FM12 Big Euro Nation: Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Also, if I don't take any of the clubs which come up from the CFA this season (I probably won't), can I "re-run" next season several times until a club I want to manage comes up next Summer? I think this should be OK as I would put myself on holiday so as to not interfere with any aspect of the game.

OUCH! That is just harsh, and it is up to you in how you tyake over a club either use a new manager to get the job available and apply, or just takeover with the new manager

[marty78]

AS CANNES - SEASON 2019/20

LIGUE 1

After last years second place finish we had funds to improve the squad with a couple of long term targets and after getting them both we never looked back. Lyon and PSG both tried to keep up but we were clear and deserved winners, sewing up the title with two games to spare. 93 goals scored compared to last years 65 makes it clear where the improvements have come. After securing the Ligue 1 title I became a club Icon alongside famous names such as Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Viera and also our very own Mads Neilsen and Denny Helmund.

Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Our first Champions League adventure saw us face some famous some of the Worlds most famous club sides. Man Utd, Juventus and Sporting were drawn in our group because of our seeding and that was always going to be a massive ask. Despite two losses to Man Utd we qualified after taking 6 points from Sporting and 4 from Juventus. The final group match saw us at home against the might of Juventus and, despite Juventus being disappointing this year, I was delighted to secure qualification with a massive 6-0 win. Our most famous result to date and may take a while to better.

The first knockout round drew us against the most successful club side of all time, Real Madrid. The first leg was in France and we battled to a 0-0 meaning we would need a score draw or even a win to progress to the quarter final. The second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu was a lesson for us as we crashed to a 0-3 defeat.

COUPE DE LA LIGUE

We reached our first domestic cup final this year and deservedly went on to beat Olympique Lyonnais 1-0 AET. I was delighted with Jansen's goal and to be fair we had dominated the match so it a just reward.

FRENCH CUP

Another disappointment with a tenth round loss to RC Lens. 0-0 but lost penalties.

TRANSFERS

We recouped what we spent with a bit of dealing and two of the signings were straight into the first team with the others being on the fringes. I still loaned in a couple to cover positions, mainly the defense. With some proper funds available the defense is the main area to be strengthened this summer.

Axel Jansen - Massive target man had been tracked for two years and finally arrived for £5.5m from Besiktas. His is a partner to Marc Mitchell up front and the pair have been immense and form a very good strikeforce. As well as his decent goals tally he is also the Ligue 1 top assist maker.

Rubén Dario Juárez - Got an injury almost immediately after arriving which hampered his settling in but got going slowly. Finished with the highest pass completion % in Ligue 1 which is very encouraging.

Diego Micillo - New number 1 keeper although there is little to choose between him and Hayesso.

SQUAD

Marc Mitchell - Ligue 1 player of the season would also have been top scorer if not for a little injury layoff. A terrific first full season for the young man. Has really flourished playing alongside Jansen.

Denny Helmund - Still the number one defender with another good season. Has become a French citizen after Germany failed to hand him a senior cap. He has now been capped by France.

Leonidas Basinas - After making a big decision selling Kern I turned to this guy to fill the gap in left midfield.

Mads Neilsen - Club Icon has been relegated to the bench for most of this year but still reliable cover.

Mathieu Chauvet - Young midfielder is one of the highest rated players in the squad in terms of potential and is a current first choice. I am hoping for big things from him over the next few years.

Yasir Ertem - After selling Ruiz this guy has filled his place while also providing cover in the center.

UNDER 19'S

Have taken five of this years intake on youth contracts:

Valentin Moulin - The highest rated of this years youth intake.

Cristophe Kapriélian - Potential for a leading Ligue 1 player and ambitious personality.

Jean-Yves Peuch - Leading Ligue 1 potential.

Laurent Dubois - Leading Ligue 1 potential.

Yann Da Rosa - Also Leading Ligue 1 potential. The weakest rated of those offered contracts.

FINANCES

We are in an excellent financial position following the summer transfer deals. We recouped what we spent and improved the squad in the process meaning we have a sizable transfer kitty for next year. The Ligue and the Champions League were worth over £30m in prize money alone. We do not need to spend money on facilities at the moment either after recent upgrades see us in good shape going forward.

[Andy Sava]

Holstein Kiel - 2021/2022

Season Overview

Manager Profile

League Finish - 4th

Media Prediction - 6th

Average Attendance - 14258

Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

Fans Player of the Year - Santos

Transfers

IN

Silva - <35(11) apps, 9 goals, 9 assists, 1 MoM> - Brought him as a backup for Paulinho but he got to play as a first team regular after Paulinho left.

Hugo Cano - <38(6) apps, 11 goals, 1 assist, 5 MoM> - My most expensive transfer ever as i wanted to make my defense stronger. He ended up being a key player for us during the season.

Jaguaré - <11(9) apps, 1 assist> - Signed him during the winter break because we were weak on the left side of our defense and he played in most of our games in the rest of the season.

OUT

Paulinho - <21(2) apps, 5 goals, 5 assists, 1 MoM> - As i explained in my previous posts i had to sell him to AC Milan so i would not lose him on a free transfer at the end of the season.

Bundesliga

League Table

Graph

Alot of ups and downs during the first part of the season. After the second part we managed to get to 2nd place and stay there until the last 4 games when we lost 3 in a row. Another year in 4th place and this is geting annoying. Again we lost points in games that we really shouldn't.

German Cup

Another year that we stop in the 2nd round of the cup. Won the first round 2-0 away at Bielefeld but managed to lose in the second round against Lubeck.

EURO Cup

FIXTURES

If the league results disappointed me i am glad that we improved in Europe by reaching the semi-finals of the EURO Cup in a succesfull campaign only losing one game away at Sevilla. The group stage was again pretty easy and we managed to get a 9-0 win against Steaua. The knockout stages were tougher than in last years but we still managed to get some pretty damn good wins.

