[FM16] Partisan (adj) strongly supporting a person, principle, or political party,

[sherwinriga]

What an awesome view of scouting players! I like their player's potential because it is based on the performance of the players. So, if I'm trying to scout players who has good potential, what's the procedures of getting good players in scouting so that you can make your team a powerhouse team in your league?

[Jimbokav1971]

Producers of Elite footballers, (in La Liga, Bundesliga, Premier League, Serie A and Ligue 1).

I know that it's only a poxy media message and doesn't actually mean anything, but I need to oust Red Star from the top of this league.

The only problem is... it says we have 12 players at these 5 leagues, but when I look, it actually says that we have 17 players classed as HG in these divisions.

[Edit]

I am guessing that the variance between 12 and 17 relates to the requirement for the purpose of this media message to be at the club for 3 years or more between the ages of 15 and 21.

Sasa Markovic was at the club at 13 and 14, and then again when he was 20-23, so he won't be included on the media list.

Aleks Pantic came through our academy aged 15, but he was there only 1 year before being snapped up Panathanaikos, so he won't be included on the media list.

Aleks Pesic was at the club between 12 & 14, so he won't be included on the media list.

Dejan Drazic came through the academy and was at the club aged 15-16, before he moved on to OFK Beograd.

The last one not counted in the media list, (I think), is Nastasic of Schalke who was at the club aged 14 & 15, but then moved to our "B" Team Teleoptik for his 16th and 17th years meaning that he was only at us for 2 years rather than 4.

[sherwinriga]

Wow, all young players went to different big clubs after having their youth players developing in the league. Will you expect to see Partizan players going to big names like FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Celta Vigo, etc?

[Jimbokav1971]

Wow, all young players went to different big clubs after having their youth players developing in the league. Will you expect to see Partizan players going to big names like FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Celta Vigo, etc?

Absolutely no doubt that I expect the better products of our academy to go to the big boys.

To be honest, I class Man City, Villarreal, Liverpool, Celta, R.Madrid, & Chelsea BIG European clubs.

When Stevanovic went to R.Madrid, all the big boys including Barca were in for him.

When Saponjic went to Valencia, I was rejecting bids from all the big boys and it was just because Valencia offered such a good deal that I accepted the Valencia bid.

Zivkovic went to Porto, but there was interest from most of the big boys.

[Jimbokav1971]

What an awesome view of scouting players! I like their player's potential because it is based on the performance of the players. So, if I'm trying to scout players who has good potential, what's the procedures of getting good players in scouting so that you can make your team a powerhouse team in your league?

Not 100% sure what you mean.

If you mean how do I go about scouting, well it differs greatly depending on the save that I'm playing.

For the last couple of years, I have been playing Youth only saves where I sign absolutely nobody ever, and as a result Scouting was reserved for looking at next opposition, and also looking at players that had come through my academy and then left the club, and who I was allowing myself to re-sign.

In terms of this save, although I have relaxed the rules a little, I am still restricting myself to signing only Serbian players, (or at least players with Serbian as a 2nd Nationality). Thinking about it realistically, that means that there is very little point scouting somewhere like Brazil or South Africa, because there is not much chance of signing a player there who I am allowed to sign.

Having said that, I haven't actually taken control of the scouts yet in this save because you have to remember that I was making the rules up as we went so My Chief scout was in charge and I haven't changed things, (much). I remember setting up an instruction to scout the U19's league and I think I also remember scouting both Champions League and Europa League for players of Serbian Nationality, (but I'm less sure about that). I also think I was scouting Serbia for Serbs.

I've just checked and indeed Chief Scout Dusan Trbojevic is in charge of setting assignments.

I've also put the.... DoF I think, In charge of hiring and firing all staff, so in terms of creating a group of scouts to do the job, well I have left that up to others too.

If I look at the scouting right now....

We only have knowledge of 12% and if I was managing differently then that would bother me, but as I really only want to have knowledge of the Balkans and surrounding areas, who cares that we are short of knowledge in UK or South America.

The following graphic shows that we have extensive knowledge of Southern Europe, (as you would expect).

Every so often I look at the scouting page and I filter out everyone who isn't Serbian, (and I have also just edited it so that Serbian as a 2nd Nationality counts too), and I filter it PA. Then I request my scouts, (just from the scouting pool), to scout anyone I am interested in for 3 matches.

If a player looks great then I give them a nickname with * at the end of their name. If they are injury prone then they get Inj? at the end of their name and if there is a reason that I want to discard them, (it might be a very short centre-half or a midfielder who can't pass or a specific type of striker who can't finish), then I add a "." immediately after their name and before anything else.

Unlike many others, I don't take scout opinions and reports as gospen and more of an "indication".

To sort of back up what I mean, just consider this situation for a minute. When I was creating the above template for scouting reports, (so that I could post them on here rather than just mixing and matching depending on what I wanted), I created a filter whereby it listed all players in the game who were Serbian by Nationality and whom had come through the Partizan academy. It wasn't that I wanted particularly to sign any of them, but as part of this story/journal/whatever you want to call it I wanted at least to be aware of who and where they were. There were a number of players, (somewhere between 10 and 20 I think) who were unattached so I simply scrolled down through them and offered the whole lot of them a trial for 4 weeks. A few of them were pants and I was able to just add a "." and release them, but a few more deserved further consideration, (surprisingly).

One of them is a DR called Nik Aksentijevic (Spirit) HG.

