Gundo's FM11 European Adventure Challenge™

[noikeee]

Excellent first season there Icelander. I'm having the same finances problem in Croatia, kept a gap below the wage budget but from the first month it is clear we're going to end up the season in the red, possibly somewhere between 100K and 200K euros. The difference is that you already have a plan to get over it which is to be promoted, whereas from my first matches it looks like I'm going to struggle big time not to get relegated! Also most of my team is old guys on 2-year contracts (everyone refused to sign for 1 season only) so I'm not sure there's potential to improve next year unless I start paying even more players!

[Icelander83]

Know the feeling! I cut some deadwood after the season. Well, I say cut some deadwood but the only players who had expiring contracts were players who weren't playing for me. Quite a handy situation. Now I've looked into loaning players in, trying to keep the wages down a bit, even though I know that will bloody well fail as usual

[B.W.G]

Now that I'm allowed to manage at international level, Holland approached me and I accepted, their last manager was sacked even though they came top of their world cup qualifying group. My 1st 2 games are against Tunisia and South Africa. Lets hope I don't lose

[Icelander83]

Hah, what a great start to the second season

First I forget that I didn't have an assman when the first season's friendlies were made so my current assman isn't set to arrange friendlies. I notice this 10 days before my first match, hastily arrange a couple of friendlies and go unfit into the first match which is away in the cup.

5 minutes gone, my loanee winger/striker is sent off for kicking an opponent and we are 1-0 down at half time. We don't manage a single shot on target throughout the game and are out of the cup

That puts a real dampener on my expectations for the season

[Twellman24]

Welsh Premiership - 2019/20

Tranfers: The only signing was Natan Collins, an English striker from Brockenhurst. He was on a trial at Llanelli, they dismissed him, so we took him under our wing. I hope he becomes bitter of our rivals and destroys them throughout the years BWAHAHAHA

- Won our fifth league overall as a club (all under my management), and the fourth in a row. This year, it was a bit easier. Llanelli was the only one who kind of gave us a bit of a run for our money. Nothing too concerning though. We finished the overall season without a loss in our last 24 games. Lee Barnard retired from professional football by scoring twice in the 2-3 win at Llanelli, what a way to say goodbye. He is now part of our staff.

- We also broke Llanelli's record of most points in one season; form 73 to 78. Bam.

Table

Loosemores Cup

- We beat Barry Town, Cwmbran, and Haverdfordwest (8-4 on aggregate) to get to the final, which we won by beating Bangor 4-3 on overtime, on a game that was very entertaining for the thousand fans which saw us.

Welsh Cup

- This was the one that we wanted the most, since we have never won it before. We beat Cwmbran again on the first round, TNS in the second round, and went over to the semifinal by beating Barry Town 3-0. Bangor suffered again by losing to us in final stage; we won on penalties after the 2-2 score, to go onto the final. Aberyswyth, not even on European playoffs, counted on the final to the Euro Cup. We did win the Cup on a 2-0 score, which was one of my favorite moments of my career. We officially have all the silverware we could possibly have in Wales.

Champions League

- Albanian BESA was in theory a weak rival (all grays). We tied 1-1 over there, and took the score home expecting to get through without much trouble. In a game that caused me to replace my South African goalkeeper for Bridges the rest of the season, the Albanians score five goals in four shooting attempts, and we lost 3-5. It was a frustrating and unbelievable game.

In other news

Stats

- Angeli continues to rip it and was top scorer with 32 goals, 24 in league. The young Collins started his Afan career with 18 goals in all competitions, and also being lead assistant with 17, the perfect complement for Angeli.

- I am now the second best manager to ever manage in Wales, with a mere one league title away from Llanelli's manager. Andy Legg has one more league title than I do, the same Wales Cups, but I have one more Loosemores Cup

- Scottish Kerr was player of the year from the midfield. Young Niang was young player of the year. We have now dominated these two awards for three years in a row. Eight players were named in the team of the year, and I was of course manager of the same.

