[FMT20] Journey to the top of Europe

[Koetzer]

2 hours ago, rafaelbenitez said:

Great few months there!

That TNS transfer budget

They keep reaching the Conference League group stage (and even knockout rounds sometimes), so have quite a lot of money but probably their scouting is limited to UK and they don't spend it on transfers.

 

Season 2028/29 – part 2

It hurts to lose the final with an own goal in stoppage time, but I’d better get revenge in the league. Also the second stage schedule was published, and we’re playing TNS at home on the last matchday, that’s going to be epic!

Nathan Evans, who was the best Bala striker in my first season here, now plays in Barry and there he did us a huge favor by scoring twice against TNS, securing a draw for his team and a top spot for us!

Absolutely no chances for TNS at their home, and with three games to go we are four points ahead! That last game can actually mean nothing if we win two others.

We defeated Connah’s Quay, the next day TNS lost to Llanelli and that result secured our title with two games to go! The first ever league trophy in almost 150-year history of Bala Town, still as a semi-pro side and with an unbeaten season too! And a week after I finished my Welsh adventure with a double. 

 

Squad stats

What a season for Lars Henriksen, I don’t remember when I last time had a player with the average rating above 8! Kieran Reid finished second season in a row with 40+ goals, and five other players scored more than 10, that’s a real teamwork.

Currently I have Finland and Iceland loaded, but actually the lowest rated available country right now is Israel, so I will load it and probably move there if some vacancies appear from the start.

And as it was tenth season of my career, I’ll make some review of the world football in the next post  

[DaneBramage]

Good job, some nice patience there to overtake TNS.

[Koetzer]

2019-2029 Recap

(a huge post, so hope spoilers work well  )

 

International

 

SpoilerWorld Cup

World Cup

Germany dominated the decade, they have surpassed Brazil with six titles now (though FM counts the trophies before and after unification separately, and so Brazil held the record). Serbia finished third in 2026, that’s a really good achievement for them. 

European Championship

Germany reached the final twice (though missed it at home), and mid-2020s were a good time for Serbia. Third in the world, second in Europe. 

Copa America

Paraguay certainly wasn’t expected to win medals two times in a row, and Mexico became champions for the first time in 2028.  

African Cup

Quite a variety, but no real surprises here. 

Asian Cup

South Korea won their first title since 1960!  

Gold Cup

First ever title for Costa Rica, quite surprising as their squad now looks much weaker than USA and Mexico. 

OFC Nations Cup

Well… it's hard expect any changes here  

 

 

Club

Spoiler

 

Champions League

It’s England versus Spain, teams from other countries can’t reach the final in last five years. Arsenal, Man City and Atletico won this trophy for the first time.

 

Europa League

The trophy is usually won by a big team missing the Champions League (or failing in the group stage). Hertha, Marseille and Valencia seem to be lucky exceptions.

 

Conference League

Designed mostly for lower rated associations, this trophy is also contested by big ones. Only two teams outside the top five leagues reached the final since its start.

 

England

Tottenham surprisingly won in the first season, but since then the trophy never left North-West.

Mazzarri is now managing Man City, while Guardiola is in Chelsea after being sacked from City, Liverpool, Spanish NT, Porto, City again, Porto and Lazio. Klopp just was sacked from Arsenal (managed Real Madrid, Bayern and German NT before) and only Solskjaer is on the same place.

Former players who became managers: Gary Cahill (Crystal Palace), Ali Al-Habsi (Norwich), Roland Juhasz (West Ham).

Assistants – Lichtsteiner (Man City), Ibrahimovic (Brighton), Cavani (West Ham), Lovren (Newcastle), Klavan (WBA).

Other staff – Blaszczykowski (DOF, Bristol City), Fuchs (HOYD, Leicester)

 

Spain

Only Atletico managed to win titles in this decade of Barcelona dominance, Real Madrid couldn’t do anything at all.

Setien is still managing Barcelona, Michel is currently in charge of Real, Gallardo – in Atletico.

Assistants – Pepe (Real Sociedad), Janmaat (Betis).

 

Italy

Juventus won the first season, but then Inter became a real force, winning eight of the next nine titles!

Simeone returned to Inter, Juventus is managed by Arteta, and Allegri took charge of Roma.

Managers – Handanovic (Sampdoria), Godin (Atalanta), Etrit Berisha (Bologna)

Assistants – Thiago Silva (Lazio), Valdifiori (Milan), Maxi Lopez (Napoli), Insigne (Bologna)

Other staff – Alderweireld (DOF, Udinese), Griezmann (HOYD, Parma), Suarez (HOYD, Bologna), El Shaarawy (scout, Pescara)

 

Germany

At least Dortmund can challenge Bayern for the title, but all other teams can only dream of top two places so far.

Zidane manages Bayern now, and Simone Inzaghi is in Dortmund.

Managers – Sergio Ramos (Hannover)

Assistants – Skrtel (Hoffenheim), Hasebe (Schalke)

 

France

PSG isn’t anymore unbeatable! Monaco won the league twice, and Nice improved a lot too, hoping for a step forward. And it’s quite strange to see Marseille only once at third place, they were much better in Europe.

PSG is managed by Murad Musaev, and his assistant is Cristiano Ronaldo Monaco appointed Sampaoli. 

Managers – Ribery (Guingamp), Rakitskyi (Le Havre), Kompany (Lens), Begovic (Lille)

Assistants – Stephane Mbia (Angers), Grenier (Lens), Aduriz (Lille)

Other staff – Zoran Tosic (chairman, Reims), Bakary Kone (DOF, Le Havre), Ruffier (HOYD, Lens)

 

Russia

Zenit against Moscow teams, no big surprises (well, Dinamo winning the league can be one, but they are usually going strong in FM).

Managers – Strootman (Arsenal Tula), Kagawa (Dinamo), Dzagoev (Rubin), Torbinskiy (SKA Khabarovsk), Anthony Lopes (Yenisey)

Assistants – Birsa (Zenit), Wendt (Khimki), Huszti (Krylja Sovetov), Dame N’Doye (Lokomotiv), Ivanovic (Spartak), Necid (Yenisey)

Other staff – Pogrebnyak (scout, Shinnik)

And few days after I checked this Strootman was sacked, and Thierry Henry returned to Arsenal Tula  

 

 

 

Notable former players

Spoiler

 

Alex Pomeroy – left Knockbreda in 2023 and retired soon.

Jonathan Smith – still at Knockbreda, never scored more than 7 goals in a season.

Kai Wardlow – left Knockbreda in 2023 and joined Tobermore Utd in 3rd tier. A first team player there but never been good in attack anymore.

Dale Adair – played for Glentoran in 2022-27, then was released and retired. Disappointing as he seemed to have good potential.

Joshua Gibson – still at Stevenage in League Two and scored at least 12 goals in his each full season.

Rene Urban – still at Crusaders. 59 goals, 97 assists and already listed as the club icon.

Paul Smyth – his first season with Crusaders remains the best one, but he’s quite a consistent goalscorer and still a useful player.

Gareth Lecky – surprisingly became a first choice left-back in Milan, but in the next season was loaned to Midtjylland and then sold to Marseille for 2.1 million. Won the Conference League in 2027 as a starting player, however before this season was loaned to Las Palmas and helped them to stay in La Liga. Well, he’s obviously the most successful player I’ve managed in this career so far.

