[FM11] Barcelona’ing the way through the lower leagues – is it even possible?

[AK22]

Encouraging first season with Kettering, could be in contention for promotion next season

[noikeee]

Encouraging first season with Kettering, could be in contention for promotion next season

I'll do my best.

Champions League final: Napoli 2-3 Marseille. Wtf? :confused: That's the second consecutive year a french team wins it too. Anyone else feels like the french league is a little overrated in this FM? In my other career Lyon pretty much became Europe's top team.

[noikeee]

Kettering Town FC 2013/2014 - season preview

(Transfers)

(Squad)

I tried to sign as many players as possible for establishing a squad of our own, but that took a massive hit on the wage budget. We're currently spending 49K/month on wages when the limit is 42K/month. But that's because I told the board I only wanted to secure a top half league position - if I had picked "promotion" or "champions" as the season's goal I'd be able to spend this much money. I'd just rather have the pressure on me for spending too much, than on the whole squad expecting top results...

So then I had to make a few loans, this time having the luxury of starting the season with the club I could plan that a little better, and so took 4 long-term loans for key positions. Nigerian winger Matthias Fanimo is the big name here, as he returns after a good cameo appearance for our team last year on a short-term loan - nearly picked him for my top 5 players of the year. I'm expecting big things as well of Reading's defensive midfielder Matt Hinchcliffe.

From our permanent signings, I'd like to highlight the Irish winger Aaron Doran who looked quite awesome in theory but has flopped in the first few matches; the midfield playmakers Oguzhan Özyakup and Nicolaj Kohlert, the later of which a regular presence for Denmark's U-21s; the forward Christian Montano, part English part Colombian, arriving from Northern Ireland's club Linfield; and the wonderful Irish goalkeeper Sean McDermott, once a part of Arsenal's ranks (like Özyakup).

While these signings look all great in theory, the excess wages made us have a really short squad (22 players), to top it off I had an injury crisis at the end of pre-season, so I had to invest again in a few short-term loans to simply add depth to the squad. Hence the signings of Biancone, Sampson and Williams as you can see in the transfers screenshot. I'm planning to rotate these 3 players with others throughout the season.

Early season form

What looked like a wonderful pre-season - not only we beat Everton(!), but also hammered Hull 4-0 - continued in delightful form in the first two matches as we scrapped 1-0 wins over Telford and Grimsby. Pure illusion. A streak of 3 defeats and 1 draw dropped us to 17th and at this point I'm genuinely worried about the team. Hopefully it's just because a few key players like Darwika, Fanimo and Özyakup have been injured. Because with the way I'm handling the club financially, we need to be promoted. Anything lower than that and the club's future is seriously in doubt. I'm risking everything and have benefited from the board's goodwill as they keep on injecting money into the club.

[markyosullivan]

KUGTW, hopefully you'll get promoted with Kettering Town eventually.

[noikeee]

KUGTW, hopefully you'll get promoted with Kettering Town eventually.

Thanks, but it's not looking likely.

I guess I'm keeping this job for today.

[noikeee]

Plenty has happened since the forums went down, although I've been playing less lately, think I've advanced about one season plus a few months. Will update soon.

[noikeee]

Kettering Town - 30th of November, 2013

I just had to. This season was getting painful to watch, and other than that random 5-1 win, there were no signs whatsoever of a turnaround. I have never ever underperformed so badly in Football Manager, it was plain bizarre because I stuck to my principles that had given me so much success the season before, and at Praiense. Suddenly it stopped working at all. The league table screenshot says it all:

I could talk all day about mitigating circumstances. How we had an injury epidemic of key players at the beginning of the season, resulting in bad results and low morale that we never got over. How striker Christian Montano got himself a bad injury too, just after starting to score goals regularly. How we consistently conceded late goals in games we didn't deserve to lose. It's all bollocks because every manager that fails at his job will always have "mitigating circumstances" to complain about. Fact is, almost every player I hired this season flopped spectacularly badly. Even guys like Fanimo who were here briefly last season, and had performed well. The irish guys, keeper McDermott and winger Dorran were absolute disasters. Maybe it was the signings, maybe it was the tactics, maybe it was just plain bad luck. I don't know. It's time to move out of here, before I shred every last bit of credibility I have as a manager. I want to salvage my career.

For pure record-keeping purposes, since there's nothing interesting to see here, here's the stats of my team just before I resigned:

(Squad and stats)

Time to get a new job in a new country. I'll also, unfortunately, ruin the main selling point of this thread by getting rid of my Barcelona tactics. They were fun for a while. But it's more fun to win. I know I can rely in my old 4-2-4, even if I don't like it, whereas I can't rely in the Barcelona-esque style of play. Time to eat humble pie and go back to the basics.

[noikeee]

Venezia - 20th of December, 2013

Now onto Italy!

I didn't realize just how great of a choice this was until after I agreed a deal with the club. I thought it was yet another average lower league italian club, with no history, no fans, nothing special about it. I did think the financial conditions seemed oddly above-average - 250K€ transfer budget, a 61K€/month wage budget of which the club is only using 39K€. And the club is estimated at a mammoth 1.4M€ value. Insanely high for the Italian Serie C2-A - or, using the Real Competitions Name Patch as I do, the Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Girone A.

And then after a quick Wikipedia search, it struck me. This wasn't just a club in Venezia. It was the club in Venezia. The one that was in Serie A as recently as 2002. The one that won a Coppa Italia in 1940-1941. The history page in FM even mentions a sensational runner-up place in the Serie A, just over a century ago, in 1912. This is a special club, in a special town. You have to take a boat to get to our 7500-seater stadium.

Unfortunately, the current standing of the club is not special at all. The club got bankrupt twice last decade. The original AC Venezia died in 2005, giving birth to SSC Venezia. And then SSC Venezia died in 2009, giving birth to the current Football Club Unione Venezia. You can't even manage them in FM in the first season, because in real-life they're in the FM-unplayable Serie D. Thankfully, they got promoted in-game through the 2010/11 season. Then a poor 18th in the Serie C2-A got them relegated back to Serie D. Then last year they got promoted again. Yet, this is the situation they're in at the moment:

Ouch, this isn't going to be an easy job. We need to do something real good in the remaining 17 games, or we're taking part in the relegation playoffs. I took a look at my players, and it also looks like I'm going to have to squeeze as much quality as possible out of my transfer budget. The team is rubbish, basically:

(Squad)

Right-winger Angelo Corsi looks like our brightest talent, along with the currently injured kepper Stefano Raggio Garibaldi. They will do for now, but other than that we have a severe lack of quality, particularly at the defence, but also upfront. Alessio Curcio is our better striker, but a record of 1 goal in 18 games isn't exactly encouraging. Thankfully we've got the money, and I've got a 4-2-4 tactic that I can rely upon, after being tried and tested for a career spanning over 10 years in Croatia, in an alternate universe (read: a different save game).