- Season passes - 33, same than last year.

- Attendance - 160 in average, 2 more than last year.

- Club's value - £2m - £600k more than last year.

- Match/Season ticket - £7/£55 - £+1.5/2 more than last year.

- The league is...58 places up, to 177th, still one star, but 20 spots short of one and a half!

- The club is now 306th.

- Aims for next season:

1. To win our fifth league in a row and to take over Andy Legg's spot as best manager ever in Wales.

2. To, for the third year in a row, have a TNS manager sacked after playing with us

3. It is crucial to at least go through one CL round so, in case of losing, we can go to the Euro Cup rounds.

4. Have the board finally improving our mediocre, mediocre young facilities already.

2011/12 - Welsh Premiership - 9th 39p - 4th round Welsh Cup - Loosemores Cup Champions!

2012/13 - Welsh Premiership - 6th 44p - QF Welsh Cup - QF Loosemores Cup - Manager of the Year!?!

2013/14 - Welsh Premiership - 1st 70p - Semis Welsh Cup - QF Loosemores Cup - Manager of the Year!

2014/15 - Welsh Premiership - 2nd 61p - 3rd Round Welsh Cup - QF Loosemores Cup

2015/16 - Welsh Premiership - 2nd 65p - Finalist Welsh Cup - Finalist Loosemores Cup - Manager of the Year...yay.

2016/17 - Welsh Premiership - 1st 61p - 4th Round Welsh Cup - QF Loosemores Cup - Manager of the Year

2017/18 - Welsh Premiership - 1st 65p - QF Welsh Cup - 1st round Loosemores Cup - Manager of the Year

2018/19 - Welsh Premiership - 1st 68p - QF Welsh Cup - Final Loosemores Cup

2019/20 - Welsh Premiership - 1st 78p - Welsh Cup Winner! - Loosemores Cup Winner! - Manager of the Year!

PS: And the CL round rival is...BATE Borisov. The team which beat us on away goals tow years ago, when Angeli got injured after 15 minutes in the second league. It's revenge time.

[XaW]

Lower Maze FC - Season 2013/14 - Northern Irish First Division

League Table - Transfers - Finances - Squad

A season much better than expected. We early on got some good points, and almost keept Carrick's pace for a while. After a while we were some points clear of the other teams and could concentrate on getting enough points to make sure they couldn't catch us since Carrick were running away. Defensivly we were rock solid and were the team in the league who conceded the fewest goals. However we did have some problems scoring enough, so we won loads of games 1-0. Still we managed a surprising promotion and are in the top flight next season, although it might be hard to stay there. We are gonne need a revamp of the squad if we are going to have a snowballs chance in hell to stay up. Some players might have the potential to do a good job though, like Martin Donnelly and Curtis Allen.

In the cups we finally had some success as we won two of them. The first final of the season we lost, however. In the Northern Irish League Cup we lost the final to Donegal Celtic. We got our first trophy in the Northern Irish Intermediate Cup when we beat Dungannon Reserves in the final. The success was copied in the last final of the season when we won the Mid Ulster Cup after beating Amargh United in the final on pens. In the final cup of the season we lost out to Larne in the quarter finals.

Still no increase in seasontickets, and not much increase in average attendance, which means finances are going steady downhill. Hopefully, we might get some more people to watch us to help out our finances, otherwise we got a serious problem.

Season   Division   Position   Points   Season tickets  C.League  Europa    Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/12   Second      8th        42          27          N/A      N/A      Avoided Relegation
2012/13   Second      2nd        59          27          N/A      N/A      Promotion
2013/14   First       2nd        45          27          N/A      N/A      Promotion, 2 cup victories

[Twellman24]

Chronicles of the unluckiest manager in the world, chapter I don't know which number anymore:

So we have BATE again in the CL round; we win the first leg home. 1-0.

