[FM16] Only in the EAST

[setzel]

Eastern European Leagues Only!

 

Eastern Europe for me in FM and RL hold a soft spot , being from the Balkans playing there in FM is very hard for me especially to jump from clubs so after a long time of putting this project on shelf i've finally made my mind and the  guts to play this !

 

Game Setup

 

 

Oh well my Eastern Europe also has Austria/Israel and Kazakhstan and with that countries added the total is now at 59 leagues from 29 countries hopefully my laptop will resists the pressure  , with so many leagues hopefully will mean i can jump easier from clubs and keep me interested with a bunchload of quests to do.

 

Manager

 

 

An American conquering the Eastern Europe?Dick Garcia ? Can't be more ironic right ? No experience no badges ? Bring it on like the good ol' americans say .

 

 

[setzel]

Objectives!

-Win every First Division (29 countries)

-Qualify every team in the Eastern Europe in UCL or Europa League Groups

-Produce and develop a superstar from that nation

 

Rules

-Develop youngsters

-Sell then Buy

-Only players from academy are not for sale

-Leave the club(s) with money in the bank

-The wage of a new arrival cannot be higher then your existing max wage in the squad !

- Will play with only one tactic in the whole save

- Do not abuse loan system

 

Tactic

 

 

4-4-2 Diamond , attack attack and more attacking , we get our foot stuck into the ground we get loads of cards but we score more then our opponents there is no other philosophy for me and no other tactic i will use ! Its my way or the highway players that do no fit this tactic will be sold Pep Guardiola style .

 

Tendencies

-Develop my regens slowly ussually get in first team action around 18 or even 19 

- Loads of retrain and versatility from players 

- Love my tall strikers 

- Tend to sign ex Yugoslavian and Romanian newgens

-I Sign guys from the same countries (foreigners) 

-Hate having South Americans

-Hate small diminutive playmakers.

-Tend to not sign players if their personality is not good !

 

 

And with that we are good to start the challenge i've applied to around 100 ~ jobs lets see what the FM gods bring to me !!

[setzel]

 

Russia it seems , an American in Baikal . Strong league i doubt if i dont get sacked that i will be able to win leagues or cups with Baikal but it might be a good springboard for other Russian club and for my reputation !

 

[setzel]

FK BAIKAL IRKUTSK

 

 

Squad

 

Media Prediction : 18th

 

Club Info

 

Squad is thin with two loans and three or four guys which i do not think are even worth the place in the first team squad plus a regen !

Key Players

Anton Kiselev - A savvy winger that will provide us decent crosses and through balls for our strikers !

Dmitry Akhba - Not the ideal man for our tactic but  he is able to play Target Man and Poacher , he will find a way to score at this level though.

Azamat Gonezhukov - Luckily his high finishing makes him useful will m

•  

Transfers

Signed two ukrainians (haha) a striker and a central defender to boolster my thin squad , so we will have this season a squad of 23 for our 38 games hopefully it will be enough since i am over the budget !

 

Said Belmokhtar  - Good Target Man will provide the danger needed from crosses and keep the defenders busy while Gonezhukov will come from the AMC position.

 

Igor Chuchman - He is very good in the air seems in this league everyone has a tall striker so i was in need of a defender who can bring a bit of phisicality in the backfield

 

[setzel]

FK BAIKAL IRKUTSK

 

MID SEASON REPORT

With the thin squad and having the lowest wage budge by a mile in this league i was afraid of a shaky start and then the dip in the moral which is a killer for teams like this , luckily for us we had our first two fixtures against spartak moskova 2 and zenit 2 , so i knew i could outmuscle outplay those two young teams and getting myself a decent start . The Shaky part was when injuries started to pile up and the stupid me forgot to register the 2nd and u19 team players for insurance so i had many games with five or six subs because of the suspension/injuries combo

 

 

Our board wanted 4th round from the Cup which we were already qualified for it so i decided to rotate win or loose i knew i had no pressure even in that round from my board , i stil have no clue how i won or how my players did not miss any penalty in the shootout , after that the draw gaved us Krylja Sovetov Samara .

 

 

After our game with KamAZ we finished the first leg of the championship on a very good spot in my opinion but we are very close to playoff spots but very close to relegation spots , the spot that everyone hates win few in a row and you have real chances of going up loose a few oh well you are doomed to fight in the muddy waters of relegation , having Zenit2 and Spartak 2 again my first two games should atleast make my life easier .With eight more games till the winter break i hope we will be in a safe position so we treat the last 11 games with less pressure and use them as a squad building games to see who gets and does not gets new contracts for the next year .

 

[setzel]

FK BAIKAL IRKUTSK

 

Youth Intake

 

I was never thinking i will get anything decent to be honest playing in a good 2nd league in eastern europe plus this bad bad facilities was a recipe for  disaster and my HOYD is trash and balanced personality , yet we got a future striker that we can use in the 2nd league and one that can atleast develop to warm the bench and be a HG

 

Alexandr Chernyshev

 

Tall and strong ? Yeah like almost every striker in this league i am starting to think a quick poacher will run havoc in this league , good finishing very bad personality and flair might turn into a guy who will dissapoint mostly when playing just to score that wow goal from time to time , i will take it for now.

 

Alexandr Guguev

 

Good finishing tall and good personality but bad work rate bad strenght bad heading lots of things to improve and i fear i will not be hear long to see that done properly.

 

 

As a bonus i signed a new contract since i had nothing better in Russia to go to so for now we will stay here near LAKE BAIKAL drinking vodka.

[setzel]

End of the Season Report

 

Managed to maintain the decent form we had in the first half of the season to finish in the 7th  position , close to the playoff spots but in reality not so close , as you can see we scored the most goals in the league conceded the most goals too so my philosophy of scoring one more than the opponent is starting to grow on players and when you think we were the by far the most penalized team in the league 125 yellow cards and 5 red just brings me joy ! You can judge me but for me football with badboys and excitment especially in FM is dull .

