[FM13] Second Star to the Right...

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CL Draw 2029

Much like with 2 years ago, we were 3rd seeds, but I don't think the draw was anywhere near as bad. Last time we had Chelsea, Real Madrid and a Chernomorets Burgas team that were still strong enough to beat us 4-0 in Turkey! We were always going to get 2 very tough teams but Porto and Arsenal (despite being holders) didn't seem quite as scary. Meanwhile Legia did beat us to qualification from our Europa League group last year (though only just) but I imagine we can pay them back this time. This season the league won't get the priority it had previously at the expense of Europe or the cup so I'm aiming to do rather better than 2 years ago, certainly 3rd even though I doubt we'll cause Porto or Arsenal too much trouble. It would still be nice to get something from those 4 matches.

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Oct 2029

Things certainly started very brightly indeed in both fronts. Last year's super cup saw us hammered 5-0 by Galatasaray so I was glad to come out on top this time. It was a close one as they cancelled out 2 Moradi goals but Akdeniz scrambled the ball in at the end of extra-time to give us a deserved win.  We seemed to continue where we left off in the league. The opening day win was narrow but Trabzonspor were torn apart. Like last season we faced Galatasaray away just before the September break and took the lead when Moradi got onto the end of a Tevfik Aydin free-kick. The latter had already been roughed up quite a bit by his parent club teammates in the super cup and went off with a broken arm this time. He was due to make his return after the October break but got a further injury on international duty. I still wasn't too disappointed with an equalizer especially as it meant we had gone undefeated in the league for a whole year. We then beat a Gazientepspor who had a 100% record after 3 matches but then things started going downhill.

After a few early injuries, we were mostly fine last season until the later stages rarely had more than one first-team player out at a time even then, however this year we really were in the wars. By the time we went to Caykur Rizespor we had 5 out including our first choice full-backs, and that match added Rasmussen and Moradi to the list, though only briefly. Adana D.S. looked in serious trouble and weren't much of a threat but just before we went into the international break we lost our unbeaten run in circumstances we really shouldn't had at Kasimpasa. We were soon 2 goals and a man down against Genclerbirligi making clawing back a point some sort of a triumph. Besiktas away wasn't an easy game to turn things around but it looked like we had when Moradi gave us the lead. However the defence was really letting the rest of the side down and we we ended up with a second hammering in a row, and I was alarmed to see us 10 points behind Galatasaray already, though I wasn't so focused on the title anyway. This career I've been focused on playing a 'best 11' a lot more than in previous careers where I'd swap out players after bad performances like it was the easiest thing in the world so when I lost patience with Neto and dropped him for a bit that really was a case of being pushed to my limit. At least we managed to finish off the month with a league win against Bursaspor.

In Europe we started off with a surprising performance at Arsenal, taking the lead from Falcao. We couldn't hold onto it but a point at the Champions League holders was never something to be too disappointed at. Legia beating Porto  I was worried about Porto, not least as injuries and all meant the 17yr old Sen had to play in midfield and he'd surely be a lamb to the slaughter. As it turns out he wasn't, and nor was the rest of the team. The took an early lead but it didn't get to us and we quickly had some headers go too high. We were still very blunt up top so I swapped out the forward 3, which paid off. Serbest has shone in the cup but has kept failing when I've fallen back on him in league matches. However he finally proved he was a Really Useful Engine to equalize. I was willing to settle for that so didn't expect Akdeniz to score on the break. That gave me high hopes for our qualification prospects but we fell to earth big time in Poland.

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Dec 2029

Gibbs' rules very rarely apply to FM but the one that comes to mind here is Rule 11: When the job is done, walk away. That was what I was planning to do when I claimed that elusive title but given the timing I thought I might as well do a 10th season, and as much as I like to go out on a high, it would be very unlike me to leave a club after a first title.

Europe first. We were still holding on to second despite the hammering in Warsaw and I was hoping to make up for it at home, though only managed a 0-0 draw. However all was not lost and when Moradi gave us the lead at home to Arsenal, that put us in 2nd. Unfortunately the Iranian, in his best ever goalscoring form, must be getting very annoyed by now at giving us the lead or scoring an equalizer only to see it thrown away, a recurring theme this season, and it happened twice this time. Being pegged back to 2-2 was frustrating enough but they took the lead when a powerful shot struck the crossbar and they were able to tap in a rebound while Joao Lucas was still getting back up off the ground and I knew the game was up.

There was still the probability of the Europa League which needed a draw in Portugal. I was tempted to go defensive but it didn't work last year and in any case relying on the defence seemed unwise at the moment. I still did so anyway after they dominated the early stages which didn't stop Falcao from giving us the lead. That looked like it might be enough but they managed to turn it around before the break, and our task of getting the single goal that we needed was frustrated when Falcao got sent off for the second time this season. Moradi did his best on his own up front but he clearly wasn't in the zone this time.

I had hoped for a lot more after getting 4 points from the first Arsenal and Porto matches, and certainly we seemed a lot more competitive than the last time we were in the CL group stage. Going from potential qualification to being out of Europe with 2 defeats in which we took the lead 3 times was painful, while Legia caused a shock in our European group for the second year in a row. In fact they looked like topping the group on the last day before Arsenal turned the match around, though I still maintain they're a weaker side on paper. I'd love to face them again with a bigger team as I've got quite a score to settle with them.

Domestically I had hoped we were recovering after the Bursaspor win but we could only draw with promoted Orduspor. In the past too many draws in matches we should have won had been our downfall and now that problem was back with a vengeance. Sometimes you have seasons where things just go your way and others where they don't. Last season the stars very much aligned and now it seems like there's some compensating going on. Rescuing a late draw against Istanbul BBSK followed by 2 wins put us back up into a more familiar second place but it didn't last. Falcao is now Turkish and the injury problems have cleared up but that didn't seem to help. After the Porto defeat Moradi saw an equalizer go down the drain at Dardenelspor , then we crashed to a penalty defeat to second division Istanbulspor. Usually we could win those ties while energy-saving but not this time.

A draw against Fenerbahce was more forgivable, though it was a far cry from how easily we beat them with 10 men at the end of last season, Altay very much less so. Moradi had notched his 14th goal in 16 league matches against Fenerbahce, before timing a suspension-triggering yellow card to perfection as he also picked up a minor injury, so he missed a match he'd have been unfit for, and vice versa. Serbest seemed an adequate replacement when giving us the lead but once again it wasn't enough, and the way they pushed late on, they deserved an equalizer. It's not quite the final season it was promising to be early on, but I haven't got much to lose so with a proper winter break for the first time in a while, hopefully we can rescue the situation the best we can in the second half.

[deltablue]

There is a little bit of news regarding my potential next club. They sacked their manager in early December which wasn't great timing and I thought I wouldn't have another opportunity for a while but they're doing even worse under the new guy and might even get relegated so hopefully it'll be free again when I want it to be.

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May 2030

We looked better after Christmas but kept taking a step back after each step forward. Genclerbirlgi was the most impressive performance since September, while we beat Galatasaray but our away performances were worse, not helped by injuries quickly racking up again, especially for the Gazientepspor defeat which at least gave Palacios a one-match-wonder outing. Things got a lot better in March and as we moved up into our more familiar second position. Losing at Fenerbahce wasn't a shock but while it was disappointing to fail to beat Altay after Moradi's 29th league goal of the season (and it's been a long time since I had a player reach 30 in the league, even Linias only just managed 30 in all competitions in the final season of that career) they still got relegated and a Besiktas defeat still gave us 2nd.

