FM19 All_European (Less England) Challenge

So, the team I took over were pretty good. A nice mix between talents and established first team'ers and few gaps. The notable one were the lack of any decent goalkeeper. I searched far and wide, but couldn't find any good enough to join us permanently, so I went for a loanee from Hannover. He did great, and I'm looking to see if I can make the move for him next season as well. Other than that we were a bit short up front, so I got in a few more there, but all in all we had a very nice squad from the get go. I went with a basic 4-4-2 with the standard mix of DPL and Box-to-box in centrally while allowing the wingers a bit of freedom to move forward. Turns out, that works. In the first 13 league matches we only conceded 3 goals! Now, I'm experienced playing FM, but I'm no Diego Simeone, even with the 4-4-2. I'm more of the "let's see if I can outscore you"-type of manager, so that is something special for me. Of course, that didn't last and we conceded quite a few more as the season went on, but we ended up conceding just short of a goal a game, and in my book that excellent.

With the great start we soon found ourselves in a fight for the top spot. Our main rivals Heidenheim, 1860 Munich and the other surprise package this season, Chemnitzer. They also were newly promoted to this level, so I guess the drop from the Regionalliga to 3.Fussball-liga isn't that big. Although Chemitzer faltered a bit towards the end and got caught by Magdeburg and Werder II, they still had a great season. However, we were the real outstanding side this time around. With 4 games left of the season we had a 4 point cushion down to the pack chasing us.

However, the pressure were too much for a couple of the teams behind us, especially 1860 Munich who lost all 4 of their last matches. A draw and a win later for us we were crowned champions and secured the promotion with 2 games remaining. Now, we did good and won the final two games, so the goal margin down to 2nd (9 points) makes is look like we had it under control, but it was closer than it seems. Still, an amazing season for us and I'm really excited to see how we do against a tier higher next season.

I don't know why, but we didn't compete in any cups this season...?

Financially, things are not looking as great. We lost more than £700k this season and this includes more than £400k investments by the chairman. So we need to start making money. The way the board decided to do that? Build a new stadium and take up a huge loan, of course! So... yeah... great... Oh, I've gotten the first two licences, but that was before we dipped into the red, so i doubt I can get many more until we start making money.

Player statistics

Most apps:
Kevin Hingerl - 36 apps
Christoph Buchner - 36 apps
Daniel Hofstetter - 36 apps

Most goals:
Enis Bytyqi - 19 goals
Thorsten Nicklas - 11 goals
Andreas Scheidl - 9 goals

Most assists:
Andreas Scheidl - 9 assists
Naod Mekonnen - 5 assists
4 players - 4 assists

Highest average rating:
Thorsten Nicklas - 7.24
Naod Mekonnen - 7.20
Muhamed Subasic - 7.16

Season    Division             Position      Notes and Achievements     
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20   3. Fussball-liga     1st           Promoted as champions

XaW · July 24, 2019

38 minutes ago, XaW said:

We lost more than £700k this season and this includes more than £400k investments by the chairman. So we need to start making money. The way the board decided to do that? Build a new stadium and take up a huge loan, of course! So... yeah... great...

Jeez...

XaW · July 27, 2019

XaW - SV Wacker Burghausen - 2029/21

After the surprise promotion last season, I were not sure what to expect from the 2nd tier. I tried to improve the squad, but without any money to spend, and a very limited wage budget, I only got in loanees. Though during the autumn I got approached by a few agents hawking African youngster. A couple were really good, so i poached them and they joined in December. One of them, Patrick Uzeh, is a real beast. His best position is a DM, but i'm using him as a BPD so we can play out from the back. Working on his heading, but otherwise he is amazing for this level. The season itself went quite well, albeit unspectacular. We won and lost just about every other match, but my sole goal were survival this season, so anything to keep us out of the relegation zone is fine with me. We did get a few injuries around Christmas so i brought in a Norwegian striker and he scored a hattrick on his debut, and kept scoring well, so I hope to keep him for next season. Towards the end of the season we were 6th, but then we hit some horrible form. We fell some spots, but still ended on a very respectable 9th place. Just after the final match I found out we get a lot of placement money here when I got this message.

So, £10m for placing 9th? Don't mind if I accept that! Hopefully I can improve the squad quite a bit before the next season because I think we got a bit lucky in quite a few games this season. Also, the strong defence we had last season were nowhere to be seen this time around, though we did well in the scoring department.

We competed in the DFB-Pokal this season and we beat Arminia Bielefeld, Karlsruher and top tier Augsburg before losing to Gladbach in the quarter final.

Because of the big payout the financials are looking very good. Before that though, we lost about a million and that was even with a nice bonus from our small cup run.

Player statistics

Most apps:
Benjamin Leneis - 37 apps
Luca Kilian - 34(1) apps
Luca Schuler - 33(1) apps

Most goals:
Luca Schuler - 13 goals
Marius Duhnke - 12 goals
Noah Jean Holm - 11 goals

Most assists:
Johannes Dörfler - 9 assists
Thorsten Nicklas - 7 assists
2 players - 6 assists

Highest average rating:
Naod Mekonnen - 7.31
Dominik Pelivan - 7.30
Muhamed Subasic - 7.28

Season    Division             Position      DFB-Pokal         Notes and Achievements     
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20   3. Fussball-liga     1st           N/A               Promoted as champions
2020/21   2. Bundesliga        9th           Quarter final     Mid-table

Tecmo · July 30, 2019

image.png.7367d5d5cc5c32686561929b5d808259.png

IMT Beograd 2019-2020

Been playing around with a few different teams and leagues, finally got through one with a team I think I like, IMT Beograd out of Belgrade, Serbia. A few different things drew me here. They break into groups part way through the season in both levels, they have a very strict foreign player rule (only 4 allowed in the Superleague) and IMT has several potential natural rivals in Belgrade, which itself is decent sized. Established youth recruitment is another plus. And I love that logo.