 

 

Some good results especially that win against Fakel in 9 men was a marvellous display of defensive workrate by the whole team not allowing them to pressure us or to even shoot from distance , yes the games from march were all a bit shaky but suspension and injuries every game made me shuffle players to different position especially in positions they never played before and the product on the field was different (except our discipline or lack of )

 

 

We have a decent stadium even for Premier Division 10,000 is fine but when we have issues getting the average attendance to a 12% i have big doubts we will be able to even sell out if i ever stay here and promote them , will have to wait and see for the sponsorships and budgets after the two playoffs that will decide who joins UFA and Ural in the 2nd league .

[setzel]

Team of the Season

 

 

GK - David Ikanovich - 32 games 55 Conceded 6 Clean Sheets 6.86 Rat

DR - Dmitry Pytlev - 36 games 1 goal 8 assists 7.01 Rat

DCR - Igor Chuchman 30 games 2 goals 1 assist 7.00 Rat

DCL - Roman Tkachuk - 31 games 1 goal 1 assist 6.83 Rat

DL - Sergey Avagimyan -37 games 0 goals 7 assists 6.84 Rat

DM - Maxim Mashnev - 29 games 1 goal 1 assist 7.29 Rat

MR - Sergey Narylkov - 36 games 5 goals 9 assists  7.15 Rat

ML - Anton Kiselev - 36 games 10 goals 7 assists 7.28 Rat

AMC - Azamat Gonezhukov - 36 games 3 goals 7 assists 7.23 Rat

SC - Said Belmokthar - 34 games 13 goals 6 assists 7.17 Rat

SC - Dmitry Akhba - 36 games 15 goals 3 assists 6.93 Rat

[setzel]

Sponsorships & Budgets

 

With our good season or sponsorhips have got a bit bigger giving us 1.4 mil pounds in the club coffers for this seasons . Stability is what this money will bring and with me being cautious and having a policy of not buying until i sell will mean that i will have no issues keeping the club in good financial health

 

 

That wage budget is huge , last year i had 350 k per year almost triple for the new year but i will not go insane with signing free agents instead i will try and raise bit by bit the wages in the squad for the players who looked great last year so we can attract free agents to improve the squad and not brake my rules.

 

 

 

Because the club has like no history what we did this year will get straight into the record books , the one man save mentality in me says easy way to become a club legend here but i will want to jump ships in order to win the title in Premier Division.

 

[setzel]

 

 

The end is near Jericho save us !!!

[Sir_Liam]

Good luck with this.  I love managing in Eastern Europe, and am doing at the moment in Belarus.  I've managed in Russia a few times, mostly at Luch Vladivostok so I can qualify them for European competition.  Irkutsk is quite far East as well, so it'd be nice to take them to Europe. 

[setzel]

FK BAIKAL IRKUTSK

 

 

Season Preview & Mercato

 

 

The odds for us are ridicolous , i think we have a decent squad for mid table coupled with some good signings we can atleast manage to do what we did last season , the fact that the board gaved me a lot of cash for wages and financially we are okey means that i can afford to not sell anything and improve by signing free agents , interested to see what relegated Ufa/Ural will do this season they have good players but both squads are THIN.

 

Transfers

 

The big story this off-season was the debate of selling or keeping Kortava , finally after about two week of scouting and pondering if its worth it to bring another guy who will manage to do what he did i decided to sell him to Baki in Azeri top division . Signed a lot of russians and for Kortava i was not able to find a russian willing to come on low wages or decent to replace his productivity so i had to sign a young armenian target man.

 

Andrey Ryzhikov - First choice GK hopefully his quality will mean less goals in our net this season

Evgeny Scherbakov - Veteran playmaker will be a good cover , hopefully when the injuries start to pile up !

Ravil Neftullin - Top target this summer managed to beat off Alania , starting DM love the fact he can be a brute but also a playmaker from deep !

Maxim Kuftin - Tall fast injury prone central defender ? Sign me in , i just love this kind of project hopefully i will make his heading better because he will manhandle strikers in this division.

Konstantin Podgorytov - Veteran winger not fast or strong but tehnical and savvy just what i needed for a super sub.

Artem Samsonov - Quality fullback and versatile he will start a lot of games for me this season.

Maxim Volkov - I intend to play him MR/ML/AMC/DM everywhere in relief of the starters .

Tigran Barshegyan - Not a good finisher but a good good creator for our poacher i expect a lot of assists from this guy .

 

 

 

After last season thin squad i've decided to keep 26 players for this season as i do not foresee signings in January unless i sell players i think this big squad will be good enough so i can rotate a lot to keep all the guys happy.I have some guys as pure depth in the squad  but better to have them then scramble in January for depth signings. Lots of contracts that will expire in 2017 so i will wait till April probably to see who deserves contracts . Said Belmokhtar is out for another 4 monhts so he will miss the autumn leg of the league but i have Gonezhukov penciled as the 3rd striker and let the new signings as AMC this year since Gonezhukov is actually better suited to play striker in my tactic !

 

 

 

[setzel]

16 minutes ago, Sir_Liam said:

Good luck with this.  I love managing in Eastern Europe, and am doing at the moment in Belarus.  I've managed in Russia a few times, mostly at Luch Vladivostok so I can qualify them for European competition.  Irkutsk is quite far East as well, so it'd be nice to take them to Europe. 

Thanks ! Belarus is something i wish to do also but i do hate the March - September leagues so i think i will let them last when i have a bit of reputation to be able to choose teams that will be fun and interesting , hopefully my style of reporting is not too hard on the readers . Lack of time means no graphics for the story or excels graphs to make it easier to digest :(.

[setzel]

Mid Season Report

League Table

 

Sometimes this game is a joy to play sometimes it is not , in this particular example it was a joy for me we started sharp and basically outplayed every team . Luckily we did not have issues with injuries we had our suspensions but that was inevitable because of our style of play , so we did not rotate as much as i was expecting and the team cohesion is good but i will need to rotate so i can keep all my players happy and see who gets contracts , hopefully this change will not bring me problems .  I have  a tendency in FM to self inflict damage on the teams i manage guess my mentality is weird but i like all the squad to be happy and to give a fair chance to all the guys in it.Particulary pleased of Tygran Barsheghyan he is scoring goals too not just creating chances by his flicks and movement for others seems like a rather inspired signing.