Other job offers

Good things come to those who wait. I turned down 3 tempting jobs before settling for Venezia. Two Portuguese 2ª Divisão clubs approached me: Ribeira Brava, which is probably the closest club in-game to me that I can manage (I live like 15 km's away from them) - and Tirsense, once a top division club when I was a young kid. I think they even qualified for Europe once. But I turned down both affinity and history, because I didn't want to go back to Portugal. Then an even crazier offer came from England: League 2's Bury, with a really tempting wage budget of 100K€/month. Again, I didn't want to come back to England, and it felt ridiculously unrealistic to go up a division after flopping badly in the Conference. I couldn't be happier when the Venezia offer came. Let's hope I can make something out of it.

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

I've got a lot more to tell, but that's all I had written while the forums were down, so now I need to look retrospectively at what happened and write about it! May take a little while.

[Deisler26]

I once took over Venezia in much the same position. However, the Serie C2 is such a weak league that one decent loaned striker meant that I finished 7th overall, despite having 2 points from the first half.

[AK22]

Good choice going to Venezia. Definitely a club with an interesting history!

Shame you're ditching your playing philosophy though, would have been great if you had pulled it off at the lower levels. Suppose you need a better class of player to play like Barcelona, something that will be lacking at clubs like Kettering and the like

[noikeee]

I once took over Venezia in much the same position. However, the Serie C2 is such a weak league that one decent loaned striker meant that I finished 7th overall, despite having 2 points from the first half.

You've got to tell me where do you get loaned strikers that good, 'cause I definitely haven't found anything like it yet!

Good choice going to Venezia. Definitely a club with an interesting history!

Shame you're ditching your playing philosophy though, would have been great if you had pulled it off at the lower levels. Suppose you need a better class of player to play like Barcelona, something that will be lacking at clubs like Kettering and the like

Strange thing is, it was working, despite the fairly rubbish players. Won the league comfortably with Praiense, saved Kettering from relegation comfortably in my first season there. Then suddenly, we're completely rubbish. I suppose it doesn't depend as much on the level of the players, as on how easily they click together. I still have no idea what did I do wrong, signed too many players in a short time perhaps? After all Barcelona is based on exceptional mutual understanding. But we were doing well with short term loanees coming and leaving all the time...

[iacovone]

Great move Noikee! Venezia as you point out are a big club. They're one of my rivals at Treviso (and I may have just relegated them last year ). But aside from that you've joined a club with great potential.

Regarding the loaning a great striker - I believe that was possible in FM's gone by. This FM it is nigh impossible just to get one player from a higher decision to join you on loan! Its much tougher. Looks like you have a good budget to bring players in to fit your system. As ever, I'll be following closely - hope it starts well there

[Deisler26]

You've got to tell me where do you get loaned strikers that good, 'cause I definitely haven't found anything like it yet!

He had pace/acc 16 and composure 13 and was a regen loanee from Atalanta (who were in Serie B at the time). Just loan in as many players as possible.

[brFM2011]

Woo glad these forums are back up

Shame that the tactic won't be used, will you ever try it later on in the game when finding a job may be a lot easier after success?

Good luck at Venezia, they look a very good club with the history + money.

[FMtillidie]

Excellent career

[noikeee]

Unione Venezia 2013/2014 - season review

I am afraid that for the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 seasons I'm going to post only the season review update, because I'm lacking a few early season screenshots...

Transfer market

No screenie since the italian leagues have a bug where all the transfers from every season are lumped together. From what I can tell, I obviously tried to rebuild the team as much as possible, with 12 players coming in, all expected to fight for a first eleven place. Forward Leonardo Pavoletti was the most expensive, arriving from Carpi for a 28K€ fee, followed by defensive midfielder Antonino Profeta (18K€, ex-San Marino). I also exploited the portuguese market, bringing in two players who would feature heavily in the coming months: right-back Carlos Manuel (on a free, former União da Madeira player), and regen winger Paulo Miranda (2K€, ex-Vitória de Setúbal).

The biggest prospect on paper was a free transfer though: 20 year old forward Simone Andrea Ganz, who had been released by AC Milan.

Domestic league

Quite the thriller. We were obviously in a very difficult situation when I arrived, and having signed a month before the transfer window, it was always going to be hard to get good results straight-away. We scored a few heavy defeats in December, notably 4-0 to Renate and 3-0 to Pro Vercelli. At this point saving the team from the relegation playout was an utopia.

Things picked up in February after all the signings got settled together, and from there onwards the season would go spectacularly well as you can see from this screenie:

(Late season results)

Unfortunately, this brilliant run was not enough - if I had won the match away at Valenzana, it would have though! We finished 2 points away from not needing to play a relegation playout. Crucially, however, our final league match was against Crociati Noceto - the team right above us in the league. Italian playoffs/playouts follow a strange rule where there are no away goals, no extra-time, no penalties: instead, if things are level after both legs, the team that finished higher in the league goes through. So we beat Crociati Noceto to climb above them in the league, and were then given the news that our opponent in the playout would be... Crociati Noceto.

First match could hardly have gone any better as we beat them 3-1 away, despite having been 1-0 down shortly after half-time. A legendary goal by defensive midfielder Julien Leleu made me celebrate rather pathetically in front of my computer:

[video=youtube;1Yps37cY41c]

Surely there was no way we could lose this now? Well, things got rather tricky in the 2nd leg. Striker Daniele Ricupa gave Crociati the lead after just 7 minutes, and we sh*t ourselves all game long, particularly more so in the dying minutes, as Emiliano D'Amato made it 2-0 for the visitors. And that was the final result. We avoided relegation in the narrowest of ways, not thanks to our performance in the playout but because we beat Crociati in the final league match. It did come down to the highest league position rule...

Cups

We had been knocked out of the Coppa Italia di Lega Pro in the group stage before I took charge of the club.

Top 5 key players

(Full squad and stats)

5. Simone Andrea Ganz (ST) - Our better forward but still a tad underwhelming. I expected more than a mere 4 goals.

4. Carlos Manuel (DR) - Very solid right-back, with the extra of being able to play just as well in midfield.

3. Julien Leleu (MC) - I was expecting bigger things of our other defensive midfielder Antonino Profeta, but the Reunionese international had the highest average rating I've ever seen in this position in this tactic. Defensive midfielders always get rubbish ratings. Bonus points for that great goal in the playout.