Jack Quinn – was sold to Genoa after I left, but never played for their first team. Was loaned to Pistoiese in Serie C and back to Crusaders (where he scored 22 goals), eventually released and signed by Pro Vercelli (Serie B). This season he only played 6 games from the bench and most likely will become a free agent again.

 

Nathan Evans – he’s still a good player, scored 31 goals in two season for Barry, including two against TNS in a game which was quite important for our title run.

Christian Fischer – didn’t become a first team player in Venezia and moved to Lyngby (Danish 2nd tier) for free.

Kevin Deakin – his season in Mansfield was horrible with two serious injuries and only one game  

 

 

[Hootieleece]

Nice Update on the State of the Footballing World in your save.

 

[Koetzer]

New job

All Israeli clubs had managers from the start, so I had to wait for a vacancy in Iceland or Finland, and it appeared in July.

Inter Turku, two times champions of Finland, are predicted to finish 6th but currently going close to dangerous zone. Like in Wales and Northern Ireland, the league splits into halves, so my goal  is to be in the top six after 22 games played, sounds quite realistic at first sight.

The best players – striker Madinda, DM Cesar and right-back Redenstrand are loaned, however we have some own good youngsters like Asunmaa and Lundqvist. The transfer window is open now but I’m not sure if there will be some activity, need to see this squad in play first.

[Hootieleece]

Good Luck in Finland! Make sure you use an orange ball...so the players can see it.

[Koetzer]

15 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Good Luck in Finland! Make sure you use an orange ball...so the players can see it.

Thanks! The season ends quite early here so I haven't played in the snow yet

Season 2029

I had quite a good schedule for the start – four home games, and three of them against teams from the bottom places. Winning them all allowed us to move up to 7th place only two points behind the top half. However the schedule in August will be much tougher.

Two more home wins let us overtake Honka on goal difference with one game remaining in the first stage. And that will be a head-to-head meeting on their stadium in Espoo!

We needed a draw to qualify for top six, but played for a win and left no chances to our opponents. And we are really doing well in the top group with two wins and an away draw with leading HJK! Too bad the teams play each other only once at this stage, and with two games remaining it’s unlikely that we'll be higher than 4th place.

Well, I actually underestimated our chances. Before the last matchday the table looked like this, and a win over HIFK would have guaranteed at least 3rd place for us, but they successfully defended the 0-0 result. That means we finished 4th and will play in the European playoffs.

Losing at home to 8th placed team after such a good finish of regular season could be a massive disappointment, but Madinda helped us to save this game on last minutes and eventually win the shootout. Honka will be our opponents in semi-final.

That’s a lot better! No chances for Honka, and we will play HIFK again for the last European spot.

The final is played in two legs, and we did a great job in away game. Now need to keep this form at home.

Great way to finish the season, we’ll play in the Conference League next year!

 

Squad stats

Lundquist became the league’s best assistant, was second in the player of the year award, and also won the gentleman award not receiving a single yellow card (that’s interesting as we usually play with harder tackling ). Edilson Luna became third in the voting for best player, and also was selected as best defender and best youngster. 

I think we can be title challengers in the next season, HJK doesn't look unbeatable at all.

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2030

Predicted to finish second, hopefully will be able to overtake HJK as well.

Youth intake

Quite unimpressive.

Transfers

Madinda stays for one more season along with the Swedish defensive trio Luna-Abbas-Redenstrand, and Bruno Cesar signed a full contract with us.

I added three more players on loan – left-back Burns, right winger Milicich and goalkeeper Mikhailov (didn’t plan a goalkeeper loan but our first choice Nyberg suffered two injuries during pre-season so I decided to search for a more reliable option), signed two Brazilian prospects – Reirson and Abel, and bought Kamenschikov as a backup for Madinda.

 

Suomen Cup

The cup system is really strange here – group stage (separate for 1st and 2nd tier leagues) is held from January to beginning of March, and the next competitive game (start of the league) is scheduled a month later  

P.S. It really hurts to see Bala outgoing transfers… Selling a striker who scored 80 goals in two seasons to TNS for 1700 euros, what the hell 

[Koetzer]

Season 2030

A solid start, though not perfect as we couldn’t break through Honka defense and miss a chance to share the top spot with HJK. The first knockout game in the cup also wasn’t easy, but Kamenschikov’s first goal on 96th minute let us advance to quarter-final.

May started with a home draw against SJK, but that was the only disappointment. Two wins in a row over HJK were especially impressive, the first gave us a chance to close the gap (they haven’t dropped any points before this game), and the second brought the cup to Turku!

Aaron Milicich was called up to the World Cup. It’s good to see our player being represented at this level, but Finnish league doesn’t have a break and he will miss at least four games in June (or maybe more if New Zealand can advance from their group).

We moved to the top spot with two points advantage over HJK (could be four but Honka managed to stop us once again). New Zealand lost to Sweden and Mexico, so Milicich returned to the club quickly  

Summer transfer window opened, and we signed two more players for free – central midfielder Mohamed Bangoura and Mark Green (I plan to retrain him for a right-back position). Can’t say they became key players from the start but we really needed more depth before the European games. So far we are unbeaten in the league, six points ahead of HJK, and also had a great start in Conference League.

There was a good chance for HJK to close the gap, but we equalized immediately after their goal and kept the advantage. And then we travelled to Austria, got quite a decent result but I certainly couldn’t expect that in the return leg. Four goals from Milicich, and we’re through!  Defeating a higher seeded opposition gave us a better draw in the next round, and we advanced to the group stage. Partizan, Zurich and AIK – it's obviously not the toughest group that could be drawn from the 4th pot.

The title was secured with four games to go (sadly it won't be an unbeaten season though), so we could fully concentrate on the European campaign. And so far it’s going well, we started the group with a win in Stockholm.

We finished the league season with another win against HJK, and overall advantage over second place reached 24 points (they had a really awful form in autumn). And three wins in three European games made us very close to qualifying for knockout rounds!

Almost a perfect result, only dropped points against AIK which helped them to finish second. Unintended Nordic victory  

 

Squad stats

Bruno Cesar surely proved that we were right to sign a full contract with him, I hardly remember a DM (even a playmaking one) becoming the highest rated player in my team. Well, Bangoura was actually better after joining but didn’t play enough to win the award.

I’ll stay until the end of our European campaign and then move to Iceland, Israel or Ireland (will be added in January).

[Koetzer]

2030/31 Conference League knockout stage

I had to make one change in the starting eleven – CSKA refused to extend Mikhailov’s loan so I brought Nemanja Rankovic as a replacement.

As group winners, we qualified directly to the second round and were drawn against PAOK who fell there from Europa League and defeated Austria Wien in the first round. They have a very experienced squad (the youngest first team player is 27 years old), still relying on real players in 2031. That can be our advantage.

I’m really disappointed that we couldn’t score more and decide everything in the first game. Just look at these stats, PAOK looked like a team from Finnish second tier against us  

Nothing changed in the second game, except our finishing. 2+1 from Milicich, he has a good important matches attribute and that’s really noticeable in Europe.

 

Basel is next, and their squad doesn’t look stronger than PAOK (though not so old).