 

 

Our home form was ridicolous hopefully it continues this way , the only way to promote is keeping your home field advantage , sure we lost our only games away from home but a so so away form and a monster home form should atleast get me the playoff berh and see from there what i can do. As predicted Ufa and Ural had shaky starts but Ural seems to be in for a bad season already sacked their manager (applied but no luck ) their thin squad with some crucial injuries will make the 2nd leg of the league very interesting for them , but Ufa after the first few games got on a winning streak and their are looking for automatic promotion.

[deltablue]

Surprised to see no Finland, especially with the nations you did go for.

[setzel]

7 hours ago, deltablue said:

Surprised to see no Finland, especially with the nations you did go for.

For me Finland is Scandinavia but yea i thought about including Scandinavia  but it seemed too much.

[setzel]

Youth Intake 2017

 

 

Pains me to see that another youth intake with decent players for our squad level but bad bad personalities it will make my life even harder to develop them because of our inexistent facilities or balanced personalities that almost all the squad has . I cannot find veerans with resolute or professional personalties to come for low wage and be a depth guy , so this is very frustrating for me in this department.

 

 

Fast agile little striker but with bad personality what a shame with a good personality and good facilities i would have made him a star in FONBET league.

 

 

Anatoly has flair he is fast and decent workrate eventhough his personality is crap i think i can work something out and atleast make him a winger for this league in the future .

 

 

1,93 and no strenght whatsoever he is an oddball for a winger and i do not see what i can retrain him to do so winger it is !

 

 

Tagged him more for his personality and the fact that my Assistant think he has some potential so atleast decent tutor if i will be here in 5-6 years (hope not ).

 

[setzel]

End of the Season Report

 

 

We did it , a far east club in the Russian Premier Division , this season was incredible we have to thank Dmitry Akhba because his 27 goals kept us running when things got messy in March.Arsenal Tula had a phenomenal run in the league from March but luckily they were too far to steal our title .Ufa was like us too inconsistent too mount a proper run and that left the door open till the last game of the season were we had to draw Ufa in order to win the title .

 

 

As you can see the draw against Ufa made us champions but our form was not good , we conceded a ton of goals especially from set pieces , that is something i need to adress especially at the next level. Said Belmokhtar form was good after the injury he had and but he is 33 foreign easy choice not to renew his contract unfortunately.I offered contracts to most of my players and will try and bring russian youngsters maybe and try the impossible next season and survive against the big giants in Premier Division .

 

 

The rules in Russia with the stadium of atleast 10 k seaters meant that we had to expand our stadium and this was the most feared thing i had in mind because loans are something i hate in this game you have no control over them , thankfully the good ol russian authorities decided to give us a grant of 1.5 mil pounds so the BAIKAL name will shine in the Premier Division

 

 

Again the board dubbled our wage budget unfortunately our biggest wage in the squad is 50,000 per year and that is Gonezhukov so i will probably have to renew someone in the squad worth 100 k per year just to bring two quality guys especially a new GK.

[setzel]

End of the Sesaon Review

 

Ravil Neftullin was a beast this season this guy did all the things i had wished when i signed him at the start of the season , he has been that playmaker from deep that made our tactic from a 4-4-2 diamond to a pretty much 4-3-3 with Gonezhukov stepping up as the 3rd striker in that offensive triangle with Akbha and Tygran.Podgorytov that old fox was great for us with 8 assists and 3 out of 3 penalties scored i fear that at the next level he will be obsolete but i need to give him a try and see what happens .Kuftin the young injured prone defender had a good season especially with Chuchman fixing up his mistakes  but that did not keep him getting send off in two ocassions he is injury prone mistake prone and a brute LOVE HIM cannot wait to give me proper rage moments next season .

 

 

As you can see i will not renew 9 guys all of them were depth/fringe guys will look to get some veterans and some youngsters with proper personalities i am so over this balanced BS i had from the start of the game its making my eyes bleed.Having nine spots free for next season will mean free agents hunting and maybe will add one or two foreigners it just depends if they are willing to play for cheap and come to FAR EAST RUSSIA

 

 

We are healthy finance wise with a 2.2 mil pounds general sponsorship up 40 percent if we get promoted ( lol ) i have no ideea what the TV money is in Premier Division last year in Fonbet we got 300 k so i hope for atleast 1 mil from next year TV rights

 

I am in a bit of a situation for the next season , my reputation is 1 1/2 stars i think trying to apply to Russian Premier Division clubs next season in order to win the championship is a must i truly have no faith i can do something at Baikal unless i stay for like 10 years and thus managing to make this a one club save in the start of my challenge .That's my wishful thinking because i have a sneaky suspicion i will get sacked especially if the league fixtures are tough in the beggining :)

[setzel]

First Tycoon in my save , new american owner to a big club , interested to see some big signings and if they can dethrone shakthar/dynamo kiev duo in Ukraine !

 

 

[setzel]

Season Preview & Mercato

 

 

Well not surprising we have those odds , butt atleast i take comfort knowing that i need to somehow stay above Tula / Orenburg / Volgar to atleast not get automatic relegation from there in the playoffs is a crapshoot other than this four clubs i can only think based on their squad that Kuban will have problems.

 

Transfers

 

 

We made our first purchase a whooping 1 k to Pyunik for Edgar Muraydan , i managed to offload the people i had no desire to keep around for this season i have not managed to reload with the russians i wanted most of them rejected my offer or moved down to FONBET 2nd division rather then come to Baikal , so i had to scramble and most of the time get my 3rd or 4th option , with foreigners was easier to get what i wanted and had to make sure i did not have too many.

 

Yaroslav Vazhynskyi - Top target for me after we got promoted the former Metalurg Donetsk and Shakthar youth signed with us on a cheap deal will be the number one GK.

Michal Szczurek - The young pole defender played for Ventspils last two season and did it well so it was easy to get him from Latvia on a free transfer in the Premier Division , will battle for a starting spot !

Maxim Batov - Nothing special to him to be honest but that versatility will come in play when injuries will start to pile up plus he is russsian so a good depth signing.

Davis Ikaunieks - Young latvian striker who will battle for that 3rd striker position

Alexandr Serashkov - Young russian fullback who will play a lot this season as a right fullback

Muhammad Sultonov - Muhammad is another versatile midfielder who was brought as a depth guy .

