FM12 Big Euro Nation: Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I have noticed that a few teams have changed their Unique IDs, but not a large number, is it just some teams not showing? or All of them?

Thanks Biscotti, I had a moment there

[DodgeeD]

All of them at the moment unfortunately Maybe I'll try moving it again

[StellaF1]

Quick update on my brief progress with Seregno.

The Serie C Cup has started well with Seregno finishing as best 3rd placed team and gaining a place in the first round, Group B

After the performances in the cup i was confident going into the first few league games. However after 5 games this is the League Table

With our current position in the league and the fact my only 2 main strikers (who i thought would be really good) have scored 2 goals in total i'm not very confident of a decent finish any more this season.

Next up is second placed Venezia.

[DodgeeD]

All of them at the moment unfortunately Maybe I'll try moving it again

All sorted now. Just forgot to untick 'Use skin cache'

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Sweet Dodgee that was going to be my next question lol

Well Stella, at least you are above relegation, just keep pushing forward

[Ohanzee]

Casa Pia Atlético Clube - Season Review 2012/13

1st in Second Division - Central (pred: 11th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph

League - Second Division (Central)

It all began a bit nervy as we lost 2-1 away to Benfica C. Branco. A team I was really hoping to beat with them also being newly promoted. We played well in that game though and really didn't deserve to lose. After winning comfortably 3-0 at home in our next match and then hammering Cinfaes 9-0 it was all rainbows and butterflies. Ofc I made the rookie mistake of telling you lot about the 9-0 and went on to draw two and lose one of the next 3 league matches.

We had a great run of good results before Christmas though, and come January we were sitting top of the table with a 5 point margin. Then one of our main men until that point, Walter Portugal, managed to tear his hamstring and was out for 3-4 months. We started losing points here and there and let Aliados Lordelo back into the fight for 1st place. When we lost 2-0 to them away, leaving us 3 points behind them, I thought it was over. With only 5 matches left we needed them to slip up twice as results between teams count before goal difference. We won our 5 matches in great fashion though and Lordelo did slip up, giving us the place in the playoffs for promotion.

The other two teams in the playoffs were Trofense and Farense. Farense won their group (South) fairly easy, but it's also one of the easier groups, probably on level with our Central one. They are also a newly promoted team, but some of you may recognize their name as they have been in the top division not that long ago. Trofense on the other hand surprised me and beat Boavista to the 1st place of their group, (North), arguably the hardest of the 3 groups.

1st match, Farense away - Being underdogs I told the boys there was no pressure on them tonight. They responded well and we were 1-0 up at half-time, and deserved to be. Pavlovic scored his 2nd for the night after 66' and even though Farense pulled one back we got a vital 3 points.

2nd match, Trofense home - We were even bigger underdogs in this one, even if it was a home. The boys made me proud once again though and held on to a 0-0 draw. Actually, held on don't do them justice as we really could have nicked a winner having 2 clear cut chances to do so.

3rd match, Farense home - Encouraged by recent performances I decided to tell the boys I expected to see some passion in this match. Miguel Salomon took my words a bit to literally as he managed to get sent off only 4 minutes into the game. I was gutted and thought for sure that was it. As half time came and it was still 0-0 I told the boys we were unlucky and tried to convince them the pressure was off now that we were down to 10 men. They literally lit up like bright lights and went out there and gave me an amazing 2-0 win.

At this point we were 3p clear of Trofense, but they hadn't played their 2nd match against Farense yet. For some reason I got it into my head that only 1 team is supposed to be promoted from this division, but then a message in the lower left corner of my screen popped up saying "You're Up!" Apparently two teams get promoted, and having beaten Farense twice we had already secured 2nd place before our final match.

4th match, Trofense away - Now being a completely unimportant match I told my boys to just relax and have fun. Two early goals made it 1-1 at half time, and I told them I was happy with what I'd seen so far. We scored just 3 minutes into the 2nd half and another 2 quick ones in the dying minutes of the match giving us a 4-1 win. An amazing result away from home against a really good side.

So we won our playoff group and were promoted together with Trofense. Farense even beat Trofense in their last match, so we were safe all along. Happy days!