2. Angelo Corsi (AMR) - Not the world's greatest average rating, but with 8 goals and 5 assists, he was the most prolific player of the season.

1. Paulo Miranda (AML/AMR) - The talented young portuguese winger was the symbol of the shift in quality of play since I arrived to the club. 5 goals and 6 assists in roughly half the games Corsi played in.

Tactical watch

Well, here's my unrealistic 4-2-4-ish system that had worked out so well in my croatian save, with a standard pair of cover/stopper centre-backs, full-backs contributing little to attack, a ball winning midfielder and a cautious supporting midfielder next to him, two supporting wingers contributing little to defence, and two "advanced forwards" expected to move into space constantly:

Disregard the names of the players, that is a screenshot I took one season later. The obvious conclusion, though, is that this is completely unlike the Barcelona play I was planning to use in this career.

Financial watch

I don't remember exactly the numbers, but we had roughly over 1 million euros in the bank, and lost quite a few hundred during the season, not enough to go to the red.

Career overview

[b]Season     League (tier)             Other competitions                       Notes[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Praiense (Portugal)[/b]
2010/11    2ªDiv.Sul (T3) - 4th      Cup 4th rnd                              1st job, joined in June
2011/12    2ªDiv.Centro (T3) - 1st   Cup 2nd rnd                              Lost in promotion playoff
[b]Kettering (England)[/b]
2012/13    BSP (T5) - 7th            FA Cup 2nd rnd, FA Trophy 1st rnd        Joined in October
2013/14    BSP (T5) - 22nd *         FA Cup 4th Q rnd, FA Trophy 2nd rnd      Resigned in November
[b]Unione Venezia (Italy)[/b]
2014/15    Serie C2/A (T4) - 15th    Coppa Italia di Lega Pro group stage **  Joined in December,
                                                                             won relegation playout

* at the time of resignation
** played before my arrival

Future

By my math, we had summed 28 points during my 17 league games in charge of the club. Multiply that by 2 (for a total of 34 games) and we get 56. According to this season's table, that would've been enough to secure a promotion playoff place. Therefore, that's what I'm aiming for in 2014/2015.

Old club watch

Kettering recovered to 18th, avoiding relegation by 3 points. Praiense managed a rather good 3rd place in the league. Both still at the same level I left them.

[noikeee]

Woo glad these forums are back up

Shame that the tactic won't be used, will you ever try it later on in the game when finding a job may be a lot easier after success?

Good luck at Venezia, they look a very good club with the history + money.

It's unlikely I'll come back to it. The 4-2-4 is evolving in an interesting direction though - wait for the 2015 update.

Great move Noikee! Venezia as you point out are a big club. They're one of my rivals at Treviso (and I may have just relegated them last year ). But aside from that you've joined a club with great potential.

Regarding the loaning a great striker - I believe that was possible in FM's gone by. This FM it is nigh impossible just to get one player from a higher decision to join you on loan! Its much tougher. Looks like you have a good budget to bring players in to fit your system. As ever, I'll be following closely - hope it starts well there

I've loaned a few guys, some very good ones in England too (Scott Anderson for Kettering, wow!). In Italy the market just seems a lot more limited though. For 2015 I loaned two guys, neither managed to hold on to a first team place...

[Deisler26]

Congrats on staying up dude! You should take it by storm next season!

[noikeee]

Unione Venezia 2014/2015 - season review

Transfer market

My club being one of the most wealthy in the league, I obviously had to attack the transfer market for a lot of deals again. In total I signed 18 players, albeit a few of those were later in the January transfer window, fringe players, or youngsters for the future. The most expensive were french striker Anthony Gaillard (30K€, ex-Angers), portuguese winger Ricardo Valente (18K€, ex-Esmoriz), and his fellow countryman Cristiano (12K€, ex-Atlético). The most exciting signings of the Summer came on a free though. I offered a crazy 9K€/month wage to romanian midfielder Adrian Stoian, ex-Roma, to join us - an absolutely wonderful prospect. For the attack, two men arrived from Siena: flamboyant regen Enzo Lacalamita and the slovenian Kristian Kraus, on a heavy 7K€/month wage too. Defenders Riccardo Regno and Emanuele Lerda arrived on loans from Bologna and Atalanta, respectively. And I got to work again with argentinian winger Alexis Quintulén, as I brought him from my former club Praiense.

January meant a few more high-profile signings. From dutch side Flevo Boys came both the full-back Pandu Scholte Albers and the experienced winger Tjeerd Korf. German winger Paul Grischok and young belgian/serbian keeper Dragan Trajkovic arrived on frees. The wingers would prove to be very important...

Domestic league

I had no idea, but it would turn out to be another brilliant rollercoaster season! It started quite well, and we would hold on to the 5th spot - last one eligible for a promotion playoff place - for most of the first half of the season, a big highlight being the utterly mental 8-0 hammering of Renate.

Then a massive slump happened mid-season. From the 21st of December to the 25th of February we won a single match, drawn a single match, the rest were all defeats. Suddenly we were all the way down to 11th place, this after I promised the club board we'd make it into the top half of the league... I was never in real danger of being sacked, but at that point I did wonder whether this would go the same path as my stint in charge of Kettering did.

Then my January signings started doing the magic on the pitch. A 5-0 win over Rodengo Saiano started a sequence of 7 consecutive wins, but the real turnaround was the match away at the leaders Pergocrema. Ending with a 5-4 win for a us, it was certainly the craziest match of my career so far. Most importantly, that happened after I did some tactical shifts to try to counter Pergocrema's strengths. That success convinced me to experiment with tactics once again, and I would settle on a 4-2-3-1 shape with Enzo Lacalamita in a deadly Trequartista role, in the AMLC position, for the rest of the season. It led me to a 4th place in the table and a place in the playoffs:

The playoffs are a bit rougher than the playouts because there's 4 teams battling for a single spot. Stupidly, I forgot about the highest league position rule and fielded a secondary team in the final league match, ultimately leading to defeat and losing 3rd place in the league to Rodengo Saiano. Guess who we were playing against in the playoff semi-final? Yep, Rodengo Saiano.

Thankfully that went alright. A 0-0 draw at home in the first leg was worrying, but we overcame it with a nice 2-0 victory away, Adrian Stoian's long-range goal reminiscent of Leleu's epic finish last season in the playout.

