RPM13 Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 After recently watching a lot of @AccessEuphoria's Building a Nation series recently, I decided that my desire to use the new scouting system is enough for me to step away from my FM17 save and play FM18 (again). Basically I'm going to build a nation (more specifically Croatia) with Hajduk Split. As with many leagues, I have never managed in Croatia before, nor have I ever seen anyone else do so, so this is uncharted territory for me. My goals for this save are as follows: Establish Hajduk as the best team in Croatia Challenge for the knockouts of European competitions Grow the league in both reputation and coefficients to challenge the big guns (England, Spain, etc.) Win the Champions League Make the Croatian top tier the best league in Europe. To achieve these goals, I will be doing a similar thing to the aforementioned Building a nation series and signing many regens to either play for us or to go to other teams in our division. I will also try to avoid signing top players from other teams in our division to allow those teams to also challenge in Europe. I have added the following leagues to allow for a large amount of regens to come through each year: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 The Club Hajduk Split are one of the largest clubs in Croatia and have finished in 3rd in the league the last 4 years. They play at the Poljud, the second largest stadium in the league, only behind Dinamo's stadium. This is the squad that I've inherited here at Hajduk. There are a few quality players and some who have significant potential. Overall it is a fairly young squad with no one over the age of 27 in the first team. I would say 'I think we can challenge for the title with this squad', but I really have no idea what kind of quality the other teams in the league have, so I'm coming into the league season not really knowing what to expect. Or at least that would be the case if there wasn't the whole season preview thing. This suggests to me that we should be challenging around the top of the table, however when I told the squad that I thought we could be at the top of the table at the end of the season, about a third of the squad got mad at me for having unrealistic expectations. Long story short, I still don't know what to expect going into the season so I'll just get into it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 Our European journey will begin at home against SK Brann, who are predicted to finish 3rd in Norway. This should be a close match-up with both of us being predicted to finish 3rd in our respective leagues. The Croatian league is bigger and better than the Norwegian league, though so hopefully that is a sign that we are the stronger side. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 Europa League We played very well in this first leg, absolutely dominating them in terms of chances created. We could have had a few more and held them to few chances, with them mostly shooting from range. After this first leg, I'm confident we can perform well in the second as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 Europa League The goal we conceded early in the second half made this rest of the game a nervy affair, but two late goals from us made it look far more comfortable than it actually was. Either way, we're through to the third qualifying round. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 Europa League We have been drawn against Slovenians, Olimpija for the third qualifying round. I'm not sure how the compare to us, but the Slovenian First League is quite a bit lower than us on the reputation standings, so hopefully that means we will have a good chance of moving on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 Europa League Wow. I did not expect this. I was expecting a fairly close game, but I was not expecting a 3-3 draw. Drawing the away leg puts the tie in our favour going into the home leg. All we need is a low scoring draw or a win and we're through to the playoff. I'm quite relieved that we got a very late equalizer, though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 Europa League Another Europa League game, another very late goal for us. Although it wasn't necessary for us to go through, it certainly did put the tie to bed and made it a much less nerve-wracking end to the game. Bring on the playoff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 Europa League We've been drawn against probably the worst team we could have been. And by that I mean that they should be far better than us. I'd be shocked if we can actually qualify for the group stages ahead of these guys. Maybe next year... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 Europa League ...Or maybe this year is our year. I honestly did not expect much from this match (if anything), but we actually performed well and were decent value for the win. I still can't quite believe that we beat one of the best teams in this round of the competition. I am disappointed that we gave away a penalty just after scoring though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 Europa League We're into the group stage!!! When we were drawn against Bilbao, I thought we had no chance of qualifying, but we gave a very good account of ourselves and actually won. It was far from emphatic and made for a terrifying end to the game, but we pulled through in the end. Now we just have to see who we'll be playing in the groups. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 great result against Bilbao. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted June 1, 2018 Author Share Posted June 1, 2018 Europa League It's definitely a tough group, especially with Arsenal in there, but I'm just happy to be here, so at this point, whatever happens happens. It would be nice to get at least 5 points, though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted June 10, 2018 Author Share Posted June 10, 2018 Mid-Season Break So far, this season has gone fairly well, even though it's taken me most of the season so far to actually settle on a tactic. Enough babbling though, let's get into the screenshots where you can actually see some results. League After the first two games, it wasn't looking very good, but after that our form picked up and we only lost 3 games after that, only drawing 3 too. This leaves the table looking like this: So it' s going very well. I expected to have difficulty getting past Dinamo and finishing above them in the league. So far, it's close but we are ahead. We're also 12 points clear to qualify for Europe, so that's looking pretty safe. Hopefully our league form will continue into the second