[FM18] The Dynamics of telling you to shove your transfer request up y- a journeyman career

[noikeee]

Winter break 2020/2021

It's over at last, I was ****ing frozen by now.

(Transfers)

To start off, what happened to the 3 loans we had that ran out in December? We took care of 2 of them but lost the 3rd player. Centre-back Oskar Bloch's loan was renewed, whilst defensive midfielder Jonathan Grossrieder was signed permanently now... something I'm already regretting as this was a deal signed a few months ago but now we're stacked on that position. So the main news was the exit of Rasmus Thellufsen, who moved to a Superligaen side (Esbjerg). Whilst on paper he was one of our most talented players, and did score 6 goals in the few months he was here, I was unconvinced about him - seemed a bit of a selfish character who shot from stupid positions too often. Not sure we'll miss him.

Besides wanting to replace Thellufsen, I also took the gamble to unsettle team cohesion slightly and bank on the quality out-of-contract players that were wandering around, interested in a move to a side that's doing well, like us. So I signed 3 players:

With Rosenorn injured for most of the winter break, it was a good time to finally pick up a proper upgrade for the goalkeeper position.

Quality midfielder who will possibly take Rutikanga's place as Carrilero but can play in a few different roles and positions, even. I don't think he's amazing at anything but seems very useful.

We have a full international over here! Okay it's just for the Faroes, but still. More of a physical kind of player than the type of creative, complete players that tend to thrive more in our attack in the tactical systems I use, he is not a perfect fit, but he was the best available attacker, and I needed some kind of forward to replace Thellufsen. Pretty good player, though.

 

The winter break friendlies were pretty much perfect, but we didn't face a single team that properly tested us. Let's see what happens now we're back to the real competition. Will my signings give us the extra bit of quality to ensure promotion, or unsettle our previously brilliant cohesion?
 

[BoxToBox]

Jakup Thomsen! I remember that guy!

[noikeee]

3 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Jakup Thomsen! I remember that guy!

Did you manage him in your time in the Faroes?

[BoxToBox]

1 minute ago, noikeee said:

Did you manage him in your time in the Faroes?

For the national team, was one of their best scorers if I remember.

[noikeee]

 Youth intake 2021

 

 

Uh, I missed my youth intake.  This was the best screenshot I was able to get.

The keeper is the only one worth anything anyway. Pretty good prospect for our level, professional too. The youth upgrades are working!

[kidthekid]

Lemar as world player of the year is surprising indeed. I do think FM needs to find a way to include titles as part of the formula for these awards

[andychar]

After the Winter Break do all your players spend an hour trying to remember what it is exactly they do?

Like coming out of Stasis in every single Science Fiction film.

[noikeee]

3 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Lemar as world player of the year is surprising indeed. I do think FM needs to find a way to include titles as part of the formula for these awards

I thought that already happened, I've definitely seen in some past careers some swings in the Ballon d'Or winners after winning the World Cup for example. But for whatever reason it doesn't seem to be happening here. Maybe there isn't enough weighting in some other competitions like the Champions League for this.

1 hour ago, andychar said:

After the Winter Break do all your players spend an hour trying to remember what it is exactly they do?

Like coming out of Stasis in every single Science Fiction film.

Well, I do put them in "team cohesion" and "match tactics" training.

Translation for: "hey lads remember Markus? He's still your team-mate! He's a footballer player. You guys are, too. This is a ball. B-A-L-L. You kick it up field in the direction of that end. Remember, THAT end, not the other one."

[noikeee]

March 2021

The impact of the new signings was made crystal clear in 2 absolutely cruical matches after the winter break, as we beat OB with Radza saving a penalty, Gemmer getting an assist and Thomsen scoring on debut. We had been outplayed yet spectacularly lucky, and the exact same thing repeated itself the next match, Gemmer getting another 2 assists and Thomsen another 2 goals including a 98th minute winner (!!!). Helsingor had been better than us, but after this we opened a 5 points lead over them....

.... only for those 5 points to evaporate to 0 as we drew and lost. We did manage to bag the 342K€ for topping the table at the end of the 2nd period, and then opened another lead at the top of the table as we beat Hvidovre, freakishly lucky again, as we're now 3 points ahead but with an extra match. But I'm starting to wonder for how much longer can we limp through matches as we get so many lucky rolls of the dice to our advantage - we didn't perform well in a single match the whole month. We have a lot of injured players at the moment, too.