Cup - Taca de Portugal (fixtures)

3 away wins against one non-league side and two other 2nd division sides put us in the 4th round against Premier League side Naval. We weren't played off the field or anything, but they deserved their 1-0 win, despite us handing it to them when we had a man sent off early in the 2nd half. Good performance overall.

Squad (players)

All free transfers and mostly players that already had experience in the Portuguese league system. The ones that deserve a mention of their own is the triangle up front (I play a narrow 41212). Walter Portugal (AMC), Wellington (SC) and Pavolvic (SC) really did their job scoring 48 goals between them.

Overall I'm most happy with our attackers. We scored more goals than anyone else. Our defense wasn't bad either, 1 goal a match isn't to shabby. But we made lots of schoolboy mistakes giving the opposition easy tap in goals. Definitely one part of the team that needs some improvement, as is the goalkeeper. I kind of have my doubts that to many of these players will be able to give us another promotion though.

Club - Current and future

Well we got promoted, that's a huge step. Other than that everything about the club is still crap, in lack of a better word. Financially we're not good, £250k into red is bad at this level. Our average attendance was 911 this season. I'm hoping to double that now that we're promoted. There's not much I can do about facilities at this point for obvious reasons.

As for the future. I'm just really happy we managed to get through the playoffs. Hopefully we can stay up and maybe even push into mid-table with some new signings. Our decent performance against Naval (Premier League) in the cup was very encouraging. Looking at this seasons table in the Second League, the top two teams didn't really have a high points total and we'll need around 30p to be safe.

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

[b]SEASON	LEAGUE	POS.	T-CUP		Europe		NOTES[/b]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[b]12/13[/b]	2DC	[url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/CasaPia/s1tab.jpg"]1st[/url]	4th round	-		Promoted
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

[b]Portuguese Second Division (Central)[/b] - [url="http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/TommiHelm/CasaPia/s1tab.jpg"]12/13[/url]

[Biscotti]

Very quick going there Ohanzee, and a very secure climb to the next level. That playoff really is one of the more challenging things about Portugal, so as long as you don't get sucked back down you should be able to start the rise to power now

[Lower Leagues Rule]

An excellent season there Ohanzee, great to see a promotion can happen, well played in Portugal. That attendance is just horrendous, you'd think leading the way you are you'd have a better crowd. Nice work by the front three, but I am amazed they lasted the season with Stamina like that Good Luck avoiding relegation in the Liga Vitalis.

Also now uploaded some more French games to the first post, there are now 7 available teams in my posts, and I am attempting to holiday some more through as well (I may load a game without the CFA as well, just so that option is there too)

[DodgeeD]

Great job on getting promoted Ohanzee. :thup. my experience of Portugal is that getting to the top flight is easy enough but getting into the European places once you're there is really tough.

[Biscotti]

An excellent season there Ohanzee, great to see a promotion can happen, well played in Portugal. That attendance is just horrendous, you'd think leading the way you are you'd have a better crowd. Nice work by the front three, but I am amazed they lasted the season with Stamina like that Good Luck avoiding relegation in the Liga Adelante.

Also now uploaded some more French games to the first post, there are now 7 available teams in my posts, and I am attempting to holiday some more through as well (I may load a game without the CFA as well, just so that option is there too)

I'd be shocked if he was now playing in the Liga Adelante

Something tells me LLR probably needs to get some sleep

[Amethyst21]

Academico de Viseu F.C. 2012-2013 Season Report

A quite remarkable season as we walked the league easily, being confirmed as Second Division(Central) champions with 2 game to play. A stout defence (best in the league) was probably the key for the team this season. We sneaked out about 6-7 1-0 victories where we would defend like lions, go up the pitch and score with one of the few good chances created. Not a pretty style, but certainly an effective one. Worryingly we were somewhat poor against the better sides in the league and our strikers never seemed to hit good form, however with goals coming from just about every other position, we had more of a goalscoring by committee approach.

However in Portugal only 2 teams are promoted from the Second Division from 3 leagues so we went into the promotion playoff with Trofense and Oriental.

