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Gundo's FM16 European Adventure Challenge™


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Fastbasher: Hungary is not kind at all to you :thdn:

Taunton: Good luck :)

Cheers. I will also like to say that a team in Norway is almost doing the Gundo challenge for real now. Jerv has won straight promotions from division 3 to OBOS-ligaen (second highest division in Norway) and will this saturday enter a play-off against rivals and neighbours Start for a place in next years Tippeligaen. So the challenge can be done irl as well.:)

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Cheers. I will also like to say that a team in Norway is almost doing the Gundo challenge for real now. Jerv has won straight promotions from division 3 to OBOS-ligaen (second highest division in Norway) and will this saturday enter a play-off against rivals and neighbours Start for a place in next years Tippeligaen. So the challenge can be done irl as well.:)

Good luck in Wales,:thup:

The Jerv rise is great to see.:cool:

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If they get promoted they should have a plaque in the stadium with your name on. "Inspired by Gundo" or "in Gundo we trust":lol:.

:lol: Yeah! It's great to see though, I remember reading 'the miracle of castel di sangro' many years ago, it was a brilliant read and would inspire you do one of these small club to big club challenges for sure.

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Just completed my first season in Norway and I got relegated on the final day. I was playing as youth only type save, so no signings allowed. You see this is why i dont do an introductory right up when I start!

Oh well back to the drawing board...:(

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If it is any comfort I lost my first six games and was near getting the sack. Have turned it around slowly and are now 11th of 12 teams. I am still in the relegation zone, but as long we are not dead last the board is happy. It shall not be easy.:)

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Very brave Gundo. Tough luck on the relegation. But the good news is, there's always another opportunity.

Good Luck Taunton. I haven't have a season with a good start yet. Actually, probably not a good omen.

Thanks Fastbasher. And congrats beating us and reaching the Euros. Well deserved.

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The League

What a rush. We headed into the winter break in 18th position and 4pts from safety. I signed 5 first team players in the January window to try and catch up.

At first things didn't go too well and we slipped to 20th. I thought relegation was a dead cert. Then in April, while in 19th position, the chairman offered me a new contract. In the past, they've sacked me at this stage. Our two main strikers started firing and we went into the final game in 18th position on 36pts, with Diósd in 17th with 38pts.

We managed a win against Honvéd, while Diosd could only draw, giving us safety on goal difference only.

The Players

Roland Erdős was one of four promising young players signed from our parent club, Győr. He hit the ground running with two goals in his first game, then was out injured for three months with shin splints.

He came back to help avoid relegation and finished as top scorer with 17 goals from 25 games, plus another 9 in the under 19s to help them reach 5th in their league.

The good news is that he extended his loan for another season.

Tibor Lazckó was just recovering from 8 months out with cruciate ligament damage. But I decided to take a chance on him as my (relatively) big money move in January and signed him for 30.5k GBP.

He repaid me with 11 goals from 21 games and despite playing only half a season, was the fans favourite. His value has even increased, so I'm sure I could get that investment back.

I raided my former club, Cegléd, signing keeper Géza Barna and defender Ferenc Kovács.

We also got some international experience from 36yr old right back Pál Lázár with 15 caps for Hungary and 33yr old keeper Dénes Dibusz with 3 caps for Hungary.

Career Summary


Season     Team          League          	  Position         Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Monor         Div II                   N/A              Sacked in 19th mid season
2017/18    Tatabánya     Div II                   15th
2018/19    Tatabánya     Div II                   2nd              Promoted
2019/20    Tatabánya     Div I                    3rd
2020/21    Tatabánya     Div I                    N/A              Europa League 2nd Round Qualifier. Sacked.
2021/22    Cegléd        Div II                   17th
2022/23    Cegléd        Div II                   N/A              Sacked in 20th mid season
2023/24    Veszprém      Div II                   17th

Note: Screenshots retaken after season reset as I accidently hit fn+f9 instead of alt+f9

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Afan Lido - 2016/17 Season - 5th

No complaints for a first season!