[noikeee]

April 2021

The odds of a dream-like back-to-back titles, and respective automatic promotions, are fading, as in April we only win 1 out of 4 matches in the league. It could've been worse though, if it wasn't for two absolutely epic comebacks, with a brace by Thomsen in minutes 86 and 95 against Vendsyssel, and again 2 late goals against Horsens in minutes 85 and 91. Somehow we're still just 1 point away from the top, and still remain on a playoff spot.

However the real high in April was the cup. As we beat Viborg we booked a rather excellent semi-final spot. And in there Kobenhavn would knock us out for the 2nd consecutive season, but only after we put one hell of a fight. We were spectacularly close to the final after opening an early lead, only for Spanish international Munir El-Haddadi to equalize in minute 84; and again opened up a lead right at the beginning of extra-time, but FCK turned it around with Munir scoring again. Gutting to have come so close and miss out, but it was a superb effort from our lads.

 

[tyler16]

Munir at Kobenhavn, ffs. 

League is still within grabs, best of luck!

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, tyler16 said:

Munir at Kobenhavn, ffs. 

League is still within grabs, best of luck!

It's a spectacular fall from grace for him, yeah. I remember facing him last year already. Seems to be Kobenhavn's best player though, maybe he wanted to be a big fish in a small pond. 

Thanks!

[noikeee]

Round 29

 

With just 5 matches to go, I'm gonna copy @andychar's format in his career and cover the end of the season on a match-by-match basis.

 

It's a great round for us! A lone goal by Mads Kaalund seals the win for us, in a surprisingly straightforward match, whilst Helsingor is shocked at home. We leap to first place again!

4 rounds to go.

[noikeee]

A glimpse of what's to come:

We have a much trickier calendar than Helsingor, having to face 4th and 3rd in the next 2 matches... and Helsingor themselves in the final round that promises to be absolutely explosive!

[noikeee]

Round 30

We play one day earlier this time: 

And it's another comfortable win! I'm surprised, we seem to be peaking at the right time, and enjoying our football under a recent new tweak to my old 4-3-3 (roles: F9-CF/A-IF/S instead of CF/A-F9-RMD).

 

We now waited hoping for another Helsingor slip-up...

Nope. They struggled but turned it around. We're virtually guaranteed a playoff spot now, as it becomes a close 2-horse race for automatic promotion.

[noikeee]

Round 31

 

A great result in a very tricky fixture!! It was a very open match with lots of chances either way, but we had better finishing than them.

Now, did Helsingor did us a favour?

 

 

Yes they did! The odds dramatically swing in our favour! A result next week, at home against Viborg, can seal promotion!

 

We mathematically secure a minimum of a playoff place, too:

 

[john1]

You can do it!   

[noikeee]

Round 32 - penultimate day

It's the penultimate day of the Danish 1.Division, and a win seals promotion for us - as well as any other combination of results where Helsingor don't gain 2 points on us.

Minute 36: PENALTY FOR VIBORG!! It's been a pretty terrible half of football at Naestved Stadion, and now the visitors get a penalty out of nowhere...

SAVED BY CASPER RADZA!! THE REBOUND FALLS BACK TO THE STRIKER WHO HITS THE CROSSBAR!! It continues 0-0 in both matches...

 

 

Half-Time: 0-0 in both matches. As it stands, Naestved gets promoted, but we're not doing all we could. Uninspired upfront, lucky that Viborg missed a penalty, and any goal for Helsingor in the other match puts them back into contention.

 

 

Minute 65: Geez, nothing seems to be happening. We've improved a bit this 2nd half and had a chance or two, but as it stands we're still getting promoted with 0-0 in both matches. Not that I'll complain about that.

Minute 67: The news come in that Helsingor in their match are down to 10 men!! Kohler Red got sent off! Surely they won't be able to win with a man less?

Minute 82: More news from the other match..... Goal for Avarta!! Helsingor are losing! We might be boring our fans to tears with a terrible 0-0, but like this it'll be more than enough!!!

 

 

Full time: NAESTVED ARE CHAMPIONS AND PROMOTED!!

 

 

 

[john1]

Congrats  

[BoxToBox]

Well done!

[Rikulec]

Top work.

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, john1 said:

Congrats  

 

1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

Well done!

 

1 hour ago, Rikulec said:

Top work.