We go onto the second leg. Two days before, two starting defenders injured for a couple of months.

The game starts. We hit the post in the first minute. We miss a penalty in the first twenty minutes.

They score. Angeli scores, and we're 1-1. They need two goals.

They score one without shooting, they score the 3-1 on the 85th minutes. Own goal.

That is all.

[sheeshy]

Here we go, with Abbey Villa, of Northern Ireland

[Kazpeer]

I am on holiday now. I decided to do this in Wales

[The Art of Drowning]

Season 3 - Salthill Devon - Irish Premier Division - 3rd

League Table

Transfers

I knew that we needed an overhaul of our squad to avoid another struggle so I did just that in the transfer market, the likes of Almeida and Russell were the success stories. Flood was a dissapointment as he banged them in for Bohemians.

Key Players

John Russell

Some much needed creativity in the middle, was also deadly from set pieces.

Rafael Cretaro

A flying winger who likes to cut in and score a few himself, quite good in the hair for his height too.

Mauro Almeida

Might seem that our scouts have been working further afield but he was already playing in Ireland, very solid centre back..

Shamrock were quite comfortabley better than us so I think we could do with a few more big signings, already clinched a massive signing with former Spurs midfielder Jamie O'Hara coming in to bolster our midfield

[Quackje]

The extended version of this thread is now live, if you feel like playing in one of the other European leagues that requires a custom league head on over to the extended version. Enjoy your small club to big club adventures anywhere in Europe, so long as its small

[Thebaker]

Made a reasonable start after 7 games of the season sitting midtable, but in every press conference after a game i get asked about my decision to leave out several key players. All my key players were in the squad picked or injured, its just beginning to annoy me, anyone else had this problem?

[B.W.G]

Going to take a break from this save. I want to do some of the others challenges but none the less my Bridgend save is backed up and I will keep track of everyones progress

[noikeee]

Lolwut? Only something like this could possibly save my club. Currently sitting 15th after 12 games played - 13th is the place we need, it's 4 points above in the table...

[Quackje]

A very strange choice for the tycoon to make

[charlo116]

Ok i'm starting in Ireland with Tralee Dynamos.

Profile

[Icelander83]

Well now, after that ridiculous start to the season we are on the straight and narrow. 9 games into the league season and we are leading the table, scoring quite a few goals and not conceding that many. Slight tactical tweaks are really giving the desired effect and everything's rosy so far. My main striker, who scored 9 in 24 league games last season, has now scored 9 in 9 On the down side, the Brazilian I brought in to share the load with him has not performed at all and is resigned to the subs bench, goalless so far.

One rule I want to ask you guys if you know anything about: The Greek second division has a limit of 2 non-EU players in the starting line-up. I have 2 in the first 11, one on the bench. I can't bring the one off the bench unless I take one of the other 2 off as I get a message about only being able to have 2 in the starting line-up. Is this like this in real life or is this a bug?

[Tomaldinho]

Bohemians Prague – Season Review 2017/2018

For the first time ever, we had a quiet summer and made zero signings as I trusted the youthful squad that I have built up over the past few seasons. It almost all came together and we looked excellent going into the winter break.

League – Another 3rd place finish is an excellent result but we really should have won the league. We were unstoppable in the first half of the year but the winter break came at the wrong time for us and we lost all momentum. Two consecutive defeats after the break put the brakes on our title bid and from then on it was a case of massive inconsistencies in performance from game to game. Still, we have met the board’s expectations which is the key here.

Europe – The second qualifying round wasn’t where I expected to start but that’s where the bigwigs put us so we travelled to Macedonia and won both legs. A similar story in the third round set up a tie against Sturm Graz. Somehow we managed an away win and drew the return leg and moved onto the big stage. In the group we had an excellent start with an away win in Aachen and we were extremely unlucky to lose against Braga. We got a point out of the two games with Villa and then drew with Aachen in a game we should have won. It was essentially all over by the time we travelled to Braga and they dominated us from start to finish. However, we did okay in our first European outing and we shocked Europe by even qualifying for the group. Villa went on to lose the final so to even get close to them is a sign that we deserve to be here.