League - 5th was a fair position in the end. In the first half of the season we looked like we might be pushing for the title for a while, until the goals started to dry up. The key thing was finishing in the top half when the league splits after 22 games, guaranteeing us safety early on. The only disappointment was failing to qualify for the Europa League, losing out to Bala in the play-off final in a game we should have won. I did manage to beat TNS on one occasion though!

Cups - a standard cup performance for me, not getting far in either. Losing out to TNS in the Welsh Cup was to be expected, but losing to lower league Carmarthen in the WPL Cup was frustrating.

Transfers - first season upheaval - I ended up only playing one of the original players in the first eleven, and he was probably the weak link.

Key Players

Rhys Wilson - probably our best player, was rock solid between the posts and won us a lot of points across the season.

David Evans - played better than his attributes would suggest as an advanced playmaker in centre midfield, was voted player of the season by the fans.

Ariel Mrownski - our attackers started off in amazing form, but tailed off towards the end of the season. Mrowinski was our top scorer from the right wing

Finances - as expected, losing money very quickly despite being well under my wage budget. Experience tells me that qualifying for the Europa League is very important, as you are guaranteed £210k just for showing up.

Next season - continue to develop the squad; I'm in the process of deciding who should get a new contract at the moment. Qualifying for the Europa League is the priority.

Season     League     Welsh Cup     WPL Cup     Europe
-------------------------------------------------------------
2017       5th          4R            2R          -

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Wow. Excellent first season Jaskar. It looks like you did qualify for Europa Cup to me.

I've only just realised this! Since Bala had won the Welsh Cup as well, the final Europa League spot went to me as the runner up in the playoffs.

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Great first season, Jaskar. I am struggling for survival in my first season in Wales so I am very impressed. Good luck in Europe!

Thanks Taunton. Already finished in Europe unfortunately! Knocked out in the first qualifying round but got £214k for participating. In the whole of previous season we made £168k, so I've passed this at the start of July this time around. Should help to pay for a coaching course or two...

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We won the treble!!!!!!

(you'll have to look closely to find it)

The League

The season followed the same pattern as the second season with Tatabánya. We started poorly, then went on a decent run and eventually achieved promotion with two games to spare and won the title with one game in hand. My former club Monor managed to come up with us. I'm a bit worried how easy the AI finds it to get these challenge teams promoted.

The similarities with Tatabánya were uncanny. The higher club reputation, better facilities, senior affiliate, position rise mirroring improving youth in senior affiliate.

As much as I'd like to think we have a good team, we couldn't have done it without the six loans from Győr. The improvement in the team performances was a direct correlation to the improvement of these youngsters.

Under 19s

The final margin might have been close, but the team lead for pretty much the whole season and had some high scoring games, including a 10-0 win and an exciting 7-7 draw.

They also won the Under 19s Cup

This under 19s team was actually a lot stronger than either of my senior teams at Monor or Cegléd.

I'd like to claim we have a Class of '25 that will be the backbone of the team for a decade or more. But the truth is that the key players were all loanees from our parent club.

Credit for their success should go to Olivér Nagy, our right wing from last season who retired from playing to become our new U19s manager.

The Players

Tibor Laczkó was once again a top performer and fans player of the season for the second year running. 17 goals, 10 assists, 7 player of the match, and he was also made our captain. I turned down two offers of 37k for him.

18yr old László Dajka, one of our loanees from Győr, had an amazing season of growth. 11 senior goals, 35 goals in the under 19s, a regular in the Hungarian under 19s team and made his debut in the Hungarian under 21s.

Unfortunately he refused to extend the loan deal despite our promotion.

Dénes Dibusz, our international keeper had some brilliant performances between the sticks which were worth a few points. He is retiring at the end of the season, but a decline in form leads me to believe we would need an new keeper for division one anyway.

The worry now is that the affiliate link will be cancelled and success in division 1 could be largely based on finding a new senior affiliate.