Cheers.

I'm very surprised at how easy Denmark is proving to be, I was freaking sacked just 3 seasons ago.  I'm starting to think of possible moves to somewhere else too, but even with the 2 titles we won my rep still seems low, so there's no better options than staying with the club for now.

[kidthekid]

Amazing, I don't know what's more amazing, your double promotion or Munir in Denmark. Any screenshot of him if possible?

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Amazing, I don't know what's more amazing, your double promotion or Munir in Denmark. Any screenshot of him if possible?

Here he is.

The fog of war feature is a bit ridiculous in FM18, I've been managing 3 years in Denmark yet I can't see the full attributes of the single best player playing in the country. 

 

 

Meanwhile, I've started getting linked to jobs, this is good:

I'm not even remotely considering to take this because

a) I hate them. Marítimo fan innit

b) I've already managed them before (FM12 career)

c) I'm not hugely excited to go manage in Portugal

d) they've just gotten relegated from the Liga Nos

and e) their finances seem rotten

[noikeee]

Oh, an actual interview.

They finished below Nacional, dead last, and are going down too with equally horrible finances. Nope.

[noikeee]

May 2021

You guys already knew about all of this, except for the very final match, a mental 4-3 win over the vice-champions was a fun way to finish the season.

[noikeee]

Naestved - 2020/2021 - Season review

It's a rewarding season, as surprise back-to-back promotions return Naestved BK to the top tier for the first time since 1996. A run to the cup semi-finals was almost equally satisfying.

 

Statistics, best 11, and top 5 players of the season

 

 

5. Mikkel Jakobsen (ST, AMC) - Top scorer for the 3rd consecutive season (12 goals), also most assists of the squad (7, same as Jonas Gemmer and Michael Bay), however despite all that he's clearly diminished in influence/effectiveness, and I don't think he's good enough for the Superligaen next season.

4. Daniel Norouzi (DL) - A great signing, made the left-back role unquestionably his own. 4 assists and 4 POM awards.

3. Ferdinand Bangsgaard (DM) - This was a bizarre season as he scored bucketloads of goals in the first half of the year, as we kept on getting awarded penalty kick after penalty kick. Indeed, he finished as our top scorer of the league with 9 goals which is crazy for a DM. But the penalties dried up the 2nd half, and I think they inflated his ratings a little - still a properly strong season for him though.

2. Jonas Gemmer (MC) - One of two superb midseason signings, playing mostly as Carrilero he would achieve a brilliant 7 assists (joint top of the squad) in just 16 appearances.

1. Jákub Thomsen (ST) - The other superb midseason signing, that our Faroese international came close to being top scorer despite only playing 14 matches was mental. 10 goals, 4 assists, and a 7.58 average rating that was a whole other level beyond anyone else.

 

Career progress table

Season   League                  Cups                              Continental                    Other
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panserraikos (Greece)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17/18    League - 15th           Kupello Hellas - 1st round                                       Relegated, sacked 1 match to go
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naestved (Denmark)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18/19    2.Div - 3rd G2, 3rd PS  DBU Pokalen - 1st round                                          Lost promotion on goals scored
19/20    2.Div - 4th G2, 1st PS  DBU Pokalen - Quarter-finals                                     Champions, promoted
20/21    1.Division - 1st        DBU Pokalen - Semi-finals                                        Champions, promoted

[noikeee]

Wait, what? Capacity 4060? It currently hosts 16602 spectators!

[tyler16]

Great title run!

Always interesting when the first decent job interviews start popping up, even if none of those were particularly appealing.

2k seats in a 16k capacity stadium. I hope your fans like standing. 

[noikeee]

6 hours ago, tyler16 said:

Great title run!

Always interesting when the first decent job interviews start popping up, even if none of those were particularly appealing.

2k seats in a 16k capacity stadium. I hope your fans like standing. 

I got curious as to how does that look like, and googled it. The picture explains it - there's a stand in one end, and the rest is all a completely open standing space!

 

Presumably covering the rest of the stadium wasn't a huge priority whilst the club was in the 3rd tier.

Now my question is..... is this expansion a bug, or are all the standing spaces being ditched, bulldozed, whatever, and we get a nice all-seater stadium for 4060 people?

 

2162 seats + 898 seats "currently reduced" + 1000 new seats = 4060. So it does add up, at first I thought it didn't.

