid season from the winger, with a return of 15 assists and 4 goals...another player who's position may be under threat this year...

and last but not least...

Diego Ripamonti - the star performer...has grown and grown since i first signed him, and continued that growth with a record breaking season in Serie B. From breaking the clubs league goals record and the record number of assists in a season, to being named top scorer in Serie B, and Fans Player of The Year, the season really couldn't have gone much better for him...still only 19, i feel the world is his oyster :D lets hope he sees his future with Angri now we've hit the top flight!

As for the board, they have finally agreed with me that both the training and youth facilities are in serious need of an upgrade, and are working on both at the moment. The pitch has also been relayed, but as yet still no sign of them budging on the expansion of my stadium, which still sits with a capacity of 4500 whether this will change remains to be seen, tho i guess survival will maybe be enough to persuade them its a worthwhile investment!!

for the forthcoming season ive been trying my best to bring in some players with top level experience to help out my newly promoted team, and so far have managed to bring in Pablo Osvaldo, Brede Hangeland and Zlatko Dedic to bolster the ranks, but hopefully i can do a bit more business before the window closes...i shall update when that time comes!!

onwards and upwards!!!

Season          Division        Position       Achievements
2010/2011       Serie C2/C      14th           Avoided relegation in Playout
2011/2012       Serie C2/C      5th            Promoted via Playoff
2012/2013       Serie C1/B      6th             
2013/2014       Serie C1/B      1st            Champions, Serie C Cup Winner, Italian C1 Super Cup
2014/2015       Serie B		8th	      
2015/2016	Serie B		4th	       Promoted via Playoff

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Having a little break from my Truro game on Dafuges challenge to give it a go in Portugal, the side I have gone for is Lusitano Ginasio Clube. Replaced everyone in the side and have signed loads of players to put us way over budget and a good £40k in debt. Got a massive squad now.

Here I am: http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4130/portugale.jpg

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Haha, guessed you were doing this challenge from your post in the OTF thread. Good luck :thup:

Just beat Lens away 7-1 :cool:

2 wins and 1 defeat from my first 3 CL group games. The loss was 4-3 at Camp Nou so I reckon we could be going through :D

As I said in there I dont think it will last long, i'll bankrupt the club before too long at this rate :D We're losing money fast but performing ok so far.

Edit: in fact i'm losing money so fast it will be impossible to recover, going to start this challenge again tomrrow and try and be more sensible with transfers.

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Sorry, I'm being so absent at the moment, I'm still playing, but haven't had enough time to get round to writing updates. I think I've missed a couple. Just to let you know. The first of them I won the league again, but did nothing in the Champions League. The second I won my first Coupe de la Ligue, but only cam 3rd in the league and despite a 3-2 win against Barcelona at the Nou Camp, didn't make it past the group stages of the the champions league, and then fell out of the EURO Cup in a terrible display against Werder Bremen. I've got all the screenshots taken, so expect a monster few updates when I get some more time.

I notice I ought to congratulate Cookie for an astonishingly quick completion.

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Can't complete the challenge this year :p

Out of the Champions League in the 1st Knockout round. Beat Man Utd 3-1 at home but lost 2-0 away so out on away goals. Got the German Cup Final to look forward to plus we are 2 points ahead going into the last 3 game sin the league now.

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Sporting Clube Farense Season 2012/2013 - Liga Vitalis

Promotion!

Two straight promotions, exceeded my expectations by miles.

Liga Vitalis - 1st|League Graph

Portugese Cup - 5th round (1-2 vs. Braga)

Portugese League Cup - First Round (1-3 agg. vs. Gil Vicente)

Squad

Key Players

Stevan Kovacevic - Was amazing again.

Alessio Spada - Had him again this season, was really good.

Wellington - Amazing loan season, brilliant on the wing.

Kristijan Brcic - Hardly played last season, but was brilliant this season.

Edgar Costa - Had an absolutely brilliant season after two seasons of injuries.

Marcel Gomis - Wasn't spectacular, but won Liga Vitalis Player of the Year

Aims for next season - STAY UP!!

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Renato Curi Angolana - Serie C1/B - 2013/14

Equidistant between the 2 playoffs at Christmas

There was a little bit of activity during the January transfer window. I broke our transfer record (only £40k to be fair) on a multi purpose 18yo Spanish defender / midfielder from Espanyol, he is more of a defender and already our best DC. Also, after the failure of the 18yo Brazilian ST from Benfica, I had a second attempt at the loaning of a supposedly good South American teenage ST as an 18yo Argentinian came into from Chievo for the rest of the season. On the way out was my 3rd choice GK and the Belgian DC who was deeply unhappy in Italy. I also loaned out a 3rd player (young DC) to Pro Vasto.