There remained only one team for us to beat so we could celebrate promotion. Unfortunately, that was Pro Vercelli, not just a side with a wonderful history of 7 ancient Serie A titles, but a seriously competitive team for this level nowadays too. We were doomed by the first half of the first game as we ended up losing 3-1 at home, albeit a little unfairly as we had more clear cut chances. In the second match we were winning 2-1 at a point, and we went all-out-attack to try to score the 2 goals that would give us promotion, but that just led to holes in our defence and by the end we lost 3-2. Another frustrating playoff defeat for my CV...

Cups

(Coppa di Lega Pro results)

We actually did very well in this cup, which is exclusively for Serie C1 and Serie C2 teams. Won our C2 teams group with 4 wins out of 4 games, beat two decent sides in Brindisi and Cuneo to advance to the second group stage, got lucky in the group stage as were fielded against two C2 teams again and beat them both, and by then we were in the semi-finals.

However, our semis opponent was Como, the first C1 team we were up against. And we were in the middle of our league slump. We did alright to only lose 2-1 the first leg at home after being 1 man down all game long, but a 3-0 defeat away further highlighted the difference in talent between both teams.

Top 5 key players

(Full squad and stats)

6. Adrian Stoian (MC) - I'm going to open up an exception and name a 6th best player, because whilst Stoian did not excel, he certainly has bags of talent and was a regular presence in our midfield all year long.

5. Paulo Miranda (AMR) - A new Serie C2 record of 17 assists (21 in all competitions), but his performance dipped later in the year and lost his place to Paul Grischok.

4. Alessio Ballesi (DC) - Because we all know that in this version of FM, even if we don't actively try to exploit the corners, there'll always be a centre-back willing to score goals like crazy...

3. Anthony Gaillard (ST) - So much better than last year's forwards. Kristian Kraus was expected to be ahead of him in the pecking order, but turned out to be a spectacularly disastrous flop, whereas the young frenchman bagged 20 goals, some of them quite skillful...

2. Tjeerd Korf (AML) - I had forgotten how much I like wingers that can be a danger in the air. He was such a key player to our late season turnaround, had by far the best average rating of our squad, a stunning stat of 7.41. It's a shame he's 32 already and won't be able to keep up this level for long.

1. Enzo Lacalamita (AMC/ST) - Prolific in the early season as a striker, but forgot how to score goals at a point. It all changed when I turned him into a trequartista AMLC as he terrorized defenders almost every single game he played there. Average rating as striker? 7.04. Average rating as AMC? 7.74.

Tactical watch

My first move was actually to a 5-2-3, replacing a striker for a centre-back, to counter Pergocrema's all-out-attack 4-2-4 formation with plenty of skillful players. It worked beautifully, resulting in that crazy 5-4 win albeit Pergocrema got two men sent off.

For the next match I returned to my 4-2-4 to face Mezzocorona. They were playing a narrow christmas tree formation (4-3-2-1) and frustrated my midfield for the whole first half. I decided then to drop Lacalamita from ST to AMC, so that I wouldn't be swamped with 5 men vs 2 men in centre midfield. The result? Lacalamita bagged two assists and we won 3-0. I'd never go back after that...

Here's the latest version of my brand new 4-2-3-1:

The interesting thing is that this is sort of a minor step from the 4-2-4 back into the Barcelona way. By having a trequartista in an AMC position I'm having someone create play from the centre, something I did not have at all until now. Although I'm not dropping the idea that we should exploit the width from the wings more than the centre of the pitch because simply there's more space there.

It's worth noting that I find there's something... different about the italian game. The players are a lot more patient than in England and as a result, for the first time in FM11, I actually noticed that I was being disadvantaged by having only 2 men in midfield. Which is only logical, but seemed completely oblivious in Croatia (where playing all the time down the wing was very effective), and in England where the physical, aggressive side of the game seemed to overwhelm everything else, if anything I needed more men in the area then.

Financial watch

Uh-oh, there's only 255K€ in the bank right now. I'm pretty sure when I took over I had over a million. I guess I need to get promoted ASAP to avoid getting the club into serious danger. It probably doesn't help that I'm paying my players just over 100K€ per month in total...

Career overview

[b]Season     League (tier)             Other competitions                       Notes[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Praiense (Portugal)[/b]
2010/11    2ªDiv.Sul (T3) - 4th      Cup 4th rnd                              1st job, joined in June
2011/12    2ªDiv.Centro (T3) - 1st   Cup 2nd rnd                              Lost in promotion playoff
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Kettering (England)[/b]
2012/13    BSP (T5) - 7th            FA Cup 2nd rnd, FA Trophy 1st rnd        Joined in October
2013/14    BSP (T5) - 22nd *         FA Cup 4th Q rnd, FA Trophy 2nd rnd      Resigned in November
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Unione Venezia (Italy)[/b]
2013/14    Serie C2/A (T4) - 15th    Coppa di Lega Pro group stage **         Joined in December,
                                                                             won relegation playout
2014/15    Serie C2/A (T4) - 4th     Coppa di Lega Pro semi-final             Lost in promotion playoff

* at the time of resignation
** played before my arrival

Future

I'm starting to get a bit sick of playoffs. Next year I have only one goal: win the bloody league, so I can avoid them.

Old club watch

Both clubs did very well. Kettering came 4th and lost in the playoff semi-final to Macclesfield. Praiense won the league and actually got promoted for the first time in their history to the Liga Orangina. A remarkable achievement for such a small club. I may as well brag a little and mention the guy that won the league for them with 16 goals was nigerian forward Okpala Ikechukwu, who I had agreed to sign just before I left the club 3 years ago...

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

That's all I've played so far, so back to more regular updates from here onwards, hopefully.

[AK22]

Making great progress with Venezia, you'll be one of the favourites for promotion next season I reckon.

Interesting to see you using a asymmetrical formation. I've never got one of these to work particular well, so seeing your success, I might go back to the drawing board to see what I can come up with. You've certainly played some entertaining matches this season, goals flying in everywhere!

[noikeee]

Making great progress with Venezia, you'll be one of the favourites for promotion next season I reckon.

Interesting to see you using a asymmetrical formation. I've never got one of these to work particular well, so seeing your success, I might go back to the drawing board to see what I can come up with. You've certainly played some entertaining matches this season, goals flying in everywhere!

I don't tend to work with asymmetrical formations neither, most of the time I try them I end up replicating what I have in one side, in the other side of the pitch - depending on which side seems to work better! In this case it just makes sense though. If I put the AMC right behind the ST both in the centre, then it's just not as geometrically easy to put a through-ball. And I want my trequartista to have space ahead of him to run into.

