FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

[rlipscombe]

congrats on a second promotion. From what i've seen previously in Scotland you should do pretty well. Teams seem to move through quick. Pepper is a great player for you - keep hold of him!!

good luck next season.

[Ohanzee]

Mid season update, since there's so little action in here.

We're sitting 2nd in the table at the moment, 6 points behind Hamilton who are looking very strong and 5 points clear of Iverness CT which is a bit of a surprise. Iverness is the favorite to go back up having relegated last year. I think we are overachieving at the moment so I don't have much hope for promotion this year. Hamilton have players like Robert Snodgrass on a £2,000 p/w contract. That's 50% of our entire budget.

We do have a decent squad though, but there's been lots of injuries so far. Pepper have been out 2 times already for 4 and 7 weeks. The main reason we're doing so well is that two of our new attackers have been very good so far. Juan Jose Rossello and Nikola Saric (another Liverpool reject) have scored 39 goals so far between them.

We also have a young Scottish player coming in January that I'm excited about. Alan Robertson is just 17 years old and looks very promising. My scouts say leading first division player, but they're not amazing at judging potential so who knows. He looks good for 17 at least. He's gonna cost us £100k though, our biggest fee yet. But it's a monthly payment deal so we can handle it. Our average attendance this year have more than doubled so far, so we got a very decent income.

Oh and we won a cup, but only the crappy one. Challenge Cup Champions 2012!

..

Of all the games for my strikers to miss every sitter! 5-0 clear cut chances, 2-1 loss

And that apparently ruined our morale totally as we've now lost 3 in a row. No chance of promotion now, time to look forward to next season.

[Crispypaul]

After my Dafuge Challenge game went tits up, I've decided to start this in Germany, and have plumped for VfB Lubeck, whom I remember managing back in FM 2007. Here is my profile.

[Ohanzee]

Albion Rovers 2012/2013

3rd in Scottish First Division (pred: 10th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph

The League

It started pretty good and we where top of the table after 6 games, but it became apparent pretty fast that there's some teams in this division that are way better than us. Hamilton and Iverness CT both where predicted to finish 1st and 2nd and they are just bigger clubs than us. We where 2nd for most of the season, but a bad spell towards the end made Iverness fly past us. 3rd place is still great and we have several teams behind us that probably aren't happy being there.

The Cups

We had a good run in a couple of cups this year. The Challenge Cup in particular where we beat both of our league rivals to go on and win it against Partick Thistle. I guess it's what you'd call a Mickey Mouse Cup, but a trophy is a trophy. In the League Cup we once again went out early as St. Johnstone (who at that time was leading the Premier League) beat us 3-2 in the 2nd round. I was still pleased that we managed to score two goals against such a good team. The Scottish Cup went a little better as we managed to get to the quarter final where Celtic beat the crap out of us at our own ground. 3-0 loss, but a good run.

The Players

At the back this year we found a partner for Paco Borrego as ex-Man Utd Tom Thorpe had a decent season. Not playing at Borregos level, but above 7.00 for 46 games is pretty good. One of few players that was rarely injured as well. Sadly, even though we had two consistent center backs, our fullback positions where never of the same quality and we lost goals almost every game to their mistakes. The same can be said for the goalkeeper position where we tried 2 new Spaniards this year but none of them where consistent enough.

In midfield no one really impressed either this season, but Peter Leven was fairly consistent. He also got the most assists, but 8 of those 18 came in the first 7 matches of the season (and 9 was in the cup) so he didn't create enough against good teams. Could really use a few really good central midfielders.

The attacking triangle up front was amazing though. Adam Pepper, even though he was injured a lot, had another good season. We always looked more dangerous when he played. In front of him we had Nikola Saric and Juan Jose Rossello. Saric was released by Liverpool like Pepper and even though he had his ups and downs (including 10 hours without a goal at one point) he was very good. The real star was Rossello though scoring 36 goals in his first season, very impressive. He also had some really bad games against good defenders, but he was probably our most vital player this season.

The Finances

Another good season there. We're still making more money on gate receipts than we spend on wages. Not really a surprise as our average attendance more than doubled this year from 575 to 1164. We might have to expand the stadium very soon if this keeps up. Sadly we are still not a professional club, but I have given anyone that matters pro-contracts anyways to make sure they train well.

The Top Level

Interesting season at Rangers finish second and Celtic third. And it is the surprise from last year Dundee United that take the title. Those three are still in a league of their own up to with 12 points down to fourth placed Hearts.

In Europe it was a sad sad season for Scottish football as both Celtic and Dundee went out in the qualifying rounds for the Champions League. Dundee didn't even make it to the EURO Cup group stages, Hearts and Rangers finished bottom of their groups, and Celtic fell to Greek opposition in the 1st KO round as Panathinaikos where to strong.

The Future

I didn't realize that there was only one spot for promotion (and no playoffs) in this division. This annoyed me a bit, but I guess this means we'll just have to think of this whole division as a playoff and keep improving until we can beat them all. I really doubt it's gonna happen next season as Iverness is still here and we also get the other Dundee to fight with. I hope some of their best players leave cause they don't wanna play in a lower division, but if they can keep most of their team they should go straight back up.

Bring on the summer, my favorite time.

[b][u][color="Blue"]CLUB HISTORY[/color][/u][/b]

[b]SEASON	LEAGUE	POS.	S-CUP		L-CUP		EUROPE		NOTES[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]10/11[/b]	3D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s1tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	4th round	1st round	-		Promoted
[b]11/12[/b]	2D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s2tab.jpg"]3rd[/url]	4th round	1st round	-		Promoted through playoff
[b]12/13[/b]	1D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s3tab.jpg"]3rd[/url]	Qtr final	2nd round	-		Won Challenge Cup
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[b][u][color="Blue"]TROPHY CABINET[/color][/u][/b]

[b]Scottish Third Division[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s1tab.jpg"]10/11[/url]
[b]Challenge Cup[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s3chalcup.jpg"]12/13[/url]

[Ohanzee]

Good luck in Germany Crispypaul

[rlipscombe]

welcome and good luck Crispypaul.

time to see if i can get a win for Venezia tonight... not had one for a few days!!

[rlipscombe]

good season Ohanzee and congrats on cup win. Hopefully you can further strengthen and give Inverness a run for their money next season.

[rlipscombe]

with 6 games to go Venezia have had their relegation confirmed..... time to think about rebuilding...

[ghostwriter]

Renato Curi Angolana - Serie C1/B - 2014/15

Our precarious position at Christmas time

After the horror run of 8 games without a win the last thing I was expecting from our trip to mid-table Grosseto was our first away victory of the season but, pleasingly, that is what occured. We then followed that up with our first ever victory over Spal, a strangely facile 3-1 win. And then we went draw crazy, 3 straight 1-1s, all of which were mildly acceptable. A 0-0 at home to unbeaten Sorrento was followed by a horrible horrible match against relegation-threatened Monopoli, 14 shots in the first half, none on target, 11 more in the 2nd, 2 on target and unsurprisingly 0 goals. 8 games unbeaten but unfortunately only 2 wins meant that we were still not really that far away from the playouts.

Thankfully a dire Potenza side visited and were duly thrashed, as were Manfredonia who we visited and then a great performance overturned 2nd placed Crotone. Much better and we were now closer to the playoffs than the playouts. One draw later and we were 12 games unbeaten. That run and any idea of promotion got brought to a halt by Gallipoli as we suffered our first home defeat for 6 months. And then we were horrific at Bassano and deservedly suffered our worst ever league defeat (0-4). After a third straight goalless defeat, an embarrassing one at home to playout-bound Varese's goalkeeper, I was a bit concerned although we had probably put enough space between us and the playouts. We did score in the next match but suffered another defeat, but results elsewhere meant we were safe. 4 points from the last 2 home games finished off the season.

