[FM18] AFC, A Chainsaw Massacre (2019-2036) // Basque Bonanza (2037-2040)

[fabreth]

50000 attendance in CL? You play those matches at Amsterdam Arena i suppose

[MarcxD]

1 hour ago, fabreth said:

50000 attendance in CL? You play those matches at Amsterdam Arena i suppose

That's exactly right.

[MarcxD]

December 2028

A loss in the league and out of the cup but elsewhere a bunch of decent to very good results, it was hard to play 5 away games in a row but the 2 home games against title competitors were a fantastic way to end the month.

In first with a tiny lead. Wow! We have done fantastically until the winter break but Feyenoord and PSV are so close. We can't let up!

With the 4-0 win we're through to the knock-out rounds of the CL but it was very close! 

Perhaps going through as third in the Europa League would've been better since this is what we get in the Champions League. Ouch.

Bonus Feature: Guess the Player. 

(Hint: He's not Dutch.)

[Kubson]

13 minutes ago, MarcxD said:

December 2028

A loss in the league and out of the cup but elsewhere a bunch of decent to very good results, it was hard to play 5 away games in a row but the 2 home games against title competitors were a fantastic way to end the month.

In first with a tiny lead. Wow! We have done fantastically until the winter break but Feyenoord and PSV are so close. We can't let up!

With the 4-0 win we're through to the knock-out rounds of the CL but it was very close! 

Perhaps going through as third in the Europa League would've been better since this is what we get in the Champions League. Ouch.

Bonus Feature: Guess the Player. 

(Hint: He's not Dutch.)

Torres

[After]

Superb start of the season, good luck against City.

[MarcxD]

14 hours ago, Kubson said:

Torres

Well done 

He has shown incredible progress and goalscoring abilities. And he can stay at the club for a long while yet, his new deal runs until 2031 with a optional extension of a further three years.

14 hours ago, After said:

Superb start of the season, good luck against City.

Thank you!

[MarcxD]

January & February 2029

I had forgotten to take screenshots of the January league table so two months at once this time.

The goals have dried up a bit and so remarkably we have drawn all away games while winning the home games with some trouble. Just as remarkable though, we beat Man City at home - while also selling out the Ajax stadium.

Not in first anymore, as I said PSV seems to having a magnificent season. Feyenoord and surprisingly FC Groningen are not that far behind.

[MarcxD]

Youth Intake 2029

For the first time in many years not a golden generation, the perceived potentials don't seem to be quite as good but perhaps that is a sign that the current abilities of the first team have really made a step up as well. But more importantly than all that, 2 more Andorran regens!! And a French one, for some reason. Also Goalkeeper talents, one of those positions where we're lacking in upcoming talent so very happy with that.

A lot of things to like here, he'll have stiff competition for the midfield positions though.

Awesome except for his personality and determination. Since he did not want to be tutored by my only senior GK, first-team Bayazit, that might be problematic!

Another problem for Pereira will be the competition of Nijhuis, who just looks that bit better and without the personality issue.

Not really all that great really, with a poor personality and determination as well and technically relatively limited. 

The 2 Andorran kids are clearly no Torres, but I will try my best to make them as good as possible. 

[MarcxD]

March 2029

Great month, the goals flowing again. We were hopeless against Man City though, the difference in class was huge and it could've been much worse than 3-0.

Back in first, with 6 more games to go (and not the hardest schedule left), I'm pretty confident we can retain the title.

The World Cup qualifiers started this month as well.

Atrociously poor against San Marino, needing a penalty to win. 

Slightly better against Iceland. 

Ukraine and Slovenia also got the full 6 points from their first 2 games, so it certainly seems to be between the three of us. 

[MarcxD]

April 2029

Seemed like a perfect month but then we went on and lost to 18th placed RKC. Don't know what happened there, just very poor.

Still in first, with 2 (home) games remaining 1 point lead left to PSV. All in our own hands, but we can't make another mistake.

The u19s won their league for the first time, a positive sign.

But perhaps this is even more of a sign of how rosy our future looks, another year where all the candidates for talent of the year are AFC players.

[Deisler26]

[MarcxD]

Matchday 33

PSV played first because they are still in the Champions League (!), their return of the semi-final against Man City is this week.

They certainly did their job...

But we did so too. 

One match remaining. AFC play AZ at home, while PSV host NAC. They have the easier game (even though NAC did win the cup) but we should finish the job.

[MarcxD]

Matchday 34

Could we do it, win the title two years in a row? 

Nooo.  Absolutely awful performance, AZ were the much better team. PSV didn't even win their game but it was enough for them. Terrible. Shameful. 

Losing twice in the last 3 games meant we helped PSV to the title. Wow, what a disaster. 