Career Summary


Season     Team          League          	  Position         Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Monor         Div II                   N/A              Sacked in 19th mid season
2017/18    Tatabánya     Div II                   15th
2018/19    Tatabánya     Div II                   2nd              Promoted
2019/20    Tatabánya     Div I                    3rd
2020/21    Tatabánya     Div I                    N/A              Europa League 2nd Round Qualifier. Sacked.
2021/22    Cegléd        Div II                   17th
2022/23    Cegléd        Div II                   N/A              Sacked in 20th mid season
2023/24    Veszprém      Div II                   17th
2024/25    Veszprém      Div II                   1st              Champions, Promoted

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Congrats and well done on getting promotion Fastbasher. Would be hilarious if you could sign Pato but you now at least got the bragging rights of having Pato for at least a little while :D

In Metaloglobus something really, really unexpected happened. When FC Voluntarii came snooping around he suddenly agreed to sign a new contract. Of course he wanted a ton of money but I got rid of most of the nasty bonuses and only a high weekly wage. The only weird thing is that the supporters don't like it, I suppose it's harrowing when your best player sign a new contract :rolleyes:

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Maybe the fans think the ticket prices will increase to pay for it.

Yeah, Pato would have been great. Tatabánya were allowing me up to 6k in wages.

Újpest have had Gervinho, Filipe Luis and regens of similar quality come and play for them.

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Taunton - Pen-y-Bont - Season review - 2016/17 - Welsh Premier League

League: "]9th "](Positions)

Phew. What a rollercoaster first season. The best thing with Wales is that you immediately start in the top division. The worst thing is that the player material is so bad. I started off with six straight defeats and it took a while to get what kind of tactics to employ with this team. The board started to get noisy, but when I finally got some results together and mangaged to crawl up from last to second last, but still in the relegation zone, they were happy. Expectations were at a minimum:D.

I also got offered a lot of jobs in the welsh prem during the season, so in some way the other clubs recognized my efforts to keep Pen-y-Bont afloat.

We were never safe going into the last match of the season. We could lose, but then results had to go our way, only guarantee was a win. In the 88th minute it was 2-2 against Bangor and we were on safe ground. I decided to go a bit more conservative and hold on to the draw. Just as I was about to enter the tactics screen I saw that we suddenly had dropped into the relegation zone. A goal had been scored elsewhere that changed the whole picture.

Now we had one minute + added time to find a winner. Cue kitchen sink time an lo and behold, we scored in the 90 + 1 minute. That goal secured our place in the Welsh Premier. Nailbiting stuff.

I guess it will be a couple of seasons before we can challenge for anything, but next year I hope to secure our status a bit earlier.:lol:

Best player: "]Matty Owen: Solid in midfield.

Top scorer: "]Jake Eyre: A defensive forward who scored some important goals.

Next season: Establish the team in the division and convert more chances. We were seldom outplayed, but struggled with scoring goals.

Season  | Welsh Prem | JD Welsh Cup |  theWord Cup |    Europe   |  Top scorer        
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17 |    9th     |   4th rnd    |    1st rnd   |     N/A     |  Jake Eyre (12)

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The League

Things were actually a lot more comfortable than the table suggests. We were 9th at the winter break and it looked like Monor and Haladás had the relegation spots sewn up. Somehow we got dragged into the relegation battle, but managed to hold on.

With six loan players from Győr in the first team, it made it awkward when we had to play them. The small squad pretty much meant we donated 9pts to them in exchange for the players.

The Players

Tibor Laczkó was once again top scorer and continued to improve. He was also fans POTY for the third season in a row.

James Manjrekar, our only foreign player is actually triple nationality, Canadian/Hungarian/Dominican. He was away a fair bit on international duty, but it was good to have a bit of diversity and a player making 100 caps for his country.

Our youth facilities have been upgraded and the first decent product to come through was Róbert Horváth. At 15yrs 251days, he became the record youngest scorer in Division 1.