We started off with a visit to Bassano where we somehow escaped with a 2-2 draw before Potenza visited. We battered them for 75 minutes and then they went down to 10 men so we upped the battering even further until finally in the 89th minute Cuenca scored a stunner. Of course, we then went and conceded an equaliser in the 93rd minute :mad:. Another lucky 2-2 away draw (91st minute equaliser) was followed by yet another draw as we edged dangerously close to the playouts. Despite that we were still only 5 points from the playoffs. Then finally not only did we win a match but an away match :eek:. A walloping of Cavese gave us our first win outside of Citta Sant'Angelo this season. And then we got a home win to make it 9 games unbeaten.

Unfortunately our next 2 matches were away against the top 2. And both resulted in defeat. And when we embarrassingly lost at home to a really-not-very-good Portosummaga side we were suddenly only 1 point above the playouts. We then really struggled at home against an equally bad Siracusa side, it needed 2 very late goals to seal a 4-2 win. We then reverted to our previous win-home, lose-away form. Varese beat us, we surprisingly thrashed Virtus Lanciano before we lost 2 more away games. 3 games left, 3 points ahead of the playouts. Thankfully we had Alghero at home and a Napoli hat-trick put us 4-0 after 30 minutes, we obviously conceded 2 but managed to hold on. Our final home match was against Mantova and when we went behind early on I was worried but for once we turned the match around and the win sealed our Serie C1 position next season. We closed out the season with our 2nd away victory of the season against Rimini who are in the playoffs but had nothing to play for.

That final win took us to the unexpected and undeserved heights of 8th place which is the highest position we have been in since September. We had a fantastic home record (2nd best in division) but our big problem was away from home (4th worst!). In fact, they are directly opposite: H - W11, D4, L2, A - W2, D4, L11. As were our records in the first and second halves of the season: 2013 - W6 D4, L7, 2014 - W7, D4, L6. Rather bemusingly we scored 10 more goals than we did in winning promotion last season, unfortunately we conceded twice as many! :o

One thing to note is how dirty we are; 56 yellows and 6 reds was the worst in the whole division which given how clean we were in Serie C2 is slightly surprising

Squad

Summary

Finances - and again consistant losses which were mildly compensated by the previous summer, unless we get an investment from the new chairman or sell someone for loads we will continue to lose money

Transfers - discounting the loans who were dire, it was pretty successful, Antonelli and Stella were awesome, Martins and Remy good, Sguera and Recker and the 2 late September teenagers have promise whilst Agudo is already important, the 3 Pro Vasto loanees did well, especially Mainini (GK), saved them relegation in any case

The better players this season were:

Best GK - Fabian Remy - was backup to begin with until Gardette injured himself and I noticed that all my staff rated him better than the Frenchman, hence he kept his place until the end of the season, good player, very few mistakes and some cracking saves, too many goals conceded though, his one issue is through-balls, he rarely comes for them and several chances (and goals) have been caused by this, will probably be 1st choice again next season

Best Defender - Francesco Antonelli - quite simply brilliant, a Fiorentina youth product who joined last Summer, was already our best DC and has improved loads during the season, solid as rock no matter who has been partnering him (which has been every other DC at the club at least once!), only problem so far is that he is a little card friendly, if he keeps on improving and playing this well then keeping him won't be easy

Best Midfielder - Isaac Cuenca - exactly the same as last season, was not first choice until the new year and then was brilliant once he cemented his place, a few great goals and our top assister, again will start next season on the bench as Martins and Della Rocca are (at the moment) first choice but don't be too surprised to see him in this section again next Summer

Best Winger - Francesco Stella - best £500 I have probably ever spent, such an improvement on Melinte, many storming runs down the wing, many goals and although a few more assists would be nice, he contributed to many more goals than that, more of the same would be very nice

Best Strikers - Aiman Napoli and Alberto Quintero - exactly the same as last season, Napoli got more goals and the Player of the Year award, Quintero was more consistant, they relished the higher division, 34 goals between them (50% more than last season), a fantastic partnership with a great understanding and although I suspect there are better players out there willing to join I am not certain I want to break them up, we shall see what is available

Best January Purchase - Marcos Agudo - £40k from Espanyol and so far very much worth it, he is an equal to Antonelli at DC but so far has mainly played at DR, very consistant performer who will be partnering Antonelli next season in central defence, hopefully with more experience here and learning the language he can make it a very successful DC team

