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Ohanzee

Ohanzee

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Albion Rovers 2014/2015

1st in Scottish First Division (pred: 10th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph

The League

The season started amazingly with 8 wins in a row, almost like Deja Vu from last season. We then lost 3-0 at home to Raith, but I wasn't to concerned as we really deserved at least a draw. It took another 17 matches before our 2nd loss. By then we had a 10 point gap up top, and we never gave it away. Promotion!

Tbh, I'm shocked at how good we were. I guess last years Challenge Cup win wasn't just a fluke. We beat 3 First Division sides on our way to that trophy. I was just waiting for some sort of break down this season, but when we beat Iverness CT 6-0 in the League Cup I really began to believe. Iverness CT was the team to be promoted from this division last year, and they managed to stay in the Premier League (finishing 9th).

I think the major part of our amazing form was simply that the 1st elven was mostly the same as last year. Only 3 of the new signings played more than 20 games this season.

The Cups (Challenge Cup | League Cup | Scottish Cup)

I let our backup players take care of the Challenge Cup, and was slightly surprised to see them go on and defend the title. In the League Cup we were knocked out by Rangers, for the 3rd time in as many years. The Scottish Cup was the real shock as we lost to Cove Rangers, a non-league team. I scouted their entire squad (17 players) after the match and found out that most of them are 2nd and 1st division quality. How they can assemble such players in the non-league is beyond me.

The Players

Here's the overall squad stats.

Like I said it was mostly the same players as last year doing the business. Abbes, Blackman and Køhlert still providing lots of goals. My favorite is Victor Palsson though. I think he can do a great job in the Premier League. Paul McQuade also had another amazing season. I really should find some way to play him more often.

Of the new guys, the tree that played the most were James Howell, Lukasz Hanzel, and Tim Clancy. I also want to mention Spanish striker Denis, who joined in December. He didn't play many matches, but his goal ratio in those were amazing. Scouts say he can be a leading star in the Premier League, so I gave him a long term contract. Bit worried about his determination though, not sure he'll reach that potential.

The Finances

Made a profit again, but £228k in the bank isn't exactly Premier League quality. Although I'm not sure what exactly is Premier League quality in Scotland. The bottom Premier League teams don't seem to amazing tbh.

The Top Level

Celtic, Rangers, Dundee Utd. Heard it before? It's those 3 again. This time Dundee were a bit behind the two though (13p). Celtic reached the group stages of the Champions Cup, but didn't manage a single win in their group with Roma, Man Utd and Panthinaikos. Dundee Utd didnt even reach the group stages of the EURO Cup. Rangers however did ok and reached the 1st KO round of the EURO Cup before being hammered 6-0 by HSV over two matches.

I forgot to mention it last year, but the Scottish Premier League went down 5 spots in the rankings to 23rd. I'm not sure it will be much better after this years performances in Europe. In terms of qualification places for Europe Scotland is down to 17th, having just 1 Champions Cup qualifier, and 3 EURO Cup qualifiers.

The Future

Big news as the board announced the plans to move to a new stadium. Next summer we'll be moving into the Albion Rovers Stadium, with a capacity of 7,625. Not exactly the Rungrado May Day, but we're getting there, slowly. :rolleyes:

I'm hoping the club will turn professional now. That should make it possible to attract slightly better players. Hopefully we'll be able to scout a lot more as well. There's so many nations I'd love like to scout that we can't atm.

Goal of next season is obviously just to stay up.

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

[b]SEASON	LEAGUE	POS.	S-CUP		L-CUP		EUROPE		NOTES[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]11/12[/b]	S3D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s1tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	-		2nd round	-		Promoted
[b]12/13[/b]	S2D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s2tab.jpg"]5th[/url]	3rd round	3rd round	-		-
[b]13/14[/b]	S2D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s3tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	5th round	3rd round	-		Promoted. Won Challenge Cup.
[b]14/15[/b]	s1D	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s4tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	3rd round	3rd round	-		Promoted. Won Challenge Cup.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S-1/2/3-D - Scottish 1st/2nd/3rd Division


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

[b]Scottish First Division[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s4tab.jpg"]14/15[/url]
[b]Scottish Second Division[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s3tab.jpg"]13/14[/url]
[b]Scottish Third Division[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s1tab.jpg"]11/12[/url]

[b]Scottish Challenge Cup[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s3ccup.jpg"]13/14[/url], [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/NewAlbion/s4culC.jpg"]14/15[/url]

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minisav

minisav

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It took 13 competitive games but I have finally lost. Scottish League Cup 3rd Round at Ibrox against Rangers (obviously!) result 2-1 to them. Proud of my boys though. Into the Semi-Final of the Challenge Cup. Got my weakest opponent yet, Dumbarton from Division 2.