Dmitry Golubov - Savvy experienced striker who stil has some pace in him will be invaluable for us this season with our counter tactic that we will deploy.

Edgar Muradyan - My new develop and save projects , this kid has pace good tehnique and is a master at crossing hopefully he will take the next step and be able to play in this Division

Murat Khotov - A loanee from Ufa brought as a depth/tutoring guy.

Rizvan Umarov - A panick signing we were in need of another striker to have and had to be russian too , so for now he will start off the season as the 5th striker

Igor Yurganov - He will probably batle for the 3rd central defender spot.

 

The squad for this season is at twenty five and i am pleased with that a lot of depth but not good depth , with only seven foreigners we have our fair share of russians who will play ample minutes this year . I do not think this squad is good if injuries start to pile up so hopefully some of this guys will never see full 90 minutes every week or else automatic relegation is for sure for Baikal ! The strikers will need to score a lot because we will leak goals with this defense we did it at a lower level and i have no confidence in it that will keep clean sheets at this level.

 

[setzel]

Mid Season Report

 

League Table

 

 

We had the FM gods besides us when the schedule was drawn so the schedule was beautifully balanced meaning that we could hope to get some points here and there but my team just flat out overperformed . Muradyan was great 5 assists and 3 goals in 15 games wow what a buy i've made for 1 k , he is definately a strong candidate for player of the year already . With 12 points above Arsenal Tula and with Krylija Sovetov struggling too that makes five teams that i am confident i will be above when the season ends even if one of the teams finishes strong i can stil avoid the relegation playoffs which will be amazing. We are close from Europa spots but yet so far with so many teams clustered in the battle for that 4th spot with two bad games we can drop to 10th which to be honest is my goal for this campaign. I am not seeing any position becoming available this season eventhough Rubin is underperforming i dont think i have the reputation for that club yet and Kuban is not a club i am really interested in going if that job becomes available.

 

League Fixtures

 

 

I feared that our defense will be trashed by every team in this division surprisingly is the defense that kept us in most of our games this season , the only mishap was the Rubin game where we got murdered and the scoreline was generous for us we should have been 5-0 at the HT , the fact that Zenit only managed to score one goal was a good morale boost for me and the lads with the 2nd leg of the season coming i hope our defense keeps the momentum going and we get that 10th spot atleast.

 

 

Cup

 

 

Had no interest whatsoever in the cup and we fielded some pretty crappy teams in both of the games and the results were as expected , an early exit from a Premier Division club .

 

 

[setzel]

Youth Intake 2018

 

 

Even for our standard this is a pretty meh youth intake this year however we have signed three guys from this intake

 

 

Alexey Rybin , poor heading for a tall guy and bad personality we seem to get them a lot in our intakes what a shame

 

 

Anton Iljin , small scrappy player with good mental stats will have to improve his strenght to play as a DM in our tactic

 

 

Dmitry Kochetkov , was intrigued to see if i can develop him into a backup GK if i stay here longterm so i have signed this guy too .

 

Transfers

I've looked for ways to improve the squad in the offseason via free agents but i knew i had to sale players to sign new ones so i managed to sell summer signing Umarov and my first signing Chuchman in the Georgian First Division  and made some money in the process too.

 

Miha Goropevsek

 

Alexandr Minchenkov

 

In other news Bosnian Premier League just got a tycoon the club ? Travnik

 

 

Will be interesting to see if that money will bring the club trophies and European football especially with the low wages that are given in Bosnia.

[setzel]

End of the Season Report

League Table

 

We kept our good spot in the table even in the 2nd leg of the Premier Divsion even if my target was 10th , some good results and poor performances especially by Rubin meant we had a lot of points leading in the final games to keep that 8th position which meant more money for the club around 2.4 mil pounds for that place . We overperformed that the truth and i do not know if we can do it again in a season were all the teams will play like they should i mean Kuban and Kriljia Sovetov played poorly this year the latter one even lost the Playoff Relegation and that says a lot and the icing on the cake was Arsenal Tula winning the Russian Cup so in my opinion  a very odd season .

Fixtures

 

Our defense was awful eventhough we added a better central defender we just played against big teams like we were amateurs conceding from set pieces and conceding because of poor passing play that resulted in crucial mistakes in our own pitch , the good part is that we managed to score loads too so we had good games and bad games the pure definition of inconsistent team play , we have to fix that next season !

 

 

As i once stated i feared that we will not be able to put people in the stadium even if we promoted and it was true the biggest attendance this year was a 7500 against Zenit in the last game of the season even if the board tried fan days on two ocassions the result was the same no increase in the attendance , hopefully it will grow in time like the product on the pitch.

 

Squad 2017-2018

 

 

We had depth but we did not have a lot of quality fortunately for us the few quality players that we had were immense for us this years plus a few surprises who clearly overperformed !

 

Top Performers

 

This guy played fantastic for us this season and i think its the best value buy i had in all FM 16 !

 

 

Yes Maxim aint the best heading defender even if his measurments should make him a good heading defender but man he showed up and played very well in a defense that leaked goals , he made mistakes too but he is young and i hope he can stil grow a bit he is turning into a decent Premier Division defender for any club in the future.

 

 

When i signed David from Latvia i hoped he would give us atleast goals from the bench but he got that starting job and never relenquished it , good striker a  bit of jack of all trades he can play from poacher to target man just give him minutes and he will repay the faith .

 

[setzel]

 

 

Since i will not have a lot of time for FM this weekend , atleast i will have time to think it out and to make my strategy if accept on what to do there !

[Sir_Liam]

That's a great first season after promotion.  With Muradyan you seem to have followed my strategy of signing Armenian's.  When I was a newly promoted team in Belarus I signed 3/4 of them as I had no money and hardly any decent Belarusian players would go near my club.  They really helped me establish myself in the first couple of years until my reputation allowed me to attract better players.

If you go to Lokomotiv you should have more choice than a few cheap Armenian's though.

[anagain]

Interesting stuff. I had a very fun save with Koper in Eastern Europe some FMs ago. 

Good going in your first season in the top flight, though you might need to look in to that defensive record.

I'd be inclined to accept the Lokomotive offer, purely for the fact that they're such a big club. They might have finished only a little way above you but I'm sure the possibilities are so much bigger. It would be a tough choice though, especially seeing as how you're doing so well with Baikal.

