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FM18: Memory Lane


Rikulec

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45 minutes ago, oriole01 said:

You've been in Greece for so long (and doing well of course) that I actually forgot this was supposed to be a follow-up to the Frozen Throne. Are you just along for the ride wherever you go or is Scandinavia still the epicenter of the save?

Regardless, this has been quite the enjoyable save so far, so keep it up wherever the road takes you :).

It was supposed to be that, true, but then things took an unexpected turn when I found myself doing much better than expected and pretty much outgrowing the leagues I wanted to stick around in. This could no longer be The Frozen Throne vol. 2 without struggling, throwing away league titles in final games and the general aura of disappointment. :lol:

Oh, and thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. :)

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - April 2027 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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There was much, MUCH more drama than the eventual five point difference would suggest! After a routine win over Aris there was the big clash. Both teams on amazing runs - AEK had won nine in a row beforehand. They bloody went on to win the tenth, and what a ride it was - we went up twice only to throw it away, then hit the post from a free kick in the 90th minute and finally concede from a corner in the 93rd. We were level on points, but AEK overtook us thanks to the head-to-head record. And then, miraculously for us, they went into complete meltdown. They went 2:0 up away at Atromitos only to throw it away and concede twice in the final ten minutes and in the final game they just gave in, losing 0:2 to Asteras Tripolis. Madness!

Kupello Hellas

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That makes it nine wins in a row for us in the cup.

Time to make it ten against PAOK.

Europa League

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They were simply the better team. Again. I'm slowly starting to reconsider our transfer policy, at least to some degree.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - Season Review - 2026/27 - Olympiakos

Superleague

Results

Competition Performance: Winners

This could have been even more painful than last season. With two games to go, it seemed we could well finish on a ridiculous 77 points and still come second. Fortunately, it turned out that only the former happened. AEK's meltdown at the final hurdle was probably unexpected, but they gave us one hell of the battle, ending up as the only team in Greece who managed to beat us this season. Fair play to them, it's a true clash of the titans domestically.

Kupello Hellas

Competition Performance: Winners

We kept smashing everyone in our way, scoring goal after goal. Shame we couldn't round it off with a similar performance in the final, but I'm happy to take the trophy home.

Champions League

Competition Performance: Best Placed Playoff

Too many mistakes were made in the first leg against Sporting for us to be able to overturn the tie. This shouldn't have happened.

Europa League

Competition Performance: Quarter Final

It seems we're back in the exact same spot we were two years ago. That doesn't sound very good now, does it?

Squad

I said this last year - heaps of potential in there, especially now with the additions of Arias and Ayyouch. The only weak link seems to be the right back position, and I'm definitely going to do something about it soon.

Transfers - Finances

Two words. Zdenek Sural. His sale alone brought almost twice as much money as we had spent in the summer into the club, and there were others as well. And with big clubs sniffing around our biggest stars, this could be merely the beginning.

Unsurprisingly, the money just keeps flowing in. This transfer kitty is getting more and more tempting... my roommate actually suggested I buy the whole AEK squad and just watch them sink. :lol:

Player of the Season

1st - Jiri Hrdlicka - after a poor 25/26 season he well and truly came back this year. 20 goals, 17 assists, and we've already had to fight off Inter to keep hold of him in the winter transfer window. He's been absolutely spectacular this season, long it may continue!

2nd - Jose Manuel Arias - I had very high hopes signing this guy from Real Madrid, and boy, did it pay off. He's by far the most important man in our midfield, and when he's on form, he carries the whole team with him. Delivering key passes, scoring important goals - you name it, he's done it. He could be one of the players to push us to another level.

3rd - Michal Kadlec - when you finish the league with just eight goals conceded, you simply have to include the goalkeeper in the summary. He really performed accordingly to his attributes, making some wonderful saves over the course of the season. A true wonderkid, I wonder how long we can hold onto him.

Next Season

It's time to really make an impact in Europe. Also aiming for an unbeaten season in the league.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - Season Preview - 2027/28 - Olympiakos

Board Expectations:

Superleague: Win it
Champions League: Group Stage

My Expectations:

Superleague: Win it again.
Champions League: Knockout stages.