Top of the league after 7 games with 7 wins. Beat Montrose 2-0 so a cleansheet against the one and only Francis Jeffers.

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DizzyIzzyB13

DizzyIzzyB13

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I borrowed the format for this from Ohanzee. I hope you don't mind, it just seemed like a pretty clean and clear way of doing it...

A.C. Voghera 2011/2012

1st in Italian Serie C2/A (pred: 15th) | Transfers 1, 2 | Finances | Graph | Player Stats 1, 2

The League

Aside from the first game, we pretty much lead from start to finish. The hot start and the momentum generated from that was the key to success - 5 straight wins to open the season and holding ourselves unbeaten for the first 10 games created a platform from which we were never really knocked off. It was a tight league, and we were helped by the teams fighting for play-off spots knocking each other off to help us through some poor patches of form in the middle of the season. In particular, there was a stretch that started 2 games before the winter break and carried on for another 8 aterwards in which we won 2 drew 5 and lost 3 that I thought was the beginning of the end of our challenge. Fortunately, though, the teams behind us went through spells of indifferent form at the same time and we retained our lead, which we kept thanks to 6 wins in our last 8 games to secure the title with 2 left to play. The key game was a 5-2 victory over Rodengo. Rodengo had been the first team to beat us, and since then our form had been indifferent in the league. This win avenged that loss, and followed up a 3-1 win over play-off contenders Sacilese to put together our first back-to-back wins in the league in over 5 months, triggering the late run of form that ultimately secured the title.

The Cups (Italian Serie C Cup | Italian Serie C2 Super Cup)

The Serie C Cup is probably responsible for most of my success this season. After a bumpy pre-season in which I was assembling a squad and integrating them into my tactical system, victory in my first two group games really started the ball rolling on a strong run of 9 straight wins and 16 games without defeat in all competitions that really laid the foundation for the rest of the season to come. By the time we suffered our first defeat, We were through to the 3rd round, the second group stage of the competition. I'll admit to luck getting through this phase - we ended with an identical record to Barletta in this three team group, both beating Celano 2-1 and then drawing 2-2 at Barletta, and we squeaked through as a result of the Italian rules where teams are sorted based on results against teams, in which we were lucky enough to be the away team in our draw and thus went through on away goals. The semi-final was a tough tie against Cittadella, the only C1 team left in the competition. In the first leg, at my home ground, they jumped out to a 0-2 lead. We clawed them back, only for them to retake the lead in first alf injury time. The second half was much tighter, but we managed to scrape an equaliser to take the game back to their place at 3-3. With them holding a major advantage in terms of away goals, we put on a fantastic defensive display and managed to grab a 1-0 win, scoring with our only shot of a game in which we were thoroughly dominated. Them came the final. Matched with Atletico Roma, we again drew the first leg, this time 0-0 in a very tight, evenly matches game. The game went back to their place and in another tight game, we scored the only goal of the tie just before half time to take the tie and the cup.