Players – The season came to a grinding halt in the latter stages as we lost several key players to injury and we couldn’t cope without them. This has taught me a few things about the squad though so improvements will be made. Michal Hubnik is proving to get better with age but 18 of his 21 goals were scored before the winter break and before his breakdown to poor morale. Mitrovic looks to be capable of stepping up and scored well in the latter stages of the season and is one to keep an eye on next year. I’ll have to find a suitable partner for him as we are running low in that department. Former hero Elton is almost running on empty but still scored 11 in 34 games and has been rewarded with another one year extension.

Next season – We’ll bulk up the squad wherever possible, I’ve been looking for a goalkeeper for two years now but can’t find anyone better then my mediocre options. It’ll be another three months of fending off the big guns from our star youth players so the fun and games await once more.

Season        Division          Position  Pohár ČMFS      Europe          Achievements 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/2012     Druhá Liga        11th      3rd Round       N/A             N/A
2012/2013     Druhá Liga        2nd       2nd Round       N/A             Promoted
2013/2014     Gambrinus Liga    6th       Final           N/A             N/A
2014/2015     Gambrinus Liga    5th       4th Round       N/A             N/A
2015/2016     Gambrinus Liga    5th       2nd Round       N/A             N/A
2016/2017     Gambrinus Liga    3rd       4th Round       N/A             Qualified for Euro Cup
2017/2018     Gambrinus Liga    3rd       Semi Final      EC Group Stage  Qualified for Euro Cup

[B.W.G]

Tomaldinho-another good season in the Czech Republic, hope you continue to improve in Europe

Charlo116- Welcome to the challenge and good luck in Ireland

[Icelander83]

This is going to be an absolute nerve killer of a season /o\ 18 games of 34 played and this is how it stands at the top:

1. Niki Volou - 38 points, 39/19 for/con

2. Larisa - 36 points, 38/17 for/con

3. Giannina - 36 points, 33/19 for/con

4. Panionios - 35 points, 30/21 for/con

We've scored in (iirc) 20 games running which tells you a lot about the progress my tactics have made. Lost only 2 games in the league this season, unfortunately one was against Giannina and we only drew the home game against Larisa. The players I've got in on loan are doing okay, even though only one of the five actually holds a regular first team spot.

Amazing how many more games one plays in a session when things are going well

[Tomaldinho]

Thanks B.W.G., we've failed in Europe this time around as we didn't get a lucky draw in the final qualifying stage. I'll have to do better in the league to ensure we get a seeding next year. Good luck in Scotland, I'll hopefully be following you into that thread before too long

Good luck in the second half of the season, Icelander83... I am sure you're nerves will survive if you keep up that scoring record

[Icelander83]

No doubt, having two players who I'm very confident will score at least one goal in a game is very relaxing The fact that I'm no longer playing a very defensive tactic and hoping for a goal from individuals but rather playing more positive football and creating team goals also does wonders for me

[cookie15]

Quick update on Skjetten and their progress!

After clinching promotion to the first division we had what can only be described as a stunner! Champions and promotion to the top flight. More details to follow .......

[Tomaldinho]

Playing in Prague, yet struggling to settle in England? Is this a known bug?

[Thebaker]

Playing in Prague, yet struggling to settle in England? Is this a known bug?

No wonder he's having trouble

[noikeee]

I can't believe it. I swear I did nothing to trigger this, no editors, nothing.

Unfortunately this comes after the transfer window had closed! I'm in desperate need of new players, we need to recover a 7 points disadvantage if we're to stay up and keep going in the challenge. Actually I'm not even sure if I can be a part of this challenge anymore, because once (if) I can spend the money it's not going to be any difficult from here onwards. But I might become the first guy here to ever get relegated with a billionaire backing the club in FM.