Career Summary


Season     Team          League          	  Position         Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Monor         Div II                   N/A              Sacked in 19th mid season
2017/18    Tatabánya     Div II                   15th
2018/19    Tatabánya     Div II                   2nd              Promoted
2019/20    Tatabánya     Div I                    3rd
2020/21    Tatabánya     Div I                    N/A              Europa League 2nd Round Qualifier. Sacked.
2021/22    Cegléd        Div II                   17th
2022/23    Cegléd        Div II                   N/A              Sacked in 20th mid season
2023/24    Veszprém      Div II                   17th
2024/25    Veszprém      Div II                   1st              Champions, Promoted
2025/26    Veszprém      Div I                    10th

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FC Blau-Weiss Linz - Austrian First Division- 2016/17

This was my first full season in charge of the team so was not aim for anything special but just to get to know the team and board, and the players.

League Table - At the start of the season we were 80-1 to Finnish 9th in the division we managed to finish in 3rd place, for team like us wich was tipped be relegation battlers was my first real achievement, we give Sportverein Austria Salzburg and Sportvereinigung Ried a run for there money.

Austrian FA CUP-Sportclub Rheindorf Altach beat us 3-1 in the first round.

Squad - was quite pleased with some of the players we have they looked decent.

Transfers -Did not want to upset the team shape to much so only bought in two players this season who were decent.

Finances - this has been a struggle to try and have a stable wage budget and transfer budget so i put all money into wages to try and keep them under control.

Key Player Profiles:

Christopher Mayr - the top scorer for the season, played well.

Roman Brunner - My first choice goalkeeper was solid but form at end of season was shocking.

Thomas Panny - a good full back for this level.

Markus Zmugg - He had decent season more of an impact sub player though.

Career Overview

Season         League                            Position       Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17              Austrian First Division    3rd None

Next Season

I'm looking forward to building a squad of my own over the next few seasons try and stay clear of relegation.

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Nice league position dj clark boy. Shame about the poor results at the end. Would have been good to put more pressure on the top two.

yea i decided to change the formation and training set up so think that might been why we slipped up

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Sacked

After 10 games I was in 12th spot with 6pts. The board called me in for a meeting and gave me an ultimatum to get a result in my next game.

I managed a 0-0 away draw with 3rd placed Győr and considered that a 'result'. Apparently not good enough for the board, and they let me go in October after only 11 games.

A couple of players:

Lassana Diarra. Yes I know, well past his best and physicals are rubbish. But after the Pato trial, I wanted to sign a big name player and the low wage demands made it feasible.

David Aruna Cone. This one we did have to break the bank for. Restructured the finances and he took up 27% of the team wages. Also trained in a new formation to use wings backs.

He was the first player my coaches described as a 'Division 1 star player'.

The Uganda coach turned up to almost every game. One more season ticket sold I guess.

Highlights:

3 trophies

Having Pato come on trial and play in a friendly for us

Record youngest goalscorer in Division 1

Record oldest player in Division 1

Career Summary


Season     Team          League          	  Position         Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Monor         Div II                   N/A              Sacked in 19th mid season
2017/18    Tatabánya     Div II                   15th
2018/19    Tatabánya     Div II                   2nd              Promoted
2019/20    Tatabánya     Div I                    3rd
2020/21    Tatabánya     Div I                    N/A              Europa League 2nd Round Qualifier. Sacked.
2021/22    Cegléd        Div II                   17th
2022/23    Cegléd        Div II                   N/A              Sacked in 20th mid season
2023/24    Veszprém      Div II                   17th
2024/25    Veszprém      Div II                   1st              Champions, Promoted
2025/26    Veszprém      Div I                    10th
2026/27    Veszprém      Div I                    N/A              Sacked in 12th mid season

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Yeah. In hindsight, perhaps telling them I would get a top half finish was not the right move. But I needed to get more money available to sign better players.