In theory it should also help me drag the opposition defenders out of shape as they have more horizontal and vertical lines to deal with. Will the centre-back move forward to deal with my trequartista leaving space behind, or stay in the defensive line leaving him in space? And if the opposition fields a single DM, should he move sideways to mark my trequartista, hence opening up space for my right centre-mid to move into? (coincidentally, the most offensive of my CMs and the most skilled at shooting from long ). Or should they field two DMs, in which case they have to pull back an attacking player, becoming less of a threat offensively, probably also leaving more space on the wings where my team likes to play the most?

At least that's my theory... it hasn't been tested enough, I only used it for the last 2 or 3 months of the season.

[brFM2011]

Be brilliant to win the league next year.. old clubs look to be doing well too

+ your explanation of your formation + tactics looks good, all makes sense tbh

Hopefully you'll win the league

[Deisler26]

Good luck with Venezia next season! Hopefully, you'll storm your way to the title.

[noikeee]

Unione Venezia 2015/2016 - season preview

It seems a bit baffling to look back at this transfer window and find so many transfers, because while I signed about 10 players, hardly any are meant to be given a first team role. I struggled to find any players that would mean real improvements so instead focused on adding depth to the squad while keeping wages in check - therefore a few wildly overpaid bench players went sent away and replaced by cheaper folks.

The biggest problem in the squad has been the goalkeeper position, and the better I could get was Oswaldo Contreras, a young portuguese/venezuelan guy, already capped for the U21s, released by AC Milan two years ago. I expect him to be 1st in the pecking order.

For defence the guy I'm most excited about is Simone Ciancio, a right-back that should fight with the established Carlos Manuel (recently promoted to captain duty), for a place in the first 11. He was my most expensive signing at 12K€. In order to add depth to centre-back position, Peter Verhoeve, Valentino Ostieri and Giovanni Iodice arrived, albeit I should stick to the usual duo of Ballesi-Verruschi.

In midfield the senegalese Momar Faye is the new man to bring competition to Profeta for a MC place, whereas João Vilela should compete with Lacalamita for the trequartista role. Vilela actually arrived very late on a free last season but only played in the final league match. Italian/brazilian youngster Ricardinho arrives from Napoli as a future prospect, while the equally promising, supersonic winger Marco Bucci was promoted from my U19 side after I had signed him last January.

In the attack, loanees Andrea Bianchi and Giuseppe Angarano add depth, while Gianluca Bastianelli adds promise for the future and should stick around until I find a club willing to take him on loan.

Here's my current squad, the day after the transfer window closed:

A few players were naturally sold/released to make way for all these new faces. I was delighted to get 18K€ for the huge flop Kristian Kraus, while former key player Angelo Corsi was no longer necessary and offloaded to Vibonese for 10K. Matteo De Gol, Giovanni Kyeremateng, Daniele Cucco, were also amongst the causalities.

Season goals

The media may predict a 7th place but both the board and myself are expecting more. The board wants to be in the playoffs again, I want to win the league outright. And I feel it's doable, after a promising start. 4-0 and 4-2 victories over Rodengo Saiano and Mezzocorona give us the 1st place in the league after 2 matches. Meanwhile we are out of the TIM Cup but did well to drag Serie C1 side Mantova to penalty kicks, away from home.

In terms of finances we're slightly better right now as I've reduced the wage spending marginally, but it's going to take success on the pitch and 1 or 2 promotions to make this club financially stable. Currently 270K€ in the bank.

----

Thanks for the comments, people.

[noikeee]

Short teaser while I play the last few months of the season (been too busy playing to bother with a mid-season update ) - wonder goal by winger-playing-as-AMC-trequartista Paul Grischok:

[video=youtube;X84Z9HHc8fQ]

[noikeee]

Unione Venezia 2015/2016 - season review

Transfer market

For all the screenies I posted of my summer signings, they'd make little impact - the guys bought during the season becoming far more prominent faces in the squad. Experienced right-back Pablo Cotroneo arrived on a free and would become 2nd choice for the place ahead of my most expensive summer signing of the year, Simone Ciancio. Youngster Matteo Boninsegna arrived as a future prospect and should be getting his first appearance any time soon. German keeper Johannes Focher (also a free signing) became a first team regular, and our greatest signing would be this croatian forward called Bojan Petrovic who arrived in the very last day of the winter transfer window, for a mere 1K€. Would make all the difference in the later season.

Meanwhile, we paid 8K€ to make loanee Giuseppe Angarano our own player - only for him to have a serious injury straight-away - and got rid of a few players that didn't add anything to the team anymore: the portuguese Cristiano and Ricardo Valente, the defensive midfielder Julien Leleu and the overpaid keeper Stefano Raggio Garibaldi.

Domestic league

The most astonishing beginning of the season would propel us to a 1st place immediately (after scoring 4 goals in each of our first 4 games), but that was not to last. I soon realized that a few of our promotion rivals were very strong and were dropping very few points, namely Carrarese, Valenzana, and in the early stages of the season, Alessandria. We failed to win only 2 of our first 10 matches but that was enough to drop us to 2nd - and we knew anything below 1st would not get us automatic promotion.

Things got far tougher in the winter, when we had our typical bad form run. Is it the weather, is it over-confidence, I don't know, but we always struggle at this point of the season. From November to January we won only 3 league matches and dropped to 5th, dangerously close to the 6th place where you don't get to play the playoff anymore.

But, also typically, our winter signings gave us a great boost and we were nearly unbeatable the rest of the year, losing only 4 points from the 14th of February onwards. Bojan Petrovic's consistent stream of goals was priceless and we got within 1 point of taking away Valenzana's 2nd place, Carrarese unfortunately unreachable in a distant 1st after a remarkable campaign. It was time for the playoffs, again.

We were up against Sacilese on the playoff semis and the first leg could hardly have gone better as we beat them 2-1 with a Petrovic brace. Unfortunately, Petrovic got a serious injury right before the second match, heavily hampering our team. It made for a thriller match, although not the kind of thriller I would've hoped. De Iulis gave Sacilese an early advantage and we held on merely on higher league position advantage, only for Miranda and Lacalamita to turn the game in our favour. 2-1 at half-time and we were confortably onto the final, right? They had to score 3 goals to turn it round. Well, by the 69 minute they had scored 2. Unbelievably, in the 77th minute, they made it 2-4 and were in front. We desperately sent right about everyone upfront but that just made us concede an injury time goal, making it a final score of 2-5. It was a shocking choke.