The winning goal in stoppage time was much deserved. We’ll have to cope without suspended Milicich at home but hopefully the advantage we got here will be enough to win on aggregate. Wolves actually booked the place in semi-final, destroying Genk 6-0.

What a game for Enberg, he came from the bench on 72nd minute and scored two almost immediately! We’re in the semi-final, can only hope for a miracle against Wolves but who knows?

Can’t blame my players, they were better in everything except finishing. English international David Lynch was too good for our level, his two goals almost decided the overall result.

Their goal in the first half didn’t change anything, we still had to score three, and honestly I didn’t believe that it was possible. A desperate substitution in half-time, bringing Kamenschikov as the second forward. He only scored four goals in more than a year, what can he change against a Premier League team? Well, they didn’t expect it either. And then Milicich gave us the away goal advantage with ten minutes to go, shocked Wolves couldn’t do anything and we were actually closer to score again.

We will play Bayer Leverkusen in the final. They won this trophy in 2025 and were runners-up last season, obviously will be favorites but we made all this way as underdogs so shouldn’t be afraid  

[Koetzer]

2030/31 Conference League final

Vasil Levski stadium, Sofia

 

We missed injured Abel and Abbas, so I had to move Lundqvist to the left, and Senegalese youngster Gomis started in defense. Bayer also had some injured players but their squad depth is a lot better.

A direct free kick from 25 yards. You know it’s almost as dangerous as penalty when it shows in highlights.

Cross from the right wing, and their left midfielder Consoli scores a header. Few minutes later he collided with Madinda and was substituted. Our striker was also hurt but stays on the pitch so far.

Almost an identical answer, just the cross came from left wing and Milicich scored once again in this European campaign. We're not done yet!

Quite a good performance so far, we fouled a lot but that can be expected.

 

55’ Robert Bedime – 1:3

Cross from a free kick, and their substitute midfielder heads the ball in. Kamenschikov and Enberg replace Madinda and Lundqvist who didn’t play well today.

We missed several good chances, and then Luna gave the ball away, Bensaid ran one on one and confidently scored.

Another counter, another run by Bensaid and that’s his hat-trick.

A heavy defeat but an impressive season overall. Milicich won the best player award but somehow wasn’t included into team of the season (though Mikhailov, who left us in winter, was selected ).

[Koetzer]

New job

From the north to the far south of European football. Hapoel Tel Aviv, 11 times Israeli champions (though the last title was won in 2010) and even Champions League winners (Asian of course, won in 1967 before Israel switched to UEFA) offered me a contract. Predicted 7th of 14, and the board want a top half finish.

Some familiar names appeared in the squad. Baba Quaye was a first team player in Bala, and Svein Kristiansen was a big threat in Finland while playing for Mariehamn. Two experienced Israeli players – Osher Davida and Ofek Ovadia will also be key for our attack. Though the squad needs some cleaning as we are over the wage budget and foreigner limit (maximum 5 in playing 11).

 

Transfers

Offloaded some worse foreigners and overpaid local players. Selling 30 year old backup striker David for twice of his default value also seems like a good move.

Manoel Inacio – much better than our goalkeepers at start and has an Israeli passport, so it was a necessary buy.

Dele Uche – will play alongside Quaye in starting eleven.

Radomir Rajic and Aleksandar Pejovic – two completely free loans, Rajic will be the first choice right-back, and Pejovic mostly will be a backup on left wing.

Yaron Haimsohn – and another loan to provide backup.

 

Gvia HaToto

It’s a pre-season league cup with quite strange rules and no importance for the board, but we anyway won all the games and reached the final against Maccabi Haifa, which will be held in September.

[Koetzer]

 

Season 2031/32 – part 1

Great start against Bnei Yehuda, but in the next game we missed a win conceding a late free kick. Still it’s very early to make any predictions.

Lost the only league game against rivals Beitar, but managed to win the first trophy in Israel thanks to young striker Vahaba’s late equalizer and two saves by Inacio in shootout.

So far I can only say that it’s a very unpredictable league, any team can be a threat.

That’s much better, winning all the games in November let us move up to top three, five points behind leading Maccabi Haifa.

A shootout defeat in the cup wasn’t so disappointing itself but we lost Kristiansen for a month, and that happened before the busiest stage of the season. We already dropped points in two next league games, though a good run before this helped us to climb on top.

Top eight teams are just in seven points, the remaining part of the season is going to be very interesting.

[Hootieleece]

Good luck in Israel!

You started well.

[Koetzer]

Season 2031/32 – part 2

We couldn’t keep the top spot after four draws in a row but remained in top three (together with Be’er Sheva and Maccabi Haifa) having six points advantage over 4th place. I also signed American full-back Dan Miranda who previously played in Finland for TPS (will train him to play on the right side as well, so he can provide a good backup for both wings).

The game against Be’er Sheva was the most important one in February. We had a man advantage since 18th minute but only managed to score once, and in stoppage time their left-back joined the attack and equalized. We still had some minutes and one substitution left, I replaced Ovadia with Pejovic and he made an immediate impact with a long shot! With just one game remaining in the first stage we are second, one point behind leading Maccabi Haifa.

So far we drew all four games with Haifa this season and still go one point behind. There will be one more in May, we’ll play at home and this game can decide who will win the title.

We won all four games in April but Haifa did the same and stayed on top! Both title contenders haven’t lost a league game since new year, that’s going to be something special.

A quick goal let us control the game, and despite Haifa was better statistically they couldn’t do anything with our defense, and we secured our lead with a penalty. We got a two points advantage, but there still were three games until the finish… and we immediately missed a win in the next one after leading 2-0 at half-time. So, goal difference became the decider, before the last matchday we had +50 against +47 for Haifa.

After Uche scored for us, I started to check Haifa result. They had an away game against Be’er Sheva and were 2-0 ahead at half-time. Two more and they could overtake us, but luckily nothing changed until 71st minute when the score became 2-1. Then it was clear that any win will bring us the title, and we held this lead.

What a title race, I certainly haven’t expected to win the league in the first season and especially in that style!

 

Squad stats

Ovadia was the best set pieces taker I managed in this save so far, and it’s not a surprise that he set the new assists record for my players, surpassing Henriksen. Kristiansen became the league’s top goalscorer, and they both were selected to the team of the year along with four other our players.

Slovenia is the next league I’ll add, but most likely my new club will be from Iceland or Ireland. And I highly recommend Israel for those who want to try youth challenge, strict foreigner limit and no Bosman rule can be your advantage when developing own academy  

[Koetzer]

While waiting for vacancies I checked some national teams and found some really good newgens in the countries which you don’t usually expect them. Andorra, San Marino, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Eritrea, Pakistan, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and El Salvador each have a player far better than they had at start (though only the Salvadoran striker was actually trained in his home country). And four players really stand out:

David Moisan – you probably won’t suggest African heritage based on his name and appearance, but he was born in Chad and doesn’t even have a French passport   And his skills are awesome for only 15 years, I bet he’ll set some national records during his career.

Paul Zammit – started in Lazio before moving to Atletico for 52 million. Isn’t a key player there but having around 15 starts in a season isn’t bad too.

