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[FM17] A Journeyman Story: Knocking José Mourinho Off His Perch


noikeee

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1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

Moments earlier Diogo was heard to mutter, "**** it, if no one else is going to sort this out......"

Probably in Spanish, mind....

Probably in a slangy/sweary mix of Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.

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Nice finish!  Good decision to stick around I know it can be tempting to move onto bigger things but I think you've got a little bit to do at Nacional first before your next move so good decision!  Take that title and then onward and upward you go!

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February-March 2019
 
 
Whilst we sold backup centre-back Rafael García, there was time for another signing right before the transfer window shut:
 
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Bringing in a 4th foreigner makes things more complicated in terms of juggling the 3 spots in the starting 11, but this Honduran midfielder looked worth a punt on a cheap fee. I think he's marginally better than Freitas at the CM/S role, crucially not having Freitas' annoying "Shoots From Distance" PPM.
 
 
Competitions
 
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We kicked off the season slowly with a disappointing goalless draw at Cerro, and although we improved with a very convincing 4-0 win over Wanderers with all goals in the 1st half, there was another shock as we were very poor at Cerro Largo and found ourselves defeated. However, from there on, we were pretty much flawless. Three easy 3-0 wins were followed by a less impressive but still suficient 1-0 over River. The last fixture in March was a trip to my former office the Parque Palermo to meet Central Español. We beat them well 4-1 with Cassiano opening the score over his former team, and amusingly we also met a former player of ours as Monaco loaned them Alberto Trinidad.
 
Meanwhile, of course, the Libertadores started. We were rather lucky with the draw, the only team from Argentina/Brazil being Talleres de Córdoba who aren't that big a side, then Colombia's Atlético Nacional and Ecuador's Liga de Quito. Our first match was straight away the toughest with a trip to Argentina and we did well. It was an even match and the home side opened the score a little after half-time, but we turned it around in the final 15 minutes with that brilliant missile from Diogo as the last minute winner. Next up the Colombian side came over to Montevideo, and we beat them well 3-1 with a Axel Müller brace, to take an early commanding lead in the group.
 
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I'm happy with this start. Our form in the league has been good, although complicated by our rivals kicking off on incredible form with 7 straight wins, but we're not far. In the Libertadores I couldn't have asked for more really, and now we're looking very likely to qualify for the knockout rounds.
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40 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

Just curious, do you scout outside South America? I'm always interested in people's scouting and transfer strategy when managing outside Europe.

I've tried but haven't had much success yet. I've found that scouting Western Africa and a few European competitions like the league in Belarus and Croatia, have been a total waste of time. I'm trying now to expand to North and Central America.

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Want to watch fantastically attacking football at a cheap price, spot some of South America's finest stars of the future before they get big, and get a laugh out of comically horrendous defending? Watch our reserves!

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I think he's gone. :( At least it's a surprisingly decent offer, and he's been playing slightly dodgy anyway due to being unhappy all season long.

I'm unable to replace him with players of the same caliber though. Maybe if I could sign foreigners, but I'm already pushing it there with 4 of them when I can only play 3.

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April-May 2019
 
 
Competitions
 
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In the league, we continued our recovery beating Rampla Jrs with a Núñez brace before the big Peñarol match. This was our chance to overtake them, instead it turned into another disappointing poor showing in the derby - they scored twice early on and we never recovered. This put us 5 points behind them with just 5 matches to catch up, to try to get 1st place in Apertura. We really did try our best, as even if distracted by all the Libertadores matches and having to rotate players, we completed a clean sweep of all remaining matches - wins over Liverpool, Fénix, Rentistas, Defensor Sporting, and Sud América. Sadly it wasn't enough and by the end we still trailed Peñarol by 1 point despite a rather excellent total of 37 points. This means if we're to become champions this season we'll need to either win Clausura or top the overall table, and then dance through the playoffs again.
 
As for our Libertadores adventure: we had our first points drop in our away trip to Ecuador, a goalless draw wasn't that bad. However on the return we got surprised by Liga de Quito as they scored the only goal on a 1st half penalty. We still topped the group, but everyone else had closed up. Next up was a trip to Colombia to face Atlético Nacional, and this started as an utter disaster - 3 goals conceded in 20 minutes. However this would still turn out to be a classic. Teenage forward Daniel Fernández finally showed up big time for our main team, scoring twice and assisting another to complete a fantastic comeback, as the match finished 3-3. And it would be Fernández again to score in the final match vs the Argentinians, from outside the area, and although we conceded an out-of-the-blue 93rd minute equaliser, a 1-1 draw was enough to qualify as top of the group.
 
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I need to figure out what's wrong when we face Peñarol because we're constantly ******** ourselves against them, and these matches are proving very costly. Overall we performed very well in Apertura but by not showing up in that match, we are now forced to play the playoffs - against Peñarol again - if we're to become champions this season.
 
