mark1985 Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 Hello! Hoi zäme! Welcome aboard the FC Zug train, end station Champions League glory. Being a Swiss train, there will hopefully be no delays although plenty of ups and downs. Ok, I'll stop the awful puns now and introduce you to FC Zug. Situated in a gorgeous little town on the shores of Lake Zug: Zug is more famous for being the home of more companies than people and a decent Swiss Ice Hockey team (EV Zug): But it is time for some football glory in the town and I will lead them there! As you can see, there is not a lot filling the trop cabinet but they have decent facilities Here is their home ground, situated right next door to the ice hockey arena: This will be a homegrown save, signing only players from central Switzerland the central part of the German speaking area, although not extended as far north as Basel or St Gallen). This means youth facilities and youth training etc will be very important, so let me introduce you to my first signing, Lucus Follonier as HOYD. Fingers crossed he can unearth a few gems! I also bulked out my scouting and physio team as well (well, 1 scout and 1 physio, funds are tight in the Swiss 4th tier!) My team is looking a little thin, with no one really standing out at the moment: I bolstered this with 4 free transfers as well as Matthias Schnider on loan from Bienne who will lead the line up front and add some much needed quality/goals (hopefully) FC Zug are currently it Switzerlands 4th tier and are a semi pro team, so we take a lot of work to get anywhere near Europe. I will try and update roughly every half season, or every time something of note happens. Like I said, it's a homegrown save so whilst I may be a little lax on this in terms of loans at the start of the save, I will only sign players from central Switzerland and anyone who comes through my youth intake. I hope you all enjoy this save and fingers crossed for some success. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted May 24, 2017 Author Share Posted May 24, 2017 2015/6 Season 1st Liga 1. Promotion to Promotion League Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 Good luck!! 😉 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted May 25, 2017 Author Share Posted May 25, 2017 16 hours ago, Sheriff7 said: Good luck!! 😉 Thanks! if preseason is anything to go by, I will really need it... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted May 25, 2017 Share Posted May 25, 2017 interesting locale. not too many Swiss youth saves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted May 28, 2017 Author Share Posted May 28, 2017 Season 1 2016/17. Midway point Been an interesting few months at Zug so far. Got off to a flyer winning my first 4 games of the season and going unbeaten in 9. Unfortunately then a defeat and a few draws saw me slip to 3rd in the league, but there are only 4 points in it (only top spot goes up and there are no playoffs). I am the highest scorers in the league with 27 goals, but unfortunately Muri's defense is a tight as a Scotsman the day before payday! Free signing Korkmaz has been on fire so far with 11 league goals in 13 games whereas Schnider has been a tad disappointing with only 1 goal in 12. As long as Korkmaz keeps sticking them away we will be ok though. A god cup running, ending in the 3rd round at home to Luzern helped bolster the finances a bit with an almost full house saw us lose 3-1 at home to a team 3 divisions above us. In some other news, I now have a feeder club in the league below (SC Goldau who are at the top end of Lake Zug) and the chairman has boosted the junior coaching, both of which will help a lot with the homegrown element of the save. Fingers crossed we can carry on this decent form, as only 1 loss in the first half of the season isn't bad but we need to turn some of these draws into a few wins. Muri are due a bad patch (I'm not too worried about Delemont to be honest) at some point and will hopefully start leaking a few goals Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 Season 1 2016/17. End of season Thanks to the bank holiday weekend, I managed to smash through the 2nd half of the season fairly quickly and what a second half it was! It started the same as I left off, namely a few wins, a few draws and Muri keeping their form up whilst me and Delemont continued to leapfrog each other into 2nd place. 4 games to go after poor defeat and I hadn't given up as such, but it was looking pretty remote as Muri's bad ran hadn't seem to materialise yet. Lo and behold, with 4 games to go, Muri forgot how to play football with 3 defeats in 3 for them and 2 wins and a draw for me put us neck and neck at the top of the league. My goal difference was superior, but as the league worked on alphabetical order you kind of have to rely on being clear when your name is Zug... I needed to better Muri's result. I had Wangen away and they had 4th paced Schotz at home. After a tense 20 minutes or so, bang Korkmaz scored. 1-0! A few minutes later a goal from Schotz. No sooner had I reached for the champagne glass Korkmaz was free in the area. 2-0!! Easy this Football Manager lark. Never a doubt! Another goal from Schotz just before half time had me laughing! A 2nd half goal from Wangen got a few nerves jangling but we held on and thanks to Muri's poor run of form (better late than never!) plus a slice of luck or 2 along the way, I was 1. Liga champions and gained promotion to the Promotion League (Switzerland's third tier). Here's the final league table. Check out those last 4 games from Muri! The phrase 'bottlejob' springs to mind Here are my transfers from the season. Picking up Vogler and Quani really helped push me over the line with Vogler adding some depth up front Here are the 3 players of the season. I would've given the award to Korkmaz as his 20+ goals were vital, but Peter did have a superb season bossing the midfield The only downside this season was a downgrade