The Squad

Key Players

Santos - <45(1) apps, 39 goals, 7 assists, 12 MoM, 7.48 Av R> - A true goalscorer. 39 goals in a single season and he made the other strikers that played for the club like children. He finished as 3rd goalscorer in the league.

Francesco Melchiorre - <37(2) apps, 22 assists, 3 MoM, 7.348 Av R> - Another wonderfull season from Melchiorre.

Hugo Cano - <38(6) apps, 11 goals, 1 assist, 5 MoM, 7.37 Av R> - First season and already a key player for us.

Paulo Ferreira - <48(1) apps, 5 goals, 2 assists, 4 MoM, 7.28 Av R> - Good season overall for Ferreira and together with Cano made a good defense during the season.

Luís Barros - <31(5) apps, 10 goals, 13 assists, 4 MoM, 7.24 Av R> - Not much to say about Barros, just another solid season from him.

Joel - <48(1) apps, 9 goals, 13 assists, 2MoM, 7.20 Av R> - He showed some progress in his play this season contributing more to the team than before.

Madson - <48 apps, 41 allowed, 23 shutouts, 1 MoM, 7.12 Av R> - Good season and a little progress from Madson too. He is still young for a goalkeeper and i expect more to come from him. He got the most shutouts in the league keeping the goal clean in 15 games. And he got his first international call up. From Germany...

Conclusions and plans for the future

We managed to stay close to Bayern for a while this season but we lost some easy games and had a really bad season ending so we just finished 4th again. I don't really know what else to try in our games against the easier teams as i already tried alot of stuff like changing the tactics, changing my pep talk etc. It's becoming frustrating.

I have Luis Lucero and Alessio Natale joining the club in the summer so this should give some more strength to our squad. I still have my eyes on some players but they don't seem to want to join us.

Our finances are still ok and the board planned to upgrade our training facilities this summer.

Kiel History

[b]Season             League                         Position                     Achievements[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7853130&viewfull=1#post7853130"]2012/2013[/url]          German Third Division          14th                         Avoided Relegation
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7877117&viewfull=1#post7877117"]2013/2014[/url]          German Third Division          9th                          N/A
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7887550&viewfull=1#post7887550"]2014/2015[/url]          German Third Division          1st                          Promotion & Third Division Winners
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7915217&viewfull=1#post7915217"]2015/2016[/url]          German Second Division         13th                         Avoided Relegation
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7916502&viewfull=1#post7916502"]2016/2017[/url]          German Second Division         2nd                          Promotion
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7923190&viewfull=1#post7923190"]2017/2018[/url]          Bundesliga                     14th                         Avoided Relegation
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7932142&viewfull=1#post7932142"]2018/2019[/url]          Bundesliga                     4th                          Qualified for Champions League, German Cup Winners
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7940981&viewfull=1#post7940981"]2019/2020[/url]          Bundesliga                     3rd                          Qualified for Champions League, EURO Cup Quarter-Finals
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7940981&viewfull=1#post7940981"]2020/2021[/url]          Bundesliga                     4th                          EURO Cup Quarter-Finals
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7951591&viewfull=1#post7951591"]2021/2022[/url]          Bundesliga                     4th                          EURO Cup Semi-Finals

Competition Winners

[b]Season          Bundesliga          German Cup          Champions League          EURO Cup                Euro Champ          World Cup[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/2013       FC Bayern           Stuttgart           R. Madrid                 Man City            
2013/2014       Schalke             Leverkusen          R. Madrid                 Olympique Lyonnais                          Scotland
2014/2015       FC Bayern           Koln                Benfica                   Liverpool
2015/2016       FC Bayern           Leverkusen          Man Utd                   Roma                    Belgium
2016/2017       Leverkusen          FC Bayern           Barcelona                 Sporting
2017/2018       FC Bayern           Hoffenheim          Liverpool                 OM                                          Belgium
2018/2019       FC Bayern           Kiel                FC Bayern                 Man City
2019/2020       FC Bayern           Koln                Man Utd                   Juventus                Germany
2020/2021       FC Bayern           FC Bayern           At. Marid                 Valencia
2021/2022       FC Bayern           Mainz               Barcelona                 Sevilla                                     Croatia

[marty78]

Andy Sava - Unlucky missing out on the Champions League spot but that was a tough run in and the Euro cup semi-final probably didn't help.

[Lenzar]

Going to give this a go, trying in Scotland. Got the game simulating season 1 now!

In case Queen's Park are my side, has anyone ever got to the SPL with them?

[danger_mouse]

End of Season Update - 2015/2016 - Alicante Club de Fútbol

Overview:-

Media Prediction - 20th

Actual Position - 7th - Graph

Finances - Overall

Average Attendance - 6000

La Liga: Fixtures 1 - Fixtures 2

Very optimistic about this season, i was expecting a very hard battle to stay in La Liga. The media tipped us for relagation, and only then did it sink in what we were in for. We started the campaign poor with 1 win in 5 games, by the time Christmas hit we were sitting in 10th place which was awesome but we were also on a winless run of 5. The second half of the season did pick up and we did manage to stay in the top half of the table.

The last 5 games of the season was the hardest run we'd had all year, and i was found myself fighting for the last Europa League spot, With only 3 points from 15 it was looking like had were about to miss out, that was until Malaga lost there last game and we sneaked in through the back door. Europa League next season it is then.

Copa Del Rey: Fixtures

We had a very good cup run this year which saw us beat La Liga winners Real Sociedad 3-2 on agg in the Quarter Final, but also saw us get smashed to Real Madrid 6-1 away from home and 1-0 at home.

All in all i am very please the team got to the Semi Finals.