[noikeee]

Added/removed leagues

I'm getting into a new stage in my career where I'm actively on the look for jobs, and at a higher level than before. So in comes Russia and the Spanish 2nd tier whilst I also re-activate the Championship. Swiss and Belgian lower leagues are unattractive anymore so off they go.

[noikeee]

... as the offers start flying in!

Both teams will be playing in the 3rd tier next year (Matera went down, Leiria failed to go up), so I said no.

I'm kinda divided here, on one hand it feels right to have a go with Naestved at the Superligaen for just one year, on the other hand I feel like I've earned a move, too. I think on previous careers I've spent a bit too long on lower level clubs, so would probably like to speed up the process this time.

[noikeee]

This sounds familiar! @argento reminds you of anything?  

Won't be my next job, nope.

[argento]

Just now, noikeee said:

This sounds familiar! @argento reminds you of anything?  

Won't be my next job, nope.

My glory years!  Take it!

[noikeee]

European football - 2020/2021

To keep up with what's going on at the top of world football in Europe.

 

UEFA Champions League

It's an English-dominated Champions League edition, but with no Man Utd in the later rounds, the winners of the last 2 competitions falling at the hands of eventual champions Chelsea in the quarter-final. Atlético would reach the final again yet fail to re-win the competition, losing on penalty kicks to the London club, now managed by Frenchman Bruno Génésio, who previously made his name managing Lyon.

The dream team is dominated by a very familiar list of Chelsea players, although there's a certain Marco Verratti in there - he has moved this season from PSG for 82M€. The competition's top scorer, Mauro Icardi of Real Madrid, doesn't make the dream team.

 

Spain

Messi (most POM awards, best ratings) and Ronaldo (2nd best scorer, 23 goals) still remain hugely influential as Barça retakes the league from Real, with a large 9 points gap, under Jürgen Klopp's command. Atlético might be killing it in the CL in recent years but are yet to win another league since the 2013/14 season.

 

England

An extremely competitive league has seen a number of different winners in recent seasons, with Man Utd champions in 17/18, Tottenham in 18/19, and Man City in 19/20. Now it's Liverpool's turn! Carlo Ancelotti takes them to glory whilst a veteran Edinson Cavani scores 19 goals to help them to the title, in another superb tight title race, with just 6 points covering the top 5.

Italy

It's an historical season as Napoli finally ends Juventus' reign of domination, winning the league by a single point. Spanish manager Marcelino is the hero, whilst the team is spearheaded by striker Jonathan Calleri (league top scorer), helped by an inspired duo of Marek Hamsik and Lorenzo Insigne, joint most assists in the league.

Germany

Expecting Bayern domination? Think again! Leverkusen has stopped being Neverkusen after they won the 17/18 title, and have now regained it back in 20/21 - it's worth mentioning that RB Leipzig have also been German champions in recent times (18/19). Veteran Portuguese manager Jorge Jesus is the mastermind whilst 20 year old Italian striker Pietro Pellegri fired 25 goals for them.

France

A 3-year intermission by Monaco is done as PSG regain their 2nd consecutive title - but this league has very much emerged as a 2-horse race, far into the distance compared to anyone else. Luis Enrique is PSG manager as Neymar has an understated season, Kylian Mbappé emerging as a bigger star for now. But above Mbappé and Neymar, Ballon d'Or Thomas Lemar terrorises the league on a class of his own with a freakish 22 assists.

Portugal

It's the rarest of situations as the league goes into a playoff to decide the title! Benfica beat Porto 2-1 to deny them a title that's now long escaped them - after an extraordinarily tight season where Sporting also came very close. 20 year old Brazilian striker Lincoln is the league's biggest star with 21 goals scored for Benfica.
 

[Rikulec]

I think it's the first save I've seen where Liverpool are actually doing well!

[BoxToBox]

8 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

I think it's the first save I've seen where Liverpool are actually doing well!

Must be a horrible bug.

[Rikulec]

1 minute ago, BoxToBox said:

Must be a horrible bug.

Yeah, especially when you compare it to what happened on your save.

[noikeee]

Perm, Russia - 28th of June, 2021

 

New club time! I decided I had done enough work with Naestved, and with serious interest in me from a few clubs, I took one offer to escape the cold weather and long winter breaks of Denmark. So I moved to Russia next to the Ural Mountains. The weather must be better here, right?