After winning Serie C2/A, we qualified for the C2 Super Cup, where we faced off against Atletico Roma and Taranto, the winners of Serie C2/B and Serie C2/C respectively. Atletico Roma's performance was very similar to mine - we ended up with the same number of points (65) and they had a slight goal difference advantage of +25 compared to my +24, and our margins of victory were pretty similar (they won by 6 points to my 8). Taranto, on the other hand, won their league by 11 points, with 13 more than either of us and a +35 goal difference. Taranto, then, were the favorites for the cup, with a close battle expected between me and Atletico Roma for second place. The competition was going as expected for the first 54 or so minutes of the opening game, until Alessio Alberto Tombesi of Atletico Roma for a professional foul against us and we went goal crazy, blitzing them with 4 goals in the final 34 minutes to run out 4-0 winners in their own backyard. Then Taranto came to town, and things looked grim when they took a 4th minute lead. But the boys stormed back into it, with a Cilfone equaliser 6 minutes later and then the crushing blow of a fabulous strike across goal from Jean Silva seconds before half time. From there, we bagged another 2 goals in the second half and they grabbed an injury time consolation as we ran out 4-2 winners and took the cup. To add insult to injury, Taranto took an early lead again in the final dead rubber against Atletico Roma and blew that lead too, the strongest team of the regular season finishing bottom of the Super Cup table.

The Players

My player of the season was by far and away Matteo Cavagna. Second in average rating among regular players - David Rufo's 7.30 came from a single substitute appearance and Riccardo Corallo's 7.25 average beat him by 0.04 - Cavagna was also my second top scorer (11, behind Florian Myrtaj's 25), my assist leader (20) and joint 2nd in Man of the Match awards (with Myrtaj on 4, behind Corallo's 5). Cavagna's habit of providing or scoring goals at important times really made a difference for my team.

Ultimately, however, I'm not sure how many of my players will remain in my squad for next season. It wasn't a particularly strong or deep squad - Rufo and Emiliano Filippo were signed late in the season when I was running out of available players through suspension and injury and I gambled on spending the extra money in wages in order to keep my title challenge on track - and in order to improve my team, I may well have to make a lot of changes in order to balance the books.

The Finances

Finances are currently an issue. We're in the red, thanks largely to poor decision making on my part during the first transfer window, when I made a complete mess of it and ended up way over my transfer budget. I cut back, but never managed to get under budget. We're really quit fortunate that the board made a number of investments in the club, which have kept us going. I'll have to do a much better job of managing the money next season.

The Future

Given our success in the Serie C Cup last season, I feel that so long as the finances allow it, I can build on the success of the side from last season and aim to achieve a good finish that'll set me up for a title and/or promotion challenge next season. Clearly, though, one of the main aims will be to to a better job of recruitment and salary management in order to help the cliub's financial position.

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

[b]SEASON	LEAGUE	POS.	Notes[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]11/12[/b]	C2/A	[url=http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee69/DizzyIzzyB13/AC%20Voghera/2011-2012/SerieC2ATable.png]1st[/url]	Champions, Serie C Cup winners, Serie C2 Super Cup winners
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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

[b]Italian Serie C2/A[/b] - [url=http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee69/DizzyIzzyB13/AC%20Voghera/2011-2012/SerieC2ATable.png]11/12[/url]

[b]Italian Serie C Cup[/b] - [url=http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee69/DizzyIzzyB13/AC%20Voghera/2011-2012/SerieCCup.png]11/12[/url]

[b]Italian Serie C2 Super Cup[/b] - [url=http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee69/DizzyIzzyB13/AC%20Voghera/2011-2012/SerieC2SuperCup.png]11/12[/url]


[b][u][color=purple]MANAGER AWARDS[/color][/u][/b]

[b]Italian Serie C2/A Manager of the Year - [url=http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee69/DizzyIzzyB13/AC%20Voghera/2011-2012/SerieC2AManageroftheYEar.png]2011/2012[/url][/b]

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rlipscombe

rlipscombe

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There seems to be a few people with the same problem as you that's fixed it by installing the DirectX SDK. Have you tried that yet?

And, this is probably a total shot in the dark, but have you tried disabling sound? Maybe some of the sound clips played during games are causing the crash dumps. Probably not, but worth a shot.

i've already got sound disabled... i think i've tried the DirectX SDK but i'll definately give it another go. probably be the weekend now and i'll soldier on for now.

thanks for trying!!

