*** When will you realise...Andorra waits for you *** [FM16 youth challenge]

[Bedese]

5 minutes ago, iacovone said:

I literally just read your post in your save quoting your other save that saw 130 years without a youth recruitment upgrade. Kill me. 

Well, that one was a little bugged (alright, ridiculously bugged) and that's actually why I stopped it. I can't remember how far in they were, but I know both Makoto and smp were able to upgrade youth recruitment numerous times in their San Marino save. It'll happen  

[iacovone]

First up in the Champions League. It's Ireland's Shamrock Rovers!

[tyler16]

Lots to catch up with.

Yeah, I don't love the look of that high potential RB. Low stamina, work rate and weak going forward. Gross.  

Huuuuge Pep fan myself, can try t answer some questions if you're still messing with the tactic. A lot of what he does is situation and impossible to replicate in FM, unfortunately. 

A treble, wow! Great stuff. UEL groups are no easy feat either.

Munoz is sooooo damn good it's unreal.

[iacovone]

Cheers @tyler16! Yeah Munoz is insane - he's 26 which gives him another four international qualifying  campaigns I reckon. I'm hoping we can make one of the Euros to give him the international platform his talent deserves!

I'm just rolling into the new season so once I'm out of Europe I'll get tinkering with the new tactic and feed back in here. Did think a lot of it was hard to replicate in FM but hopefully I can get some sort of framework sorted. 

And yes on the RB. He's still the highest-rated kid we have in the squad but unless he develops at a crazy rate I just don't see him becoming a first-teamer!

[iacovone]

World Cup 2034 | Holders: Belgium | Hosts: Japan

Thought I'd give a quick round-up on the major international tournaments going forward (World Cups and Euros, sorry Copa Americas...)

The group stage saw hosts Japan crash out with just one point in a group containing Egypt, Croatia and Mexico, Brazil finish bottom in a group with Iraq, Ukraine and Ivory Coast while England and Argentina came through theirs, leaving Italy out in the tournament's GROUP OF DEATH. 

Holders Belgium, didn't even qualify. For shame.



So to the knockouts. Surprise package Iraq saw their dream ended by Portugal, while Uruguay saw off England before defeating Germany on penalties to make the semi-finals. By this stage the clear favourites were free-scoring France, who netted another four (taking their tally to 16) past Uruguay to make the final. In the other half of the draw, Argentina had squeaked past Czech Republic, Netherlands and Spain on penalties to set up the final at Yokohama Stadium. 

  It was a tightly-contested match, despite France's 4-4-2 opening up Argentina early on to take the lead. The Albiceleste responded after half-time though, equalising and taking the game to extra-time. Here, Argentina opened the scoring but France immediately hit back in the 108th minute, sending an epic World Cup final to penalties. 

Argentina had practiced these in their semi-final win over Spain and it was no shock to see them win the trophy, popping all four of their penalties past the French keeper to be crowned World champions for the third time!

Golden Ball: Xavier Altimira - the Arsenal man propelled Spain to the semi-finals but just couldn't get them one further.  
Top goalscorer: Fasil Ongwae - plays for Real Madrid, scored eight of France's 18 tournament goals. 
Most assists: Roman Devaux - also plays for Real Madrid and picked up five assists in seven appearances.
Best youngster: Diogo Pereira - the Porto striker made a real impact in Japan and looks to be one to watch for the coming years
Best keeper: Leandro D'Alessandro - the Boca man kept France at bay in the final, eventually saving the decisive two penalties in the shoot-out!

[iacovone]

Comfortable enough but at 3-0 up in Ireland we probably should have ensured the first leg was a dead rubber really. Can't complain, and look who picked up MOTM



We were seeded but this is a pretty mediocre draw for us. I think they'll be good and there were three or four others I'd have preferred to be drawn against. Hopefully we can do better than last year vs Celtic and make the Champions League qualifying playoff.

[iacovone]

Didn't get the fee I hoped I would for him (I'll blame the six-month injury for that) but I've managed to push the completion back to the end of the season so we get him for one final campaign and there's the usual 50% sell-on clause in his contract too. 

[iacovone]

I learnt a lesson in this tie. Don't go overboard in those 1st legs at home. I did, we got countered time and again and lost 5-3. And the most frustrating part of it all was how close we came in the second leg. Looks like the Pep tactic is coming along nicely - we restricted them to 0 clear-cut-chances and produced SIX of our own. We just couldn't take them and bowed out on away goals. Back to the Europa League, which is our level but I'm disappointed not to make the CL playoffs this year.