I just love the idea of an American managing in Russia!

[setzel]

On 9/3/2016 at 23:16, Sir_Liam said:

That's a great first season after promotion.  With Muradyan you seem to have followed my strategy of signing Armenian's.  When I was a newly promoted team in Belarus I signed 3/4 of them as I had no money and hardly any decent Belarusian players would go near my club.  They really helped me establish myself in the first couple of years until my reputation allowed me to attract better players.

If you go to Lokomotiv you should have more choice than a few cheap Armenian's though.

 

On 9/4/2016 at 16:34, anagain said:

Interesting stuff. I had a very fun save with Koper in Eastern Europe some FMs ago. 

Good going in your first season in the top flight, though you might need to look in to that defensive record.

I'd be inclined to accept the Lokomotive offer, purely for the fact that they're such a big club. They might have finished only a little way above you but I'm sure the possibilities are so much bigger. It would be a tough choice though, especially seeing as how you're doing so well with Baikal.

I just love the idea of an American managing in Russia!

 

Thank you guys , i will be accepting the Lokomotiv Moscow offer , for now i am unable to play fm till weekend since i am not at home , hopefully i will have time in the weekend to bring up some reports !

 

Oh and Sir_Liam first of all i have to purge the squad of Lokomotiv to bring my Armenian with me hehe

[noikeee]

First time commenting, things have gone brilliantly in Baikal, steady progress each season and the club has no business being midtable in the Russian Premier League really. Think you've done enough to merit the Lokomotiv job.

I've also had luck raiding the Armenian market whilst playing in Bulgaria, seems like everyone agrees it's a great place for bargains.

[setzel]

Lokomotiv Moscow

 

 

Squad Overview

 

Let's be honest the squad is old and the youngsters they have are really crap , i would like to purge the squad and bring my favourite armenian here and some other russian youngsters but on the other hand i might stick with the oldies and try the first season and get european football and some nice cash and then offload all of those huge wages 30+ guys.

 

Key Players

 

Santi Mina is our best player at the club and he wants out ,  i need to keep him or  sell him big . He was already purchased by Lokomotiv last season with 7.5 mil pounds so any offers under 12.5 upfront will be rejected immediatly.

 

 

I am a big fan of versatility and Sabitzer is a great winger for any Premier Division teams in Russia , i am intrigued however to try and play him as a striker especially with the choices i have right now at the club.

 

 

The FM LEGEND Vedran Corluka , let's see big wages old and foreign hmm yea easy choice for getting rid of him eventhough he is stil a good player.

 

 

As you already saw i will play a 4-4-2 diamond the whole story and it looks great for me i already have a great defensive midfielder to police my midfield.

 

 

Roman Shishkin , great versatile player will play DM/RB/LB exactly what i want from players that are over the age of 30 and he is russian too  !

 

Finances

 

 

No European football for Lokomotiv Moscow but the finances are stil good , i will look to offload some high wages on some players that do not deserve it ,  with the goal of getting my little armenian here and some russians who will be good for us in our bid for European football in the first season in charge at Lokomotiv Moscow.

 

*Part of my rules is too sale then buy so eventhough as @noikeee said raiding the Armenian and the Caucasian leagues is a good ideea i am for now stuck following my rules so hopefully i can offload some players fast so i can grab some special guys for the future too.

 

 

x

[noikeee]

Good luck with Lokomotiv.

[setzel]

Lokomotiv Moscow

 

Season Preview

 

 

We are predicted to finish 6th and outside of Europe , my biggest issue right now is  that we are the worst team from Moscow and that is unnaceptable and we need to prove the pundits wrong and get atleast an Europa League spot so we get some money and balance our finances with this year no European football that will plague our finances.

 

Squad Overview

 

Overall our squad has depth which is always what i want from my teams , we just need now from some players to grow and from some players to be consistent and i think we have a good shot for an EL spot or Russian Cup trophy .

 

Transfers

 

 

According to my rules i've managed to sell more then i bought and i've managed to get rid of all the old "bastards" Corluka being one that annoyed me the most i have to pay 1 mil pounds in wages for the next two years just to get  his behind out from Moscow , this squad now is not old anymore pfeeew .

 

 

The versatility on this guy my GOD , for the first signing of my tenure here he is the perfect example of what type of players  i love to bring into my squads !

 

 

My new number one GK , also on free and russian no better options at the club or in the transfer pool at the time and i had no money or intentions to spend 2 mil pounds on a new GK .

 

 

Russian legend and this team was short of CB's especially from Russia will be good for a year and will provide some leadership too.

 

 

Depth signing will probably see a few games this year from the bench but nothing more !

 

 

My best signing until now in this career , this guy is amazing and AMERICAN  , so i am not alone in Moscow anymore 

 

 

After selling my both central defenders i had to go out and get a good guy to pair with Cruz and with some experience too , good for two years i suppose.

 

 

I expect great things from this lad , i was shocked to see him a free agent and nobody willing to take a risk on him and bring him to Europe , so i got him on low wages and atleast three years i truly think he will be a huge star in Russia.

 

 

Kirill is another example of the players i tend to bring he will play anywhere i need him in the defensive roles of my tactic DR/DL/DC/DM.

 

 

I wanted my playmaker to be Russian so badly that i went and payed for this guy a bit of money to take him away from Monaco , hopefully Vadim will improve his pshycal traits and become a good option for the Russian team too in the future.

 

 

I had no intention on keeping Robert Palade this year on Lokomotiv squad but his unwiligness to go back FC Brasov for a loan back of 12 months or another loan option in Romania made me keep him in the squad and now i have to carefully give him minutes so he can develop into a useful DC for us in the future.

 

 

Santi Mina was all upset for not letting him go to Fener so i had to go out and bring a buddy to keep him quiet and also fill a void that i had as the back-up AMC , did not cost a lot of money but he is injury prone so i just hope he can stay healthy !!

 

 

As a back-up plan i scouted the caucasian countries and found this little gem and got him and then loaned him back to his original club for this year , just in case Curro does not pan out i have him potentially fighting for the AMC back-up spot next year.