[Deisler26]

 

[After]

Harsh...

[MarcxD]

Nations League & WCQ

Well, had to go on with the Dutch national team. A nice break, perhaps. 

Not nice at all.

Sigh.

Well, France went on and won the thing, Mbappe etc.

A huge win against the Faroe Islands in the qualifiers, but seeing that they're supposed to be worse than San Marino at this point...

Therefore I was happier with the win against Ukraine, probably the toughest opponent in the group, and we dominated as well. 

Ukraine beat Slovenia, so things are looking good in the group. No goals conceded yet.

 

[MarcxD]

Season Review 2028-2029

Still hugely disappointed although I can be fair and be happy with the fact that this was the season with the highest points so far, most goals etc.

I won Manager of the Year for the fifth time in a row.

Best Elevens:

Annoying subs. These stats aren't even right, perhaps the games they played for the reserves or something. First team looks good. 

Huge seasons for Phurueng (5d), van Dijk (7b) and Torres (8a) most of all, although several other players have had good seasons as well.

Full support

It's almost unbelievable how good Van Dijk is turning out to be, still only 18 years old. Huge clubs are after him now.

Torres has had a huge year, scoring lots of goals, becoming a more and more of a striker. 10 Caps for the Andorran national team so far.

He missed out on the topscorer award but he did win talent of the year.

Phurueng's development seems to have stalled mostly, but his current ability is very decent for the Eredivisie and if he's able to keep performing like this that would be mostly ideal, the biggest clubs probably won't be interested and he might be interested to stay for a while.

 

 

[MarcxD]

10 Years a Manager

Now this season is done I've completed 10 seasons as AFC manager. Bit of a time for a recap and look where my manager and the club are at right now.

As far as trophies are concerned let's just say there's room for improvement. 1 Eredivisie win, 1 Cup win and 1 Super Cup win in total. On the other hand though, the club has steadily grown from the bottom of the Jupiler League to a top club.

In various ways we had the best season yet last year, just couldn't get any silverware. We should continue to fight for the title each season from now on.

Apart from 2024/2025 and 2026/2027 the Cup hasn't really been the club's favorite place to be.

I am actually very happy with how things have been going in Europe, in the 3 seasons so far we've always gone to the knock-out rounds. Just that little next step is needed.

No legends or dynamic rivalries yet.

as far as reputation is concerned AFC is now seen as the third club in Holland, with the two clubs we've fought with for the title the last 2 seasons being the only ones left above us. They've also had more European succes than us, so fair play.

Facilities aren't quite done but are looking very good. The stadium should be done soon, hope we sell it out immediately.

This is how the manager profile screen is looking. Not sure I even actually ever mentioned it, but I started with professional football past playing experience and all coaching badges.

Some more stats.

Well, that's that. I have no intention on stopping this career any time soon, so hopefully there will be another post like this after the next 10 seasons.

[MarcxD]

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

9 minutes ago, MarcxD said:

Are there even any players you can sign at this point? That's certainly a lot of money

[KlaaZ]

Noooo, don't sell!

[Deisler26]

Sell and BRING SAM HOME

[MarcxD]

11 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Are there even any players you can sign at this point? That's certainly a lot of money

Not really no.

11 hours ago, KlaaZ said:

Noooo, don't sell!

I have a couple of reasons why I want to sell him: first of all around 40M I kind of feel I have to sell as a Dutch club, even if we don't need the money, second of all there are a couple of good midfield prospects coming up and this will give them the chance to shine and third of all he might reach higher levels at Dortmund then at AFC. 

6 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Sell and BRING SAM HOME

[MarcxD]

Season Preview 2029

Big budgets, and this was before the Van Dijk transfer.

@Deisler26 had got i right, I did get Vos back. I had wanted to buy him back but Vos wasn't really excited for a permanent transfer back, so I loaned him with an optional future deal, hopefully he'll be more excited next season. 

He'll be the first choice striker, with Torres moving into his natural AMC position, which means I've changed my tactic a little bit.

Great pre-season, winning convincingly against Roma and drawing against Dortmund! Not that big step up for Van Dijk?!

Tough group draw.

[MarcxD]

August 2029

Happy with this start, 2 tough away games but 7 points.

Another delay. 

[noikeee]

I've only now realised you're an Andorran manager and doing a youth challenge. 

Iñaki's looking like a superstar. Better hope he keeps going like this and doesn't peak early in his career... like his Spanish dad Fernando. 

[MarcxD]

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

I've only now realised you're an Andorran manager and doing a youth challenge. 

Iñaki's looking like a superstar. Better hope he keeps going like this and doesn't peak early in his career... like his Spanish dad Fernando. 