First game against Trofense (A) we went 1-0 down in the first half, but came back through a goal from our winger Baio. Trofense only had one shot on goal and they scored on it However, good away result

Second game was against Oriental (H) we went up through Nion who broke a terrible goal drought. Oriental had all sorts of possession but created few chances. We went 2-0 up on a free header by Silva off a free kick and the game was essentially over.

Third game against Trofense (H) a large crowd witnessed a stunning comeback from 1-0 at halftime. Viseu rallied to 2-1 only to get our keeper sent off (no highlight, really?) and witnessed the young keeper Luis make a class 93 minute save to preserve the victory!

We were up!

We also added in a decent cup run, reaching the 4th round of the Taca de Portugal before being dumped out by Second Tier team Leioxes

Players of note:

Nion - Our big Uruguayan striker didn't score a lot, but what he did provide was an outlet to hoof the ball to, always key in the lower divisions.

Maurinho - Was already at the club when I arrived, imagine my surprise to find a former Brazilian international at the club. While his best days are clearly behind him he was solid at RB and chipped in with a number of goals.

Abdou - The pick of the midfield, though he lacks some key physical attributes he's an excellent technical player at this level

Assis - A keeper we picked up midway through the season, he showed his class immediately collecting a number of clean sheets. Has the number 1 shirt on lockdown

Simoes - A great left back at this level. Being retrained to play right back as I have other good LBs

Tiago - Club captain and also a left back. Scored possibly the best goal of the season, a stunning shot from about 35 yards that hit the crossbar and the post before crossing the line. Unstoppable

Silva - Our rock at the back. Young, solid, will be key to the club as long as we can hold on to him

Youth in - all carp

Transfers

Finances - Looking pretty dire at the moment, leaked money during the season, though made a profit on some of the ending months. Still something to watch for

Madiera stunning won the top league by a point, their first ever League championship.

A final note as the team plays in a black kit, and the referee is in black, it often looks like we have 12 men on the field!

[Almondo]

Great seasons there Ohanzee and Amethyst. Hopefully you can both stay up next season.

[Charlesbeams]

Afyonkarahisarspor

Manager

Profile

Personal

Team

Overview

Information

Squad

Team Report

First Season

Expectations: Avoid Relegation

Wage Budget: £2.3k/£14.43k

Transfer Budget: £12k

Background: Founded in 1967, Afyonkarahisarspor are a professional Turkish club currently playing in the Turkish Second Division. The club play their home games at Afyon Ataturk and poses fairly basic training facilities and very basic youth facilities. The club also has fairly basic junior coaching and an average youth recruitment network.

With no real competition history of note, Afyonkarahisarspor are a club with a trophy cabinet waiting to be filled. Afyonkarahisarspor finished runners-up in the Turkish 4th tier in 2007 and 2011.

Apparently they were founded in 1967, but the badge says 2005...hmm. Picked them because of the name. Let's hope things go a little better this time round, if not i'll leave this challenge for a while and start something else.

[Twellman24]

Two reports, to promotions...damn! Oh well, off you go lads

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I'd be shocked if he was now playing in the Liga Adelante

Something tells me LLR probably needs to get some sleep

Haha, yeah not getting enough sleep, 15 month old + New FM = not much

[DodgeeD]

Keçiörengücü: From the heart of Turkey to the top of Europe

After many reloads, I finally/nearly got what I was looking for. I say finally as I was after a team from the Turkish capital Ankara other than Hacetepe (they have too big a rep - where would the fun be in that) and I say nearly as I was hoping for Ankara Demirspor, a founding member of the Turkish league, who haven't played at the top level for over 30 years. They didn't comeup so I plumped for a different Ankara side: Keçiöregücü.

We play at the 5,040 capacity Aktepe Stadium in the north of Ankara and have been placed in the Turkish Second Division Group B. The media doesn't give us much of a chance predicting us to finish rock-bottom and go back from whence we came. I am now scouring the transfer market in an attempt to prove them wrong.

No Ankara team has ever won the title in Turkey or made it to the Champions League - my goal is to change all of that!