[iacovone]

First time I've seen this work and THANK GOD. Ivan Lopez was a key player for us last year even though he's only 16 and to lose him and Portilla in one season would be ripping the creativity out of the side. I'll continue rejecting all bids for him until the transfer window closes and hopefully be in a position to tempt him to sign a new deal. 

[iacovone]

FFS. It's going to take a miracle for us to get into the Europa League group stage for the third year running. Europe could be over far quicker than I hoped

Everton and Braga were the other potential opponents so I think we've received the 'best' draw we could have hoped for, anyway. It's nowhere near as good as the Hapoel Tel Aviv draw from last season though  

[iacovone]

YES! Great, great, great result for the club! We kept them quiet at Ibrox and grabbed a couple of early goals at home which just about saw us through. I can't imagine the Rangers fans were too happy - they played a flat 4-5-1 in both legs, with almost no ambition. 



We were third seeds this time around, which kinda maybe shoulda helped us out but we got Bayern and Spartak Moscow! This won't be much fun. Despite that, I'll be hoping for at least one win and that should give a decent boost to the finances and coefficient. 

Elsewhere: Aldosa made it through the 1st qualifying round of the Europa League before falling to Serbia's Crvena Zvezda 3-0 in the second round. Lusitanos also fell at the same stage, losing 5-0 to Israel's Hapoel Be'er Sheva. FC Encamp were also eliminated at the same stage, this time by Swedish side Malmo 3-1 on aggregate. 

[Bedese]

Good job getting past Rangers! I see you got rewarded for that with an easy group  

[Tullem]

Not a terrible fee for Portilla! Got to hope you get someone through in the youth candidates to replace him!

 

Also, good luck getting to the next Euro! I reckon with that group Andorra should be in good stead going into the playoff thing

[iacovone]

Thanks guys. Yes, wonderful reward for beating Rangers  

And yes Tullem, we've got one guy in particular (Ivan Lopez) but as mentioned above he wants out and was nearly sold by my chairman. I'm hoping now that the window's closed he'll change his mind and sign a new contract. Otherwise I've only got him for another year-and-a-half

Final point - as we're expected to win six out of six in the European League I won't do updates for each match, rather a round-up at its conclusion. 

[noikeee]

I'm arriving a bit late to go read all 11 pages but from looking over the last 2 ones, seems as if you're doing steady progress in Andorra - shame about the "youth recruitment" level getting stuck, however! That looks immensely frustrating.

[iacovone]

1 hour ago, noikeee said:

I'm arriving a bit late to go read all 11 pages but from looking over the last 2 ones, seems as if you're doing steady progress in Andorra - shame about the "youth recruitment" level getting stuck, however! That looks immensely frustrating.

Nice to see you @noikeee! To be honest it's not that frustrating at the moment because I'm still working towards maxing out the facilities first and then hopefully recruitment will follow. Also, we're pretty dominant at the moment and have a good strong squad so I'm not desperate for improved youth intakes (though they'd be nice, obviously )

[iacovone]

This had been coming. Since taking over, the former Real Madrid U19 coach saw his Lusitanos side finish 5th and suffer an unexpected semi-final exit of the cup to Extremenya. With Jose Parra, that excellent Spanish striker who took the league by storm about 6 years ago close to retirement, it's potentially a huge period in their modern history. 

[iacovone]

In much better club news, Ivan Lopez gave up on his dream of joining Rapid Vienna and signed a new three year deal so that's excellent news. On top of that our training and youth facilities have been upgraded and are now both at 'excellent' level

Oh and we drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich in the Europa League  

[iacovone]

Sorry guys, been away for a few days! Lots to catch up on

[iacovone]

European League, Division D - Group 4



As I said when the draw was made, this European League campaign was always going to be a breeze so here's the summary. Conceding a goal to Gibraltar is my only gripe but overall I'm happy with out six wins and 32 goals. That means we gain promotion to Division C as well as get chucked in the Euro 2036 playoffs when the time comes (and assuming we don't get automatic qualification).



You can see how generous our draw was here. Group 3 is a horror group for this level of international football!