More or less a youth challenge yes, although I did buy Amsterdam-born players and I allow myself to buy back former players.

Haha about Torres, so far this season he's looking good together with Vos. 

[MarcxD]

September 2029

It seems with the changed tactic and Torres and Vos there, scoring goals comes a lot easier. Conceding them, so far at least, quite a bit more as well. 

Looking good so far, Ajax might finally have a good season.

Two qualifiers:

Very comfortable wins and goals from Vos in both games.

Only Ukraine left to look out for really. 

 

[MarcxD]

October 2029

Busy month, with some remarkable results. Especially winning 2-1 against Real Madrid in the Champions League... bummer to lose to PSV though.

PSV and Ajax looking better than us so far. 

Disappointing to lose to Ukraine, which means that the last couple of games remain important.

Down to second but we still face Faroe Islands at home, a good game to get us back in the lead on goal difference perhaps. 

 

[john1]

So gutted to see you missed out on the title on last day of the season  Torres looks amazing!

[oriole01]

Jesus, so you can only pull a maximum of 5,000 fans at your stadium, but then can get 65,000 when you move to the Ajax stadium. You guys must be holding cage fights for the games at the Goed Genoeg .

Awesome result against Real, by the way!

[MarcxD]

2 hours ago, john1 said:

So gutted to see you missed out on the title on last day of the season  Torres looks amazing!

That was hard to take. Torres really does, wait until you see his stats for this year as AMC. He has the highest average of the Eredivisie so far (7.70 or so)

1 hour ago, oriole01 said:

Jesus, so you can only pull a maximum of 5,000 fans at your stadium, but then can get 65,000 when you move to the Ajax stadium. You guys must be holding cage fights for the games at the Goed Genoeg .

Awesome result against Real, by the way!

Haha yeah, perhaps some glory hunters among those fans wanting to see Real Madrid though

Cheers!

[MarcxD]

November 2029

Too bad to lose both CL games but the were really hard ones. We keep on scoring goals though! 

2 points behind Groningen, a possible 7 points behind PSV and a possible 2 points behind Ajax. And we're not even doing that badly.

Wow, surely enough for the group win!

And it was, strong Ukraine has also qualified though (as one of the best #2s)

[kidthekid]

great progress, unlucky with last season's finale. What is the new tactic now? 4-4-1-1, 4-2-3-1?

[MarcxD]

16 hours ago, kidthekid said:

great progress, unlucky with last season's finale. What is the new tactic now? 4-4-1-1, 4-2-3-1?

Thanks, 4-2-3-1, I just changed the DM for an AMC as far as positions are concerned, changed the b2b midfielder in a Carillero and the backs are inverted wing backs now to give that extra in the midfield. So far I'm happy with how it's working, but perhaps that's more to do with having Torres and Vos up there than with the tactic.

[MarcxD]

December 2029

A mixed month another loss in the CL and out of the cup, but 3 wins in the league.

This also means we did not make it to the knock-out rounds of the CL, but we'll go on in the EL where perhaps we have more of a chance. Hopefully. Only just managed to keep ahead of Dinamo Kyiv though.

In second now, but PSV is ahead 8 points even if we do have a game in hand.

Upgrades only took a year this time.

Some further upgrades, I think the last youth facilities but one more training to be done after this.

An interesting group, but not an easy one. England, certainly in the FM realm of things, is a huge opponent and Mexico won't be easy either. Morocco also not bad a country, perhaps a bunch of Dutch-based players.

[john1]

So close to getting out of your CL Group  

[andychar]

You have not had the luck with those Champions League draws. Still European football after Christmas is always a bonus.

[gandrasch]

Great story so far! Sometimes it really looks like its pulled out of a movie with all the dramatic moments.

I wasn't really into FM this year, but because of this I will try to reproduce the same with 1860 Munich. 

 

Could you show Vos profile again? 

[MarcxD]

11 hours ago, john1 said:

So close to getting out of your CL Group  

Yeah, sucks, but I'm not too disappointed with EL to be honest, we might have well have just drawn Man City again in the CL or something like that.

2 hours ago, andychar said:

You have not had the luck with those Champions League draws. Still European football after Christmas is always a bonus.

Not very lucky indeed, but the CL draws are calculated to be hard, we were still in the 3rd pot for the CL Draw.

19 minutes ago, gandrasch said:

Great story so far! Sometimes it really looks like its pulled out of a movie with all the dramatic moments.

I wasn't really into FM this year, but because of this I will try to reproduce the same with 1860 Munich. 

 

Could you show Vos profile again? 

Thanks man! Good luck with your save.

Very strong but not a huge change in attributes compared to when he left us, although he doesn't really need to improve much when you look at his performances this season!

