Наша Деца – Our Children

[RSFC]

Part 1:

In 1991 Red Star Belgrade managed to do what only one other team from Eastern Europe managed before them and that is to win the European Champions League (Champions Cup). Following that the team went on to win the “Toyota Cup” also called the Intercontinental Cup by beating Chilean side Colo – Colo in the final by a score of 3 – 0. That game was a coming out party for Red Star legends Vladimir Jugovic and Sinisa Mihajlovic, but it was also the end of one of most dominant teams in Europe at that time.

Winning the Intercontinental Cup was the pinnacle, and following that game things started going downhill and fast. Even though the team played in the first Champions League the following season and made it all the way to semi final before losing to a strong Sampdoria side led by a former Yugoslav international player Srecko Katanec.

Since then, big games have been few and far between for this proud team and for all Serbian teams in general. Some memorable games that come to mind were games against Kaiserslautern, Barcelona, Germinal Ekeren, Metz, Dinamo Kiev, Leicester City, Celta de Vigo, Bayer Leverkusen, Rosenborg and Bayern Munchen. Still for a period of roughly 20 years, that isn’t saying much.

Embarrassments in European competitions have become the norm recently and in a period of about 5 years this team has lost to PSV Eindhoven 3:2 and 0:5 in Champions League qualifying and followed it up with a loss to Zenith St. Peterburgh 1:4 and 1:2. Most recently, Red Star has lost to “powerhouses” such as Slovan Liberec and Omonia Nicosia.

Fast forward to 2008 and the team is in disarray. Finances are horrible, horrible to the extent of -$30 million and the playing staff leaves a lot to be desired. Sure there are some talented players, but not nearly enough to qualify for UEFA Cup Group Stage and perhaps not even good enough to challenge for Serbian Jelen Superliga title which is currently owned by fierce rivals Partizan.

New Red Star chairman Vladan Lukic, a former player and a huge fan of the team, has promised that big changes are coming to the team, mainly to how the team operates. “Our Children” is his vision of the team which means that the team will consist mainly of Serbian players and if at all possible from players that come through the Red Star Youth system. Only quality foreigners will be signed and no more than 1 per season and no more than 3 in the registered squad per season starting in the second season. First season is the exception as the team has to do everything possible to try and win the league to have a chance at the $6 million Champions League group stage. That would certainly go a long way to easing the financial burden.

Authors Note: This is being played on FM 2009. I haven’t used the editor to fix the chairman’s name but for the purposes of the story lets assume it is Vladan Lukic and not Dan Tanna. Also, this will be a straightforward story of “these are the results, these are the signings and here is what happened”. I’ll take it as far as time permits me.

[RSFC]

Part 2:

First pre-season and the initial transfers

As I said before, there are some talented players here but the squad depth as well as team debt are looking problematic. The following are players that will undoubtedly be the “key” players this season.

Nenad Milijas – the captain and best player in the team. Possesses a very accurate and powerfull shot from distance and is a good passer.

Sasa Stamenkovic – the stud goalkeeper. There will be no need to sign a number one goalkeeper for a few seasons provided I can keep him

Nemanja Pejcinovic – highly talented defender and U21 mainstay. I imagine offers will start coming after the first season if he performs up to expectations

Nenad Tomovic – very versatile defender who can play as a centre back or as a right back

Ognjen Koroman – one of the older players on the team, very talented but not a very good team player. Still, his one on one skills will be required if the team is to have any success.

Mohammed Aval Issah – a Ghanaian international, higly skilled defensive midfielder who alongside Milijas should win many midfield battles in the upcoming season. This is one foreign player who I envision in the team past the first season.

Transfers In:

As mentioned, squad depth is very weak and while we have an all right first team, injuries to key players will quickly expose our lack of good backups and rotation players. With that in mind, the following were brought in as long term investments as well as short term depth players.

Edgar Davids – Experienced Dutch midfielder signed a 1 year contract with Red Star. He will be a rotation player whose experience will be a great asset in tough games. Can replace either Milijas or Issah but will usually start games on the bench.

Danijel Aleksic – this seventeen year old kid is the future of Serbian football and now he is also the future of Red Star. He cost Red Star $1.2 million which is around half of the original transfer budget. Part of the fee was paid upfront while Vojvodina will receive 35K per month for the next 24 months as well. The team lacks a good striker so Danijel may get more games than planned in the first season.

Kenan Bajramovic – Bosnian U21 star signed on a free after his contract with Sloboda Tuzla expired. He declined a chance to play in Holland for Vitesse and signed 4 year contract with Red Star. One foreigner who will be kept and if he accepts Serbian citizenship in a years time, then he will not count against the 3 foreigner limit. Kenan is a very solid central defender who could form a very respectable partnership with Pejcinovic and Tomovic.