The second half of the season was pretty much waiting for the end, but it still felt sad to leave. It hadn't quite been 10 full seasons but it was close enough. I found them only just above the First Division relegation zone (which they were actually in when the job came up, even if they moved out if it before the offer came in), took them into Europe for the first time, and won their first cup and league titles. I upgraded the training facilities to 'top' and the stadium has recently been expanded to over 13k. It would be nice to encounter them in Europe in the future, as well as run into some former players.

Star Player: By all rights it should be Moradi but I'll do things a little differently and make this about my stint in Turkey as a whole, featuring the 3 players who have been here the entire time. Yurtseven and Erdem were two players that caught my eye right at the start and I threw them in straight away. Yurtseven has been first choice ever since and only injuries (especially the time his season ended in October) has stopped him from being the club's record appearance maker, though he's still very close and is still easily the longest-serving player in the current squad. Erdem comes fairly close and his first choice status has come and gone over the years but he's always featured regularly.

Capa is different as he's been a lot more of a fringe player, and even at the start he was second fiddle to Alici in the 'up and coming forward' role. A majority of his appearances coming when he was the main forward option on the bench (by virtue of being Turkish) then the only backup to Yurtseven, though he's still managed 129 appearances, and made a real difference from the bench on a number of occasions so he certainly did his bit. He seemed pretty much obsolete by his final season with Simsek coming in to be a proper backup winger and I must admit I would have let him go last year if it wasn't for sentimental value. He still got to make a brief appearance later on, especially against Orduspor where he managed a goal and an assist.

Squad Stats

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So where next? For now the answer is 'nowhere'. The club I wanted didn't come up at the end of the season so either I look for something else or just wait, which would allow game time to advance a little bit more. On balance I'm probably going to wait as while I probably can't get the top clubs yet (though I wouldn't really want to unless they were considerably underachieving) I still hope I can get something pretty special, a club I can aim for the very top with. There are probably still a few other clubs that might be able to attract my attention and maybe the managerial shuffle after the World Cup or the next Euros will throw up something, but otherwise I only have eyes for one team and I'll willing to wait for it.

[Deisler26]

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1 hour ago, Deisler26 said:

What?

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Well I guess I was wrong about not being able to get the big clubs at this point, though in a way I feel it should have taken a lot more than one Turkish league and cup win as the only major trophies. There is no chance of taking it as I don't really like joining clubs that are already title challengers, let alone pretty dominant reigning champions as you can see...

Dortmund were available but I didn't go for it for a similar reason. There is also when I mentioned before about English teams and the Premier League in particular, but Nottingham Forest were slightly tempting I guess when that came up.

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World Cup 2030 - Spain

Well I guess it had to happen eventually. After all the surprise winners and finalists in previous tournaments, the major nations took over. The Netherlands won last time and went all the way to the final again (beating Morocco in the second round in a rematch of their victory 4 years ago) where they lost to a very strong Spain side who were also the hosts. Germany and Argentina were the beaten semi-finalists with the latter finally breaking out of a run of 3 first round exits in a row.

2014 winners Wales missed out for the first time, having continued to be a consistently decent team after that, and the group stage threw up some interesting matchups, Group C perhaps being the group of death with Italy and Moradi's Iran beating out France and Paraguay. The main other notable result was Portugal, who I thought had an easy draw before the tournament but ended up facing an early exit at the hands of Sweden and Senegal, with Mexico also going out early despite looking pretty good on paper.

[noikeee]

Hey, you finally won the title! At last, Galatasaray was dethroned! Congrats on that.

Not sure what went on the next season as that Champions League group looks kinda bizarre with Legia nailing it, and it's a shame you stepped back a bit in the league and couldn't repeat the same heights of the previous season. But I think Bucaspor fans have a lot to credit you for over the last decade. Good timing for leaving the club, too.

Any hints as to where you want to manage next?

[withnail316]

A pity not to walk away with another title, but you'very made great progress in Turkey.

Any news on your next move?

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4 hours ago, noikeee said:

Hey, you finally won the title! At last, Galatasaray was dethroned! Congrats on that.

Not sure what went on the next season as that Champions League group looks kinda bizarre with Legia nailing it, and it's a shame you stepped back a bit in the league and couldn't repeat the same heights of the previous season. But I think Bucaspor fans have a lot to credit you for over the last decade. Good timing for leaving the club, too.

Any hints as to where you want to manage next?

Hearts also made it through to the knockout rounds. The following year Bucaspor won the title again with Galatasaray in 3rd. They made a storming start to my final season in Turkey but then dropped off quite a bit. We were too far behind to take advantage, but clearly they've not quite been the same since. Meanwhile in Europe they were in a Europa League group with Wolfsburg, Sibenek and Alania and the last two were the ones that qualified, which was a surprise as I thought they would make it through with the Germans. The playing field certainly looks a lot more level already, at least among those sorts of teams.

3 hours ago, withnail316 said:

A pity not to walk away with another title, but you'very made great progress in Turkey.

Any news on your next move?

The situation regarding the next club has been very complicated, especially as I've only had my eye on one team since I decided I would leave Turkey but having looked like it would be available at just the right time, it then looked like I'd have a long wait ahead of me before the job became vacant again in November 2031 just like that. I'll reveal all after I've covered a few more things.

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There is going to be a lot of international tournament spam coming up, with the year after a World Cup featuring all of the non-European ones, however here is something that amused me...

Great incentive guys

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AFCON 2031 - Egypt

The times they are a changing indeed. I mentioned in the previous AFCON update about the near-dominance of Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia until that tournament which saw the Ivorians beat the South Africa in the final. Morocco do make the final this time but it's the first time since their last triumph 4 tournaments ago and they lost to Egypt, the latest hosts to win an international tournament after Spain at the World Cup and England at the last Euros. Senegal and Algeria weren't necessarily familiar names in the semi-finals though the former were at least building on a decent World Cup performance.

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Asian Cup 2031 - Japan

That makes it 4 wins for Japan (yet another host win, around the same time as the above tournament) to 2 for South Korea, with no one else getting a look in yet, not even an Iran side that have been very strong for a while now, to the point that it took ages for Moradi to even feature as a sub and the World Cup was the first time he had a proper run of playing the whole 90 minutes in each match. The Japanese and Koreans have faced each other in the semi-finals recently giving various other teams an appearance in the final, Iran last time, Qatar this time.

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Gold Cup 2031

I fully expected yet another host win. I knew that the Confederations Cup was now every 4 years but only now did I realize that it had already changed for this version, so used was I to seeing the USA and Mexico exchange titles while the other were absent, both in this career and the Ipswich one. It was therefore a surprise to see a full Mexico team featuring and beating the USA in the final, the first time in the career they've beaten the neighbours to the north in a direct match, having lost at least once before on the rare occasions they've been head to head like that. It was a nice way to put a disappointing World Cup behind them. Cuba also stood out as semi-finalists.