Budgets:

Transfer: £76,783,129
Wage: £797,305 (currently spending £455,592)
Balance: £77,059,536

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - Pre-Season - 2027/28 - Olympiakos

Friendlies

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A decent set of results, we only lost to the current Champions League holders.

Transfers

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We've strengthened, but it could have been better.

Javier Iturrino - what were Barcelona thinking?! Well, it's not my problem really. Another cheap wonderkid to complement Arias in midfield.

Leo Parmentier - a decent price for a young, potentially good centre back. He'll get his minutes.

Miroslav Kucera - one for the future, but I like him already. The unexpected sale of Vitaliotis will push him into the senior squad.

Euan Tough - probably the most exciting pick of the bunch. Only a loan, I didn't feel like splashing half of my budget on him!

Ferdi Yilmaz - alright, he's decent and all, but one, I feel I overpaid, and two, I had agreed terms with a wonderful young right back from Dinamo, but some **** leaked it and Lokomotiv Moscow stepped in to snatch him. Guess I'll have to settle.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - August 2027 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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This time we surprisingly played AEK early on... and it was a typical 2:0 game, very dominant and confident on our part. This makes me really optimistic about the season.

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1 hour ago, Rikulec said:

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - Pre-Season - 2027/28 - Olympiakos

Friendlies

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A decent set of results, we only lost to the current Champions League holders.

Transfers

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We've strengthened, but it could have been better.

Javier Iturrino - what were Barcelona thinking?! Well, it's not my problem really. Another cheap wonderkid to complement Arias in midfield.

Leo Parmentier - a decent price for a young, potentially good centre back. He'll get his minutes.

Miroslav Kucera - one for the future, but I like him already. The unexpected sale of Vitaliotis will push him into the senior squad.

Euan Tough - probably the most exciting pick of the bunch. Only a loan, I didn't feel like splashing half of my budget on him!

Ferdi Yilmaz - alright, he's decent and all, but one, I feel I overpaid, and two, I had agreed terms with a wonderful young right back from Dinamo, but some **** leaked it and Lokomotiv Moscow stepped in to snatch him. Guess I'll have to settle.

Overpaying our 2nd option, how delightful! hahaha

Cheers,
Bitner 

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - September 2027 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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AEK are down in fourth and surprisingly it's Panathinaikos who have claimed the top spot early on, albeit we still have a game in hand.

Kupello Hellas

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Easy enough.

Champions League

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We got properly FM'd by a surprisingly weak Wolfsburg side before comfortably beating Club Brugge. At this stage I'd risk saying that with some luck we might get through.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - October 2027 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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A poor month by our standards while Panathinaikos are still going strong. This could get interesting.

Champions League

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We had our chances again. We're really on the verge now, but we have to start tipping these close games our way.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - November 2027 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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That's more like it! Two good wins against relegation struggles followed by a complete and utter humiliation of our biggest rival, who also happens to be the biggest title contender this season. Boom!

Kupello Hellas

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Not the most convincing, but a win is a win. I'll take that.

Champions League

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Let's be honest, we were always going to lose at City. We got the job done where it really mattered though - a confident victory against Wolfsburg leaves our fate in our own hands with a trip to Brugge.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - December 2027 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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We're really strong now. Like really, really strong.

Kupello Hellas

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A good way to end the group stage.

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We played our second string and almost got punished for it, conceding early on and only turning it around from a stoppage time free kick.

Champions League

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Yes! A good performance ensured our passage to the next round. Feels satisfying.

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3 hours ago, Crispypaul said:

This is a really good career and read - I spent three seasons at your rivals AEK Athens in FM2017 and rather enjoyed the Greek league.  Do you think you'll move anywhere else soon?

Thank you. :thup: My contract runs out in 2029 and I don't think I'm going to extend it, unless something really inspiring happens in the meantime. I'll be also keeping an eye out for jobs after the 2028 Euros, I reckon there's a good chance something interesting may come up.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - February 2028 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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Fifteen wins in a row. The record stands at seventeen. Could we?