Manager Personal Screen - started with a 'Sunday League' rep

Manager Profile

Club Overview

Club Information

[Ohanzee]

Cheers. And yea it's called Second League in the game, but I believe Liga de Honra is the correct name now? Anyways, we got some great news to help us stay up. We've turned professional! That's a shocker for me. I was sure we'd need another promotion. Best news ever!

In other news, I got the "Shrewd Spender" achievement - Gain 90% board confidence in controlling the clubs wage bill. Think that's a first time ever for me.

Amethyst21 - Congrats and well done!! Looks like we had very similar seasons. Good luck at the next level!

Charlesbeams and DodgeeD - Best of luck in Turkey!

[Amethyst21]

Looks like some interesting Turkish clubs!

Ohanzee Also turned professional, now the killer is getting all the players onto professional contracts, fortunately none of them have agents yet so that keeps the fees down quite substantially!

[Biscotti]

Ohanzee - Liga de Honra is correct as far as I remember (it was named Liga Orangina in FM11, which was the 09/10 sponsor from what I can work out). Pretty sure I turned pro at OBSC when we reached that level too, so it might be a requirement as opposed to anything else.

Amethyst21 - Congrats on promotion As I said for Ohanzee's, I think that promotion is one of the hardest parts of Portugal. I had a similar problem with OBSC and black kits last year. Good luck going forward.

[Ohanzee]

Also turned professional, now the killer is getting all the players onto professional contracts, fortunately none of them have agents yet so that keeps the fees down quite substantially!

I'm having some real trouble with that atm actually. Most of my squad only recently signed new contracts and don't want to enter new talks. Those that do wants to double or triple their wages. That would cripple my £4.9k wage budget and not allow me any new signings, so I'm gonna put it on hold until I see what my scouts find.

[Long Islander]

Congrats to Ohanzee & Amethyst21 on your quick promotions. As for me and Clyde, it'll take me quite a long time to complete a season. Clyde has one more friendly to go. 4-3 in FRs. Lost only 2-0 to Aberdeen after pundits predicted a cricket score. One match that counted saw Clyde tie rival Division 1 Hamilton 3-3 and lose a shoot out in the Challenge Cup.

[Amethyst21]

I think I found a bit of a gem

Krivokapic

Nearly fell out of my chair when he trialed and than signed for us. Should be pretty tidy in this league!

[Flashman\'s School Days]

Well my first pre-season is over in Russia and it didn't go brilliantly mainly because I was attempting to sign people but the transfer window doesn't open until 10 days before the first league game. So the 11 players that I had agreed to sign haven't had long to gel before the first league game of the season and unfortunately they had already missed the cup game that I was scheduled for. We lost 3-0 and I think they were unlucky to not score more because a lot of the original players that I had were poor.

All but one of the players I signed came in on trials despite being surprising that they wanted to come at all. Welkinho, who looks awesome at such a young age, was being looked at by Khimki and as soon as he came to me on trial I offered him a contract, of course after he joined in the transfer window he promptly got himself injured in training and will be out for the first month of the season. I then got an agent offer for a 19 Gabon international who was without a club, with attribute masking he didn't look any great shakes, however, the coach reports when he got to the club said he was better than anyone we currently had so on board came Beka. Also two internationals came to me after being released from other Russian clubs, Hong Yong-Jo didn't even near to the maximum I could offer in wages despite coming from the Premier Division so took him on and Serghei Dadu had been in the league that Torpedo had just been promoted from. The only other worthy mention is Alexandr Panov with a record of 17 caps and 4 goals for Russia, although he is know 36 so is there very much as a positive influence.

Ohanzee and Amethyst, well done it looks as though Portugal could produce the goods to complete this challenge and Ohanzee its always good to go Pro early.

Charlesbeams and DodgeeD I hope you both enjoy success in Turkey.

[Amethyst21]

Looks like you've got the United nations starting there in Russia Flashman!

[danger_mouse]

Well after a shakey first 6 games P6 W2 D2 L2 we took on Castilla away, Castilla had players such as Sergio Canales, William Le Pogam and Joselu and had P6 W6 so far, We took the lead after 20mins only to be 2-1 down after 40mins, We went into the break level at 2-2, Telling the guys at half time that there was no pressure on them we go and score 3mins after the restart and as Castilla were pushing for a draw they give a penalty away in the 76min which we score, and run out deserved 4-2 winners.

