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Gundo's FM11 European Adventure Challenge™


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Twellman - Congrats on the title, hope you do well in Europe. With going professional it should attract more players to the club as they are more likely to work full time contracts.

Fastbasher - If other clubs had better facilities then that many wouldn't have been called up. I have 73 players on my books, it was 74 but I terminated one youth players contract as he kept being seen out the night before a game.....this happened 7 times.

Quackje - Brilliant season and making progress in the champions league is always a good sign.

TAoD - Nice to see you back in the challenge and congrats on the promotion.

Tomaldinho - I'm honoured :p hope you can sort your team problems out as frantic summers could be bad for team morale.

XaW - Congrats on the promotion,shame your board seen incompetent

In champions league, TNS actually finished the group with 2 points...they drew twice against Spartak Moscow

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Santa Claus 2018 - nanoUpdate

Santa Claus 2-0 AC Milan

After 15 minutes I saw how they were playing and thought, if I can stop them scoring, tactically my formation destroys theirs. They were playing narrow in the middle and using both full backs to push up providing the only width for the team, this is the worst possible way to play against Santa Claus. I play a 4-3-3 with the midfielders playing defensively in matches like this so the middle of the pitch is congested and defended well while the moment they push their full backs up I have a 3 vs 2 counter attack, thats how the goals came, famous victory!

AC Milan 1-1 Santa Claus

They stuck with their suicidal tactics at home, this time Timo Furuholm got behind the full back and their defenders did the rest. They gave up a bit in the second half and we were able to pass it around in the middle and get some success but then Welliton (Now playing for Russian national team) got one back to give them the draw.

Next up Man U, we were a little unlucky to lose at home but got thoroughly spanked away, I couldn't have expected much more.

Santa Claus 1-2 Man Utd

Man Utd 5-0 Santa Claus

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Another cracking win, this time against RKC. What's interesting is that my striker Stikel scored a hat-trick and was then replaced by Stevens who scored another hat-trick in the same game. The last two of the goals were scored when we were one man down, amazing! If only my players could play like that every game.

I've also made my first two really big signings, managed to get both Poulsen and Tóth on free transfer, was recommended them by an agent. At the moment I love this new feature, both will be really important for me.

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Well done Xaw i cant belive how well you done. I am fining it hard in the league but the cups went well for the last couple of years.

Yeah, I struggled quite a bit, but I have found that using a diamond in the middle helps out a lot. And a rigid philosophy because we aren't very good technically. I usually start with a "counter" strategy, but if I get to low possesion I change to something more offensive. I've beaten some premiership teams in the cups, and that usually gives us a very good morale. I've found that new players seems to disrupt the teams more than in FM10 and if you change to many players it takes a month or more to start playing well again.

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XaW I came up with formation with a AM and DM this season and it has gone well. Last game of the league to go I am 2nd playing 1st so a win I am Champions anything else I hope 3rd gets a worse result thasn me. Did you notice that the premiership teams did not always play there stronest team?

Gundo I am playing via steam. You do not have to be online to play but I am not sure about the achievements. I will try and find the thread about it.

edit: You have to be online at the time the achievement is activated.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/233116-Steam-Achievements-offline

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Gundo I am playing via steam. You do not have to be online to play but I am not sure about the achievements. I will try and find the thread about it.

edit: You have to be online at the time the achievement is activated.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/233116-Steam-Achievements-offline

Thanks Oxslow.:thup:

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Hi all,

Now that dynamic league rep is around I thought I could have a half decent stab in Northern Ireland after my efforts at this challenge a couple of years ago.

Have gone for Northern Ireland again and Lower Maze, see a couple of others are using them as well.

Manager Profile

Initial Facilities

Gone for a complete revamp of the team during the offseason, replacing pretty much everyone bar my GK who doesn't seem to bad.

Star acquisition is probably Paget, my new central defender, signed on a free transfer after being released by Glentoran over the summer.

Initial expectations are avoid relegation, though hoping for mid table finish so I can have a stab at promotion next season.

Pre season went reasonably well, despite a 0-4 drubbing by Coventry, we got an impressive 2-1 win over Hartlepool (though my assman manages all friendlies!)

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XaW I came up with formation with a AM and DM this season and it has gone well. Last game of the league to go I am 2nd playing 1st so a win I am Champions anything else I hope 3rd gets a worse result thasn me. Did you notice that the premiership teams did not always play there stronest team?

Yeah, I also had a great effect using a diamond. Hope you get a promotion! No, I haven't noticed that. Gonna have to check the next time I meet a premiership team.

Walcott\'s Wonderkids - Good luck with Lower Maze. A piece of advice; use a diamond in the middle!