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Copa America 2031- Bolivia

Bolivia were never going to add their name to the list of recent host champions. Instead this was the year of Argentina. They won the first 3 tournaments but had were already starting their run of 3 World Cup group stage exits in a row. A semi-final appearance at the last World Cup was now followed by another continental title as the seem to be back with a vengeance. Reigning champions Brazil went back to being relatively anonymous with a quarter-final exit to an Ecuador side hoping to recapture the past glory of their 2018 World Cup win, and in the end the defence was the big difference in the final with the Argentines being strong while the Ecuadorians were woeful.

[Cardiovascular]

Spent a while catching up on this whole thread, great work in Turkey. I'm interested to see where you end up now! Did chuckle when Norwich offered you the job.

 

edited - I definitely did not write Ipswich instead of Norwich

Edited February 23, 2017 by Cardiovascular

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Chapter 4: Return of the Magical Milan (A.C. Milan)

From the moment I decided to leave Bucaspor I only had my eyes on one team, and the old hands on my career threads will know why They seemed to be struggling again, finishing 3rd in the first season, managing a couple of 4ths afterwards but otherwise continuously ending up between 6th and 13th. However the season I won the title, they were 15th, which is precisely when I decided to check in on them as a potential next club. They weren't doing so well the following season either, battling relegation and it looked like the stars would align and the job would be free either when the season ended or close enough before that I might be able to swing an 'end of season' deal. Unfortunately they sacked their manager that December and despite the new guy taking them to last place when they were out of trouble when he arrived, he wasn't even under pressure when it was time to leave Izmir. 

I decided to wait, especially all the other big name sides were doing too well, so even without my past affinity with the club, it was a standout 'underachieving big club' opportunity of the sort I love most of all. I did consider Bordeaux enough at one point to apply but didn't really feel like going for it. When Milan bounced straight back to Serie A (as expected) then made a very strong start to the new season it looked like I'd have a very long wait indeed.  Seeing the above comments asking about the potential next club I was all prepared to say 'It's complicated' and 'I'll get back to you guys on that one' when the Milan manager decided to move to Valencia in time for to leave the door open for me, a fact that I celebrated just as much as any title win

It wasn't quite what I hoped for. I wanted to take them over after relegation to Serie B, or maybe struggling to avoid the drop again. I know it seems strange to complain about joining a team doing too well but I had wanted to rescue them from as much as possible. As it happens the pressure is off as I'm in charge of an 8th placed team with expectations to avoid relegation, which is just as well as I haven't really got budgetary room to work with in January and it'll take time to sort things out so not much will happen until the new pre-season.

For those who don't know, my FM11 Milan side (the first of 2 in the same career) was legendary, at least to me. I can probably still name more players off the top of my head than my '99 Problems' Ipswich side. They won 7 Serie A title's on the trot (very easily) before I left for a new challenge which I rather regret because it means I gave up the chance to set a new personal best for league wins in a row. The also won 5 Champions League titles, including an epic 4-2 in a Milan derby where we were 2-1 down in extra-time, and Lyon were beaten 7-0 in the last one, so I guess it wasn't surprising that I was very bored by that point.

I'm going to build this team on the same lines as the old one, with an U21 transfer policy. It'll take a while to be successful and I intend to try and keep it going for some time after that so I'll probably be here for at least as long as in Turkey, probably quite a bit longer as I enjoy the experience of revisiting an old favourite.

[withnail316]

Great move. Italy is FM heaven, although it's been years since I last ventured there, only I was at Inter.

Best of luck.

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21 minutes ago, withnail316 said:

Great move. Italy is FM heaven, although it's been years since I last ventured there, only I was at Inter.

Best of luck.

I've always had an affinity for it myself, even proper stints at an Italian club have been few and far between.

[noikeee]

How many times have you managed Milan now?  Didn't you leave Milan then come back later in that FM11 save?

Welcome back to San Siro.

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2 hours ago, noikeee said:

How many times have you managed Milan now?  Didn't you leave Milan then come back later in that FM11 save?

Welcome back to San Siro.

I did indeed, but those are the only times I've ever managed them in any save ever before now. I've done Juventus, Inter and Verona at least as many times.

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OK, so turning my attentions to Milan for the first time (I decided to save all that for later when I got the position) and I notice the first match is a Milan derby. Expectations turn out to be top-half instead of 'avoid relegation' (which is what it was when I first checked, but before the chairman meeting) no thanks to my predecessor which is more pressure than I would have liked but seems manageable given our current position.

I last looked at the squad during the relegation season and it looked unimpressive to say the lead. Looking at it now, I was perhaps being a bit harsh on a lot of players but there's still a heck of a lot of work to be done to make them into a good side again, then again I didn't expect anything else and that was the whole point of waiting for Milan rather than going for Man City, Dortmund or PSG like I could have. I do have one 17yr old defender who already looks pretty good and is potentially top quality which is always nice to see. The youth team does have a bunch of players with really high potential ratings but whether they will end up being good enough is far from certain.

I can't really do much in January with a remaining transfer budget of just under 1M (though I have managed to get incredible young defenders from Germany for less) and 4kpw spare in the wage budget, so I can't really re-balance it to put anything meaningful in one or the other. There may be a few players I can afford to get rid of in January or let go at the end of the season but otherwise I might have to see what I get at the start of next year to get the ball rolling on replacing a lot of the current team with potential stars.

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January Transfer Update

I managed to do a little more than I expected in January, even of only one player arrived then. Gilson caught my eye straight away especially when I saw he had a 375k release clause! The were two problems though. The first was that we had already used up our two non-eu signings from abroad, which is why I decided to make it an end of season transfer and hope I could get around that, and it looks like I have. The other was that I acted a bit too early in that I hadn't really made moves to get rid of players yet (this still being mid-December), and while we could easily cover the fee even with what we had, I needed to adjust things towards the wage budget and that tied my hands in terms of not being able to move it again, which I perhaps should have realized (I've been used to having complete freedom on FM11 and even back on FM13 and FM16 that situation has come up so rarely that I don't really think about it much) otherwise I'd have timed it a little later.

I was still able to build up more budget for another signing I really wanted to make. Not only wasn't I in a position to get much from the players I felt able to get rid of, but only 50% went back into the transfer budget, I had hoped to benefit more from getting rid of wages and putting it back into the transfer budget, though the impending Gilson signing that locked the slider firmly at the 'wage budget' end put paid to that. At 1.1M, Simonetti looked like a potential bargain signing from Empoli. He hadn't got off to the best of starts when I took that screenshot as you can see, but while it's understandable that he wouldn't exactly be Paolo Maldini reborn, especially not right away, he's suddenly been absolutely excellent in the few matches I've played since then, so it doesn't look like I've got anything to worry about.

The expiring contracts market isn't usually a good one for getting young players but with that being my only avenue to make any more signings at this stage (Simonetti's signing having taken the remaining budget down to just 50k!) I did find Preuss. I'm not quite so excited about him, especially as we've already got a potential long-term right back but he does have incredible pace and the potential to develop a lot more, plus while the first 11 isn't too bad, the squad depth is woeful (with only a handful of limited exceptions) so he can still be a very useful option and as a free signing he easily seemed worth going for.