Cups

(TIM Cup results)

(Coppa di Lega Pro results)

We were not very lucky this time. Somehow, we had qualified for the TIM Cup, and did very well to drag Serie C1 team Mantova to penalties away from home, but lost then. In the Serie C Cup, we hammered Andria BAT only to have to face Atlético Roma (also a Serie C1 team) in the second round, inevitably losing and perhaps hurting morale, as that started our bad form run in the league.

Top 5 key players

(Full squad and stats)

5. Dani Verruschi (DC) - A very solid centre-back that was omnipresent all year long, despite not scoring as much as his partner in defence.

4. Tjeerd Korf (AML) - Also did not have as good a season as last year, but still scored quite a few crucial goals.

3. Paulo Miranda (AMR/AML) - Back to being our better winger thanks to a total of 9 goals, 10 assists and a more than decent average rating of 7.15.

2. Alessio Ballesi (DC) - Not as many goals as last year, but 6 is still a good sum for a centre-back, saving our asses a few times, and really had a great performance all year long.

1. Bojan Petrovic (ST) - Only played 14 matches since his late arrival but I hardly could've picked anyone else, as he scored 14 and assisted 3 goals. The supersonic croatian was by far the better player in my side and was a million times better than the frenchman Gaillard who had quite a disappointing season in the striker role.

Tactical watch

Did a few more changes to my 4-2-3-1. An "attacking" strategy was replaced by a more measured "control" setting; the defensive line was dropped far back as I was conceding way too many goals from pacey strikers; I instructed my team to try to do some counter-attacks; and I gave instructions to my wingers to man-mark the opposing full-backs, hoping they'll help my team in the defensive part of the game a little more.

Wing play was a big focus of this tactical evolution, as I also instructed my full-backs to be given a "support" role again. That changes back to an "attacking" role whenever I play against a 5-3-2, 3-5-2, a Christmas Tree or any other narrow formation, where there's a single player wide in each flank. The reason is to try to exploit the wings versus those formations with 2 vs 1 situations, my winger and my full-back versus the opponent's single full-back or wing-back.

You may also noticed that I reversed the tactic horizontally, that was originally to try to get more goals from my forward Gaillard who was much better with his right foot than with the left. It doesn't matter as much nowadays with Petrovic being good with both feet, but it's working, so why change back?

Financial watch

372K€ in the red. And we haven't been promoted. Holy ****, it's starting to get serious, I'm not sure if we're going to avoid trouble...

Career overview

[b]Season     League (tier)             Other competitions                       Notes[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Praiense (Portugal)[/b]
2010/11    2ªDiv.Sul (T3) - 4th      Cup 4th rnd                              1st job, joined in June
2011/12    2ªDiv.Centro (T3) - 1st   Cup 2nd rnd                              Lost in promotion playoff
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Kettering (England)[/b]
2012/13    BSP (T5) - 7th            FA Cup 2nd rnd, FA Trophy 1st rnd        Joined in October
2013/14    BSP (T5) - 22nd *         FA Cup 4th Q rnd, FA Trophy 2nd rnd      Resigned in November
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Unione Venezia (Italy)[/b]
2013/14    Serie C2/A (T4) - 15th    Coppa di Lega Pro group stage **         Joined in December,
                                                                             won relegation playout
2014/15    Serie C2/A (T4) - 4th     Coppa di Lega Pro semi-final             Lost in promotion playoff
2015/16    Serie C2/A (T4) - 3rd     Coppa di Lega Pro 2nd round,             Lost in promotion playoff
                                    TIM Cup 1st Q. round

* at the time of resignation
** played before my arrival

Future

I was convinced I was going to get promoted, so signed a new 1-year contract, even rejected an offer from Paços de Ferreira in the Liga Orangina back in Portugal. It didn't happen but I'm still going to stick for another season to see what happens. Please, not another promotion playoff!

Unfortunately we're about to lose a few players to free transfers, most notably the highly talented Adrian Stoian. He was being paid a ridiculous wage and wanted even more. Not going to happen.

Old club watch

Kettering came 4th again and lost in the playoff semis again. Praiense were dead last in the Liga Orangina and are back to the 3rd tier.

[iacovone]

Oh noikeee that is hard to read .

Shocking choke in the playoff as you say - and now another season in the 4th tier with that level of debt. Its going to have to be a promotion season I would say. All the best!

[B.W.G]

Very unlucky with your team choking like that

Hope you get the promotion you deserve for the new season

[AK22]

Oh dear...it seems it's not just me who has a team full of chokers!

Quite a lot of teams have a mid-season slump, it's how well you recover from this slump that determines your fate for the season.

Well done on the Petrovic signing, a bargain at any price, let alone what you paid for him! A whole season of him banging in the goals, and you should have a great shout at promotion

[noikeee]

Oh noikeee that is hard to read .

Shocking choke in the playoff as you say - and now another season in the 4th tier with that level of debt. Its going to have to be a promotion season I would say. All the best!

Very unlucky with your team choking like that

Hope you get the promotion you deserve for the new season

Thanks. Finances shouldn't be that bad now that the board has injected a whole lot of money. And frankly most of it is the board's fault, why on earth do they give me a 93K€ wage budget when only about half of that would be realistic? I just spend what they give me.

Oh dear...it seems it's not just me who has a team full of chokers!

Quite a lot of teams have a mid-season slump, it's how well you recover from this slump that determines your fate for the season.

Well done on the Petrovic signing, a bargain at any price, let alone what you paid for him! A whole season of him banging in the goals, and you should have a great shout at promotion

Hahaha, I knew you'd say something about that. I'm even worse with promotion playoffs than your sides with continental trophies.

Petrovic was a great bargain, but for every Petrovic I'm signing 3 or 4 overpriced donkeys. The cheaper guys seem to perform better. :confused:

[Saxonaitor]

Good Career so far noikee but also a very unlucky one.

Playing attractive football sounds nice in my perspective, but I'd rather get results the gritty old fashioned way

[endtime]

I wish Paul Grischok played like that for my home team IRL.

[noikeee]

Good Career so far noikee but also a very unlucky one.

Playing attractive football sounds nice in my perspective, but I'd rather get results the gritty old fashioned way

But I don't see the two as mutually exclusive. In fact playing attractive football can occasionally be extremely effective, as Barcelona and Spain evidently have been proving at the very highest level for the past 3 years. What I wanted was to prove that some of those concepts could be adapted to become equally effective in the lower leagues.