half of the season. Cup We've been far from convincing so far in the cup with two of the games needing extra time. It's not even as if we've been playing massively rotated sides. We typically played a relatively full strength side with 4 or 5 players being rotated. So we can't even use that as an excuse. We have to do better it we're to win the cup. Europa League Considering we had a tough group, I'd say we did fairly well getting 7 points. We didn't get demolished in any of our games either, only losing by more than one goal once. This left the group looking like this: Even though we finished third in the group, I'm very happy with the performance this year. Getting 7 points was more than I has expected us to get and should help us with improving the nation's European coefficient. In addition to us, Dinamo and Rijeka also finished 3rd on their Europa League groups, so the coefficient could get a nice boost. Squad So far, Fran Tudor has been the best player on the team. I wasn't expecting this to be the cans, but since I changed tactics the last time, he has played a lot and performed well, as you can see from his recent form. Our two center backs have also done very well and are both some of the top performers in the team. The have contributed massively to us having the second best defense in the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 Youth Intake Overall, it looks like quite a good youth intake. A few of the players look like they could become future first-teamers, especially Jozo and Josip at the top of the list. He does look like a very good striker, but unfortunately I don't use a more creative striker, so he may be retrained to be a shadow striker. I'm a big fan of his physicals. My only complaint with him is that he is only 5 foot 10, which is quite short for a goalkeeper. Other than that, he doesn't have any glaring weaknesses and his reflexes are exceptional. Since having signed him up on an actual contract, his potential has increased to 5 stars. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Excellent start.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted June 25, 2018 Author Share Posted June 25, 2018 End of 2017/2018 Season As good as we were in the first half of the season, we were better at the end. Once we started with a settled tactic, the results improved quite a bit. League Aside from a shaky start and a shaky end to this period, we were excellent and only conceded more than one goal once. Our 11 game unbeaten run saw us get a solid lead in the league, but Lokomotiva were very good as well. We were only 2 points above them heading into the last game, but luckily they were playing Dinamo and lost 5-2, meaning that we won the league! As you can see, us and Lokomotiva really pulled away at the top of the table with a 7 point gap to 3rd and a further 10 point gap to 4th. In addition to this, Fran Tudor, despite only starting to play at right midfield about halfway through the season, finished as the top assister and was tied for the most player of the match awards. He only failed to have the highest average rating because he did not have enough appearances. Cup Wow. First of all, these were three derby matches (our matches against the rest of the top 5 of the league are all derby matches) and we did incredibly well against Rijeka. The final was just a rollercoaster of emotions. We took the lead early on and everything was going exceptionally. Then, they scored 2 to take the lead and I gave the team greater attacking freedom. Just when I thought we had lost the match, Caktas scored and we were going to extra time, or so I thought. Turns out it goes straight to pens. Luckily, we kept our heads and won the penalty shootout 4-3. What a match. Squad As you can see, Tudor was the best player on the team, tying for the most assists in far less games that Said. Caktas was our top scorer with 21 goals in 36 starts and Said was our only player with over 10 goals and assists. Awards and Season Review I'm surprised that he actually won player of the year considering how many games he played, but he absolutely deserved it with how well he performed when he did play. I'm not surprised that I won this because we did win the league, but I'm surprised by the margin of victory with me getting nearly double the points of the second place finisher. Overall, this season went very well and I am hoping to build on the success that we had this year. My best players however, are asking for new contracts worth 4-5 times what they are currently on! I can give this to a few of them, but not all, so I may be losing a few of my best players if they kick up a fuss. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted June 25, 2018 Author Share Posted June 25, 2018 And it begins Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 Everything's looking great, especially the additional Champions League spot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 New Signings We signed 2 players that came in this window, but there are many more transfers that are arranged, but are only coming in in the next few years. All of these future transfers are for newgens. He's coming in to be the future of the club at left inside forward. He should be a good addition to the team as he can also play at shadow striker. He is a very good all-round forward and should be great for the false nine role in the system I play. He is also fairly young and should be in the team for years to come. I got a new laptop (which works brilliantly by the way), but I can't figure out how to get the larger screenshots, so I guess I'll have to stick with the smaller ones for now at least. edit: I also can't seem to get rid of this last screenshot, so you can just ignore it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 5, 2018 Author Share Posted July 5, 2018 This is looking good, Dinamo are still favourites, but we're close and predicted to finish second so I'm quite happy. I think we'll be good enough to beat them, hopefully I'm right in saying that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 Champions League The most disappointing part of this match was them scoring with their first shot on target of the match. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 Champions League This was a truly excellent performance and we thoroughly deserved the win. Somehow they got more possession than us, but that's not a big deal. This should be a good tie. The Danish champions will give us a challenge, but I think we're capable of beating them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 Champions League We weren't bad, but we'll have to be better in the home leg if we really want to go through. They were the better team until they had a man sent off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 New Signing This one isn't overly exciting, but he's a new signing nonetheless, plus he's the first (of many) newgen to actually join the club. He had better potential according to my scouts, but he only cost $10k, rising to a potential $50k, so it's still looking like a good buy. He'll probably go out on loan this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 Champions League What a performance! We played superbly as a whole and Ahmed Said was particularly impressive getting another Champions League hat trick. He's now the top scorer on the competition with 7 goals in 4 games and he has the top average rating, netting an 8.75 rating! He has been absolutely outstanding in the competition. We now move on to the Champions Playoff where we will face the Norwegian champions, Rosenborg. We were the seeded side in this round, having taken Kobenhavn's large coefficient. Hopefully we can win and go to the Champions League group stage, but even if we don't we'll go to the Europa League groups which would still be ok. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Champions League This was a great performance and we really deserved to win by more. We had 3 clear cut chances and 4 half chances, but a win is a win. Now, all we have to do is get another performance like this and we'll be through to the group stage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Champions League We weren't as good in this leg as we were in the first, but I don't think we deserved to lose. We still created many decent chances, but just couldn't finish them off. We were very unlucky to lose the tie and to go out on away goals is particularly painful, but I guess we'll just have to wait another year for the Champions League. For now, we're off to the Europa League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Europa League Draw Here we go again. This is one of the toughest groups we could have been drawn into. The Portuguese runners up are definitely going to be our toughest challenge in this group. I don't think we'll be able to qualify from the group and the goal is to finish third and equal last year's performance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Europa League When Mrkic scored the penalty in the 88th minute, I thought that we had gotten a deserved draw from the match, but then first thing I knew, the ball was in the back of our net again. We were very unlucky to lose. We created so many good chances, but just couldn't finish them. In the end, their quality was evident as they were just more clinical than us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 Europa League Benfica will have a long trip back to Portugal after a performance like that. We were absolutely phenomenal, but I do think we were a bit lucky to win by such a large margin. Tudor was magnificent, until he got sent off for a bad challenge only a few minutes after completing his hat trick. If we can keep playing like this, I could see us qualifying out of the group. This is how it looks after two rounds of fixtures: Not too bad, we also have a decent chance of having the tiebreaker over Benfica now since the first tiebreaker is results between teams. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 Europa League What a rollercoaster of emotions. First, we took the lead through an Ahmed Said screamer, then before I knew it, we were 5-1 down. Needless to say, things didn't go well at halftime and that seemed to help. The message sunk in at the 69th minute mark and less than 5 minutes later, we were back into the game and looking like making an incredible comeback, but that was all we had in the tank and the game finished 5-4. We're now bottom of the group but it's very tight. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 9, 2018 Author Share Posted July 9, 2018 Europa League I love getting playback. It wasn't looking good at all when we conceded in the fifth minute, but we came back and actually won the freaking game! Incredible scenes in Croatia.This result leaves the group looking like this: We're actually not looking bad for qualification. We do, however still have Benfica and Espanyol to play. Even though we beat Benfica before, they are a very good team and I'd be surprised if we managed to beat them again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 11, 2018 Author Share Posted July 11, 2018 Europa League I was disappointed to concede just before halftime, especially from a free kick since it was the second free kick we conceded from in 2 games, but then we scored our own just after halftime. Once Piatti was sent off, we were clearly the better side and won quite convincingly in the end. This result leaves the group looking like this: When I saw this, although I was delighted to be top of the group, I was a little disappointed that we haven't officially qualified for the knockouts yet. But then I received this message: I'm not sure how, but I'll take it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blah_1123 Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 Are BMG and Espanyol playing together for the last match? In that case you would be through as only one team could overtake you, not both. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 11, 2018 Author Share Posted July 11, 2018 1 minute ago, Blah_1123 said: Are BMG and Espanyol playing together for the last match? In that case you would be through as only one team could overtake you, not both. Yes they are, thanks. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that the game was lying to me and that we'd lose and end up not going through. Now that doesn't have to be a concern . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 11, 2018 Author Share Posted July 11, 2018 Europa League We started off really well, taking the lead twice, but after conceding the goal late in the first half, we just couldn't get back into it. In the end, it was quite a poor performance. Unfortunately, the lost saw us finish second in the group, but this is still far better than I could have hoped for so I'm very happy. Dinamo also qualified from their group with 10 points so our coefficient should get a nice boost for next year. In the match before this, Fran Tudor did this: He also got 2 assists in this match. I'd say he did quite well . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 Mid-Season Break League With the exception of the poor run of form where we only won one of five games, we have been exceptional overall. This leaves us in a great position. We're 6 points up on the nearest team with 2 games in hand over everyone except Dinamo (who have one game in hand over us). We have one point less than we had at the break last year, but we have played 3 less games so we are doing quite remarkably. Cup The cup has been a mixed bag so far. We've had an emphatic win, followed by the second toughest draw we could've gotten (only behind Dinamo), then another fairly comfortable win. The only team that I think might beat us at this point is Dinamo. Europe We've been very good, especially at home where we've won all of our games. Although it was disappointing to miss out on the Champions League group stages, we were probably better off going out when we did and performing well in the Europa League group for the improvement in coefficient. Although it was a slight disappointment to not top the group, we have done very well to qualify from this group where the weakest team (aside from us) was probably BMG. Squad Fran Tudor is once again the top performer in the team and is one of two players with at least 10 goals and assists. Michele Sego has also accomplished this feat. They are tied for the most assists in the team with 11 and Ahmed Said is the club's top scorer with 17 goals. Overall, performances have been much better than they were last year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 Europa League It definitely won't be easy, but I think we do have a chance, especially with how we've played at home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 New Signings He's coming in with some great defensive attributes and some solid physicals overall. He only cost us $50K up front with a potential $100K in add-ons. He's also a full Belarusian international at only 18 years old! He comes in as a good prospect at right back, something we were lacking in before. He cost us $100K ($350K). He is the best of this bunch, but is also by far the most expensive costing us $500K, rising to a potential $1.5 million. He already has some very good attributes though and a professional personality to boot. He should feature in our team regularly in the near future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 Um, no. He's our top prospect right now, but I didn't expect Arsenal to come in for him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 He was unhappy that I negotiated the fee to $40 million and made them withdraw the offer, so now if Arsenal offer $5 million for him, I have to accept . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 The same day, we also got an offer from Ajax for Basic, our best central midfielder and I rejected the offer. He also approached me and now we have to accept an offer from them if they offer $5.75 million. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 16, 2018 Author Share Posted July 16, 2018 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 17, 2018 Author Share Posted July 17, 2018 Europa League It's disappointing to go out, but it was a surprise just making it to this point so we can't be too disappointed with our European performances this year. After allowing 5 away goals in the home leg, I couldn't really see us coming back and we didn't. Hopefully we'll get back to this point next year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 Youth Intake We have two very good players who came through this year, one of which is an excellent prospect. He's got great passing and technique, some very nice mentals, and some decent physical attributes. He could be great for the deep lying playmaker role that I use in the future. He looks ok, but we had a better goalkeeper come through in the intake last year, so he probably won't be a future first team player here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 21, 2018 Author Share Posted July 21, 2018 Season Review As with last year, I think that we were actually better in the second half of the season than we were in the first. Without further ado, lets get into the results. League We were truly excellent through this period, only dropping points in 5 matches and losing only to Dinamo and Lokomotiva. This left the league looking like this: We absolutely dominated, finishing 10 points above Dinamo and above our points total from last year. Fran Tudor also set new league records for assists, average rating and player of the match awards. He was absolutely tremendous for us. Cup We were much more convincing in the cup this year, beating Dinamo quite convincingly in the final. The neutral venue was quite kind for us, though seeing as it's our home stadium. Squad Overall we had some absolutely fantastic performances this season across the board. Fran Tudor and Michele Sego were the stars and each got well over 10 goals and assists. Marko Mrkic was the top scorer, just edging out Ahmed Said. Awards and Season Review No surprises here, He did set 3 league records after all. This was a surprise however. I was almost certain Michele Sego would win it since he had the third best average rating, well above Neskovic's. Either way, I'm pleased that our players won first and second. And we're back to stating the nearly obvious. After the unbelievable season we had, this was to be expected. As well as I thought last season had gone, this season went much better. Next year, I'm planning on getting some more youth players involved in the first team. We have many more coming into the club in the summer and I'm quite excited about many of them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 21, 2018 Author Share Posted July 21, 2018 Things are going very well on the club side of things, but on the league side, there isn't a change. Hopefully next year, we can make the Champions League group stage and improve this more. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 New Signings We had three more signings that I don't have screenshots for. Salgado is a decent centre back who is already an international for Honduras despite only being 18. Richman is goalkeeper who was released by Man City. Again, he's decent but we have much better at the club. Steve Fowler is a right midfielder (which we really needed) and I'm really excited about him, he has 16 acceleration and 14 pace. He's also 18. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPM13 Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 Champions League This year we're going straight into the playoff after our coefficient improvement and we've been draw against none other than... ...the team that knocked us out of the Champions League at this point last year. This is a great chance for redemption after last year, I just hope it doesn't end up being the same outcome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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