I know going for young players may seem restrictive, but I know it works (I didn't even have to set a rule for the '99 Problems' Ipswich team for that strategy to end up being the best one anyway) and there is also logic behind. Clubs don't often want to sell their best young prospects but sometimes they do and you can often get them for much less than established players. Indeed the three players above are only costing 1.5M in total, which doesn't seem bad. The wages (at least for a while) are also a lot lower and with only 9M or so in the bank (which looked pretty good at Bucaspor, suddenly looking like very little at Milan), keeping the wage bill low is going to be very useful for helping to build up the money for bigger budgets in the future, which will be especially useful as there is so much to do and I'm going to need to make much more expensive signings to keep it up. Simonetti is only on 5kpw and the other two I think are comfortably going to be under 10kpw, again not terrible value.

While there were still a lot of players out of reach (I didn't have an Ass Man to start off with so the filter for players who wouldn't want to join wasn't active) at this stage it's also opens up the potential to sign quality players before an increase in rep when they become older and more established might put them out of reach, or at least be insanely expensive. I also like tapping into the well of talent as much as possible, leaving far fewer for any potential rivals to benefit from in the long term

It's still going to be a long and slow road to making Milan strong (though that is actually not just what I signed up for but what I always wanted in the first place) but I think this is potentially a good start.

[deltablue]

Feb 2032

Well it seemed to start well enough with a derby win over Inter but from the start there were clear problems beneath the surface. For one thing after our early goal we had most of the pressure against us. We also conceded twice in very quick succession in the cup at Pescara before only getting the deserved win in extra time. We failed to find a way part struggling Torino and while the Parma win and draw at Palermo were pretty good results, reality hit with a pre-Christmas hammering against Napoli. We were already having to fight hard and ride our luck for results and an injury to our key forward Kassel (who has just turned 33 so we can't rely on him for much longer) before the league resumed in January was a big blow.

February was a particular low point. Trying to be as defensive as possible against Juventus came close to working out but couldn't quite, but the remaining matches were all winnable. Kassel scored the only goal in a win at Crotone on his return before missing Genoa with the flu, though we still scraped a point from that. He managed to score at Pescara and against Empoli but it wasn't enough. The latter defeat at home to the bottom-placed side was especially humiliating, while Pescara were only just above the relegation zone. Aside from the aging American's goals the one bright spot was Simonetti who is already flourishing with some excellent performances, even if the rest of his defensive colleagues are seriously letting him down. It didn't help that the first choice keeper was injured after the Genoa game for around a month.

Maybe I arrived at the wrong time, at a club overachieving after promotion and pressure from the start to stay in the top half, with even most of the stronger players only barely good enough for that level of ambition. It would be a shame for the much-heralded return to Milan to be so short-lived. In some ways the ideal scenario would be to fall short with a close enough margin to survive but with potentially lowered expectations, as that's the far bigger enemy in my mind than the longer-term challenge of making them competitive again that I actively sought. Even when winning this is not a Milan team anyone has reason to fear, and it's sad to see how bad things have become.

[deltablue]

May 2032

 

Thankfully things improved later on in the season, to a point. Narrow as it was, the win against Cremonese was very welcome, though we failed to follow it up with a blank at Cagliari and throwing away an early 2-0 lead to get hammered 5-2 against Lazio, with the full-backs being especially culpable, all four of them. It was like when Zaire subbed their keeper after going 3-0 down against Yugoslavia in the 1974 World Cup only for the backup to be even worse. We still managed to do the double over Inter before a good win over Torino helped get us back into the top half. 6-pointers against Parma and Palermo yielded only a 4-0 hammering and 0-0 draw but then we pulled off a shock at Napoli. We were essentially set up for damage limitation so it was a surprise to get a 3-1 win after going behind very early with an Atalanta win making us safe in the top half. Decent draws against Udinese and Modena (especially as both central midfielders had been sent off by the time we took a late lead) finished the season.

Things definitely looked better by the end of the season, and not just results-wise. We looked a lot more convincing when winning than early on, and were more competitive in trickier games even when we didn't get results, Parma being the clear exceptions. I must admit that I was struggling for motivation earlier in the week, like I did early on in what turned out to be the title-winning Bucaspor season. I'm very emotionally invested in how things go in FM sometimes and when I'm not feeling that great in real life the combination can be very depressing. However I do feel a definite lift after today's session. After the early Norway relegation the only time I've failed to finish in the top half was the season in the Premier Division with Limhamn Bunkeflo (I knew I was decent at this game ) so it was good to rescue that situation after looking like we'd firmly fall short.  )

I still don't think the squad is really good enough to do much better but Simonetti ended up being our best player among the regulars this season despite being an 18-yr old January signing. Hopefully the confirmed signings of Preuss and especially Gilson (who I'm all set to lazily nickname 'the Brazilian Moradi') will also prove to be successful and while I know I won't have that much to play around with in the summer (especially given some future stars will be far more expensive) I hope I can find a few more players who can help make a quality side in the future. We're certainly going to need it as when seeing how clear Juventus were at the top (that eventual 30-point winning margin is insane!) I was thinking 'Oh great, this is going to be like Galatasaray again'.

Speaking of Turkey. Bucaspor have won both league titles since I left, are building a new 23,500-seater stadium having already expanded the old one to 15,000 and previously during my final season, so it's fair to say they're doing very well. However I still think it was the right decision to leave when I did and I still claim credit for doing all the work to enable them to be a consistently strong side going forward

Squad Stats

[noikeee]

That was a much better end to the season, but still a bit far away from Milan's ultimate potential. Time to hit the transfer market big time?

[deltablue]

7 hours ago, noikeee said:

That was a much better end to the season, but still a bit far away from Milan's ultimate potential. Time to hit the transfer market big time?

This is a team that was in Serie B the year before, so yes we're still some way off the great Milan teams of old

As for hitting the transfer market, I haven't got a massive amount to work with. The starting budget was under 6M and with very little spare in a wage budget of around 450kpw, and we haven't really got much more in the bank so it's genuinely about as much as I could have expected to get. 

I have been able to get rid of players to boost that quite a bit and have managed to do some decent business with it but for now I won't have a lot of money to spend year on year so I really have to be smart with what I've got.

[deltablue]

Euro 2032 - Belgium

Spain might have hoped to be the second team in the save to be both World and Continental champions at the same time, almost a decade after Colombia became the first. A first round defeat to Russia cost them top spot in the group but that didn't stop them from seriously hammering Italy in the following round before falling to a French side who went on to be near-flawless champions. The Netherlands bounced back from their World Cup defeat with excellent wins in the knockout rounds against Belgium and Wales before losing to England. England were actually on a potential 3rd Euro victory in a row and had actually added a few genuine stars to the rather unimpressive side that won their previous two titles but that wasn't enough to do it again. Croatia were a shock absence from the tournament altogether, as were Turkey as they both, along with Switzerland and Romania, were the losers among the 3rd placed teams and missed out on the playoffs. Turkey could feel particularly disappointed as they finished some way off the top 2 in a group won by Slovenia (with Wales a close 2nd).