[iacovone]

Euro 2036 Qualifiers Draw



I think this is quite a hard group. I'll take your best advice and thoughts on the draw but France will obviously win it and then you've got a very capable Poland, an Albania side that beat us home and away in the European League a couple of years ago and Lithuania who should also be able to handle themselves. It'll be a good test anyway as the national team is definitely improving as players age and mature. 

[iacovone]

Europa League Round-Up



Our third consecutive group stage appearance in the Europa League was our best yet! I've put together a tactic now (the Pep style I mentioned earlier on this page) that is really good at keeping games tight, especially against good teams. And sure, we only won one game in the group, but we also only lost one and that wasn't even to the mighty Bayern Munich! If we'd only been a bit better against Cluj we'd have qualified for the knockout stages for the first time in the club's history. It does bode really well though and I'm very proud of our showing this year. Plus it gave us a good boost on the coefficients

[iacovone]

On 18/08/2016 at 19:07, iacovone said:

In much better club news, Ivan Lopez gave up on his dream of joining Rapid Vienna and signed a new three year deal so that's excellent news.

1

Well this didn't last long...





This new board have been threatening to sell my players over my head for a while now and although I successfully convinced them not to do it last time with Lopez, they took matters into their own hands. I think we get a 40% sell-on from any profit made if/when Olympiacos sell him but that's not much compensation for a player who'd already become a key man for us at 16. He's great as he's so versatile too.

And if you're interested in what his attributes look like, here he is in his new club colours:

[iacovone]

Youth Intake - 2035



On the face of it this isn't much of an intake. The one position we don't need is a keeper. Andorra's No.1 is our man at the moment and is tied down to a five-year deal. Plus I always just find it a bit depressing getting keepers in intakes as your best prospects



I've highlighted his key attributes as it can be difficult to really assess a keeper when they're young. I don't think he'll be anything special and that one-on-one attribute is awful. Our coaches have a lot of work on.

Now then, I wasn't going to tag anyone else but after realising their PAs are getting put up against Portilla (5 star), these 1.5 stars may not mean much.



The best player in last year's intake was a right-back so we've got another one through here to compete with him in the reserves. Mentally and physically he's pretty good but he's not got much about him technically. He'll take about four or five years to develop to a point where I might actually think of him as first-team squad ready.



This is more like it. We badly lack a left-back and I reckon Estevez could become a first-team regular in a year or two. He's got a great personality, good fitness and decent base technicals. If we can work on his pace and his marking and crossing he'll be very useful.



I like this dude's versatility. He can already defend, it's just about rounding him a bit more and working on those physicals.

Overall, really not the worst intake, despite my initial apprehension.
 

[tyler16]

Estevez looks quality, no idea what the coaches see with him.

[iacovone]

Glad you like him as well @tyler16, I was getting dangerously close to switching to a three-man defence but I reckon Estevez is the left-back we've been crying out for

[iacovone]

Meanwhile in national team news, we've picked up FIVE injuries in one game away in France in our first Euro 2036 qualifier. More on that soon... But FIVE. FFS. That's half my starting XI  

[deltablue]

Good Europa League showing.

[iacovone]

Euro 2036 Qualifiers, Group E



No complaints here. That's the toughest game we'll have in this group and we only narrowly lost and that was largely thanks to the FIVE injuries we picked up. We finished with 10 men but even like that we still went toe to toe with the mighty French. Genuinely, we could have nicked a point and it sets up a great return game when that comes around. 



Despite the raft of injuries and subsequent call-ups for players not really ever considered international class, we managed to get a strong enough team out and did enough to pick up our first win against the lowest ranked team in the group. With us leading 2-0 at HT it was a chance to rest Portilla and Arroyo for the league campaign, which incidentally is NOT going well...





So, two games in and the results us and the media expected. I'm pretty pleased with both games - with a touch more luck we'd have got something in France and that just has to give us a boost for the rest of this campaign. Reminder that 2nd-place can qualify and that we have a playoff via the European League to come as well. So we're in a healthy position at the moment... :) 

[iacovone]

Thought I'd quickly show you this rarest of things - an Andorran international who DOESN'T have a trace of Massana in his blood. 



I mean, he's pretty damn good to be honest. I'm starting to think he's the best centre-back in Andorra and is the only non-Massana coached player to make the starting XI. Quite nice to see an actual Andorran youth product emerge at somewhere other than our academy. Few more please!