Kupello Hellas

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The second string did a much better job than I expected.

Champions League

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What the ****. :lol:

Seriously though, it turns out all the Pogbas, Dybalas, Asensios and de Geas may look terrifying on paper, but in 2028 there's nothing to be afraid of at all. We managed to get what will probably go down as one of the best results in the club's history (and by far the best result of this save so far) despite not actually playing that well. In fact, a big chunk of the game was mostly nothing. One counter attack and we went up. Then twenty minutes of nothing, a free kick, boom, 2:0. Hats off to Hrdlicka who assisted all three goals before adding one himself from the spot to round it off. Yet another sensational performance from him this season. What a player.

Youth Intake

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Nothing spectacular, although Karnesis could become decent.

Stavros Karnesis

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - March 2028 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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Well, looks like we've won it. :lol:

Kupello Hellas

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Frotvedt's on fire, your defence is terrified!

Champions League

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Back down to earth... but still, we're through!

Man City up next. I really, really can't see us doing it, especially without Ayyouch.

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Awesome results, man! Looks like you've finally made Greece your own, and what a way to get through United. It'll be interesting to see how far you can go in Europe.

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8 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Brilliant, especially in Europe! :applause:

 

5 hours ago, oriole01 said:

Awesome results, man! Looks like you've finally made Greece your own, and what a way to get through United. It'll be interesting to see how far you can go in Europe.

Cheers!

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53 minutes ago, abulezz said:

Tough looks like a fantastic player - he's got all the right qualities to make a world-class DC!

Interestingly enough he seemed to have trouble settling in in the first couple of months or so, but now he's finally performing like the beast he should be. Shame we're not very likely to keep hold of him.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - April 2028 - Olympiakos

Superleague

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Panathinaikos did stop us, but all in all it was a good finish to a spectacular season. We went unbeaten! :D

Kupello Hellas

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Always nice to get a hat-trick.

AEK up in the final, of course.

Champions League

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We gave it our best and managed to keep it respectable.

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Jakub Słota's Management Career - Season Review - 2027/28 - Olympiakos

Superleague

Results

Competition Performance: Winners

If last season was great, what words should I use to describe this one? Just six dropped points over thirty games, seven goals conceded - one less than last season - and, most importantly, a beautiful zero in the defeats column. Could we have made it perfect? Yes, I believe so. But we have every right to be proud of ourselves. We've just made history.

Kupello Hellas

Competition Performance: Runners-up

Once again we failed to win the final game after winning everything else beforehand, but this time it was much more painful. This really shouldn't have happened.

Champions League

Competition Performance: Quarter Finals

Finally! I said I wanted to make an impact, and we really did. The battering of Manchester United at our place was simply incredible. A result to remember.

Squad

Getting better and better. What a lovely bunch of players.

Transfers - Finances

Regarding the transfers, it was just more of the same. If I stay at the club, I will continue with the policy of ensuring net profit every year. If we can get wonderkids for peanuts, then why the hell not?

We did break the £100M barrier at one point and will probably do it again over the summer. We're pretty damn rich, eh?

Player of the Season

1st - Jiri Hrdlicka - yes, he's managed to retain the player of the season title, and he's much, much better than he was last season. A club legend already and easily the best and the most influential player I've managed on this save and quite possibly ever on FM. I hope he stays here forever.

2nd - Michalis Kastrinis - he took four seasons to finally perform up to his attributes, and what a wonderful season it was. He broke both the 20 goal barrier in the league (and got a nice £110K bonus for it) and the 30 goal barrier in all competitions. He did have a couple of dry patches, but all in all he was amazing.

3rd - Javier Iturrino - I had very high hopes for him and he didn't disappoint. It proves lovely to have a hard-working, very brave defensive midfielder with blistering pace. Just a shame he isn't taller, but then he'd be worth ten times what they value him at now.

Next Season

There's not much more we can realistically achieve. I'm probably going to consider my options, especially after the inevitable post-Euro 2028 merry-go-round.

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