[FM13] Second Star to the Right...

[deltablue]

ACN 2025 - Egypt

I have a couple of Christmas mini-updates for you all today (I think it is it a semi-tradition of mine), starting with the African Cup of Nations. Nigeria had been runners up twice in the career so far (including in the last tournament) and finally broke their duck this time, beating Tunisia in the final on penalties having earlier knocked out Morocco, winners 3 times in the previous 4 tournaments. Hosts Egypt surprisingly got knocked out in the group stage and Malawi managed a couple of points.

Tunisia had a bunch of very good players but I was just amazed when I saw Nigeria's star players. I haven't really given any insight into who the top class players are now the newgens have taken over, and which nations have the big stars but I might change that. Here are the best two Nigerian players...

 

Cole is just incredible! He averaged something like 7.92 last season and is actually doing slightly better this season, at least in the league. They have a few other players who aren't quite as good but are still quality and all in their prime, so it will be interesting to see how they do at next year's World Cup. They finished bottom of their group last time but that was when we had the 4-way tie between them, Australia, France and England and they (and England) missed out on -1 goal difference. Such a tough group and a tight margin makes it less shocking then it seemed but on the back of Wales, Ecuador and Colombia having been the winners so far they'll be one to watch.

I did a little more browsing on the top players, which seemed relatively light on the 'super-regens' I'm used to seeing a bunch of but this guy deserves special mention...

I did take a little look through the top players in the game (well, top-valued anyway which is admittedly rather unscientific, especially shortly after the January window, but it does act as a rough guide, especially since there were some non-attacking players in there as well) and unsurprisingly reigning World and South American champions Colombia had some representation among the usual suspects. Interestingly there were multiple Bosnians on the first page but otherwise nothing seemed to stand out in terms of nationalities. Maybe it's worth having a closer look at star players and international rankings in the future. 

[deltablue]

Europa League 1st Knockout Round

As expected we weren't really much of a match for Feyenoord, even if we managed to avoid a heavy defeat. Our case wasn't helped by new star forward Floris getting injured for a few weeks in the preceding league match, or Topaloglu getting the flu right before the match. Having returned for the second leg he then got it again just afterwards! I predicted that the tie would be played slightly too early for our players to return. Jaime and Moradi returned to training in the couple of weeks before the first leg, Alici and Capa doing so on the eve of the match, but after such serious injuries it would take a while to return to proper fitness.

However Floris' injury sort of forced my hand so I decided to go for a 'half and half' strategy with Moradi and Jaime in the first leg, then Moradi and Alici in the intermediate league match allowing Jaime to be mostly fit for Rotterdam (which wasn't entirely my intention but events dictated otherwise), and as he ended up playing the whole match that at least means the others were able to take big leaps forward into 'mostly fit' territory as well which should make things easier from this point. 

At the start it looked like we might pull something off when Surucu (who was easily ready despite having another injury for 2-3 weeks before he had the chance to return from his original one) floating a cross for Falcao to give us the lead, after a reasonably bright start. We were forced to go defensive relatively early which wasn't enough. I wouldn't have been too unhappy with 1-1 but the pressure was just too much and a particularly intense attack left the door open for a winner.

We did come very close to snatching a goal in the second-leg but otherwise my priorities had flipped and I was intent on both keeping the score down and saving the team for the remaining league matches. Shortly after we hit the woodwork with our only real chance (and Surucu was only just beaten to the loose ball) Kevric conceded a penalty, the latest of a bunch of surprisingly poor performances since Christmas from the normally excellent Croatian, who had previously been looking like doing at least as well as his personal best season. The match was actually very one-sided despite the fact that the penalty was the only goal but I still felt it had been a decent effort with a weakened hand in a tie that would have been very tricky even if we were at full-strength.

We still weren't free from injuries. I mentioned a few earlier, including Topaloglu getting the flu for the second time in just over a week (meaning he's set to miss 3 matches of the last 4). Leonardo Robert went in Rotterdam with a knock but thankfully it didn't lead to a proper injury. Kireker (who is sort of my golden boy) wasn't so lucky (having been forced to go off, unlike his team-mate) and will be out for 5-6 weeks. These injuries aren't as damaging as the autumn ones either in terms of length or the impact they have on the squad but it's still rather frustrating to have some more to deal with while still feeling a partial effect from the previous ones. Did one of my players or coaches drive a tractor into a mirror shop or something?

[deltablue]

March 2025

I hoped that we could benefit from a fresh team after the winter break but instead I was firmly in for a shock. I think the results we got earlier in the season lulled me into a false sense that we could compete with these teams in an open match, forgetting that we had stuck to a defensive strategy in those early matches to save the players for upcoming European games and the result was two thumping defeats, not helped by a defence that looked like they'd be more at home in a circus. Even Kevric (for who was averaging in the 7.5's before Christmas after a relatively disappointing 7.37 season last time) was being genuinely poor. I learned my lesson going to Fenerbahce with a more cautious game plan that we managed to pull off to perfection and get a much-needed 2-0 win.

We couldn't do much against Bursaspor (not helped by an early Floris injury) before the Feyenoord tie but we managed to pull off a win over local rivals Altay with a goal from Moradi despite the Iranian still severely lacking in fitness and the timing of the match itself. After our European campaign was finished I focused on trying to make up a big points gap that had opened up to the European places, as well as trying to make a more detailed analysis of what was going on to try and identify any clear tactical weaknesses, not easy as I'm a bit of a long distance follower of football so don't really have any useful technical knowledge gained from actually watching much of it.

There are still a lot of variables that appeared to be at fault as we dropped two late points against Kasimpasa and had to rescue a late point after taking the lead at Eskisehirspor, individual errors (Elyounoussi committing himself in gambles that failed to pay off, a single central defender being a bit too far forward that one time...) players only slightly being beaten to the ball and the randomness of chaotic scrambles near the goal. Those still aren't great things to see but they're not cases of an exposed defensive line or opposition players being given too much free space either in front or behind the defence, the sort of thing that would point to clear flaws in the tactical setup. Attacking weaknesses in individual games will be trickier to spot (given I'm mainly using replays of conceded goals) but it'll be interesting to see if this new approach leads to considerable improvements. 

Anyway one big positive from Eskisehirspor was that the fit-again Moradi and Floris were finally united as a potential dream partnership and it proved to be very promising, though Moradi then getting the flu and Floris getting an injury before he returned means that remains the only time they've played together so far. Moradi took the goalscoring plaudits in that match but his bout of flu allowed the Argentine to take a starring role. He had a slightly slow start, unsurprisingly not being able to do much in his first two games under the circumstances, then after getting his first goal for the club he went off injured early in the next match, but he was very impressive on his return, a strong supporting role against Eskisehirspor being followed by 5 goals in the following two games, helping us to a comeback from being 2-0 down at Besiktas to lead 3-2 at one point.