[iacovone]

25 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Good Europa League showing.

It really was. I'm hoping we can replicate that in the coming years but with Portilla leaving this summer I reckon we'll do well just to make the groups 

[noikeee]

Some really good results with the national team as well.

[Tullem]

Great result against France considering!

Also, where did Jorge Picon come from originally then? Or is he Benfica bred? Impressive nonetheless and good news for your save if Andorrans are developing elsewhere!

[iacovone]

8 hours ago, noikeee said:

Some really good results with the national team as well.

We needed it too - our ranking had slipped back into the 80s after wins against minnows in the European League. Thankfully we're back up to 71st with a friendly against Singapore coming up and a tough qualifier in Poland.

6 hours ago, Tullem said:

Great result against France considering!

Also, where did Jorge Picon come from originally then? Or is he Benfica bred? Impressive nonetheless and good news for your save if Andorrans are developing elsewhere!

So Picon's actually been around the houses already. He started at Ranger's FC, left on a free for Sant Julia, loaned to Extremenya before they spent £42k on him. A year ago Inter Club d'Escaldes signed him for £39k before Casa Benfica doubled that, snapping him up for £82k. He's first choice here so hopefully he'll continue to develop. 

[iacovone]

End of Season 2034-35 - FS Massana - Competitions

Lliga Grup Becier: WINNERS! 

Analysis: We won our fourth consecutive title this year, firmly taking control of the domestic scene again. That said, it took a fortunate last day to see us over the line as we lost needing a point, thankfully runners-up Sant Julia could only draw. We had a highly entertaining couple of games against them - with both sides winning 4-0 at each other's ground! No big injuries this year meant we had a full-strength team to choose from (until Ivan Lopez was sold by the board) although both forwards underwhelmed scoring just 42 goals between them. Not good enough for title winners really.

CopaConstitucio: Quarter-finals

Analysis: Not much to report here. No treble this year as we fell 1-0 on aggregate to Aldosa in the quarters. Not good enough this time around.

Champions League: 3rd Qualifying Round

Analysis: We beat Shamrock Rovers in the 2nd qualifying round, setting up a 3rd round clash with Dinamo Bucharest which we really blew. A 5-3 loss at home was bad enough but it was because of the 2-0 away leg win. We were good enough to progress but we were eliminated on away goals.

Europa League: Group Stage

Analysis: A genuine success. We started by beating Rangers 2-1 on aggregate in the playoff before taking on giants such as Bayern Munich, Spartak Moscow and the lesser-known CFR Cluj. Amazingly enough we finished the group only losing once, drawing home and away with Bayern and narrowly missing out on the knockouts.

Supercopa Andorra: WINNERS!

Analysis: Simple enough. Carlos Gil scored a screamer to grab a 1-1 draw at Aldosa and we comfortably beat them 2-0 in the second leg to pick up our second trophy of the season.

[iacovone]

End of Season 2034-35 - FS Massana - The Players

Squad Statistics

Top goalscorer: Carlos Pereira (YP22d) - He led the way again although a late-season slump in form meant we had a tough run of results really elongating the title race.

Highest rating: Ruben Simoes (YP27b) - a name we've not seen much. Our back-up right-back was simply excellent when Ortega was missing.

Hot prospect: Alvaro Soler (YP32d) - I love his versatility and he really gave us a good option off the bench at times.

Notable impact: Jorge Portilla (YP30a) - How can we say farewell to this man without a comment on his season. He stayed fit and was brilliant even though he knows he's off to Berlin in the summer. Big fan of his and he's developed magnificently at the club. He'll be a huge player for the national team and hopefully a couple of big European teams too.

Worth a Shout: Noa Le Breton (YP24a) - First time in years that he's stayed fit all season and he had a good impact from the right flank, contributing goals and assists. Pleasing because he IS a good player.

[iacovone]

End of Season 2034-35 - FS Massana - The Club

General - Facilities - Finances - Competition Overview - End of Season Awards - Overall Best XI

OTHER BUSINESS:
- Training facilities are being upgraded again
- Youth facilities upgrade was cancelled though
 

[iacovone]

End of Season 2033-34 - FS Massana - The Watchlist

Juan Carlos Munoz (YP22c) - His fourth season at Newcastle and poorest yet, registering just 9 goals all season as the Magpies finished 10th. I reckon he should look to move on but with his value at £28m I'm not sure anyone's going to pay it.