Russia is again a bit of a weird destination for me, as it's not a country I sympathise much with, I've only managed there once for a few months in my now long-gone FM11 career (with Krylya Sovetov). This time, I was invited to a highly surprising interview with CSKA Moscow, but decided that would've been an unrealistic too big jump, and signed immediately for another club instead. That would be, FC Amkar Perm.

Who the hell are Amkar, you might be asking? Well, contrary to my previous employers Panserraikos and Naestved, there's not much of a long history here, the club having been founded in 1994. However, an impressive climb through the leagues got them up to the Premier League in 2004 and they've stayed there since. Typically a bottom half club, their highest point was a 4th place in 2008. This qualified them for the Europa League in which they got immediately knocked out by Fulham - and are yet to return to European competitions again.

They play in the Zvezda Stadium, with a capacity for 16873 people, and the somewhat unusual novelty of a synthetic pitch.

 

 

Things might be a bit off as I've only now activated the Russian Leagues, below the surface Amkar has been finishing between 9th place (2 years ago) and 13th place (last year). Pretty stable:

 

The finances are..... spectacular!! I'm pretty much yet to invest a single transfer fee in any player in my career, and now I suddenly have 12M€ to play with as transfer budget!!!

 

We play in a AC Milan/Flamengo style red-and-black vertical stripes. I like that:

[noikeee]

Squad overview

The lads I will be managing:

This squad strikes me as a little unbalanced, but even more striking is the sheer quality of our bigger stars, clearly a big step up from what I was working with at Naestved. That was the first big impression.

Goalkeepers

Two good keepers, although with some unbalanced skills - Chernyshov is average on one-on-ones (big problem) and has high eccentricity, whilst Murashov can't jump at all.

Fullbacks/wingbacks

Two great attacking rightbacks but only one average leftback. Might be worth flipping over my tactics right-to-left as I've been using a more attacking leftback.

Centrebacks / sweepers

Galimov is an absolutely superb prospect! Zaitsev looks like a quality player to pair him up, so the 2 CBs seem sorted, however we're badly lacking backups here - Sánchez might've been a good player in the past but his pace has gone completely now.

Midfielders / defensive midfielders / attacking midfielders

Problem area. Whilst Shavaev is one of the squad's best players, if not quite ideal for my Carrilero role, certainly able to do a good job in it, there's just far too little depth with only 3 players - a major issue when in one of my tactics I use 4 central midfielders... Moreover Ogude's contract is about to run out, I need to sort that out.

Wingers / wide forwards / wide midfielders

The opposite problem, there's too many players here and not even all that much quality. 6 wingers when I only use 1 winger in my tactic is far, far, far too much... Also having 2 Alexandr Zuev's who are both left-wingers is not confusing at all!

Strikers

Now on this area I'm quite happy. Gasilin is a proper star, probably the team's outright best player, a forward I could only dream of in my previous teams. Rafa also seems good whilst Bodul can be deployed deeper as AMC if necessary which is handy (although I hate the "shoots from distance" PPM).

Conclusions

• My recent successes lead me to think I need to stick with my previous tactics no matter what, and adapt the squad to my tactics instead of the other way around. This means any conclusions about the squad is in light of this.
• We have an excellent pair of strikers and excellent pair of CBs - clearly our strong points and great news for me
• Severely lacking depth in midfielder positions
• Also lacking backup CBs and another option for LB
• Far too many wingers and none of them look that great to me
• Restrictions to foreign players in Russia will be a huge factor, I can only have 6 foreigners playing at once

Goals

The board want a midtable position, that seems slightly optimistic (I could've done with a little less pressure and a nice "stay clear of relegation" goal), but it's still clearly achievable. 

On the long term what I want to do here, and why this job was attractive to me, is to try to destabilize the dominance of the big Moscow clubs and Zenit, and bring a little joy to another different region of Russia. I want to get Amkar up there to the European places in a season or two.

[noikeee]

Tactics

As I prepare to attack the new season and set up the club to my liking, here's the 3 tactics I will be training:

 

It's what I was using in Denmark, except I've mirrored them around left-to-right, as I feel this suits the new squad better. 

The version 1 of the 4-3-3 and the diamond I've showed you guys before, the only really new thing here is the new combo of roles I'm using upfront in the version 2 of the 4-3-3. I've found that in some matches this new version with a supporting IF instead of a Raumdeuter, and the F9 dropping deep in the wider position rather than in the central position, breaks down the opposition defence better. It's specially good against versions of the 4-2-3-1 that are only moderately attacking and don't risk everything.