We had a pretty successful first season, starting out great with 4 wins and a draw in our first 5 league games playing a pretty basic 4-4-2. Form dropped after that although we did well enough to stay 5th all the way through game 21. Then we really went in the tank, forcing me to move to a 4-1-2-3 DM Wide, which I probably should have used earlier as my 3rd midfielder was much better than my second striker. That stabilized things, but we ended up 9 at the divide, dropping us into the relegation group on goal difference. Got through that with 2 wins, 2 losses and 3 draws to finish without ever getting drawn into a relegation battle.

Preliminary Phase

Relegation Group

Nothing much to say on the Serbian Cup, we lost our first game to league mates Smederevo 0-1 at their place.

Goals were a bit of an issue for us. My leading scorer, Milos Bajic, had 12 goals to go with 4 assists. No one else had more than 7.

Ognjen Dimitric was our player of the year and young player of the year at 21. Best position is probably as a 10 but I played him in central midfield on attack most of the season. 6 goals and 4 assists, but an excellent passer.

Our best offensive player, I think, was AMR Slavko Cvjetinovic. A natural winger, he created the most chances on the team and netted 5 goals to go with 6 assists.

And the player I'm most excited about is my 16 year old playmaking defensive midfielder, Dejan Miskovic. Brought him along slowly but he claimed a starting place by the end of the season. A couple of Superleague teams are eyeing him though so we'll see how long he stays.

Finances seem ok, right around even on the balance after a lost of 52K this season.

We didn't really get a youth intake, at least one was never announced. I did have 6 young trialists that showed up at one point, so I'm guessing that was it but none of them stood out.

Hopefully next season we can be in the playoff group. Most of the team is returning with the exception of Bajic, who hasn't been willing to discuss a new deal. I think I'd like a more physical presence from my lone striker anyway so I'm not too concerned.

XaW · July 31, 2019

XaW - SV Wacker Burghausen - 2021/22

A nice mid-table finish last season, and still my only hopes this season was to avoid relegation. I managed to release a lot of the dead weight this summer, only a few ones left. This meant I had to bring in a lot of quality, so I had a bit of a turnover this summer. Spent a bit of money as well, but I think it was on much needed quality. The team started the new season in a much better shape than we finished last season. In the first 10 matches we did 5-1-4. Not amazing, but well enough to stay far away from the relegation zone. We played the rest of the autumn quite well, and were in and around the playoff spots most of the time. Holstein Kiel had gotten a great lead early on and were pulling away from the pack going into the winter break. When we came back from a short holiday and a training camp, we found some great form. Suddenly we were ahead of Holstein Kiel, who had a very poor second half of the season and eventually dropped out of the playoff spots. With a couple of games left we had secured a spot in the playoffs and were top of the table, but had Paderborn on our heels. When we won against Aue in the penultimate game while Paderborn drew to Arminia Bielefeld we secured the title, and promotion, with a game to spare. So we are going into the Bundesliga! I think we might go straight back down, but at least we will get to find out how far behind the best teams we are!

In the DFB-Pokal we had a nice run, beating Seligenporten, Wolfsburg, Paderborn and Köln before losing to Hertha away after extra time.

The finances looked bloated now, but that is simply because we just got about £15m from the promotion. Hopefully, I can get a bit more to keep improving the squad. We really need it!

Player statistics

Most apps:
Günter Lang - 38 apps
Lucas Fernández - 35(2) apps
Alessandro Spitale - 35(2) apps

Most goals:
Noah Jean Holm - 25 goals
Günter Lang - 21 goals
Alessandro Spitale / Naod Mekonnen - 9 goals

Most assists:
Erik Majetschak - 13 assists
Alessandro Spitale - 12 assists
Lucas Fernández - 8 assists

Highest average rating:
Erik Majetschak - 7.57
Noah Jean Holm - 7.55
Naod Mekonnen - 7.52

Season    Division             Position      DFB-Pokal         Notes and Achievements     
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20   3. Fussball-liga     1st           N/A               Promoted as champions
2020/21   2. Bundesliga        9th           Quarter final     Mid-table
2021/22   2. Bundesliga        1st           Semi final        Promoted as champions

yezzko · August 1, 2019

Taky Maly Yezzko / FC Košice / Season 1 - 2019/2020

2. liga

Media predicted us to finish in the 7th place which surprised me a bit since the club has been just promoted. We started quite well with 3-1-1 from first five matches and continued on a good wave until the end of the autumn part of the league. We were sitting in the 4th place with 31 points from 17 matches, just 3 points below leaders from poprad. Then came the 4-month-long winter break :). After the break we started well with three straight wins and continued with good form until the latest part of the season. Final 8 games were crucial since we failed to maintain the form and 3 straight draws and loss against eventual winners from Banska Bystrica put us ut of competition for top 2 places(top spot means automatic promotion, 2nd place goes into play off against second bottom team from top league). In the end I was quite happy with our 3rd place finish.