 

*And yes Edgar Muradyan is stil at Baikal , they wanted 3 mil pounds i've tried bringing him up but that tag price was just too much for Lokomotiv budget this year !

 

[setzel]

Lokomotiv Moscow

 

 

League Table

 

Very proud of the place in the first phase of the season , and we are three points from Zenith St Petersburg but Dynamo and CSKA Moscow are breathing down hard on our necks , the 4th spot is the last one for Europa League so we have to keep that spot no matter what , the finances are getting a bit messy and considering i trimmed down the salaries this year i dont even want to think about the mess at this club if the wages would have went up.

 

 

Too many draws that should have been wins and the lone loss to Dynamo Moscow was a bitter one against one of our biggest rivals and the way we lost it to concede four goals in the last 20 minutes ugh. Some results are harder to digest from my view especially when the whole team collapses and u have no clue what to do and what happened.

 

 

As you already got used to my style cups are not my thing so we treated the Russian Cup again this year as an experiment we did not loose in our first game but Rostov put us down swiftly and gently.

 

 

Man Santi Mina and Luis Henrique are just lethal for this level , Santi is used as a Poacher and Luis Henrique gets a half as a CF(a) and a half as a Target Man (s) i like to toy with him in other roles too because he is so all rounded geezz what a great youngster. I've played all my GK's and i realised sadly that i hate them all , so atleast i know what i have to find next year and he will need to be russian ! The three central defenders that are FGN Cruz/Kone/Palade played well and sadly i already scouted a great Cote D'Ivoire defender which i am very tempted to steal from Croatia.The midfield was at times too inconsistent for my liking but they were saved most of the times by the strikers so for now i dont see it as an issue will see how we will fare when we get European football.

 

 

[noikeee]

Woof, that's a tight league. Good luck for the 2nd half of the season.

[setzel]

Lokomotiv Moscow

 

 

Transfer Updates & Youth Intake

 

Youth Intake 2019

 

Now this is something to be excited about , i have no clue whatsoever why i got 18 yr old regens too in this intake but i will take since one of them is actually a good prospect for the GK position .

 

 

Sergey Iljin , well he managed to creep me out when i saw his mug the first time but the really creepy detail is that he has the same exact name as a former youth intake that i signed at Baikal (Yikes) ,he is good prospect at a position in need but i must admit i am afraid of pissing him off

 

 

Igor even if he is 18 he is a decent prospect for us might turn atleast into a great back-up since it seems russian GK's are rubbish !!

 

Transfer Updates

 

 

Not in my modus operandi to sell or buy a lot of players in the winter because in the west you dont have the time to gel your signings here in the East with the winter break is different , so i went a bit on a shopping spree.First of course i've sold some guys Denisov and Guilherme we're old and on high wages and i've felt this was the right time to move on .As i said in the summer transfer update i've felt all the way that Palade was best suited being loaned somewhere to play but because he did not want to move in the summer i had to wait till now to ship him to CFR Cluj back in Romania.

 

 

Dmitriy Kovalev , versatile midfielder which i like plus he is tall strong and has some speed because he is a foreigner and had no plans for the 2nd half for him i loaned him back to BATE Borisov

 

 

Luis Fernando is a wingback that will play as an attacking fullback i am expecting great things from him and then shortly after some bad mistakes oh well as long as we outscore the opponent all is good

 

 

Found this gem playing for Hajduk Split in the Croatian League with his contract running out and not wanting to re-sign and i had no choice but to sign him and see how and when he will play after , if he outplays Kone we will gladly ship Kone in the summer .

 

Scouts found him and for 2 k all i could say YES PLEASE , have hopes for him to develop into atleast a decent defensive midfielder !

 

 

 

[Bigpapa42]

Quite enjoying this, as I have a soft spot for Eastern European clubs as well. Interestingly, currently doing a Loko Moscow save as well, but from the first season.  A few of the old guys in the squad you had to get rid of are pretty useful in the first couple of seasons, before they start to decline physically. But much past 30....ouch.

I often get 18 year old regens too with the club. Some 16 year olds, but the classes generally don't seem as young on average as elsewhere. Curious as to the reason myself.

Will definitely keep reading and see where the adventure takes you.

[setzel]

 

 

League Table

 

 

We got our Europa League spot which will hopefully improve our finances and will not need the board to intervene with cash to keep us affloat and keep our spot in Europa League , they've injected 17 mil pounds and with the sponsorship we had in place we now have 30 mils in the bank

 

Results 2nd Half of the League

 

 

We lost only two games in the 2nd half which was good but we often had to come from behind and snatch draws instead of playing for the win which was very frustrating the defense was a letdown especially after the winter break , which caused us to only finish in 4th position when we had a real shot for the last UCL spot .

 

Squad Analysis

 

Lokomotiv Moscow had 29 players play in a Russian League game this year , like i said versatility and depth are something i want and i look for so everyone got a chance to show me if he is worth a spot or a new contract some played fantastic some played poorly and unfortunately in some cases i cannot do anything about it because they are russians and i will not have more then 8 fgn in the squad for rotation purposes because i do not want to get a foreign player and only play him in Europa League or UCL games. Vasily Berezutskiy announced his intention to retire in January and i did not do a thing to change his mind might get him on the coaching staff but that is a big "MIGHT". 

 

BEST XI Lokomotiv Moscow 2019 

 

 

Eventhough our strikers were lethal this year i stil think we can do better if the midfield provides that spark and help more the strikers too many times Luis Henrique especially had to make goal from nothing !

 

 

He was great this year better then Santi Mina by miles only problem that i have with him is that he gets injured constantly nothing big , but those little nagging injuries that force him to sit from time to time in the worst times possible for the team !

 

 

Vadim is growing and he is accomodating with what i want from that position he plays which i hope in the future (next season) will show why i spent that money on him . He played well but i think he can play exceptionally and he is russian so yes i set the standard high for him .

 

 

 

He was my best player this season very consistent in his play and very good with his passing in the last 20 meters , he has issues when he has to start an attacking play and i had to put that workload on the other flank so i can utilise his speed better on those counters , i am fearful i will loose this guy he wants out and Zenit has been lurking so i am in that dilemma let him go to a rival or try and sell him in a foreign place maybe for less ? Decisions decisions...