So we finished very mid-table in 10th place, you can see where it started to go a bit wrong here and despite the 12 match unbeaten run, the draws meant we never pulled that far away, in fact we were between 9th and 13th for the last 22 matches. 3 points less, 2 positions lower, 21(!!) less goals scored, 11 less conceded compared to last season. Not very entertaining, 1 goal per game less exciting. We were worse at home and mildly better away. As you can see, the main problem was goals, we did not score very many (only the bottom 5 scored less), no idea why but it is slightly disconcerting given the lack of changes made to the team.

This has very little to do with our season, but have a look at this screenshot from our old Serie C2 division with only 1 game left , there are 5 points between 5th and 14th (ie. from the playoffs to the playouts), don't know the final fixtures but it is possible there were certain clubs playing for promotion and trying to avoid relegation at the same time!

In any case, the final table looked like this.

Squad

Summary

Finances - only reason we are not deep in debt is because of investments made by the new board, we are losing £100k a month otherwise and this will continue until next Summer when the new stadium is (theoretically) ready

Transfers - not many and only Vonk was a great success, Tacchinardi was not that good but he is doing great in training so hopefully will be better next season, Tricarico was a distinct failure and is leaving in the Summer and Promes is promising Dutch GK who will be Remy's backup next season, the other 3 are backups who playing (thankfully in Beghouli's case) irregularly, Antonucci has some talent though

Few performed that well but the better players were:

Best GK - Fabian Remy - still has the rushing out problem but I saw no ill-effects this season, performed very well, lots of clean sheets, getting better and is already probably one of the better GKs in this division, hope I can hang onto him, half of the Swiss Super League made offers for him last season but he made no complaints when I turned them down and he has signed a new contract

Best Defenders - Jean-Martial Kipré and Mijat Maric - my fullbacks were considerably better than my DCs this season, 3rd season in row that Maric has averaged over 7, no goals or assists but generally good all-round performances, was also suprisingly the Player of the Year, I had wanted to replace Kipré last Summer but failed, he performed very well this season so may well stick with him, a goal and several assists (principally as he takes our corners), to be honest, I think I can do better than both of them and I have a new DL coming in but no issues if I have to play them both again

Best Midfielder - André Martins - 2nd season here after joining from Sporting and started it on fire, slowed down a bit as the season went on but still did very well, that all being said, not sure I will keep him, I have 2 very good MCs coming in and as he will probably no longer be 1st choice I would quite like to get his high wages off the books, there are clubs interested so I will see what happens...

Best Winger - Hein Vonk - basically the only shining light from the season, a very good winger for this division, generally performed very well in nearly all games, could possibly have done with more assists but that is more down to our strikers than him and also, often he was involved in goals but did not get the final assists, should have been Player of the Year, more of the same please

Best Striker - Aiman Napoli - even more frustrating than usual, twice went over 600 minutes without a goal but also went on a 5 game 6 goal spree (right between these goalless runs), with any consistancy he would be fantastic, still he scored a third of our goals and he is our best striker (well, Tacchinardi is, theoretically, better but has yet to show this) so his contribution is very important, more goals and less barren spells is all I ask...

I do feel we have the basis of a good squad here, it just needs some rounding of the edges and some better tactics. I will have a look at the latter whilst hopefully the 5 players already coming in (2xMC, a D/M L, an AM/F C, an FC) will help the former. I am very aware that these will take me way over the current wage budget and with the debt and monthly losses I doubt said budget will be increased. Hence to have any chance of making any more signings some players are gonna have to go. 2 are already going to leave at the end of their contracts but there are several on high wages I will try to dispurse of whilst some youngsters are worth 6 figures and might be sacrificed. The only issue here is that £100k is only one month's debt and the board seem perfectly happy to make investments so not sure getting rid of players solely for the money is really needed. Suppose it will depend on who and how much...

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

14/15 - Serie C1/B - 10th

Team I Would Like To Play Every Week - Manfredonia - H2-1, A3-1 (13th)

Team I Would Not Like To Play Every Week - Gallipoli - A0-3, H0-1 (3rd)

[Ohanzee]

That's to bad rlipscombe. Did you at least get some financial benefits out of a season in the top flight? I'm confident you'll bounce right back up, you do have some good players already.

Solid season ghostwriter, and good read as always. Crossing fingers for a playoff spot next season. (Some of your screens aren't working for me. The two in the 4th paragraph and Jean-Martial Kipre)

I think I should fire my assistant manager. I keep using him to filter out unrealistic targets, but I had trouble finding any players that would improve our midfield. So I decided to just offer the best contracts I could to some players I didn't think would even consider joining us. And now we got this guy. Another Liverpool reject. They may as well become our parent club at this rate.

[rlipscombe]

That's to bad rlipscombe. Did you at least get some financial benefits out of a season in the top flight? I'm confident you'll bounce right back up, you do have some good players already.

We haven't actually finished the season yet so i'm not sure what we get financially if anything. already starting the player sales as we need to reduce the wage budget. Some of the players have also ashamed me and i want them out of the club. they're not fit to wear the shirt!!

I think I should fire my assistant manager. I keep using him to filter out unrealistic targets, but I had trouble finding any players that would improve our midfield. So I decided to just offer the best contracts I could to some players I didn't think would even consider joining us. And now we got this guy. Another Liverpool reject. They may as well become our parent club at this rate.

Get rid then! you'll probably find you can do better now anyway. Good signing. maybe there's hope for you yet!

[Ohanzee]

I've been checking, but I can't find a better assistant atm. I got this guy last year, Rab Douglas. He's good at motivating which is what I really need since I hate doing press conferences. I dunno what attribute makes an assistant good at filtering unrealistic targets either.

Anyways, we got several other players in that are close to Spearings level now, just can't find any fullbacks. I'm optimistic for the season though, but probably jinxing myself saying that.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Good Progress here by everyone except Rlips, thats not the best way to go about top flight. Hopefully you can improve on the cheap over the new season and bounce straight back up. I hope to be back to Evora this weekend as I end my Softies run

[Ohanzee]

I'm having an amazing season so far in the league. Top at the moment and both offense and defense doing amazing. Starting to think promotion might be a reality.

Only bad part is our disciplinary record, worst in the league by far. And against Rangers in the League Cup we managed to get 4! players sent off in extra time!! I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Crazy game. I blame all the Liverpool rejects. 3 of them got sent off that game, and Spearing didn't even play. He's the worst of the lot. But I don't care, as long as they keep it tight at the back and put the goal in the back of the net.

[rlipscombe]

Good Progress here by everyone except Rlips, thats not the best way to go about top flight. Hopefully you can improve on the cheap over the new season and bounce straight back up. I hope to be back to Evora this weekend as I end my Softies run

tell me about it. it's been really demoralising this season - i think it's my worst ever season by far. i've tried everything but nothing has worked. just want the season over with now so i can rebuild. this season has taught me that some players i thought could hack Serie A just can't.

Ohanzee - that Rangers game was something else!! Dirty, dirty Albion Rovers!!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

The Participants Update

Well this time around I have cut out those who haven't updated in the last five pages, with exceptions given to those who have completed the challenge. It is ordered as always by closeness to the Completion.