Slovnaft Cup

In the cup we managed to win the 2nd round tie against eventual Fortuna liga winner from AS Trencin, but with practicaly zero money from competition I used mainly my backup players and was due kicked out of the competition in the 3rd round by another Fortuna liga outfit FK Pohronie.

Transfers

With practically zero transfer budget we signed a few freebies and loanees. I was way under wage budget since we were loosing money right, left and centre.

Finances

Loosing money all season long as is usual in this league with laughable sponsorship deals and competition money. TV money in the league is 0. Owner pumped in some 100K and with fund raising of 100K we finished the season with a loss of over 200K.

Three stars

Kamil Karas - As a mezzala shined in our strikerless tactic and his goals from outside 18-yard box were joy to behold. Ended the season with 12 goals, 2 assistes and 7.33 rating from 30 strats in the league.

David Berezny - Signed as a free agent before winter brake, he made great partnership with another free signing Martin Kubena. Altough managed to play only 12 games he had the highest av. rating with 7.33.

Martin Kubena - Towering centre back with impressive 84% headers won. Rock at the heart of our defense.

Nothing to see here. Signed three of the bunch but only for the sake of it.

History

Season      Division        Position       Slovnaft Cup       Champions League      Europa League        Notes and Achievements     
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20     2. liga         3rd            3rd Round          N/A                   N/A                  Bronze medal

XaW · August 8, 2019

XaW - SV Wacker Burghausen - 2022/23

So, the Bundesliga, huh? I took a look at my team before the season started and noted who I needed to improve upon. And I pretty much decided I needed to change a lot. With very little in terms of transfer budget my options were limited to cheap ones, freebies and loans. So that's what I started doing. I got in a couple of loans from other Bundesliga clubs and some cheap transfers based on my scouts. One of them had, for whatever reason, discovered a young Welsh lad. No idea what my scout did around southern Wales, but I'm still very happy he took the trip in order to discover him. I also used my Norwegian contacts to bring in a couple of Norwegians and of course some Germans to fill the last gaps. In the end I were pretty happy with my squad, except for one part, the defence. So I brought in a couple of more loans, but they were only backups. After the deadline my only gripe were the poor backup on right back. When the season started properly we actually started great with 3 wins. Granted, those 3 teams all finished in the bottom 6 at the end, so it looked a bit better than it actually was. Still, it gave us something to believe in and we continued to pick up points in a reasonable pace and established ourselves just around the 6th-10th spots. RB Leipzig ran away early on, not losing for the first 17 matches and only a few draws. Bayern, Hoffenheim and Dortmund were close behind though. The season actually were rather strange due to the 2022 World Cup, so we had a 2-3 month gap around November/December before the season started again after new years.

We had a bit of a rough patch then, so I changed from my trusted 4-4-2 into a 4-5-1/4-2-3-1/4-3-3 variant to change things up a bit and it seemed to work as we started winning a bit again. In the last 10 matches we won 4, drew 4 and only lost 2 matches. So I think this will be our new formation and rather keep the old 4-4-2 as a backup. Our final position this season ended on a very good 6th. I think we were too reliable on loans this season and I will look to do more permanent deals this summer and only do a few loans. I've already made some very exciting signings for the next season, and I can't wait to play them.

After the season I had the announcement of the pay for 6th:

Yeah, we are safe financially for years! Oh, and we are going into Europa League next season. Bring it on!

In the DFB-Pokal we beat Cloppenburg and Leverkusen before losing to RB Leipzig in the 3rd round.

Player statistics

Most apps:
Lukas Mai - 35 apps
Jonathan Jones - 33 apps
Dennis Nagel - 31 apps

Most goals:
Jonathan Jones - 23 goals
Timothy Tillman - 15 goals
Noah Jean Holm - 9 goals

Most assists:
Alessandro Spitale / Emeka Ofere - 7 assists
Jonathan Jones / Timothy Tillman - 6 assists

Highest average rating:
Jonathan Jones - 7.38
Gaoussou Diarra - 7.36
Emeka Ofere - 7.26

Season    Division             Position      DFB-Pokal         Europe              Notes and Achievements     
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20   3. Fussball-liga     1st           N/A               N/A                 Promoted as champions
2020/21   2. Bundesliga        9th           Quarter final     N/A                 Mid-table
2021/22   2. Bundesliga        1st           Semi final        N/A                 Promoted as champions
2022/23   Bundesliga           6th           3rd round         N/A                 Qualified for Europe

Tecmo · August 15, 2019

IMT Beograd 2020-2021

Well, mission accomplished, we finished in the top 8 and avoided the relegation group. We finished 8th exactly, one point better and 2 GD worse than the previous season. Not going to go into much detail since we pretty much didn't get anywhere new. Not surprising we didn't really advance I guess as we didn't change the team much, essentially bringing back 10 starters including my false 9, who I thought would leave us. The better cohesion didn't translate into improved results like I hoped.

Our one new starter was MC Nikola Sakic. Provided some nice work ethic and speed in the middle.

We bombed out in the first round of the Serbian Cup again, just playing backups and not really worrying about that competition yet.