After about 20 reloads, I finally got a team that have not come up yet and have taken over as manager of Baja

Usual story. No money, no players of note, no staff, no trophies and no hope.

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Taunton: Nice first season mate, seems like you have solid ground to stand on :)

Fastbasher: Wow, Hungary is cruel towards you but I admire your determination to stay in your country :cool:

dj clark boy: Is there only one team who gets promoted? Looks a bit harsh.

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Taunton: Nice first season mate, seems like you have solid ground to stand on :)

Fastbasher: Wow, Hungary is cruel towards you but I admire your determination to stay in your country :cool:

dj clark boy: Is there only one team who gets promoted? Looks a bit harsh.

by looks of ir yeah mate

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Cefn Druids, 2016/17

With all the pomp and circumstance that north Wales can muster, Micronesian manager Mr. Duck took over in charge of Cefn Druids on 24th June 2016.

Mr. Duck didn't have a clue about tactics in this version, a team with no GK, 10 strikers (the best of whom with 1 gold star ability) and midfielders who would struggle to appear for the Micronesian under 16 side.

Therefore, 204 days later Mr. Duck was sacked while sitting in last place in the league :(.

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A brilliant season that ended with a strong 6th place and if we haven't played our last games so poorly we would be in the running for the playoffs. Though to be completely honest I am happy to be in Division 2 one more year so we can come fully prepared for the onslaught of the big boys.

During the winter break I tinkered with a more offensive line-up which garnered some results although it meant that we conceded a heck of a lot more, probably needs more tinkering :D

As you can see in the table FC Brasov and ACS Soimii Pancota were one peg above everyone else with Brasov not losing one game after the winter break which is quite the feat. On the other side Tarlugeni, Dacia Unirea, ACS Academica Clinceni, AFC Unirea 2004 Slobozia, CS Mioveni and Farul are relegated.

Key players:

Adrian Mitea: Obvious. 8 Man of the match awards (most in the league) speaks for itself. Delighted that I got him to stay.

Flavius Chisu: Our only somewhat reliable goal scorer with 14 goals this season. Will unfortunately be leaving us next season as his wage demands are redonkolous.

Florin Lungu: The unsung hero of the team that alongside Denis Chivari did all the dirty work so Mitea could shine.

Youth intake:

Same story as last season. One good player, rest garbage. Ilie got some first team action from the get-go and he won't disappear because he was really good despite only being 15

Next season:

I have already secured two players. Marius Halmaghe and Marius Marin, with Marin I will have a really strong central midfield next season and with Halmaghe I get a much needed upgrade on the left back position. I will also be looking for a striker to replace Chisu and a right full back. With the right signings I think we can battle for promotion.

I should probably do something about the poor economics as well but it's not easy since the board refuses anything I ask of them.

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Nice write up Quacky. Better luck with the next team.

Good steady progress FjollFan. Mitea seems like someone you should keep hold of for his whole career, then add him to the backroom staff. Ilie looks like he's improving fast.

Staying in the division a season longer to get a steady team might be a good idea. The two promotions I got were down to loans from a parent club. Extending the loan contracts before season reset allowed them to stay an extra season and spend one season staying up. But once the affiliate agreement was cancelled and the loans no longer agreed I was left with a crappy division two team and being relegation fodder.

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It's not really luck. It's a pattern.

If I don't use the loans, I would be adopting FjollFans idea. Essentially I wouldn't get promoted and could spend another season in Div 2 developing my own team. But it's hard to resist when the senior affiliate offers up 6 teenagers that are clearly better than most players in my own starting 11.

The pattern with Monor and Cegléd were the same as each other as well. These two clubs had far poorer infrastructure than the others.

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I have started this a while back but only now can update here. In Scotland:

Brora Rangers

Manager profile

Club overview

Facilities

Finances

Squad

So I get the seat at a financially stable cub, with a decent group of players to start with. Our odds to win the league at a tempting 2001.00 which makes us by far the strongest relegation candidates.

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