Diego Calderon – this versatile Ecuadorian can play all positions on the left side of the pitch. He joins Red Star from LDU de Quito for $1.5 million with the entire amount to be paid over 24 months.

Maxim Shumailov – Russian 18 y/o goalkeeper signed on a free from Amkar Perm in Russia. He is promising enough, but for the foreseeable future he will be on loan at our 1st division affiliate and thus will not count against the foreigner limit.

We have also enquired about Predrag Pavlovic from Superliga rivals Napredak Krusevac, but the asking price is too steep and not something we can afford now. There also rumours that he will sign for Partizan. If he does, they get a versatile player who will make them a much more dangerous team. Money talks and Partizan currently have more of it. If they somehow end up in Champions League, we could be in trouble.

Czech extraliga team Kosice accepted our offer for Nemanja Matic. Problem is they also accepted offers from Partizan and Empoli. In the end we could not offer the same terms as Empoli and Matic is off to Italy. Disappointing, but at least he had enough sense not to sign for Partizan.

Transfers Out:

First player to leave Red Star was long time goalkeeper Ivan Randjelovic who joins Spanish team Espanyol for $550K. Ivan was made redundant by Stamenkovic who is better and younger and not as error prone. The coin offered was also too good to refuse. I hope he succeeds in Spain but I have certain doubts.

Another player who left is Vukasin Devic. This guy never had the ability to play for Red Star. This was another in the series of horrible transfer decisions by the previous Red Star board. He was sold to Polonia Warszawa for $250K, however Red Star get zero from the transfer. The arrangement was such that his agent “owned” him and then “loaned” Devic to Red Star. The agent pockets a cool $250K.

Ibrahima Gueye, Senegalese defender and an all around great guy leaves the team. A $625K bid from Cardiff was accepted. He quickly came to terms with his new club and leaves Red Star after two seasons at the club. One interesting tidbit about Gueye is that when he joined Red Star he came to the club together with Bulgarian Blagoy Georgiev. They were both rumored to be heading to Partizan, but former Red Star president Dragan Stojkovic contacted the agents for both and on the day they were supposed to sign for Partizan they signed for Red Star. The club wishes him the best of luck.

[EvilDave]

Eastern Europe! \O/ A good opening, I for one will be following your progress. It seems like you've been on the forums for a while but not really in here, so welcome (back?) to FMS!

[RSFC]

Part 3:

Preseason Games

Upon seeing the fixtures list I was happy to see that there were 4 preseason games scheduled. This meant that I didn’t have to reschedule any games as I like to have around 4-5 preseason games and no more than that. One of the games was at home and three were away against two affiliates and one first division side.

The first game was away against our minor league affiliate Sloga Kraljevo. They are not a very good team and someone Red Star should dispose of quite comfortably. This being preseason, however, means that I’ll be experimenting with quite a few different players and the score of the game is not the primary concern.

Sloga – Red Star

Not a very eventful game. Defensively the team was very solid and the opponents never got even a half chance. Pejcinovic impressed as did Milijas before injuring himself. In the second half it was goals from Branimir Subasic and Nikola Lazetic, both second half subs, which sealed the deal.

Final Score: Sloga 0-2 Red Star

After the game, we got word that Milijas would be out for 2-3 weeks with a leg injury. Not the best start to the preseason when the best player gets hurt.

Next up was Beitar Jerusalem at home. The game will be played at our own Marakana stadium. I saw this as a game by which I could judge what the team was capable of in this year’s UEFA cup games. Most likely we would be drawn against opposition of the same caliber as Beitar or better.

Red Star – Beitar Jerusalem

First 20 minutes belonged to Beitar. They had us hemmed in our own half and created a few good chances. Our goalkeeper Stamenkovic was up to the task and made some nice saves. That seemed to wake the rest of the players from their nap and we controlled the play for the rest of the half. A few substitutions and a more attacking approach resulted in a 4 goal second half and all of them scored by Red Star players. Our goal scorers were Branimir Subasic, Mirnes Sisic, Ivan Trickovski and Djordje Tutoric.

Final Score: Red Star 4-0 Beitar Jerusalem

Two players ended up having to lick their wounds. Young striker Slavko Perovic will miss two weeks, while his strike partner Ferreira will miss up to five days.

Third friendly of the preseason was against another one of the affiliated clubs, Srem. They have a quite a few of our players loaned to them for the entire season. It isn’t out of realm of possibility to see them get promoted in the coming season.