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Welsh Premiership - 2017/18

Tranfers: To compensate to last year's no transfer year, we spent some money, bringing a young left winger on Webster, a very talented midfielder in Crawford, and our first non-UK signing; a Zambia's idol Chalwe, who was the lead mean in the back.

- When it comes to the Welsh league, we seem to hit a pattern. We start amazingly, then we hit a 10-12 run of wins, and around the last third of the season, we go down, the opposition get closer, and just when they are about to overtake our lead, we pull through in the last games and win the league.

- This is what happened this year, and we managed to win our third league in five years. However, we are going to have to have a more competitive squad if we want to have it a bit easier to win it (and certainly if we are to do anything in Europe ever).

Table

Loosemores Cup

- Lost in the first round to Aberyswyth away, 1-2. Meh.

Welsh Cup

- Beat Penparcau and Barry to then lose in the Quarterfinals to Llanelli, 2-3 in their stadium. Freaking Bridgend managed to win it for the second time in a row, even though they are still in the lower leagues!!! 2-3 to Llanelli was the final's score. Amazing.

Champions League

- We trashed Odense 7-1 on aggregate, and Omonoia Nicosia beat us on an 4-3 overall round, where we lost on overtime. So close to the last round before the group stages.

Europa League

- The last round before the gorup stages was a heartbreak. We tied home 1-1, to then lose 0-3 away, even though we deserved more. Still, our good European run surely will mean more coefficient points. Several Welsh teams advanced one or two Euro rounds as well.

In other news

Stats

- Christos Angelli was the top scorer again, with an amazing 17 goals and 13 assists. Only a matter of time before he get the call from Cyprus national team, one would think.

- Recent signing Wille Crawford finished the year lead assistant, with 13. He's only 23.

- I am now the 6th best manager to have managed in Wales, after my three Welsh leagues and one Loosemores Cup. I was named manager of the year, and three players were in the best season's eleven.

- The CL final in Cardiff was awesome, a Real Madrid win 2-1 over Atletico.

- After having the training facilities improvement cancelled last year in the last week of the expected time that would take, this year I asked again, waited another year...to then get some news saying that NOW they will get to it. It will cost around £1 mil (85% of our money) and will be finished thias November. We'll see.

- The rivalry between Andy Legg, Llanelli's manager, and yours truly continues. We are now both tied at three leagues won, but he has one more cup than my only one. I have 18 individual awards though, he has 17. Ha.

- Season passes - 33, same than last year.

- Attendance - 135 in average, 2 more than last year.

- Club's value - £1.2m - £400k more than last year.

- Match/Season ticket - £6/£50 - £+1/0 than last year.

- The league is...121 places up, to 297th. Still half a star. Next year, we'll be the 30th best coefficient league.

- The club is...21 places up, to 389th.

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

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Bohemians Prague - Season Review 2015/2016

Another season of consolidation for Bohemians, another 5th placed finish is nothing to be ashamed of. For much of the season it looked as though our two goalscorers and inspirational centre back would all be leaving the club and I was even tempted to offer them around in December to try and drum up a transfer fee instead of letting them go for nothing in the summer. However, I felt we needed to keep them at the club for as long as possible and fortunately this paid off with them all signing new deals once we played our final league game and morale was high.

My main regret this season was letting three of my players go out on loan to the league champions. Stano and Sedlak were the main sources of woe, Stano in particular played exceptionally for Sigma and I expect him to do the same for me next year. Both will be key to the future of this club so I am hoping to keep hold of them. Our main central midfielder is looking for a way out so he will need to be dealt with, whilst Joao, a player touted to me last summer who spent the year on loan now arrives on a free transfer after his contract expires in Brazil.

I mentioned already that a non-league club has qualified for Europe through the Cup and that should see our decreasing reputation in Europe continue to decline. More work for me if and when I do finally step up into the continental arena.

  Season           Division            Position    FA Cup       Europe  Other 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/2012     Czech Second Division     11th     Third Round     N/A     N/A
2012/2013     Czech Second Division     2nd      Second Round    N/A     Promoted
2013/2014     Czech First Division      6th      Final           N/A     N/A
2014/2015     Czech First Division      5th      Fourth Round    N/A     N/A
2015/2016     Czech First Division      5th      Second Round    N/A     N/A

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Oxslow - Northern Ireland - Desertmartin - Season 4

Season Review

I did not expect much from Europe and after my 1st game was a 8 - 1 drubbing, I was impressed I managed a 1 - 1 draw at home. At the half way point of the season I was 10 points behind first in 2nd and thought I would never catch them up. In the last league game of the season I had caught up and was only 1 point behind and it was 1st v 2nd in the game I won 4 - 1 and the league was mine. I all so won the All Ireland cup which got me £200k! So as I had some money I asked the boarded to improve the training facilities which they agreed to. I did not realize it would cost £240k though. (Do they now take the money away once the work is complete?)