What caught my eye about Nik was that that upon arriving for his trial, my Ass Man suggested that he has a PA of 4.5. Well that's great, but we have all heard this before only to be let down, so I am waiting for my staff to get to know him a little better, while at the same time asking my scouts to sign him and hoping that they we be able to do so while he is at the club. The thing is that his PA is definitely decent because it's between 3.0 and 4.5 at the moment, but as he's 24, there is a limit to how much he can improve, and for the record his CA at the moment is between 2.5 CA and 3.0 CA. That made me look at him more closely so I started with his history, forgetting that the reason I had offered him a trial was that he was HG here at Partizan.

The above pic makes it look likes he's quite old, but he's actually only 24 and was 14 back in 2007/08 when he was at Radnicki 1923. What jumps out at me is that we sold him for £1.4M in 2012/13 aged just 19.

He's gained 5 Serbian U21 caps and from what I can see, (SRB) U21 caps are not earned easily.

Why is he not at a club? Has he had a serious injury? No. The only thing on the injury page at all is blisters of all things. No proper injuries at all. apollon Limassol had him for 5 years, loaned him out for 4 of them, (including back to us 1 year), but last season he played 34 games at an average of 7.09. When you've splashed out £1.4M for someone, (and especially at a club where £1.4M is probably big money).

There are no other clubs in for him so I am not rushing to sign him, but I would love it if he was good enough to sign after finding him like this.

[Edit]

I opted to sign Nik Aksentjevic on the basis that even if his CA is all that he has got, (with little or no room for improvement), it's likely that he will be a worthwhile signing as a back-up player. This is what he looks like after signing.

Where as he was previously rated with blacked out stars, (I call them potential potential stars), at 4.5 PA, it seems that his potential has been downgraded now and he has been given 3.0 PA stars to go with his 2.5 CA stars.

The depth at right back looks like this now.

Vulicevic is 32yo, skipper and 1st choice.

Cirkovic is actually a centre-half. (By the way, I would love to be able to tell the game that I view Cirkovic as a centre-half and that he should only appear on centre-half lists!)

Milosevic is 29 and is the sort of player I would like to sign as tutor, (if only he had a desirable personality). I might even have signed him if I hadn't been signing Aksentijevic, but why clog things up with ageing players when we have the likes of Vlalukin and Cukin coming through, (haha that rhymed).

Djordejevic is a little similar to Milosevic in age and that if he had been a Model Pro for example, (or even just Pro), I would have signed him in a shot. He isn't so he wasn't, but he spent a couple of months as a Red Star player back in 2014 so he is dead to me now anyway.

Vlalukin is a short centre-half, (5'10"), that I'm trying to convert into a right back. It's not going well but I'm sticking with it for the time being.

Cukin is the real hot prospect in the group and unlike Vlalukin he is a natural right back.

My main worry is that while I know the future is Vlalukin and Cukin, (and more likely both of them rotating), they are not ready right now and with Vulicevic turning 33 by the end of the season, I'm worried about the gap between Vulicevic at his peak and when the 2 youngsters will be ready. Aksentjevic at the very least is a stop gap between the 2 periods.

Lastly, he's immediately worth £325,000 and we only have 10 players valued higher. I have a sneaky little feeling that a few games under his belt and his value will rise. Time will tell, but I think this will prove decent business.

[Jimbokav1971]

Leading producers of players for the (SRB) National Team.

That's more like it.

We've produced 21 to 17 from Red Star.

I'm not sure how this stat is worked out either because I have just looked at the NT and we have produced 5 of the 23 man squad and Red Star have also produced 5.

Produced By Partizan.

Markovic, Mitrovic, Nastasic, Ljajic and my very own Zivkovic.

Produced by Red Star.

Spajic, Ristic, Filip Djordjevic, Vukasin and Grujic

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm finding it tough keeping everyone fit enough to play, but it's my own fault because I have sent so many players out on loan.

I have just counted and I am a little surprised by this myself but we actually have 123 players on the books at the club. Additionally, we have another player in on trial who I am about to release.

We have 2 players in on loan, (both Serbs don't worry).

We have 24 players out on loan.

We have 32 players that have come through the academy over my 2 seasons at the club and they are all still here, (for the moment).

We have another 21 players eligible to play in the U19's squad meaning that we have a total of 53 U19 players at the club. That's not as bad as it seems because 2 of them are out on loan, (remember that I don't like loaning players out until they are no longer eligible for the U19's), and 4 more of them have featured for the Senior team in a competitive game.

The excess seems to be in the Reserves where we have players not out on loan, but whom are not registered for the League and cannot play unless they are registered because they are now too old. I need to be better at getting these players out on loan and if I can't get them out on loan I need to get rid of them permanently, even if it is on a free with a 50% clause banged on the end.

Even though there have only been 16 competitive matches so far this season, (8 Super League, 7 Champions League and 1 Super Cup), we have actually already used 35 different players already.

We just had an International break and although I only have 1 player in the senior squad now, loads of my youngsters play in the U21's and U19's so a lot of them came back tired and then we have a schedule that looks like this.

Sat 9th Sept. League game.

Sat 9th Sept. U19's game.

Sun 10th Sept. Reserve game.

Tue 12th Sept. Champions League game.

Tues 12th Sept. Youth Champions League game.

I think part of the problem is that we are so youth based that quite a few players with senior appearances are also eligible for the U19's so if I get them in the wrong squad, (or even in the right squad but available for the wrong team), then I screw with their fitness. Not counting players I have since sold or gone out on loan, 15 teenagers at the club right now have already played for the senior team this season.

[BoxToBox]

Leading producers of players for the (SRB) National Team.

That's more like it.

We've produced 21 to 17 from Red Star.

I'm not sure how this stat is worked out either because I have just looked at the NT and we have produced 5 of the 23 man squad and Red Star have also produced 5.