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Ohanzee

Ohanzee

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DizzyIzzyB13 - I don't mind at all. Everything I do in my update is inspired by someone else posting in here the last few years as well. It's one of the reasons I like it here. Always so many good updates to read. That and the great atmosphere. Never any negativity. :)

Great season you had to. Gonna fill up that trophy cabinet in no time. :thup:

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Ohanzee

Ohanzee

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Albion Rovers Pre-season 2015/16

First things first, the players. Having hired 3 new scouts, making it 9 in total, and being able to send them to all of Europe, if found myself in a bit of trouble. The board gave me a wage budget of £7,75k. That was already £600 below what we were currently spending on wages, and meant I could only offer £100 a week to key players. Obviously not good enough attract anyone of interest.

So, I did what any good humanitarian would do. I sacked 30 teenagers. They were all on £30 a week wages and completely lacking talent. I also decided to sell Nick Blackman and Borja to free up over £1k more in the wage budget. Blackman might be a bit of a loss, especially having gone to Hearts, but life must go on. So far he's rotting in the Hearts reserve team. Makes no sense, but I'll let them run their club the way they want to.

With that done, I could now offer £675 a week, and these are the new signings:

Sanchez Watt (AMR/SC) - This was a deal I already made when Cove Rangers knocked us out of the Scottish Cup. Watt was the MoM in that match and my scouts said he could be a good Premier League player. Probably won't be a first choice, but hopefully he can be useful.

Torben Hansen (AMR) - The first player my Scandinavian scout came back with from Denmark. Released by Aab, and he looks bloody brilliant compared to what we got.

Sam Vardy (SC) - Arsenal reject who will hopefully fill the void of Blackman. I think he looks better.

Pablo (MC) - Released by Castilla (the Real Madrid 2nd/3rd/4th? team). Should be a great partner for Palsson.

Johnny Bech (DC) - Also released by Aab of Denmark, so he knows Hansen. Look how tall he is, 200cm!! I'm expecting Hansen to hit his head a few times with his corner taking ability.

Massimilano Niero (AMLC/SC) - Finally we can scout Italy. Niero was released by Bologna, and he's already managed to get a Player of the Month award. Sadly he's also already injured for 2 months and will be seeing a specialist.

That's it. It pains me to look at some of the players my scouts are finding right now and not be able to offer them more than £50 a week. My board really are strict. We have £1.1M in the bank right now, so I really don't see why we can't spend more than £8k a week in wages.

Having a quick look at the top teams as well. Celtic spent £9.75M on new players. Their best payed player is still Welbeck at £31.5k. That's almost 4 times our entire budget on one player. Rangers only spent £2.5M, but they also got Abou Diaby (ex-Arsenal) on a free transfer. Their highest earners are Allan McGregor and Itay Shechter, who are both getting £40k a week. Our brand new main kit sponsor deal is £24k a year. Theirs is £4.2M. :rolleyes:

So obviously we got some way to go. But so far David is kicking Goliats ass. We hammered Rangers 4-2 in the first game of the season. They got a player sent off after 13' minutes, but I honestly think they should be beating us even with 8 men, so I'm delighted. :thup:

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minisav

minisav

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A little bit annoyed. 11 games in I've won 11 so top by at least 9 points.

The annoying part is I took all my players who were a yellow card away from suspension in the cup out of the squad for the semi-final, I win so I have a full team for the final. Then the game before the final influential midfielder Lima gets injured :/

Up must step Falkingham who scored IRL for Arbroath recently.

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iacovone

iacovone

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i agree Ohanzee. he atmosphere and the spirit in this thread is the best bar none! it's great to have so many new players this year too.

Amen! Couldn't get on tonight but I should get some time in over the weekend. Bad luck Bretteny - hope you give Russia another go!

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brettney1980

brettney1980

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Brettney's Russian Adventure; Take Two!

Profile

Club FC Chita

ChitaLogo.png

The club was founded in 2006 as a result of reorganization of FC Lokomotiv Chita which was excluded from the First Division. FC Chita was immediately admitted to the Second Division.

Chita (Russian: Чита) is a city and the administrative center of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia It stands at the confluence of the Chitinka and Ingoda Rivers and on the Trans-Siberian Railway, c. 900 kilometers (559 mi) east of Irkutsk. Chita's population was estimated at 308,500 in 2001[citation needed]. According to the 2002 Census its population was 316,643.[1]

The city is the headquarters of the Siberian Military District. It is served by Chita Kadala Airport and the Chita Northwest air base.