|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| User       | Club        | Nation    | League    | C. Season | Last Pos. |
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Cookie15   | Pisa        | Italy     | Serie A   |  2015/16  |    1st    | Completed 2015/16*
| Minisav    | Darmstadt   | Germany   | 1st Div   |  2015/16  |    1st    | Completed 2015/16*
| w.Wonka    | Stuttgart   | Germany   | 1st Div   |  2017/18  |    1st    | Completed 2017/18*
| El sid     | Munster     | Germany   | 1st Div   |  2018/19  |    1st    | Completed 2018/19*
| Daemonic   | Montevarchi | Italy     | Serie A   |  2018/19  |    1st    | Completed 2018/19*
| Ohanzee    | SD Noja     | Spain     | Liga BBVA |  2019/20  |    1st    | Completed 2019/20*
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Aof Drown  | Elgin       | Scotland  | 1st Div   |  2018/19  |    1st    | League 2017/18* 
| Razer82    | Fafe        | Portugal  | Sagres    |  2018/19  |    1st    | League 2017/18*
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| StellaF1   | Hospitalet  | Spain     | Liga BBVA |  2019/20  |    2nd    |1*
| Yababo     | Emmen FC    | Holland   | Eredivise |  2016/17  |    4th    |1*
| DodgeeD    | Bc Branco   | Portugal  | Sagres    |  2019/20  |    5th    |1*
| LLR        | Evora       | Portugal  | Sagres    |  2020/21  |    5th    |1*
| Paul Hart  | FC Libourne | France    | Ligue 1   |  2029/30  |   11th    |1*
| Benjaminoo | Farense     | Portugal  | Sagres    |  2014/15  |   14th    |1*
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Iacovone   | Castillo    | Spain     | Liga BBVA |  2021/22  |    2nd    |1*
| Rlipscombe | Venezia     | Italy     | Serie A   |  2017/18  |    2nd    |1*
| Ohanzee II | Albion      | Scotland  | Premier   |  2014/15  |    1st    |1*
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| G-Wiz      | Lubeck      | Germany   | 2nd Div   |  2011/12  |    1st    |2*
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Ghostwriter| Renato Curi | Italy     | Serie C1B |  2015/16  |   10th    |3*
| Deltablue  | RW Essen    | Germany   | Third Div |  2012/13  |   15th    |3*
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| W.Wizard   | Elgin       | Scotland  | 2nd Div   |  2011/12  |    1st    |3*
| Duccio     | Casertana   | Italy     | Serie C1B |  2011/12  |    1st    |3*
|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|

If I have missed anyone pop me an update and I will add it in.

[Ohanzee]

Albion Rovers 2013/2014

1st in Scottish First Division (pred: 8th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph

The League

This was one of those seasons where you just get onto a wave of success and float on it until the end. After 7 games we where top of the table having won every game so far. Dundee had also not lost yet (6-1-0) and we where about to play them away. I was thinking that this would probably be a season where we'd both win almost every game, but Dundee would beat us in our meetings. I'm happy to say I was wrong. We beat them 2-0 in a close game where we created the biggest chances and took them. It took 16 league games before we finally lost, away to Livingston. By then we had a solid lead at the top and we never gave it away. With 7 games left of the season we had already secured the 1st place and promotion!

The Cups

The Challenge Cup was a huge disappointment this year as we crashed out in the first round in a penalty shootout against Morton. Sure, we didn't play our strongest team, but I was really expecting more. Luckily the team wasn't really affected by the loss and hammered Elgin in the next game in the League Cup. We didn't go to far in this cup either though as we drew Rangers in the 3rd round. It was a crazy match where we held on to a draw for 120 minutes before they scored in over overtime. More crazy was the fact that we had 4 players sent off in extra-time. In fact our disciplinary record was worst in the league (and probably every competition) this year.

In the Scottish Cup we once again got to the Quarter final, where just like last year Celtic where to strong. We did however managed to draw 1-1 with them at our ground, and this had a huge effect on our finances. The away game got us around £250k in gate receipts even though we lost it 2-1.

The Players

After such a great season it's hard to pick anyone in particular so I'll show you the regulars.

At the very back we once again turned to Spanish Acoran. He did take one step up this year managing a 7.03 average rating, but frankly with our defensive record this season he should have done better. Still, he was the first choice and never played a horrible game.

Acoran can thank the defense for that. Paco Borrego and Tom Thorpe once again where our solid stopper pair. This year they got more help from the fullbacks though. I wasn't sure Mike Daly (another Liverpool reject) would be up for the task yet, but he sure was. On the other side Chris Craig (released by Arsenal) was also very solid. These four gave us an amazing defensive record this season, even though they picked up 25 yellow and 2 red cards. I guess playing hard is good. I found out why as well, as it turns out my assistant manager was telling my team to tackle hard on almost all opposition players every match. I let him handle that part and even though I don't like getting this many cards I must say I'm impressed at how well it worked. Marek Wasiluk played the handyman role filling both fullback and stopper positions when needed.

In midfield Damien Plessis filled the defensive role. He didn't join until after the season had already started, but he was a instant hit. You can probably guess which club released him. The first choice in central midfield was Jay Spearing and Wayne Brown. Jose Semedo played a big part as well, stepping in on both central and defensive duty. He's been in England and Scotland for 7 season before joining us so he had no trouble fitting in. The attacking man in our midfield once again was Adam Pepper, and he had his best season yet. Might be hard keeping hold of him now that he'll get attention in the top division. Nikola Saric also played his part in this role.

In attack Juan Jose Rossello once again was one of my first choices. He didn't score as many as last year, but he also played a lot less games and only scored 1 in the Cups compared to 13 last year. So he still had a great season. His main partner this year was Polish Lukas Jutkiewicz. He was released by Everton and became our second best goal scorer after Pepper this year. He also had the most assists. Nikola Saric was another handyman filling this role as well as the mentioned standing in for Pepper.

The Finances

Still going strong. Still not a professional club, if we don't become one now I'm gonna cry. The away game against Celtic in the Scottish Cup was the biggest boost. But even without it we'd still be making almost 3x our wage budget on gate receipts. We also got £150k for our finishing position in the 1st division. Average attendance didn't increase to much, but it's now at 1192 (from 1164). Seeing as our stadium can't handle more than 1238 I guess it's time to expand.

The Top Level

Rangers where back on top this year with a big margin. 14 points down to Celtic in second who finished on equal points with Hearts. Aberdeen picked up the 4th spot just 1 point a head of last years champions Dundee United.

In Europe once again no Scottish team made it to the Champions League group stages. Dundee where horrible ambassadors as they didn't even reach the EURO Cup group stages. That's horrible after winning the league. Rangers, Celtic and Hearts got to the group stages of the EURO Cup, but neither managed to get through. Getting a bit worried about Scotland's coefficients now, it's not far down to having just 1 Champions League spot.

The Future

Pre-season will be interesting. Hopefully we turn professional and can attract even better players. Not to mention hopefully being able to scout a bigger part of Europe or maybe even the rest of the world. But even if we can't I actually feel we may have a shot at staying up with the current squad. The system with just 1 team being promoted feels really tough when you're in the First Division, but now that we're in the Premier League it's the other way around. Since we only need to be better than 1 team in the Premier League to stay up.

[b][u][color="Blue"]CLUB HISTORY[/color][/u][/b]

[b]SEASON	LEAGUE	POS.	S-CUP		L-CUP		EUROPE		NOTES[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]10/11[/b]	3D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s1tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	4th Round	1st Round	-		Promoted
[b]11/12[/b]	2D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s2tab.jpg"]3rd[/url]	4th Round	1st Round	-		Promoted through playoff
[b]12/13[/b]	1D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s3tab.jpg"]3rd[/url]	Qtr Final	2nd Round	-		Won Challenge Cup
[b]13/14[/b]	1D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s4tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	Qtr Final	3rd Round	-		Promoted
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[b][u][color="Blue"]TROPHY CABINET[/color][/u][/b]

[b]Scottish First Division[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s4tab.jpg"]13/14[/url]
[b]Scottish Third Division[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s1tab.jpg"]10/11[/url]
[b]Challenge Cup[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s3chalcup.jpg"]12/13[/url]

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Congrats on Promotion there Ohanzee very good to see. I will also add your inclusion in the top flight into the above table.

[Ohanzee]

Thanks.

My board just gave me these "great" news Not sure whether to laugh or cry now. £7,3M in red. They better refinance this into a loan! I guess a stadium expansion is out of the question to then.

...

Well that was quick. They already restructured the debts into a "Gift Loan" of £29K per month until 2034. I think this is a loan we only pay when we're not in red as well. The chairman decided to inject £400k to help with running costs as well, so now we got a £20k balance. Busy week.

[rlipscombe]

congrats Ohanzee - thought you might do it.... that's some expensive undersoil heating!!

[rlipscombe]

OMG, we've just won another Serie A match!! 3-2 home win against Parma (so what if they are 19th...). our first win in 20 matches.....