[BoxToBox]

35 minutes ago, noikeee said:

whilst Murashov can't jump at all.

No worries there, doesn't effect goalkeeping, aerial reach covers that.

[After]

Klemp can be a quality attacking left back.

[noikeee]

6 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

No worries there, doesn't effect goalkeeping, aerial reach covers that.

I didn't know about that, thanks.

5 hours ago, After said:

Klemp can be a quality attacking left back.

I thought about it, in FM17 I'd have done it, but in FM18 I've noticed tackling really has become a key thing for a fullback, and Klemp doesn't have it. I've tried using wingers as fullbacks (in test/messing-around careers) with horrible consequences - lots of cards.

[noikeee]

What? Nooooooooooooooooo. You ****ing idiots. I was really looking forward to manage him, he looked an excellent striker.  

That is ****ing idiotS, as in plural, because it includes not just the chairman but myself as well. I've got the "continue game timeout" option on, which makes the game automatically press continue after a while, to speed the game up. Well, I missed the original news item on this, therefore I missed the "protest transfer" button, and only realised it when he was gone.

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2021/2022

 

Well that's what our transfer deals look like in the 3 weeks or so between when I took over and the first official match. And right after our star Gasilin got sold for peanuts over my head. Sigh.

 

I'm still very much in the middle of the process of remaking the squad, for now these are the 5 signings we've made:

This unpronounceable Turkmenistani international, which also has Russian nationality, might not be rated very highly by my staff, I suspect because of his crappy mentals, but seems well rounded enough to be a squad option for both LB and CB positions. Given the Russian nationality I feel he was well worth the 425K€ I paid.

I think it was the DOF who put in a bid for him, because I only noticed we were in for him when it was time to offer a contract. And you know what, he might just be our best signing. Really complete midfielder, quite young too. Could be a key man in our midfield for the next decade. Becomes my most expensive signing by miles in a 2,5M€ deal that can reach 3,2M€.

Highly promising but he's only here on loan to provide cover for a position where we badly needed it.

I'm not too sure about wasting a foreigner spot on him, but for 250K€ he seemed a very very good deal. Recommended by a Croatian scout I picked up.

I'm not 100% convinced on him but we were desperate for midfielders and he can clearly do a solid job as Mezzala or AP. Could still have a wee bit of room to improve, despite already being 24 years old.

Squad

It's a work in progress as I still want to sign at least one midfielder, and very definitely one striker more now that Gasilin is gone:

 

Fixtures

Not very pretty at the beginning as the team is starting from scratch to learn the tactics, but by the 4th friendly we were starting to look alright. Several players on trial were tested here.
 

[noikeee]

July 2021

 

(Transfers)

Time for 4 more deals after the league started:

Lucas of Chelsea fame. He can play pretty much anywhere from midfield onwards and I got him for 125K€. No-brainer.

Might've slightly overpaid at 1.6M€ but I'm pretty happy to have picked up another good Russian forward after all. Not so happy to have him pick up a hernia and immediately stop for 6 weeks. Sigh.

I'm way, way overpaying in wages but that's what you need to do to get pretty good Russian players. I'm intending to play him as halfback, probably (or as yet another option for Carrilero), but need to train up his tackling.

I picked him up almost blind as we hadn't scouted him enough, but I remembered he was good from my time at Denmark where I came across him and tried to loan him. But honestly I'm not so sure it was a good call to get him now. He's okay but probably not good enough for one of the squad's highest wages and for a foreign spot.

 

 

 

Uh-oh, this has been a dire beginning, and we haven't even faced any really good side yet. In my defence, the lads are playing as if they don't know each other (because they don't, yet), and we've had plenty of chances in these matches, but just aren't finishing them. I expect things to improve as the team gels.

 

 

[andychar]

Great leap that. Russian league could lead to some very good opportunities and a half decent team as well. Should be a good season. Minus the start obviously

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, andychar said:

Great leap that. Russian league could lead to some very good opportunities and a half decent team as well. Should be a good season. Minus the start obviously

What we're really doing here is luring our opponents into a false sense of security. We lose a few matches, they start thinking we're crap, then bam! Hit them with vodka-powered surprise attacks.

[john1]

Good signings but shame about the start of the season!