Also interesting to see how his value almost doubles in the 6 months he is at the club, obviously his value is much higher than the other players since he's at AC Milan. Since the optional fee in his loan deal is only 7.5M it could be a huge steal next summer (if he's willing to join us then of course). 

[MarcxD]

January 2030

In the thirties!

Very good start to the decade

We played our game in hand so now we're 5 points behind PSV. If we can keep our current form going on we might still challenge for the title, but PSV is having an amazing season.

After two delays finally the new stadium is ready! We should sell out immediately.

Bayern did a bunch of offers for Torres, this was the highest one. Of course I rejected them all, he's tied on for a long while yet with his current contract and I'm not letting him go for anything less than at least 45M or perhaps more. If at all possible I would like to build the team around him and Vos for the years to come. 

[MarcxD]

One of the craziest matches I've been involved in. 2-3 after 88 minutes, 3-3 in the 94th minute, 4-3 in the 95th!

[MarcxD]

February 2030

Fantastic month, wow. Apart from the 1-1 against Feyenoord perfect results, lots of goals and through in the Europa League. And Torres had an injury for most of the month!

Since PSV lost some points we're now level with them, they have a better goal difference but we have the same record. Wow! 9 more matches, this could be yet another thrilling season finale!

By the way, I only just noticed that all 6 Dutch competitors in European football played in the first knockout round of the Europa League! Amazing really, with us and PSV qualifying as third in our respective CL groups, and Feyenoord, AZ, VVV and even NAC (sixteenth in the league!) making it through the EL groups. Four of the six are going through to the second knockout rounds, but none will face each other there yet. 

[MarcxD]

Youth Intake 2030

Some very interesting players and two players that have come from international affiliate clubs: Uruguayan Matias Caceres and Australian Kane Hall (from Defensor Sporting and Western Sidney Wanderers respectively). Since the Dutch league has no foreign player rules (and we barely have any foreigners anyway) there's no problem there, there's only a rule that non-eu players have to earn a higher minimum wage but I'm barely using more than 15% of my wage budget so who cares?

There are already too many talented central defenders at the club, but I'm not going to be disappointed with this! His determination is low but that can be fixed, passing is a bit more worrying. Key defensive attributes look good.

Very happy to get a talented back in, although a DR would've been even more ideal since we're really lacking in that position. Anyway, very few attributes that wow me but on average he seems pretty decent, hopefully the potential is there.

The Uruguayan, an AMR. I like the look of him. Be very interested to see how he develops.

Not too much to like about the Australian, except for some of his mental attributes. High teamwork work rate and decent determination (and vision and flair) are of course great but don't really mean anything if he doesn't improve radically on his technical and physicals.

 

[MarcxD]

March 2030

Bit of a bizarre month to start out with three 2-2s in a row. Otherwise good though, through in the EL.

In first now, 1 point lead, 5 games to go... 

3 of the 4 Dutch clubs go through to the quarter finals.

At least one of us will be in the semi's. Last time AFC made it to the QF we were defeated by another Dutch club (AZ) so hopefully this time it'll go differently.

Two friendlies, decent performance against Poland but Italy was better and deserved the win. 

[Minuy600]

I've literally never heard of Real San Sebastian. Must be special.

[KlaaZ]

2 minutes ago, Minuy600 said:

I've literally never heard of Real San Sebastian. Must be special.

It's Real Sociedad, recently looked it up because I was confused as well. 

[MarcxD]

6 minutes ago, Minuy600 said:

I've literally never heard of Real San Sebastian. Must be special.

Some Spanish team names are replaced because of licensing stuff, it's Sociedad (they're based in San Sebastian) like @KlaaZ said.

Since I started this career in the beta some stuff like that can't be helped.

 

[MarcxD]

April 2030

Awful news in the beginning of the month with Vos missing out on it entirely after the first match. His playing stats are here too, to show how important he has been for us.

Some tough games and poor results, it might be hard to blame Vos since we still scored goals (albeit less). We were only just able to beat Feyenoord, so we're through to the semi finals of the Europa League!! Best European success so far.

We're the only Dutch club left, but Arsenal needed penalties to beat AZ.

I guess that's a silver lining, if AZ can do it we should be able to make it a real contest against Arsenal as well. 

But most importantly, psv lost some points as well so we're still 1 point ahead. One game to go. Once again the last matchday will be deciding who will be champions. 

We will be playing Vitesse at home and should be able to do it, but that's what I thought last year when we threw our title chances away on the last day.

I got this huge milestone this month. How great would it be to get another Eredivisie win.

[MarcxD]

Holy !!! What the hell haha wow.

Reverted to the old tactic for this game since I was afraid to concede too much goals and because Vos isn't back to full fitness yet anyway... and it worked wonders.