[Ohanzee]

Good job rlipscombe. Finish that season on a high!

I'm having a blast shifting through scout reports at the moment. Only coming to the end of July and I got 50-100 reports to shift through in every country I sent them to. I can scout all of Europe now I think. Bit annoyed though looking at the quality players I could have attracted if we had the money. But we don't. In fact I'm stuck with a £9k wage budget and no transfer money. Trying to sell off a few fringe players so we can offer more wages to better players available on free transfer.

My scouts are having a laugh though. Craig Aitken came into my office today and said "I found this real gem of a midfielder in Italy boss. He's gonna cost us seven million though, so you can probably get him in 10 years time."

[rlipscombe]

Good job rlipscombe. Finish that season on a high!

I'm having a blast shifting through scout reports at the moment. Only coming to the end of July and I got 50-100 reports to shift through in every country I sent them to. I can scout all of Europe now I think. Bit annoyed though looking at the quality players I could have attracted if we had the money. But we don't. In fact I'm stuck with a £9k wage budget and no transfer money. Trying to sell off a few fringe players so we can offer more wages to better players available on free transfer.

My scouts are having a laugh though. Craig Aitken came into my office today and said "I found this real gem of a midfielder in Italy boss. He's gonna cost us seven million though, so you can probably get him in 10 years time."

Ha ha. i've had some great players recommended too but could never afford the wages.

For the record, we're unbeaten in 2 now!! 1-1 draw vs Cagliari.....

EDIT: Make that three after a 1-1 draw away at Lazio.......

[Ohanzee]

On fire rlipscombe! Make sure you save some of that magic for next season.

Got some great news, it looks like that under-soil heating thing includes a stadium expansion for us. The news report didn't say, but the information screen says we're moving back into a 6,700 capacity Cliftonhill in December. Sweet!

Signed 7 new players, no one incredible, but good enough to make an impact I hope. Some half-known names to, like Luke Moore the Aston Villa striker. And a couple of players I at least know about in real life from the Man Utd academy. Joshua King, a very quick Norwegian striker, and Ravel Morrison who I also had in my S.D. Noja team.

Mostly the same first team as last year though. Just hope we're good enough to stay up.

[Ohanzee]

I know posting when you're doing well is a bad idea, but I'll take my chances.

I guess I was wrong. We're more than good enough to stay up. We won 4 and lost 1 of the first 5 league matches. Including a epic win over Celtic at home. Almost the same team as last year to. Pepper was just coming back from injury so I didn't even start him. I guess our draw against them last year in the cup wasn't just luck. Funny how Rossello plays crap, he's scored in every game before this.

[rlipscombe]

great start there Ohanzee!! hope the curse doesn't strike and you can keep that up....

As for Venezia i'm looking forward to a night of off-season planning and restructuring the club. i might even get the season review up, but don't expect one of the usual standard. there ain't much positive to take!!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well it looks like I am cursed, we are in the worst slump I have ever had, I cannot buy a win 8 in a row without a win. Of course a lot of those are draws including one against Spartak Moscow. But now half the club are worried about the lack of harmony, and the other half about us underachieving.

I am very tempted to sell all bar my top XI and buy a whole new team and see what happens.

[Ohanzee]

Albion Rovers 2014/2015

3rd in Clysdale Bank Premier League (pred: 12th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph

The League

We got off to an amazing start with a 7-2-1 record after 10 games. This actually put us top of the league, but only because Rangers and Celtic had 2-3 games in hand from playing in Europe. We never had a really bad run of form, and when the league split in two after 33 games we where 3rd and within reach of 2nd. We could only find one win in the 5 games against the top 6 though and finished 3rd. Amazing first season!

It's easy to see where our problem lays when comparing our stats to Rangers and Celtic. We scored more goals than anyone else in the league, but we also the 4th worst team when it comes to conceding goals. We actually had 2 teams ahead of us in yellow cards this year, but we beat the crap out of everyone in the red cards stat. 58 yellow and 8 red in the league, a bit to much, but it's giving us success so I'm not sure I wanna change it.

Here's my favorite league result of the season. We hammered them! Not really, but the scoreline was brilliant.

The Cups

We got to the 3rd round of the League Cup where Dundee United hammered us 3-0 in what was really a tight game. They turned out to be our nemesis in the cups this year as they also beat us 1-0 in the Semi Final of the Scottish Cup. That was a big blow as we had already drawn 0-0 at home to both Aberdeen and Rangers only to go away and beat them before the Semi Final. It was still a great run though as the away game against Rangers gave us almost £500k of gate receipts.

The Players

Mostly the same players as last year, just poke if you wanna see anyone in particular. Here's the Team Stats and Sorted by avg. rating.

And here's the new players.

Miquel - Spanish attacking midfielder. Good first season. He may have to step up as Pepper is refusing to sign a new contract.

Ravel Morrison - I know this kid from the Man Utd academy in real life, and I've watched him play a youth cup match in Manchester actually. Happy to see my scouts pick him out again as I had him in my S.D Noja game as well. Didn't play to much this season, but as mentioned Pepper might leave so he'll get his chances.

Jan-Arie van der Heiden - Dutch midfielder and the most used player of our new signings. Experienced and very consistent.

Luke Moore - English striker, fairly well-known to anyone following english football. He had a decent season scoring 9 in the league.

Thomas van der Plas - Dutch defender. Didn't play much, was more of a backup, but I think he looks promising.

Joshua King - Another kid from the United academy that I know of. Him being Norwegian we hear about him every time he scores for the reserves. Didn't start to many league games this year, but he had a decent record. Will try to give him more time next year.

Maikel de Jong - Another dutch defender and he turned out to be our best signing. When Thorpe got injured for 2 months he stepped in and was brilliant, so he kept his place.

Juan Jose Rossello was our top goal scorer and also had the most assists. But, there's a big but, 8 of his goals came in 2 cup games against 2nd and 3rd division sides. Take those away and he's got only 13 goals in 36 matches. That's not good enough. His contract is running out after next season, but no one is interested in him at the moment.

We also have several other players contracts running out in 2016 that don't wanna sign new ones. Chris Craig and Adam Pepper the most important ones. Some players do wanna sign new contracts, but I can't offer them what they want at the moment. I hope our board boost the wage budget since we made a good profit this year.

The Finances

Big boost this year as we earned almost £3M more in gate receipts than the year before. This is of course down to us playing in a 10k stadium for half the season and then back at Cliftonhill which now has a capacity of 6700 after the expansion for the rest of the season. Our average attendance was 6489. Meanwhile we spent a whole of £532k on wages, so if we're only looking at wages and gate receipts we earned £3,2M on that. But of course there's lots of other expenses. For instance we spent more on Match Day Expenses than wages (£680k).

The best news of the season came after the season was over though as we got £1,775M for our 3rd place finish in the Premier League.

The Scottish Clubs in Europe

Rangers did a good job this year as they pulled through the Champions Cup group stages knocking out both Roma and Bordeaux. Juventus where to strong in the 1st KO round though. Meanwhile Celtic got to the 2nd KO round of the EURO Cup where Russian Sparak Moscow knocked them out. Hearts also got to the group stages of the EURO Cup but ended bottom of their group. It was a tough group though with Fiorentina, AEK and Wolfsburg. So a decent season this year after a few really bad ones.

The Future

It looks good. The only problems are players not wanting a new contract. Do I actively try to sell them or just use them for another season? Also squad harmony isn't the best, but to be honest I've never had good squad harmony in any of these saves.

I just found out that we can now scout the whole world as well. And there's room for 4 more scouts, bringing us up to 10. That's gonna be great. I'm sure there's some new Maradona or Pele hiding over there in South America. Hopefully we get a higher wage budget so we can attract some future stars.

For now I guess we'll have to be a feeder club and sell any gem we may find for profit, but the biggest step is done. We're in the top division and already in Europe. I'll be happy if we can just stay in the top 6 next year though.