Our 17 year old defensive midfielder, Dejan Miskovic was named our young player and player of the year, completing 95% of his passes as a deep playmaker.

And, very excitingly, we had an excellent youth intake this season. The star of it is Milos Cermelj, a young number 10 who I already gave a couple of appearances in the first team. A few other prospects are also looking like potential first teamers in the near future.

With my two best young players being a 6 and a 10, I'm going to try switching to a 4-4-2 diamond this coming season. Cvjet is my only real wide player, so if I can get a target man up top to team with Bajic at striker, I think we can build something.

rlipscombe · August 27, 2019

not quite sure how i missed your update @Tecmo - been busy and then on holiday so that hasn't helped... steady season - hopefully the change in tactic will help. like the look of Cermelj and Miskovic looks a decent prospect. Good luck next season.

As for me, i need to get my act together and do an update. hopefully i iwll get time to do it in the next few days.

Tecmo · August 27, 2019

Change of tactic has gone horribly, fighting to avoid relegation. Seems like the team should be better but we have regressed mightily.

rlipscombe · August 27, 2019

19 minutes ago, Tecmo said:

Change of tactic has gone horribly, fighting to avoid relegation. Seems like the team should be better but we have regressed mightily.

oh dear... not good to hear! do you have the players to switch back?

Tecmo · September 5, 2019

Think I have things stabilized finally, switched to a 4-4-1-1 variant that I've had success with before. Loosely based on the Invincibles (love my wide playmaker). Probably going to end up in the relegation group again but feeling better about the team anyway.

Unfortunately Miskovic broke his ankle and is out 7-8 months

rlipscombe · September 6, 2019

good to hear Tecmo...

yezzko · September 7, 2019

Taky Maly Yezzko / FC Košice / Season 2 - 2020/2021

2. liga - Winner

We finished the job we had started last season and surprisingly managed to win the league and promotion to Fortuna liga. It was kind of a start to finish affair. Playing the same 4330 tactic as we did last year we did not score a lot but were rock solid at the back with only 9 goals conceded during the 30-match-long season.

Slovnaft Cup - 1st Round

Early exit in the first round meant less playing time for our backup players.

Transfers

Signed a lot of players, some free's some loanees and highly talented slovakian D(R) Adrian Ferencik for club record fee of 60K (80K). David Berezny will leave at the end of the season since new young guns are taking his place and with his Determination rating of 2 I don't want to keep him around as a backup.

Finances

Another year of leaking money. Luckily board provided enough to get us out of red at the end of season. New sponsorship deal worth 195K for next season will help a lot.

Three stars

Kamil Karas - Not as stellar as the season before, but scored 7 of our 34 golas in the league, added 3 assists and led the team to glory.

David Berezny - Another excellent season for him, lead the team with 7.27 rating.

Filip Serecin - Top scorer of the team with 9 goals playing as Inside Forward on the left side.

Youth intake

Awfull intake, signed nobody.

History

Season      Division        Position       Slovnaft Cup       Champions League      Europa League        Notes and Achievements     
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20     2. liga         3rd            3rd Round          N/A                   N/A                  Bronze medal
2020/21     2. liga         1st            1st Round          N/A                   N/A                  League Winner, Promotion

Edited September 7, 2019 by yezzko
cosmetic changes

rlipscombe · September 8, 2019

congratulations @yezzko. good luck next season. hopefully the new sponsorship deal and the promotion will steady your finances somewhat

yezzko · September 11, 2019

On 08/09/2019 at 23:06, rlipscombe said:

congratulations @yezzko. good luck next season. hopefully the new sponsorship deal and the promotion will steady your finances somewhat

Thank you. Prize money and TV rights in Fortuna liga are still quite low (80K for league winner plus 60K from tv rights for every participant) so money from european competitions are only way to stabilize the club. We'll see how are we going to fare in country's top league.

Tecmo · September 13, 2019

IMT Beograd 2021-2022

Well that was just an ugly season. Brought in a couple players to hopefully help our attack, instead it was the second worst in the league. We won our first two games 1-0, then only managed 1 more win in the next 14. That dropped us all the way down to the relegation spots for our first time ever, sitting in 13th. And we lost our young star defensive midfielder for several months with a broken ankle. So we switched from 4-4-2 diamond we were using to a 4-4-1-1 DM arrangement with the winter break and we also brought in a new centerback pairing and an AMC on loan from Partizan to spearhead the attack. It definitely brought results as 4 wins in our next 7 pulled us up to 11th going into the relegation stage, giving us a bit of breathing room.

The relegation stage was tight though as the top 5 were all within a point. We won our first two games to go atop the group but then lost two and drew two, dropping us to 5th place, needing either a win in the last game or a draw and some help. The first half we looked good but couldn't break through. In the second half we gave up a goal on a free kick to fall behind 0-1. One of the other games was looking bad at that point to with a team we need to get no better than a draw winning. But they gave up a goal to put themselves back in a tie game shortly after, giving us hope. We went hard on the attack, pushing up into a full 4-2-3-1 to try to force something. Finally got our breakthrough in the 88th minute as we hit them on a counter attack that ended with my defensive midfielder hitting a strike from the edge of the box. At that point, if nothing changed, we survived. But my right midfielder finished it off with his first ever goal , finding the corner from well outside the box to give us the win and safety.