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Almondo

Almondo

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SV_Wuppertaler.png

Season review 2013/14 - Wuppertaler SV Borussia

League - 1st

The league basically went perfectly. With 4 games to go I had secured promotion with a 3 way battle for the top spot going on up until that point with ourselves, 1860 Munchen and Karlsruhe battling it out before Karlsruhe fell out of the race. So with only two teams able to win the title the league went down to the final day wih us only needing a point to win the league. Fortunatly we got the draw annd wrapped up the title.

All in all this season has been absolutely brilliant. We managed to confound the critics who were slating us for a maximum of a mid table finish which was initially what I'd said I could achieve (rather conservative really). Now the hard work begins for next seasons 1st division challenge.

German Cup - Quarter Final Exit

1st round away @ Sachsen Leipzig

2nd Round home vs Wolfsburg

3rd round home vs Kaiserslauten

Qtr Final home vs Leverkusen

So after the giant killings of Wolfsburg and Kaiserslauten, Leverkusen were just too much for little Wuppertaler and it was one step too far. However the run was far more than the boardf wanted as they just wanted a second round appearance.

Transfers

A generous budget of £230k was given to me enabling me to buy in at least one good player however most signings were free's again with most of the budget being exchanged for wage budget. However with the board allowiing me to change expectations again they also added more budget so I could spend if needed.

Finances

Once again the finances were boosted by competition prize money which put us well into the black.

Key Players

Badri Akubardiya. This young player was sent to us on loan by Parent Club Bochum in January. He made the left back spot his own from joining us until leaving. He also filled in on the right when needed.

Daniel Halke. The first of my starting cnetre back pairing. He was very assured all season and worked very well with Rigione.

Michele Rigione. Halke's partner. When he was back there with Halke they made a great team, however when one was missing the CB's didn't do a lot.

Luca Siligardi. the most impressive of my Midfielders all season long. Played on the right all year as I brought in a very good portuguese Left winger.

Juho Makela. Makela was the top scorer in the league this season. Scoring 21 goals is a team record as well.

Tomasz Chalas. Makela's strkie partner pushing Patrick Derdak out of the first team. Chalas didn't score many but he was very important for his assists and running this year.

One's for the future

3 players this season all brought in from outside the club but they will hopefully be worth it.

Mike Wagner. Wagner is a good young player. Having brought him in from Gladbach for £30k he started repaying it early with 7 goals in 11 games.

Fillipo Rocca. Another young Itallian. I have high hopes that he'll soon overtake both of my current central midfielders along with Ricaro Dias.

Ricardo Dias. Dias was brought in primarily to help another portuguese player settle in Germany. I do however harbour hopes of him being dominant with Rocca in years to come.

other news

Juho Makela goot the Top Goalscorer with 21.

I was named Manager of the Year.

Two players named in the Team of the Year.

Season      Division       position        Acheivements
---------------------------------------------------------
11/12      German 3rd       2nd            Promotion
12/13      German 2nd       5th            None
13/14      German 2nd       1st            Champions

Major Competiton winners

Champions League - FC Bayern (under the management of the Wally with a Brolly, Steve McClaren)

Europa League - Real Madrid

World Cup - Croatia. They beat Ghana in the final with Portugal getting furthest of the bigger nations. They played in the 3rd place playoff.

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DennisIran

DennisIran

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Turkish First divison play off time

4 teams! 1 group, 3 games! Can i ? Will i? Get promoted to the turkish premier division? This was my first year in the first divison and i ended up 6th! what a miracle it would be if i got promoted ! :O now we just have to wait and see what happens!

WON THE 2 first game now its the last game! Me vs Siirtspor! We have both won our games but they have scored 2 goals more than me so i have to win this game!

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brettney1980

brettney1980

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Turkish First divison play off time

4 teams! 1 group, 3 games! Can i ? Will i? Get promoted to the turkish premier division? This was my first year in the first divison and i ended up 6th! what a miracle it would be if i got promoted ! :O now we just have to wait and see what happens!

WON THE 2 first game now its the last game! Me vs Siirtspor! We have both won our games but they have scored 2 goals more than me so i have to win this game!