And to top it off, despite having 29 millions in the bank the board won't let me increase my wage budget over the previous 23k/month... what the hell?

[Tomaldinho]

I really hope you make up the deficit noikee, it would be really interesting to see how you progress with a billionaire on board.

As for my own problem, I got rid of the trouble maker who was struggling to settle in England despite playing in Prague. Surprisingly he agreed to go out on loan to Brno which is a horrible industrial town to the south of he country. I can say from experience that it does have a nice McDonald's though

[charlo116]

Thanks B.W.G, i've completed what was a promising pre-season which included a 3-2 win over Leeds and a 4-1 win over Limerick FC who finished 3rd last season in the Irish First Division. We might be headed for a decent run in our first season which i've been told by my chairman to put a lot of effort into as its the clubs 50th season.

[sheeshy]

The extended version of this thread is now live, if you feel like playing in one of the other European leagues that requires a custom league head on over to the extended version. Enjoy your small club to big club adventures anywhere in Europe, so long as its small

I'll abandon my NI save for this.

[Kazpeer]

I've started with Bridgend.

Will post a screenshot later.

[Oxslow]

Good luck Kazpeer with Bridgend.

[noikeee]

I really hope you make up the deficit noikee, it would be really interesting to see how you progress with a billionaire on board.

As for my own problem, I got rid of the trouble maker who was struggling to settle in England despite playing in Prague. Surprisingly he agreed to go out on loan to Brno which is a horrible industrial town to the south of he country. I can say from experience that it does have a nice McDonald's though

Strange, my cousin lives in Brno and he quite likes it there. Then again he spends most of his free-time travelling out of town...

As for the progress with a billionaire, thanks for the good luck wishes but it's not going to happen as I'm going down. Update later today or tomorrow.

[noikeee]

Good luck Kazpeer with Bridgend.

Nice, all he posts is the name of the team and you still manage to get it wrong.

[Kazpeer]

Nice, all he posts is the name of the team and you still manage to get it wrong.

No, i did start with Afan Lido but i changed my mind and wanted to start with Bridgend

[noikeee]

Oops. Your post hadn't changed here, this is some weird forum software!

[Oxslow]

All I want to say is

[noikeee]

NK Granicar Zupanja - 2.HNL (Croatian First Division) - 2011/2012 Season review

Pre-season

The team left over to me at the beginning of the season was utterly appaling and there was barely no-one I could use apart from striker Milan Djuric and midfielder Ivan Breskic. As such I had to hit the transfer market and basically buy a whole squad, luckily I had all the freedom in the world for it as my initial salaries total was zero. We had a fairly promising pre-season while these new signings kept arriving, the handicap from having the team yet to gel was unnoticeable, and I was confident this would be the humble beginning of a glorious career at the helm of Granicar.

A disastrous beginning

However a horrible 4-0 defeat at the hands of Suhopolje(!) in my debut competitive match would set the tone for the season: it would be a disaster. We did initially try to fight back in the following matches, but developed a really strange and frustrating tendency for grabbing 2 or 3 goal leads and then throwing them away. It'd happen an incredible 5 or 6 times throughout the year and this 4-4 thriller against Hrvatski Dragovoljac back in September is the perfect example. The team felt it badly, dived into a pit of really poor morale, started losing lots of matches in a row and arrived to the winter break with a mere 6 points in 15 games.

Granicar Zupanja, the new Manchester City?

By the winter however there were some very big news: the interest of the eccentric danish businessman Rasmus Pedersen to the club. While the arrival of a millionaire could only be good news, it almost didn't benefit me. The club set a transfer embargo during the whole January transfer window so I could only hit the market after Pedersen took over in February - by then only free agents could be signed. And then incredibly Pedersen made me keep the full 29 millions he invested in the club's bank account, apparently they're going to be of better use after the club falls back into the abyss of unplayable divisions? To be fair he did make the club professional and improve all facilities, plus the upper limit for a player's salary went way up so I just ignored the wage budget and signed some ambitious players anyway.