Jose Sarrio (YP17a) - Eight goals in 31 games with a rating of 6.68 really isn't much cop and at 32 I can see Sarrio's career begin to wind down now. This was his seventh season with Levante and although he led them to Europe twice I can't help but feel he's not been ambitious enough. This year they finished one spot above the relegation zone.

Miquel Velasco (YP28a) - The Celtic left-back headed into the final year of his contract having barely registered an appearance in Scotland. Serious injury curtailed his development and at one stage it looked like we'd be able to bring him back to Massana. Unfortunately Celtic took up their option to extend his deal and loaned him to Sweden where he played 10 times for Hammarby.

Ivan Lopez (YP33a) - A new addition to the watchlist after he was sold by the board in February. At 16, he's already pretty handy and his versatility gives him an edge over others. He's yet to debut for Olympiacos (that might take a while) so I expect him to be farmed out on loan next season.

[iacovone]

End of Season 2034-35 - Andorra

We can be proud of this season of international football. I've now been in the job for over seven years and this was our best campain. Obviously we had a p**s easy group in the European League but even looking at the Euro qualifiers and friendlies, we've become a tough team to beat and dangerous on the counter so I'm happy with our progress. I'd like us to break into the top 60 in the coming year.

[iacovone]

Well this just gets better and better. Absolutely delighted by the progress made this year, it's actually incredible to see the league rise so high. One more good year and we'll be a 2.5* league!!

Elsewhere the facilities at the club have been improved, TV money has shot up and we're int he black financially. All good in Andorra!

[iacovone]

For some reason we draw a team from the British Isles at this stage every year. Anyway, these guys should be a doddle. 

[Tullem]

Wow the league's rep is very impressive! Hope it keeps rising!

[nie jem frytek]

45 minutes ago, Tullem said:

Wow the league's rep is very impressive! Hope it keeps rising!

I'm starting to think that it has something to do with league size.

[MADA]

league size?

[nie jem frytek]

Yes, Andorran league in iacovone's career has more teams than usual.

[iacovone]

That's an interesting point @nie jem frytek, of all the youth careers on here I think only mine has a league of 20 teams. Most seem to be weird smaller structures or less than 20 so maybe you're onto something.

[iacovone]

As easy as we expected.



Ok, this is more like it. They'll probably be stronger than Dinamo Bucharest who we lost on away goals to last season at this stage. Despite that, I'm feeling confident, we've started the season well and look good even without Portilla. 

[iacovone]

Disappointing. We barely created a chance in either leg, with our one goal coming from a set-piece. So we drop out of the Champions League at the same stage again. Can we win the Europa League playoff though? 



I reckon Aalborg is a better draw than facing Rangers like last year so I'm pleased with this. Even more amazingly Sant Julia join us in the playoff and face Everton!

[iacovone]

Safely through after two good performances. A relief, and £1.7m in the bank for qualifying :) 



Ok, so this will be fun. Milan are obviously the favourites but in Dnipro and Cluj we get a chance at revenge on both. We had Cluj in our group last year and drew 0-0 and 1-1. Dnipro beat us 2-0 in Ukraine and held us 0-0 in Andorra, so it'll be a tight group. 

As for the rest of Andorra, Sant Julia didn't actually make the playoffs, they still had a game to play against Metalist and couldn't find the 1-0 goal they needed. Aldosa beat Tirana before losing to Legia Warsaw (no surprise there), while Encamp beat Flora Talinn before losing to Basel, also in the second qualifying round of the Europa League. 

Not a bad showing from the Andorran clubs actually.

[iacovone]

Andorra vs Albania (Euro 2036 Qualifier, Group E)



This turned into more of an ordeal than I hoped but thankfully we emerged with a win over the fourth best side in this group to keep the pressure on Poland. The big one was around the corner though...

Andorra vs France (Euro 2036 Qualifier, Group E)



After narrowly losing 2-1 in France I was quietly confident of an upset here and at 0-0 at half-time it was beginning to look as if we might sneak a point out of this game. As it happened, they blitzed us straight after the break and that was that :( 





It leaves us in a precarious position. We'll need to win our remaining three games to stand a chance but it's more likely we'll need to qualify via the European League playoffs...