Floris not just looked impressive, but he had the recent record to back it up. He had spent 3 years at APOEL managing 119 goals and 38 assists in 138 matches. Some Cypriot clubs tend to have some very strong players (South American ones anyway) in this and similar versions of the game and the current APOEL squad is no exception, with a lot of players who would star for most Turkish clubs so it wasn't necessarily in that weaker a league either. I didn't really expect him to perform at anywhere near that level for us (though I am hoping) but his record is 6 goals and 3 assists in 7 matches, averaging 7.96! It's still a small sample size but it's very encouraging indeed. Plus he's just a joy to watch (especially as seeing replays of the goals we concede also means being able to review the ones we score as well) getting his goals in a variety of ways and his timing of movement to get on the end of balls being incredible at times.

We were benefiting from having some of the toughest matches coming at the start of both halves of the season and we have now dealt with the rest, even though it could have been more I'm still pretty happy with draws away to Besiktas (under-performing but still very dangerous on paper) and an Eskisehirspor side having a very strong season, with a routine Adana D.S. win being joined by a strong victory against 3rd placed Caykur Rizespor thanks to Kevric (now back on form) getting his 2nd goal in 4 years. Now recently promoted Goztepe are the only side in the top 10 we have to face in the remaining 7 matches. 5th place doesn't look like being enough this year, unless Istanbul BBSK (currently occupying that position and one of the semi-finalists) win and finish slightly higher, since we'll need whoever wins to be in the Europa league qualification places, if it's Galatasaray (or anyone qualifying for the CL) the runner-up gets the spot as obviously would a winner who otherwise finishes outside the European places (Bursaspor and possibly Fenerbahce in this case). Thankfully 4th is in reach as well with the strong finish I'm hoping for.

I must admit that I'm not minding quite so much whether we make Europe again this season. It wold be a great achievement especially with so many injuries and extra European matches to have to deal with (and most of those injuries actually came in European games, until Floris went off against Bursaspor, Jaime was the only player injured in a league game), but after such a hectic season I wouldn't mind having a clearer run at a genuinely strong league campaign next year, especially without being anywhere near as weakened by injuries, and the chance to try and unleash our full potential.

[deltablue]

May 2025

It was actually surprisingly easy in the end, even if it didn't feel like it at first. We had a tricky time at Gazientepspor, twice going behind and having to rescue a point with a very late Falcao goal. Genclerbirligi were doing a Leicester, severely struggling this season after a comfortable and surprising title win last year. They still proved to be a tough side to face and Elyounoussi was even called upon to save a penalty, with Capa squeaking a win. Things were easier after that, at least in part thanks to Floris reuniting with Moradi for the rest of the season. They each scored against Akhisar Bld with Leonardo Robert scoring in between for an easy 3-0 win.

An early Floris goal made the difference at Goztepe and then it was time to face Istanbul BBSK. I had somehow forgotten about them when talking about how easy our run-in was but they proved not to be a problem. They were slipping in the league (though a cup win got them into Europe anyway) and we took full advantage when Moradi fired us ahead. They then went down to 10 men and while we couldn't make our superiority count got get more, we were now looking set for at least 4th place, and probably 3rd, which meant we would be in the Europa League. It wasn't difficult to seal it at bottom club Antalyaspor. Floris managed a hat-trick of assists, continuing the budding potential of his partnership with Moradi, who scored twice after being played through for great runs both times. Sealing 3rd with a bit of a formality at Sakaryaspor especially when Floris gave us an early lead. We did have a disappointing moment when we conceded the sort of goal I was on the look out for and we really should have gone on to win but in the end the only thing we missed out on was the chance to go to within just 2 points of 2nd and a CL spot. Unlike last season's close call, this year's European qualification was surprisingly easy in the end.

[deltablue]

Season Review - 2024/25

It has a very long 10 months since we kicked off with a 3-1 home win over CSKA Moscow in mid-July. It's also amazing how much difference a year makes. At the end of last season we had sneaked European qualification but having been poor for the early months of the season I wasn't sure how or whether we were really anywhere near that level yet, as well as expecting the club's first ever European campaign to be either short-lived (especially after I saw the initial draw) or hinder us to the point that we were unlikely to seriously challenge for a repeat qualification. We certainly had a lot thrown at us with a run of 14 European matches in the end as well as European matches being responsible for so many injuries but with the exception of our struggles around the winter break, we remained remarkably consistent and since we put Europe behind us in February (and mostly got our full-strength side back in the weeks afterwards) we've been genuinely excellent, surging up the league and making up a large points gap even to 5th to register a new club record high of 3rd, which means we have the same number of top 3 finishes in our entire history as Norwich

For me this was a considerable breakthrough season. Last season's European qualification seemed a considerable flash in the pan, at least in the short term. I always knew that we were a team potentially on the rise but all three seasons in the Premier Division have surprised me at how quick that's been. This difference this time is that I feel much more confident about where we are. We were relatively consistent (even if draws were more common than wins) through months of struggle and looked genuinely impressive in all areas of the pitch when we were free to hit our stride and cut out the individual errors that was costing us wins before that. I needn't have worried too much about our set-up because it clearly works incredibly well on a regular basis when it has the opportunity. Floris and Moradi looks like a potentially devastating partnership up front and I've already seen more than enough to leave me hungry for a lot more next season.

Key Player: Floris' impact since arriving in January has been fantastic but he's still only played a limited number of games so I felt that despite his time out due to injury, Moradi deserves the plaudits again. Aside from Falcao hitting 11 goals, he was the only player to get into double-figures for either goals or assists this season, let alone both, though the fact that the attacking players were the ones mostly hit by injuries makes that statistic more understandable, and more impressive given his own spell on the sidelines for almost 4 months.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2025

This looked like being potentially a very open tournament as since Mexico had finally won last time, their first team would be at the Confederations Cup instead, as would upcoming World Cup hosts USA. I was wondering whether that would leave the door open for Honduras to add another win but they didn't quite manage it as the B Teams shone., with the Americans actually beating the Hondurans in the final and the Mexican's eventual semi-final exit being a better showing than the senior side have sometimes managed. The Hondurans actually have something good going right now with a star forward who has just signed for Bayern after a very good year (albeit with limited appearances) at Chelsea. I also noted the aging Lozano at Norwich, and I'm pretty sure he was there during 'Got 99 Problems' as well so it just seems to be one of those transfers that seems likely to happen on multiple saves. The Canadians are also doing well with another good showing and they're currently 3rd in the Hex at the halfway stage, though ahead of a tight pack including the Hondurans surprisingly down in 5th.

[deltablue]

Summer 2025

You have to feel sorry for some people. Jonathan arrived after a 2 year wait but he's not featuring because he's never going to play for us. He's the victim of a change of circumstance since the deal was first made. Firstly at the time I was thinking of using my extra foreign player slots for young players who wouldn't mind being sidelined, however now the policy is more one of splitting the team into Turkish and Foreign slots. At the time those were mostly defensive-focused but now we have both forward places as well, squeezing the foreign defender situation even more.