Squad

Star Player

League Table

All Ireland Cup

Career Overview

Season     League Finish        Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/12    12th 2nd Division    None
2012/13    9th  2nd Division    None
2013/14    10th 2nd Division    Intermediate Cup, Irish Cup Winners
2014/15    1st  2nd Division    All Ireland Cup Winners, 2nd Division Champions

Next Season

To build a better squad and finish mid table in the 1st Division. I would like to do well in the All Ireland Cup if I have qualified by winning it.

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Oxslow - Kind of... Half the team was regulars, but the rest was fringe players and youth players

Good season, and good luck in 1st division, it's not that much harder than 2nd in my oppinion, at least so far. 6 matches in and I'm at 6th.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we are pro as of today. We'll see if that has any effect in anything other than we might spend more money and go under!

In other news, for the first time I am actually in the first group of teams of the 2nd round of the CL qualifiers, which means I get to play a weaker team, at least for this round.

Edit: Got BATE Borisov, a team with less coefficient but better than us. Great.

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End of Season Report: Salthill Devons Irish Premier Division, 2018

League Table,

Irish League Cup – winners

Irish Senior Challenge – ko 2nd Rnd

All Ireland Cup – Winners

Champions League - Group Stage

Ticket Price €9

Season ticket price €202

Season tickets sold 344

Average Attendance 2349

Premier TV Revenue 2018 - €74,000

Premier Division Rank

2010 (159th) 2015 (81st)

2011 (129th) 2016 (68th)

2012 (96th) 2017 (81st)

2013 (69th) 2018 (73rd)

2014 (54th)

Squad

Transfers

a couple in. all youngsters

Player/s of the Season

Lloyd Powell. only arrived for the last couple of matches, scouts found him has 5* potential

and already my 1st choice midfielder at the tender age of 17

Santiago Brau. arrived same time as lloyd but has the potential to be a lot better than my

best striker. i was a fool to not snap him up on a free.

Youth Players

i give up on this trash. best was half a star potential

Finances

always increasing

Aims

improve where i can. not much else i can do. keep improving the leagues rep


   Season  	League   	    Position  		 Achievements
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2011         Irish First Division     12th	            n/a
   2012         Irish First Division     10th	            ISC Finalists
   2013         Irish First Division     1st               ILC Winners/ Promotion
   2014         Irish Premier Division   4th               AIC
   2015         irish Premier Division   3rd               AIC
   2016         Irish Premier Division   1st               AIC/IPD
   2017         Irish Premier Division   1st               AIC/IPD/ISC
   2018         Irish Premier Division   1st               AIC/IPD/ILC

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So we beat BATE 0-2 away, they don't even shoot on goal.

The second leg? They win 1-3 and go through on away goals, not having the ball, scoring all of their shots on goal, us hitting the post twice, and after the guy who scored the two goals on the first leg, Angeli, gets injured after 15 minutes. Of course, they scored the 1-3 on the 85th minute. Out of Europe on the first round.

Sometimes I don't even know why I play this game. It's been eight seasons of these kinds of games in all the cups I play.

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I'm considering entering this challenge as well. Is anyone trying it in Croatia?

I actually had started a really nice save looking at the long-term in italian Serie C2, managing Carrarese, where I annihilated all opposition on my debut year - but really think I benefited from a bug. The board gave me 200k€/month for wages! Basically I brought in a whole lot of quality free transfers, only to notice afterwards my club was leaking money everywhere... made a total loss of 2 million euros in the season.

So now I want a different challenge to find out whether I made a good set of tactics, or it were my expensive players making all the difference!

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Season 2 - Salthill Devon - Irish Premier Division - 7th

League Table

Transfers

Tried to keep faith in the players that took us up but we got found out as not being anywhere near good enough, pretty lucky to avoid the relegation playoffs in the end as some of the top teams destroyed us. Most of them signings were made just before the end of the season in preperation for next year. Massive rebuilding needed, our scouts are coming up with nothing but we've turned pro now which should help.

Key Players

Clive Delaney

Nobody really deserves a mention in a poor season but Delaney joined us halfway through and the bigman made us a bit more solid.

Massive rebuilding needed as I've said, already signed a lot of decent players who were released from the top clubs in Ireland.

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Good luck for the new season TAoD

Welcome to the challenge Thebaker and Walcott\'s Wonderkids

the greyham - nice to see your domination is starting :thup:

Twellman - Another good season but really unlucky with the loss in europe.

Tomaldinho - Keep up the good work!! You'll get into Europe soon...I can feel it!!

If I missed anyone out, I apologize now!!

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Bridgend Town - Principality Welsh Premier League 2024-25

Transfers - Another defender....no more strengthening for that area. I am always looking out for players who will improve the depth of the team but for now I'm really happy.

