Dexter_Morgan Posted April 22, 2018 Author Share Posted April 22, 2018 ASI Lysis November - January 2015/16 Promotion is certainly in our hands now and I get the feeling that our next game at AEK will end up being the title decider as neither of us are giving much away. Personally I feel it's a year too early as we have a young squad and my aim was to look at improving the midfield this summer as I know from the previous save the ones we have aren't up to top flight level, now i'll probably have to look at improving the defence yet again too, nothing as drastic as last year but probaby 2 will be needed. 4 hours ago, ToMexico!! said: Great start. Away to AEK could be the crucial fixture! Cheers and it is a crucial one now, whoever wins this will probably win the title, at this stage I think with 7 left to play one of us would have to drop points in at least 4 games to be caught and I just don't see either us or AEK dropping points in any game after this upcoming one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 Aek Larnaka relegate?!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 ASI Lysis February - March 2015/16 We couldn't win the title but very happy with the season and obviously getting promoted so comfortably. One of the reasons that we got up at the first attempt I feel is that we haven't relied solely on Pittaras' goals this time around with another 3 players hitting double figures and we're going to need that again if we're to stay up. Knowing just how tough the jump is something that's playing on my mind in terms of how many new faces do I bring in, the midfield certainly needs a revamp but ideally i'll not be wanting to have a summer as busy as last year. I'm happy enough to have a year struggling if it means giving this bunch a chance to grow, there's some decent young players at the club that are already in the first team and i'd rather try and let them grow in to the division rather than sign a lot just to stay up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 9 hours ago, Sheriff7 said: Aek Larnaka relegate?!! Yes, they were doing alright on the previous attempt so it was a shock they went in to the B division but clearly they were too good for this division and rightly went up with us Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 ASI Lysis Pre Season 2016/17 I swear my board are on a wind up How can they go from only expecting a mid table spot in division B last year to a European spot in our first season the top flight is beyond me As last time we have to move out while we have a conversion to all seater which puts us in more debt but it can't be avoided so i'll have to deal with it Cyprus is rising and that's mostly down to APOEL who made the Europa quarter last year. Currently valued at £19M they are well ahead of the rest of the country so toppling them especially from a personal point of view with the signing of players so limited will be tough. I would have liked another CB but midfield is the priority this year as i'd rather give the current defence a chance and see how they perform. There's money in the kitty if I feel changes are needed but after last summers big overhaul I didn't want to have another summer like that as it was more than i'd have liked to have done but was necessary at that time. From a personal point of view all i'm looking to accomplish this year is survival, I think Europe is a ridiculous expectation and treating it as such. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 This is great news, it took years to even get a youth recruitment upgrade last time and only ever managed 1 coaching improvement so i've already got an improvement in this regard this time around. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 No pressure Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 3 hours ago, deltablue said: No pressure I'm still laughing at it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 I'm really following this save, because I'm finding it hard to improve my squad for European competitions while trying to develop Cypriots at the same time. So I have gone for the lazy approach and buy foreign talent and just make sure I have 10 Cypriots to meet the league requirement. I feel like the quality of intakes makes things hard, but it seems that you are focusing more on a long term thing, so this should be fun. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 ASI Lysis August - October 2016/17 A little better than expected but with only 7 points between 9th and 2nd at this stage it's hard to really say where we are compared to the rest of the division as we can lose as easily to a side expected to struggle as we can against some of the bigger sides Our biggest problem seems yet again keeping people fit, it's been a big problem in both attempts especially in the top flight, the majority are in game too so I can't point it out at training methods, also we pick up a lot more red cards in this division. I'd be interested to know if others that played in Cyprus faced this problem or if a few years down the line when the dirtier players/stricter refs retire if this will be a lot less common. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 10 hours ago, kidthekid said: I'm really following this save, because I'm finding it hard to improve my squad for European competitions while trying to develop Cypriots at the same time. So I have gone for the lazy approach and buy foreign talent and just make sure I have 10 Cypriots to meet the league requirement. I feel like the quality of intakes makes things hard, but it seems that you are focusing more on a long term thing, so this should be fun. I'm miles away from having good facilities to improve the home grown element though the 2 recent upgrades will hopefully make a dent in that The rest of the division are doing exactly what you do and buying foreign to bolster the squad. The way i'm having to work is obviously a lot harder to achieve long term as APOEL are such a force now with them being worth 4 times more than the 2nd place club in terms of finances. The only way I can maintain any sort of a challenge is to send scouts all over Europe to find Cypriot players only with the exception of Greece where I have 2 scouts with one for Greeks and one for Cypriots. I have changed my approach slightly this time in that I didn't spend money and rely on freebies all the time but the league doing well in the rankings means we're not as deep in the red as last time so I feel I can afford to do that from time to time but obviously I do want to spend as little as possible. A few of the clubs that have done well in Europe have been upgrading facilities as they go too which is good for the division long term. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Great home form, if you can turn some of those away losses into draws that will help no end with the league being so tight. What about signing players with Cypriot as second nationality? whats the time frame for nationalising them? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 1 hour ago, ToMexico!! said: Great home form, if you can turn some of those away losses into draws that will help no end with the league being so tight. What about signing players with Cypriot as second nationality? whats the time frame for nationalising them? Cheers, we're so short on players good enough for this level outside the starting XI that any points in certain games is a bonus We're not going down which is the main thing but once I get the report up you'll see it's still tight going in to the last 7/8 weeks before the split that anyone who gets a run of 4 wins will have a great chance of making the top half. It's funny you should mention about the 2nd nationality as there's a couple that's popped up and i've decided unless they come from my youth system they have to be born in Cyprus otherwise it's taking away the challenge a little Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 ASI Lysis November - December 2016/17 Still tight as ever in there so anyone from 3rd to 7th could miss out as I think those below us have too much to do now to catch up and in all honesty our consistency is so unpredictable thanks to injuries that i'm almost resigned to it being us that will miss out. I am encouraged by a lot of our performances this season though, but we seem to run out of legs towards the end of games, we only have 1 fitness coach which is something I would like to improve on but obviously we're a newly promoted club and low on cash so it's something that can't be helped at this stage with only 6 coaches allowed and the request to add rejected. Hopefully in the summer that will improve though and something as simple as that may even help us prevent a few of these injuries. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 ASI Lysis January - February 2016/17 The split happened for the last game of February so i'm putting the table before the split in first Table at end of Feb We snuck in to the top half of the table by virtue of the 2 teams immediately below playing each other on the final game before the split which meant before even going in to the game we knew that we wouldn't finish lower than 6th. I know I keep saying this but these injuries are really doing us over, without them I think we'd be a comfortable 3rd with the way we're playing most games but just lacking a little from time to time when it's more than 2 out. Where we finish is anybody's guess as it seems nobody can get a run together apart from the top 2 and as we are likely to play APOEL in the cup semi it's probably not through that route we can aim for either, though their European run has extended a further round so maybe that could do do us a favour in terms of the cup not being their priority. I broke the club's transfer record (£90k) to bring this lad in but let his club loan him straight back until the end of the year, we beat a few clubs interested in him to his signature so quite pleased with that and i've got a couple more I may look at a little closer as we've got £100k to play with. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Very good mate, Apoel already secure CL spot,they are unstoppable.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 13 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said: Very good mate, Apoel already secure CL spot,they are unstoppable.. Cheers, glad if nothing else to be in the top half with the expectations we had APOEL have a really strong side, they can go out and sign who they want with the rep and finances they have through their European performances, we've agreed to sign a player called Kostakis Artymatas (a real player not regen) who is a DM from them, he's nowhere near their starting XI but would be our best player, hopefully we can keep doing things like that for a while until we start producing our own along with nabbing good youngsters when possible Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 36 minutes ago, Dexter_Morgan said: Cheers, glad if nothing else to be in the top half with the expectations we had APOEL have a really strong side, they can go out and sign who they want with the rep and finances they have through their European performances, we've agreed to sign a player called Kostakis Artymatas (a real player not regen) who is a DM from them, he's nowhere near their starting XI but would be our best player, hopefully we can keep doing things like that for a while until we start producing our own along with nabbing good youngsters when possible Was he in past in greek side Kerkyra?Because there is an international Cypriot with this name.