At the moment those are the goalkeeper (Elyounoussi, though there's room for an upgrade there), one regular central defender (the un-droppable Kevric who has been just a single First Division game from being an ever-present since he arrived), the ball playing defender (Leonardo Robert) and the two forwards, preferably Moradi and Floris with Falcao and Jaime as backups, with the 8th and final foreign squad place going to Dunguinha, who has been out of favour in the first team since Leonardo Robert arrived and I decided Bekir Erdem was a viable Turkish first-teamer to make everything fit but can still do both central defensive roles.

I had anticipated the latter making way for Jonathan but he's still so vastly superior even considering Jonathan's youth and with European games giving him some more opportunities to make the squad that it's just not going to happen. I already deselected Eduardo for the second half of the season to make way for Floris' registration and it's tough enough making 8 registered foreign players go into 5 allowed in a match-day squad without having to fit 10 foreign players into those 8.

Speaking of Eduardo, I had decided that it was a waste to have two foreign keepers and it was surprisingly close between him and Elyounoussi, which was a toss up between developed and 'good but not great' dependability and superior potential (despite the Brazilian's mediocre determination), and having not originally bought the Brazilian as a long-term replacement for the Moroccan, it was such a tempting possibility that only the difficulty on offloading the latter made my mind up, Eduardo leaving for the same 400k fee I paid for him a year ago. It was a waste of a really good young keeper but needs must.

As for what I did get, the focus was always going to be on the Turkish players this time. The bar for foreign players had skyrocketed recently and in any case a few fringe players had to be let go due to a wage budget squeeze last season meant I couldn't offer them enough for a realistic squad status. I haven't bought many simply because there weren't actually many players around who were anywhere near good enough (even as squad players) and the exceptions were too expensive to be worth it. I had to work through that this time, especially at right back where Sekir was now 33 and declining (indeed after a failed attempt to get rid of his wages of almost 10kpw he announced his retirement at the end of the season) and Sepin could probably have 'decent backup' written on his tombstone'.

It wasn't urgent enough last season but it was this time, enough to pay for a lot for a new first-teamer from Hannover, much better in terms of the pace and attacking role than his predecessor without being defensively much weaker. I had also found the Turkish players in the positions I was hoping for, a keeper and a left-back with the previous second-choice having been one of the departed players. I actually had enough money left for a foreign signings but decided a future signing was the way to go, both because of the current foreign player situation and the lack of spare wage budget right now, and having gone for another young Brazilian defender hopefully it'll go better this time.

Signings

[deltablue]

Europa League Third Qualifying Round

For some reason (maybe I thought that the cup winners would get the last Europa League slot instead of the first) we started of in Europe slightly earlier than I thought we would. Levski Sofia were our first opponents and the fact that they had a few decent players made me slightly cautious at anticipating an easy win but that's to underestimate how good we've become, and certainly they were no match for Moradi and Floris, who got all 5 goals in the tie between them, a promising start this season to a partnership I'm expecting a lot from if they both remain mostly fit. It was also pleasing to see Yurtseven do so well on his return after such a long time out, assisting the first goal of the season before having to go off, then managing another in Bulgaria. We definitely missed him.

The playoff round options weren't great, with potential rematches with CSKA Moscow and Feyenoord on offer along with Anderlecht and Stoke, who wouldn't be so bad. We ended up drawing Stoke, only slightly worse than the Belgians would have been on paper and a close tie to call.

[deltablue]

I just want to throw something out there just in case anyone is interested in predictions. We're a season away from the World Cup and we've had some fascinating results so far. The three finals have thrown up Wales beating Uruguay, Ecuador beating Romania and Colombia beating Italy, so it's a potentially open field right now. You can see how things have been going internationally in recent years but here are some highlights, also based on taking a look around this evening...

Colombia - The holders followed up with a Copa America title, the first team to be both World and Continental champions in the save, and with their predecessors managing to follow up their unlikely wins by reaching the quarter-finals and semi-finals in the following tournaments, with Colombia still looking much stronger side than either and potentially very tough to beat this time as well.

Italy -  They have looked really strong for a while now, shockingly losing the last World Cup and Euros on penalties and in extra-time respectively, as well as having a shock semi-final exit in 2018 so surely it's about time they have some success?

Nigeria - African Champions for what is surprisingly the first time in the save given the quality they have. Their incredible midfielder-forward Napoleon Cole (featured in that update) became the first newgen to win WPOTY last year and he has a very strong supporting cast. They're probably one of the best teams out there.

Japan - Japan boast the best forward in the world (well I think he is) who finished runner-up to Cole as 2024 WPOTY and there are a few other big stars as well among his team-mates. However their depth isn't the best. Actually just missed out on winning their qualification group to a South Korea side who remain serious rivals in a continental level and are no chumps either.

Paraguay - Another side with some top-quality players, boasting serious strength in midfield as well as attack, and even with a very strong central defender, giving them more depth than a lot of teams who have a bit of world-class talent but are very top-heavy. Perhaps a 3rd South American winner in a row?

Spain - They haven't actually got the star players who look quite as exciting as those for the above teams but they still look better across most areas, even if they're still relying on De Gea in goal rather than having a very good keeper in his prime.

Brazil - Top the world rankings but have failed to seriously compete in tournaments so far. Maybe this is the year they finally come good?

Argentina - Won the first 3 Copa Americas but have gone out in the Group stage in the past two World Cups, like Brazil surely they're due to do better, especially with a good generation of newgens who have emerged to replace the real life players who aged together while giving them their earlier glories.

Croatia - A bit of an obvious dark horse possibility, if that's not a contradiction. Have been very solid over the years, currently sit 12th in the World Rankings and are the sort of team who look capable of being another shock winner.

Tunisia - Similar to Croatia. Not on the same level of the Nigeria team who beat them in the African Nations final this year but with a strong enough side to make you think "Well if those other teams were able to do it, so could they".

Iran - A lot like the above two teams but actually looking stronger, and certainly worth a mention.

 

[noikeee]

That is a very weird Turkish league table. Fenerbahçe and Besiktas nowhere, and who the hell are ahead of you in 2nd?

Aims for this season? Get one better than last year and finish on the top 2?

[Dexter_Morgan]

I'd agree with noikeee usually in terms of the aim but having read so many times how you look to be moving forward i'm not going to jinx it for you  Did well to make the Europa in the end as in the previous post I didn't think you would, tricky tie against Stoke though but hopefully you can get through it

[deltablue]

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

That is a very weird Turkish league table. Fenerbahçe and Besiktas nowhere, and who the hell are ahead of you in 2nd?

Aims for this season? Get one better than last year and finish on the top 2?