[b][u][color="Blue"]CLUB HISTORY[/color][/u][/b]

[b]SEASON	LEAGUE	POS.	S-CUP		L-CUP		EUROPE		NOTES[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]10/11[/b]	3D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s1tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	4th Round	1st Round	-		Promoted
[b]11/12[/b]	2D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s2tab.jpg"]3rd[/url]	4th Round	1st Round	-		Promoted through playoff
[b]12/13[/b]	1D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s3tab.jpg"]3rd[/url]	Qtr Final	2nd Round	-		Won Challenge Cup
[b]13/14[/b]	1D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s4tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	Qtr Final	3rd Round	-		Promoted
[b]14/15[/b]	PREM	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s5tab.jpg"]3rd[/url]	Semi FInal	3rd Round	-		Qualified for Europe
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[b][u][color="Blue"]TROPHY CABINET[/color][/u][/b]

[b]Scottish First Division[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s4tab.jpg"]13/14[/url]
[b]Scottish Third Division[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s1tab.jpg"]10/11[/url]
[b]Challenge Cup[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/Albion/s3chalcup.jpg"]12/13[/url]

[Ohanzee]

Pre season is fun. We sold Pepper (£2.6M - AA Gent), and Rossello (£1.1M - Brøndby) and most of our fringe players from last year for under £100k each.

Scouting the world is fun as well. Check out the striker the guy I sent to Argentina found, Mario Villa. And he's not even the most recommended in the list. That's Lucas Ruiz Diaz. Sadly Atkin reckons Villa would want £3.4k to £4.7k wages and cost £1.5M. We could actually be able to get him (£1.4M left on budget and can offer £3.7k wages), but I already signed 3 new strikers from England and Czech Republic. Wish I had waited a bit now.

Might do a pre season update once the window is done this year.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's

Lusitano de Evora

End of Season

2020/21 Liga Sagres

What to Call it?

The Current Season

The Quick Reference

Predicted: 8th

Actual: 9th

Portuguese Cup: 3rd Round vs Sporting

League Cup: 3rd Round: 2nd Group B

Euro Cup: 3rd Group C

Euro Rank: 107th (up 69)

Finances: 5.5M (10th Por)

Season Tickets: 1078 (+75)

The Squad: Squad 1 & 2

Transfers: 2020/21

The Season in General

For the first time since I took over it looks like there might be an actual profit at the end of the year. In the past we had a 1m pound profit, but that was purely because of the board getting us a 1m pound loan on the last day of the season. This year we have made a profit, given it is only a small one and only because we made it to Europe, but it is a start. I only bought in 5 players this season, plus Hunte on his loan again and changed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 as I realised I had 3-4 very strong strikers and I needed to do that to make the best out of my team as the wingers I could purchase were all quite weak. I am going to this offseason attempt to build the side, my Centre Backs are the first problem I have no one to line up alongside Sanchez, after that I am not sure of my weak point.

The League

Well again we had a poor start to the season, I have no idea what I am doing wrong, but its something. We seem to have truly slumped this season, but I really don't want to change the core of my team, with the exception of a couple of older players most of this squad should only get better as we continue in the league, they are all in their 20s and look good already they are just not yet consistent. We managed a 1 all draw at Porto with Cruz's 50th goal, should've been a 1:0 victory except for a last minute penalty.

Player Stats

The Cups

Well we went out as soon as we entered in both of these so not much of a feature, which is slightly disappointing for us.

Player Stats - League Cup

Player Stats - Portuguese Cup

Europe

I was delighted with our presence in Europe, we travelled to Poland & Denmark in the Qualifying rounds and managed to overcome Zaglebie Lubin & Brondby, this made a spot for our club in the Group stages where we would meet Udinese (Italy), Spartak Moscow (Russia) & Legia (Poland). We managed a total of 6 points, but with 4 of them coming against Legia it was not the best campaign. And our league result means no European football in 2021/22.

The Club's History

League Records

|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|
|  Season  |  League  | Final Pos | Playoffs | Achievements |
|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4647693&postcount=2810"]2010/11[/url] |   2DS    |    [url="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1156/portugueseseconddivisio.png"]6th[/url]    |          |     None     |
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4669085&postcount=2856"]2011/12[/url] |   2DS    |    [url="http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1156/portugueseseconddivisio.png"]1st[/url]    |    [url="http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/1156/portugueseseconddivisio.png"]2nd[/url]   |   Promoted   |
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4687627&postcount=2883"]2012/13[/url] |    LV    |    [url="http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1156/portugueseseconddivisio.png"]8th[/url]    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4693906&postcount=2918"]2013/14[/url] |    LV    |    [url="http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8594/ligavitalis.png"]3rd[/url]    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4735466&postcount=3041"]2014/15[/url] |    LV    |    [url="http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6752/ligavitalis14.png"]3rd[/url]    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4897020&postcount=3290"]2015/16[/url] |    LV    |    [url="http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/3581/ligavitalis9.png"]4th[/url]    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4901543&postcount=3295"]2016/17[/url] |    LV    |    [url="http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/4115/ligavitalis6.png"]3rd[/url]    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4911039&postcount=3311"]2017/18[/url] |    LV    |    [url="http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8971/ligavitalis10.png"]1st[/url]    |    N/A   |   Promoted   |
|  [url="http://community.sigames.com/showpost.php?p=4918967&postcount=3319"]2018/19[/url] |    LS    |   [url="http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6383/ligasagres2.png"]10th[/url]    |    N/A   |     None     |
|  2019/20 |    LS    |    [url="http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/9412/ligasagres5.png"]5th[/url]    |    N/A   | Qualified EC |
|  2020/21 |    LS    |    [url="http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7430/ligasagres7.png"]9th[/url]    |    N/A   |     None     |
|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|

Goals Home & Away

|----------|----------|---------|---------|-------|
|  Season  |  League  |  Home   |  Away   | Total |
|----------|----------|---------|---------|-------|
|  2010/11 |   2DS    |  36-15  |  18-29  | 54-44 |
|  2011/12 |   2DS    |  39-10  |  31-20  | 70-30 |
|  2012/13 |    LV    |  33-22  |  20-25  | 53-47 |
|  2013/14 |    LV    |  27-17  |  26-19  | 53-36 |
|  2014/15 |    LV    |  34-16  |  25-21  | 59-37 |
|  2015/16 |    LV    |  41-14  |  20-22  | 61-36 |
|  2016/17 |    LV    |  39-14  |  23-21  | 62-35 |
|  2017/18 |    LV    |  39-10  |  30-19  | 69-29 |
|  2018/19 |    LS    |  18-18  |  16-32  | 34-50 |
|  2019/20 |    LS    |  28-13  |  22-25  | 50-38 |
|  2020/21 |    LS    |  21-14  |  17-21  | 38-35 |
|----------|----------|---------|---------|-------|

Record Home & Away

|----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|
|  Season  |  League  |   Home   |  Away    |  Total    |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|
|  2010/11 |   2DS    | 10-03-02 | 05-01-09 |  15-04-11 |
|  2011/12 |   2DS    | 13-03-01 | 07-06-04 |  20-10-05 |
|  2012/13 |    LV    | 09-01-05 | 03-07-05 |  12-08-10 |
|  2013/14 |    LV    | 07-06-02 | 08-04-03 |  15-10-05 |
|  2014/15 |    LV    | 11-04-00 | 07-03-05 |  18-07-05 |
|  2015/16 |    LV    | 11-02-02 | 04-03-08 |  15-05-10 |
|  2016/17 |    LV    | 11-01-03 | 05-04-06 |  16-05-09 |
|  2017/18 |    LV    | 12-01-02 | 07-05-03 |  19-06-05 |
|  2018/19 |    LS    | 05-05-05 | 03-04-08 |  08-09-13 |
|  2019/20 |    LS    | 07-08-00 | 05-04-06 |  12-12-06 |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|
| 1st Ten |    All   | 96-34-22 | 54-41-57 | 150-75-79 |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|
|  2020/21 |    LS    | 05-07-03 | 04-04-07 |  09-11-10 |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|

1st Half vs 2nd Half

|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
|  Season  |  League  |   Open   |  Close   | Total    |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
|  2016/17 |    LV    | 06-02-07 | 10-03-02 | 16-05-09 |
|  2017/18 |    LV    | 07-05-03 | 12-01-02 | 19-06-05 |
|  2018/19 |    LS    | 03-04-08 | 05-05-05 | 08-09-13 |
|  2019/20 |    LS    | 04-06-05 | 08-06-01 | 12-12-06 |
|  2020/21 |    LS    | 04-04-07 | 05-07-03 | 09-11-10 |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|

Club Records & Competition History

New Records: Games without Winning - 8, Highest Fee Received: Santangelo 500k, Transfer Income 825k.