Produced By Partizan.

Markovic, Mitrovic, Nastasic, Ljajic and my very own Zivkovic.

Produced by Red Star.

Spajic, Ristic, Filip Djordjevic, Vukasin and Grujic

Does it factor in the youth NT's as well?

[Jimbokav1971]

Does it factor in the youth NT's as well?

I wouldn't have thought so because most of the U19 squad is ours.

We have 9 of the U19's, 1 of 10 players in the U20's, and 3 of the U21's.

Actually, that's where they are now, but that's maybe not who produced them. You could be right.

[Jimbokav1971]

We have just played the 1st Derby of the season.

Immediately afterwards, this happened.

That's the 3rd manager they have sacked since I was appointed.

[Jimbokav1971]

​

[sherwinriga]

It's three in a row for Red Star! I believe that Partizan are now usually become big names in the European league. So, how's the current season going?

[deltablue]

Always nice to see off the manager of a rival.

[Jimbokav1971]

It's three in a row for Red Star! I believe that Partizan are now usually become big names in the European league. So, how's the current season going?

I don't want to issue any spoilers before the season end, so unless you follow me on twitter and see the auto-updates, then I'm afraid you will have to wait.

The little bit of info I will give you is Red Star related. After 12 games they were 13th of 16 in the league, (hence the above sacking), but after scoring 6 goals in 3 games and keeping 3 clean sheets under new management, after 15 games they were in 3rd place in the league, (so certainly between 13th and 3rd there is very little difference).

Interestingly, (at least to me in my anti-Red Star'ness), the caretaker manager from 2016, (who was and still is the U19's coach), was not asked to look after the club again on a temporary basis, that despite being unbeaten in his 6 games in charge, (2 wins and 4 draws).

The new caretaker from 2017 is again an U19's coach, (but a different one), and his record was won 1, drew 1, lost 1. At least that's what it says it is, but it's actually just won 1 and drew 1, because although he was in charge on the evening that we beat them, someone else managed the game and was sacked, and he arrived later that day, but the defeat against us is going against his name for some reason.

The season has been slow-going because of the ridiculous amount of work involved in scouting and then managing such a large squad.

[Jimbokav1971]

Always nice to see off the manager of a rival.

I knew they would bin him if I won that game. They were struggling already and another loss against me would be the straw that broke the camels back.

It's strange really. They have some REALLY good young players, but their dealings in the transfer market are simply appalling time and time again.

They have this young great prospect striker called Luka Jovic who is 19 now but was already there at the start of the game. He's worth about £0.5M because his contract expires at the end of the season and I would suggest that they have exactly zero chance of getting him to sign a new deal. I like the look of him, (and he has done well against us), but they are not playing him correctly, (he's a poacher/advanced forward), but they should have got literally millions for this guy and it looks like he is going to go on a free. His "major interest list" is like the who's who of European foottball.

They have recently sold a great little 18yo MC to PAOk for a paltry £34,000. I mean that's ridiculous! If they had sold him for £340,000 then that would have still been too cheap, but £34,000 is absolute madness and seems to be a continuing trend. I appreciate that all my players are for sale, so I have created a nice tidy bank balance so the board will hopefully not feel the need to go over my head again. There seems to be absolutely no forward planning at Red Star like this at all.

[Jimbokav1971]

The board are at it again.

I remonstrated with them not once but twice, but it still didn't work. The bid is for £4.9M up front cash. I know he's short, but I would have rathered £2.5M and 50% of re-sale value, (or 40% for that matter).

You can see yourself how good he is for a HG player of that age.

I've worked really hard of the last 2 and a half season to mould him into a huge player for us, and it's gutting to lose him for such a paltry amount as £4.9M. I'm going to offer him out for £3M + clauses, but meh!

What galls me is that there is just no need for it. The player has 18 months left on his contract and of course I have a 3 year option on top of that, so why would you sell? The cash I hear you say..... we don't need it!

It's not just buying and selling where I've been doing well, I've also been really tight with our budgets and have made enormous efforts in trying to keep tight control over the finances. We have £10M in the kitty to spend even before they give us 75% of £4.9M, and I actually am not looking for a single player at the moment. I am scouting and looking and planning, but there isn't a single player that I want to buy at the moment, (largely because we have just too many players at the club at the moment and with Youth Day around the corner, we are set to break the 150+ barrier and that's just ridiculous!

[Jimbokav1971]

The only issue I had with Strahinja was a lack of height and he was playing with one of 2 bigger guys usually so I was happy that the partnership could cope. My thinking was that longer term we might be able to develop him into a DM or even a SW of some sort and experiment a little.

All is not lost however.

I knew that the board were likely to look at flogging my best young prospect and I had a look at the squad and decided that Strahinja was it If we were going to lose someone from a bid that they accepted above my head, it was going to be him that was the target. As a result I decided that I needed a replacement and I needed the replacement to be here in this window. Luckily I found one and after 5 or even possibly 6 separate deals fell through for various reasons, I eventually got my man and he has already joined.

Meet Nenad Jovanovic.

He's a year younger than Strahinja, and looks significantly better if you ask me.

Yes I went and broke the bank on him, but that;s down to his bloomin agent. I think I had a deal done for him at £1.1M riginally only for hos agent to cancel the deal and it took me about another 4 goes to get it done, and by this time the deal was £1.7M plus clauses I think, (but no future sell on clause). I have him on a 3 year deal but with an option for a 4th. I'm afraid that try as I might I just couldn't get him on a longer contract, (his agent properly hates me!), and in the end I just bit the bullet and accepted that I needed to get him and in all likelyhood, he won't be here for 4 years anyway before one of the big boys nick him.