Good Luck DennisIran

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DennisIran

DennisIran

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Think it's going to be a hard season but with some of the signings I've made especially Yakubu (Yes the Everton one) I hope we're good enough to stay up.

Almondo it will be hard! Trust me i thought i was going to rule the top divison played my first game lost 1-0 with 3 shots total and 2 on goal :p will take a miracle for me to qualify for europa leauge now in the turkish leauge!

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Almondo

Almondo

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Almondo it will be hard! Trust me i thought i was going to rule the top divison played my first game lost 1-0 with 3 shots total and 2 on goal :p will take a miracle for me to qualify for europa leauge now in the turkish leauge!

Oh I don't think I'm going to dominate the league for at least a couple of years. The only aim for me is Avoiding Relegation which meant basically stretching the budget of £4 million I was given for transfers into loads of money. Also utilising the free market again. I have a scout in the UK and did try and sign Bendtner, Joe Cole and Denilson on frees before bring Yakubu in. I also got Man Utd's prospect Paul Pogba from a german club.

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LennyBernstein

LennyBernstein

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DizzyIzzyB13 - great first season!

Ohanzee - looks like you've got a financial challenge and a half on your hands. Still, if you can beat Rangers with your meagre resources, Scotland won't know what's hit it when you finally get some cash!

Brettney - good luck man!

Almondo - very solid season dude. Good luck with the Bundesliga. Hope Yakubu does a job for you...

Meanwhile, I've just scraped into the third and final promotion spot in Ligue 2, so I'll be looking forward to a Ligue 1 challenge next season. Review coming shortly...

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PRDH

PRDH

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Wow! Some great seasons starting to roll in now. Of course, if it weren't for the Spanish bug I'd be Champions by now. Erm.....

I'm halfway through the second attempt at the Kickers, it's actually going a bit better, I'm sitting in 8th.

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PRDH

PRDH

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WOOT GOT PROMOTED ! :D after 7 years with no transfermoney and only being able to sign FREE TRANSFERS i will start getting some moneeey!!!

nooope no money i fooled my self! XD still no transfer money for the new season! So yeah free transfers once again!

I don't wish to sound like a broken record. But when you do the end of season review could you post some screenshots (at least league and transfers as the opening post states).

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LennyBernstein

LennyBernstein

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Red_Star_Paris_logo.PNG

2014/15 - Red Star Football Club 93 - Ligue 2, France

Transfers - 10 IN (£2.4m) & 13 OUT (£4.1m)

My immediate challenge of pre-season was keeping hold of Abdoulaye, my key central defender who had played so well last season. Unfortunately, the Board took matters out of my own hands by accepting a £1.6m offer for him, and as a result the ungrateful bugger left me for FC Salzburg. His performances were distinctly average for Salzburg this season, which pleased me no end!

Still, that left me with a similar amount to play with in terms of my transfer budget, and the Board also gave my salary budget a hefty rise to around £80k. 8 of my signings were promising youth players, including Juan Fernando Vazquez, a 19 year old left winger who I smashed my transfer record for, shelling out £1.1m. But I also brought in a bit of experience too - I bought veteran central defender Bobby Boswell on a free to replace the hole left by Abdoualye, and Richard Soumah, a tricky 28 year-old winger, also on a free. Both were outstanding this season (see below).

League - 3rd (Predicted 16th) | Graph

This was far from a straightforward season. Predicted to struggle, we certainly did to begin with. In our first four games we lost two and drew two, which left me contemplating the sack and new challenges in Russia or Spain. But we somehow clicked into gear soon after, and slowly began our rise up the table. With around 12 games to go we were top and if we'd carried on our form we'd have walked it. However, my boys certainly didn't want to make it easy. Perhaps it was my insistence on blooding some of the promising but inexperienced youngsters, but we struggled to maintain our challenge. Four straight draws in February and March meant we were now out of the promotion places.