Preliminary Phase Table

Relegation Phase Table

We were 1 and done in the Serbian Cup again, falling to a team in the league below us. That started our horrific run.

Kristijan Zivkovic was our leading scorer with 9 goals, we brought the striker on loan from Vojvodina. Was a pretty massive disappoint for us as only 5 of those goals were not on penalty kicks.

Stefan Ilic from Partizan was our biggest signing, I hoped he could grab the number 10 role in our diamond. It didn't work out so well although he played somewhat better as a wide playmaker.

Nikola Miric was our player of the year, a right fullback on loan from Partizan, really thrived bombing forward leading the team in assists. Hoping to bring him back again next season.

Lazar Vujanic I think will be the focal point of our offense going forward. Also brought in on loan from Partizan during the winter break, he took over the 10 spot and provided 5 assists in 13 games. We've managed to sign him permanently, now I have to decide how to use him. Tempted to put him at striker but that will depend on our offseason moves.

And my signing of the season was Samir Jupic, a 16 year old left fullback I purchased from Novi Pazar for 975. His stats were never impressive but the team just played better when he was in the game and he also assisted both goals in the final game.

Not much from the youth intake this season, maybe some future backups.

We're doing okay financially, about 60K in the red currently. One frustrating thing is the board won't allow me enough money to actually pay for as assistant coach. The guy I have there has been out of contract for a year and I'd really like to replace him, but I can't pay enough to meet anyone's demands.

Looking ahead, no more relegation battles! On paper this team is better than the ones that finished comfortably in the middle the first two seasons. I need another attacker to score some goals, also looking for a tall, left footed defensive midfielder to provide our invisible wall in front of the defense. Probably looking for a new goalkeeper too as I've stretched the limits of what my current one can do.

yezzko · September 17, 2019

Taky Maly Yezzko / FC Košice / Season 3 - 2021/2022

Fortuna Liga - 2nd

Quite an extraordinarily good season. Till the end we were in the title race with Trnava but our poor run of results (1W 5D 1L) in last 7 matches cost us the title. With 3 matches to go we were 1 point ahead of Trnava, then we lost the 1st place due to our drawing and trnava winng their game. We started the penultimate game of the season against Trnava with them leading by 1 point but managed to only a disappointing 0-0 draw. In the last game we burned totaly and lost against Zilina while Trnava sealed their title with concincing 4-1 win against Skalica. Bitter end but overal I am really happy with our performance in league.

Slovnaft Cup - 3rd Round

Managed to win only first two rounds with backup players, third round exit was quite disappointing since it came against 2. liga outfit of Dubnica. I hoped my players would fare better. Nevermind, more benchsitting for them.

Transfers

A lot of good young player came in this season, especially Jozef Spyrka, Peter Bencik and Michal Kralovic who I hope are going to lead the club in coming years. With european footbal coming following year I am trying to bring more player under 19 years old to get some homegrown players since my youth intakes are worthless so far.

Finances

Thanks to owner investments (540K) and fund raising (187K) we were kept in managable debt of few 100K. Due to our 2nd place finish in the league we can expect fair money from Europa League next season.

Three stars

Jozef Spyrka - 23 years old came in only in January, led the team from his AM(R) position.

Peter Bencik - Played as IF on the AM(L) with really good return of 10G and 5A in 33 matches for 19 years old hot prospect.

Denis Varga - Rock solid performances from young centre half.

Youth intake

Awfull intake again, signed nobody.

History

Season      Division        Position       Slovnaft Cup       Champions League      Europa League        Notes and Achievements     
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20     2. liga         3rd            3rd Round          N/A                   N/A                  Bronze medal
2020/21     2. liga         1st            1st Round          N/A                   N/A                  League Winner, Promotion
2021/22     Fortuna Liga    2nd            3rd Round          N/A                   N/A                  Silver Medal

Edited September 19, 2019 by yezzko
typos

rlipscombe · September 17, 2019

another good season @yezzko. The title next season?

Tecmo · September 21, 2019

Relegation playoff again but in first there with 6 games to go so looking safe. Losing 3 starters I really wanted back though so a bit of a rebuild coming. But for as much as I'm struggling I like this team.

Tecmo · September 22, 2019

IMT Beograd 2022-2023

More spinning our wheels. More comfortable than last season but only finished 9th.

League Table

We finished the preliminary stage in 10th, then went 3-3-1 in the relegation stage to come out on top of that. We had some good play but were just altogether too inconsistent throughout the season, especially on offense. No big slumps this year, no big runs, just hung out between 8 and 13 the entire season.

We were bounced out of the Serbian Cup in the first game again, losing on penalty kicks to a lower division side.

Key Players

Lazar Vujanic played mostly at striker and netted 12 goals and 3 assists. Struggled to find a 10 behind him though and I think I'm going to try moving him into that role assuming I can find a striker.

Nikola Miric, our right fullback, was our player of the season and young player as well. We were able to convince him to join us permanently next season.

Lazar Tatic was our new goalkeeper, signed from Backa, he set a new team record for shutouts.

Youth Intake

Milentije Pavlovic is probably the best of the bunch, not quite sure what I'll do with him though. Probably ends up a backup at defensive midfield and/or fullback.