Players: Players 1 - Players 2

Mariano Barbosa - Barbosa was sign as our No.1 keeper from Las Palmas for £650k and he proved his worth this season, and hopefully he'll in between our sticks for many more years.

Kyle Bartley - Another new signing and Kyle went straight into the starting 11 and has played well all season, scoring 6 goals in the process and also gaining his 1st cap for Jamaica.

Iuri Medeiros - Yet another new signing, i pushed the boat out with this one and paid £3.5m nearly half my budget for him, and worth every penny, Iuri has also been a regular in the Portuguese u21's.

Rodri - Our star from last season was again our star of this season, scoring 14 goals in 31 games.

Best Eleven

Transfer's

In's & Out's

We had brought in 11 players at the start of the season and released 10. Spending pretty much all of my budget and most of the clubs finances we notched up a bill of around £8m, but money well spent. 6 of the 11 were key players and the other 5 were to later play a big part of our season.

Other Club News

Manager of the Year Runner Up

Most Improved Club

New 22,250 Stadium Announced

Youth Facilities Improved

Fans Player of the Year

Next Season Aims:

• Improve club facilities.
  
• Push for Europa League footbal again.
  
• Improve current youth set up/players.
  

  Season   |    Division    |  Position  |   Comments
--------------------------------------------------------

[left] 2012/2013  |   Segunda B3   |    3rd     |
2013/2014  |  Liga Adelante |    4th     |  Lost in Play-Off Final
2014/2015  |  Liga Adelante |    1st     |
2015/2016  |    La Liga     |    7th     |  Europa League qualification, Copa del rey Semi Final
[/left]

[minisav]

Right guys. Got a new laptop and FM runs pretty smoothly so will be giving this challenge a go again. Germany is my challenge home so that is where I shall go. Might try for someone different from RB Leipzig though.

[Andy Sava]

Great first season in La Liga danger_mouse.

I'm having a great season beating everything that comes my way...except Bayern. And the thing is they are having a terrible season and i still can not win against them while playing at home.

[aldojags]

Andy Sava - unlucky missing out on top 3, but Euro Cup semi is a good achievement. What a season from your striker Santos, that is superb. I like the look of the 2 players you've got coming in too, the left back looks physically great, he'll be fine running up and down the wing all day. I'm interested to see the similarities in our saves, Belgium won the World Cup & Euro's in my save too! Scotland winning the World Cup though - that never happened! It's something I've noticed, SI have given us way more credit than we're due, Scotland are hopeless yet for some reason FM always makes us solid.

marty - just when I think you can't do any better, you go and win the league. Forget an icon, you should be a legend for what you've achieved and how fast, unbelievable. Good on you mate.

Welcome lenzar and good luck.

danger mouse - like marty, you are steaming through this challenge, to be sitting 7th in la liga so early is incredible.

minisav -welcome.

[aldojags]

Well that's the completion over for another season, got Man City in 1st KO round of Champ League, beaten 3-2 on aggregate. Another season goes by and my golden generation are all getting toward 30, I reckon I've got 2-3 seasons to complete until this lot are too old, then there's a complete rebuilding job on that I really don't have the funds for.

[rlipscombe]

ghostwriter - that sounds tough going mate. looking forward to seeing what you do next

Andy Sava - tough luck mate though 4th is still nothing to be sniffed at and you've really established yourself as a leading force in Germany.

danger_mouse - good season there mate. good luck next season.

marty78 - Wow. incredible mate. you'll have this challenge completed in a couple of seasons...

[minisav]

I have taken over at Wuppertal who play at the Stadion am Zoo which is nicely named.

Profile

Club

So yeah, looks a pretty solid club. Got 15k spare in the wage budget and a transfer budget of 26k :o

Looking to play a 451 to give me a solid base seeing as I have 3 solid players who could play at DM. Beat my reserves 3-1 in my first game without my first choice striker.

[PRDH]

Impressive progress being made all round.

marty - Great season, and impressive to get out of that group in your first CL attempt. No shame in going down to Real Madrid. Very encouraging for next season.

Andy Sava - Good solid consolidation in the league. It must be annoying to just miss out on 3rd like that, but the progress in the Europa League is, I think, encouraging for when you hit the big one. I can see a breakthrough season next time out. The margins are so small that a little bit more luck will see you challenging for the title.

danger_mouse - Amazing first season in the top flight. Hugely encouraging. If you can make the same progress next year you'll be a real force to be reckoned with.

minisav - Welcome aboard, good luck with Wuppertal. They look a nice club. Very good set up with the stadium and wage budget.

Lenzar - Good luck in Scotland. Not many people have attempted Scotland yet. If vikeologist wanders in he's the man to ask though.

aldojags - I wouldn't get too worried about the passing of the generation of talent you've got now. Often it's a good thing, it's hard to move on players who've been around for a long time, but the fact you've not won the CL yet means there is improvement to be made, and maybe the ageing will be the catalyst needed to push the squad to new, even higher standards.

[danger_mouse]

Andy Sava, aldojags, ribscombe and PRDH, It feels good to be back fighting this challenge, my last post was Jan 1st lol My team just doesn't feel as strong as last years challenge did at this stage but ill keep improving where i can and the new 22k seater Stadium will help me out loads too.

[Lenzar]

Already beginning to think Scotland is a no-go. As I'm Queen's Park, who are rather unique in their approach, but the best players are always going to get poached.

I'll try for a few weeks, but if things get bad, I'll try again in Germany or Italy.

Danger_Mouse - It's a shame they didn't name the stadium after you. I'd quite like the idea of visiting a stadium called 'The Mouse Hole'

[danger_mouse]

Already beginning to think Scotland is a no-go. As I'm Queen's Park, who are rather unique in their approach, but the best players are always going to get poached.

I'll try for a few weeks, but if things get bad, I'll try again in Germany or Italy.