With two games remaining we needed 4 points to guarantee promotion. Our penultimate fixture saw us play away to league leaders FC Nantes. A win for us would have given us a shot at winning the title. But we blew it. FC Nantes won 2-1, and we faced the ignominy of watching them lift the championship trophy. So, it was all down to the last game. We were third, with AS Nancy Lorraince breathing hard down our necks just one point behind. This time the lads held themselves together, running out 3-0 winners, which meant we retained our third place (second place FC Metz also won). It was all academic in the end because Nancy lost anyway, but it was nice to get the victory and ease the nerves. So there we are, a hard-fought promotion. Phew...

French Cup - 11th Round

As with seasons past we used the cup competitions to give fringe and youth players some experience. The youngsters did us proud this season, taking us to the 11th Round, our best achievement yet under my management. We eventually went out to our parent club, Ligue 1 team Lilles.

Coupe de la Ligue - 3rd Round

We did better than last year, getting to the 3rd Round, although we were disappointed to go out to fellow Ligue 2 team Montpellier at home in the 3rd Round. Again, good experience for the youngsters though...

Key Players

Yannick Sagbo. Sagbo was once again our star this season. Without him I'm sure we would not have got close to promotion. He achieved a league best average rating of 7.52, scored 18 goals (2nd top scorer in the league) and contributed 12 assists (5th best in the league). If that wasn't enough, he also won the Ligue 2 Player's Player of the Season Award and the Ligue 2 Player of the Year Award.

Big Bobby Boswell. Brought in to replace Abdoulaye in central defence, Boswell was a revelation. His experience has been invaluable, tutoring one our promising youngsters and keeping the defence steady. He's averaged 7.38 in the league (the 3rd highest) and has been lethal with his head at corners and set pieces, scoring 11 goals in all competitions. Signed on a free he's now worth £1.1m. My decision in pre-season will be whether to cash in before he declines...

Iker Vallejo. At the other end of the age spectrum, Iker Vallejo is an 18 year old who is already showing he'll be a great successor to Big Bobby in central defence. He got the third best average in our team this season and is just one of many fine youth players we've now got in the squad.

Juan Fernando Vazquez. Another very promising youngster is 19 year-old Vazquez, our big money pre-season signing. Whilst he often only featured as a substitute, he really shone when he played, getting an average of 7.28. He's a great winger already, but even better, he is a fantastic set-piece taker.

Richard Soumah. Unfortunately for Vazquez, another new signing, Richard Soumah, has been keeping him out of the side. I've been searching for a great winger since the start of the challenge and Soumah certainly fits the bill. He's slotted brilliantly into the side this season, scoring some fantastic individual goals and tormenting full-backs up and down France.

One for the future

Eduardo Aizpura. In the last update, I singled out Aizpura as one for the future. He spent the season on loan last year, but this season I gave him some first team opportunities. In the cup competitons he was fantastic, but has been mostly a sub in league games. He'll need more starts if he is to fulfill his potential - a difficult ask with Sagbo leading the line - but I'll be looking for him to get more involved for sure.

Finances - Zut Alors!

Well, I was feeling rather chuffed about my financial acumen this season. At the season close we had about £350k in the bank, having made over £400k of profit for the season. So I was rubbing my hands together thinking the Board would be able to accomodate a few new transfers to help me in our battle against relegation n Ligue 1. Only a couple of days later, however, the Board announced plans to expand the stadium from 10,000 to 17,000. Not only is this optimistic thinking (we average around 4000 at the moment), it means we are now over £8m in debt! In the words of Mick Hucknall, "money's too tight to mention."

Other News

In other news, I won the Ligue 2 Manager of the Season award. This was especially nice/surprising considering other managers vote for this award - I thought I'd offended half of them in my outbursts to the media!

Next Season Ambitions

1. Avoid relegation

2. Hope for a financial windfall

3. Keep hold of my key players

Season	League		Position 	Cup	 	League Cup	Europe 	Other Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/12	French National	9th		10th Rnd	n/a		n/a	n/a
2012/13	French National	1st		10th Rnd	n/a		n/a	n/a
2013/14	Ligue 2		11th		9th Rnd		1st Rnd		n/a	n/a
2014/15	Ligue 2		3rd		11th Rnd	3rd Rnd		n/a	Manager of the Year

PS Any Mac users out there? I need some help on getting these damn code tables straight!