All Records: Part 1 & 2.

Competition History: 2nd Division South - Winners 2012, Liga Vitalis - Winners 2018, 3rd 2014,2015,2017, Reserves: Group 3 - 3rd 2017, Group 2 - 2nd 2019, U19s Cup - 2nd 2018

The Players

The Squad

Current Teams Stats: This Season & Evora Career.

Goalkeepers

30. Carsten Littmann - Still a star, but he just let in a few too many goals, the change at about halfway to having Carrera in the starting line-up seemed to work.

33. Oscar Carrera - The new signing took a while to break into the team, but in the end his better GAA (Goals Against Average) is what led to him getting the starters spot. He almost ceded it when he got himself red carded, but Littman had a mare in the next game.

Right Backs

63. Oier Torres - He is still the best right back we have, though his career has started to flatten and he is not really getting any better now. We may need to start looking for a replacement, but in the meantime he is one of the best in the league.

36. Jorge Fucile -

90. Pedro Lopes - The Injury Cover.

Left Backs

62. Benjamin Addo - The only downside to our captain has to be his complete lack of discipline. He has now had more red cards than any other player in our clubs history, not the record you want to be holding. He is very good at crossing and has been nominated for Fullback of the year.

93. Gustavo Frangao - He continues his job as back-up for the left side, hopefully he can continue to do it solid, but not great.

Centre Backs

4. Francisco "Javier II" Sanchez - The runner-up in Player of the Year, and just a superstar all season at the back. I have no idea how Javier II missed out on the Central Defender of the Year award he was clearly the best defender all season. The young man will be the number 1 building block of my side.

92. Romeu Salgado - The true back-up in this role, he is just a poor little player who will only feature when we are desperate.

16. Maurice van Dommelen - He is very poor in his position, we do need to strengthen this area completely.

17. Guglielmo Martinelli - He ended up as one of the starters near the end of the season, he did the job, but in general he is not a central Defender.

Midfield

47. Matteo Jehl -

55. Alejandro - he had a pretty good season, I am debating whether to train him into a MC or to just transfer list him and try and claim some money for him. I am thinking the later even though he has been very good down the right wing for us.

29. Abraham - Well one of the oldest players in my midfield he is clearly not the player he used to be, but he does provide some experience in a squad that is in desperate need of it.

25. Pablo Cabezas - The star of my midfield, 11 assists which is just into the double figures that I want from my three across the middle. His is one of the first names on my team sheet everytime at the moment. I don't think I need any more midfielders with him leading the line.

24. Sergio Torres - A very solid season, but Torres was not spectacular like last season. He needs to pick up his game or he will just become the reserve for the rest of them.

91. Jose Filipe Areias - No screenshot this season, he still looks the same, but he played no games.

42. Paulo Cordeiro - One of the new signings, he is a youngster with uite a large future in front of him. He spent half his time on the bench, but he still got 7 assists on the season which is great for a young guy.

26. Ernesto Vazquez - 5 goals and 3 assists is an average output, but he is a Defensive Mid so really that is an excellent return. He is definitely playing more of an anchorman role and I am pleased to keep him in te starting line. Cabezas will be there the question is the third slot.

21. Alejandro Hunte - He came on loan from our parent club in France for the second year running. Yes we still have a parent club even after finishing 5th last season. He has been solid both times, but he is not a great player.

Strikers

38. Hector Cruz - He has to be disappointed with himself for the effort he put in this year, he spent long periods without goals and he also managed to only score 15 goals on the whole game. I may need to strengthen my strikers in January.

1. Alessandro Guerra - He only scored 15 goals, but he is still growing and becoming better, if Guerra can keep improving he will soon enough be a leading star in the Liga Sagres and lead the goalscoring stats across the league.

11. Theo Tsotetsi - The South African Superstar is likely to become one of my go to strikers, but he has to improve his strike rate and start scoring some goals in a desperate effort to keep his spot alongside Guerra & Cruz given the competition.

99. Roberto Martin - The January signing is supposed to be as good as our best three, he will most likely be a bench sitter unless someone hits a slump, but having four to rotate through the three spots is better for us.

The Best of the Best

The 100 Club

Gabriele Federici 203, Matteo Jehl 194, Jose Manuel 179, Carlos Perez Rojo 170, Oier Torres 160, Deigo Galiano 151, Sebastian Visentin 147, Raphael Lopes 146, Alberto Gonzalez 136, Guilherme Afonso 132, Hector Cruz 129, Abraham 113, Jose Maria 113, Benjamin Addo 106, Pablo Canezas 104, Carsten Littman 102, Ander Suarez Rodriguez 100.

The Awards

Liga Sagres

Player of the Month - October: Alessandro Guerra 1st, March: Javier II 2nd, April: Javier II 2nd.

Player of the Year: Javier II 2nd.

Of the Year Shortlists

Fullback: Benjamin Addo

Centre Back: Javier II

Forward: Alessandro Guerra & Hector Cruz.

Evora

Fans PotY: Francisco "Javier II" Sanchez

Best XI: Littmann, O.Torres, Addo, Javier II, Martinelli, Alejandro, Frangao, Cabezas, Vazquez, Guerra, Cruz.

Subs: Carrera, Abraham, S.Torres, Cordeiro, Tsotetsi, van Dommelen, Martin.

Overall XI: A.Martins, Rodriguez, Silva, Franjic, Gailano, Jehl, Lopes, Manuel, Leao, Gomis, Afonso.

Subs: Littmann, Alves, Maria, Perez Rojo, Javier II, Mauro, Wesllem.

Where are they now?

Evora:

Other Clubs Players:

Other Clubs Staff:

Retired:

Thoughts on 2021/22

Well the first thing is to strengthen my back line. But I believe I now have a very strong middle starting to form with Littmann [22]/Carrera [20] - Sanchez [22] (Javier II) - Cabezas [25]/Vazquez [21]/Cordeiro [20] - Tsotetsi [19]/Guerra [22]/Cruz [24].

Realistically with them all under 25 if I can build players to support them they could be great in the future. The other members right now are Addo [27] & O.Torres [25] who could have a few more years in them, but I would like possible replacements if I can find them.

[Ohanzee]

LLR - Well done getting into the group stages in Europe. Sad to see you finish so low in the league though. Hope you can build on that midfield and bounce back up to the European spots next year. I did something like what you considered with selling anyone but the first eleven now. I had a few players that didn't wanna sign new contracts as well though. I rather cash in and rebuild than watch them go for nothing.

Albion Rovers pre-season 2015/16

As mentioned we sold Pepper and Rossello since they refused to sign new contracts. Here's all the transfers.

Balazs Nagy - Hungarian goalkeeper. This is has been one of our weakest positions so I hope this kid can take it to another level. Scouts say his only weakness is his positioning. He's great at catching crosses though which I think will help us since we play a very narrow formation.

Max Hawkins - English striker. He played for St. Mirren in the Premier League last year and scored 10 goals in 9 starts and 10 subs.

Will Reid - English striker. Released by Man Utd and already a leading star according to the my assistant.

Luca Borrelli - Italian attacker. Released by Inter and another leading star if my assistant is to believe. He's already unhappy though as he's having issues settling into life in Scotland.