Berdymyrat Amanow – Turkmen/French midfielder, started in Reims, then joined Bayer, won the Conference League (yes, he played in that final against Inter Turku) and moved to PSG for 59 million after that. Was mostly a backup this season.

Sven Aicher – well, that’s a real superstar. Scored more than 100 goals for Real and PSG, won the Ligue 1 best player award twice and the Golden Shoe in 2028 (despite usually playing as AMC). Obviously the best Liechtensteiner athlete of all time.

 

New job

Back to the north. KR had a poor start of the season while predicted to finish 5th, though the situation is not hopeless at all.

The squad is very unbalanced, among four highest rated players there are three strikers – Asgeirsson, Hafliðason and Kristensen, and midfielder Sævarsson, while the defensive line looks quite poor. I joined just before the summer transfer window so will be able to change it, but another issue is our finances, most likely I will have to rely only on cheap loans.

[dllu]

Good luck in Iceland! And the name of KR's ground means "Field of Champions", so no pressure...  

[Koetzer]

Season 2032

The team captain Johannsson received offers from several Middle Eastern clubs, and I decided to sell him. He almost turned 30, was too slow for playing as a full-back and we needed money. Also I tried to offload a bunch of useless reserves team players and clear the wage bill, but only some of them attracted other clubs’ attention.

All four loans – defenders Gjerstad, Avdic, Anderson and right winger Degerlund cost us nothing, so we even had some free wage budget and could sign two ex-Yugoslavian midfielders – Maloca will be a backup so far, and Ahmetovic is already one of our best players.

Three wins in four games let us move up to 5th place, European qualification isn’t actually far (well, 4th place which isn’t guaranteed continental football, to be more precise).

We had to play top two teams within just three days and managed to win both games! Unfortunately we weren’t so good later and missed a chance to move into the top three (4th place won’t be in Europe as Fjolnir won the cup). However, with that positioning we can’t give up yet, a head-to-head game against KA can be decisive.

Defeating KA helped us to reach 3rd place, but then we lost to Valur at home and fell back to 4th due to worse goal difference. So on the last matchday we needed help from other teams, and it happened – while we were struggling against relegated Vikingur, KA couldn’t score at all in their game and we clinched the last European spot for next season.

Only three points from the champions, not bad after taking charge on 10th place! And it's the first ever title for HK, a huge surprise as they only were predicted 8th.

 

Squad stats

Only two players who were in the team for whole season had an average rating over 7, and unfortunately one of them (Hafliðason) will leave us as he wants to play on higher level. Hopefully I’ll manage to find more quality players like Ahmetovic to make us title contenders.

[Hootieleece]

HK doing well is not a surprise. They are actually a sleeping giant. 

Also in my Clermont save my affiliate and they loan out 4 of my players a season. Also they have won a title in my save as well. (with the help of my youth and reserve players of course)

Good job with KR though...looks like a lot of dross in that squad.

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2033

The defending champions are still predicted 8th   And lack of European football in summer seems to be an advantage here.

Youth intake

Einar Sigurgeirsson looks quite promising. 

Transfers

We are going to play with completely new defensive line Stojanovic-Korte-Gissurasson-Dalsgaard, luckily the pre-season is very long here and there will be time to blend them together. Elvarsson will be a good rotation option in midfield, Sell will be a first choice on right wing and Storhaug should replace Hafliðason at front.

Finally the reserve team is almost cleared. And Hafliðason is still without a club in May, playing on the new level for sure   

 

League Cup

Not an important trophy, but winning it is surely an encouraging sign before the season starts.

[Koetzer]

Season 2033

Ahmetovic was called to the U20 World Cup, and we surely could do better with him. Still three wins in four games is a decent result and it allows us to be in the leading group.

Another long term international call-up, Stojanovic left us to take part in U21 Euro. Despite his absence, some injuries and suspensions we did quite well and sit on second place two points behind leading FH.

In July I signed two youngsters from English clubs – midfielder Cole Ball and center-back Michael Donkor, who immediately appeared in the first team as Gissurarsson suffered an injury and Korte was called up to the Gold Cup. We are still second in the league (though it’s only a 7 point gap between leaders and 8th place, so it’s totally unpredictable so far), reached the cup final and passed two rounds in Europe. With Azeri team Qabala next and Lech or Djurgardens in the final qualifying round there can be a chance to reach group stage.

We won the national cup quite confidently, and what’s even more important (especially for the club finances) – managed to qualify for the Conference League group stage! Both games against Djurgardens were actually one-sided, and they were really lucky not to concede for 180 minutes. The group draw surely isn’t easy, we got one of the two biggest teams in this tournament, and two other pots also had better options. The league is more complicated, we are four points behind leading Breiðablik with three games in hand. Seems quite easy to overtake but the schedule is going to be very busy in September.

Well, that’s what I mean by busy schedule. Two games were held during the international break, and we had to play them without a single nominal center-back. Four points from these games weren’t bad (though I was very surprised with one of them ending 0-0 ). And later we had all our left wingers injured, including Hoem who was recalled from loan few weeks before. However then we received an unexpected gift – heavy rain postponed one of our games to October, and despite Breiðablik finished their season on top with two point advantage the title fate is in our hands. We also had chances in both European games, scored early goals but the opponents played much better after half-time. 

I have absolutely no idea what happened there. It wasn't even a classic FMing, 10th placed team completely outplayed us and left without a title.

Can’t understand what ‘challenge for the title’ means in FM if that counts as failed  

In order to retain some chances to advance from this group we needed to win at least one game against Molde, and at least did it confidently at home. Partizan is two points ahead now, so the next match will decide a lot.

We also had a youth intake already, this one brought us quite a lot of attacking potential with Skulason as the most promising player.

Had more chances but couldn’t score, so the final matchday had no meaning for us.

 

Squad stats

Ahmetovic was a real leader in our midfield, and despite not being involved much in the final attacking phase got a very high average rating.

I hope next season won't end in such a disappointing way. We certainly need to be on top before the European games make our schedule a complete mess. 

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2034

This time we are predicting to win the title. The board demands the same and guess I have no other chance as my contract expires after this season.

 

Transfers

We had some free wage and transfer budgets following the European campaign, still not enough to buy really good players but we secured some better loan signings. Damgaard will be our first choice goalkeeper, Juric should become a starting right-back, Narek will replace Kristensen (who was bought by Saudi club Al-Wehda for a release fee of 61k) on the left wing and Ivanov will provide more depth on the right. Speaking of permanent deals, Gunnlaugsson (released by FH) is really good and after signing him I even decided to change our main formation from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1. Others are Icelandic backup who equally can play on both full-back positions and two youngsters from English teams (so far will develop in the reserves).

Cups

 Won the league cup once again, but lost in the supercup. Didn’t pay much attention to these trophies though.

[Koetzer]

Season 2034

Good start, though Haukar caused some problems again. Korte was called up to the World Cup, hopefully our defense depth will be enough in June.

A 95th minute free kick equalizer from Fjolnir was a big disappointment but we finished the month on top, three points over Breiðablik. Croatian youngster Marin Grubisic made his goalscoring debut in the cup.

Perfect month, we won all the games without conceding a single goal! Our advantage in the league increased to ten points, we also advanced to the cup semi-final and got a good result at home against Slavia Prague.