Meanwhile in the Libertadores we did just about enough and I am happy with that, but it's unlikely the run will continue much further as we have been drawn against Cruzeiro for the next round. I think providing we do a respectable job vs the Brazilians and don't get humiliated, I will call this season's Libertadores run a success, all I wanted was to get out of the groups.
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8 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Mad Libertadores group! So many draws.

Yeah but it's not hugely surprising it's close, all 4 teams looked a close match on paper from day 1.

3 hours ago, DazRTaylor said:

Topping the group with two wins.  You did what had to be done.  :D

I prefer to look at it from another perspective: topped the group with just 1 defeat. :D

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On 27/03/2017 at 09:34, noikeee said:

Yeah but it's not hugely surprising it's close, all 4 teams looked a close match on paper from day 1.

I prefer to look at it from another perspective: topped the group with just 1 defeat. :D

There speaks a manager. Good work mate 😀

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On 27/03/2017 at 10:42, Benjoe said:

Sad to see the board overrule you on Diana. 

Also **** Peñarol, this is your year!

I certainly hope so!

On 27/03/2017 at 17:12, deltablue said:

That looked like an exciting Libertadores group. 

It was indeed! Lots of fun.

On 28/03/2017 at 00:21, ManUtd1 said:

That is the kind of group that makes me want to start a South American save. Nicely done!

You're missing out man. It's quite possibly the best region to manage in FM. There's even space to fit it in your current career for whenever you're bored of Europe - just go travel all the clubs that have made it to the Libertadores final then lost.

On 28/03/2017 at 16:35, Northernpilgrim said:

There speaks a manager. Good work mate 😀

Muchas gracias!

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Youth intake 2020
 
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Not as good as the class of '19, I think Britos can become a pretty good AF, Domínguez is a decent long shot for a CB although he lacks a lot of things, the others I didn't feel worthy of showing them off.
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45 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

You're producing some really good players.

Wait until I show off the progress of my pair of 18 year old strikers, Daniel Fernández and Martin Merlo, by the end of the season. They've been spectacular. I don't know if I'll have the patience to make a full-blown overview of the youth as I did last season, but good chance they'll break into the top 5 players of the year...

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15 hours ago, noikeee said:

You're missing out man. It's quite possibly the best region to manage in FM. There's even space to fit it in your current career for whenever you're bored of Europe - just go travel all the clubs that have made it to the Libertadores final then lost.

I have notes on EXACTLY that save :thup:

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On 26/03/2017 at 20:19, noikeee said:

I've tried but haven't had much success yet. I've found that scouting Western Africa and a few European competitions like the league in Belarus and Croatia, have been a total waste of time. I'm trying now to expand to North and Central America.

Africa was a hotbed of talent on my game and even though we were ranked in the top 5 teams in South America these young lads had zero interest despite me being able to offer them thousands.  With Europe I had to keep tabs on contracts expiring as once they had been released their rep takes a hit i presume and they are more willing to think about it.  First it was just players who had failed in Scandanavia/Eastern Europe.  Towards the end I was pinching people from reserve sides of the likes of PSG (ok it happened just once).  That is probably why the region is so fun to play in you have to work hard to find the players and even harder trying to keep it all together!  

That Libertadores group looked very open much like it can be in real life, did all the Brazilian teams make it past the groups?

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3 minutes ago, argento said:

Africa was a hotbed of talent on my game and even though we were ranked in the top 5 teams in South America these young lads had zero interest despite me being able to offer them thousands.  With Europe I had to keep tabs on contracts expiring as once they had been released their rep takes a hit i presume and they are more willing to think about it.  First it was just players who had failed in Scandanavia/Eastern Europe.  Towards the end I was pinching people from reserve sides of the likes of PSG (ok it happened just once).  That is probably why the region is so fun to play in you have to work hard to find the players and even harder trying to keep it all together!  

That Libertadores group looked very open much like it can be in real life, did all the Brazilian teams make it past the groups?

Well that's good timing because I have just managed to poach 2 guys released from PSV and Bordeaux! They're Uruguayan, but still...

All the Brazilian teams qualified yes. Atlético Mineiro, Cruzeiro, Botafogo, Corinthians, Bahia, Palmeiras, Santos, all still in the competition.

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Just now, noikeee said:

Well that's good timing because I have just managed to poach 2 guys released from PSV and Bordeaux! They're Uruguayan, but still...

All the Brazilian teams qualified yes. Atlético Mineiro, Cruzeiro, Botafogo, Corinthians, Bahia, Palmeiras, Santos, all still in the competition.