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 21 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said: Was he in past in greek side Kerkyra?Because there is an international Cypriot with this name.... It's the same one Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 ASI Lysis March - May 2016/17 Obviously a tough period for us after the split as the quality every week is a lot better so I wasn't expecting that much and even then we weren't that far off a Europa spot so I have to count the season a success considering it was our first season and a few things going on during it that was beyond our control. With new faces already sorted for next season I am looking forward to it already and if we can get a keeper in too i'll be confident of gaining an extra place or 2 in the table Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 ASI Lysis Pre Season 2017/18 Tipped to finish in last seasons final position which is probably about right. Doesn't gain us any extra European spots but any improvements is good, mostly down to APOEL again though in all fairness. Another YR upgrade was agreed when I threatened not to renew I'm that passionate about doing this my way i'd happily take chances like this and if I get the sack i'll simply start again with another club in the country even if it means going back to the 3rd division as i'm sure at this stage I can have my pick of jobs outside the top 6. I tried for the training facilities too but the board refused, as long as they continue to meet me with the youth side of it for now I can accept not having the first team upgrades. This ended up being a bigger window than I planned but I looked at how we did last year with injuries ect and just how weak the depth in the squad was and added on a lot were leaving so it felt it was needed this year. Happy with the quality we've got and feel we won't be as weakened this time around when the inevitable happens, a RB and another CB are needed but we'll have to hang on for those as the wage budget is stretched so it will have to wait for now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 27, 2018 Author Share Posted April 27, 2018 ASI Lysis August - October 2017/18 I'm happy with the start in terms of performances but not the results, we should have 4 more points on the board at least with us twice throwing a 2-0 lead away and we need to try and stop mistakes like that if we're going to make the step in to Europe but it does show we are hard to beat and heading in the right direction. Another thing I need to try and tweak is our goal scoring, it isn't terrible but still the worst in the top 6 so we do need to look at it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 27, 2018 Author Share Posted April 27, 2018 ASI Lysis November - December 2017/18 The last few results have been a bit disappointing but on the whole I felt that section of the season was much better than the first as we started to look more clinical and not throwing leads away. Beating APOEL in a meaningful match (not when we're 4-0 down already in a cup tie ) shows a sign of improvement also but with all 5 of the Cypriot participants in Europe still in their respective competitions there's a danger of us being miles behind financially which could lead to more problems on one hand but a possible extra spot on the other so in the long term it's probably for the best to suck it up and hope they continue to do well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Nice progress. Thanasis looks amazing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 ASI Lysis January - February 2017/18 A good 2 months sees us get to the split in 4th, i'm happy with that and also the 12 point gain compared to this stage last year is quite a huge jump so it does show we are improving. A look back shows this is because we've tightened up conceding 13 less than the same stage last year, goalscoring is almost identical though with only 2 more at the same stage but this could be partly down to me giving Anthony Georgiou a fair amount of playing time this season after bringing him from Spurs though Giorgos Konstantinou is away on loan and I think he's going to be the one that gives Kyprianou the main challenge for the strikers role if he continues progressing the way he has. With the step up in quality we face for these final 10 games it's safe to say i'll be happy with 5th place, I don't think we have the quality to do much better quite yet so it'd be a good step up consider how limited we are with who we can bring in, or more to the point the downside of the league improving in coefficients is that players costs are rising so even a good player from the bottom half of the table would blow most of our £600k budget so I don't think our progression is going to be quick at all from this stage in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 4 hours ago, kidthekid said: Nice progress. Thanasis looks amazing Cheers, not expecting to have him after this season in all honesty but he doesn't have a release clause so at least I have control over how much he does go for. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 The run i'm on is a joke Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 ASI Lysis March - May 2017/18 I should be angry about those last few months but i'm finding it funny, if there's ever been a case of don't turn FM off it was last night when I got to the split because i've been well and truly FM'd here That said it has given me a lot to think about, we've got a lot of players around the 24/25 year old mark now and it's obvious they won't improve any more so i've been busy going through reports and deciding positions where I feel that players won't improve and throw bids in so my transfers are done already and even though a few aren't quite as good as those that they will replace at this moment i'm just going to throw them straight in and see where it takes us as I feel the best way to go forward looks like taking a risk and maybe taking a few steps