I doubt that away goals rule would still exist in 2034 in real life but here it helped us to advance against Slavia. Then we beat Slovenian side Celje and were drawn against Hertha. The aggregate result wasn’t a surprise but still we managed to win a home with only goal from Dogan (another youngster poached from England, Liverpool this time), could score second (their keeper saved a penalty from Storhaug) and held the lead until half-time in Berlin  

Winning the league shouldn't be tough now. Despite losing to Breiðablik at home, we held eight points advantage above them and also have a game in hand. The cup run ended in semi-final, not too concerned with the result itself but it’s damn Haukar again!

The title was secured after defeating IA with four games to go. Quite an easy season  

 

 

Squad stats

Another impressive season for Ahmetovic, he won the league’s best player award and most likely will play for a bigger team soon (wanted by Lokomotiv Moscow now). Asgeirsson (first choice striker for the national team) and Sell became top two goalscorers of the league.

Ireland or Slovenia will be next, and Slovakia is added from next season.

[Koetzer]

New job

Irish league also ended in autumn, and Cork City sacked Ruben Loftus-Cheek despite finishing second. So, we have a very ambitious board which wants to sell the club at the same time  

Loaned players were the best part of the squad, and only Luiz Felipe (Northern Irish Brazilian, what a mix!) is available for the next season. Our own best player is goalkeeper Josh Ferris who even played for the Irish national team. Well, at least this position won’t need to be changed before the next season.

 

Transfers

In Iceland I had to offload a lot of players at start, here the situation was opposite. After the loans expired we had only about 15 players in the club, so I basically could build a new team. Of course, new loans were key to this DL McSweeney, DC Marshall, MC’s Lynch and Edwards, AML Fogarty and ST Smith should all help to improve the squad. Also I signed two backup players for free and managed to find money for buying transfer-listed Sean Forde from Shamrock Rovers (our original budget was zero but free wage funds and future installments helped). He’s really good for this league, and especially at this price. 

The bookmakers predict us to finish second, slightly behind Dundalk, winners of the three latest seasons.

[Koetzer]

Season 2035 – part 1

A big test right from the start, and I think we passed it. Can’t say that we had a lot more real chances to score but this result and our quality of play was encouraging, and I hope that we’ll be able to beat them in next games (will be three more in the league and maybe some extra in different cups).

Apart from the game against Longford, when we couldn’t score with more than 30 shots on goal, the month was perfect and we share the lead with Dundalk so far.

Two goals from corners and good one on one finish from Smith gave us a first win over Dundalk and a clear leading spot at the moment. Well, actually they caught us but had to play one more game this month.  None of the cups are important for the board but we keep going in all of them, mostly with backup players (though had to play extra time in the latest game against a lower league team).

Some harder games in May, but we only drew once and got four points advantage over Dundalk with almost half of the season played.

Our impressive unbeaten run snapped against Derry City, we’re still leading but the gap is only one point now. Also we won two trophies this month, the first one was much easier – we played against our feeder club in the final and actually won this cup for 19th consecutive season At least these cups let our backup players get match practice, for example young striker Aaron Mahon scored 17 goals in 9 cup games. The second final was harder but we managed to defeat Dundalk once again. 

In July we and other title contenders will start the European season, so the schedule isn’t going to be easier.

[Hootieleece]

If your keeping up with Dundalk in the IPL your doing well. They are like the PSG of Irish Football or maybe more like TNS.

[Koetzer]

23 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

If your keeping up with Dundalk in the IPL your doing well. They are like the PSG of Irish Football or maybe more like TNS.

Well, they are surely richer than any other team here (and the board already sold one of our starting players to them), but it's not the difference that we had in Wales against the only professional club.

[Koetzer]

Season 2035 – part 2

Once again I used my favorite scouting destination and brought some youngsters released from English clubs – center-back Booth, right-back Figueroa and central midfielder Davies should provide us more depth in the remaining part of the season.

Another confident win against Dundalk increased our lead to four points again. And then they decided to weaken us, their offer for Harris was too good for the board (and I can understand, the club finances weren’t good) but I managed to bring Jovica Antunic on loan before the window closed. Looks like a good replacement.

Busy schedule despite only two games in the league. We kept the lead, but what’s more important for the club stature – managed to reach the group stage in Europe! Wasn’t easy as we scored the winning goal against Rapid after Lynch was sent off and needed a shootout to defeat Hajduk, but we made it and got quite a tricky group (well, getting a French team from third seeds isn’t something you usually expect in this tournament). And I’m actually glad that we are out of another cup, our autumn schedule is already packed enough

Six points advantage with seven games remaining, and this includes a game against Dundalk at home. We also won the third trophy this season and had a confident group opening in Europe.

Both we and Dundalk had very busy schedule, and they coped with it much worse, dropped some more points so our head-to-head game had absolutely no meaning, we became the champions few days before. In the Conference League we managed to get an important away win over Shakhtar (surprisingly they are now bottom of our group) and took the lead with 6 points.

Two confident wins helped us secure the first place with a game to go. And there appeared another trophy that we still could win this season.

I already won the Irish Champions Cup with Crusaders, and now repeated it with a southern side. The away game was especially good, Mark Smith scored six goals!

107 goals in the league and confident first place in Europe, that’s a great season. And ten our players were selected into the team of the year (including Harris who only played 5 games for Dundalk so obviously deserved the award playing for us). 

Squad stats

Mark Smith was exceptional, 53 goals are the best result I’ve ever seen from my striker in any league! Unfortunately, Arsenal now wants him to play on higher level. And spending almost all our budget on Forde before the season actually was a good idea.

I'll stay to finish the Conference League and then move to the next country (Slovakia, Slovenia or Belarus).

[Koetzer]

2035/36 Conference League knockout stage

Smith and Antunic left us as their clubs wanted them to play on a higher level, and I couldn’t sign a replacement because we had a running takeover, but luckily it was completed before the end of transfer window.  Abilio Lage and Nick Fox were signed on loan, and in addition the new chairman bought a well-known player for me – center-back Amar Dervisevic from KR (well, he’s slightly better than Shaugnessy who was a starting player last season but I’d never give him this wage).

The European spring started for us in Brussels. The first half was mostly equal, but then Fogarty made the difference, winning a penalty and scoring twice (one goal was disallowed due to offside). Was a good start anyway, and we should keep this advantage at home.

We controlled the whole game, and last 15 minutes looked like Anderlecht decided to fly home earlier Maribor will be our opponents in quarter-final, that’s certainly a good draw at this stage. 

That’s amazing, board criticizes me for their own transfer  

Maribor was actually better in the first half, but we managed to score with two first shots on target. A good advantage before a home game.

A really boring game, but we did what was needed and will face Frankfurt next.

Probably the worst start that could happen  Once again a German team ends our European campaign.

Well, at least we didn’t lose in the return leg. Though this game almost went the same way as VAR checked Lynch’s foul for red card soon after Frankfurt goal  Still it's a great achievement for the Irish club.

[Koetzer]

New job

It wasn’t a long time since I visited Slovenia with Cork City, and now I’m back to manage Olimpija, one of the two biggest teams in the country. They won the league twice in last four seasons, and came second in the latest one, only a point behind Maribor. What’s interesting, the team was previously managed by Virgil van Dijk who is now in charge of Werder Bremen.