As a whole, my youth players are actually progressing very well. Several are now backups and pressing for playing time. Branislav Raukovic in particular is really pushing for a place in the first team, I've used him as both attacking and defensive midfield and he always makes an impact. I also have a lot of bigger teams circling on my youngsters, so that's a good problem to have. I messed up last season and let Partizan pluck my young left fullback away for nothing, have to pay more attention so that doesn't happen again.

Financially we're doing well, primarily because of new ownership throwing some money to clear out our debts.

Despite our not really progressing yet, I'm enjoying this team, especially the young players. We need to get the offense going in order to progress. I was pretty happy with my 4-4-1-1 DM setup but I'm going to try pushing one or both of the central midfielders forward to see if that helps. I have some work to do with my central defenders too. My best one is upset that we didn't finish top half like I promised and has demanded a transfer. Nobody is looking particularly interested in him though so I'm likely looking at a season of him being angry and causing problems. My other options feel more suited as backups. Onward!

yezzko · September 24, 2019

On 17/09/2019 at 21:38, rlipscombe said:

another good season @yezzko. The title next season?

Thank you. My hopes were high after last season and my eyes were completely focused on the title which would enable us to play Champions League (Slovakia has only 1 CL place so far).

yezzko · September 24, 2019

Taky Maly Yezzko / FC Košice / Season 4 - 2022/2023

Fortuna Liga - Winner

We started the league really bad by losing 0-3 against Trencin, followed by 0-0 draw against Zilina. After that the fortunately we proceeded with 6 straight wins (score 12-1) which saw us catapulted right on top of the league. Our streak was boken by a draw and later by a loss but from matchday 13 we were on top until the the league split after 22 matches. We started the Champions Group 5 points ahead of Zilina and 7 of Trencin but all was lost after our streak of 4 losses followed by 2 draws. I thought title is lost now but the team responded with 2 wins which saved climb to the again with 2 games to go. We were 1st with 53 points, Trencin 2nd with 52 and Trnava were 3rd with 50. All was in our hands but the team crumled under the pressure against Trnava in the penultimate game and lost 0-3 at home with all the goals scored in the space of 7 minutes(70 - 76). Luck was on our side when Trencin also loast their game 0-3 against Slovan Bratislava. On the final day our first league title was seald by 2-0 vistory against Dunajska Streda while Trencin helped us by beating Trnava 1-0.

Slovnaft Cup - Winner

To put an icing on the cake we did the double. What should be only space for backups was transformed into a real campaign. We were on the brink of exit when we lost the first semifinal game against Poprad but the team responded well in the second match to allow us in to our first final. The final match against Senica was really drab which ended 0-0. In the pnalty shootout we were the luckier ones and won it 4-3.

Europa League - 1st Qualification Round

Our first outing in the Europe was against Helsinki side of HJK. It was a close affair with 0-1 loss at the HJK ground and exciting match on our turf. We started game well with a goal in 3rd minute and were quite comfortable winning 3-1 after the first half. HJK started the second half better but we striked first to make it 4-1 followed by HJK goal on 42. I was reluctant to defend the result since one goal for HJK would saw them lead on away goals, which inevitable happed in the 69th minute(4-3). We tried hard to push for the 5th goal but failed in the end. I hoped to get at least to the 2nd round, bit of luck was al we needed. Though I'm happy we have our first european win under our belt.

Transfers

Brought in a mixture of youngsters and experienced guys, most of them on free or loan. On the other hand our highly talented RB Adrian Ferencik left for Sparta Praha for a sum of 850K. I'm sad to let him leave but club owner would step if I refused such offer.

Finances

Much better this season. We have new sponsorship deal worth 300K per year plus 240K from Europa League plus whoping 850K from Ferencik transfer. All in all we quite ok, but without big money transfers we depend on the money from Europe.

Three stars

Jozef Spyrka - Our star player. Led the team in Goals (12), Assists (9), Chances created(11) and Av. Rating (7.26).

Michal Kralovic - Playing as CM or DM he was our heartbeat, added few freekick goals and longshots.

Mickael Nanizayamo - Summer signing, made great partnership with Denis Varga and I think he was a tad better this season.

Youth intake

Not worth mentioning.

History

Season    Division        Position    Slovnaft Cup      Champions League       Europa League         Notes and Achievements     
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20   2. liga         3rd         3rd Round         N/A                    N/A                   Bronze medal
2020/21   2. liga         1st         1st Round         N/A                    N/A                   League Winner, Promotion
2021/22   Fortuna Liga    2nd         3rd Round         N/A                    N/A                   Silver Medal
2022/23   Fortuna Liga    1st         Winner            N/A                    1st Qual. Round       League Winner, Cup Winner

Edited September 24, 2019 by yezzko
typos

yezzko · October 2, 2019

Taky Maly Yezzko / FC Košice / Season 5 - 2023/2024

Champions League - 2nd Qualification Round

Fortuna Liga - 3rd

Awfull season in comparison to the last year. We started really bad with four 0-1 losses from first 6 games of the season. It was mainly due to our quite congested calendar(thanks to Champions League and later Europa League fixtures). And also there was my inability to alter our tactics to react to a situations when our reputation have risen quite high and teams started to play more defensively against us. We could not find our winning form from the year before and deservedly finished in the 3rd place.

Slovnaft Cup - Quarter Final

We won only the matches against lower league opponents and ultimately lost against later relegated Fortuna Liga side of Podbrezova. A disappointment despite we were using mainly fringe players.