[deltablue]

Summer 2032

As mentioned above in my response to noikeee's comment, I started the season with just under 6M and little wiggle room in a wage budget of around 450kpw, and that wasn't board being tight, that was pretty much all we had. We needed to do a lot better for a few reasons. Firstly we only got 25M TV money for the year, which really doesn't seem like a lot. For comparison, the Magical Milan team was getting 90M a year. I know that it's different for each team (as I saw it was lower at first on that FM11 save) and even if the FM13 TV money doesn't end up being on the same level as the older version I do hope we can get a lot more as we climb back up, we're going to need it. There is also the fact that the average attendance was just 35k, leaving a lot of scope for improvement in a stadium of over 80k as our rep climbs back up. If we can sneak a top 6 finish (depending on the cup) in the next year or two than a Europa league run would still do us a world of good. Looking at the finances screen just now I notice a loan costing us just over 1M a month which is really holding us back on that front but it'll be gone in 3 years time thankfully.

None of the above were things that I could do anything about for now beyond trying to put us in a position to improve in the league but I did have quite a bit of scope to sell players even before bringing anyone new in. The value that would add to the transfer budget was limited, especially with just 50% of fees available for that purpose. Lowering the wage bill would also be useful both for rebalancing and as a way of improving our financial situation a little in the short term. Added to that, there were some players I had to fall back on last year who I just couldn't wait to replace, and for once I was at least as occupied with getting rid of players as bringing them in for all sorts of reasons. In the end I managed to double the transfer budget (which was very useful) and end the summer with the wage bill down to just over 370kpw week, which puts us 11th in the league. Somehow I thought it would be a lot but I guess I underestimate the gap that has opened up between Italy and England/Spain recently, though in-game they do look very close to taking a 4th CL slot back from France (though with Germany in 5th also very close in a tight race for 3rd), which would improve our chances of getting back into Europe. 

Anyway I'm two large paragraphs in and I haven't mentioned any signings yet (which is somehow fitting for this window). Gilson and Preuss were already set to arrive, the former as his intended January signing had to be delayed due to Italy's non-EU transfer rules (having already used up both slots for last season) and the latter as an end-of-contract deal. The defensive options were also reinforced by a player from the youth intake, which added to my freedom to kick players out of the door. More defensive fates were sealed when my first actual signing of the summer was an English defender who cost 5M, which was really pushing the boat out, though by this point I had already brought in/freed up/readjusted more than enough budgetary room that we could handle it and still have a decent amount spare for other signings. Interestingly enough (well to me it is anyway) his Magical Milan compatriot Hathaway was also signed from Everton and for his ability in the air. I also think this could be the beginning of a beautiful partnership with Simonetti.

The next arrival deserves individual treatment. After Gilson, another forward wasn't as high a priority but I was still mindful of the fact that Kassel would probably be let go at the end of the season when he'd be 34, and we could really use another player in his role anyway. I very rarely sign players at 16, let alone younger than that (though occasionally a Brazilian or Argentine may look worth it, even if I have to wait a while for them) as they rarely look anywhere near good enough to be anything other than a very uncertain long-term gamble so you can imagine how much of an exception Mexes must be to be signed before he even turned 15. The fact that I was able to get him for just 28k helped a lot.

I like to think that I'm very good with bargain transfers, certainly I feel my record with Bucaspor was incredibly strong and I'm surprised at what I've been able to do with Milan so far. In fact quite a lot of players are signed with thoughts of 'this could be one of the best deals of the career). I thought that getting some incredible Turkish-German defenders at 15/16 for a few hundred thousand each for previous Milan and Ipswich teams was as good as it got but Mexes even leaves them in the dust. He is probably my lowest ever paid-for signing in a big league (or even beyond the smaller divisions) by a very large margin.

He made quite an immediate impact as well. I get 12 subs in Italian competitions which makes it easy to put young players on the bench almost by default to make the most of opportunities, and one arose in our first cup match when Kassel went off injured. Mexes was the obvious replacement in terms of role so on he went, though I probably would have done things differently in a lot of other situations. He scored just 7 minutes later to seal a 3-1 win, and this was just 4 days after his 15th birthday, smashing previous records. He might well be good enough already to be Kassel's regular sub if he can continue to prove he can handle it (though not his replacement in the starting lineup or when the American leaves as he's still a few years away from that point) and benefit from getting the occasional bit of game time under his belt. Remember the name guys, his career is going to be long and glorious.

I think I had already made a deal to use up my other 'non-EU signing from abroad' slot. Dunga was actually my 3rd choice signing in his position but he probably should have been the first as I already knew that he was available for a 1.1M release clause and he wasn't that much worse than the other two, especially when you consider the fact that he was younger. He's not actually here yet but he does arrive just before the end of August so still counts for the purposes of this update, and his form at his Brazilian club shows a lot of promise. Another Brazilian arrival was Fagner, who wasn't actually signed as a potential star. He was however already a much better Ball-Playing Defender than the incumbent Jonas, who in turn would be the proper backup in the role that we lacked last year, along with his ability to play in midfield I felt he was worth really pushing the boat out both in terms of fee and contract, at least by our current standards.

He was supposed to be followed by another player from CSKA, an 18yr old Bulgarian who aside from a need to focus on tackling, was already looking like he'd be an excellent midfielder. Unfortunately he refused to talk contract at all, which was especially problematic when you consider that his intended transfer was partly funded by the sale of the midfielder he was supposed to replace, though Fagner could still be a stand-in. There were still a couple of potential signings I could use the budget on instead and with our second choice left-back being completely useless I took the opportunity to replace him with someone I could have more faith in. Ciganek isn't intended as a future star like most of the others but he could still prove very useful for a while.

Including Dunga, I have now signed 8 players for just 14M. Despite what happened with the Bulgarian (and it would have been nice to have a potential star from a country outside the obvious handful most of my signings come from when I do this, France, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, sometimes with the odd Spaniard, Italian or Dutchman) in some ways I'm amazed I've still managed to get in the players I have so far, especially as I'm really aiming my sights high. I still don't think we'll be setting the world alight for a while, but it's still a promising foundation to build on and I'm far happier with my squad options (though the summer budget building and wage slashing exodus has come at a cost of a lack of depth in a few positions) than last year.

Signings

 

 

[deltablue]

I feel I should apologise for how much I write sometimes (which is probably why my careers have been a lot harder work to follow over the years than most others). I've been praised in the past for how much I'm able to really express my thoughts and feelings but that sometimes means that I start writing and so much just flows out that I sometimes end up writing at least twice the amount I intended to and that's with the occasional point being missed out altogether. The above update seems especially embarassing in it's eventual length which is why I bring it up now. Even I was shocked when I finished the Mexes bit and saw it covered 3 whole paragraphs! I did change my regular update style for my FM16 career but lots of words are too much a part of my natural style to really do things that differently, and at least it feels mostly unique on here.

[noikeee]

Woah, Mexes is going to be a massive superstar once he gets some 3 or 4 years of development in him. He can even play as a defender or something with some of those skills!

I had completely missed that this Milan side had been in Serie B recently... considering that, 9th place last season ain't half bad really. And looks like the revolution is properly kicking on with all those young talents incoming.

[deltablue]

On 07/03/2017 at 11:18, noikeee said:

Woah, Mexes is going to be a massive superstar once he gets some 3 or 4 years of development in him. He can even play as a defender or something with some of those skills!

I had completely missed that this Milan side had been in Serie B recently... considering that, 9th place last season ain't half bad really. And looks like the revolution is properly kicking on with all those young talents incoming.