[Twellman24]

We play Alicante, hold them off for 80 minutes, then Dudek injured, red card to one of my CB, and 0-1 in the 89th minute. We're playing with fire here. 2 and 1/2 months without a win.

[Flashman\'s School Days]

Amethyst I'm also representing, Estonia, Ukraine, Tajikistan and Armenia. Not too bad for one transfer window I don't think.

[Almondo]

Just found out that my board are quite generous in where I can actually scout. As well as central Europe I can scout England, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Okay Mr scout off you go to England for now.

[DodgeeD]

Off to a better than expected start with Keçiörenspor. 5 games in and we have a record of won 4, drawn 1 making us one of only three unbeaten sides left in our group.

Oct 2012 Table

[global1]

ROTOR VOLGOGRAD

Season 2 2013-14

End off season review

Ryan Wright

League

11th out of 20th struggled all season before a strong end saw us pull away from relagation battle. Really stuck in a hole with this team in mega debt now (£650,000) and wage budget cut to only £10k per week and with all that spent had max wage to offer of £50 per week. Had no defence and tiny squad. So no surprise we struggled. Went out of the cup in 6th round on to Spartak Moscow.

Board are happy with the efforts this season.

Star player

Sergey Popov

Once again the star man smashing in 26 goals in 39 games. God knows where we would be without this guy. He also scooped top scorer award forsecond year running

All goals coming from the right wing position as well. Look at his stats.

Oliver Etame

Slowly getting bet but not hitting the heights expected. 10 goals from 31 games for the developing 22 year old.

Alexander Markhiev.

Free signing popped up with 10 goals this season. At only 19 he is our most valuable asset at £400,000

Total transfer spend

In Nada

Out £130,000

Summary

Shocker of a season couldn't do anything the loan system is a nightmare here and had to put up with no defence. Think the game me be up as don't see any way to get money unless i can sell a player for around 1/2 a million. will see what the board do at start of the season if the wage budget is cut again not much point in going on.......

[Almondo]

Peña Sport F.C. Season Review 2012/13

League Table, Position Graph

Transfers, Current Squad

Finances

League

The season was one of ups and downs but al in all was a good one. Despite having a lot of runs where we'd not grab a win in five or six games we'd then string together 2 or 3 wins and a few draws together. This form meant we finished 12th in the league and ensured our survival. The main gripe I had about the league was the fact that none of the strikers could hit a barn door from five paces, this meant that the top scorer for Peña was a centre back. However this will hopefully change for next season especially with a few signings already made.

Key Players

Carlos Garde. The clubs top scorer this season. he has been strong at the back but could have been better.

Igotz Garde. The second top scorer for us this year, he has also been good at the back with Carlos

Dele. The young Nigerian keeper did well for us. He kept us in a few games throughout the season.

Summary

So all in all a good season but there is a lot of work to do if we want to gain promotion, however I am confident we can make progress next season. The one worry is being £400k in the red but that's one of the pitfalls of the lower leagues.

Season     |  Division           | League Position  |   Copa Del Rey  |    Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13    | 2nd Division B2     |      12th        |      N/A        |    Stayed up

The 100 Club

This section will be for those player who gain over 100 appearances and/or goals for the club while under my management. this is League and cup competitions

Player         |    Apps   |     Goals     |   Years between
---------------------------------------------------------------

[RyMaX]

Played my first competive match in the Challenge Cup away against Second Division Airdrie United. Went down to 10 men when one of my defenders got shown a straight red just before half time. Expected them to belt us after that. Instead we held on and then nicked a late winner. Get in as they say.

[Almondo]

Peña Sports F.C Pre season report September 2013

Transfers

Pre Season results

Lagun Onak 3 - 4 Peña Sports

Scorers - Weuts(2), Menga, Vanitou

Peña Sports 1 - 2 Ossasuna

Scorer - Kortina (U19)

Peña Sports 0 - 1 Mirandés

The pre-season games weren't bad but we could have done a lot better.