Competitions

Welsh Premier League - Table - Nothing to see here....move along. New goals scored record, still a young squad. The league is improving, teams are now paying stupid fees for players I wouldn't pay £50k for!! Also all teams are now professional other the Goytre who were relegated.

Champions League - Winners - Nothing major to note other then I didn't need penalties this time. Biggest victory by far was a 6-1 drubbing of Valencia in the 1st leg of the semis.

Club World Championship - Winners - Didn't no what to expect....beat Okayama 5-0 in semi before beating New York Red Bulls in the final 5-2. Pleased with Victory.

Super Cup - Winners - Always Pleasing to get victory over one of the English big boys.

Welsh Cup - Winners - Neath were in it till we scored first then they just fell apart.

League Cup -Winners - Still quite easy even when fielding a weaker side.

Players/Awards

I won Manager of the Year

David Stewarts was top scorer hitting a remarkable 75 goals. He also collected a lot of awards as well, he won Welsh Player of the Year, Player of the Year, Top Scorer, European Golden Boot, CL Golden boot, CL Best Player and Fans Player of the Year. WOW!

Alan Williams was top of the assists once again, this time topping it with 34.

Saeed Al-Qarni won Welsh Young Player of the Year

World Team of the Year featured David Stewart.

CL Dream Team featured my midfield 4 and David Stewart.

Domestically, we once again dominated Team of the Season

An interesting player has appeared in my youth team. His name is Paul Stewart, he is amazing no doubt but if you look at his personal page, you see David Stewart and on David Stewarts Personal Page...Paul Stewart is listed.....brothers?????

Expectations

I've now done it all so my only goal is to win the champions league in normal time.

To help the Welsh Premier rankings rise which currently stands at 19th and is now rated 3*!!!

Other minor expectations include a stadium named after me and a son (no matter how bad he is!!)

Season     League    Cup              C.League      Euro Cup     Achievements
2011/12    2nd      Runners Up        N/A             N/A        Euro Cup Qualifcation
2012/13    1st      Winners           N/A             2nd QL     Domestic Treble
2013/14    1st      Winners           2nd QL          N/A        Domestic Treble
2014/15    1st      Winners           2nd QL          N/A        Domestic Treble.     
2015/16    1st      Winners           Play Off        Group      Domestic Treble.
2016/17    1st      Winners           Group Stage     N/A        Domestic Treble
2017/18    1st      Winners           Group Stage     N/A        Domestic Treble
2018/19    1st      Winners           Group Stage     N/A        Domestic Treble
2019/20    1st      Winners           Group Stage     Q.Finals   Domestic Treble.
2020/21    1st      Winners           Q.Finals        N/A        Domestic Treble.
2021/22    1st      Winners           Semi-Final      N/A        Domestic Treble.
2022/23    1st      Winners           Group Stages    Winners    Quadruple (WP,WC,LC,EC)
2023/24    1st      Winners           Winners         N/A        Quadruple (WP,WC,LC,CL)
2024/25    1st      Winners           Winners         N/A        Global Domination!

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Kozakken Boys - Eredivisie Season 2012/2013

Competitions

Eredivisie Table | Graph

Media Prediction: 18th

Dutch Cup

Round 2: PKC'83 - Kozakken Boys 0-2

Round 3: MVV - Kozakken Boys 0-0p

Round 4: Kozakken Boys - PSV 0-1

Finances

-------------------------

Our unexpected promotion from last season meant playing in the Eredivisie with the likes of Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord and Twente. Immidiately it became clear that our squad wasn't nearly as good as our competitors, as it took until the 6th round before we got our first win. Until the winter break we managed to get a few wins and ties, which meant that we were at least not rock bottom. During the winter transfer window I managed to strengthen the defense and midfield a bit and with our improved squad we started to climb in the league table. The signings of Poulsen and Tóth at the last fourth of the season improved the team a lot and we even managed to climb to an 8th place with 4 games to go. The last 3 games were all away and against Ajax, Groningen and PSV. Even though all of them were close, we lost all of those with one goal margin with meant that in the end we ended up 13th. Still, not too bad for a first season in the top division.

In the cup we managed to reach the 4th round before losing to PSV which are way better than us.

Our finances are looking very good, we got 825K as bonus for our league position which netted us a nice profit. My board has also agreed to expand our training and youth facilities. The upgrade of the training facilities will cost 1.2 million, which is about 1/4 of our balance. We also managed to get an improved sponsor deal, so now we get around 400K per season. We fill 95% of the capacity of the stadium on average, but the club still wont consider expanding it. Maybe next season.

Our squad is looking very good at the moment, we have a good mix of talented players and older more experienced ones. What we desperately need is a good goal scoring striker.

Aims from previous season:

Avoid relegation

Strengthen squad

Make a profit

All were completed.