I would have loved to see Strahinja and Jovanovic play together, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to be satisfied with a mid-season friendly during the WInter break.

[Jimbokav1971]

Change in strategy.

So far in this save I have only purchased players of (SRB) Nationality, (or 2nd Nationality), and it was my intention to stick with this all the way through the save. Something has happened thought that has made me re-think this.

I have a number of affiliate clubs at the moment and while 3 of them are from (SRB), I have one from China and another from Belarus. It came to my attention, (i got a media message), that a number of clubs were in for a teenage striker at the (BLR) affiliate club, (called Torpedo Zhodinho by the way), and while I had scouted him already and he was ok but not brilliant, I quite liked the look of him and thought, "well why shouldn't I bid for him, he is at an affiliate after all?". Then I stopped myself. "Wait, he's (BLR) and not (SRB). I can't sign hm".

The long and the short of it is that I have decided that I can sign only (SRB) players from other clubs, however if my affiliates have non-Serbs, then I can purchase them from them, (but them only). My thinking behind this was that I have already decided to really keep going with the affiliates and see how many I can get and where I could get them from, (and let's be honest, I will soon have 150+ players at the club and I need to be loaning some of them out on the hurry-up. so I have changed the sort of players I will be buying and just wanted to explain why.

Just for the record, The 19 year old from (BLR) is really not with and picture and this change in strategy is less about him and more about the game as a whole. I'm hoping that I will eventually get players through the Youth Intake that have actually been produced by our affiliates, but that's a long way off I think.

[BoxToBox]

I'm hoping that I will eventually get players through the Youth Intake that have actually been produced by our affiliates, but that's a long way off I think.

Have you got any clubs with the correct affiliation for this to happen? I find it incredibly tough to get clubs on that deal that they'd come through my ranks.

Had Boca at a massive club once, was delighted. That was until a few intakes later nothing but the worst Argentine donkeys you could imagine came through my academy.

On the main point, it seems fair enough that you can bring affiliate players in even if they're not Serbs, makes sense as why else would you have these affiliations otherwise?

[leonavich]

I agree on the affiliation decision. That is what affiliations are for anyway... first choice and loan for experience.

Good to see you are at it again though... 150+ players at the club!

[jengaehassim]

I'm hoping that I will eventually get players through the Youth Intake that have actually been produced by our affiliates, but that's a long way off I think.

How does that work, exactly?

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day 2018.

Meet Kriss #3.



As he is the first non-(SRB) that we have produced, you might as well meet João too.

Just for the record, we don'y have any Portugese Feeder clubs, we don't have any Portugese staff and we didn'y have any Portugese players, (until now). I honesty have no idea where or how he has come from, (but as he is one of the better players in the intake, it's.... interesting).

[Edit]

Looking back on this now, I wasn't overly impressed with the intake, but I think I should be quite pleased. Having a non-Serb come through so early is great, and especially as he is decent, (and has (SRB) as a 2nd Nationaity, the Nationality is little more than a gimmick.

The real nuts and bolts of an intake in a save like this, is how many of these players are going to make an impact on the Senior squad, (even as squad players?) The answer is more than you might expect.

If I filter on all squads, so that the U19's, Reserves and Senior squad are in view and then as to filter by Senior appearances..... it shows me that lots of players have played bit part roles in the season so far. You have to remember that I really need 2 full squads for the first part of the season. 1 for the League games and another for Europe and the Cups. If we are to get out of any Group stage, (whether it be Europa League or Champions League), then we will need a squad that is deep enough to cope with injuries an suspensions while playing twice a week and fighting on 2 fronts.

If I then filter the view to show CA, then it shows me that no less than 18 players in the squad have featured competitively for the club with a Ca of 3.0 or less and we have 6 players in this intake who have a PA of at least 3.0. If we take 3.0 as out bench-mark then 3 players will reach a level that we class as "sufficient" if not ideal.

Kriss Vulic (2018) seems a ready-made replacement for the recently departed Strahinja, and João certainly looks like he is going to be good enough to make an impression. If we were to get this sort intake every season, then I think I would be a happy chappy.

[Jimbokav1971]

Something that I have always wanted to do, is compare the Youth Intake as viewed on day 1, and see how things change over the course of the 1st year.

Youth Intake 2017.

Youth Intake 2017, (+1 year).

I suppose I just want to compare how good we thought they were then to how good we actually thing they are now, (12 months on).

[Edit]

It's interesting that (17a) Kriss Ratko (Bal) (2017) actually has better PA 1 year on than he did at the outset. In the original pic taken on Youth Intake Day 2017, he shows as having 3.0-4.0 PA. IN the 2nd pic, (+12 months), he shows as having a PA of 3.5-4.5.

Now that might not be an improvement in him at all and it could be that we have lost our best left back and this the players he is being compared to are not as good as they were, (hence the 0.5 PA boost), or it could be that our Ass Man has altered his opinion based on him watching the player over the last 12 months.

I'm in a rush now so can't really give this much/any thought, but it has been on my mind since even before this save so I thought I would do it on this one. It's ok knowing that he has been "upgraded", but I want to understand why.

[Jimbokav1971]

Kriss Macesic (2016) #1.

Kriss Macesic (2016) Season 1.



Kriss Macesic (2016) Season 2.



Kriss Macesic (2016) Part Season 3.



Kriss Ratko (2017) #2.



Kriss Ratko (2017) Season 1.



Kriss Ratko (2017) Part Season 2.

[Jimbokav1971]

How does that work, exactly?