All in all I'm happy with the squad and am excited about a few of the acquisitions made. The starting squad for this season is:

GK - Eloi

DR - Soto

DC - C. Garde, I. Garde

DL - Jimenez

MR - Gomez

MC - Txitxo, Puente

ML - Jorgito

ST - Menga, Weuts

Edit: Is it strange that as I watch Dolly Menga run at a defence I shout "Go on Dolly Mixture"?

[Twellman24]

Haro - 2012/13

• I would have done a more in-depth report, but never mind 'cause we're relegated. We were for 90% of the season outside of the playoff spot, and two games before the end of the season, we fall in and have to play it. The "relegation playoff to third division" turned out to be against Ejido, who three years ago was in the Liga Adelante. Sure.

Anyway, we lost 5-2 on agg, so we're out . I don't know what I feel like doing now. We'll see.

PS - Really f*****g annoys me to see people getting promoted right away and I can't even stay afloat. I know it shouldn't, but it does.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

That's harsh Twellman, I get those feelings sometimes too, even if I don't get relegated, but when I spend 4-6 seasons just attempting to get out of the bottom division and in that time some people have already run away and beaten the challenge. To me though its all about the fun I have doing it. Looks to me like your defence is the thing to work on, you conceded more goals than anyone else, while scoring more goals than anyone else in the bottom section.

I would suggest when you first start at a new squad trying to find a couple of good central defenders, and maybe a good Defensive Midfielder. For the front and sides you can generally find a few guys with skates on their feet (Really Fast Usain Bolt kinds) and they will do the job, but you really need solid defense at the back during the lower leagues as it can make a huge difference when no one else can stop goals either.

I made a few posts in the old thread (FM11) with other tips as well, I find that for me I just sign frees with a few key attributes in each position season one, and my preseason takes me a good 5-6 hours to play, which is probably equivalent to what it then takes me to get to February. Once you have your core eleven make sure you only sign more players if they are better than the ones currently on your books.

[Twellman24]

I was just venting--I do enjoy this challenge, part of the reason why in the past two editions, I have played a combined 40-50 years with both FM10 and 11, not to complete the challenge (or win anything) in either year.

It's not the winning the challenge that bothers me, it's the getting relegated and basically, wasting all those hours in a team when I have to pick another one now. That's all.

i do agree that I tend to sign loads and go from there, without really looking what I am signing beyond obvious stats. I already have a new team (kept the save going), so I'll post preseason soon.

Thanks for the encouragement LLR.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Sweet bring on the new team, good luck Twellman, lets build through Spain together. Up to about mid-November myself, I am waiting for the axe to fall, my team seem to be doing alright, I am surprising myself. Though have suffered a couple of terrible defeats the rest has been a shock so far...It may be because I have made a real concerted effort to focus on the morale and make sure its always going up lol.

[danger_mouse]

global1 - Hate to admit it mate but you may have to become a selling club in the first few seasons to keep out of the red, i think im in the same boat now.

[PRDH]

Season over. For me at least. What seems to be a marathon promotion playoff league in Portugal is still going. Gives me some time to get screenshots while the big guns battle it out.

[PRDH]

Lusitânia Açores - 2012/13

At a Glance

Finances | Lost money

Transfers | Big changes

Squad | Small squad

League | Graph | Avoided relegation

In Depth

Finances | £221,428

Unsurprisingly this was a season of steadily losing money. I admit I went over the wage budget. Only by a couple of hundred a week. But never mind.

Transfers | 15 in, 16 out

As is to be expected I made wholesale changes to a squad lacking in quality and depth. I went someway to sorting out the quality, depth was another matter. We had a perilously thin squad and in hindsight were pretty lucky with injuries all season. Only having a couple of dodgy ones this year, and those to some of the players I could actually replace.

Squad | Pleased with my squad. They did all I expected, avoided relegation. Here are the players who made a difference this season.

Ricardo - The goalkeeper. He's not a good player, but was good enough to keep us in the league.

Ricardo Santos - Woeful positional sense, but some solid other defensive stats gave this guy a starting place for most of the season.

Edson - If he was slightly better in the air I'd like this guy. He was back up defender this season.

Daniel - My strongest centre-half. Has a habit of falling over (he may be the Swiss Titus Bramble in that regard) but had a good season all told. Someone to build around for now.