I know! I have to remind myself to be patient with Mexes because I'm genuinely that excited at how he's going to turn out.

Technically 9th was slightly worse than where they were when I joined, and joining them at that stage has always seemed a very big risk indeed as they appeared to have been overachieving so far that season leading to higher expectations and a weak short-term hand. Progress has been slow so far this season, then again I really didn't expect otherwise. There are still so many more players I need to get in (including a few high priority first 11 positions left) and even the talent I've already got will take time to make a real difference.

[deltablue]

Nov 2032

It's been a mess of a season so far. We had Juventus away first, followed by Roma (ranked as the second-biggest side in the country) but managed to surprisingly keep the score down in the first game (trust me, it was much more one-sided than the 2-1 score suggests) then somehow pulled off an undeserved win against Roma. There was a theme quickly developing in that we were reliant on very strong defensive performances to get results, which was evident with two disasters following against Cesena and Modena and an improvement to hang on to a narrow win against a Napoli side who had started the season appallingly. Udinese was arguably the first league win of the season where the attack could claim more of the credit for a change.

That was part of a good run of form which got my hopes up for the second time this season already (as we rose up to 5th) before a bit of a disappointing crash. A draw against a Crotone team who were still above us wasn't too bad but then we were the ones 'FMed' for a change by Pisa, where we were looking good for a comfortable win before they suddenly caught us off-guard, scoring straight from a free-kick for 2-0 and what looked like a potential come-back was de-railed with a 3rd goal. Still on balance that sort of thing has been in my favour a lot more than against.

A draw against Lazio wasn't so bad given we were down to 10 men before we took the lead, and we took an early lead in the Milan derby but Inter were still too good for us in the end. It did at least continue Gilson's run of being able to score against the big teams. We took advantage of an easy Livorno game to get another win (though with a midweek cup game we had to sit back and save energy after half time) but failed to make a breakthrough against Bologna. The cup game itself was one of those occasions where everyone was playing reasonably well (including Mexes on his first start) but no one was doing well enough to make a difference aside from a single free-kick.

I'm not surprised at all by this. Teams with lots of young players in particular aren't exactly known for consistency, especially with such a young defence that the one senior member (at 28) at left back must feel like a babysitter. We do have a goalkeeper in his mid-20's, just not a very good one. In fact I'd argue that he and veteran winger Viola (a couple of free kick goals notwithstanding) have let the team down more than the younger players, who have had their inevitable off-days but otherwise I feel very happy with the level of individual performance so far from most of them, only Nogara falling short on consistency and performance level. Somehow the 0 goal difference sums up a season so far of quite a bit of good and bad cancelling each other out. However over time the balance should tip firmly towards the positives, and it was never likely to happen so soon.

[deltablue]

AFCON 2033- Tunisia

There appears to be a power shift going on in Africa. Morocco's glory days early on in the save seem far behind them, with a final appearance 2 years ago being their only thing of note since being 2026 World Cup finalists. Nigeria had also looked strong and took on the role of a fading team being beaten finalists this time, with their best players in their 30's or late 20's. Tunisia had arguably taken the bronze in terms of strength for a while but crashed out in the first round as hosts.

The quarter finals threw up more indications that things weren't what they once were. Morocco went out to an unremarkable Cameroon team (whose triumph in 2015 is their only top 3 performance so far), holders Egypt saw their title defence come to a premature end and South Africa (who looked like they might have their day in the sun) also fell to an Algeria team set to be 3rd again. Instead it was the Ivory Coast who claimed a 2nd win out of the last 3 and look to be one of the big boys for now. 

[deltablue]

Feb 2033

It's hard to know what to say. There some are common themes that stick out. The first is 'one step forward, one step back', another is 'same old culprits letting the side down' along with 'it feels like we should be higher'.

The end of 2032 was solid enough. Genoa and Cagliari were hard fought draws, along with a decent win over Parma and somehow managing to win at Fiorentina in the cup, though a defeat to the same side was enough to drop us out of the top half. We started the new year with a surprising bang, registering a very rare easy victory over Pescara, winning a cup quarter-final against a Bologna side who put up surprisingly little fight, oh and we beat Juventus without even trying. We basically shut up shop, saving ourselves for the cup and not seeing any point in wearing ourselves out for a potential hammering, which didn't change when they went down to 10 men but Gilson slipped a late winner anyway.

The Brazilian has started a lot better than I gave him credit for initially given his Roma and Napoli goals earlier in the season were his only ones for a while but he was still being decent enough and assisting and soon the goals started flowing a lot more, with Juventus helping his early reputation as a 'big game' goalscorer. I'm imagining the long-term potential of a Gilson-Mexes partnership that only cost 403k and it's quite exciting.

After cruising to a 3-0 lead in the first leg against Napoli, things started to get messy again. Napoli getting a goal back added some uncertainly back into the tie, then a single bad moment led to defeat against Roma, which was admittedly expected. I knew they'd dominate so I set up my stall to hold on and I would have gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for the veteran winger Viola giving away a penalty. Some keepers have reasonable saving records, like my Bucaspor keeper Joao Lucas (at least earlier on), Patrini on the other hand is someone I have already seen enough of to have no faith in whatsoever when facing a penalty (2 of Fiorentina's goals in the recent 3-1 league defeat were from the spot), then he could have done better when they got their 2nd goal to send us out on away goals.

You'd think the younger players would be making the mistakes but while they've been far from perfect, the remaining weak links are living up to that description. Viola is useless in what seems like half his games (and we have no real backup for now), Jonas let the door open for Roma in the previous game, Ferraguto is not living up to being the only first choice defender who is supposed to know what he's doing and while he does have a lot of solid games (and occasionally good ones), I just can't wait to replace Patrini in goal, earlier in the season he managed to make a Simonetti own-goal entirely his fault. The Cesena game was Shakespearean in that it was a comedy of errors, notably an own goal for the second (from another of the experienced defenders) and Patrini spilling the ball right at the feet of the striker for 5-0, though pretty much everyone joined in being poor after a while and the first of Gilson's two consolation goals (sparing him the hairdryer treatment at the end) was caused by a mixture of a stupid backpass and the Cesena keeper sliding for it.

We struggled to recover from the triple blows of Roma-Napoli-Cesena and while we deservedly beat Modena, we fell to Napoli again, had a very bad day in a Lombard derby against Atalanta and felt relieved to just about grab a draw at Udinese to hang on to the top half. There have been times when I've looked at our league position and wondered how we're not perhaps a few places higher, which we have been during a couple of high points. I guess it goes back to what I said last update about the negatives and positives cancelling each other out and our recent form makes our position rather less of a surprise. There's a very good team here just bursting to be unleashed, it's just a matter of casting off the chains.

 

[deltablue]

Business Update

I don't usually mention board takeovers as they're rarely anything that significant but in January we had one that was. We were actually a little in the red as the time, and even though we looked set to just about recover, talk of a developing financial crisis stated appearing in news stories, which seemed rather silly for just 4M in the red at a club like Milan and with a vaguely positive forecast. I was still set to release the aging Kassel anyway due his wages of almost 50kpw given the short-term emphasis on keeping wage costs down to help the finances recover though his decision to retire at the end of the season settled it.