back in the short term, it's risky but I can't entirely blame everything that went wrong after the switch on me simply turning the game off With my direction decided for next year i'm not really sure what to expect or where I should be aiming for, another top 6 I feel would be excellent and that's what i'm hoping for but these changes could go either way so i've got to be careful with my expectations but what I do know is i've beaten clubs above me to these signings, i'm assuming they didn't have the kitty to challenge us for these players when I bid as they were certainly interested in all 5 and I did expect when bidding to have at least a few have other bids come in so it seems deciding and bidding early is what has swung it for us. I half wasn't expecting an offer after that mess but I got one somehow so I wasted no time in getting whatever improvements I could before I signed and got these agreed so at least off the pitch we are making progress now and it should continue to make a difference as the last lot led to us finally bothering to give contracts to players from the youth intake Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Shocking end to the season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Wow what a contrasting few months there, absolutely flying to sinking like a stone. Good luck for the new season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Wow, that's quite a stinker of a season finish. Breaking into europe is going to be quite tough, it seems. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Still it was a very good season mate.. I'm pretty sure they '' relaxed '' too much when you caught boards expectations... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 tough end to the season, but the signs of eventually success are there Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 18 hours ago, deltablue said: Shocking end to the season! That's being kind 17 hours ago, ToMexico!! said: Wow what a contrasting few months there, absolutely flying to sinking like a stone. Good luck for the new season. I still can't get over it The squad last year was thin but it was improved on the previous season so i'm still convinced i've been FM'd in part at least 17 hours ago, rodesire said: Wow, that's quite a stinker of a season finish. Breaking into europe is going to be quite tough, it seems. I've always been expecting it to be tough to get in to Europe so finishing 6th is still a good place in my mind but when all 5 get out of their European groups 4 make the quarters and 1 of those 4 ended up in a semi (though that could be argued as default as AEL and Omonia played in the Europa quarter) then it's always going to be tough to break those 5 with the approach I have taken. What has made things slightly easier is this news though which means unless a side outside the top 6 wins the cup just making the top of of the split will give us European football now which is a great lifeline as I was starting to get a bit of stick for towards the end of the season 16 hours ago, Sheriff7 said: Still it was a very good season mate.. I'm pretty sure they '' relaxed '' too much when you caught boards expectations... I'm not sure if it was them relaxing, I am more of the opinion that a lot of players have hit their peak now and it isn't quite good enough to challenge the top 5. I'm quite happy with that though as two 6th places in my first 2 seasons in the top flight is good going in my mind, it was always always going to be a case of improving bit by bit once I get in this division because we don't have the advantage of being able to snatch players from Africa/ S. America like the others do. In fact my whole signing players is tough because even younger players I can sign the facilities aren't yet good enough for me to spend money on 16 year olds that may be good enough in a couple years because we'd just destroy any chance of them improving if they couldn't get loans and play elsewhere so it restricts my signings as anything below a player good enough to play at Division B level will more than likely never get the training needed to make my first team later on and it's probably the most frustrating part as in recent months kids from APOEL and the like have started to become realistic signings whereas the best we could get from those clubs before were their cast offs that weren't getting playing time. 7 hours ago, kidthekid said: tough end to the season, but the signs of eventually success are there Thanks mate, i'm optimistic we're heading in the right direction especially with the 5 i've brought in and an extra season for some of the players I brought in last year will hopefully see another improvement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 3 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said: I've always been expecting it to be tough to get in to Europe so finishing 6th is still a good place in my mind but when all 5 get out of their European groups 4 make the quarters and 1 of those 4 ended up in a semi (though that could be argued as default as AEL and Omonia played in the Europa quarter) then it's always going to be tough to break those 5 with the approach I have taken. What has made things slightly easier is this news though which means unless a side outside the top 6 wins the cup just making the top of of the split will give us European football now which is a great lifeline as I was starting to get a bit of stick for towards the end of the season Cyprus above France in coefficients? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 1 hour ago, rodesire said: Cyprus above France in coefficients? apart from PSG and Monaco French sides have been poor in Europe, only Monaco have made a semi final of either competition in those 4 years, quite often the others haven't got out of their groups EDIT: I just want to add the division isn't actually higher than France in the competition standings, it's that Cypriot clubs have been out performing them in Europe so gained the extra places, here's the comp rankings for this year Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 ASI Lysis Pre Season 2018/19 5th/6th is probably about right though I have taken a risk with one of those going out as you will see later. This is massive and not just for us either because it's a collective deal. It might not sound a lot and isn't compared to the bigger nations in mainland Europe but this a £3.2M increase on the previous 2 seasons and will really help those that don't play in Europe become more competitive instead of making next to nothing or even losses each year, for the long term success this extra £3M will mean a lot to those hoping to push in to the top half. Giorgos Konstantinou is the only one that isn't expected to start most weeks, I did toy with letting AEK keep him on loan for a year as he played 28 games for them but in the end with 2 CB's going I decided he'd be useful to keep here. Panikos Sotiriou is probably on a par with Michalis Dimitriou on the right currently but his stock at Pafos who were relegated must have been high with a few Greek sides and APOEL in the hunt for him, hopefully long term he'll develop a lot more with us. Loukas Paraskeva is another we raided from Pafos, with 12 U21 caps even at that club he is obviously doing something right and I felt it was worth taking the punt on him especially as our defence is something that needed sorting. Hockness I tried to get last summer but we couldn't agree a deal for him as I wanted to spend about £100k less than they wanted as he was in the last year of his contract, I didn't forget him and got this deal done as soon as I could approach him. Kostas Christou is a huge upgrade at RB, i'm surprised he hasn't had a call up to the national side yet looking at him and who is currently there but hopefully he'll push on a level and make it sooner rather than later. Of the outgoings it may be a surprise that I allowed Kyprianou leave, he has been our main striker for a few years and letting him go to a rival for the European spots might not seem the best move but in all honesty I don't think he's done enough, Giorgos Konstantinou has had 18 months out on loan now and at 18 has been doing much better than him so I made the decision to let Kyprianou leave once that offer came in (I snuck a 25% of sell on clause in there too for insurance) as he was only ever going to play 2nd fiddle to Konstantinou anyway Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 2, 2018 Author Share Posted May 2, 2018 ASI Lysis August - October 2018/19 It's been a good start so far but i've seen it before so not getting carried away at this stage Goals for and against have improved a fair bit so far and the way we are playing is generally very good. I'm trying to bed in Savvas Nikolaou to be first choice keeper but he went and got a long term injury after his 2nd game and is only just returning to fitness so that's put a dent in that for the short term but Christos Neofytou is a very good deputy for this level so it hasn't really affected us. Getting Giorgos Konstantinou in has been a much simpler task, despite his young age he's done well in his 6 games so far and whilst i'll probably not risk him against APOEL and Apollon i've been more than happy to rotate the other 2 CB's so he gets plenty of games alongside either. It's easy to see why AEK had him start 28 games last year while so young and why there was so much interest in him. Giorgos Konstantinou could have been a risk as Kyprianpou is an international regular and letting him go to give a kid a chance could have backfired but his 8 in 6 record after starting the season with an injury that ruled him out for a few games has been impressive, hopefully he can keep that up and we'll have a great chance of finishing in the top 6 which remains my sole aim as we bed in this younger side. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 in my experience the most popular names are Dimitrou, Georgiou, Markou and Ioannau. It's cost me games because I subbed the wrong player in an unfamiliar position. Keep up the good work though Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 2, 2018 Author Share Posted May 2, 2018 ASI Lysis November - May 2018/19 Split Table Final Table Sorry for the long post, changed my internet provider today and it takes up to 24 hours to work properly apparently so I just continued Again we were brilliant before the split but struggled after, but with the way it seems one of the top 6 always win the cup being in the top 6 pretty much means Europe. In fairness I do expect a drop in results once we get to the split as the competition is a lot harder with the other teams having the monopoly of getting in to Europe which obviously means better standard of players for them, especially with APOEL and Apollon with their CL money and us being reliant on home grown players it's always going to be that little bit tougher for us but as much as the split makes it tougher for us a jump of 2 places is good progress and hopefully in a year or 2 we'll make that next little step as we do have a fair few good youngsters for this level that will only improve. This lad is without a doubt the best kid we've brought through so far and it's nice to see these gradual upgrades to the facilities starting to pay off and with another upgrade over the next few months hopefully we'll keep getting a few good enough to eventually make the first team 13 hours ago, kidthekid said: in my experience the most popular names are Dimitrou, Georgiou, Markou and Ioannau. It's cost me games because I subbed the wrong player in an unfamiliar position. Keep up the good work though I have 2 CB/LB's called Ioannou and one is miles better than the other so I have to double