Good to see that the best players in the club are local talents, like Modrijan, Ajlec and Bole, along with more experienced Djuranovic and Slavisa Brumen (one of three Brumens in the squad, that seems to be a huge family  ). And 16 year old attacking midfielder Volk is also worth noticing, he’s actually good to get some playing time in first team.

 

Transfers

We had 3 million to spend, but actually there were no real options. All players who could improve our first team asked for wages much higher than our board allowed me to offer. So, two backup signings, two loans to cover weak spots in the starting 11 (central midfielder Prso and right winger Maric) and center-back Lebar (wasn’t a weak position for us but his loan cost us nothing anyway).

[Koetzer]

Season 2036/37 – part 1

After first games it became clear that our strikers weren’t good, and I brought Marijan Saric, who played for Olimpija last season, back on loan (actually I wanted to extend his loan before this, but Hajduk refused). Also we sold backup central defender Sheqeri to Saudi Arabia for 1.2 million, not bad for the player who turns 30 in a few months.

The first European game was very tough as Slavisa Brumen was sent off even before half-time and we were 1-2 behind, but managed to equalize and then won at home to advance further. Zurich will be our next opposition.

Maribor equalized against us on 94th minute, but still we finished the month on top. And the games against Crvena Zvezda were a rollercoaster, I didn’t expect much after 1-2 at home but two goals in first 15 minutes put us ahead… and it took them other 15 minutes to equalize! However, in the second half we were better and deservedly win (though the winning goal was scored by their keeper ). And then the group draw happened. It’s obviously bugged, Roma and Sporting had two highest rankings among all teams, and Sparta is also ranked higher than some of the top seeded teams, still they went to the same group. 

Great start in the group, but we only got one point from two next league games and miss a chance to break away from other teams.

Didn’t expect a good result in Lisbon, especially after we conceded on 3rd minute, but we played really well after it and secured a very important win. Few days later we also defeated Maribor and returned to the top spot despite having a game in hand.

Could secure a top two position with a win over Sparta, but anyway we now only need a draw against Sporting in the last game.

Actually even 1-2 loss could be enough to qualify, but we equalized and avoided counting tiebreakers. And of course, we again got the hardest available draw. The league form was far from ideal, but we keep five points gap from Maribor before the winter break.

[Hootieleece]

Keep up the good work with Olimpija!

 

[Koetzer]

Season 2036/37 – part 2

A draw against Maribor a home wasn’t an ideal result of course, but a quite satisfying one as we kept he gap. And no surprises against Milan, we only could hold the draw until half-time in both games.

We lost to the 9th placed team which had a player sent off on 12th minute and got one shot on goal Luckily, Maribor also dropped some points and our advantage remained the same. 

We actually could become champions with a win over Maribor, but they managed to postpone our celebrations. Still with four point advantage and three games to go it shouldn’t be a big issue.

Won all remaining league games and secured the title before the final matchday. Two best Slovenian teams also met each other in the cup final, and one goal decided everything. Our right-back Ceh joined the attack and scored his only goal this season, he obviously saved it for the right day  

 

Squad stats

All four loan signings became our key to success, and Maric claimed the MVP award. Slavisa Brumen actually disappointed (2 goals, 2 assists and 2 red cards ) and I started to use Volk as first choice AMC. This youngster surely has a good career ahead.

One more league completed from first try. This squad could be fun to manage further, but Slovenian clubs have no reserve teams and that’s very annoying (along with the board's wage restrictions).

[Hootieleece]

Where are you headed? Good job in Slovenia. Maybe Croatia?

[Koetzer]

New job

It didn’t take a lot of time to find a new club, Slovan job was available right after I left Olimpija. The most successful club in Slovakia (18 league titles) had a disappointing season, only finishing 6th in the league (though won the cup so will take part in Conference League). And the board wants returning to the top immediately.

The squad is obviously a step forward from Slovenia in terms of wages (though the highest paid players are not the best ones). Two Ghanaian players – giant (205 cm!) goalkeeper Ayew and attacking midfielder Yeboah, along with Romanian left winger Matei should be key for us. Local players, like full-back Huk and central midfielder Baran, will help them as well.

 

Transfers

First two transfers were agreed by previous manager, I wasn't disappointed though as they were overpaid and getting older. Asamoah and Yee-Sing were sold for the same reason (they also had one year remaining on their contracts), and Qatar's offer for our second choice left-back Petrus was too good to refuse.

Galli was signed before me, and it’s unlikely that he will feature in starting eleven often. Basri and Gluscevic should improve our attacking line, also I signed defender Zamernik who can cover both wings, and promising youngster Kozak.

[Koetzer]

Season 2037/38 – part 1

We started the season with a big win over Czech cup holders, though the game itself wasn’t so one-sided as it could be suggested from the scoreline. First European rounds were quite easy, and we will face Universitatea Craiova next.

Also I signed another Slovenian defender as a backup – Bostjan Ajlec joined us for 86k.

Had a poor start against Zilina with two goals conceded in first 15 minutes, but managed to overturn it even before half-time and eventually defeated the reigning champions. Another impressive comeback almost happened in Rotterdam, where we equalized after a home defeat but lost in shootout.

Speaking of transfers, I offloaded declining veteran Sauerfeld to Avellino in Serie C who agreed to pay his whole wage (13k per week) and replaced him with youngster Daniel Hamsik (a completely free loan with option to buy). Also we almost lost our best player Matei, the board accepted a 2 million bid from Montpellier but I then offered him to other clubs, he chose Saint-Etienne and I was able to cancel the deal

Poor month, we lost in the cup (had to field some players from B team as a lot of starters were still in national teams, and we couldn't hold the two goal advantage) and got only four points from three league games. Despite this we’re still leading, one point ahead of Nitra.

We lost the top spot to Nitra but managed to return it later, thanks to an easier schedule. However, all the games against teams from 8th to 12th places were already played, so the remaining part of season must be a lot harder.

A good way to finish this year, though Zilina certainly aren’t going to repeat last season’s success.

Four games remained in the first stage, and three of them will be against teams directly behind us. The title battle is going to be really challenging.

[Koetzer]

Season 2037/38 – part 2

We received an unexpected amount of money from a past transfer, but I couldn’t find anyone to improve the first team.

Dunajska Streda managed to defeat us after a red card for Stenseth, but dropped points in other games so we kept the advantage with two home wins.

The first stage ended with a disappointing home draw, but then we did much better at start of the top six group and now lead the table with five points over Dun.Streda. Also we had another surprising boost to our finances, Galli (signed for free and only played 3 games from the bench) was sold to a Qatari club for 1 million.

I expected April to be the hardest month due to three away games in a row, but we confidently won them all, and as other teams took a lot of points from each other, secured the title with four games to go! Didn’t even hope for that before the winter break.

Lack of motivation and heavily rotated squad didn’t help our opponents, we actually won all ten games in the second stage! 

Of course, early exit from the cup and Conference League made our schedule a lot easier. We had no mid-week fixtures since September, but still that turnaround in the second stage was absolutely unpredictable.

 

Squad stats

I don’t know how the previous managers used Matei but he only had 2-3 assists per season before me Basri became a very useful addition to our squad and won the best goalscorer award. 