Unsuccesful fightback

But all this still wasn't good enough. The 2nd half of the season was so similar to the 1st: a good run in the friendlies to build confidence, some promising first few matches but always throwing leads away, and the whole team succumbed to poor morale. Right at the end we did score 2 unlikely wins, one of them at the home of title challengers and cup finalists Inter Zapresic. That was enough to beat Suhopolje to the penultimate place in the league (the team that hammered us back in the first match!), and give us some hope for a crazy miracle, but a heavy 3-0 defeat at the hands of Slaven Belupo sealed our fate with one game to go.

Info

League: 15th (League Table)

Cup:

Preliminary round - 1-0 (H) vs BSK

1st round - 0-2 (H) vs Karlovac

(Transfers)

(Stats)

Best eleven

GK - Tomislav Pelin - One of my best February signings, represented a boost over the dodgy Goran Boromisa but still made little difference.

DR - Nikola Matas - A very frustrating player. At the beginning I expected him to be one of my stars, however had horrible morale all season long and I couldn't bench him because the alternatives were even worse.

DC - Duje Spalj - Scored an amazing 35 metres free-kick in the pre-season, but couldn't repeat it in the league. Was fairly consistent all year long though.

DC - Aladin Bahtijar - My only international. Was a nice February signing but arrived too late.

DL - Vjeran Skol - My only loanee was just barely better than the aging slow Dario Dabac for the place. Was disappointing as I never saw him put his attacking skills to use, which was what I got him for.

DMC - Marko Kartelo - Another February signing. Class player but DMC is probably the least important position in my tactic.

MR - Mato Simunovic - The lesser evil of a series of terrible choices for this position. Arrived in February and never left the team just so I could avoid using Matas or Pavlicic as MRs.

MC - Marko Basic - Yet another February signing. Represented a theoretical boost over Breskic but while the average rating confirmed it, 0 goals and 0 assists was quite underwhelming.

ML - David Dujanic - My best player in the first half of the season, either as MC or ML, but got himself into poor morale sooner than the rest of the team after the winter break.

ST - Marko Djuric - The bosnian star struggled on his own until Gajtkowski arrived to pair him up upfront. Unfortunately he then soon got injured for 4 weeks, at the most crucial time of the season.

ST - Krzysztof Gajtkowski - Poor morale and a tendency to be booked and suspended hampered what was otherwise our best player since he arrived in February.

The future

Well this sure taught me not to jinx my career with ramblings about future european domination. Seems like I severely underestimated the quality of the opponents in this league, and how bad my tactics were. I can't believe that the same tactical system that utterly dominated Serie C2 in Italy for me, now failed this badly in Croatia...

But I'm not giving up yet. My pride is hurt and I want a second chance: I'll take on another club next season and restart the challenge there (am I allowed to take a club that was originally playable in the first season???). And then I'll wait for Granicar to be promoted back - sure it's not going to be as interesting as progressing under the helm of a billionaire, but having a club with a billionaire as a rival is going to be fun either way!

[Oxslow]

Sorry to hear you got relegated noikeee. Out of the clubs that have been promoted you are only allowed to be manager of a club that has never been in a playable league.

[Tomaldinho]

Very unlucky noikeee, having looked through your screenshots it appears you put together a nice collection of players but perhaps it was too little, too late by then.

If you do continue on with the same save it would be interesting to see how Granicar progress with their billionaire, could make for a fun battle later in the game

As for your friend in Brno, I am sure it is lovely really. Just not any of the parts I saw

[Gundo]

Coming to the end of my second season with Norwegian outfit Brodd and its looking good. I will post the end of season report later on today.

[Oxslow]

Any chance of promotion Gundo?