Danger_Mouse - It's a shame they didn't name the stadium after you. I'd quite like the idea of visiting a stadium called 'The Mouse Hole'

Hahaha now i have another 20 years to wait until we can build another one, but i like 'The Mouse Hole'

And ive heard Queen's Park can never become a Professional club, its hard coded into the game.

[PRDH]

Hahaha now i have another 20 years to wait until we can build another one, but i like 'The Mouse Hole'

And ive heard Queen's Park can never become a Professional club, its hard coded into the game.

Are yes, the twenty year wait. I'm currently nineteen years into mine. Hopefully the board come through with a monster to allow me to start making money again without selling players.

[Lenzar]

I give you My profile and Team Overview

About to play my first proper game, in the Scottish League Challenge Cup (why are there so many cups in Scotland?) against Patrick Thistle.

[aldojags]

Thistle are my team Lenzar so whilst I hope you do well in the challenge I won't be sad to see the Jags win! Hahaha

[ghostwriter]

Lyon Duchère Association Sportive – Championnat National – 2015-2016 (aka how I managed to get sacked)

The Summer

Pretty quiet until 2 things happened, 1) my German winger went to the Euro U19 Championships and I decided to scout (or invite for a trial) any unattached players there, that resulted in 4 players arriving and 2) my European scout discovered Portugal, nearly a whole team of great players found there, of which I signed 4, 2 of whom became 1^st choice players. Apart from that, the only other arrival of note was an ST I stole from the club he was on trial at.

The Autumn

A fine start as we picked up 13 points from our 1^st 4 games before one defeat was followed by 17 points from the next 7 games. Rouen were equally on fire but we were 2^nd and safely in the promotion places at this time. Then we went to mid-table Orléans and were inexplicably utterly trashed, 5-1. Out the cup in the next match and then one point from the next 2 games and we were definitely in a blip. We were down in 3^rd and our final match of 2015 was at home to 2^nd placed Istres. And there followed the most unexpectedly one-sided match I have played for a while – we had 28 shots at goal and the only reason we did not scored hoards was there gk. That meant we ended the year in 2^nd, albeit only 4 points ahead of 4^th.

The Winter

Nobody left and only 2 backup GKs and a great ST on a free from Africa arrived. The year started solidly with 3 wins and 2 draws from the 1^st 5 matches until we lost another home match, this one to Gazelec. That did not appear to cause us too many problems as we won the next 3 to put miles clear in 2^nd and seemingly on course for promotion

The Spring

This is where things went wrong, very wrong. The 1^st sign was a 4-2 defeat at relegation threatened Dunkerque, the 2^nd was losing 3-0 at leaders Rouen, the 3^rd was losing 4-1 at promotion chasing Le Mans, the 4^th was losing 3-0 at home to mid-table Orléans. Oh dear. 14 goals conceded, 0 points gained and in 4^th we were. And despite a win in our next match, things did not get any better. I won’t go into too much detail but we won 1 of our last 7 (overall 2 of our last 12) and plummeted from the promotion spots to very average mid-table, miles away from the certain promotion we were looking at 2 months previously. And these weren’t even close defeats; we conceded 4 goals 4 times and 3 on 3 occasions. I can’t really blame injuries or suspension, we were just **** basically.

So we finished in 9^th place, which is the lowest we were in all season. Well, that was pretty horrific. 7 points from our last 12 games is probably the worst ever finish to a season I have had in FM. We conceded a goal a game in our first 26 matches; we conceded 30 in our last 12. That is impressively bad! I can’t entirely blame our defence as it is not as if we were rattling in the goals at the other end either. It is pretty pathetic, we have one of the best squads in the division and this is what we do, clearly I am at fault somewhere here as well. We really should have gone up this season and given that I expect some of our better players to leave, I foresee issues next season. Great .

Final Squad

Finances – not entirely sure but we actually made a profit this season, think there must have been a cash injection from the board at some stage but I have forgotten about it

Transfers – Campagne was good (to begin with), the 4 from the U19s are more for the future but Leinau should be fantastic, amongst the arrivals from Portugal, Bruno and Agu were very solid 1^st choices while Diallo is going to be great although it does mean I do now have far too many STs

The players who started off the best and faded the least:

Best GK –Marcel Ngouadjio – did not convince half as much as I would have liked him to, was solid to start with but lost his form so much during the end of season run that I dropped him twice, unfortunately his replacements were even worse(!), however I have faith so he will start 1^st choice next season unless a superstar becomes available

Best Defender – Jacopo Galimberti – 3^rd season here and his best by far, never really lost him form and contributed with a few goals as well, however he is off back to Italy in the Summer, kind of my fault as he was willing to sign a new contract but he wanted a hefty wage increase so I thought I would wait a while before offering him the money, I waited too long, initially I was not too unhappy as I thought we would get promotion and be able to get better players, however I am now not happy about this at all as I doubt we will have anyone as good as him next season

Best Defensive Midfielder – Mikel Ndubusi Agu – the most successful of the 4 imports from Portugal, was not looking for a new DMC but he is far better than the one I had so in he came as 1^st choice, had a slow injury-prone start but once he settled he was very solid, another who did not really lose too much of his form at the end of the season, more of the same please

Best Attacking Midfielder – Rafik Bouderbal – [exact copy and paste from last season] the usual, our best player and one of the best AMCs in the division (in team of the year), loads of assists and although a few more goals would not go amiss, I shan’t complain, some back-up would be nice as we are nowhere near the same team when he is out and he was a little injury-prone last season, like Benhamida he is one of the only original players still here

Best Winger – Achène Ouahchia – a ridiculously good start, nearly an assist a goal for the 1^st couple of months, inevitably slowed down a bit and then unfortunately a bit more towards the end of the season, he is improving his attributes week on week and he must be one of the best wingers in the division and, to be honest, if I had a 21yo this good and still improving in my squad in the top flight I would not complain, I really hope I can keep him