Turkey has been fascinating. Galatasaray have strolled to the title most years but even the previous season saw Genclerbirligi do it instead followed by only narrowly avoiding the drop. Besiktas have been a mess, not least as we actually beat them to a top-half finish on head-to-head results in our first season after promotion. They did much better the following season (finishing level on points with Fenerbahce in 2nd/3rd) but seem to have struggled again this time, which is odd because they actually offered me the job after that first season and their budgets were a few times better than I've got even now, so they're severely underachieving now. Fenerbahce had an appalling start to last season, otherwise they seem still be a consistently strong team, even if they have to settle for distant 2nd places.

We're still talking about far stronger and richer teams on paper so unless some of them struggle again, another top 3 finish will be a big ask. If we remain consistently strong this time (and we took great strides in that area last season despite all the injuries and European games) we can be strong contenders near the top. There has been a lot of inconsistency and mixed results among most teams in the league(unlike the situation you occasionally get where you have a much bigger and stronger pack that's a real struggle to break in to) so managing to remain strong for most of the year could actually take us a long way.
 

38 minutes ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

I'd agree with noikeee usually in terms of the aim but having read so many times how you look to be moving forward i'm not going to jinx it for you  Did well to make the Europa in the end as in the previous post I didn't think you would, tricky tie against Stoke though but hopefully you can get through it

That used to happen quite a bit in my older threads, JackJCFC used to be especially bad for providing a very positive prediction before a terrible season This team continues to surprise me and such a good season wouldn't be as much of a shock any more. It's still nowhere near being an expectation but I'll certainly be keeping it in mind as a potential goal if it looks to be within our grasp.

[Dexter_Morgan]

I used to think you'd improve and so only for it to mess up so I don't anymore  With the other big sides (Gala apart) not looking too good there is a spot to aim for short term at least though.

[deltablue]

On 29/12/2016 at 19:43, Dexter_Morgan said:

I used to think you'd improve and so only for it to mess up so I don't anymore  With the other big sides (Gala apart) not looking too good there is a spot to aim for short term at least though.

True but I like to think I have improved quite bit over the years so unless I haven't got much to work with I feel like a much stronger and more consistent FM player these days and I doubt such things are that likely these days. It's promising so far.

[deltablue]

European Playoff Round

I went into the Stoke tie thinking that we could definitely take them, only to find ourselves going behind early in the first leg. However Moradi continued a brilliant start to the season. In contast to Floris, who mixes it up a lot more, he mostly scores one type of goal very well... strong, low, straight shots from just inside the area, often after being in the perfect position to receive the ball (often from Kireker). Stoke had no answer for him as a hat-trick gave us a strong lead.

They scored early in the second leg (from a set-piece, which sounds typically Stoke) and were in fact just a single goal away from knocking us out on away goals. However Moradi struck again to turn it around, taking him to 7 European goals this season so far, and 9 in 6 matches overall, having scored in all of them. The final goal looked like a soft one from Erdem after receiving the ball from a corner but it actually went in off a Stoke player on the goal-line.

That result took us to 18 games unbeaten in all competitions, going back to our Europa League exit with Feyenoord in February! Sometimes you often have to fight hard to pull off a run of good results but while we've had some tough ones occasionally, I want to repeat what I said at the end of last season that we're looking really good now, like a very well-oiled machine. That's been helped by very few changes to the squad (and only one to the first team, which is working very well). There will always be the occasional poor performance and moment of weakness but they have been very few and far between in recent months, and it really is a joy to watch this team play.

[deltablue]

Europa League Group Draw

We were 4th seeds again but it looked like we had managed to still get a reasonable draw again, although looking at our opponents meant that it wasn't quite as nice as it seemed. I'll start with CSKA Sofia, since no doubt Noikeee is thinking 'I don't see you having any trouble with a Bulgarian team'. It's true that we easily took down Levski a little earlier but CSKA look much stronger. They have some star players who are definitely on the same level as ours! They don't quite have the depth but it looks like we won't have an easy time beating them to second.

We lucked our last year with Espanyol and Cardiff as weak 'Big League' sides but Rennais (who always looked like potentially the strongest team anyway) have a genuinely excellent team, of a quality that I still think is far too good for us. Copenhagen were the opposite to CSKA Sofia, in that they're often a reasonably strong side, one of the best outside the top handful of leagues, much like we often see with Dinamo Zagreb (and possibly Sparta Prague) in the youth threads. However this time they surprisingly weak, easily the weakest in the group anyway. I wasn't sure we could get out of the group again depending on who we got but I definitely see us being able to manage it, as long as things go well against CSKA Sofia.

This will be the last update of 2016, so I'd like to thank all of you who have followed this year, especially those who have left comments. All 3 of you

[BoxToBox]

Cracking, doing it on a cold away night at Stoke, the ultimate test.

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, deltablue said:

Europa League Group Draw

We were 4th seeds again but it looked like we had managed to still get a reasonable draw again, although looking at our opponents meant that it wasn't quite as nice as it seemed. I'll start with CSKA Sofia, since no doubt Noikeee is thinking 'I don't see you having any trouble with a Bulgarian team'.

No, I'm thinking "don't beat my old team".  

[deltablue]

On 31/12/2016 at 13:11, BoxToBox said:

Cracking, doing it on a cold away night at Stoke, the ultimate test.

 

Well it was in August

 

On 31/12/2016 at 13:12, noikeee said:

No, I'm thinking "don't beat my old team".  

 

I knew it was one or the other

[BoxToBox]

16 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Well it was in August

I'm almost certain that Stoke has it's own climate, where it's either cold, windy, cold and windy, or really bloody cold and windy.

[deltablue]

Oct 2025

I appear to have accidentally left out the first leg against Levski but you know what happened. Things were looking promising for a while and I was thinking 'If only Galatasaray weren't so darned strong we might have a shot at the title', but one step at a time. We started against Goztepe, who with Altay's relegation were the only other Izmir side in the Premier Division, and Moradi's early goal allowed us to sit back and save ourselves for Stoke. We were in trouble in between the legs at Trabzonspor before pulling off a very late comeback and a narrow win against Eskisehirspor made it 7 points from 3 matches to start the season.

We met our first disappointment at promoted Orduspor. I had been concerned by Floris missing a bunch of chances he should have converted and after a couple more of those he then thought it was a good idea to play a very long ball across to Elyounoussi, which meant the Moroccan had to go out to the very edge of his area and it was intercepted for the only goal of the game, triggering an immediate substitution. We might still have got something if other players hadn't underperformed as well. We pulled off come-back wins against Caykur Rizespor and Gazientepspor to bounce back and then came our starring performance.