Worst Loanees - Chiquinho and Ivan Vicedomini - as bad as each other although the latter was slightly unlucky in as much as he arrived just as Quintero (who he would have replaced) found some fantastic form and could not be dropped, that said, he did not take any of the chances I gave him, both seem better on paper than my strikeforce but a return of 14 league appearances and no goals is not good, if Vicedomini is available again next season I would have no qualms about getting him as I think he could be fantastic in this division as long as I can integrate him into the team in pre-season

Optimistically, given a few improvements, I reckon we could end up not that far from the playoffs next season but ending in 8th again but having at least flirted with the playoffs would probably keep me happy. Avoiding any flirtation with the playouts would be nice as well. Obviously for any of that to happen we will have to sort out our away form, will have a fiddle in the Summer to try to work out a suitable tactic.

I already have an experienced DM/M C and a cracking young Dutch AML coming in frees. The only other position I will actively be looking to replace is DR as I reckon there are better than Kipré out there who are willing to come. On the way out will be several fringe players as some of those youths I highlighted last year have improved enough to be close to the 1st team squad at the very least.

Oh, and the board have rather surprisingly announced plans for a new stadium, it will seat 11282 which is a distinct improvement but our average attendance last season was only just over 2000 and we can seat 3000 in our current home it is not really needed yet. That said, I suppose I should appreciate the forward planning, it won't be finished for 2 years and by that time I would hope to be in Serie B whilst the loans and grants will hopefully not destroy our finances too much. Not too sure what Carlo Luisi contributed to the club to have the new stadium named after him.

Best 11

Overall Best 11

10/11 - Serie C2/B - 7th

11/12 - Serie C2/B - 13th

12/13 - Serie C2/B - 2nd (promoted via playoffs)

13/14 - Serie C1/B - 8th

Team I Would Like To Play Every Week - Cavese - H3-0, A3-0 (last)

Team I Would Not Like To Play Every Week - Spal - A0-2, H1-3 (6th)

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Darmstadt - Minisav - German 1st Division - 2013/14

Table - Graph - Fixtures 1 - Fixtures 2

German Cup Final - Fixtures

Champions Cup 1st Knockout Round Leg 1 - Leg 2 - Fixtures

Euro Super Cup

Transfers

Finances

Another great season. Proud of them how well we did in the Champions League. It is a big step up so well played to them. Another League and Cup double is always good. Ideally next season I'd love to win the CL but I'm not sure if it's realistic. Lichsteiner is getting on a bit so I could do with a replacement. Also could do with a world class partner for Sakho or a great LB. Also, the league went to the wire. I was 2 points ahead going into the last match. We had Leverkusen at home. The winner would win the league although I could still draw. We won 3-0 to seal it :D

Season			League			Position			Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11		    Third Division		  1st			    Automatic Promotion
2011/12             Second Division               1st                       Automatic Promotion
2012/13             First Division                6th                       German Cup Winners
2013/14             First Division                1st            Champions, German Cup Winners, Euro Cup Winners
2014/15             First Division                1st            Champions, German Cup Winners, Euro Super Cup Winners

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Sport Benfica e Castelo Branco – 2018/19 Season Review

1487.png

Liga Sagres – 5th |

Final Table

Portuguese Cup – Semi-final | Results

League Cup – WINNERS! | 3rd Round Group Table | Results | Final

Europa League – 1st Knockout Round | Group Table | Results

We made a step forward in the league this year as we earned out first wins over the big three, beating Porto and Benfica at home and drawing both games with Sporting. However, the likes of Rio Ave and Nacional de Madeira were stronger this year and points dropped to them proved crucial as we finsihed 5th.

The cups brought some joy though as we picked up our first ever League Cup win. Our participation in Europe meant we were seeded into the 3rd round and we topped our group, beating Sporting in the process. We had to face Sporting again in the semis and a shoot-out saw us through to the final. It looked like we would fall at the last hurdle as Galli was sent off in the first half. Pons had other ideas however as he ran the show, scoring all 4 goals as we secured a 4-2 extra time win. In the Portuguese Cup, we made the semis again and had a great chance to make the final as we went 2 goals up against Braga in the 1st leg only to concede an away goal deep into stoppgae time. That proved crucial as Braga won toe return leg 1-0 to progress at our expense.