Here we go. Our very first tie in the Champions League was against FK Skhendija from North Macedonia. We were deservedly after comfortable wins 2-0 and 4-0. Next tie was against much bigger side of Scotland Champion celtic FC. First leg at home soli brought us surprising 1-0 win. Away leg was quite different and Celtic showed class to send us to Europa League by winning 3-1.

Europa League - 4th in Group

The exit from CL brought us into 3rd Qualification round, we were comfortably through thanks to two wins against Hapoel Beer Sheva from Israel. The last qualifiaction round saw us against Skenderbeu from Albania. The first leg win of 4-1 gave us decisive lead in the tie and we sealed our first qualification into Group stage. In the group stage we were poor and managed only one 0-0 draw against Vorskla Poltava and lost everything else including two matches against PAOK and AS Roma respectively.

Transfers

Our transfer market was really quiet, only mention deserve two goalkeepers as we were short at the position.

Finances

With 3.5M from Europa League plus roughly 0.5M from Champions League we are safe now. Finally we have enough money to upgrade our attrocious facilities. I managed to negotiate Develop youth philosophy which helps a lot when trying to upgrade facilities.

Three stars

Peter Bencik - Young striker or inside forward, led the team in Goals with 17 in 42 games.

Matus Bero - Karas' successor at the mezzala, provided great return with 14 goals in 43 games.

Engin Cakir - Young center back, added 6 goals in 46 apps on top of his good defensive work.

Signed three guys, YP24A Hlinka looks quite a good prospect with 3 1/2 star potential. We'll see.

History

Season    Division        Position    Slovnaft Cup      Champions League       Europa League         Notes and Achievements     
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20   2. liga         3rd         3rd Round         N/A                    N/A                   Bronze medal
2020/21   2. liga         1st         1st Round         N/A                    N/A                   League Winner, Promotion
2021/22   Fortuna Liga    2nd         3rd Round         N/A                    N/A                   Silver Medal
2022/23   Fortuna Liga    1st         Winner            N/A                    1st Qual. Round       League Winner, Cup Winner
2023/24   Fortuna Liga    3rd         Quarter Final     2nd Qual. Round        4th in Group

Edited October 4, 2019 by yezzko
too many to name

yezzko · October 4, 2019

Taky Maly Yezzko / FC Košice / Season 6 - 2024/2025

Fortuna Liga - 2nd

Better than last one. We started poorly again with two losses between our european matches. After the exit from EL we found some form and crept to the top spot which we held with 5 games to go. Then we crumbled again with record of 1W 1D 3L fro last 5 games. Th title was decided against Slovan Bratisla with 3 games to go we lost to them by 0-1.

Slovnaft Cup - 3rd Round

Shameful exit against 3rd Division team of Fomat Martin.

Champions League - DNQ

-

Europa League - 2nd Qual. Round

I'm pleased with our 1st qual. round win against good polish side Legia Warszawa, in the second round Romanian power house FCSB was too much for us handle and comfortably kicked us out of competition.

Transfers

We brought in a number of great youngsters, I have high hopes especially for Pavol Krizan who looks amazing with great potential and great personality (Model Citizen).

Finances

Lost roughly 2M this season due to 800K of corporation tax mainly. We need more money from Europe to keep us safe.

Three stars

Denis Janco - New signing, managed only 22 games with good return of 8 goals and 6 assists and excellent rating of 7.42.

Jozef Spyrka - Led the team with impressive 17 assists and 12 chances created in 36 games. Excellent season from our team leader and star player.

Peter Bencik - Led the team again in goals with 12 in 33 games, was second in chances created with 11. Overall good performance from youngster.

Youth intake

Awful.

History

Season    Division        Position    Slovnaft Cup      Champions League       Europa League         Notes and Achievements     
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20   2. liga         3rd         3rd Round         N/A                    N/A                   Bronze medal
2020/21   2. liga         1st         1st Round         N/A                    N/A                   League Winner, Promotion
2021/22   Fortuna Liga    2nd         3rd Round         N/A                    N/A                   Silver Medal
2022/23   Fortuna Liga    1st         Winner            N/A                    1st Qual. Round       League Winner, Cup Winner
2023/24   Fortuna Liga    3rd         Quarter Final     2nd Qual. Round        4th in Group          EL Group Stage
2024/25   Fortuna Liga    2nd         3rd Round         N/A                    2nd Qual. Round

yezzko · October 8, 2019

Taky Maly Yezzko / FC Košice / Season 7 - 2025/2026

Fortuna Liga - Winner

The season started great with 4 straight wins, a drop of form followed due to a fixture congestion. Later we we found our footing again and went on to a 15 match unbeaten run which kicked us right to the top of the league. We won the league comfortably 10 points clear despite the record of 0-4-2 in the last six games.

Slovnaft Cup - 1st Round

A bit unlucky exit at the very start of the competition. Nevermind, we have enough fixtures with Europa League group stage matches.

Champions League - DNQ

Did not qualify.

Europa League - 3rd in the Group

We breezed through qualification rounds except the 2nd against Brondby IF that we won on away goals after two draws (1-1 home and 2-2 away). The group stage was quite a different beast though. We lost both games against Sassuolo and Viktoria Plzen respectively and managed a win and a draw against welsh side TNS. All in all I'm happy with 4 points and no trashings on our account.