It relates to the reason behin the affiliation when yoi ask for it. While they may seem similat, they actually create a different relatiinship between you and the affiliate.

[deltablue]

Great defensive duo you've just got.

[Jimbokav1971]

Great defensive duo you've just got.

Yeah.

Things are looking good for the future defensively.

Boban is a 19yo GK with excellent PA and attribute balance who has already played 19 competitive games for us.

Kriss Ratko (2017) is a left back.

Kriss Vulic (2018) is a centre-half.

Nenad Jovanovic is the centre-half I have just spent £2M on.

João looks like he might be the ling-term replacement for ageing Vilicevic, (but I might even have someone better).

[leonavich]

Interesting, and liking this as a bit of an analysis on the long term scouting and development of a player. Looking forward to the findings.

[Jimbokav1971]

Season Summary May 2018.

We won the League which is all that really counts at the moment. The Super Cup, (aka the Charity shield to old Foreign Foggies like me), is really neither here nor there.

League Stage Table.

We only lost once in the regular league season all year, (and as you can see that was the very last game of the regular season before the Final Phase games. I was regularly rotating throughout the season, (as you will be able to tell later in the update when you see the number of appearances given to youngsters). I suppose I got complacent when rotating the squad and it back-fired both in the very last league game and also in the 1st leg of the Cup Semi.

League Stage Graph.

How we won the opening league game of the season 5-0 and didn't top the league is a bit of a mystery to me and rather than suggest that someone else had a better result, (I don't think they did), I think we actually didn't play the 1st weekend because of the Super Cup, (but I'm not 100% sure on that so don't take it as gospel).

Final Phase Table.

You will see that we won the league with ease, (with 5 games to spare to be precise), and for the first time the closeness of the Final Phase just didn't materialise. I really REALLY gave youth it's head both throughout the season, (and especially towards the end), and the few losses we had, (yes, even in the Cup), were well worth the investment in experience and game time we made in our youngsters.

League Fixtures to Winter break.

When you consider that we had to qualify for the Champions League Group during this period, (that's an additional 6 matches), this is a pretty special run of form. We only failed to score twice, but on each occasion we managed to keep a clean sheet ourself, (a feature that I'm really keen on), meaning that we got through to the Winter break unbeaten in all competitions.I will just let that think in for a second. We went through to Christmas unbeaten in the league, the Cup, Europe and we also sneaked the Charity Shield too. Just for the record, that's significantly better than I was expecting given the sale of 2 of our best players in the close-season.

League Fixtures after Winter break.

After the league re-started, we did so with a bit of a wobble and when we let a 3 goal lead slip against our rivals Red Star, (I was not a happy chappy as you can imagine), I was sure that we would concede a 4th. In the end we hung on and were it not for the section about the rivalry I would attempt to completely gloss over this game. We bounced back in the next game however and it was only in the last game against Radnicki when I just pushed things too far and played a whole team of youngsters. It was about 2/3 too many in the end I think.

Final Phase Fixtures.

There were some poor performances at the very end, but these were largely down to the fact that (a) we had already won the league, and (b) I had a whole team of kids starting.

Champions League Fixtures.

ies Apologo

Apologies for the shortened names. Who we actually played were Linfield (NIR), Lech Poznan (POL) and Viktoria Plzen (CZE). We stormed past Linfield and Poznan, but we almost blew it in a really poor performance at home in the 2nd leg of the Playoff, and only sneaked through on away goals in the end.

Champions League Group.

I decided right from the outset that my goal was to get to the Champions League Group Stage, but that's all it was. We didn't have ambitions to progress any further and I know you get cash, (and coefficient points), for drawing/winning games, but the fact remains that my bread and butter is the league and it's only under-performance in that competition that will see me sacked at the moment. In any case, I don't think we were expected to get to the group stage by the board, (but again I'm not positive about that. I have absolutely no regrets about playing the kids in this competition and yes Arsenal gave us a 7-2 doing and an even worse 8-0 doing, but so what? That's valuable experience for my kids and it will serve us well in future seasons. Apologies again for the shortened names by the way. The 3 opposition teams we of course Arsenal (ENG) Schalke (GER) and AC.Milan (ITA). Perhaps you see my position now?

Serbian Super Cup.

Serbian Cup.

I actually took this seriously, (or at least semi-seriously as we still prioritised the league games), and it was just 1 single performance that saw us crash out. Try as we might, we couldn't over-turn a 3-0 deficit from the 1st leg.

End of Season Awards.

Fans Player of the Season.

Vulicevic was a big player for us and of the 26 games he played for us, he won 21 of them. I have a feeling, (again not positive), that we drew the other 5 meaning that he was never on the losing side all season.

Goal of the Season.

[video=youtube;IGi6CpOjN4g]

We've scored some good long range goals over the last few seasons, but I like that this was a first-time strike and not smashed. I really like it as a goal, (although the keeper should have done better).

Signing of the Season.

We actually made 2 loan signings this season. The young Serb centre-half from Spurs returned again and was good in the 1st half of the season, but was less impressive as the season drew on. Soon enough I was preferring my own kids to him. Future Spurs first-teamer my arse!

Vanja however was always first choice when we had a big game and 16 clean sheets in the league will testify to his consistency, (and concentration levels).

Young Player of the Season.

Stef played as an AP(a), and the new width given to the team, (especially at home), really allowed him the space to blossom in the middle. I inherited a squad of Inside Forwards, (on both sides), but these have been largely replaced by wingers, and where they haven't, they are now being asked to perform as wingers.

Stats 1.

Stats2.

[Jimbokav1971]

New Record Result.

New coaching licence for me.

Junior coaching budget increased.