of my facilities, but that's mainly due to my dwindling finances which promotion should help All in all, fantastic season. My main goal will be survival and consolidation and hopefully a decent cup run too. I will aim to add a little depth in all the key areas, and adding the youth intake onto the bench. I will update hopefully just before the season starts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Great Job. Look forward to more success in the future. It seems like Muri's Defense became "Swiss Cheese" in the final four games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 26 minutes ago, Hootieleece said: Great Job. Look forward to more success in the future. It seems like Muri's Defense became "Swiss Cheese" in the final four games. Haha I see what you did there! Yeah, it was a bit mad. They had conceded only 7 or 8 all season and then the same again in the space of 4 games! Not that I'm complaining at all... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBox Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Cracking first season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 1 minute ago, BoxToBox said: Cracking first season. Thanks! yeah, I enjoyed it. A few hairy/frustrating moments but pretty good all in all. Some decent from the youth intake as well (forgot to post but will do that later on) so I'm sure I will stay up and a cup run would be a bonus. Plenty to build on! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Great start mate! Do you know in witch group you will be next year in liga Classic?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 6 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said: Great start mate! Do you know in witch group you will be next year in liga Classic?? Cheers! I was already in Liga Classic so will be in the Promotion League now which is good. Better quality of footy and some decent teams in there (Servette just got promoted out of it) so fingers crossed they can step up to the plate Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Oh sorry I didn't see that!! Difficult category again only one team get the promotion to Challenge league but you can make it!!Yes Servete is big name for this league... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 5 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said: Oh sorry I didn't see that!! Difficult category again only one team get the promotion to Challenge league but you can make it!!Yes Servete is big name for this league... Don't think I will be going straight up, a year or 2 of consolidation, develop the youngsters and get a bit more depth and then I can hopefully challenge for promotion. Can't remember who else got relegated/promoted but 1 or 2 decent names in there who will prove a challenge Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 Welcome to preseason in what's already being termed the 'difficult 2nd season.' During the summer, whilst the players and fans slept off our league winning hangovers on a sunny beach somewhere, I set about snapping up a few youth players to give myself a little more depth, especially in the midfield whilst also signing up Schnider on a free as his contract at Biel had expired. Then this happened (with Peter and Collard being injured within 48 hours of each other). Cavallini is also a DM as well as a centre back so he could have provided cover, but that wasn't to be. Cecchini's isn't too bad thankfully and just means he will sit out a preseason game or 2. So from what went from a very good midfield and finally a bit of cover went to a stringbear midfield with cover provided by the youth team, with not a decent loan anywhere to be found. Not idea when you're wanting to make a go start to your new life in the third tier. The timing is unfortunate, as is the fact that they all play in the same position but I would rather they happened now than during the run in at the end of the season I suppose, so you have to look on the bright side rather than blame the match engine/perceived higher amount of injuries/Jeremy Corbyn for everything that seems to go wrong nowadays. Not the most successful of preseasons (especially with the injuries) but I always see preseason as a way of getting fitness up plus the odd money spinner. In my opinion, that's a lot more important than bashing a load of Alpine hill farmers 12-0 (although the final win against Emmenbrucke was set up for that purpose, as as I have mentioned elsewhere I like playing local friendlies and it never hurts to start the season on a relative high after sticking a few past a lower league team, even if the only thing it achieves is reminding my strikers where the back of the net is). So, to sum up, my goals this season are survival/consolidation with hopefully a good cup run mixed in as well. Mid table mediocrity will do me for this season as I will aim to get my squad to gel and adapt to this level (as it is still a fairly young squad) which will hopefully allow us to push on next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 Let's see you never know when a new season starts..Good luck.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 46 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said: Let's see you never know when a new season starts..Good luck.. 3 games in and I'm wondering how I can fit the injured players back into the starting XI! 9 points from 3 games and no goals conceded. At least the bench will look a little less thin once they come back... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fosse Posted June 5, 2017 Share Posted June 5, 2017 Sonderzug! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1985 Posted June 15, 2017 Author Share Posted June 15, 2017 Sorry about the lack of updates so far guys! Had to travel away for work for a week and didn't have time to play, so a little behind. Hoping to catch up this weekend... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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