Transfers

Brought in a couple of youngsters from Slovakia and Balkan countries. Sad to see leave our precious CD Pavol Krizan, but the money (2.3M plus 50% from next sale) and his unwillingnes to pen a new contract gave me no choice. At least I managed to include two-year-long loan back.

Finances

Quite healthy, almost 4M from Europa League sent us into security region.

Three stars

Jakub Kadak - Great season from him. Played as IF on the left. Led the team in goals (15), asssissts (11), chances created (14) and also average rating (7.29).

Pavol Krizan - Rock at the heart of our defense. Attribute-wise the best player in our history.

Jozef Spyrka - Another good season from our leader. Continued to play as winger on AMR.

To call it poor would be a huge understatement. 6 guys with 1 gold + 1 black star, rest with half gold plus 1 black ...

History

Season    Division        Position    Slovnaft Cup      Champions League       Europa League         Notes and Achievements     
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20   2. liga         3rd         3rd Round         N/A                    N/A                   Bronze medal
2020/21   2. liga         1st         1st Round         N/A                    N/A                   League Winner, Promotion
2021/22   Fortuna Liga    2nd         3rd Round         N/A                    N/A                   Silver Medal
2022/23   Fortuna Liga    1st         Winner            N/A                    1st Qual. Round       League Winner, Cup Winner
2023/24   Fortuna Liga    3rd         Quarter Final     2nd Qual. Round        4th in Group          EL Group Stage
2024/25   Fortuna Liga    2nd         3rd Round         N/A                    2nd Qual. Round
2025/26   Fortuna Liga    1st         1st Round         N/A                    3rd in Group          League Winner

rlipscombe · October 9, 2019

good to see you regain your title @yezzko Krizan looks great and someone who you can hopefully build your team around.

yezzko · October 9, 2019

Next season will be his last in our team, his loan would finish by then a he will be good enough to play in the first team of Sparta Praha so they won't loan him to us anymore. Sad but that's the life of a selling club.

Tecmo · October 10, 2019

IMT Beograd 2023-2024

Breakthrough!

A dominant season for us as we pretty much lead wire to wire to win the First League and promotion. Only 1 loss in our first 22 league games, got to to the promotion phase in a strong position and closed it out with 4 wins and a draw. The strongest defense in the league led the way, only allowing 27 goals in 37 games.

Serbian Cup

We even made some noise in the cup for once, beating one of the stronger teams in our league in Macva 1-0 and then lower league side Loznica 1-0 as well. Lost in the first round to SuperLeague side Napredak, but gave them a game at 1-2.

Key Players

Nikola Miric was our Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and Signing of the Year. 10 assists and a 7.42 rating from the right fullback spot.

Lazar Vujanic though, was named the First League Player of the Season though. Playing almost exclusively as a 10, he scored 16 goals and added 6 assists. Oddly though, he was only a substitute in the First League Team of the Season. After being the vice-captain this season, he'll be the captain for us next year.

Nikola Sakic also enjoyed a great year playing as a box to box midfielder. 6 goals, 6 assists and in the First League Team of the Season.

Branislav Dujakovic was also in the FLTS, a centerback I signed from Red Star on a free, was a rock in defense.

Youth Intake

Nothing too exciting with Novak Pusica being the best of the bunch. I did have one of last year's youths step up unexpectedly though as Marko Alimpic became my backup 10 at the end of the season and also became our youngest ever goalscorer.

Finances

Winning the league and some cup games helped, we are currently just under even. Our stadium needs expansion to comply with SuperLeague rules but we're putting it off a season, quite reasonably. We are also able to scout Eastern Europe now.

Next Season

Survive. I'm pretty happy with much of the team. Need 1 starter for my back 4 and need to find a striker that can contribute more as my starter only netted 6 and was often injured.

yezzko · October 14, 2019

Taky Maly Yezzko / FC Košice / Season 8 - 2026/2027

Fortuna Liga - Winner

After a shaky start of 2-2-2 from first 6 games we hit the run of good form and steadily climbed to the top of the league. We sealed our back to back title with two games to spare.

Slovnaft Cup - Winner

Beside winning the third round on penalties against second division team Sered we were quite comfortable throughout the campaign and finished it with final win 2-1 at home soil against Nitra.

Champions League - 1st Qual. Round

Bitterly disappointed after penalty loss against Crvena Zvezda Beograd. Both games finished 3-2 for home team.

Europa League - 4th in the Group

We had six tough game in the group against strong sides of Monaco, AZ Alkmaar and SK Rapid Vienna. I'm disappointed we did not managed to win a single game and finished our journey with a record of 0-3-3. Especially two losses against SK Rapid Vienna I find tough to swallow since I rate them not much higher than our team.

Transfers

Maybe I have gone a little over the board with number of youngster signings but we need to get homegrown players somehow.

Finances

Again kept safe by means of Europa League money. I'm quite a shrewd spender so we are steadily moving up.

Three stars

Jozef Spyrka - Leader of our offense, best goalscorer with 16 and best creator with 18 chances created, second in assists with 12.

Pavol Krizan - Another solid season from our best player. Added amazing 6 goals from corners.

Michal Kralovic - Strong season from our DLP, led the team with highest average rating of 7.36