Facilities.

Affiliates.

Finances.

Rivalry with Red Star.

Season 2015/16.







Season 2016/17.

Derby 1.

Derby 2.

Derby 3.

Our record against Red Star is now 5 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses from 9 games. To say that I am less than happy with sharing the points with them this season is an understatement. We threw away a 3-0 half-time lead in the 2nd Derby and if I am honest I really thought we might have lost it at the death.

The 3rd Derby was also the last game of the season and I will have to take responsibility for that as a result of my squad rotating.

[Edit]

[Jimbokav1971]

Transfers In.

£6.23M is a lot for a club like Partizan to spend at this stage of the save, but when you consider what we have sold then it seems much more reasonable. £2.1M went on 1 single player, (and we will make an enormous profit on him when I opt to sell), and other than that there was nobody over the self-imposed limit of £500,000.

[Edit]

The eagle-eyed among you may notice that I have signed a player from Red Star, Puzic (Red Star). He was actually on loan somewhere else and I didn't realise that he was a Red Star player until the deal was done.

I think that's why the deal was able to go through. Because Puzic wasn't at Red Star, the rivalry issue didn't seem to kick in so he was able to join us.

Interestingly, Red Star are neither his favourite club to be at as a player, nor is he a fan, so this might have helped too. My plan is to NOT by Red Star players direct from them, and this was simply a mistake on my part whereby the scouting screens I have created look at where he is rather than the owning club so apologies.

Transfers Out.

Obviously Zivkovic and Strahinja are the big names, (and fees), but it shouldn'gt be ignored that we also brought in £2M+ from both the Bogosavac, (left bacl), and Glavcic, (central midfielder) sales. The other sales, (while small by comparison), still add up to a more than reasonable £3.5M, which os not to be sniffed at at all.

[Jimbokav1971]

Meet Kriss.

Kriss #1. (Striker).

Season 1. 2015/16. 1 appearance after coming through the academy.

Season 2. 2016/17. 3 appearances and his 1st goal for the club, (against Benfica in the Champions League Group stage).

Season 3. 2017/18. 1(1) appearances in a season where opportunities were extremely limited.

Kriss #2. (Left Back).

Season 1. 2016/17. 1 appearance after coming through the academy.

Season 2. 2017/18. 18 appearances including 1 goal and 1 assist.

Kriss #3. Centre Back).

Season 1. 2017/18. 2 appearances after coming through the academy.

[BoxToBox]

I hope this save reaches a point where you line up with an entire starting 11 of Kriss.

[Jimbokav1971]

The next little update will show just how many youngsters I have used in this campaign.

I've used youngsters in this sort of number before when playing Youth only saves in San Marino and Gibraltar, but I have never been able to do so at what I would call a "biggish" club. (Well it is by comparison). Did we lose points and games as a result? Yes, of course we did, but this type of match experience will be invaluable to the you players' development.

16 year olds.

17 year olds.

18 year olds.

19 year olds.

20 year olds.

29 players aged 21 and under featured for the Senior Team this season, and of them, 12 players made at least double figure appearances.

[Edit]

That obviously doesn't take into account any players who were sold.

[Jimbokav1971]

I hope this save reaches a point where you line up with an entire starting 11 of Kriss.

I think it's unlikely, although I suppose it's possible that I could try it for a single game. The problem is that players will be moving on to better team so..... we will see.

[BoxToBox]

I think it's unlikely, although I suppose it's possible that I could try it for a single game. The problem is that players will be moving on to better team so..... we will see.

I was thinking it'd be difficult, as well as the oldest and youngest having an 11 year gap. It'd be nice if the opportunity arose, though!

[Jimbokav1971]

The last little post I want to make is tactical and it really be only a quick one because people have asked, (privately), how I seem to win games so easily. The answer is that it's not easy at all, but that not everything is tactical. A large part of it is squad management and playing match fit players in positions and roles they are comfortable with while they are in good morale.

I'm not great at tactics, (but I'm not rubbish either), but there is much much MUCH more to winning than just having good players and a super-tactic, (as this next little bit will show).

This shows not only the general shape, but also the roles(duties). You will notice that it shows my change from IF(s)/IF(a) to W(s)/W(a). While I also had to swap the wings that the players were playing on, (I personally have a strong dislike for "wrong-footed" players and while I will ut up with it for an IF, there is no way I am going to for a W), I was lucky enough that most of the players could either play to some degree on both flanks, (or were young enough to learn to), or were simply sold. There is now no longer a player at the cub in the senior squad who is an IF who cannot play as a W on the flank that suits his foot preference.

There is more to a tactic than just the formation, roles and duties however, (although that is the basic framework that we build around).. Next to consider is the Mentality, team shape, and also Team instructions. To start off with, lets look at how my tactic has evolved to more easily win games when I am at home.

The mentality is attacking. We are at home, one of the 3 best teams in the league, (even before my arrival), so I feel we should be more attacking than standard in order to win as many games as possible. Control is an option that I have used before and I wanted to try something new. I have never used attacking as a general default tactic before so I just thought what the hell.

The team shape had me a little puzzled at first. I am very aware that popular opinion, (and in particular wwfan's excellent 12 Step Guide), suggests that the fewer number of "specialist" roles you have, (my AP(a) is the only 1 in my tactic), the greater degree of "fluidity" you should employ. I have always gone with this however and I just wanted to try something new. I have never managed a club like Partizan before, (well not that I can remember anyway), so I was keen to try for myself and learn rather than assuming that others knew best. The other thing of course was that isn't a fixed tactic and has evolved over the 1st 3 seasons into what it is now. (The IF's swapping to W's is just 1 example, but there have been many other less obvious alterations too). So I actually started off quite rigidly and my thinking was that I just wanted the defenders to defend and I would let the 4 attackers do their things and the midfield would just pick up the pieces. It didn't work however and over time the tactic gradually became more and more fluid to the point we are at now where we set at "Fluid", but are unlikely to move to "Very Fluid, (although I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

The next area to look at is Team Instructions and this is something that I think many of us "tinker" with a fair bit. I know I have done in the past, often really without a clear idea of what I want it to do, and how I think it will allow me to do that..