Four different league titles in four years, let’s see what will happen later. The next destination will most likely be Hungary, as there are some potential vacancies. Belarus is another option, and I’m also adding Greece (very surprised to see their league so low, on 28th place in the table).

[ashjm]

Great stuff.

Hungary is a really fun league to play in, been there a few times. Last few years you have smashed it

[Koetzer]

On 05/09/2020 at 00:03, ashjm said:

Great stuff.

Hungary is a really fun league to play in, been there a few times. Last few years you have smashed it

Yes, I remember having a long youth only save for Pecs last year, was quite interesting to manage there.

 

New job

So, it’s Honved. Probably the strongest team in the world in early 1950s, the core of the famous Mighty Magyars with Ferenc Puskas in front, was not so successful in 21st century. Only two league titles (in 2017 and 2031) and a very inconsistent form in recent years. The last season was finished on 7th place.

Quite a lot of foreign players in the squad (especially from France, which is understandable as we are affiliates with Caen), but the best ones are Hungarians anyway – goalkeeper Gyula Farkas, wingers Norbert Farkas and Opara, striker Forgacs and Jozsef Nagy (have no idea for what position in my tactics he would suit though). The only foreigner rated on the same level is Marius Lucas who’s on loan now but I’m planning to sign him for free.

 

Transfers

It’s a bit strange when the first team signings join for free, and then I had to pay quite a lot for backups. We needed to improve the defensive line, so Ludanszki and Bogdanovic went directly to the starting eleven. Marius Lucas also was signed to a full contract, as I planned. Speaking of backups, I have high hopes for the Slovakian youngster Mazan, think he can develop a lot here.

And I sold some players who were unlikely to improve.

[Koetzer]

Season 2038/39 – part 1

Looks like a good start, though with such an easy schedule we could do even better. Home draws with two currently bottom teams were quite disappointing.

First loss against Ujpest, so far they are the strongest opponents we faced this season. And that’s a worrying sign before playing against all the league favorites in October.

Well, this month obviously went better than I expected. We were outclassed by Fehervar (and still the result itself wasn't as bad as it could) but got seven points from three other games against teams from the leading group!

This time we didn’t drop any points against teams from the bottom half and established ourselves in the top group.

Two more wins, and we finished the year on second place! Need to keep this form after the break, as we’re going to play against all other top teams and underachieving Ferencvaros (three times during a week, both in league and cup).

[Koetzer]

Season 2038/39 – part 2

Game against Mezokovesd was a practice before much harder schedule in February – six games in 15 days, and all against stronger teams. I signed midfielder Sergey Khasanov for free (released from Zenit), he’s clearly better than our previous deep lying playmaker Pataki, and also add more variety to our attacking line with signing Miodrag Nikolic (120k from Debrecen), who had a really good scout report in terms of consistency and important matches, hope this will count.

What a month, we haven’t conceded at all in the league and moved back to second place, two points behind Fehervar and two points ahead of Debrecen, all other teams are way behind. And also we advanced to the cup quarter-final, will face Vasas there so have a good chance to go further.

Vasas couldn’t stop us in the cup, but managed to hold the draw in the league, and so Fehervar remained the sole leaders with two points advantage.

Two more draws didn’t give us another choice than defeating Fehervar, and we completely outplayed them at home! However, the next match almost ended our title dreams, three points behind the leaders with two games to go and much harder opponents to play.

Fehervar didn’t slip and also won the cup final with three goals in extra time. Well… now we will have reason for revenge in both competitions.

Four dropped points against eventually relegated Mezokovesd actually cost us the title.

 

Squad stats

Khasanov became a really good addition to the squad, having the best average rating for his half of this season with us.

[Hootieleece]

So close to 5 for 5 with League Championships.

Hopefully you can win it next season.

[Koetzer]

2029-2039 Recap 

Ten more year passed, so it’s time for another world update. 

International 

Spoiler

 

World Cup

Two in a row for Italy, just like a century ago, and they now equal Germany with six titles. Norway’s second place in 2030 was quite a surprise even though Haaland and Odegaard were at their prime then.

 

European Championship

Italy also won the European title between two global ones.

 

Copa America

Brazil won both titles, and Paraguay continued their good form from previous decade.

 

African Cup

Quite a large number of medal winners, including first ever title for Guinea.

 

Asian Cup

South Korea won two of the three tournaments, except the home one which ended with a surprising final – Iraq vs Syria.

 

Gold Cup

Five titles for Mexico and only one final for USA, the same result as the non-FIFA side of Martinique.

 

OFC Nations Cup

Still the same winner here.

 

 

 Club

 

Spoiler

 

Champions League

After fifteen years of only English and Spanish teams in the finals Bayern and Dortmund contested the trophy at Old Trafford. Hopefully it’s a sign of more variety in future years.

 

Europa League

Wolves reached the final four times in five years, and the latest try became successful. Hoffenheim and Monaco also won their first ever European titles.

 

Conference League

Rangers became the first team outside top-5 leagues to win this trophy, Anderlecht, Sparta and my Inter Turku managed to reach the final.

 

England

Man City and Chelsea contested all the latest titles, while Wolves joined the traditional top teams and finished second last season! Maybe they will be able to improve in near future.

 

Spain

The same old top three, except Valencia finished third two times.

 

Italy

I guess battle for 3rd place is the most interesting part here  

 

Germany

At least here top two teams regularly switch and sometimes even let others join the title battle.

 

France

Qatari owners sold PSG in 2034, and what a strange coincidence – they haven’t won the league title since then  

 

Russia

Zenit won nine out of ten, only letting Krasnodar get their first ever league title.

 

 

 Former clubs and players

Spoiler

 

Knockbreda remained in the NI Premiership and even qualified for the Conference League in 2031.

Joshua Gibson – the only remaining player from these times, Stevenage captain and record holder with 709 games and 208 goals announced his retirement after this season.

Crusaders were Northern Irish champions in 2030, 2032 and 2037, most of the latest years the league was dominated by Larne.

Rene Urban – his exceptional career for Crusaders made him one of the club legends. Wasn’t so good in Emirates and eventually announced his retirement after this season.

Gareth Lecky – joined Bordeaux for 6 million and spent eight seasons as a first team player before leaving on free transfer to Rio Ave.

Jack Quinn – retired in 2036 after a journey in Italian lower leagues.

Bala Town managed to become regular title contenders after me, turn professional and won the league in 2032, 2034, 2037 and 2039.

Christian Fischer – became a club favorite in Lyngby, moving between first and second tiers in Denmark.

Kevin Deakin – a real journeyman who kept moving almost every season, sometimes without playing any game before finally finding his place in Eastleigh (32 goals in 3 seasons).

Ronaldo Houston – was sold to Mansfield for laughable 1100 euros soon after I left, and four years later Cardiff paid 76k for him. Looking at his current value, it obviously was a great deal. Played five seasons as a first choice in Championship.

Dave Westwood and Ross Jones – two players who are still in the club after ten years, and they both are listed as icons. Jones also holds the club record with 378 league games (he’s only 31, so can get close to 500 I think).

Lars Henriksen – another club icon, the player who once had an average rating over 8 and kept his impressive form without me. Eventually he was bought by Fulham, battling for survival in Premier League, played 10 games on that level but couldn’t save them. And then he was only a fringe player in Championship.