Srem – Red Star

Both halves were dominated by us, yet the strikers let us down. Possession was 60-40 in the favor of Red Star but nobody could buy a goal. It didn’t help matters that their goalkeeper had a tremendous game. No goals scored and no goals conceded. Very happy with the way our defense and midfield players played, but the strikers let the team down. Hopefully this was just a temporary glitch and not a sign of things to come.

Final Score: Srem 0-0 Red Star

In the days between the Srem game and the final game of the preseason period, I was provided a report of players whose contracts were expiring at the end of the season.

I had no problems with all but one of the players leaving. The one player, Dejan Jakovic is young enough that he may yet turn into a serviceable player. His contract was extended until 2012 and he will be counted upon should major injuries hit the team.

Mladost – Red Star

A huge error by Nikola Mijailovic provided Mladost with a gift within 10 minutes. Towards the end of the half Issah equalized with a close range header. Second half provided no surprises as Calderon and Ferreira scored to record an easy victory in a match that really was dominated by us. One mistake led to the only goal our opponents scored.

Final Score: Mladost 1-3 Red Star

[mark wilson27]

Random question RSFC, whayt does the first bit of your title mean...or is that what the second bit is

[RSFC]

Its the same as the second half, except its in Serbian and written in cyrilic alphabet.

[mark wilson27]

Learn something new everyday...cheers RSFC

BTW great start to the story keep it up

[RSFC]

August 2008

Part 1

August will prove to be an interesting month for us. The league campaign kicks off and we play four league matches this month barring any postponements due to UEFA cup games.

Speaking of UEFA cup, the draw for qualifying rounds will take place as well as the qualifying matches. We are expected to qualify for the group stages, the board wants this and the fans do to. I don’t think our chances are very good. While we will be seeded for the second qualifying round we most likely won’t be for the first round unless some huge luck comes our way. Not being seeded means a team like Panathinaikos would be considered a good draw and I don’t rate our chances against them as very highly. Our UEFA cup campaign will be equivalent to an uphill run while being 100lb overweight.

In the Serbian Superliga we will play each of our opponents three times as there are only 12 teams in the league. This means three games against Partizan, which will be good for the good old bottom line. Next season the format changes and the league expands to 16 teams, but given the average time a manager spends at this team perhaps I shouldn’t worry about next season just yet.

The following are the teams we play in the domestic campaign in August:

August 8th 2008: Away at Rad

August 16th 2008: Home to Hajduk Kula

August 24th 2008: Away to Partizan

August 31st 2008: Home to Borac

One interesting tidbit is that Borac and Hajduk have beaten Red Star more times in the last 5 years than Partizan.

Olympic Games are also coming up and Serbia has qualified. I am positive that thanks to this I will be missing a player or two.

My staff and I are also keeping a close eye on the talent that may be available for transfer. There are still a couple of players I would very much like to sign but only time will tell if this will be possible due to finances as well as their availability.

[RSFC]

August 2008

Part 2

On August 1st some good news came my way. We had successfully negotiated a transfer of Serbian AMC Stojan Vranjes from Borac Banja Luka from across the border in Bosnia. His brother Ognjen Vranjes is already with Red Star on a 3 year contract. The best part of this transfer is the price of only $22k for a player who will see action this season. Stojan Vranjes joins on a 4 year contract.

UEFA cup 2nd qualifying round draw came and went. We were amongst the seeded teams so I really expected one of the no names who managed to sneak through the first round of qualifying. What I got was anything but. It will be Red Star vs. Legia Warszawa with the first game being played in Poland. After a quick scan of their playing staff I concluded that they are at the very worst our equal and this will be a very tight two games

The other two Serbian teams in the draw didn’t fare any better either. Borac Cacak will play AEK Athens while Vojvodina will take on Manchester City.

On August 4th, my assistant Gogic informed that youngster Zlatko Liscevic has signed a professional contract with the club. Good news indeed considering our youth team will have to be a huge part of any future success

With the first game of the season against Rad away quickly coming up, I asked Gogic to attend the pre game news conference. This was perhaps a mistake on my part as he basically promised that Red Star will win the title. Nice, no pressure at all to perform.

August 9th 2008

Rad Belgrade – Red Star Belgrade

Coming into the game we were considered heavy favorites. The game started with Red Star dominating, but unable to score. This continued until the 38th minute and then finally it happened. Cleo tapped the ball into an empty net after Koroman dribbled through three Rad players. In the second half we saw more of the same, solid defensively and not to impressive offensively. It did not matter however as Rad players had no answer for our defense. Nino Pekaric our central defender, who was playing in place of Pejcinovic who is in China at the Olympics, scored the goal to kill off Rad in the 89th minute. A solid if unspectacular win to keep the fans happy.