For all my previous criticism of Floris he had still played a very strong supporting role to the high-scoring Moradi and Galatasaray was a case of 'cometh the hour, cometh the man'. It's great having a player who is at least the equal of anyone the big clubs have and as I was in no mood to run scared from them we went for it and the Argentine scored two great efforts. Sitting back to defend didn't stop Moradi from giving us a 3rd and while I felt the scoreline flattered us considerably it was still a very strong gesture of intent.

We hit another minor snag at Genclerbirligi, who were a pale shadow of the team that strolled to the title a couple of seasons back. We were in strong attacking stride but Yurtseven missed a penalty and they were able to block everything we could throw at them, including a bunch of well-struck efforts which were usually going in. I guess it was just one of those days. Mersin IY were easy but the schedule was hectic from the October international break (and would remain so in early November) and we were feeling the signs at Sakaryaspor, not helped by a couple of early knocks to Moradi (who was thankfully ok after) and Kocik, our for 4 busy weeks. It still looked like we had grabbed another late point or three when Capa equalized in bizarre fashion. He met the end of a rebounded Floris shot shot by diving in. That didn't come off and made him look like an idiot but he still kept the ball so he just got back up and knocked it in. However it wasn't enough and whatever title challenge ambitions that had been forming met a serious blow. They won't get better either not just because of Galatasaray's form (they've won every game aside from the defeat to us) and we have a match against Fenerbahce next where we'll need to focus on preserving energy.

The Europa League group stage started off as expected, attempting damage limitation at Rennais which met with what looked like a clear lesson that we were still no match for the stronger big league teams. We managed to comfortably beat Copenhagen and CSKA Sofia in the next two games, which actually saw us top the group at the half-way stage helped by results elsewhere. Copenhagen beat CSKA Sofia in their first game, then lost to us while CSKA held Rennais before pulling of a home win over Rennais, leaving the French side who I expected to storm the group behind ourselves and the Danes. The next round of fixtures should work in our favour as we're at home to CSKA Sofia while Rennais are likely to get a revenge win over Copenhagen, leaving us to only potentially need a little from the Danish trip and Rennais at home to qualify, maybe even top the group depending on what we can do in Copenhagen and if the other three keep dropping points.

 

 

[hasdgfas]

Found this thread today. Very good read!

[Deisler26]

A great start to your Europa League campaign. Think you'll easily qualify

[noikeee]

Your league form is pretty great, to me what it looks like compared to last season, is that the opposition at the front woke up and are racking up more points too!

[Lenzar]

Do I read right from the screenshots that you actually have 1-11 as your first choice side?

[deltablue]

13 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Found this thread today. Very good read!

Glad you finally found it

13 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

A great start to your Europa League campaign. Think you'll easily qualify

Not sure about easily, but I think we should do it.

3 hours ago, noikeee said:

Your league form is pretty great, to me what it looks like compared to last season, is that the opposition at the front woke up and are racking up more points too!

Mainly Galatasaray as were still in a strong pack for the 2nd people were thinking we might be able to get.

1 hour ago, Lenzar said:

Do I read right from the screenshots that you actually have 1-11 as your first choice side?

Yes, plus ideally a second choice with 12-22 matching their first team counterparts. What were you expecting, alphabetical order like Argentina in 78?

[BoxToBox]

2 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Yes, plus ideally a second choice with 12-22 matching their first team counterparts. What were you expecting, alphabetical order like Argentina in 78?

I do the same, except since I want 21 to be the counterpart to 11, my second choice keeper is 99, so it's 1-21+99.

[Lenzar]

15 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Yes, plus ideally a second choice with 12-22 matching their first team counterparts. What were you expecting, alphabetical order like Argentina in 78?

I try to do this, but I dislike using 12 for a keeper so I swap 12 and 13 around. I tend to only manage in England - or in lower leagues that don't use squad numbers!

[deltablue]

2 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

I do the same, except since I want 21 to be the counterpart to 11, my second choice keeper is 99, so it's 1-21+99.

 

1 hour ago, Lenzar said:

I try to do this, but I dislike using 12 for a keeper so I swap 12 and 13 around. I tend to only manage in England - or in lower leagues that don't use squad numbers!

I used to not care about squad numbers for a long time, just having them autoselected but over the past year or two I've returned to my numbering policy a lot more. I believe there has been discussion before about second choice keepers being 13, which I'm also seeing a lot in-game. Someone asked me if I was Danish or something once because of the '12 for keeper' thing

[deltablue]

European Update - Nov 2025

Matchday 4

Matchday 5

Things haven't quite gone according to plan. I was expecting to beat CSKA Sofia comfortably at home but after failing to take advantage of a stronger start, we spent a lot of the second-half hanging on for dear life, as they were finally looking as strong as I thought they'd be when I looked at their squad after the draw. Copenhagen looked like defying the Rennais 'revenge win' after going ahead twice in France and that actually suited me fine the way things were going but Rennais won after all which meant we lost our 2-point advantage.

That put a lot more pressure on the remaining two matches than I wanted and things looked bad against Rennais when Moradi got sent off after two yellows for diving and we went 2 goals down as well. We managed a to pull off yet another late comeback to get a point but that didn't make much of a difference to the final round, where we'd still need a win in Copenhagen, though it does give us the opportunity to benefit if CSKA pull off a shock win against Rennais. Win or go out it is then.

[deltablue]

We did it! CSKA pulled it off in France, taking an early lead which meant we didn't have as much pressure to win ourselves. Unfortunately with Topaloglu just out with a broken foot, Demiral went off as well (he was fine but a suspension meant he still missed the following league match), making way for Seker who then conceded a penalty! That put us in real trouble and Moradi's suspension didn't help matters. We needed to get a draw at the very least so Jaime's deserved equalizer (after having one disallowed earlier) was a relief.

Later on I looked up the exact score in the other match and saw to my surprise that CSKA were actually 2-0 up (and would win 3-0), meaning that a draw would almost certainly be enough. Had Copenhagen been seriously threatening then I'd have tried to settle for a draw but as we had the upper hand since half-time (and possibly even before) I decided to just keep going and try and get another goal that would give us top spot and got my reward. Kevric pumped a long ball up tp Jaime who ran into the area and tapped it sideways for Falcao to convert. He who dares Rodders! He who dares!

I had hoped that winning the group would help give us a more manageable draw in the next round than Feyenoord last year and we got Young Boys. They do have an excellent pair of wide men but otherwise the rest of their team doesn't look all that good, while not being too bad either, and I can see us winning if such a busy fixture schedule (see the next update) doesn't catch up with us by then. The winner will face Istanbul BBSK or Spartak Moscow in the next round.

[deltablue]

Dec 2025

Galatasaray really are flying! Any other season would see us in a good position to challenge for the title but Galatasaray just look unstoppable this time, except for the two times they have been stopped. Caykur Rizespor joined us in beating them in early December but those are the only blips on what's otherwise a 100% record. Mind you PSV are even more dominant in the Netherlands having just a single defeat and a draw (compared to Galatasaray's 2 defeats) holding them back at the same point in their season.