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Ohanzee

Ohanzee

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brettney1980 - Good luck with Lokomotiv Chita!

Almondo - Congrats on promotion, well done! :thup: Hope you can get a couple of those big names, would be a big boost I'm sure. I have faith you'll stay up either way.

DennisIran - Congrats on promotion. :thup: (I have to agree with PRDH though. Would appreciate at least a couple of screenshots of table/transfers at the end each season).

LennyBernstein - Congrats on promotion! :thup: (Now I sound like a broken record). That £8M debt should be restructured into a loan soon enough so I wouldn't worry to much. As for your code-trouble, I pasted it here. You could try coping it from there and see if you can work with that. Don't have a Mac, so can't help you directly I'm afraid.

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LennyBernstein

LennyBernstein

Posted
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Put it in TextEdit, go to Format and select "Make Plain Text"

You're a legend SnakeXe, that's sorted it perfectly!

Ohanzee - thanks for the suggestion too. The debt hasn't been restructured yet, but at least I have been a rise in the wage budget to accomodate promotion-related wage increases...

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Ohanzee

Ohanzee

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Albion Rovers are doing far better than expected in the Premier League. In fact we're likely to be top half when the league splits into two groups.

Our board is still refusing to increase the wage budget, even though we're now sitting on a healthy £1.8M bank balance. It's a joke really. Spending £8k a week on wages with almost £2M in the bank. They wouldn't even let me change my season expectations in January as they often do when you're doing well. And it's really becoming a problem. I have 15+ players contracts running out at the end of this season, and I can't offer them new deals because my board will only let me offer half of their current wages. And since contracts in Scotland run out 31st of May, 20 days before the season update, I won't get a better budget before that.

Trying my best to offer sign-on fees and bonuses to work around it, but so far only a few have accepted. Some are even angry that contract negotiations have broken down. I wish there was a "It's not my fault, it's the bloody cheap monkeys sitting in the offices above us!!" option in personal conversations. :p

Anyways, we'll still be in the Premier League next year. That's for sure. And the new stadium of 7,625 capacity will be like heaven compared to the current 1,238. We're filling up every match atm as well, so hopefully that will help next years wage budget.

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Lower Leagues Rule

Lower Leagues Rule

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PRDH :) im going to do it now every season when im here in the premier division. The turkish second division and first division aint anything speciall and i havent had any money to do anythings its only been playing games and games changing tactics and more games!

It may be nothing, but it is part of the challenge, and since you started we have not seen a single Screenshot and it is stated in the rules that minimum is a starting Managers Profile, followed by at least transfers and a table every season.

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DennisIran

DennisIran

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It may be nothing, but it is part of the challenge, and since you started we have not seen a single Screenshot and it is stated in the rules that minimum is a starting Managers Profile, followed by at least transfers and a table every season.

Oh didnt see that about transfers and table every season. :O I only postes my manager profile in the beginning!

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Ohanzee

Ohanzee

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Wow! That's good news. Now. Important question. Do I go back to Pajara Playas or continue with the Kickers? What do you guys all think?

I'd go back to Spain myself, you seemed to be on the way to something great there. But you'll probably have a great game with Kickers if you stay there to. I only played Spain before of the two, so I guess I'm biased. It feels real good when you finally knock Real and Barca off their throne. :D

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PRDH

PRDH

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I'd go back to Spain myself, you seemed to be on the way to something great there. But you'll probably have a great game with Kickers if you stay there to. I only played Spain before of the two, so I guess I'm biased. It feels real good when you finally knock Real and Barca off their throne. :D

I think I'll probably try and finish both now I've started them. I might go back to Spain for a bit, see how it goes.

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DennisIran

DennisIran

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Season Reviews! Team Keciörengucu! Short summary cause i didn't do this. Will do bigger reviews from now on!

Season 2011/2012 Table 10th, Transfers

Season 12/13 Table 10th, Transfers

Season 13/14 Table 7th, Transfers

Season 14/15 Table 14th, Transfers

Season 15/16 Table 10th, Transfers

Season 16/17 Table 1th, Transfers

Season 17/18 Table 6th Playoff spot!, Playoff Winner, Transfers

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