Aims for next season:

Improve on last year's results and achieve a better league position

Strengthen the squad further

Improve finances

Pretty much same as last year.

  Season        Division            Position  Dutch Cup       Europe  Other 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/2012       Eerste Divisie      4th       Second Round    N/A     Promotion!
2012/2013       Eredivisie          13th      Fourth Round    N/A     None

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Welsh Premiership - 2018/19

Tranfers: Brought some people in, amongst them a decent defender an a right wing from Senegal for next season. Not anything important.

- We won the league to make it three in a row, and in the last game, taking away Llanelli's second spot. It was still hard towards the end of it, but the last push saw us ahead.

Table

Loosemores Cup

- Made it all the way to the final after beating Barry, TNS and Bangor, to then lose 0-3 against Aberyswyth without even shooting on target.

Welsh Cup

- Lost on quarterfinals to the same team, 1-3 away.

Champions League

- Bate Borisov beat us on away goals; we won 0-2 away and they beat us 1-3 home, with out best striker getting injured after 15 minutes.

In other news

Stats

- Scot Stephen Lawson was top scorer with 14, surprising everyone. Ashley Jones grabbed top assits (14), better player of the team and of the year in Wales. Three of our players were in the team of the year in Wales.

- Tony James, Goytre Utd's manager, deservedly got the manager of the year award.

- We now have adecuate training facilities.

- Season passes - 33, same than last year.

- Attendance - 158 in average, 22 more than last year.

- Club's value - £1.4m - £200k more than last year.

- Match/Season ticket - £6.5/£53 - £+.50/3 than last year.

- The league is...62 places up, to 235th, we're officially one star!

- The club is up 85 places to 307th.

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

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Last chapter of the Chronicles of the Unluckiest manager in the world:

So we draw Albanian BESA in the CL round. All-gray team. We draw 1-1 away and we bring the second leg home.

We shoot 12 times. We score three.

They shoot 4 times.

They score five.

We lose 3-5, and out of Europe.

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Unbelievable stuff BWG, having someone complete the challenge so convincingly certainly makes it more appealing to try and see it through.

You are also a visionary, we finished 3rd in the league this season and will now play in Europe next year :thup:

It is disappointing that the rules of the league say that 3rd place would see us into the 3rd qualifying round of the Euro Cup but we have in fact been entered into the 2nd qualifying round. Maybe something to do with the domestic cup winners? Anyhoo, we will embark on our adventure with a trip to Macedonia :D

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Bohemians Prague - Season Review 2016/2017

As mentioned above, this season we stepped it up and the youngsters shone through and we were able to finish 3rd and stake our claim for European glory next year. Just getting through a couple of the qualifying rounds would be amazing so I am very much looking forward to seeing how we match up.

I am looking forward to a quiet summer but the big clubs are continually talking to the media about my players so we'll do all we can to hold on to them. The transfer window being three months long doesn't work in our favour though.

The board want us to secure European football again through our league placing in the league next year which will be a massive challenge but with my job on the line I'll be doing all I can to step us up a level and get the consistency required to knock Sparta off top spot. A quick season review as I am keen to get on and see how we fare in Europe :D

  Season           Division            Position    FA Cup       Europe  Other 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/2012     Czech Second Division     11th     Third Round     N/A     N/A
2012/2013     Czech Second Division     2nd      Second Round    N/A     Promoted
2013/2014     Czech First Division      6th      Final           N/A     N/A
2014/2015     Czech First Division      5th      Fourth Round    N/A     N/A
2015/2016     Czech First Division      5th      Second Round    N/A     N/A
2016/2017     Czech First Division      3rd      Fourth Round    N/A     Qualified for Euro Cup

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NK Granicar Zupanja - 2.HNL (Croatian First Division) - 2011/2012 Pre-season preview

Hello everyone, just got offered a new job and it looks like I didn't get the luck of the draw here. Croatian football just experienced a structural reshuffle, as a result of the Premier League (the 1.HNL) being reduced from 16 to 12 teams at the end of the 2010/2011 season. This meant that only one team got promoted from the unplayable 3rd level: NK Granicar Zupanja. Since my holiday save unexpectedly stopped in the day of the reset (I wanted it to stop a few days earlier), I had no choice in the matter unless I left it holidaying from the beginning again. So NK Granicar Zupanja, better known by their peculiar short name Granicar (Z), it is.

Finances and first impressions

My first glance at the team was a bit shocking. Not only did we have no staff hired, our team wasn't worth anything - literally! Thankfully, they aren't paid anything neither...

day-one.png

Financially things are not looking super bright. The club does have 50k€ in the bank (doubt that's going to be enough to pay the 23k€/month wage budget my board gave me?), but it is the lowest valued club in the league at 90k€, highest being Zagreb at 2.3M€. The press expect us to finish dead last, and I didn't have the heart to promise the board we'll avoid relegation - I only promised that I'd do my best. The difference between "avoid relegation" and "attempt to avoid relegation" was a mere 1.5K€ in the wage budget anyway, I'd rather keep expectations low as a safe net against the sack. Oh and obviously, the transfer budget is zero - we'll have to do with freebies only.