check which one is which before every game I have toyed with the nickname idea but for me it's something that doesn't feel right for me and i'll probably confuse myself even more Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 4 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said: I have 2 CB/LB's called Ioannou and one is miles better than the other so I have to double check which one is which before every game I have toyed with the nickname idea but for me it's something that doesn't feel right for me and i'll probably confuse myself even more Excellent work, Dexter. Hope you enjoy your euro adventure next season Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 I wanted to do a separate post on the way Cypriot football is improving as the years go on as what's happening is really unexpected especially as these last few years of improvements has been down to the AI and nothing to do with my form in Europe as obviously i've not played in any competition yet. We're at a stage where we have 4 teams in the CL now This is how the Cypriot clubs fared last year which will explain why this is happening Champions League Europa League This is why i've had a struggle breaking in to the European spots as all 5 have had at least 3 good seasons in Europe (I count good as at least getting out of the group) and we're trying to play catch up with mostly home grown players and it isn't easy, APOEL have 2 players with values around the £10M mark for example and a fair few over £5M, Apollon have a fair few around the £5M mark and when put in that kind of context it does explain why when we get to the split we struggle a bit (even though i'm convinced in 2017/18 a part of our form was due to being FM'd still ) As you can see Anorthosi gave Sampdoria a real scare in the Europa semi too which makes them the 2nd side to get that far. Obviously the Europa is slightly easier and we've had about 10 quarter finalists in that so far on top of the 2 semi finalists and that is definitely playing a big part as the quarters in the CL is the furthest anyone has got (4 times with 2 of them being this season) it's rare you see the AI doing this and making the mid-lower ranked nations and definitely so soon in as it took about 2025+ in my Iron Curtain saves to start seeing big switches of power in nations like this that I wasn't affecting apart from once I remember Czech Republic breaking in very quickly and having strong domestic and international sides and even then a lot of that was down to Sparta Prague for the first 3/4 years. What is happening now though is also really interesting as it's started to spread down to the national side In the world cup campaign in 2016/17 they managed 12 points which was pretty decent but not good enough to make Russia so to have 9 already is excellent and i'd not be surprised if it came down to the 2 Sweden games which have yet to be played to decide who joins Italy for 2020 so it's showing signs of improvement and a lot of these players are domestic based as below and it's a reasonably young side Under 21's Under 19's As you can see in the youth sides some of the players clubs are sides you wouldn't necessarily expect to pick up good youth from but it seems outside the top 6 i'm competing for players from the likes of Pathos, AEK, Doxa (surprisingly get a couple now and then), Paralimniou, Achnas and Aris being my main destinations to send scouts on youth intake day to try and beat the others to them. Obviously the rest of the top 5 produce some too but it's been hard to pick any of those up until this summer. I don't think (or certainly not for a while) these smaller clubs will produce world beaters but they've been important for me to stay competitive as we're only just starting to see the quality of our intakes improve the last 2 years and we still have plenty to do. It is my aim once we're in a better financial situation to add clauses on to any players from these types of clubs instead of just chucking an extra £50/100k at them so they can hopefully grow too as they deserve some benefits from what essentially i'm doing is taking their ability to grow but at the same time the top 5 would be doing it if I wasn't so it's not something I feel guilty about but do feel I should pay more once i'm able to and hopefully they'll reinvest in the facilities at some point as the top 5 have slowly been doing it. 10 hours ago, rodesire said: Excellent work, Dexter. Hope you enjoy your euro adventure next season Thanks It's been hard work getting to this stage but it's been worth the wait Knowing my luck i'll get a side from the big nations straight away and get a hammering Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 What the f@@k happened? How Cyprus is so high in Coefficients? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Woah, that is some meteoric rise by AI. Very very impressive work, not even sure what to compare to. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 58 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said: What the f@@k happened? How Cyprus is so high in Coefficients? 