Final Score: Rad 0 – 2 Red Star

[RSFC]

August 2008

Part 3

That first win seems to have lifted the moral amongst the players and fans as well. Even though it was “only” 2-0, at least one part of our game was dominant and that was defense.

August 13th was the day of the first leg of Champions league third round qualifiers. Partizan was away at Nou Camp to face Barcelona. Everyone expected a rout but what they got was a surprise. Not only did Partizan not lose but they were actually a better opponent in a game that ended as a scoreless draw. Its doubtful that they can turn this 0-0 tie into a place in CL group stage, but they get to gloat for at least a week. It was after all a good result for Serbian football.

The day of our own foray into European football this season has arrived and we are in Warszawa to take on one of Poland’s most successful sides, Legia.

The media are hyping Legia to win this with ease as they have built up quite a squad and a qualification for UEFA cup for them is imperative.

Legia Warszawa – Red Star

The game started slow and it continued without any real chances for either side. We were struggling to keep possession however and it was becoming worrisome. Towards the end of the half Legia started controlling the play and we only threatened from long range. Just before half time, their Brazilian midfielder Roger pounced on a loose ball in the area and scored what proved to be the only goal of the game. We lose a vital game and lose it by one of the worst possible scores when playing away.

Final Score: Legia 1 – 0 Red Star

Subasic and Sisic were both injured and will be out for roughly a week.

Two days after the game we did some business with Steaua Buchurest. They had suffered some injuries and were left without an experienced goalkeeper. We had Sasa Radivojevic who I didn’t rate to highly. Their bid of $375K was accepted without any reservation and Sasa will be playing his club football across the border in Romania for the most storied team from Romania. We wish him and Steaua the best of luck.

August 17th, 2008

Red Star – Hajduk Kula

There was only one event worth mentioning in an otherwise boring first half and it was a goal. Ognjen Koroman proved that he still has a lot left in his tank and scored a magnificent goal from about 25 meters out after leaving two defenders to hang their heads in shame. Second half was marked by long range efforts for both teams, but none of those found the back of the net. Koroman’s 26th minute strike stood.

Final Score: Red Star 1-0 Hajduk Kula

For about the last ten days or so I had been negotiating with Hajduk Kula to bring their talented AML/F Nikola Komazec to Marakana. On the day of our game against Hajduk, a bid of $1.9M over 24 months was accepted by Hajduk.

Following the game, Nikola switched jerseys and signed a four year contract with Red Star Belgrade. It was a life long goal for Komazec and he has finally arrived and I am very glad to have him. He is a free kick expert and has been known to fire a goal from 30-35 meters out.

The “eternal derby” is coming up on the 24th of the month and media is hyping the game as “title decider” even though each team would still have 30 games left.

My counterpart Slavisa Jokanovic decided to start a little media war and declared that Red Star was not capable to challenge for the Superliga title.

My response was simple. I told Slavisa that I had better things to do than waste my time on him. Captain Milijas was unimpressed with Jokanovic and declared himself fired up for the game. Ognjen Koroman, Nikola Lazetic, Sasa Stamenkovic and Diego Calderon also declared themselves as “fired up” and ready to play.

It should be a good game. Partizan already suffered a slight stumble in their campaign after they drew 1-1 with Rad away. That makes the game even more important.

It has never mattered what position Red Star or Partizan would find themselves in, the derby was always special and there was always something on the line.

[RSFC]

August 2008

Part 4

So what’s at stake in this derby? As usual, bragging rights but also early season positioning in the league. Neither team has any major injuries so both teams will be firing on all cylinders.

August 24th, 2008

The big day has arrived and the team is ready. I have no doubts their players will be ready as well, after all it is being played on their turf.

Apparently there have been around 28 thousand tickets sold, so roughly 4 thousand less than the stadium capacity.

Partizan – Red Star

What a first half! Both sides had clear cut chances but both goalkeepers are having their day. Milijas hit a goalpost from a free kick some 25 meters out. Partizan responded through Diarra who was one on one, went around Stamenkovic only to see his shot miss by mere inches. Zero – Zero at the half.

I was happy with how the team played so I let my assistant do the talking at half time, but nothing needed to be said. The guys knew they had a job to do, and they were all more than ready to go for the second half.

46th minute, Koroman crosses the ball into Partizan’s goal area. Their defender heads it towards the edge of the area. Milijas connects with all he’s got and Bozovic never stood a chance. 1-0 to Red Star and the north stand of the stadium is lit up.