Antonio Marcos - Full back who played well this season. Decent stats in a number of areas mean he is a very useful player at this level.

Alex Kakuba - Started as first choice left-back but was replaced by David Castro, and it saw an upturn in our fortunes.

David Castro - Not technically a great player, but came in at the time we improved as a squad. Not sure how much was down to him, but he did what was needed.

Diego Jardel - Good player. Scored some great goals and was generally one of our better players.

Diego Barrios - Decent passer of the ball. Pity has no physical attributes at all. Still, did well.

Januario - Decent left winger. Another who can progress this club's cause.

Ricardo Catarino - Ditto for the right wing.

Lucas - Strongest striker. Not prolific, but then no one was. Scored the goal that kept us in the league. Another to keep around.

China - Technical striker, scored some good goals, again, a pity he doesn't have better physicality.

League | Predicted 12th | Finished 12th

As the graph above shows, this season was all about avoiding relegation. We spent a big chunk in the mire, but hopped out at the right end of the season, and it's the finishing position that counts. Time to try and build on this success and push on for mid-table obscurity next season. With such a short season, at least in terms of the initial league, a few wins in a row can see the league table change entirely. It's certainly going to be interesting!

Cup | 1st Round

Nothing of note. First competitive game of the season and we lost it. No glory to be had here for quite some time I'd wager.

Story so far...

Season		League			Position		Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13		Second Division - South	12th			Avoided Relegation (just)

[danger_mouse]

PRDH - I take it your league doesn't decide positions on goals conceded first? Otherwise it may have been a different story.

[PRDH]

danger_mouse - No, thank goodness! Results between teams then away goals scored, then goals scored. My rivals scored more away goals than I did. Eek!

Edit - Hmm, this season could be tricky. I couldn't renew many contracts at the end of the season due to not being able to offer more than £35 p/w to any players. Now trying to rebuild on those same wages. It'll be tricky!

[danger_mouse]

Wow that does seem extreme, £35 p/w, who could you possibly sign for that?

[Charlesbeams]

So pre-season is over for Afyon and it went fairly well, 2 losses against Premier Division sides and a draw with a First Division side. Then 5 wins against non-league or 2nd Division sides. Now to carry on the good form into the league, which i couldn't do last time with Pacy.

I've only brought in 5 free transfers and loaned a player, trying to only get them for positions i really needed them for, not just getting any old player because he was fairly decent or the scouts said he was good.

Edit: 10 minutes into my first game and my new striker get's two yellows

[PRDH]

danger_mouse - Not many, no many at all. I can assure you! Still, I think I've filled out my squad with players at least as good as last season. Fingers crossed!

[DodgeeD]

So pre-season is over for Afyon and it went fairly well, 2 losses against Premier Division sides and a draw with a First Division side. Then 5 wins against non-league or 2nd Division sides. Now to carry on the good form into the league, which i couldn't do last time with Pacy.

I've only brought in 5 free transfers and loaned a player, trying to only get them for positions i really needed them for, not just getting any old player because he was fairly decent or the scouts said he was good.

Edit: 10 minutes into my first game and my new striker get's two yellows

Good luck with Afyon Charlesbeams. Did you know that Afyon is famous within Turkey for its Turkish Delight (the real stuff and not the rubbish sold tourists)?

[Charlesbeams]

Good luck with Afyon Charlesbeams. Did you know that Afyon is famous within Turkey for its Turkish Delight (the real stuff and not the rubbish sold tourists)?

Cheers, I saw something about Turkish Delight on the Afyon wiki page and I quite like Turkish Delight (stuff from the UK), so that's pretty cool. Wonder if i can buy some from there, online maybe?

[Britrock]

I noticed venezia were available last year, is that the case again this year? I'm tempted to get fm12 for this challenge if I can play as them...

[Charlesbeams]

I noticed venezia were available last year, is that the case again this year? I'm tempted to get fm12 for this challenge if I can play as them...

I almost started as them, so yes they are playable

[rlipscombe]

made it through to the end of pre-season now so update will follow later. fairly happy although i do have weaknesses in my squad. great progress by you all.