[setzel]

On 9/16/2016 at 23:02, Bigpapa42 said:

Quite enjoying this, as I have a soft spot for Eastern European clubs as well. Interestingly, currently doing a Loko Moscow save as well, but from the first season.  A few of the old guys in the squad you had to get rid of are pretty useful in the first couple of seasons, before they start to decline physically. But much past 30....ouch.

I often get 18 year old regens too with the club. Some 16 year olds, but the classes generally don't seem as young on average as elsewhere. Curious as to the reason myself.

Will definitely keep reading and see where the adventure takes you.

 

Thank you sir ! When i got the job offer i was like Baikal i like it but Loko is a great club then i went to club overview and said OH BOY !  Great opportunity horrible place to be as manager first season i have to admit i went a little better then i thought but the hard part will start now rebuilding and trying to dethrone Zenit

[Bigpapa42]

Congrats on finishing 3rd. Hopefully you can do some damage in the Europa League. The long winter break rather sucks for the knockout rounds, if you've never had to go thru it.

Lokomotiv is something of a sleeping giant / fallen giant. True of all of the Moscow clubs, really. But you can definitely take down Zenit with a bit of patience.  Looks like you aren't far off. Poor Baikal are suffering with out.

In two different recent Loko saves I've run, Zenit has really suffered in the 2nd season. Its post summer update, so they lost Hulk and Garay. In the first save, they stayed near the bottom all of the second season and actually played in the relegation playoff (but won). Second save, they floated around mid-table for the first half but seemed to be recovering before the winter window. Looks like Zenit are doing well now. Did they dip in the 2016-2017 season?

Also, what are you targeting for the summer window?

[setzel]

46 minutes ago, Bigpapa42 said:

Congrats on finishing 3rd. Hopefully you can do some damage in the Europa League. The long winter break rather sucks for the knockout rounds, if you've never had to go thru it.

Lokomotiv is something of a sleeping giant / fallen giant. True of all of the Moscow clubs, really. But you can definitely take down Zenit with a bit of patience.  Looks like you aren't far off. Poor Baikal are suffering with out.

In two different recent Loko saves I've run, Zenit has really suffered in the 2nd season. Its post summer update, so they lost Hulk and Garay. In the first save, they stayed near the bottom all of the second season and actually played in the relegation playoff (but won). Second save, they floated around mid-table for the first half but seemed to be recovering before the winter window. Looks like Zenit are doing well now. Did they dip in the 2016-2017 season?

Also, what are you targeting for the summer window?

 

Well in my save Zenit is running wild and financially they are RICH for FM Standards they are just bossing the transfer periods and can buy good guys from West when they want like this guy for 10 mil pounds from Arsenal

 

Oh yeah and Hulk is stil terorizing Russia even at 33 

 

 

My goal is to try and unsettle this guy especially with us going to Europa League directly in the groups , Rubin is asking for 10 mil + pounds which i cannot give and i will not sell Mina or Henrique to get that kind of cash to take him so for now will be a wait and see kidn of game its stil early in the transfer period so we shall see

 

 

 

Oh and btw if you want other updates or any other people please tell me or if u want regular updates from WC/EC/Other leagues let me know i am not a big fan of it because i dont really have time for excel sheets but since this save is so fun for me it should for the guys reading the same :)

[Makoto Nakamura]

Good job with Lokomotiv Moskow so far! In my save they won the Premier Division in 2016/17...they now play in the Russian Second Division - West so they've had a fall from grace it's fair to say!

[setzel]

3 minutes ago, Makoto Nakamura said:

Good job with Lokomotiv Moskow so far! In my save they won the Premier Division in 2016/17...they now play in the Russian Second Division - West so they've had a fall from grace it's fair to say!

 

Wow just wow , i guess they had financial dificulties , the kind i had to avoid by not keeping aged overpayed veterans plus no european football recipe for disaster in Russia since the TV Money is horrific !

[Bigpapa42]

Yikes, Hulk really still is a monster. I expected a bit of physical decline but doesn't look like all that much.

Like the look of Savin. Already in the national team, which is a good sign. That's a lot of money, but an outstanding young Russian player is so valuable in the squad because of the foreign player rules. Hope you can find a way to land him. Needing those Russian players in the squad is part where I think the AI squad building tends to lack, and possibly why I've seen Zenit struggle a bit. You may actually be able to make some nice money by getting Zenit or other big clubs to overpay for relatively mediocre Russian squad players. In my one save, they coughed up 20m Euros for Kasaev, who was a rotational player for me but excelled in the first season.

The money in Russia is definitely not great, either from TV or the league. The top clubs tend to end up fairly rich, but its sponsorship money and from playing in Europe. A nice run in Europe next season and a hopefully league title win will see the Lokomotiv reputation jump and you will likely get some lucrative sponsorship deals. And with that will come pretty huge transfer funds.

[noikeee]

I'd be pretty happy with that first season in Russia, but next year you need to fight for the title.

[setzel]

Lokomotiv Moscow 

Season Preview

 

I think the predicition is spot on especially with Europa League being a factor i can see us regress if injuries to star players occur , if not i can see us battling for 2nd with 4-5 other clubs Zenit will again dominate .

 

Squad Preview 2019

 

Squad has a lot of depth and a lot of russians who actually are decent to play games and not just sit on the bench like previous year , we lack a true nr 1 GK and a good russian central defender but slow and steady we shall be able to use less and less foreigners in the starting XI.

 

Transfers

 

 

We let Sabitzer leave since we had our FFP prediction in red with Europa League accounted which i think its realistic and he was on high wages and upset of playing to "little" Lokomotiv Moscow so we shipped him to Borussia Dortmund and of course he got a lower wage than in Moscow talk about wanting to leave  ,other than that we've made some money for fringe players that we're used for bringing in players.

 

 

Call me a sucker for tall nomadic strikers but i love that type of strikers and i cannot resist the urge to buy that type in every fm i play , Cristian was loaned back to Romania to play much needed minutes at this young age.

 

 

I had my eye on this guy for about 10 months before i signed they were asking a lot of money at first then he got unsettled at Barcelona interest and we stoled him this summer for that price , i guess i have to try and make big clubs just sniff at decent youngsters so we can steal them after at ridicolous prices.