Long-term ambitions

Long term my expectations are far more ambitious. I expect the national title to be a bit hard to crack in the first few seasons, but once I'm done with that I believe this might be one of the easiest leagues in this challenge to dominate Europe with - thanks to the very large top two clubs, Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split who I expect to give me a hand in bringing up the reputation in the league in later stages. But I might be getting ahead of myself here, that's a long long way down the road and I'll have to overcome not only the challenges of the game, but also have to test my patience for sticking with it.

A tactical challenge: prove my 4-1-3-2 is good

There is a secondary challenge in this. As I've posted yesterday, the other motivation for this career is to test my set of 4-1-3-2 variants that were so promising in my short alternate life in Italy. This is a much tougher environment for them, and if they crack it here they'll deserve a post on the Tactics & Training Tips forum. Unfortunately this brings a problem: the tactics were built under certain assumptions regarding players. Fullbacks should be of the Daniel Alves ultra-attacking mould; the wingers should have less flamboyance and more tactical awareness than usual; the forwards should be complete: competent in the air, quick and technically evolved - plus one of them should have some determination/workrate/stamina because he'll play as deep-lying/defensive. That kinda screws up squad management at this level where we can't afford to be so picky with players.

Final notes

I also have little experience at managing teams where we need to count every penny; and have little knowledge of the croatian football system - some help would be good here! For example, what nationalities count as foreign and which don't? Is it worth offering professional contracts? Is it worth having an assman and a scout?

Croatia evokes good memories as I've been a big fan of their national team since I was a kid, Davor Suker was a joy to watch in Euro '96 and World Cup '98. They're also a great memory in FM for me, as my biggest ever FM achievement was taking Croatia to win the World Cup. Can this level of success be emulated here again? Time to play and find out.

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Great stuff noikeee, enjoyed the build up :D

Just playing through my first European adventure with Bohemians. We were given really simple games in the second and third qualifying rounds and managed to motor through them, and then in the fourth round it looked like it was all going to fall apart. We were unseeded but managed to escape with a draw against Sturm Graz, one of the very worst of the seeds. We've just beaten them home and away to reach the group stage \o/ Amazing stuff. Our striker has scored 5 in 6 so far but is out for 8 weeks so someone will have to step up.

The group is Aston Villa, Braga and Aachen of Germany. I think we can get a result against the grey players of Aachen but the top two seeds will be too much for us. Just hoping we don't take a beating and lose morale. One problem I have come across is that Euro Cup games are on Thursday but my league games are not being moved from the following Saturday? Means I have to rest everyone on the Saturday as they are all below match fitness.

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Earendil - Good 1st season in top flight, hope you can build on it. The prize money has been going up slowly (Think i got £105,000),however the TV money for the league for me was £854,000 which was a very big increase of around £300,000 from the season before as the season before I got around £550,000.

Twellman - Really unlucky, I swear....you will beat a grey team one day.

Tomaldinho - Great season, if your save is anything like mine...then you could beat Braga as all portugese teams on mine other then Porto have underachieved.

noikeee - Welcome to the challenge, will be interesting to see how the variants of the 4-1-3-2 works out :thup:

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Brodd IL 2011 2.divisjon Avd.3

Took a long time to progress through my first season due to my laptop being abit temperamental! It's behaving now though.:D

Going to keep my first update really brief... The team I picked this time is Brodd Il, a small club from Stavanger who are currently living in the shadow Tippeligaen giants - Viking FK and have no real history to speak of.

Delighted with my first season - we went on to finish 5th in the league. Only real player to speak of was striker Rune Lange, who was signed on a free transfer at the start of the campaign, sadly he retired at the end of the season.

Aim for 2012 season - Challenge for promotion, I've strengthened in pre-season so it I think it is achievable.

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

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Gundo - Good solid season, best of luck on the promotion challenge next season.

The Welsh teams are improving in Europe. Bridgend and TNS are in groups again, Afan Lido went out in the 3rd qualifier in the CL.In the 4th qualifying in the Euro Cup, they just missed out on victory losing 3-2 on agg to Mainz.

Meanwhile in the Euro Cup, Neath are in the Group Stages after beating Maritimo in the 4th qualifier. There group consists of Lyon, Mallorca and RB Salzburg. Airbus went out in the 3rd qualifier to Elfsborg and Barry went out in the 2nd qualifier.

Domestically, new boys Cambrian & Clydach made me feel sympathetic as even I felt bad for them after this.