[Oxslow]

Oxslow - Northern Ireland - Desertmartin - Season 5

Season Review

I signed 2 strikers in the summer that were 5* current ability. With them up front I was banging them in for fun. Even without them I think I would have done well in the league, but with the help of them I won the league. The only bad thing was that I lost a fortune with out any Setanta Cup or Europa league this season.

Squad

Star Player

League Table

Irish Cup

Career Overview

Season     League Finish          Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/12    12th Championship 2    None
2012/13    9th  Championship 2    None
2013/14    10th Championship 2    Intermediate Cup, Irish Cup Winners
2014/15    1st  Championship 2    Setanta Cup Winners, Championship 2 Champions
2015/16    1st  Championship 1    Irish Cup Winners, Championship 1 Champions

Next Season

To try and get some better players in defence and probably a new GK. If I can manage that a bit of mid table obscurity would be nice. I would like to do well in the Europa League and the Setanta Cup so I can get my finances back on track.

[Oxslow]

Oxslow - Northern Ireland - Desertmartin - Season 6

Season Review

I went out of the cups quite early on except the Setanta Cup. I must admit playing the Irish teams full of gray players is probably to easy for the amount of money that is involved. Basicly I was good attacking and rubbish in defence.

Squad

Star Player

League Table

Setanta Cup

Funny News Item 1

Funny News Item 2

Career Overview

Season     League Finish          Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/12    12th Championship 2    None
2012/13    9th  Championship 2    None
2013/14    10th Championship 2    Intermediate Cup, Irish Cup Winners
2014/15    1st  Championship 2    Setanta Cup Winners, Championship 2 Champions
2015/16    1st  Championship 1    Irish Cup Winners, Championship 1 Champions
2016/17    4th  Premiership       Setanta Cup Winners

Next Season

To not let in so many goals simple! Even though I finished 4th only the team that was relegated let in more goals.

[Gundo]

Any chance of promotion Gundo?

Hopefully, although could of done without losing my star striker to injury for 4 months!

[Oxslow]

I hope you can get Brodd IL promoted without your star striker.

Edit: In my game Linfield has turned pro and they are now buying players left right and centre. I might not be winning the league for a while.

[Tomaldinho]

Despite leaking goals 4th is an excellent result for a first season in the Premiership Oxslow

[Tomaldinho]

Bohemians Prague – Season Review 2018/2019

We started off with five consecutive wins and zero conceded but everything ground to a halt with a heavy loss in Europe coupled with a defeat to Sparta Prague 36 hours later. It has to be a bug that these league games aren’t moved from a Saturday to a Sunday or Monday night as there are plenty of other fixtures on these days. The entire squad dropped in morale to very poor and we went on a run of 5 without a win in the league and went out in the cup to a team rated 50/1 outsiders to beat us. This didn’t exactly help pick up morale. However, the perfect pick me up was a single goal victory against a team about to sack their coach and they did just that. And then we followed it up with another single goal victory and our unlucky opponents also lost their coach This picked things up and we finished the winter season in the European spots.

Our bright prospect Karel Stano finally engineered his move away after telling the club he would be seeing his contract run down. I felt that we may as well try and get some money for him and offered him out at the end of November. No less than 34 clubs including PSV, Feyenoord, Wolves, West Brom, Wolfsburg, Standard Liege and Auxerre came looking for a bargain. I tried to sell him to a club we’d never meet in the future and he found himself on the way to Catania of Serie A fame for the princely sum of £2.4 million, quite a lot considering the club’s biggest ever transfer out was £80k and ironically the highest fee I had received whilst at the club was a £50k loan out fee for Stano himself which had resulted in him leading his adopted team to the league title.

League – We had a storming second half to the year and even though we dropped some easy points a 2nd placed finish is a brilliant result. We scored more and conceded less than the champions so the argument could be put that we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Villagra came in on the last day of the transfer window for a bargain £5k and scored 6 in 12 helping to keep us afloat. Tecl was the real star striker who we got on a free and scored almost a goal a game so was utterly reliable.