The new chairman put a few million into the club which was useful in restoring financial stability, and while he took out a 6M debt as well, he also got rid of the other debts, including the loan repayments that were costing 1M a month, which is a huge boost! Meanwhile the new debt is repayable over 25 years so won't really be a problem. Plus Napoli triggered Calderon's release clause, disappointingly under 5M, but with Dunga ready to take over and Bazzani waiting in the wings as well for more of an opportunity I was willing to let him go anyway if I needed to.

All of a sudden, we had a bit of money in the bank and were also running a monthly profit, potentially giving me a lot more to work with in the future than I feared I'd be stuck with. With 2 players already set to arrive in the summer as free signings, I decided to add a 3rd impending arrival already. I decided to make another bid for the Bulgarian midfielder I missed out on in the summer and this time he was willing to come, even though as he is on loan at Zaragoza until the end of the season, I'll have to wait. I'm not sure why he didn't want to discuss terms in the summer in the first place, especially since the scout reports were saying something very different. He hadn't signed a new contract as the estimated price was accurate but I guess I just caught him at a stubborn time. I was worried he'd end up as a star at a major rival so I'm glad to get him after all.

Suddenly things are looking a lot more promising and I hope I can put our improved finances to good use in the summer.

[Keano16]

Finally caught up on this, what a journey! Time to restore Milan.

[deltablue]

On 13/03/2017 at 13:21, Keano16 said:

Finally caught up on this, what a journey! Time to restore Milan.

You deserve a medal

[Keano16]

1 minute ago, deltablue said:

You deserve a medal

A cheque would more than suffice.

[deltablue]

May 2033

We managed to end the season on a positive note, starting off with getting back to winning ways against Palermo. A decent draw at Crotone was followed by a far more disappointing one against Pisa, and I decided to review and change the tactics a little. I started out the career with a rather conservative version of the Mattersburg, having to remember to adjust it to take advantage of having stronger teams later on and there were still things that needed changing. It seemed to work as we started out with a win of Lazio, who may have been bottom but it was still a more convincing win than we had managed to far, then we recovered from going behind against Inter to win, with Gilson setting a new record for goals in a season at 22. It looked like he would easily smash 20 league goals as well as he was on 19 though he only managed it on the last day.

Unfortunately you can't really protect against defenders being idiots or a keeper who sometimes reacts to shots with all the mobility of a bird bath, and we managed to turn a lead against relegation-battling Livorno into a 3-1 defeat, though it was our only loss in the last 13 league matches. Draws against Fiorentina and Bologna were alright but we went on to take 10 points from the last 4 matches, the only points dropped being a draw in a tough Parma game, with even the has-beens in the team making an impact. I had thought that we had lost our chance of chasing 6th and potential European qualification after Livorno but a bad end the season from Modena allowed us to catch up and snatch 6th on the final day. Unfortunately Napoli (who were facing Roma in the cup final) just took the 3rd CL spot from Cesena at the same time so Roma would take the 6th and final European place regardless (and they ended up doing so as cup winners anyway).

I think around 6th feel about right for now. I mentioned before that we felt capable of doing a bit better than we were but European qualification still looked like a tall order. While we had a lot of positives and negatives cancelling each other out we already saw signs later on of the incredible potential beginning to show. There is still a lot to do in the summer, especially with so much more budget to do it with. In just half a season we went from -4M to 20M, the initial budgets looked very good indeed, at 30M and around 75kpw spare once Kassel retired, taking the wage bill down to just 300kpw. No longer do I feel a need to trim the wage bill as much as possible we can still benefit from it to help fulfill my early goal of building a much stronger financial situation.

There is still going to be a lot going on in the summer, especially with so much more to work with. Indeed after January we had 3 players set to arrive already. Hopefully the weaknesses in the team (on the wing and in goal especially, but also a replacement for Kassel) can be sorted but it will still leave us with a squad that will have undergone a serious overhaul in a short space of time as well as being incredibly young, which may mean we have to wait a little longer for further progress as neither things help with getting short-term success, let alone both factors together. Under the circumstances I'm very happy to already see some positive signs. Indeed my inbox has seen a regular flow of promising development reports all year and the level of talent we already have is incredibly exciting, let alone with potential signings yet to be made. We may not win anything with kids, but just you wait until those kids start growing up.

While he loses out as the featured 'star player', Gilson deserved special mention. He started and finished the season very slowly in terms of scoring but still managed to get 20 league goals as a 19yr old in his first season in a new country. Plus he's been a lot more consistent at delivering with a bunch of assists. For a poacher he's also good with headers and while he may not be the best all-round forward attribute-wise, he still shows a lot of versatility, as well as a talent for scoring in big games. All that for just 375k, which will be far from the last time I mention his fee or anyone else's. 

Star Player: As much as I wanted it to be Gilson so I didn't need to devote a regular paragraph to saying what I wanted to about him, I couldn't deny the retiring Kassel who still performed very well, reaching 20 goals in all competitions (17 league goals being his personal best in Serie A) as well as getting into double figures for assists. Players very rarely retire under my management, especially not as first-teamers (usually they're inherited players whose careers are essentially) over anyway so the American is a very remarkable exception after 12 years at the club. He was hardly Shevchenko but he did well enough for me.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2033

With Mexico taking their turn to be absent this time around, the USA would be clear favourites. So you can imagine my surprise when I first checked the tournament (which happened to be just before the semis) and not seen them, finding out that they had lost in the quarter-finals to a St.Lucia team who only had 3 non-grey players, a defender at Coventry, another at Torquay and a midfielder who was just about to retire but had admittedly had a good career in England, including in the Premier League. I did wonder whether Mexico B would go on to win but they lost on penalties to Panama, arguably another big shock result but Panama earned it after beating Costa Rica and the St.Lucian giantkllers to get to the final, so no hard feelings.

[deltablue]

Summer 2033

I got an early start to this year's business. Bouwhuis was very close to signing last year so when I saw his contract was expiring when doing my December rounds it was a no-brainer, along with Alex. They weren't really high priority signings but they were still worth it as the standout players available on a free in the summer. Tomov was the Bulgarian I couldn't quite get last year before I was able to sort out a deal in the January window (though had to wait due to his being on loan). His tackling really needs work but I still saw quite a bit that got me very interested, and with new blood needed in central midfield he certainly seemed to fit the bill well enough.

The deals actually made this summer were mainly focused on a few high priority areas. Cardia had been the standout candidate from the start even if I had to wait a while for his scout report before really making a move. Milinovic was the exception among this group of signings in that we didn't really need him right now (just as well as he needs positional training) but he certainly features in my longer-term plans. In general I was relatively short of options when it came to the signings I felt I need to make, otherwise I might have made them last year, Cardia had no competition when it came to being the new keeper, and nor did Silva on the wing. He actually was on my radar last year but despite having a lot of strengths, there were a still a few things about him that gave me doubts before greater need swung it in his favour this year.

Finding the right forward to replace Kassel was surprisingly hard, but having Mexes at least eased off the pressure to find someone who had to slot in right away. I wasn't going to play him regularly yet but then I realized how decent he already was and that if he was 2-3 older I wouldn't have as much hesitation in doing so. All depended in who I brought in as we needed someone else in the squad anyway. I knew I needed to make far more expensive signings than I had previously, and now I had the budget to do so I decided to use it with both Silva and the far more expensive Gomes signing, as they were easily the best options for signings I felt I needed to make, which I hope doesn't sound like I'm putting either down too much.