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Dunloy 2014/15 Season Update - Northern Irish First Premier Division - Marky Mark!

2011/12 - Second Division - 2nd, Promotion!

2012/13 - First Division - 1st, League Cup Runner Up, Intermediate Cup Winners, Steel & Sons Cup Winners - Promotion!

2013/14 - Premier Division - 1st, League Cup Winners, Irish Cup Winners - Premier Division Champions!

2014/15 - Premier Division - 3rd, Champions League Group Stages, League Cup Winners, Irish Cup Winners

38 Pld, 17 Won, 14 Drn, 7 Lst, 53 For, 34 Ag, +19 GD, 65 Pts

League: After topping the Premier Division last season, and then bringing in 23 players during the year to strengthen the squad, I assumed I would again top the league, and instead focused on resting players for important Champions League games and other cup games... and boy did that come to bite me on the ass! Halfway through the season, and I had somehow dropped to 8th out of 12th! By that stage I was out of the CL so I focused on getting back up the table, and whilst I had a better 2nd half to the season, I was still too inconsistant, and only managed 3rd place, 3 points off 1st, and disapointingly missing out on a CL spot for last season... still, at least I've got the Europe League to look forward to.

2015 League Table and Graph

Europe / Other Cups: As far as Europe went, we had the following results in the Qualification rounds:

Q1 v Tre Fiori (San Marino) - 3-0(H), 2-1(A): A nice introduction to Europe against the might of San Marino - if only it was only this easy

Q2 v Valerenga (Norway) - 1-4(A), 3-0(H): Completely outplayed in the away leg, and whilst I had more of the play in the home leg, it wasn't until the 92nd minute that I scored the equaliser that put my through on away goals!

Q3 v BATE (Belarus) - 2-0(H), 0-0(A): Dominated the home leg and should have won by more, away leg was quite even and a fair result

Playoff v M. Tel-Aviv (Israel) - 4-0(H), 1-4(A): Again, dominated the home leg (15 shots to 1), but the away leg was completely different, managing only 4 shots to 27. Thankfully, an own goal in my favour was enough to get me into the Group Stages!

In the Group stages I was drawn against Barcelona, Panathinaikos and Stuttgart. Whilst not the 'group of death', I knew I was up against it to get any points at all! Whilst I did manage to get some points, it was only 2 points, a home 2-2 draw against Stuttgart and a home 1-1 draw against Panathinaikos. Whilst that left me 6 points and GD off 3rd place, it was still enough to earn over $15m in prizemoney, which looks to have set me up for the next couple of seasons at least

Champions League Group F

In the other cups, I again took out the Northern Irish Cup and League cup, but lost out in the Qtr final of the All-Ireland cup and Co-Ant Cup.

Star Players: Whilst start striker Liam Buchanan was again in fine form with18 goals at 7.09 (and also winning the 3rd best player in the Premier Division), due to missing 3 months to injury, the Fan's Player of the Year, as well as top scorer, was new recruit Mark Miskimmin:

Mark Miskimmin: This 27 year old N. Irish striker doesn't have many statnd out stats, but also has no low stats, meaning he is a great overall player, resulting in 20 goals at 7.17 and Fans Player of the Year award

Best U21 signing for the season would have to be 21 year old central midfielder Craig Tomlinson. A West Ham reject, his great physical stats really shone out, and he instantly won a spot in the Dunloy Overall Best XI

2015 Seasonal Best XI and Overall Best XI

Finances / Facilities

The highlight of the season was certainly making the Group stages of the Champions League, mainly because it brought in close to $15m (and given the total expenditure for the season is $1.2m, that makes a big impact!). With that money, I talked the board into giving me youth facilities, upgrading my basic training facilities, even relayed the pitch (just because I could!), and importantly went professional from July 2015 onwards - hopefully I can start bringing in some 'professional' players instead of the jokers I've got at the moment!

Also, for the first time ever, the board has given me a transfer budget for next season - an imprssive $6.5m. Whilst it's not enough to make an instant impact in Europe, it should help!

2015 Finances

New Club Records

Highest Attendance: 625 v Tre Fiori Champions Cup Chamions Qual. 1 1/7/2014

Highest Gate Receipts: $18,000 v Tre Fiori Champions Cup Chamions Qual. 1 1/7/2014

Average Attendance: 227

Most Games Lost in a Row: 2 - 27/9/2014 to 30/9/2014

Most Games Without Winning: 6 - 10/12/2014 to 31/12/2014

Most Games Without Conceding: 5 - 17/1/2015 to 7/2/2015

Most League Apps for Club: Joseph Rafferty - 97

Most League Goals: Liam Buchanan - 47

Total Transfer Income: $1,500

Fastest Goal: Steven Beeks - 27 seconds (v Linfield in the Northern Irish Premier Division 28/10/2014)

Steam Achievements: 29 / 86

New Steam Achievements: Attack!, Parked the Bus, What a Goal!