Our league record since the last update is actually the equal of Galatasarays! It started with a surprise late win over Fenerbahce (and I must admit their name always gets Lady Gaga's Paparazzi playing in my head now) where energy conservation during what was still a hectic run of games was the priority, especially ahead of the second CSKA Sofia game. That seemed to have been messed up at Bursaspor when despite Floris giving us the lead, we fell away enough to concede an equalizer and require early sub use. Later on two injuries reduced us to 9 men and while Capa still nearly gave us the lead again, they easily took us down but only with 3 very late goals.

However I needn't have worried as that was our only bad day for the rest of the year. The pressure was very much on to keep winning every time and we were delivering by just 1-goal margins most of the time. Yurtseven being out for a bit allowed Surucu to step up again and make the difference against struggling Kayserispor, then came the incredible match at Adana D.S. (my 200th in charge of Bucaspor!) where we went behind twice but not only did Floris give us yet another crucial late goal (seriously we've pulled off so many of those this season already) but Erdem even gave is a 4th.

There were still a bunch of teams surprisingly close to us but we started to get a small gap going as we kept winning. Kasimpasa (still win-less this season) proved to be surprisingly troublesome for a while, then Besiktas gave us yet another late win at the price of Topaloglu's foot after a bad challenge. We haven't had too many injury problems this season and this one (ruling him out until near the end) is the only serious one. We have had a handful of others (including Kocak, Moradi, Yurtseven and Floris) but those have hardly knocked us off our stride. Istanbul BBSK were the final opponents befor the winter break and despite Elyonoussi giving up an equalizer by doing a Shoretire (his eccentricity is just 10 so thankfully such a stunt was probably a one-off) we got a win that put us 3 points ahead of Caykur Rizespor, 5 of Fener, Fenerbahce and 8 of Besiktas in the race for 2nd which is very much the focus, as unlikely as it sounded when people first suggested it in this thread.

Unfortunately the cup risks causing us a lot of problems. Samsunspor was a first tie we always going to win without needing to try too hard, and after a bit of a rest Eskisehirspor ended up being too easy as well, which puts us into the group stage for the first time, and a group that has the top three (Galatsaray, ourselves and Caykur Rizespor) together in one group, along with an Antalyaspor side who are probably thinking 'This is going to suck'. We play each other twice which I think is ludicrous (and in contrast to other domestic group stages I'm familiar with, the very concept being one I dislike anyway), we will have no winter break aside from the 10 days before the previous cup tie and while 4 of the 6 matches will be played before the league resumes, that still leaves the last 2 (and the 4th is too close for comfort) helping to provide a very hectic start to 2016. We have 14 matches to play in January and February (and that's with the league on hiatus for the first half of January) and that could cause some serious problems eventually, especially with the Young Boys tie near the end of that run.

[Deisler26]

3 hours ago, deltablue said:

 

I used to not care about squad numbers for a long time, just having them autoselected but over the past year or two I've returned to my numbering policy a lot more. I believe there has been discussion before about second choice keepers being 13, which I'm also seeing a lot in-game. Someone asked me if I was Danish or something once because of the '12 for keeper' thing

Oh God. I must have certain numbers for certain positions otherwise I freak

[noikeee]

Sometimes I don't even know who my best 11 are by the end of the season, how on earth can you number them right at the start? 

Looking good this year, ready for whenever Gatalatatalarasaray slip up. 

[Dexter_Morgan]

Really good season so far delta, decent draw in the Europa too

[Deisler26]

3 hours ago, noikeee said:

Sometimes I don't even know who my best 11 are by the end of the season, how on earth can you number them right at the start? 

Looking good this year, ready for whenever Gatalatatalarasaray slip up. 

As long as you have certain numbers for certain positions, it doesn't matter

[noikeee]

54 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

As long as you have certain numbers for certain positions, it doesn't matter

Don't check my thread, it might trigger an OCD episode. 

[deltablue]

On 02/01/2017 at 19:27, Deisler26 said:

Oh God. I must have certain numbers for certain positions otherwise I freak

 

21 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

As long as you have certain numbers for certain positions, it doesn't matter

 

20 hours ago, noikeee said:

Don't check my thread, it might trigger an OCD episode. 

 

On 03/01/2017 at 10:01, noikeee said:

Sometimes I don't even know who my best 11 are by the end of the season, how on earth can you number them right at the start? 

Looking good this year, ready for whenever Gatalatatalarasaray slip up. 

It sometimes doesn't end up that way, and it helped when I've been with a team long enough to make firm judgements. It's not a firm ranking anyway,

I tried to say that out loud a few times with no success

On 03/01/2017 at 10:05, Dexter_Morgan said:

Really good season so far delta, decent draw in the Europa too

If we can make the most of it. March is turning busy as well and if we beat them it will be just a bad as January and February. Regarding what Noikeee said above that will make it difficult to catch up to Galatasaray even if they do start dropping points.

[Deisler26]

It *always* ends up that way.. *starts blowing into a paper bag*

[deltablue]

Europa League 1st KO Round

Feel the Bern! We made a rather strong start in Switzerland, and perhaps should have taken an early lead. They managed to break through early in the second half with a Kireker injury soon after adding to our woes (he was fine afterwards though thankfully). I still felt we could take them in Izmir so 1-0 wouldn't have been the end of the world and though they did threaten to get another, we managed to get the ball to Moradi in his favourite scoring position giving us a 1-1 draw.

They were surprisingly feisty back in Turkey but this time we got the first goal we were looking for (that would have made for an odd line in Star Wars) from Floris. He almost messed it up with a backheel in our area which caused us to lose possession and allowed them to level the tie but Moradi again gave us the win late on, though another equalizer would have seen us out on away goals. Istanbul BBSK edged past Spartak Moscow which gives us a rather uninspiring all-Turkish tie, however one which gives us a very real possibility of making the quarter-finals.

[deltablue]

Europa League 2nd KO round.

Argh! There is no way we should have lost that. We had more shots and shots on target in both legs but we just made it too easy for them to deal with. Early on in the first leg it looked like we were set to beat them comfortably but we seemed to forget about the part of actually getting the ball past the keeper and into the net, and that's not to dismiss the threat they sometimes posed. There didn't seem to be any need to panic for the away leg as a score draw would be enough but we were missing Kireker (our main creative force and the player who often delivers the ball to precisely where Moradi likes it) through suspension and Elyounoussi had just picked up an injury, forcing us to rely on the young and untested Pak. We looked as confident early on as we did at home but they drew first blood. Moradi quickly powered home a cross but they soon retook the lead from Allan Reuber of all people. The Brazilian defender was my first Bucaspor signing though Istanbul BBSK triggered a vulnerable release clause just a year later. I still felt we had a good chance of getting a crucial second away goal and late goals have been a very good friend to us this season but just not this time.