I like results as much as you do and that's why I jumped ship back to a proven tactic at lower levels, when my new style crashed out. Even then, it's probably not a coincidence that out of the 4 seasons I did under the Barcelona-inspired tactics, the only time I failed horribly was in England. Where the players are used to a more physical style of play and the weather doesn't help. Perhaps I should've stuck with Kettering by adapting a few more of my principles.

I wish Paul Grischok played like that for my home team IRL.

Widzew Lodz fan?

2016/2017 season preview should be up soon.

[noikeee]

Unione Venezia 2016/2017 - season preview

A quicker post than usual as I want to hurry up to watch Portugal in the U20 World Cup which is starting any minute. It's been a quiet transfer window, partly because I'm reaching the ceiling of the quality I can bring to the Serie C2 (any better players and they don't want to sign), partly because I'm having big financial issues therefore wanted to reduce the monthly wages - so no more superstar signings.

However a superstar did leave the club: romanian Adrian Stoian finally left, on a free which left me a bit bitter but there was no way to avoid it. He's at Xerez now and valued at 100K€. Frankly he never quite lived up to his talents for my team, even got relegated to the bench the last few weeks of last season. Midfielder Bernardo Masini and left-back Francesco Zanardini left along with him on frees, while I sold a bunch of players for some actual money. Simone Ciancio, Valentino Ostieri, Momar Faye, Filippo Meluso and Simone Andrea Ganz are all gone and they gave me a total profit of 28,5K€.

I only signed 2 guys permanently and they're both full-backs. Alberto Massacci arrives as an alternative to the right, Luca Benassi to the left. I have more expectations for the following 3 loanees. Midfielder Andrea Raffaelli and defender Marco Gerardi have started the season very well indeed, while Manuel Ballarin doesn't look as good but should be a decent squad player.

So here's the squad:

So far, so good

Either I get promoted or I'm out of here, I'm getting impatient. But it's starting well. Okay, we did have a fairly disappointing 0-0 draw in our only league game so far, but the performance in the Coppa Lega Pro has been remarkable. 5-1 over Carpenedolo, 1-0 away to Montichiari, 4-1 over Serie C1 team Pergocrema.

Good news is I've reduced the wages to 84K€/month, a few months ago that figure was just above 100K€. But frankly I think I'd have to cut even further to stabilize the club. 196K€ right now in the red.

[Deisler26]

Dude, that sucks about the choke! Good luck on getting the title this season! If not, there's always Portugal

[noikeee]

Dude, that sucks about the choke! Good luck on getting the title this season! If not, there's always Portugal

Not really, the U20s played really poorly, I don't think the current generation of players is any special at all.

Back to FM, Enzo Lacalamita was on a rampage for me in the early months of the season. Here's 2 of his better goals, nothing wildly out of the ordinary, but nice to see:

[video=youtube;5qQVqAYVy2Q]

[video=youtube;eU5cE-8iDaI]

Should do a mid-season update later today.

[noikeee]

Unione Venezia 2016/2017 - mid-season update

Transfers

First let's take a look at a few extra players that have arrived since after the Summer transfer window - as they were all available on frees. Experienced winger Nunzio Di Roberto arrived on high expectations but has turned out to be a pretty bad flop so far. Full-back Antonio Ferrari is an interesting future prospect, already able to cover the DR and DL positions when the first choices are injured. The young left wingers Milos Bogunovic and Daniel Schobler are long-term investments, albeit the later seems already an interesting player.

As the winter transfer window opened, I sold two players. Fringe defender Paolo Cotroneo left for 2K€, while the young striker Gianluca Bastianelli was shafted to Vigor Lamezia for 26K€ without making a single game for the club in the 18 months he was with us. He is a good player but had no space in my squad and I was delighted to get such a high fee for him - our record sale so far.

League

It's very, very tight upfront, but I'm fairly optimistic as this is the time of the year my team typically enters a bad run of form, and it's not been as bad as the last two years. We've been between 1st and 2nd place all season long so far, and only failed to finish 1st going into the winter break due to conceding an away 1-1 draw with Bellaria in our last match.

I don't want to jinx my team but I think this time we're actually going to get promotion. I've been very very careful with team talks to prevent complacency or lack of morale, and my new assistant manager Christian Fickert has been a good help as he has got a 16 for Motivation.

Cup

No TIM Cup this year, but we've been having a wonderful run in the Coppa Lega Pro - particularly more so because I've been fielding my 2nd choices in right about every match. We've knocked out a few Serie C1 teams, most notably Pergocrema who I just keep on hammering despite the fact they got promoted and we didn't. I really enjoyed this 4-1 win over them.

Now we're into the semis, which is not going to be easy as we're facing Sorrento, who are 8th in the Serie C1/B.

Players

I don't usually post stats at this point of the season, but why the hell not, my players have been playing so well they deserve some attention. Petrovic has kept on scoring but the star so far has been Enzo Lacalamita, scoring even more than Petrovic from the AMC position. Paulo Miranda also kickstarted the season in superb form but has been on a bad run lately. Loanees Gerardi and Raffaelli have been wonderful additions to the squad. We've been struggling with wingers though, the veterans Korf, Grischok and Di Roberto being underwhelming, Quintulén playing far better as AMC than AML too, therefore I've already lined up some new faces to arrive next July...

Finances

387K€ in the red. The usual then.

Rest of the season

It's promotion or I am leaving. I'm confident we can go back to 1st place and get it directly, if not, well, I get yet another attempt at the dreaded promotion playoffs. But with a better, more confident team than the last two years.

[Deisler26]

Looking better this season! Fingers crossed you get the promotion this season!

[iacovone]

Looking good noikee - I can sense promotion

[noikeee]

Thanks.

This has definitely been a good season for goals:

[video=youtube;gz8auz3rDIM]

[video=youtube;78ypMUbmIv4]

[AK22]

Definite shout for promotion, don't bugger it up!

[B.W.G]

Good luck in your promotion chase.Hope luck is on your side this time

[noikeee]

Have not had much time lately to play and write (been busy partying and having fun with my holidays ), but this REALLY is a good season for goals. Here's 3 more just from the last 2 matches.

This is my fav, recorded as an owngoal due to a deflection off the defender, but spectacular nonetheless:

[video=youtube;fD449hgZzjY]

That was a very special match, more info on that later. For now, here's two goals from the league match away vs Tritium, off-the-post shot by Grischok and a first touch curler from Quintulén:

[video=youtube;aoDTyp0sIjY]

[video=youtube;Rr3rMYmVXiw]

[noikeee]

Unione Venezia 2016/2017 - season review

Transfer market

No news since the last update, the squad had no changes after January.