Will Morgan – was sold to TNS in 2036. Wasn’t a first team player at this time anyway.

Kieran Reid – returned to Bala after several seasons with TNS and retired last year.

Inter Turku became Finnish champions four times in last five years and even managed to reach Champions League group stage in 2036!

Joel Lundquist – became a club icon, but left on free transfer in 2033 and then played for smaller Finnish teams.

Bruno Cesar – returned to Brazil in 2034 with a 1.1M transfer to Vasco da Gama and became quite useful player in Serie A.

Mohamed Bangoura – joined Las Palmas in 2033 for 1.1M and after five mediocre seasons in La Liga left for MLS.

Ilkka Asunmaa – wasn’t a key player for me but managed to develop a lot, became a starting player in national team and helped Empoli to avoid relegation from Serie A.

Younes Madinda – I didn’t want to include loaned players here but Madinda obviously deserves it. After three seasons on loan Djurgardens sold him to Mainz for 2.2M, and four years later Wolves paid 40M! He isn’t a Premier League superstar but still became a useful player on top level.

Hapoel Tel-Aviv didn’t win any titles after my departure.

Baba Quaye – moved to America in 2033, played four seasons for Colorado and three more in Toluca.

Svein Kristiansen – another player who continued his career in MLS, and it’s now his seventh season in Houston.

Ofek Ovadia and Osher Davida both played for Hapoel till their retirement.

KR won the league title once more in 2037.

Ajdin Ahmetovic and Sindri Asgeirsson are still in the club, despite my predictions. They both had serious injuries in recent years, probably this was the reason.

Cork City can’t beat Dundalk, finishing second three years in a row.

Josh Ferris, Sean Forde and Aaron Mahon are still in the club.

Amar Dervisevic – was signed by Leicester in winter 2038 for 1.4M and played 44 games in Premier League.

Mark Smith – his career stats outside a season in Cork look awesome, 1 goal in 1 game for Ireland, 1 goal in 1 game for Swansea and that's all  

Olimpija returned to second place as well.

Stanislav Ajlec – he’s the only starting player (except loaned ones of course) who left the team. Played only one game for Norwich and was sent to Brentford on loan.

Slovan Bratislava finished third in the last season, all key players are still in the club.

 

 

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2039/40

The odds are quite encouraging this time. 

Youth intake

We got a promising center-back and a striker from Liechtenstein (not so good, but for the first time my manager nationality had an effect)! 

Transfers

Some backup players were sold to be replaced with better ones.

Ignacio Ramos – lacks height and aggression to become our Sergio Ramos But his scout report was excellent, especially for this transfer fee. 

Lee Davies – our new first choice in attack.

Lars Henriksen – isn’t young and will be a rotation option, but I couldn’t resist signing one of the best players in my previous clubs. And I’m still in his favorite list.

Bailey, Daniels and Pyshnik will be backup/B team options for central midfield and full-back positions.

[Hootieleece]

I like Ramos...and at 6'1" he isn't short.....I hate that Regen DC's are often 5'9" or 170-175cm!

He looks perfect for his cover role.

[Koetzer]

Season 2039/40 – part 1

I think it’s the first time when I played against one of my former teams in Europe. Well, we are sure on different levels with Crusaders now. Young Boys were much tougher, they managed to equalize from 2-0 in the first game but we didn’t give them any chances in Switzerland.

Another meeting with a former club, this time it was Slovan which I managed just a year ago, so a lot of players I signed were still there. And that made our task quite difficult, they managed to get a draw from first game and played better at home but a free kick goal from Lucas let us advance to the group. There we will face AEK, Shakhter Soligorsk and Zilina (all teams are from currently loaded leagues, and it’s usually more difficult to play against them).

Our league games were entertaining but not always in a good way for us, Debrecen equalized from 3-1 in last ten minutes and Ferencvaros scored with almost every shot  

Good start in the group and national cup, and despite another loss to Fehervar we are third in the league, not far from top spot.

October started with an unexpected loss against Kaposvar and a serious injury for our best right winger Opara, who will miss almost half a year. Despite this we won all other league games and now go two points behind leading Ferencvaros after first round. AEK took the lead in our European group, but we’ll have a home game next.

1-0 was a very popular scoreline in November. We remained second in the league and need a draw in the final group game to advance further in Europe.

We finished the year with two important wins, first let us overtake Ferencvaros and move to the top spot, and second allowed to continue European season (we will play against Kobenhavn in the first knockout round).

[Koetzer]

Season 2039/40 – part 2

Winger positions were our problem in autumn, both because of injuries and inconsistent form, so I decided to improve them with Krajnc and Nikoltsis. Speaking of Owusu, I could actually sign him for free but didn’t want to wait until summer as he’s able to help us right now.

Not the best start let Ferencvaros return to the top, still it’s only a half of the season played and we’ll have a chance to come back there.

We lost in the cup (our backup squad played quite well but didn’t take their chances), but returned to the first place in the league and advanced in Europe. Now we’ll have a chance for revenge against AEK.

Poor month. Yes, we defeated AEK on away goals and will play against Atalanta in quarter-final, but our league chances are almost over after losing to Ferencvaros and two home draws.

It only went worse in April. I left all games after Fehervar to my assistant, and we even managed to reclaim second place but anyway it was a big disappointment after leading in winter.

Well, I guess getting too far in Europe doesn’t help in title battle. Ferencvaros missed the continental competitions this season and became champions, while Fehervar eventually reached the Conference League final (lost to Atalanta there) but fell to 4th place in the league.

Squad stats

Only Northern Ireland and Wales took more than two full seasons to win the league before, so Hungary is really challenging!

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2040/41

Almost the same prediction as season before.

 

Youth intake

Balazs Vegh is the most promising player here, probably looking better as a midfielder.

And I decided not to alter the squad, only signed midfielder Wilson from Norwich as a backup. Hopefully this consistency will help us to improve. 

[Koetzer]

Season 2040/41 – part 1

These early rounds were effectively a part of pre-season, and the 12-0 win against Latvian side Liepaja is so far my highest score in this career (not including friendlies, of course).

This time I’m only concentrated on the league, so fielded a lot of backup players against AaB, and still we were much better at home but their only shot on target was enough to end our European season early. The league opener was quite disappointing as well, but we got this luck back against Fehervar. No chances at all during whole game, and then they scored an own goal on 93th minute!

September started with very bad news – our best right-back Fedotov suffered cruciate ligaments injury and will be out for the rest of the season. At least until winter we’ll have to rely on backup Daniels (he isn’t much worse though). So far he plays well, helping us to defeat Puskas Akademia with an assist to the only goal.

Still going unbeaten in the league, one point behind leading Fehervar and six points over all others.

We had a chance to climb to the top, but that’s FM in its best. Once Fehervar dropped points, we had 32 shots and 5 clear cut chances against Mezokovesd, but somehow lost too.

Our previous game against Fehervar ended with a very lucky draw, but we played much better at home and moved to the top spot! Lee Davies, who wasn’t so impressive before, scored two in the most important game at this stage.

It’s a good way to finish the first part of season, but we were leading last year as well so should do better in remaining games.

[Hootieleece]

A real title chase...two dominant teams vying for the title! Hope Lee Davies continues to find the net for you.