Best Strikers – Killian Campagne + Hamed Touré – the former did little but score in the 1^st half of the season which was what he was there to do, however, he faded quite considerably in the 2^nd half, not certain to keep his place in the coming season, as for the latter, he was pretty solid all the way thru although a few more goals certainly would not go amiss

Notes:

• We finished 3^rd in our U19 group, level on points with Bordeaux and ahead of 3 L1 clubs, promising for the future
  
• First season where we had no home matches postponed, just the one away one for, of course, a waterlogged pitch
  
• We finally sold a player, our backup Belgian AMC went back to Belgium last Summer for £40k, odd, especially as he had just signed a new contract, but he would have hardly played given all the Summer signings at MC so I was certainly very happy with that
  

This Season’s Aims

• Sort out the left side of the team – NO(not this season anyway) – not one player who could even play with any ability at DL or ML was signed in the Summer, given the start we made that was not much of an issue but I think at least a few more quality alternatives would not have gone amiss, part of this was, however, solved a few weeks ago as a brilliant Cameroonian (released from African club, of course) has signed up, he is by far the best DL at the club and can play at ML as well
  
• Concede fewer goals – NO – 10 more conceded, oh dear, but that was principally down to the final games
  
• Promotion! – NO – until about game 30 this was going not badly, and then, well, you know the rest...
  

Next Season’s Aims

• Keep the stars of the team – if Ouahchia is here next season then I will be very happy, if I can keep Amadou as well plus the STs then great
  
• Concede fewer goals – should definitely be achievable!
  
• Promotion! – I am taking this end of season to be an anomaly and that normal service should resume next season and we shall play more like the start of the season rather than the end, and if we don’t get promoted after our 5^th season here it would start to get a bit embarrassing especially given the quality of our squad
  

12/13 – National – 10^th

13/14 – National – 10^th

14/15 – National – 5^th

15/16 – National – 9^th

Team I Would Like To Play Every Week – Angers (17^th, relegated) (A2-0, A2-0), Raon-l’Etape (13^th) (H3-0, A2-1), Cherbourg (11^th) (A2-1, H4-1)

Team I Would Not Like To Play Every Week – Orléans (9^th) (A1-5, H0-3) – really, really bad...

Anyway, as I mentioned, this was all written out before pressing “continue” after our last match. And pressing “continue” gave me the following message! Oh...

Yes, I told them I would get promoted this season, which was because a) I thought I would and b) I needed the wage budget and yes, 9^th is a long way from 3^rd but come on, 10 games ago we were in the promotion places and 5 games ago we still had a chance of going up. And on top of that, the media prediction was for us to finish in....9^th! There were no warnings, they were happy with my management at the end of last month, no nothing, just that message. I am pretty shocked at this to be honest. Sacked for finished 9^th seems pretty unreasonable to me, if I had said I would win the title, I could maybe understand it a bit but not this. Plus I would not have written this whole report if I thought I was going to lose my job!!

Anyway, I guess I had better find another club.

The 4 promoted clubs consist of:

• Calais - admissible and started the game in CFA2
  
• Red Star - out as they played 1^st season in National
  
• Rodez - admissible as they were relegated before the game started
  
• Romorantin – out as they got promoted to National at same time as Lyon
  

Out of those, I would choose Calais and they could be interesting as they evidently have a lot of money (I paid one player more than £500p/w, they have 21 players on over £1000p/w!!), are professional (hence the high wages), have a national reputation plus a great stadium. And on top of that they have a couple of fantastic players I already know about plus probably several others that I don’t know about. My job would be much easier there than it was in Lyon!

Before choosing them, I think I will holiday thru the next season a few times to see if any other interesting teams come up next Summer, if not then I will go with Calais...

...TO BE CONTINUED...

[marty78]

ghostwriter- Some real bad luck there pal. Good luck next time.

Danger-Mouse- I am pretty sure that most newly built stadiums can be extended to double the size. I am not sure if that is always the case but, from what I've seen, it seems to be.

Lenzar and minisav Best of luck in the challenge.

aldojags. Unlucky drawing Man City. After facing Man Utd and Real Madrid last year I know just how good these big sides are. Different class.

[siLKEAPE]

Pre-season 2020/21

We are in a very good financial state, and the board is constantly upgrading our facilities. Our players are developing and young talents seem to want to play for us, it’s good times in Pontedera!

Season goals:

1-quarter finals in the CL

2- final in Coppa Italia

3- retain the league title

Summer signings:

ST – Alberto Fabi : Record signing of 13m£. Followed this player for a couple of years, and with 1 year left of his contract I was able to get him. We have a lot of future Italian internationals in our team with Fabi’s arrival.

DMC – Marius Gauthier : This solid DMC was meant to be cover for our captain Valentino Flavi, but as he impressed so much in training and in friendlies I tweaked our formation to fit them both. He arrived on a free from Lyon as his contract was running out.

DC – Arcangelo Martinelli: Arrived on a free from Lazio as his contract was running out. Described as a wonderkid and dubbed the new Giorgio Chiellini. Will definitely get some playing time this year.

Promoted to the first team:

GK – Edwin Mebratu : Great talent. Steady progress in training might earn him a few games this year, or I will perhaps loan him out for first team experience.

[danger_mouse]

Danger-Mouse- I am pretty sure that most newly built stadiums can be extended to double the size. I am not sure if that is always the case but, from what I've seen, it seems to be.

Well if that is the case then im sure i can manage with our 22k for now and then 44k for the next 20 years =]

[aldojags]

silkeape - those signings are mouthwatering, Gauthier for me is going to be one of the best defenders in world football, he looks stunning. Your keeper looks like he'll be a star too, bright future for you mate!