Europe – We started proceedings in the 3rd qualifying round this year and dominated a minnow from the East. Next up we weren’t so lucky and faced Club Brugge, but we managed a plucky 2-2 draw at home. A 3-1 loss away is where our painful run started but the fans were still pleased we’d even showed up. No money spinning group stage this year then.

Players – With the announcement that our star defender Karel Stano would be seeing his contract out and leaving on a bosman ringing in my ears, it was panic stations. Not to mention that my star striker of the last three years hated my assistant manager which led to a flurry of players entering the office telling me they were unhappy with the situation. Naturally, I ignored everything and concentrated on on-field matters hoping they’d go away and play quietly. I was also offered a 16 year old Brazilian kid who I decided to waste 500k on, considerably more than my previous biggest signing of 65k. Probably a bad call but I just couldn’t help myself.

Next season – We are tantalisingly close to overtaking Austria in the coefficients which would give us 15th place in the rankings which means 2 Champions League places and a direct place in the Euro Cup 4th qualifying round. Unfortunately a second division side won the Czech Cup so probably won’t help us much but the gauntlet has been laid down.

Season        Division            Position  Pohár ČMFS      Europe           Achievements 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/2012     Druhá Liga          11th      3rd Round       N/A              N/A
2012/2013     Druhá Liga          2nd       2nd Round       N/A              Promoted
2013/2014     Gambrinus Liga      6th       Final           N/A              N/A
2014/2015     Gambrinus Liga      5th       4th Round       N/A              N/A
2015/2016     Gambrinus Liga      5th       2nd Round       N/A              N/A
2016/2017     Gambrinus Liga      3rd       4th Round       N/A              Qualified for Euro Cup
2017/2018     Gambrinus Liga      3rd       Semi Final      EC Group Stage   Qualified for Euro Cup
2018/2019     Gambrinus Liga      2nd       2nd Round       EC 4th Quali.    Qualified for Euro Cup

[Gundo]

Gundo - Brodd IL 2.divisjon Avd.3 End of season report 2012

Promotion

was achieved then in my second season at Brodd and now I'm out of the bottom rung of Norwegian football I feel my challenge will really get going - it's always a struggle getting out of any one of for 2nd divisjon groups with only one place available for promotion. Winning the title by 7 points was fairly straight forward in the end despite injuries and suspensions mounting up in the final games. We only progressed one round in the Cupen after an impressive win over Adeccoligaen Byrne, we were however suitably dispatched by Tippeligaen outfit Odd Grenland in the next round.

Having lost experienced target man Rune Lange the clubs top scorer through retirement at the end of my first season, replacing him with quality was key. In

Geir André Herrem

a quality replacement was found and with his pace and finishing power he notched 14 goals in 18 league games.

Attacking Midfielder

Henning Rugland

played a key role on the left wing/forward after he was retrained to play in that position, only because we had no other options in that position other than inexperienced youth team players, it turned out to be a masterstroke anyway.

Petter Glesnes

was the main breakthrough from the youth team. He looks promising, has great physical attributes and with a bit of improvement in other areas (mainly finishing), he could could turn out to be a decent player in the coming seasons.

Tippeligaen 41st down to 43rd in the Rankings.

Next season at the Midjord Stadion - Survival will be the order of the day and improving what promising youngsters I have got for the future.

Season   Pos.  League              Cup             C.League      Euro Cup     Achievements
2011     5th   2.divisjon Avd.3    Cupen 2nd Rnd   N/A           N/A          None
2012     1st   2.divisjon Avd.3    Cupen 2nd Rnd   N/A           N/A          Promotion!

[Quackje]

Geri André Herrem looks like a seriously class player, he could go all the way to the top division with you as your quick striker.

[Gundo]

He could, shame about his anticipation and low work rate though, still with that pace and finishing...