We have 4 instructions that we use both home and away.

Play out of defence. This was something that was keen on from the start. I was taking over the best of what are probably 2 or 3 at the most, dominant teams in the Country. I was hoping that we would have a lot of easy games and I was expecting that our abilty, (certainly technical), would surpass that of the opposition. As a result I didn't want to be hoofing the ball up the pitch where an opposition centre-half with little technica ability could dominate my attacking players physically. No. Instead we would take our time and build from the back. "Play out of trouble" PPM for example is something that i have generally thought to be a negative PPM, but not at all in this team in this save.

Low crosses. As mentioned above, I don't expect to have big hulking TM playing up front, (my preference at the moment is an AF(a), so I need to adapt the delivery accordingly. There is no point me building patiently from the back if we then get into good attacking wide positions only to then lob the ball in the box for their big centre-backs, (that we are trying to circumvent), to smash clear as they physically over-power our smaller attackers. I am toying with the idea of whipped crosses at the moment, but the jury is still out at the moment so "low" is the default setting.

Run at defence. This is actually something that I introduced early on in order to assist our IF's in attacking the gap between the centre-half and full-back. It has stayed in and to be honest after I have decided where I am going with crosses, (see above), this is the next thing on my list to look at. Do I want my wingers specifically running at the defence? I'm not completely sure I do at this stage, but it's in.

Stay on feet. My personal preference for defending is to completely dominate teams physically and absolutely beast them into submission all over the pitch. My centre-backs are usually powerful giants first and foremost, and ball-players very much secondly. That didn't seem to fit with this idea I had of technical excellence though and it actually also didn't fit with the existing centre-backs I had at the club, (who were small by my standards). When I looked at Serbian centre-backs on the whole, (at least in the Serbian SuperLeague), they also seemed to be technical rather than physical, (so I was encouraged to stick with this). In any case, there seemed to be little point in asking my keeper to play out from the back, if I then stuck 2 brutes in front of him who couldn't do the same. No. We had to play smart football and in terms of defending this meant staying on our feet rather than diving in and going to ground.

So they were my 4 team instructions and I hope you can see the thinking behind each one of them. There was a 5th that I added, (just to home games), and it happened after I switched from IF's out wide to W's. Thinking about it in hindsight, it's actually a no-brainer, but what swapping the Inside Forwards to Wingers did first and foremost was give our AP(a) more space in the middle. When I think about it now it's obvious. The Inside Forwards were cutting in and restricting the space that the AP wanted to exploit, but they were often occupying similar positions to the AF(a), and importantly trying to do similar things, (ie. get in behind). By introducing the wingers I immediately stretched play completely and now there was all this space in the middle that the AP(a) had to work in, and the defence was now being stretched wider, (to cover the wingers), leaving him even more space. This worked so well that I decided that at home, what I would do is introduce a 5th instruction to eke absolutely everything I could out of the situation.

The away tactic is still being moulded, but currently it simply involves going from wide to balanced width and from attacking to standard. When I start playing properly, (assuming I start playing properly in the future), then tactical tinkering will be easier. At the moment, (and apologies for possibly not mentioning this at all), I am just using the Instant Result feature. My plan was initially to play the Red Star games and the Cup games, and the European games, and any other big games, but I just can't be bothered really. Maybe that will change during the save, (but don't bank on it).

[Jimbokav1971]

Other tactical things I should possibly mention is that in terms of attacking corners, while I'm aware that playing the ball back to someone lurking has it's advantages, I'm also of the opinion that it shouldn't work if you do it every time. As a result I also have a player short and many of my corner goals come from corners taken short, (although the best one's still come from the lurker).

I haven't asked the GK to take pens and free-kicks at the moment. Initially because I was worried about not winning the league and being sacked, and now.... well I'm not sure why. I guess I just want to try something new. It's been a LONG time since my penalty taker was a striker, so maybe I should see how many goals I can get a striker to score. I never did have a go at that Danny Roberts Challenge. (and before anyone says anything, there is probably a very good reason for me not trying this in the past!)

[Jimbokav1971]

My DoF has just signed a new coach at the club.

A certain Savo Milosevic "]who scored 74 league goals for Partizan over 3 seasons as a youngster[/url]. He went to Villa and then Zaragosa before a £16.5M move to Parma in 2000. £16.5M in 2000 was a LOT of money.

[Jimbokav1971]

European Club Rankings.

European Competition Rankings.

[Jimbokav1971]

Club Affiliations.

I've never had a player come through our Youth Intake as a result of our links with another club so I thought I would have a go at seeing if I could do that. I asked the board to sort out a link and to my surprise they came back with River Plate of Uruguay.

River Plate don't have any none-grey players so I decided to activate the league in order to get some generated. The league won't become active until July 2019, (so a year away), but it's something to hope for in the future.

We already have Torpedo Zhodino of Belarus as an affiliate, (I love that name more and more), but that's purely to loan players out. I have just added that as a playable league too and that will become active after our Winter break. We have the 1st option on their players.