Yeah mine where Peruvian at first then the odd Brazilian.  Its a tough competiton especially for the teams from smaller nations. I am rooting for you

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zc6Ys91.png
 
June-July 2020
 
 
We finally said goodbye to our fantastic youth defensive midfielder Emiliano Diana, who moved to Fluminense in a 3.1M€ deal which can get extended with clauses to 5.25M€, and even further perhaps with a 40% profit of next sale clause. Brazilian attacking midfielder Kattê was loaned out (together with a few other youngsters) as we poached 4 players:
 
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A new backup keeper was necessary as Nicolás Vikonis is getting too old and will retire at the end of the season, meanwhile he is good enough to be a very serious alternative to teenager Matteo Roberto who is now the starter.
 
 
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I paid a perhaps inflated fee of 325K€ for this guy who was the best Uruguayan replacement I could get for Diana. He's clearly not at the same level unfortunately, and also "dreads big matches" so I won't play him in any finals any time soon.
 
 
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At first glance a superb signing, as PSV released him on a free 6 years after they bought him from ourselves for 7M€. The catch is he's fairly inconsistent and lazy, also I had to give him crazy wages and a rather low release clause of 1.1M€. Should still be good enough to play a lot, also "enjoys big matches" which is fantastic for a change as I've got a team of bottlers.
 
 
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I probably wouldn't have picked up Colombino had I noticed this guy was available earlier, as he was released on a free by Bordeaux. Perhaps not quite a perfect fit for what I want from my holding midfielders - I'd have wanted better tackling and no "dwells on ball" PPM, but he's class.
 
 
 
Competitions
 
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It was a pretty terrible start to the Intermedio as we lost 3-1 to Liverpool who'd emerge as the biggest challengers from the group. But we turned it around rather quickly with a string of spectacular wins, 4 consecutive matches scoring 4 goals, with Axel Müller and Martín Merlo on ridiculously prolific form. We had overtaken Liverpool, but even heading into the final match vs Rentistas there was a real chance we'd lose the group lead back to them if we were not to win the match. We just about did the minimum with a nervous 1-0 win and qualified for the final... vs Peñarol.
 
Given what happened in recent matches vs Peñarol I braced for the worst but we did fine. Youngster Daniel Fernández was inspired, scoring a hat-trick, and not even a red card for Diogo midway through the 2nd half stopped the Nacional train. In the end we ran convincing 4-1 winners lifting the Intermedio trophy. Martín Merlo also scored - it was a glorious day for our duo of 18-year old youth strikers - and became the competition top scorer on 7 goals.
 
A couple weeks earlier we had travelled to Belo Horizonte for the first leg of the Libertadores tie vs Cruzeiro. It turned out to be a thriller. We couldn't have started it any better with Daniel Fernández scoring in minute 2, but Cruzeiro tied it not long later. Just before half-time, Mauricio Gómez missed a penalty for us, but this was far from our last chance. Cassiano put us in the lead again, only for Cruzeiro to immediately tie again, but we insisted further and Dani Fernández scored his second. In the end it was a fantastic 3-2 win and a great result to bring back to Uruguay for the 2nd leg.
 
 
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This was a pretty fantastic couple of months - we picked up a trophy (very handy for my chase of Mourinho in the hall of fame records as it counts as a "domestic cup"), beat Peñarol in a final for the first time, overtook Peñarol in the overall table, and got a superb result away in Brazil in the Libertadores. I can only hope we keep up on this form!
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On 01/04/2017 at 00:17, BoxToBox said:

Brilliant result, absolutely mashed them!

 

On 01/04/2017 at 02:31, Benjoe said:

Nice transfers and a good profit from sales. 

And good to see you shove Cruzeiro out the door and then slam it into their face!

 

On 01/04/2017 at 12:22, deltablue said:

Great result!

I quite enjoyed that match!

On 01/04/2017 at 11:38, argento said:

Big win!  Its a great feeling knocking out the big boys!  The extra money will come in handy.  Hopefully you'll get someone like Sao Paulo for a sell out and get half the gate, that'll sort you right out!

A big tie against a Brazilian side? Maybe not in the quarter-finals. ;)

We did break the record for gate receipts in the quarters though. 600K€. The previous record was 350K€...

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August-September 2020
 
 
Not much going on here, unused forward Sebastián Sosa was sold to an Indonesian side (!), and we loaned out a youngster.
 
 
Competitions
 
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There's not much to talk about when it comes to the league, neither - because Clausura so far has been a rather boring story of 7 wins in 7. Even in our least convincing performances such as against Wanderers (1-0 away win with a 84th minute goal), or Cerro Largo (2-1, took us an owngoal and the winner only late in the 2nd half), we still scrapped by with 3 points. Peñarol were keeping up with us, but in the last 2 fixtures they lost and drew, so we suddenly have a 5 points lead.
 