[aldojags]

I'm bringing this guy in for £3.6m in the summer, what do you think?

Technically, he's stunning, I reckon if I train him up physically, I'd have a top player? But my mate was looking at him there and thought I'd bought a mug, got me worried! I think there is definite potential there.

[danger_mouse]

Id say your mates jealous, Id say tutor him so his determination increases, try and train his balance and strength and you'll have a world beater.

[siLKEAPE]

silkeape - those signings are mouthwatering, Gauthier for me is going to be one of the best defenders in world football, he looks stunning. Your keeper looks like he'll be a star too, bright future for you mate!

Thanks aldojags, my scouts are really doing their job! Gauthier sure is going to be a giant for me, he is already a "model professional" aswell.

[Missioner]

Anselmo looks promising aldojags. I'd personally intensively train his tactics with balance trained as an individual training focus as I like my players mentally strong.

Wonderful signings there silkeape. Gauthier's my pick thanks to his versatility.

[minisav]

Just beat top to go joint top 2-0 at home. Stuff you Munster! The season didn't start too well with a 3-0 loss. Got offered a 39 year old German GK immediately afterwards who was out of contract who has shored things up immensely. 16 games in I've conceded only 7 goals which includes the 3 goals in the first match! Strikers sharing the goals pretty evenly which is nice. Not too reliant on one player. If we go up I've not really signed too many new contracts as the quality outwith the first team is poor so will be looking at a clear out and a lot of wages to play with. If I don't go up I still have the space to improve the team to make sure I go up next season. Win win really.

[rlipscombe]

Minisav - good luck with Wuppertal. Solid club there.

Lenzar - good luck with Queens Park. Be a tough but interesting challenge with it not being possible to go pro with them.

Ghostwriter - reading your season review it still seems harsh to me you were sacked. Yes you promised promotion (which is something I never do) but you rightly thought that it was possible. Without the rotten run of form I am sure you’d have been fine. Calais sounds like an intriguing club to take over but it’ll be interesting to see if any others crop up.

silKEAPE - Fabi looks like a promising young striker. Should do well for you. Martinelli does looks to be a promising player who will do well with the right development. Good luck with them.

Aldojags - to me he looks like he’ll be better suited to the wing. I would have paid that to gamble on him and as you say with some strength training he COULD be a cracking player.

[minisav]

Cheers. It's what attracted me to them. A stable base but not too far like Leipzig can be. Also, I really like the colours.

[aldojags]

What do you guys reckon to the PPM "hits first time shots"?

Ilan Roger, whose got all the credentials to be good at this, has it as a PPM. But he rarely scores, shoots early as it says, and possibly wastes moves by shooting when he should pass. He's got good finishing long shots first touch technique etc, so I'm reluctant to untrain, but it's frustrating watching so many wasted attempts, when he rarely scores.

[Missioner]

A certain website marks finishing, technique, anticipation, composure, creativity, decisions and flair as key attributes for this PPM aldojags, which is a reasonable judgement. Roger's flair is a bit lacking but that just means amazing shots are low on his list, doesn't it? I'd say his technique and his first touch needs to go up to about 16 (his is 14 for these in the last screenshot I found) to be "amazing" with this PPM. I'd say keep it to avoid wasting training time knowing his injury problems myself. I assume he doesn't sit deep so he has plenty of opportunities in range with this PPM, yes?

[aldojags]

missioner - no he doesn't sit deep, played as adv forward.

Yeh I think I'll leave it for now, thanks for advice

[Dr Poods]

DR POODS - USL DUNKERQUE SEASON REPORT 2015-16

End of Season Report

9TH FRENCH LIGUE 1

Club Icon

THE SQUAD

The Squad (1)

The Squad (2)

THE RESULTS

We had a wage budget of 39,000 pounds. We had no transfer budget. We had debts of 14 million. We came 9th!

Another successful season in which we had some very good results. We beat PSG away in matchday 1 and never looked back, pretty much floating between 8th and 11th all year. No-one absolutely killed it, but we have Gabriele Ivani to thank (see awards) for a lot of our success. In his first season, he was the club leading goalscorer and along with Yann Kermorgant (retired) gave us the vast majority of the goals we needed. We did have a chance of 7th to finish the year, but some average to poor results gave us the highest ever Dunkerque finish. After this season, I became a club Icon (which is nice).

The only thing that is really aggravating me is our abysmal performances in the cup competitions under my watch. Yes, I believe the league is more important, but we need to start making a mark on the cups for several reasons. First, I think it would be a boon to our reputation if we were able to win a cup and also it gives us European competition which will help to get a wider range of quality players to fill some holes in the lineup. CB being a glaring one. Still, I don't think anyone could have guessed that we would finish in the top half (I certainly didn't), and we have basically wiped out the debt. The board have accepted an increase to youth recruitment and junior coaching which may be of benefit in the future.

9th in Ligue 1

League Position Chart

Results (1)

Results (2)

Results (3)

Obviously (to me anyway), the squad as a whole wasn't quite up to what was expected in Ligue 1 and required a lot of spring cleaning. With 16 players in and 21 players out it was a busy transfer market for us. Interesting was the case of Isaac Donkor. Was signed at the start of the season as a future starting centre-half, but at about the mid point of the season started continuously moaning about not being in the team. Every game day (almost), he demanded his contract be torn up and in the end I agreed. One of our other CB backups did the same thing and left. We don't do whingers up here! Kurtovic, Won-Jae, Nardini and Ivani were the best apart from the evergreen Yann Kermorgant, who retired at the end of his only season for The Doves.

Transfers - 16 IN, 21 OUT

THE DR POODS' PLAYER AWARDS

As usual, I will be giving four players special recognition for their achievements this season.