Our first European campaign went well as we beat Dinamo Zagreb to make the group stage. We came second in the group with Pons in great goalscoring form again, only losing away to Chelsea and setting up a clash with Galatasaray. We took an early lead in the home leg but a rash challenge by centre-back Marrotta left us with ten men and our opponents capitalised to win 2-1. We gave them a good game in Istanbul but we could only manage a 1-1 draw meaning we crashed out 3-2 on aggregate. Still, a good first attempt!

Key Players:

Frederico Crespin (GK) – after a few seaosns of careful nuturing, the Argentine keeper finally claimed the #1 jersey this season and performed well.

Carlo Mazzoni (DC) – struggled with injuries this year but was a key part of the side when fit.

Paulo Marotta (DC) – solid at the back despite a couple of red cards. It may be difficult to hold onto him though with a ot of inetrest from around the continent.

Pablo (DL) – ousted Galli from the first team tis year with some great performances making him one of the most sought after defenders in Europe.

Vincenzo Anotonelli (MC) – another solid season from the club captain with a large number of assists.

David Pons (AMC) – an amazing season as he scored freely and single-handedly won the club many games including the League Cup final. Not bad when you consider pre-season he learned the PPM 'looks for pass rather than shot'. :D

Jimmy Orellana (ST) – went off the boil a little towards the end of the season but was in great form early on, earning him a call up to the senior Chilean squad.

Rafael (ST) – a slow start to the season but eventually showed why so many top European mangers like him. Refuted all speculation and signed a new deal though.

Wonderkid watch:

Three of my youngsters (all Brazilian) were touted as wonderkids during the season.

Elvis (DC) – spent most of the early part of the season on the bench but featured regualrly towards the end of the season.

Vinicuis (MC) – gave some commanding performances im mdifield, especially in Europe and on our cup runs. With the likes of Man U, Arsenal and Barcelona interested, keeping him at the club may be an issue.

Franque (ST) – hasn’t really settled yet but is tipped for big things next season.

Awards:

Fans’ Player of the Year – David Pons

Liga Sagres Team of the Year – Rafael

Liga Sagres Player of the Year – Rafael (3rd)

Liga Sagres Topscorer – David Pons (2nd)

Liga Sagres Young Player of the Year – Jimmy Orellana (1st), Vinicuis (3rd)

Liga Sagres Best Goalkeeper – Fredrico Crespin (2nd)

Liga Sagres Forward of the Year – Rafael (1st)

Liga Sagres Manager of the Year – David Dodgson (2nd)

March 2019 Liga Sagres Manager of the Month – David Dodgson (1st)

League Cup Topscorer – David Pons (1st)

The Season Ahead:

The usual summer of trying to improve the squad while keeping my best players awaits. A good early sign from my chairman though – he injected ₤2.7mil into the club even thog we had a balance of ₤3mil+. Could his days of selling be over?

Facilities are being improved again with furhter improvements already approved. Still absolute rubbish coming out of my youth set-up though.

I’m hoing we can push for a Champion League spot this season as my players get a year older. Another cup run and progression in Europe would be nice, although we’ll have to start in the early qualifying rounds this season.

The Story So Far:

[b][font=Courier New][size=2][u]Season[/u]   [u]Division[/u]     [u]Pos.[/u]  [u]Cup[/u]   [u]L.Cup[/u]   [u]Europe[/u]        [u]Other[/u][/size][/font][/b]

[font=Courier New]2010-11  2nd(Central) 1st   3rdR  N/A     N/A           3rd in promotion play-off
2011-12  2nd(North)   2nd   2ndR  N/A     N/A           -
2012-13  2nd(North)   3rd   3rdR  N/A     N/A           -
2013-14  2nd(North)   1st   1stR  N/A     N/A           Promoted via play-offs
2014-15  Liga Vitalis 2nd   4thR  2ndR    N/A           Promoted
2015-16  Liga Sagres  12th  4thR  3rdR    N/A           Survived
2016-17  Liga Sagres  7th   SF    3rdR    N/A           -
2017-18  Liga Sagres  3rd   QF    SF      N/A           Qualified for Europa League
2018-19  Liga Sagres  5th   SF    Winners Europa League -
                                         1st KO [/font]

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FC_Libourne_Saint-Seurin_L_Isle-log.gif

FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin, 2022-23, Ligue 2

League Position - 1st: Past Positions

Squad

Transfers

Summary

After relegation from Ligue 1 the aim was to bounce back. With a team of players where the majority were either good, or too good for the division, it wasn't that difficult at all. Razvan Ionica had an incredible goal scoring record, and was very key in our title victory. I didn't bring many players in, because I only wanted to bring players in that were better than what we had, and since we were in Ligue 2, nobody really wanted to come to us. Jerome Hebert had another good season on the right, scoring 10 goals. Chakib Saber, another striker, scored 23 and assited 12, which is a very good record for a second striker. Causse and Marbus had another glorious season together in the centre of midfield.