The big story has been the Libertadores. As you guys already know, we built up on the 3-2 win in Brazil to annihilate Cruzeiro 4-0 with 4 first half goals in the 2nd leg. This fantastic result put us in the quarters vs Atlético Nacional of Colombia, in theory an easy draw as we had already beat them in the groups. However we ran into a lot of unexpected difficulties in Colombia. The match was looking rather even, but Atlético got their scoring boots on and somehow scored 3 past us in the 2nd half. Martín Merlo still had time to give us a late away goal, but the prospects for qualifying now looked grim.
 
I didn't need to worry. Back in Montevideo, I used our riskiest setup, the plan C 4-3-1-2, and within half an hour we had already gotten the 2 goals we needed to turn around the tie. We added another before half-time, and then another 3 in the 2nd half, to make it an absolutely fantastic 6-0 win. This extraordinary performance puts us in the semi-finals against another Atlético, Brazil's Atlético Mineiro.
 
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This is quickly turning into a fantastic season, no matter what happens now this will long stay in the fans' memories, for the run into the Libertadores semi-finals and the demolitions of Cruzeiro (4-0) and Atlético Nacional (6-0). In the domestic front, it's starting to look like we'll repeat last season's performance of topping both Clausura and the overall table, we do need to at least win one of those fronts to qualify for the end of season playoffs but the lead on the overall table at least looks safe.
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4 hours ago, Benjoe said:

Now that's what I like to see! 

Atlético Mineiro better be ready or else they'll get cut!

 

1 hour ago, withnail316 said:

Brilliant work, fella. Best of luck in the Lib.

 

1 hour ago, Rikulec said:

Brilliant start. :thup:

 

23 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

That's not a bad run.  :D

I'm gonna read out these messages to the lads before the Atlético Mineiro tie to motivate them. No pressure!

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20 minutes ago, noikeee said:

 

 

 

I'm gonna read out these messages to the lads before the Atlético Mineiro tie to motivate them. No pressure!

In that case, tell them they're **** and haven't won anything yet! Fire in the belly, and all that...

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26 minutes ago, withnail316 said:

In that case, tell them they're **** and haven't won anything yet! Fire in the belly, and all that...

Just generally threaten them. That should do the trick, aye. 

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2 hours ago, withnail316 said:

In that case, tell them they're **** and haven't won anything yet! Fire in the belly, and all that...

 

2 hours ago, Benjoe said:

Just generally threaten them. That should do the trick, aye. 

Sorry, on team talks I prefer to take advice from my motivation 14 assistant manager than from you guys. :lol:

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zc6Ys91.png
 
October-mid November 2020
 
I have decided to split the final 3 months of the season in half, writing an update for mid-November, because this also ties in well with the upcoming calendar for reasons that will soon become clear...
 
 
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We continued our clean sweep of wins in Clausura by beating my former team Central Español 3-0, but then lost our first points away to Rampla Juniors before the big match vs Peñarol. The derby went well again as we won 3-1, all goals in the 2nd half, and this opened up a large gap over them both in the Clausura table and the overall table, making it easier for me to rest players in the league for the Libertadores. It went well with a win over Liverpool, although we then suffered our first defeat in Clausura to Fénix, but after beating Rentistas we have now mathematically clinched 1st place in both tables. This means we are in the exact same position as we were last year - qualified twice for the playoffs in which we'll need to beat Peñarol only once to become champions.
 
In the big Libertadores semi-final, it was a slightly mental match in Brazil and I think we can feel quite fortunate that we were very accurate with our chances as Atlético looked more dangerous. We opened up a lead 3 times, Atlético tied twice, and we won 3-2 - an excellent result to bring back home. And again it was a glorious Libertadores night in the Estadio Centenario - with Daniel Fernández and Martin Merlo both picking up two goals (Merlo had already done it in Brazil), we ran comfortable 5-2 winners to qualify for the final. In this massive two-legged final, starting already this month of November (hence me deciding to split this month's update), we will be facing Mexico's Toluca, who beat on penalties a rather sensational Bahia from the Brazilian Serie B - Bahia qualified for the Libertadores because they won the Brazilian Cup, but got relegated at the same time, so made a run all the way to the Libertadores semi-finals from the Brazilian second tier.
 
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I couldn't possibly have imagined that we'd be in a Libertadores final already this soon - it's a dream come true for the club, who might have already won it back then in 1971, 1980 and 1988 (after 3 lost finals in the 1960s), but it looked like an unrealistic dream for an Uruguayan side in the modern era. Now I want to win it!! Surely after beating the likes of Cruzeiro and Atlético Mineiro, Toluca look within reach. In the domestic front, we're again in that position that all we need is to beat Peñarol once in two attempts, and after recent results kicking their arses I am optimistic we can pull it off this time. But we've not won anything yet!!
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The AI are absolute morons, how on earth can this happen 2 years after I left the club on 2nd place in the league, in a league that uses average points for relegation??? Shambles.

I'm quite a bit sad for them, really enjoyed my time there. :( 

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