Martin Necas - Czech Republic striker. End of contract transfer from Brno and another leading star. Was the striker I was most excited about until we found Villa.

David Goikoetxea - Spanish defender and midfielder. End of contract transfer from Osasuna.

Jose Antonio Alba - Spanish midfielder. End of contract transfer from Villarreal.

Ludek Pavlov - Czech Republic defender and midfielder. End of contract transfer from Slavia Prague.

Mario Villa - Argentinian striker. The big signing and our first South American import. Here's the scout report as well, looks amazing. Transfer fee will be paid over 48 months so we'll have no problems. It's a bit crazy that we can get this kid for £1.7M while selling Pepper for £2.6M straight up cash.

The rest of the signings are for my reserve team. It was completely empty after my big clear out, so I decided to pick up any half decent under 20 players my scouts recommended. Brennan (GK), Jung (MC), Jones (DR), Oliveira (DL), Pearson (GK), Berry (DC), and Laursen (GK).

Another reason I'm gonna start filling up my reserve team is that I don't think we can win the Champions League anytime soon in this nation. So I'm planning for the long run here. Also asking my board for a feeder club to start sending them out on loans. Also bugging them about upgrading facilities so we can offer better grounds for development.

I feel like we have a brilliant strike force, much more depth in midfield, but the same average defense as last year now. And hopefully a much better goalkeeper. Guessing it'll be another season where scoring more than the opposition is the strategy.

We're through the 3rd qualifying round of the EURO Cup, beating Croatian NK Varteks 7-0 over two matches. But we've drawn Spanish opposition in the next round in Real Zaragoza. So I don't have to high hopes of reaching the group stages. No idea how good they really are, but I'd imagine around Rangers and Celtics level. So we'll probably need some luck.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I was rather disappointed with the league finish, good to see you going well though and yes preparation for the long haul is what I do, though of course with the core of my team at 20-25 I am kinda set on the young side of things, I may need some experience to help me out and keep the morale up.

I have 4 signings coming so far in July to strengthen the side as much as I can.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Well my 107th ranking in Europe puts me in between Bursaspor (Turkey) & Stade Rennais FC (France). Pretty happy to have almost made the top 100 already.

[Ohanzee]

That's great. Would think that means the clubs reputation went up a bit as well. Find it a bit easier to attract better players?

We're through to the group stages of the EURO Cup as well. Beat Zaragoza 4-1 home. Very lucky. Our golakeeper would have been man of the match if Villa hadn't scored 2 and assisted the other 2. In the away game it was the other way around as we wasted 5 clear cut chances, but Zaragoza only managed to score one of theirs as well making it 4-2 on aggregate. Mario Villa has already payed off more than half of what I bought him for with that home game performance.

We got Man City, Olympiakos and CFR Cluj. That's gonna be tough. Prepare for double figures against Man City

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Wow...just been offered 2.5M for Cruz...he is currently looking like spending a season as a super-sub. Only problem is the offer is from Sporting, no way I wanna give him to the competition, but the money alone is tempting me...might ask for a more...5M?

[Ohanzee]

That's a dilemma. I got an offer from both Rangers and AA Gent for Pepper in the summer, although I offered him out, they didn't come and bid on their own. I rejected Rangers and accepted AA Gent. If Rangers was the only bid I would probably have accepted it. As important as Pepper was £2.6M is a lot of money at this stage. You can spend it to buy more talents, or you can turn it into a bigger wage budget and thereby attract better free transfers.

I dunno what I'd do in your situation though. Cruz is good, but I would think you can do better? You have anyone in sight to replace him?

I find that offering players (with the "offer to clubs" option) for 2x their current value straight up in cash is usually a good way to get bids. Also untick the "Transfer list and set player to not needed" box. This seem to make them not get mad at you. At least I've never had anyone get mad at me for offering them out with this unticked. I see it as a safe way to see if you can spike an interest in someone I'm not sure I wanna sell. If no one bids, no harm, he's still a important first team player or what not. If someone does bid you can change his status to "not needed" to ensure he accepts the offer.

Maybe you'd even get a bid from someone that's not a rival.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Yeah I did think about offering Cruz out. I believe he is probably my third best striker right now and given that I have three strikers a little younger than him I would like to see get some game time I may just offer him for 5M and see whaty comes in. Preseason update to come.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Des Tiny's

Lusitano de Evora

Pre-Season

2021/22 Liga Sagres

The Signings

The Starters

Andre Santos (MC) - He has been signed to provide an extra Midfielder, and in the friendlies he was on fire finishing with 5 goals from 5 games. He will be starting in our first league game.

Wilson Mateus (MC/ST) - Well he was signed as a back-up, but once I saw him play it was clear that he should be starting and he will line-up with Guerra & Tsotetsi for day one of the season upfront.

Adolfo Silveira Reis (DC) - The newest Central Defender, we seem to be bringing one of them in every season right now. Hopefully this one will be the partner that Javier II needs at the back.

The Cover

Alejandro Etxeberria (DMR) - Not the best right back in the world, but following Fucile's retirement and hiring as a coach we needed a replacement in the subs, I cannot find anyone better than Torres at right back so cover it is.

Jeremiah Okoduwa (DC/DM) - Yes I am paying waaaay too much for him, but my coaches think he can do something, he is really the third member of my Centre Back combos, but he can cover the midfield as well. Useful in a Sub.

The Youth Dude

Luis Constantino (ML) - Well I am no longer playing with a winger, but this was the best player to come through our Youth Academy this season, its at least an improvement over all the Youth prospects soo far.

The Friendlies

vs OCG Nice 1:1

Tsotetsi

at Oriental 5:2

Javier II, Santos, Tsotetsi (2), Mateus

at U.D.Merida 4:0

Mateus (2), Santos (2)

at Cultural Leonesa 5:0

Guerra, Mateus, Santos (2), Tsotetsi

vs Arsenal 1:1

Cruz

Well of all the friendlies the best result has to be the 1:1 draw with Arsenal, it was just awesome, we dominated a great team and were unlucky to allow the goal they scored. If we have form like that going into the season we may have a chance.

[Ohanzee]

That's some nice signings LLR. Andre Santos looks incredible, he should lift you up a notch or ten. Why such a short contract though? I'd pay him a huge sign on fee and lure him into a 5 year deal right away.

Here's how our EURO Group matches went

Olympiakos	A	1-3	loss
Man City	H	1-1	draw
CFR Cluj	A	5-0	win
CFR Cluj	H	4-1	win
Olympiakos	H	3-1	win
Man City	A	4-2	loss

We where very unlucky in the first game. Olympiakos goalkeeper got the MoM award. Then we where a bit lucky to grab a point against Man City at home. The games against Cluj where exactly like the result suggest. And we deserved our win against Olympiakos. The loss against Man City wasn't double figures like I feared, but it could have been to be honest. 8-2 would be a more correct result.

We got Monaco in the next round and if we manage that we'll most likely get Chelsea. I'm very pleased no matter how it goes. Especially with how we hammered Cluj.

In the league we're 2nd at the moment. 1 point behind a huge suprprise, Motherwell. They just got promoted back up to the Premier League and I guess they spent their time in the First Division well cause they are flying high. Rangers and Dundee Utd are not far behind, while Celtic are having a crappy season in 5th at the moment.

Mario Villa is still not settled in the area, but he has time to go out and party late night. I had to fine him two weeks wages for his behaviour. He accepted it though and said he'd behave. Dunno if I believe him.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Its a short contract because I had no room under the wage budget, I had no money for a signing on fee and he wouldn't accept any longer

[Ohanzee]

Ah man that's a blow. Hopefully he can help you back into Europe though. He's worth having, even if only for a season in my opinion.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Ah man that's a blow. Hopefully he can help you back into Europe though. He's worth having, even if only for a season in my opinion.

Well I managed to get a season extension on him, though it just blew out my wage budget even more, I am contemplating dumping some of my reserves and using my U19s as injury cover for my core 18 players. Hoping I can get those wages down lol. I also had Mateus get injured for 4 weeks before the season started which is not going to help.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Also had a good laugh at the Champions League Group Draw...check this out for a group of death...