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Well, well, well. This game is full of surprises. After the last league game in the second division in Greece, I see that we still have six league games to go. I hadn't bothered to check the rules and it seems the teams in places 3-6 play a mini-league to determine the third team to be promoted! Now more than ever am I missing my main striker :( He's been out for half the season with a torn calf muscle and the other strikers just aren't as good :thdn:

So, six games until the update :)

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A very quick mini-update. 3 games in and we've won 2 and lost one. Problem being the wins are away from home, the loss at home. But the main thing: My main striker has returned! Played the third game, scored the first, played a crucial part in the second, challenged the keeper who dropped the ball for the third and had the assist for the fourth goal :D I'm one point behind the top team and have two home games to go and the top team away.

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Twellman - Thats not nice and that after I started fielding my reserves and U19's against Afan :p The fact that Lloyd Evans is still there says it all really....he was an OG master!!

Icelander - You can do it!!! :thup:

Marky Mark - Well done on the title :D

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It would appear I can't do it :thdn:

Just got totally manhandled against the top team, leaving them 4 points clear with two games to go. What hurt the most was that there was only one player who turned up for that game, my keeper. He was playing like I had Casillas and van der Sar in goal at the same time, the only reason I only lost 1-0 despite them having 5 clear cut chances. They also played a brilliantly dirty tactic, injured my striker in the first minutes of the game :thdn:

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Niki_Voloy_fc_logo.jpg

Niki Volou FC - Season 1

First things first: My starting profile

The team was quite well manned in numbers, not so much in quality. Most players were running out of contract so I gutted the squad and left only around 13 players (including a couple of crap youth to make up numbers). I brought in a few players, here are the most notable ones:

Goalkeeper: Babovic - The Serbian U21 keeper, can't remember if I got him from the Greek trial day or an agent recommendation. He didn't keep a lot of clean sheets but he was still an absolute hero most of the time

Central Defender: Chamorro - Now this kid was amazing. At his young age he played like he'd been a professional for a decade. He made a few mistakes, a couple of own goals and such, but every single time he made a mistake his motivation didn't drop. On the contrary, without fail he became "looking determined" or "looking motivated" :*)

Striker: Olguín - Words can't describe how I love him. His numbers might not seem overly impressive, relatively few goals and assists for such adulation. That's only half the story, in the games he played he was integral to our play. The behemoth that we launched the ball towards and hoped something would magically happen. Playing as a supporting target man, he was the one who laid the ball off to the midfield who put our poacher through. He was the one who challenged keepers from set pieces, leading to at least half a dozen goals that he won't get any official credit for. He was missing for the second half of the season and we felt his absence dearly.

Striker: Nicoise - Conversely, words can't describe how I hate this man. Brought in at the half way stage of the season after agreeing a contract just after the summer transfer window closed. He started on fire, then fell apart. Apparently Jamaicans find it hard to live in Greece and he was whining and moaning for the last couple of months, staying unhappy the entire time. The problem I had was my main poacher getting injured (at the same time as Olguín, fun times!) and having to play him every game in the run in and the play off league. EVERY SINGLE GAME without fail, his motivation would stay at "disinterested" and he would miss sitter after sitter. I blame him solely for our failure to secure promotion in the play off league. Has been transfer listed and I have already secured his replacement, a Brazilian with 15 finishing.

Onto other matters, namely the competitions we played in.

The Greek Cup was a short lived adventure, we won our first game against a fellow second division side and were then spanked out in the next round by a Superleague team. The board was still happy so I'm not complaining. Especially as my threadbare squad could barely handle one game a week, don't want to think what more games would have done to us.

The Greek Second Division was a longer adventure, obviously. We were predicted to finish in 18th place. Not a bad thing in, for example, the nPower Championship where there are 24 teams. Problem is the Greek Second Division only having 18 teams. The gauntlet was laid down and we were expected to battle bravely against relegation.

SUCK ON THIS DOUBTERS!!!

Oh and this too, while you're at it...

Now, there was a price to pay for this success. Namely, a lot of debt: Finances

But somehow I don't think I'm in for the blame, seeing as how the board adore me

Also, I haven't reached that date yet but I'm going to bet on me receiving the "overachiever" award. 18th to 4th simply can't be beat.

So, where to from here? The only option is promotion on the next time of asking, otherwise the horrible finances will surely reach breaking point. The best way, I think, to get promoted is to score more. I don't mind the occasional hammering if I can turn those draws into wins and the wins into bigger wins.

Niki Volou Progress

Season 1: Greek Second Division (4th) - Greek Cup (4th round) - Europe (Vacation in Italy, hotel booking pending)

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