There is a bit of a silver lining. That was our 47th match of the season in all competitions and just our 6th defeat, and we look set to have played 58 matches by the end of the season as it is. We matched out 14-game Europa League run from last season with a lot still at stake domestically so I arguably enough was enough and it helps our schedule clear a bit at last. We hit an amazing run of form after our exit last year and I hope this helps us finish strongly again this year as we really need it.

[deltablue]

Mar 2026

Strap yourselves in, this is going to be a big one, though I'm aware long these updates can still end up so I'll try to not to go on too much.

I'll start off with the cup. I wasn't looking forward to a hectic group stage schedule especially since we had a few injuries that wouldn't have been as much of a problem. Even worse, those were injuries to Turkish players (though Moradi was absent for the whole of January with the Iran U23 team), which potentially hit us harder that to the foreign stars as it means having to endure an undermanned bench while the excess foreigners sit helplessly out in the cold, and also severely reduced the options to rest players especially as the defenders (who were the least likely to need replacing due to tiredness) were mostly the ones left intact, so it was far from ideal. For that reason I remained defensive for the entire group stage, which is evident in the fact that we started off only getting a point due to an own goal, followed by 2 0-0 draws. We somehow managed two exciting wins to qualify for the semi-finals without trying and with a game left, which ended in an uncharacteristic heavy defeat to Galatasaray.

We drew holders Istanbul BBSK in the semi-finals, so you can imagine my reaction when we got them in the Europa League as well. I had decided to give the cup a little more attention if we got to that stage, especially as by the time we played the first leg we were out of Europe so they would be the only midweek games we had left (at long last!) with a bit of a gap in between, so we could now afford to give it a go. That home leg was played less than a week after our Europa League exit to the same team and played out in a similar way. I guess it's understandable that by this stage the players can't entirely think straight due to tiredness, which explains the fact that while we're still able to create chances and our on-target percentage is still very good, they're just not lethal enough, either with power or targeted far enough away from the keeper, with the woodwork being hit or narrowly missed even with clear chances. It's something I've seen a lot of in recent matches but we at least managed to get a win this time to give us a good chance of making the final. Bursaspor beat Galatasaray 3-2 in the first leg of the other semi-final, though it will be a hard lead to defend in the return match.

I expected us to drop away in the league with so much else going on, to the point that I wouldn't have been surprised if the elusive specimen of a Bucaspor league match would end up as a subject in an Attenborough documentary. Certainly closing such a massive gap to Galatasaray seemed like a fantasy. We managed to beat Goztepe but failed to take advantage of Galatasaray losing their next two by only drawing both. We shockingly only took one point from Orduspor this season with Caykur Rizespor making it 4 league draws in a row. However that was understandable, partly because it was just before Young Boys, partly because I noticed at the half-way stage that all our matches against the other top 5 teams had been at home and all those tough away matches wouldn't make our job any easier.

I was glad to get back to winning ways at Gaziantepspor but the gap was back to 7 points and when we went behind at Galatasaray that seemed to be curtains to our ambitions. We opened up because we had little to lose and after equalizing might even have got a winner, though I was happy to escape with a draw, only the second time this season Galatasaray had failed to win at home. Another victory over Genclerbirligi meant the gap closed to 4 points when we exited Europe but we couldn't take advantage of it. I still had to save energy after taking the lead against Mersin I.Y. and that only failed to pay off right at the death when a few attacks were dealt with at the cost of leaving the goal exposed for a follow-up, which itself is a sign of another weakness we've been showing as tiredness has set it, an inability to dominate and shut down weaker teams. Sakaryaspor had risen far up the league in recent months so only managing another draw wasn't as much of a shock or a disappointment, especially coupled with a Galatasaray defeat.

Under the circumstances, staying in second (just) and managing to slightly close the gap on Galatasaray is very good going indeed, even if that's been helped by the fact they've been nowhere near as imperious as they were before Christmas. Given they've had all the extra matches in the cup and Europe that we have (and are still in the Europa League) that's no surprise. In fact they've lost 4 league matches so far in 2026 and we haven't lost any, though the draws almost balance that out. 7 of our 9 draws have come in this period, equaling the next highest total in the entire season but I feel those we should have won can be countered with those (and a few wins as well) we might have lost. The schedule finally eases off considerably from this point, at least in terms of quantity (still got Fenerbahce and Besiktas away) so hopefully we can make the most of it to secure 2nd (always a far more realistic goal than catching Galatasaray). As for the cup, there hasn't been a major trophy so far in this career or a cup final so if we can finish the job against Istanbul BBSK this time and make the final that would be a big positive to take away from the season, just as clinching 2nd would be and even if that CL spot narrowly slips from our grasp I think we've given a good account of ourselves and I can say to the team 'good effort'. 

[Deisler26]

That Europa League defeat must have stung. Damn.

[deltablue]

8 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

That Europa League defeat must have stung. Damn.

It did a bit, especially as they ended up facing Ajax in the next round. They may be a shadow of their former selves but they're still the sort of relatively big name team we haven't really faced yet in Europe, CSKA Moscow and Feyenoord being the closest we've come. It was also a good example of the problems we've been having late on in the season, we can still work the ball up the pitch really nicely and create chances but we just can't pull off the same sort of shots we were able to convert on a regular basis earlier on.

[deltablue]

Cup Final

OK so there is a slight spoiler here in that we were able to hold on to our slim advantage against Istanbul BBSK and reach the final. Bursaspor also managed to prevent Galatasaray from pulling off a second-leg comeback giving us our preferred opponents but they still wouldn't be easy, especially as we just haven't been able to make chances count of late. It didn't help that Floris was missing. He got sent off for 2 diving yellows a couple of matches before, I thought 'Great, he'll miss the next match and be back fresh for the final' only for him to then get injured for 3 months.

We did manage to force an early goal-mouth scramble which saw Kireker hit the post (again, earlier in the season chances were that someone would have found a way to tuck the ball home) and a denied penalty claim. A later surge did managed to give us a penalty which Yurtseven thankfully converted. Unfortunately it didn't last long as they pushed up and a powerful cross found a player near the far post to knock it in.

At the start of the second-half, i was worried they would be coming out strongly but then we firmly took control, in a way we hadn't since the break. Yet again chances were being created but we just couldn't make a difference. I was going to make this point in a later update but I'm going to use Moradi as an example of what keeps happening. I mentioned before that a lot of his goals come in a similar way. He makes space near the middle just inside the penalty area, gets the ball and fires home a powerful low shot, bam! However even when he is able to get into similar positions in recent weeks his shots are weaker, less accurate or he just ends up gifting the ball to a defender or the keeper. It's a similar story from other players, managing to get themselves the same opportunities they have been so good at converting, but just not doing it any more.