It would be great to break into the European places this year, but I doubt we'll do it quite yet, and a screenshot of the squad ordered in descending age order will demonstrate why...

Yep. I didn't quite intend to do this much so quickly but circumstances of just how much the squad needed an overhaul and the surprising affordability of many of the players meant that's how things turned out. Out of the handful of experienced players I could probably get rid of all but Ferraguto, Viola, and Barrios at a stretch and it wouldn't really make much of a difference, as we essentially resemble an U21 side (ignoring Fagner being already 'overage') with a token adult or two. Still at least I've already got the core of a new squad in place and won't have to do so much from this point. At least we're getting the 'revolution' phase out of the way earlier than expected, and hopefully the 'growing pains' phase as well.

I was wondering last year (though it's just as well I forgot given how long that update was) after the Euros whether next year's Japan World Cup would be too soon for any players to feature (especially since Bulgaria's qualification hopes are already dead, pretty much). It probably will be and I doubt this crop will see much of the 2036 Euro's ether, though hopefully after that they can start to establish themselves. Moradi and (briefly) Kevric remain the only players I've had in the career that have featured at major international tournaments so far. It's still interesting seeing what they do at more junior levels, with both Bouwhuis and Mexes (who was top scorer) starring at the Euro U19 championship, while Silva was part of the Mexico B team at the Gold Cup, getting his full debut just after joining.

Signings

[noikeee]

6th is a fair bit better, and some of those signings are interesting - I like the 2 midfielders and the winger. Keep pushing.

[deltablue]

5 hours ago, noikeee said:

6th is a fair bit better, and some of those signings are interesting - I like the 2 midfielders and the winger. Keep pushing.

That's going to be tough. Last season the team was a mix of youth and experience, but it's pretty much all falling on the younger players now, and there's bound to be a short-term hit from that.

[deltablue]

Nov 2033

I could probably cover this surprisingly briefly. Decent, but not good enough yet. I actually anticipated this, as this year marks the point where the new generation really take over so we're essentially near the beginning of the road of development, and bringing in a lot of players (especially young ones) does tend to sacrifice the short-term. Like last year, it's the surviving veteran Ferraguto who is more culpable for the bad moments than the younger players, especially with a straight red card in the derby.

There still are positives, as we've shown surprising resilience for such a young team, especially given we started out with 4 debutants in the line-up and Mexes having to get used to regular first-team action. The first two matches saw us dominated by Modena and go 2-0 down early on against Fiorentina yet still managed to get draws from both, thanks to brilliant solo goals from both Mexes and Gilson in the latter game. In general we're a team that still has to fight for results and we're managed to do so more often than not. I wouldn't say we're inconsistent as we're winning the games we should, still facing a lot of matches that provide a challenge and not getting much from those, which leaves a few finely balanced games like Genoa and Pescara where we're only just falling sort or having things not go our way, though the latter match did at least provide Cardia's first penalty save.

The loss of Kassel was always going to be tricky to deal with in the short-term since he was still capable of delivering. With no ready-made first team replacement available Mexes was given his opportunity and he's managed 5 goals and 3 assists in 11 matches with an average rating of 7.19, which is more than decent especially given he only turned 16 shortly before the start of the season. In some ways he sums up this team, one that's doing well to keep it's head above water so early on but also will have to wait to hit its stride.

[deltablue]

A full update will (probably) come tomorrow but there is a result worth showing by itself...

We beat Juventus away! I didn't expect that to happen for a while. The January schedule has been really hectic so given how tough the preceding league game was I did decide it was worth saving the team for this, in spite of being severe underdogs. Covering this separately allows me to talk about a few things without making the proper update insanely long, or at least not as insanely long. I decided to give the 'Mattersburg Counter' a rare outing (as opposed to 'Control' and 'Contain'. It doesn't work most of the time (even though it did on the Ipswich career) but it still provides a more moderate defensive setup for tougher games without going for outright damage control or energy saving. 

Early on I remembered about a midfield plan I'd been considering, and I recommend you skip these couple of paragraphs if you don't want to read me painfully trying to sound tactical. I'd long been wedded to the idea of a creative, attack-minded central midfield playmaker, not least because they're so readily available and potentially very good. I have been intending to switch to a Deep Lying Playmaker for a while to make the midfield more solid but that's only really happened at Bucaspor in the later phase of the title-winning season, before losing Leonardo Robert, and otherwise I haven't seen the need to force the change in the longer term.

Tomov's tackling (which is improving) was something of concern as a central midfielder but he did have some good playmaker attributes, so I decided that I could still be more defensive if needed by moving him over (for some reason I always consider the left side of a central midfield/forward partnership to be the more attacking one) as a DLP with Milinovic as a more defensive midfield partner than he makes for Dunga, instead of it being one or the other between the Eastern Europeans.

When we went down I was pondering showing a bit more ambition (which usually works when the Counter strategy doesn't) but we managed to snatch an equalizer before the break though Janos. He hasn't been mentioned much but he was a 16yr-old Czech I inherited, who is good enough to remain in my plans for a while as Gilson's backup and has made some important contributions. It was a game for the backup forwards as Mexes was out injured and Gomes gave us the lead. He had been admittedly expensive but he was already showing signs of quality that could easily make him worth it. We were thankful for numerous Juventus shots that clearly went wide as we did enough to claim a shock win (yes it qualifies, and the game thought so too). We have a rematch with Napoli in the semis, which I'm not looking forward to but Cesena and Fiorentina were the alternatives so it would be tough whichever way the draw went.

[deltablue]

Jan 2034

Things have looked a bit better, especially if you ignore the Napoli hammering. Just before that match I wanted to see if there were some save stats (since Cardia's gloves must already be half-way to needing to be replaced) and though there weren't any, I did see he was joint-second for clean sheets. Unfortunately he's dropped a few clangers (and a couple of teletubbies) since. Looking up a few other things, we started the season with a squad average age of pretty much exactly 21 (which you'll be shocked to know is the youngest in the league) and with the older players mostly sidelined the age of the team on the pitch is even younger, and that seems to be reflected in the fact that we're ranked bottom for leadership and second-bottom for strength. I really should look at that page more often.

The Livorno win was expected but victory away to Udinese was a more promising sign, as was the draw against Cesena on the other side of the break. January was an very hectic month (and February isn't starting much easier) with a tough set of games, not made any easier by sacrifices needing to be made, like when we were ahead against Roma, had to go defensive and lost it with 2 late goals. We looked like throwing away a lead again with Modena going 1-0 and 2-1 up, then 3-2 down before they had a player sent off while conceding a penalty and we got the win in the end, which was quite a hectic game. I also decided Fiorentina wasn't quite worth getting tired ahead of Juventus but we still could have got something, especially as their first goal was Cardia literally dropping the ball.

Injuries haven't helped either. We've only had a few, all for around a month, but that still translates to a lot of matches missed, as well as not being able to potentially replace a few tired players, though that's not actually been an issue as I've been able to keep the team in good condition.