Onze de départ

GK: Matthieu Dreyer, 34, Français - The long term Goalkeeper had a good season, conceding 40 in 43 games. It's probably time to cash in on him and sign a better, younger replacement though, and I'll do that next season.

DR: Edgardo Flores, 28, Honduras - With the Bulgarian Tsvetkov sold somebody else had to play at DR, Flores, who primarily played in the centre of midfield last season was the man who stepped up.

DL: Kevin Gomis, 34, Senegalese - Another player who has been at the club for a while, Gomis played at DL mainly because I couldn't bring anyone that good in. He definitely wont be my first choice left back next season.

DC: Mournir El Mrini, 25, Morrocco - The Morroccan that was signed last season was chosen as first choice center back this season. He did an alright job.

DC: Mickael Nelsen, 33, Francais - Another player who was only really first choice because I couldn't bring anyone that much better in.

MR: Jérôme Hebert, 21, Français - The home grown hero continued his goal scoring form by netting a tidy 10 goals, as well as assisting 7. It's worth noting Hebert now as 10 goals in 22 games for France U21 team.

ML: Gianmarco Gigli, 26, Italien - The Italian left midfielder had a pretty good season on the left flank, helping the team with a nifty 16 assists.

MC: Sergio Marbus, 30, Néerlandais - The 30 year old Dutch captain recaptured his great form of the past, scoring 6 and assisting 14.

MC: Matthieu Causse, 26, Français - The Frenchman had another good season in the middle of midfield, scoring 10 and assiting 11.

ST: Chakib Saber, 26, Morroccan - The Morroccan was the second best striker at the club, btu that's not to say his tally of 23 goals and 12 assists wasn't impressive.

ST: Razvan Ionica, 25, Roumain - 41 games, 40 goals, 14 assists, 13 MOTM's. Enough said.

-

Official Fans Player of the Year - Razvan Ionica

Unofficial Young Player of the Year - Jérôme Herbert

Career Overview

Season     League   Position   Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11  National    4th       None
2011/12  National    5th       None
2012/13  National    7th       None
2013/14  National    2nd       Promoted 
2014/15  Ligue 2    18th       Relegated
2015/16  National    3rd       Promotion
2016/17  Ligue 2    13th       None
2017/18  Ligue 2    12th       None
2018/19  Ligue 2     7th       None
2019/20  Ligue 2     6th       None
2020/21  Ligue 2     1st       Promoted as Champions
2021/22  Ligue 1     18th      Relegated
2022/23  Ligue 2     1st       Promoted as Champions



[b][size=3][u]Trophies won:[/u][/size]

[/b][size=2]Ligue 2 (x2) - 2020/21[/size] & 2022/23

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Razer82 – Associacao Desporitvo de Fafe – Portuguese Liga Vitalis – 2013/2014

Liga Vitalis – Media Prediction – 14th – Actual – 1st - Champions

Portuguese Cup5th Round – Lost 2-0 to Rio Ave

Portuguese League Cup3rd place – 3rd Round Group A

Team Stats

Transfers

Top Scorer: Jussane (26)

Top Assists: Jose Maria (23)

After the disappointing showing in the league cup last season, we played much better this time around. We snuck past Oliveirense on penalties in the first round. A stunning 2-1 win away to Academica saw us take top spot in the second round group. Two defeats in the third round group ended our chances of making any further progress.

Easy draws in the first couple of rounds saw us make our back into the 5th round but Liga Sagres side Rio Ave proved too strong for us. As a matter of revenge, the very next game was also against Rio Ave and saw us secure our only win in the 3rd round of the League Cup.

When it comes to the league, all I can say is that things clicked from the outset. 3 wins from out first 3 games put us into 1st place & that where we stayed for the rest of the season. We never went more that 1 game without recording a win which goes a long way to explaining how we recorded a massive 25 league wins for the year.

Our players dominated the league awards for the year as we managed to pick up:

Top Goalscorer

Most Assists

Player of the Year

Manager of the Year

6 players in Team of the Year

I just hope that the players are able to make the step up following promotion.

Promotion did allow me to achieve one of my aims from last season – we’ve turned pro!

The fantastic difference in our media prediction to our final place also gave us the Most Improved Team award.

Aims for next season

Avoid Relegation - Anything else is a bonus.

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