That looked to severely cost us later on. Falcao was poor so went off, then later on I decided to replace a tired midfield pairing, especially as this is one of those midweek cup finals with a tough away '6-pointer' in the battle for 2nd coming up and I couldn't wear my players out completely if I could help it. Kireker went off in a straight swap while Leonardo Robert was pushed up and the defence was reorganized. In the 90th minute the Brazilian went off injured (finishing his season, though there was only a week and a half left anyway), and we were down to 10 men, followed by Moradi (thankfully fine afterwards) to increase the numerical disadvantage! They unsurprisingly were able to have more chances in extra-time (though we still easily had them beaten on that front in the end) and even had a goal disallowed when tap in by the post was ruled offside, and we survived to penalties.

I was worried about penalties since we had a rather weak line-up. Falcao was the best with 12 but he had been taken off. That was followed by 4 players on 11 but one of those was Moradi, then the same number on 10 but with Leonardo Robert's injury none of them were on the pitch... It didn't look great. However Elyounoussi managed to save the first penalty which game me a bit of hope, followed by their second with Capa and Yurtseven giving us a 2-0 advantage. They started to score but we didn't let up with Avni Nivram and then Demiral sealing a very hard-fought win! This was the first cup final and major trophy not only of the career but also in the club's history, and it felt very well-earned indeed.

[kingjericho]

Great thread, if not for anything else just to see back those regen faces and the tactics screen

[deltablue]

May 2026

The run-in didn't start off too well at underachieving Fenerbahce. Maybe I was lulled into a false sense of confidence by their relatively lowly league position but with the schedule getting lighter I still wanted to go for it (which still worked at Galatasaray and in the home games against all of these teams) and ended up with the 7th and final defeat of our 59-match season, which actually dropped us to 4th. It didn't help that suspensions were starting to mount up. Kireker was missing for the previous match, Moradi for this one and Kocak for Bursaspor. Moradi got what proved to be his only goal since we got knocked out for the Europa League but individual defensive errors had proven costly, especially since we didn't have the finishing power to overcome them, and this was no exception.

As has already been established, we got past Istanbul BBSK in the cup (and went on to win) and managed to get some sort of form back up at Kayserispor, though needing multiple Yurtseven penalties to overcome them wasn't too convincing. Adana D.S. and Kasimpasa showed interesting light on our struggles up front. Capa was only on the bench by virtue of being Turkish (he was 5th choice forward otherwise) but occasionally took his opportunities and in the first game he showed a level of lethal attacking threat so far ahead of the bluntness we had been stuck with for a while that it was embarassing. We had to go for Kasimpasa even though it was shortly before the cup final and I was glad when Yurtseven gave us the lead just before half-time allowing us to ease off. What is significant about that was that it was a close-range shot at a narrow angle which along with Moradi's low level cannonballs was the sort of chance we couldn't place as precisely as before, so it was good to see it come off again at last.

After the cup win we were 5 points ahead of Besiktas and Caykur Rizespor in the race for 2nd with just 2 matches left but were away at Besiktas next. A draw would actually be enough (we had a head-to-head advantage over Caykur Rizespor) but it didn't look likely after conceding a soft early goal. Falcao went off injured and I had no faith in Moradi scoring so we ended up playing Capa and Jaime up front, our last-choice pairing and with both players being suited for the same role, meaning one had to be out of position a little bit. However once again their fresher cutting edge was decisive and they teamed up nicely to give us the point! The final match was against Istanbul BBSK, our 5th encounter in 2 1/2 months and I was obviously sick of the sight of them by now, Jaime ended up making the difference by firing home after dribbling the ball across the penalty area a bit.

[deltablue]

End of Season 2025/26

At the end of last season, people were suggesting that maybe 2nd was achievable this year and I must admit that felt a bit optimistic at the time. However we started the season incredibly strongly and even the slower parts of the season mostly saw regular draws rather than falling to defeats and with the exception of a couple of very brief periods, we had our nose in front in the race for second, even temporarily getting closer to Galatasaray a few times, which was much better than I expected, though that could very much the slogan for our time in the Premier Division. From early on we were much better at picking up wins than last season, reflected in a final points total of 68 as opposed to 59 and a new record high of 2nd and CL qualification that seems fully deserved.

So can we win the title? It'll be tricky, no doubt about that, even if Galatasaray fail to ever be as good as in the first half of this season. The gulf in size between us and the big clubs is massive, and Galatasaray are far ahead even of Fenerbahce in that area. This year's budget of a little over 3M and 145kpw was a record, yet along with the raw numbers I was planning to present, Fenerbahce helped prove my point in post-season when they offered me their post...

It's interesting being able to compare wage bills from this version onwards, so I can tell you that Galatasaray have almost double the wage spend of Fenerbahce, and Fenerbahce themselves have almost double that of 3rd place Trabzonspor! (we're 8th in the list, for comparison). In terms of individual wages, Leonardo Robert is the highest earner on 18.5kpw but next best is Floris on 12.75kpw and hardly anyone else is over 10kpw. Galatasaray have the vast majority of their squad on more going up to 105kpw and even 130kpw, not far off our entire wage bill! We're doing better in terms of value, sitting 6th with 23.5M, but compare that to Galatasaray's 105M, even Fenerbahce are worth under half that! The point I'm (badly) trying to make is that while we're somehow managing to out-do most of the big clubs, Galatasaray are at another level altogether.

Obviously such figures aren't everything as we keep proving but I wonder how far we can realistically go, especially with very small attendances of under 8,000 in a stadium that holds just 10,000 or so. I don't imagine being able to do much in the Champions League but we might drop down and have another good Europa League run. If we done that will at least give us a lighter schedule and give us a bit of a boost. On the budgetary front we ended the season with over 10M in the bank so we should get a very good boost for next season. I have given the matter a bit of thought and I'm planning on staying for 2 more years as things stand to get a proper measure of how we can compete with Galatasaray. After that either we should have managed to take the final step to the title or the chances of doing so will seem minimal. As it is I can probably take a step up to a bigger club, especially with the cup win, but I still want to have a good go here first. 

Believe it or not I'm still not on the favoured list, though only  few players are with no one ranked above. I took over with the club only just out of the First Division relegation zone, almost got promoted that season, did actually take them up in my first full season, managed a top half finish in our first season up, followed by a first ever European qualification, record high of 3rd last season and now 2nd, a first ever cup win and entry into the Champions League. Surely that's worth something

So, anyone want to predict a title win?

Star Player:  Floris would seem the obvious choice in terms of average rating but he didn't actually reach double figures for league goals, and even though he set a new assist record (actually beating Yurtseven who briefly set a new one earlier in the season) Moradi was no slouch in that area either as well as his far superior scoring record, including a goal a game in the Europe. Along with Kevric he will be at the World Cup but he has only been a fringe player who often gets called up but hardly ever gets on the pitch so is far less likely to see any action.

Squad Stats

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha... No!!!!!!

[Deisler26]