First up is the young striker Ivani. Had a great first season and was the club leading goalscorer. I am bringing in/ have brought in some real quality up front, but I still expect him to be leading the line next season.

Ivani

Kurtovic was signed as a full time starter and RB for the next decade. And he did not disappoint with a 7.07 average from 31 apps. Had a bit of a card problem, but that always happens with the way I set up the team.

Kurtovic

For a little man (5'8''), Kim Won-Jae was a rock in goal for Dunkerque. Conceding 40 goals in 34 games he had a fantastic debut term and his attributes have improved a lot since he arrived. 40 goals may sound a lot, but given our injury woes in the heart of defence, I am surprised it was not more. Also, some of you may know he is becoming a cult favourite of mine, so expect to see him here again!!

Kim Won-Jae

Finally, Yann Kermorgant was signed to be an experienced attacker who scores and aids the younger players development. He delivered in spades and I am slightly saddened that he chose to retire at the end of the year. As you can see, his attributes are still good enough to get a game, but he is now a handy coach, who we will consider offering a contract.

Kermorgant

THE DUNKERQUE TEAM AWARDS

Tralka - Fans' Player of The Year

Best XI

Overall Best XI

THE FINANCES

1,850,152

The Finances

Profits Announced

Prize money, monthly profits and TV money worked to our advantage as we struggled to get our finances under control. We have delivered in this area, with our debt dropping by an astonishing 12.5 million over the year. With the wage budget going from 39,000 to 49,000 (approximately), we should be able to make a big profit again this year. This is dependent on careful use of the 4m+ transfer budget I have been given.

LIGUE 1 AWARDS

This is the only award we picked up this year.

Manager of The Year

Here's hoping we can keep moving up the table, but the goal is top half and hopefully if things go right, we can snare a European place.

ALLEZ DUNKERQUE!

[vikeologist]

Lenzar - Like other people have said, maybe Queens Park will always be an amateur team, so it might be almost impossible to achieve the challenge with them. Even if you get any good players, another team would be able to sign them for free whenever they like. Not just now; forever. I was warned off queens park at the start ofd the challenge, and I'm fairly certain no-one else has even tried it this year.

However, I'm not sure if it is hardwired into the game. Maybe if you get them promoted once, they'll be able to go at least semi-pro, and then the challenge may even be a little easier, because of the ground capacity, but in my game they were promoted to division 2, and I don 't think they went semi-pro. (Unfortunately this change doesn't appear in History landmarks, and I didn't keep a save opf either their promotion or relegation seasons, which perhaps unsurprisingly were consecutive). If they ever did go semipro, they're back to being an amateur club now.

So although I'll be interested to see what happens with your save, it may save you a lot of frustration to re-run the first season and go with any other team, none of whom will have this problem. (If you save the game a few months before the end of the season, you should be able to re-run it so someone else finishes bottom.

[marty78]

Queens Park will always be amateur. It is hard coded.

Dr Poods- Well done. 9th with that wage budget is amazing. I had a higher budget at the start in the National.

[Lenzar]

vikeologist and marty78 - Thanks for the advice. I'm going to jack Queen's Park in (a shame, they have excellent youth facilities for SFL3 level).

I'll restart with another SFL3 team later today.

[minisav]

31 matches in and 11 points ahead. Looking good. However, my next match shall be played with no senior strikers as they are all injured

[Dr Poods]

Queens Park will always be amateur. It is hard coded.

Dr Poods- Well done. 9th with that wage budget is amazing. I had a higher budget at the start in the National.

Ha ha, thanks marty78. I am pretty pleased. Spent about 4 million before the season. Will this departure from the norm work? All I know is I got some damn fine players!!

[Andy Sava]

So the other teams made a pact when they noticed we can't lose and in the end Leverkusen injured Santos and now he is out for 6 weeks.

Well done Dr Poods finishing 9th.

And yey my board is building a new stadium.

[Lenzar]

This time, I am Annan Athletic.

Manager Overview

[danger_mouse]

Good luck Lenzar.

[Lenzar]

Ugh..they definitely need to fix realism for amateur/semi-pro clubs.

When I was Queen's Park, I signed a Turkish scout. He was obviously getting nothing.

Now, as Annan, he wants £100s a week!

[minisav]

I second that, you'll need it in Scotland! Last year I got to the Prem, before giving up iirc. It may be considered a 'big' nation but trying to win the CL is as difficult as most of Gundo's leagues.

[aldojags]

dr poods what a fantastic season on such a modest budget. To have pretty much cleared your debt and finished top half has to be considered a phenomenal season. Your right back looks fantastic, same with my right back, has got around 15 yellows in each of the past 3 seasons.

[Lenzar]

Didn't expect this at all, even though we played well.

Lost in the League Cup to Dunfermline, though.

[minisav]

EoS report to pop up at some point tonight.

[Andy Sava]

Holstein Kiel - 2022/2023

111 years of waiting

Season Overview

Manager Profile

League Finish - 1st

Media Prediction - 7th

Average Attendance - 14228

Fans Player of the Year - Hugo Cano

Transfers

Luis Lucero - <29(3) apps, 17 goals, 6 assists, 5 MoM, 7.48 Av R> - He replaced Paulinho on the left side of my attack and he did it very well for a first season with us. He quickly became one of my key players and it shows from the goals he scored and from the fact that he was named in the Team of the Year.

Alessio Natale - <40(2) apps, 4 assists, 1 MoM, 7.13 Av R> - I needed a left fullback and Natale was the perfect guy to get. A good first season from him and i expect more.

Neal Evans - <6(2) apps, 3 goals, 1 assist, 6.99 Av R> - He was offerd to me by an agent and i got him so i have a decent backup for Santos. Played a few games while Santos was injured and he did well.