Group E

[Ohanzee]

Brilliant LLR!

And that group. That could actually be the champions of 4 countries. A real Champions League group.

Selling reserves is good to make money. One of those kids I got for free in the summer for my reserve team, Sascha Jung. Celtic just came and offered me £325k + 50% of next sale for him. He's gone. He might be the next Michael Ballack for all I know, but money is money at this point. And I'm no fan of Ballack anyways

[Razer82]

Razer82 – Associacao Desporitvo de Fafe – Portuguese Liga Sagres – 2019/2020

Liga Sagres – Media Prediction – 3rd – Actual – 1st – Champions!

Portuguese Cup – Semi Final – Lost 7-5 to Benfica

Portuguese League Cup – Semi Final – Lost 4-1 to Sporting

Portuguese Super Cup – Runners Up – Lost 2-1 to Benfica

Champions League – 1st Knockout Round – Lost 7-1 on agg to Juventus

Team Stats

Transfers

Top Scorer: Jorge Acosta (19)

Top Assists: Adrian Vaquero (33)

After a championship season last year, the pressure was on to show that it wasn’t a fluke.

We started the season entering a new competition – the Super Cup against Cup winners Benfica & as usual we came off worse but only be a narrow margin.

In the league we played well, showing that one league title was not going to be a one off. A 6 game win streak opened the season before the inevitable fist loss came against Benfica. It would turn out that we’d only drop points all season against Benfica & Sporting. Our form against ever other side led us to retain our Liga Sagres title & guarantee our entry in the Champions League group stage for what will be the 3rd consecutive season.

We made good cup runs but were stopped short again by a combination of Sporting & Benfica. It’s going to take one of them knocking the other out for us to stand a chance of taking one of these trophies.

A good showing in the Champions League Group qualified us second behind Liverpool, despite heavy losses to them in both games. A good showing in the home tie with Juventus left me thinking we'd have a chance in Turin, but a dominant display from the home side sent us out 7-1 on agg. I think it's going to take some heavy investment in players for progress to be made.

I've got two more completed seasons to update on but may put those up in a shorter form to get everybody up to date.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

A very good season there Razer, I am delighted to see Fafe on top of the division. Have you managed to beat Benfica yet? Looking forward to see the next two seasons. Back to Back titles in Portugal is a feat that has not been managed yet.

[rlipscombe]

great progress Des, Ohanzee and Razer.... at least some of us are doing well!! some great signings too.

[ghostwriter]

Renato Curi Angolana - Serie C1/B - Christmas 2015

The first news of the Summer was that the board reduced our wage budget for the 2nd successive year, it is now down to about 70% of what it was 2 years ago. This clearly poses problems in signing new players. Hence I was very grateful that I had 5 of them already signed from January as in came an Argentinian D/WB/M L, 2 MCs (Dutch and Spanish), a Spanish AM/F C and a Senegalese FC. And with their arrival, the maximum I could offer a player was £100 p/w (except key player who had the honour of being offered £325 p/w), clearly there were loads of fantastic players lining up outside our ground wanting those wages .

Even when I had got rid of loads of players (more on that next) I still could not offer any more than that. In the end, I had to give up on any quality control and signed the only players willing to be paid that little; average youth released from Serie A, good enough as cheap backup and you never know they may turn into good players, and if they don't they can always go out on loan or be sold for a profit. 7 came in and so far, one has played 30 minutes and one other has been on the bench a couple of times.

On the way out went the usual useless youth, 2 out of contract players and £325k (and probably around £4k p/w wages) worth of players. Several weren't near the first team and were going to be sold no matter what (including a £70k youth striker I totally forgot I had!) but a couple I had to sell solely because of their wages; namely my best MC (Martins) from last year and Quintero (the Panamanian ST). They might have stayed otherwise.

So, for the 3rd year straight I have been severely compromised during the Summer transfer window (this Summer was by far the worst). The number of players I would have attempted to sign if I could have afforded their wages depresses me. As does the quality of the squad compared to what it could have been...

Anyway, the season started with the Serie C Cup where we remained unbeaten and only conceded 1 goal but 3 draws meant we did not qualify.

I was not that confidant as Sassuolo visited for the first game of the season and even less so when they took the lead after 6 minutes but thankfully they had a man sent off and we dominated from there on in. And we promptly won our next 2 matches as well, including (shock, horror) one away from home . We then visited newly-promoted Alto Adige and were beyond bad, we lost 0-3 and it could / should have been worse. We got back on track at home to Rimini before a 90th minute goal at Grosseto cost us a point. We were still up in the top 5.

Bassano were next to visit and we threw away more points as we dominated but they equalised with 10 men in the final 5 minutes. Another draw followed as we were slightly derailed. Thankfully it was now our turn to score a stupidly late goal as 91 minutes passed before we got a winner at home to Pisa. A snore-fest at Crotone was followed by some sudden form. We were mightily lucky at home to Spal as they totally and utterly dominated the first 45 minutes before we took the lead in injury time with our first shot of the whole match, 2 more in the 2nd half did for them. Mantova were dismissed with shocking ease 3-1 before a 3rd straight win took us to 3rd.

Things then got frustrating; a 2-0 lead at Celano was chucked away (draw), a dire match with a bad Monopoli side ended 1-1, Taranto equalised in the 93rd minute (2-2) and then Manfredonia equalised in the 89th f*&%^%g minute (2-2) . Not amused.

Anyway, this has all meant we are in a very promising 5th, 5 points off the lead. Really I should not complain about this as it is much better than I was expecting but complain I shall. The number of points we have thrown away has been incredible, I have counted and 7 have been lost in the last 5 minutes (even more annoyingly mainly against teams in the top 6 as well) and 13 from winning positions. Aaargh.

On the positive side, our improvement has mainly been down to our defense being a bit more solid and our new signings (the good ones) being, well, good. The only one that has not really done much yet is the Spanish AM/F C and that is mainly because my useless ST from last year who had a lot of potential is now showing this potential; top scorer with 9.

I can only really aim for keeping this playoff place, I reckon it might be possible if we stop conceding late equalisers and keep the core of the side fit.

[Ohanzee]

Congrats on another league title Razer82, well done. Know what you mean about the Juventus game. It's tough when you're dominating in the league but get crushed by the big European teams. But you'll get there. Or maybe you already have

Looking good ghostwriter. Good luck in the second half of the season.

I got done with my season last night, but I haven't had time to do a write-up today. Might wait until tomorrow. It's not overly exciting anyways, although we did win one trophy.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Evora's Mid Season Report

The League

Well the season had a little bit of a down start with only a draw managed against Nacional, but we followed that up with a 5 match unbeaten run which included a result vs Porto 2:0 which is the best victory we have so far. We then lost to Sporting and Academica after that, but have continued to sit between 4th & 6th, we currently are comfortably in 5th spot and hoping to improve if we can.

My Squad

League Table

Player Stats

Finances

The Future

Well looking forward I needed to cut wages, and as Guerra was taking in 4.3k a week I decided he was the one to go. He went for 1.7m to Chievo in Italy. I was happy with the price, and he was on his way. Though before he went he was a little bit confused as he wanted to stay, but he was also angry at not being allowed to leave.

Then there are a few players I am looking at to replace those whose contracts are up in the new year.

Ferhat Yildiz (DR) - Is a great looking replacement for Oier Torres, I would love Torres to stay, but he has been a poor performer this season, so I would most likely be dropping him to the bench behind Yildiz if I can get him.

Gabriel Bazan (MLC) - He would be joining a great battle in my midfield, but the addition of him alongside the core of Cabezas & Santos will be excellent for the team. He looks like he could be the superstar we need in the middle.

Pablo Roman (DC) - Another player being looked at for the strengthening of the backline, this guy I have been watching for about 2-3 years at Barcelona and been plotting him coming to the club. He will join the other two DC's I have in being almost unbeatable then.