Teleoptik are our B team and they were relegated to Non-Playable. I know promotion ifrom a non playable league is done by rep and not player ability, but I'm sending the players in the hope that player rewp will impact on club rep and I want to get them back in the 1st Division and playable again.

Shanggang are in the Chinese Super League, (that I'm not activating). This is a financial relationship that helps with merchandising I think.

FK Sindjelic are a Serbian First Division side, (that's the playable league below us), and I took them on after Teleoptik were relegated. I might get rid of them once Teleoptik are back, but if I keep them then they will certainly be behind Teleoptik in the pecking order for players.

FK Loznika are a proper lower League Serbian club and there doesn't seem much point in it if I'm honest.

[sherwinriga]

I'm very pleased with the performances of Partizan, but that would be awesome to make them to the top very soon! Is Serbia competing at the World Cup or being eliminated from the Qualifiers?

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm very pleased with the performances of Partizan, but that would be awesome to make them to the top very soon! Is Serbia competing at the World Cup or being eliminated from the Qualifiers?

While my goal is to go to the very top, I'm afraid that it's unlikely to happen immediately because of my strategy. I haven't even tried to compete in a Champions League Group stage game yet, (2 years with very hard groups), but the first time we get a decent opponent I will certainly be targeting those specific games at least.

I want to get to the stage where my Reserves can win the league so that my best XI can properly compete in Europe. If I did that right now there would be a danger of not winning the league and getting sacked, (although last season we made great strides in that respect). We will just have to see if we get to the group stages again this season, (would be gutted not to), and then see who we get once we get there.

As for the (SRB) National team....... this has literally just happened in-game.

[leonavich]

I was thinking it'd be difficult, as well as the oldest and youngest having an 11 year gap. It'd be nice if the opportunity arose, though!

I can foresee this being the biggest issue, especially if you include a few player sales in between, but that would be pretty awesome to see

Edit:

Very good result in the World Cup too!!

I wonder, how many of the squad are at Partizan?

[Jimbokav1971]

Very good result in the World Cup too!!

I wonder, how many of the squad are at Partizan?

Just 1, Vanja (SRB) (Bal) (Bro) the 21yo Gk who is on loan from Man Utd. The (Bro) in the name indicates that he has a brother in the game, (Sergej Savic), who is a 23yo DM.

Quite a few of the current squad have come through our academy though, (8 of the 30 man squad), and I think that a further 3 had spent times with us as they were developing.

The only problem though is that I have just lost my last save, (not sure what has happened), and I have lost much of the close season, (REALLY annoyng), and the 1st 2 games of the new season, (as well of course at the World Cup).

So we will have to play the World Cup again and see how they do this time.

[Edit]

And I also need to get River Plate as a feeder club again because that's also been lost and I can't remember which option it was now.

I chose the right option and sais I would select the team myself ad was given a short-list of about 12 options and luckilyRiver Plate was one of the options, (with a South African team and a team from Chile as the only teams with higher reputation).

[Nobby_McDonald]

I hope this save reaches a point where you line up with an entire starting 11 of Kriss.

I hope one of them has the surname Mycock.

[leonavich]

Unfortunate about the save file issue, but getting River back again is at least some good news.

[Jimbokav1971]

It has taken me an age to get through the close-season again, (you would think I would have learnt by now!), but I am at least back playing again.

Lots of transfers out.

Not many transfers in. :(

I have a feeling that this season will be one of transition.

First of all we lost our best GK, (who was a young Serb who was loaned in from Man Utd but I can't remember his name). We have 2 very good young prospects and their development is being hampered by having a better GK at the club so I was considering not asking for him to return, but when they demanded silly money as part of the loan deal my mind was made up. We will stick with youngsters Boban & Busnic.

We lost our best striker, (Ozzy), to a £2M minimum fee release clause that is completely my fault. When I first played this period, (before the crash), I arranged an new deal for Ozzy and the first I heard of this £2M min release clause was a media comment asking me if I was happy that it was no longer in his contract. Unfortunately I forgot about this and I wasn't reminded of it until Wolfsburg came in and snapped him up. He is immediately worth £3.5M

Meh!

He's the only player we have sold for more than £0.5M, but we have so far raked in £4.6M this season, and the window still isn't closed.

Contrastingly, I have made just 2 signings with a total outlay of £700k, (and don't envisage making any more).

Obviously I am scouting like there is no tomorrow and if the right youngster comes along then great, but at the moment we have

[BoxToBox]

I assume the United lad was Vanja Milinkovic-Savic?

[Jimbokav1971]

Vanja. That's him. I had never heard of him, but he has developed nicely, to such an extent that Utd plan on him playing some 1st team games this season.

I have got the centre-back, (Veljkovic), in on loan from Spurs for a 4th season, but we have some decent centre-backs so I wasn't overly bothered and to such an extent that we only took him for half a season last year.

Just before the Summer window closes, I have just nipped in for a 21yo AMC called Danillo Pantic who was at Chelsea, (after coming through our academy). He has re-joined on loan for the season. It's a bit of a balancing act getting in a player like this because although he is better than what we have got in that position, he isn't LOADS better, and I have to remember that every time I play him, it's an opportunity for development that one of my own players will have missed. In this particular case, my 1st choice AP(a) is out for 4 months, and my next best is out for 1 month, so it's a price I am willing to pay. The other thing worth considering, (and this is certainly a consideration for Veljkovic at Spurs), is that I'm hoping that I will eventually be able to sign him on a free if he doesn;t make the grade at his current club. The Utd GK Vanja was always going to be too good for us in the long run, but Veljkovic at Spurs and Pantic at Chelsea are not as good so I think there is at least a reasonable chance of me getting them in the future.