 

 

He will probably be our first choice at GK and we will see how the season goes but i am ready to give all the three GK chances to prove who will win that job for next season , call it a casting for that spot this year

 

 

After Berezutskiy retirment i had to find another experienced DC that will actually play important games for us because we have three foreign DC that are all young and need that tutoring and experience from somebody

 

 

Roman Bugaev is my modus operandi signing as an FM player versatile and willing to be a depth player and a decent tutor , like i cannot resists signing my nomadic strikers i cannot resists snapping versatile backs

 

 

With Sabitzer gone i was in need for a winger , eventhough he is a left winger i will train him to play the right wing too and make him a versatile winger for the future 

 

 

Yes i know i've overpayed for him but i had no other options plus he is russian young and can play poacher and target man so he is the ultimate sub in the making for my tactic and i am intrigued to see if i can make him a better finisher because he has the attributes to be a goalscorer in the Russian Premier Division

 

EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW 

 

 

 

WELL ...Screw trying to get a UCL spot i want to get out of this tough group..if i dont and i am doing poorly in the Rusian Premier Division with my rotation plan i have in mind oh well i think i will be hunting for a new job

 

 

 

[setzel]

Lokomotiv Moscow

 

 

Youth Prospects

 

Since i've already spent one year at the club and managed to organise and make up my mind on who will get chances in this Lokomotiv Moscow team and who will be nurtured for first team action in this season i've decided to present the guys will get playing  time and hopefully develop into useful players for Loko

 

 

Kirill Savaljev - While he aint anything special and he is already 20 i've learned from my fair share of saves played in FM 16 that goalies tend be late bloomers , so i stil have about two seasons to try and see what i can get from him and wait for either a youth prospect coming via academy or russian prospect at a decent price that can be snapped.

 

 

Vitaly Kozlov - I love to have  wide midfielders since i do not play with MC and i've been retraining him from MC to MR with the sale of Sabitzer he will get a lot of opportunities to develop in the internal competitions.

 

 

Sergey Iljin - He is the guy that will take over from Shiskhin so probably next season he will be playing already a lot of games to rest up a bit the 32 yr old Shishkin.

 

 

Andrey Konovalov - I am excited about this guy if  he can put the extra hours for the physical traits because he has some crazy mentals for his age , will test him  playing with the big boys probably next season

 

 

Dmitriy Kovalev - He is a tall belorussian who i am re-training as a MR wide playmaker , if he would have been an academy product probably i would have retrained him as a striker but now i am stuck trying to find him a spot in the midfield with my tactic so wide playmaker is the only option for now

 

This is are the five guys that i want to try and make them useful players for Lokomotiv Moscow in the near future , i've already got Luis Fernando (DL-20yrs) who is a starter and Palade(DC-21yrs) with Soumahoro(DC-19yrs) battling for the 2nd DC spot to play alongside Cruz.Our 2milion pound striker Borodin (20yrs) is currently the 4th striker on our team but luckily with the two strikers upfront tactic he will get his fair share of chances this season.

[setzel]

Lokomotiv Moscow

 

 

League Table

 

 

We are in a good position to grab that last UCL spot , but we have zero chances to challenge Zenit St Petersburg who will very likely win another Russian Premier Division title , until the gap is closed in term of money or we start making money from European football and sponsorhips we have no chance of even competing with Zenit , even an off season will mean chaos in the table as you can see how close are the teams bunched from 2nd to 11th are just 9 points.

League Fixtures

 

We rotated a lot picking our spots where we gave chances to backup strikers or backup goalkeepers but there was no game this season where i could just line up a team full of back-ups and thats a bit worrying because i dont have the depth or i dont trust my fringe players to win me a game against a team fighting for survival in this league . Part of that is the shocking display we had from game to game from brillian to stupid mistakes by our best players , so because of that you can see how i can go from trashing Spartak at home to loosing to Amkar at home in one week

 

Cup Fixtures

 

 

Like every year we've treated this competition as an experience and morale boost for our youth and fringe players , after getting Tosno for the quarter final i might try and make a push you cannot pass on the chance of winning a trophy no matter when or how important it is every board likes to have trophies in its club hall.

EUROPA LEAGUE Table

 

We had a tough group but we managed to get the first spot but it was not easy we had up and downs in this competition plus a shocking attendance only 9 k average in the three games we had at home , maybe Champions League fixture will bring more ? We managed to use all our twenty five guys in this campaign because of some small injuries that always seemed to happen before Europa League games especially since we played all our league games before an EL fixture on MONDAYS (********)

EUROPA LEAGUE Fixtures

 

We had a dream start to our campaign that we had a rude awakening at Mestalla and the fixture we had at home with them marked a special moment for Santi Mina scoring against his old club . The last game of the competiton was a win and you are in game for us against Standard so we went on the pitch and dominated them , a truly pleasant display of football one which i really want to repeat from now on especially in important games

 

 

Next leg we will get Fenerbahce we have a good chance of going through and then play the winner of Rijeka/Everton for me the goal is to get to the 2nd Knockout Phase and get some nice cash because of this European Campaign which will settle our finances for next year.

 

Speaking of Finances the Serbian club Loznica were bought by a N.Irish tycoon we shall see if they can battle the two giants of Serbia ( Partizan and Red Star)

 

 

[noikeee]

Looking like a pretty good season again - whilst Zenit seem out of reach, being best of the rest ain't bad; and you did very well in the Europa League group stage.

Playing in Mondays before Europe is pretty ridiculous though. Does that happen to other teams in Europe, ie, Zenit?

[Bigpapa42]

Nice on landing Borodin. Gotta covet those talented Russians. Zenit look monstrous and hard to catch but nice work on sitting in 2nd. And excellent working on topping that Group.

The congested matches tends to happen in Russia, I've found on my Lokomotiv saves. On my most recent one, I'm pretty sure I only had one day between a league match and a Champions League knockout match. League match Sunday and CL match Tuesday, I believe. I was lucky in that I had some depth to rotate the squad, but if you don't have a deep squad or can't afford to rotate, that is painful.

[Koetzer]

Yes, match scheduling is awful in Russian league, so I usually disable moving matches in preferences. Not so realistic, but seems to be the only way to avoid this bug.