49 minutes ago, rodesire said: Woah, that is some meteoric rise by AI. Very very impressive work, not even sure what to compare to. It is a big rise and i'm as surprised as you two especially as i've had nothing to do with European football so I can't even take any credit for my side being the cause of it I've been thinking about this a little and i'm wondering if the lack of real players in the DB at the beginning has played any part in the regens being better to compensate for it? That's probably a bit far fetched and as I said some sides have been improving facilities too but for example I started with 5 real players and the rest weren't real players, I still have 3 in the squad (even though not starters for me anymore) from back when I started and I reckon they would walk into the starting XI of any of the bottom 6 so it's not beyond the realms of possibility it's happened at other clubs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 ASI Lysis Pre Season 2019/20 I'll be happy with top 4 again let alone a title challenge so god knows what the bookies are thinking, we can't even win the cup the others are that much stronger than us No first team signings this season, a CM was the target but any we wanted was out of our price range as for some reason the Greeks think it's fine to offer under £1M for my best players but want £3M+ for theirs so i'll be sticking with what I have. Parpas and Foitou are strange ones as they were unattached never having a club and the scout said they could be leading players so at worst i've added a few players to the youth sides on low wages with those 2, Foitou is getting tutored to get that determination up as it is something that would certainly have put me off if he was a year or 2 older but again it's a cheap punt but you never know and they immediately got called in to the U19 squad so there must be something there with them both. Booker is a little rough round the edges but hopefully a year on a B2B schedule before I try and loan him out will stand him in good sted as I think there's a decent player in there somewhere. The 2 full backs look like they could challenge our current 2 in a few years, i'm certainly hoping they can move up to be understudies next season, Nikalou has already got himself a loan move which hopefully lead him up to that. Europa League Qualifying Round 3 We were seeded for this round and Pacos de Ferreira were on paper the strongest side we could have played in this round after they won the Portuguese Cup but they finished 11th in the league last year so I felt this one could go either way but a strong away leg set us up to go through. Europa League Playoff We wasn't seeded in this round but the opposite happened to the previous round and we got the weakest side possible, even so they are a big size club in their home nation so I was still fearing the worst with the draw but I think having the home leg first helped us as we really needed something to hang on to and thankfully the players responded well to going a goal down in the first leg to give us a reasonable cushion which as you can see from the stats in the 2nd leg we definitely needed I'm not sure what to think about this draw, we're in the strongest league out of the sides in the group but these sides expect to be in Europe each year so i'd put us as the big underdogs in the group but I do fancy our chances of picking up a few wins so i've set a target of 6 points which I think is realistic enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Well done getting to the group stage, now just need to get points off the teams at home. With regards to unattached players, FM generates some unattached U17s for every activish league every season, I think. Some of them are ass, and some are stunning. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 5 minutes ago, rodesire said: Well done getting to the group stage, now just need to get points off the teams at home. With regards to unattached players, FM generates some unattached U17s for every activish league every season, I think. Some of them are ass, and some are stunning. Cheers delighted to get there Just packed in for the night but we lost the first game to Kiev 3-0 so not a great start, though I did expect them to be the strongest side anyway. The other 2 were always the ones that you hope are not quite strong as you in something like this but you never quite know Interesting to know about the unattached players, they may turn out to be rubbish but the reports suggested they could end up decent but if not i've lost nothing taking them on apart from a few quid in wages, thanks for that info Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 4, 2018 Author Share Posted May 4, 2018 ASI Lysis August - October 2019/20 This is where having a limited squad is showing a little as I don't think we've played well at least in the league games because i've had to rotate a lot, but in Europe we're a point better off than I was hoping (though I had a 6 point target I wasn't expecting it and was looking at a realist target ) so it balances itself out as Europe is my priority just to try and pick points up to help finances rather than expectation. Thankfully nobody else is running away at this stage because the usual top 6 games have seen a lot of points dropped by everyone making it more important to beat the others than usual which at least keeps it interesting and is giving other sides a chance to break in. I personally think we'll comfortably make the top half of the split but i'm hoping we can get a good points advantage over whoever is 5th and 6th to meet our board expectation of CL football but with Europe I see us dropping a few points around those fixtures because i'm going for whatever money possible now to keep the upgrades each season, hopefully this won't backfire as we'd probably be top at this stage if I made the league the priority and obviously the top 3 is a guaranteed £7M + tv money. A few little things off the pitch now and we have got upgrades on youth recruitment and coaching, it's been a while since I could do the coaching so that's very welcome and combined with the training facilities completed we're really starting to make progress in terms of the ability to bring better kids through, Another important development is this Better than a local takeover if it goes through so hoping for this but Omonoia are going through a consortium too so one of the deals are bound to fail Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 Very stable group in EL you can make it to next round.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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