Esteban Mansilla - <2(7) apps, 6.58 Av R> - I payed 1.5M Euros for this youngster and i am not sure if i made the right decision. I thought that he would make a good long term replacement for Caceres. Now only time will tell if it was a good deal or not.

Bundesliga

League Table

Graph

Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

It's been 111 years of waiting for Kiel fans all over the world but the day has finally come, the day when Holstein Kiel is crowned as Bundesliga champions!!! It's been a long and hard season and there were moments when it seemed like the other teams are catching up with us and we will lose the battle in the end. But no, not this time! Only losing to Bayern, Dortmund and Shalke all season, we managed to stay at the top of our game and conquer Germany. However, in a season where we scored 82 goals (2 less than Bayern) and only conceding 32 goals (we had the best defense in the league), FC Bayern still came away on top in both games. It scares me knowing that in Champions League i will most likely have to beat teams as strong, if not stronger, than Bayern.

Now comes the hard part. Defending our title!

German Cup

I don't think it's even worth writing about this anymore. We lost in the 2nd round again, this time against Hannover.

EURO Cup

FIXTURES

The group stage went well again only losing one game away at Lille after we had a 3-0 lead. The fotball gods gave us Fiorentina in the 1st Knockout Round and we lost the first game away 2-3 and got a 1-1 draw at home. This ended our European adventure this year way to early compared to previous years.

The Squad

Key Players

Santos - <33(2) apps, 30 goals, 17 assists, 9 MoM, 7.78 Av R> - I really can't say anything about Santos except that he has been sensational once again. He will surely become a legend for the club if he manages to keep this up. He came up 3rd in the Top Goalscorer competition behind 2 Bayern strikers.

Francesco Melchiorre - <36(1) apps, 1 goal, 20 assists, 6 MoM, 7.58 Av R> - Team of the Year player and another great season for him. His Physical stats are just...awesome.

Hugo Cano - <44 aps, 10 goals, 8 assists, 5 MoM, 7.49 Av R> - Another Team of the Year player for our side. Improved on last season's performance and i am very happy with him.

Luis Barros - <39 apps, 17 goals, 9 assists, 6 MoM, 7.29 Av R> - He was also named in Team of the Year and did better than last season. Great season for him.

Joel - <42 apps, 18 assists, 7.16 Av R> - Good season for him contributing with 18 assists overall. I can't see me replacing him unless some sensational player comes our way.

Madson - <40 apps, 42 conceded, 15 shutouts, 6.96 Av R> - He became a regular for Germany after last season and has 11 caps so far for them. Brazil's loss i guess.

Players to watch

Silva - <18(16) caps, 14 goals, 2 assits, 4 MoM, 7.22 Av R> - I'm watching his development close because he might replace Barros soon, after he completes his training for the AMR position.

Conclusions and plans for the future

We won the title now we have to keep it. The board has agreed to build a new stadium which will be ready in april 2024 and after completion i hope this will help get a little bit more money. Germany also got an extra place for Champions League this season.

Kiel History

[b]Season             League                         Position                     Achievements[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7853130&viewfull=1#post7853130"]2012/2013[/url]          German Third Division          14th                         Avoided Relegation
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7877117&viewfull=1#post7877117"]2013/2014[/url]          German Third Division          9th                          N/A
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7887550&viewfull=1#post7887550"]2014/2015[/url]          German Third Division          1st                          Promotion & Third Division Winners
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7915217&viewfull=1#post7915217"]2015/2016[/url]          German Second Division         13th                         Avoided Relegation
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7916502&viewfull=1#post7916502"]2016/2017[/url]          German Second Division         2nd                          Promotion
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7923190&viewfull=1#post7923190"]2017/2018[/url]          Bundesliga                     14th                         Avoided Relegation
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7932142&viewfull=1#post7932142"]2018/2019[/url]          Bundesliga                     4th                          Qualified for Champions League, German Cup Winners
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7940981&viewfull=1#post7940981"]2019/2020[/url]          Bundesliga                     3rd                          Qualified for Champions League, EURO Cup Quarter-Finals
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7940981&viewfull=1#post7940981"]2020/2021[/url]          Bundesliga                     4th                          EURO Cup Quarter-Finals
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7951591&viewfull=1#post7951591"]2021/2022[/url]          Bundesliga                     4th                          EURO Cup Semi-Finals
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279094-FM12-Big-Euro-Nation-Small-Club-to-Big-Club-Challenge?p=7955671&viewfull=1#post7955671"]2022/2023[/url]          Bundesliga                     1st                          Bundesliga Winners, EURO Cup 1st Knockout Round

Competition Winners

[b]Season          Bundesliga          German Cup          Champions League          EURO Cup                Euro Champ          World Cup[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/2013       FC Bayern           Stuttgart           R. Madrid                 Man City            
2013/2014       Schalke             Leverkusen          R. Madrid                 Olympique Lyonnais                          Scotland
2014/2015       FC Bayern           Koln                Benfica                   Liverpool
2015/2016       FC Bayern           Leverkusen          Man Utd                   Roma                    Belgium
2016/2017       Leverkusen          FC Bayern           Barcelona                 Sporting
2017/2018       FC Bayern           Hoffenheim          Liverpool                 OM                                          Belgium
2018/2019       FC Bayern           Kiel                FC Bayern                 Man City
2019/2020       FC Bayern           Koln                Man Utd                   Juventus                Germany
2020/2021       FC Bayern           FC Bayern           At. Marid                 Valencia
2021/2022       FC Bayern           Mainz               Barcelona                 Sevilla                                     Croatia
2022/2023       Kiel                Mainz               Barcelona                 At. Bilbao

[siLKEAPE]

Congrats on the title Andy Sava!

Must be amazing to watch Melchiorre play, does he have the "knocks ball past opponent" preferred move?