Domestic league

There were very little flutuations in form to talk about, which was great news. We didn't lose a single game from the 15th of January until the 14th of May, in fact only drew two matches in between. The fixtures list looked pretty green! With none of my opponents emerging as a strong challenger, the story of the second half of the season was an uneventful, dominant campaign towards the title. We clinched it with 4 games to go, and ended with a 13 points lead over Alessandria.

This was probably the biggest breakthrough in my career so far as I've long waited for a promotion to happen. It definitely was very important for my reputation: the day after the league finished, my profile went from "regional" to "national" rep.

Cups

(Supercoppa di Lega 2ª Divisione results)

Winning the league then gave us access to a mini-cup between the three divisional champions of the Serie C2, the Supercoppa di Lega 2ª Divisione. Bojan Petrovic had an insanely good match over at Siracusa, scoring 4 as we won 5-2, but we would then lose the very last match of the season versus Aversa Normanna. That meant Aversa Normanna won this cup and we came second.

(Coppa di Lega Pro results)

But wait a second, the league title was not even the biggest story of the season. As mentioned before, I had reached the semis of the Serie C Cup, where teams from the C1 and the C2 leagues face each other - and ours was the only C2 team left. And I was delighted to beat Sorrento 2-0 away, giving us plenty of room to mess up in the return leg. So we drawn 2-2 with a Tjeerd Korf brace, and we were through to the final, to face Spal.

And it did not start very well, as we were dominated at home and were somewhat lucky to salvage a 1-1 tie. The odds clearly were not in our favour going into Spal's home for the cup decider, but the most amazing thing happened as my team just seemed to get every shot right and went into half-time winning 3-0. Daniele Ragatzu scored two for Spal early in the second half, which got me scared thinking my team would choke again, but as I replaced my AMC for an extra DC, and Spal got a player sent off, there were no more goals. A 3-2 win meant we had won the cup!!!

I have a confession to make though - I replayed that match. Not intentionally, as I am absolutely against it and consider it cheating, however there was a major power cut over here right after I played it, and I didn't save the game. I don't remember exactly the result, but we had lost it. What was I supposed to do then, replay the game losing on purpose? So it's a bit of a hollow victory, but I'm sure my players don't mind.

Top 5 key players

(Full squad and stats)

5. Carlos Manuel (DR) - Rated low by the assman, but my aging captain had the season of his life with plenty of great performances. Not sure he's good enough for the Serie C1 though.

4. Paulo Miranda (AMR/AML) - Another good year for the portuguese winger despite fading a bit later in the year.

3. Bojan Petrovic (ST) - Not as good as last season, but still a very decent return of 19 goals. At a point Gaillard won the ST position over him, but it did not last long.

2. Enzo Lacalamita (AMC/ST) - Astonishing beginning of the season, fading later on, and having to divide his AMC role with the also spectacular Alexis Quintulén. Great year overall though.

1. Marco Gerardi (DC) - Superb season from the loanee as he proved to be the best player on the team, with an excellent 7.40 average rating.

Tactical watch

No news. Same tactics as last year.

Career overview

[b]Season     League (tier)             Other competitions                       Notes[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Praiense (Portugal)[/b]
2010/11    2ªDiv.Sul (T3) - 4th      Cup 4th rnd                              1st job, joined in June
2011/12    2ªDiv.Centro (T3) - 1st   Cup 2nd rnd                              Lost in promotion playoff
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Kettering (England)[/b]
2012/13    BSP (T5) - 7th            FA Cup 2nd rnd, FA Trophy 1st rnd        Joined in October
2013/14    BSP (T5) - 22nd *         FA Cup 4th Q rnd, FA Trophy 2nd rnd      Resigned in November
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Unione Venezia (Italy)[/b]
2013/14    Serie C2/A (T4) - 15th    Coppa di Lega Pro group stage **         Joined in December,
                                                                             won relegation playout
2014/15    Serie C2/A (T4) - 4th     Coppa di Lega Pro semi-final             Lost in promotion playoff
2015/16    Serie C2/A (T4) - 3rd     Coppa di Lega Pro 2nd round,             Lost in promotion playoff
                                    TIM Cup 1st Q. round
2016/17    Serie C2/A (T4) - 1st     Coppa di Lega Pro champions,             Promoted, won the double
                                    2nd in Supercoppa 2ª Divisione

* at the time of resignation
** played before my arrival

Future

This was by far the best season of my career so far, but the work is hardly done here as I now face not only a tougher division (and there are some excellent players in the Serie C1 aka Prima Divisione), but also a financial challenge, as we're 305K€ in the red despite all the prize money and attendance revenue from winning the double.

Hence, my goal now is to stabilize the club financially, then think about progressing again. We're about to sell a few bench players, keeping a tight eye on the wages (which have raised 25% for about the entire team due to promotion), and that should be enough to avoid relegation, as the Serie C Cup made me confident we can fight against the C1 teams.

Career-wise I'm thinking of staying at Venice for now as I'm enjoying this, albeit this was supposed to be a journeyman save. But I'm not signing any contracts longer than 1 year.

Old club watch

Kettering lost in the BSP playoff semis for the 3rd consecutive season. Praiense had their worst season in almost a decade, as they came 9th in the 2ª Divisão Zona Centro.

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

I'd appreciate a few nonsense comments just to get this to the 2nd page, as with the amount of screenies and videos I'm posting the page is getting far too heavy. Frankly I think 100 posts per page is too much, but it's the forum default for everyone... I may trim things down from here onwards.

[Deisler26]

Congrats on the title win dude! Think you'll stay up in C1?

[noikeee]

Congrats on the title win dude! Think you'll stay up in C1?

Would be very surprised to fail to stay up. The team was good enough to beat several C1 sides in the cup, I'm determined to keep all my stars, and I've just signed a great player.

[B.W.G]

Congrats on the title victory,hope you enjoy the experience of Serie C1

[AK22]

Great job getting promotion, good luck for next season

You can treat yourself to a shiny new gondola now

[Gizmo7]

I have a confession to make though - I replayed that match. Not intentionally, as I am absolutely against it and consider it cheating, however there was a major power cut over here right after I played it, and I didn't save the game. I don't remember exactly the result, but we had lost it. What was I supposed to do then, replay the game losing on purpose? So it's a bit of a hollow victory, but I'm sure my players don't mind.

That what they call it now?

Nah im kidding, congratulations on the promotion noikeee!

[kingjericho]

Finally you did it, congrats!

Don't worry too much about the finances, I spent 3 seasons with €1m in the red and I survived... but it's better if you can clear it, of course