We continue dominating for the rest of the game and it ends 1-0. Partizan was without a chance in the second half.

Thoroughly deserved victory for Red Star on the day.

Final Score: Partizan 0-1 Red Star

After the game our fans were celebrating throughout Belgrade, but the players had to remain focused because in just four days we would be fighting for our UEFA cup lives and I made sure the players knew it.

[Elrithral]

Great result against Partizan, always had a sodft spot for Red Star, mainly because of Prosinecki <3

[RSFC]

Prosinecki was a class player, and has remained a classy guy.

As for the Partizan game, I agree it was a good result considering I still don't have all the players at the club that I want.

[RSFC]

August 2008

Part 5

It didn’t take Partizan too long to once again disappoint their fans. This time it was a European game, 2nd leg of the Champions League Qualifying Campaign against Barcelona. They played an incredible game in the first league and snatched a 0-0 draw. Well, this time around Barcelona came to play and in front of 33,000 at Partizan’s stadium they destroyed Partizan 5-1. After the game some people found themselves disappointed. I wasn’t one of them.

Our own return leg against Legia has arrived and we have quite a job on our hands, or feet as it may be.

Red Star - Legia Warszawa

To say this game started horribly for us would be an understatement. Legia took the lead through Roger in the 11th minute, a long range effort that really should have been stopped. It took the boys around 10 minutes to compose themselves. We now really had nothing to loose and threw everything at Legia. Stojan Vranjes scored in the 27th minute to equalize the game, but we were still behind on aggregate.

Cleo, our on loan Brazilian striker, put us in front on 39 minutes. We continued to push forward and captain Milijas sealed the deal with a wonderful long range effort in the 60th minute. Legia had their chances during the remainder of the half, but Stamenkovic was strong in goal. Red Star are through, but who would we face…

Final Score: Red Star 3-1 Legia Warszawa

After the game I received some bad news from the physios. Ognjen Koroman would miss 2-3 weeks.

August 29th was the day of the UEFA Cup 1st round draw. It was also the day when Rapid Bucharest decided to put in a bid for our right back Nenad Tomovic. The bid was rejected as they were surely joking. $600K is not enough to buy his left leg.

Back to the draw… Red Star was not among the seeded teams and so seeing names like AC Milan, Ajax, Man City… get drawn to play other teams was a delight.

We now had a 5/6 chance of getting drawn against an opponent of similar stature. I did say 5/6 didn’t I? Well, the one team I didn’t want, I ended up getting.

Red Star will face Sevilla, with the first leg being played in Spain. They aren’t quite on the same level as some other teams that we luckily missed, but still they are the favorites and will most likely advance.

August 31st, 2008

Red Star – Borac Cacak

The less said about this game, the better. We controlled the possession, limited them to four shots and only one shot on goal, yet the game ended up a 0-0 draw. Goalkeeper Grahovac made some nice saves but most of them were long range efforts. Our first glitch in the league and it comes at home.

Final Score: Red Star 0-0 Borac Cacak

[RSFC]

September 2008

Part 1

With one month gone in league and European play, and when everything is added and subtracted I have to say that I am pleased with the team. Sure, we could have been without the first leg loss to Legia in Warszawa or the tie against Borac in league play but the reality states that those things happen.

Transfer Window Closes

The transfer window in Serbia and most of Europe closed on the last day of August. Media has picked Red Star as the clear winners in Serbia, most notably the signings of Edgar Davids and huge prospect Danijel Aleksic.

Our main rivals Partizan where linked with quite a few names, but signed no one. They pursued Matic, Milinkovc, Pavlovic but in the end decided that the price asked was too high.

Drulic Returns to Marakana

One of the better players to ever wear the red and white stripes of Red Star has returned to his second home. He left Red Star in 2001 for Real Zaragoza in Spain but never made much of an impact. He has since gone through Belgium and Greece, and while he scored goals here and there, Goran never did return to his form from 1998 – 2001 at Red Star.

His contract in Greece expired and he was available on a free transfer. There were rumours in local press that Vojvodina and PFC Levski of Bulgaria were after him. Even Partizan showed some interest, but never presented a formal offer.

Given the very average collection of strikers at the club, we decided to bring Goran Drulic back. At first, this is a one year contract which gives the club as well as Goran the chance to see if this is a fit. If it is, then extending the contract will not be an issue.

Internationals

Serbia beat the Faeroe Islands 5-0 at home in the first of their two world cup qualifiers this week. The second game they lost at Stade de France by a score of 3-1.

The U21 were also in action beating Northern Ireland with our own Nikola Komazec scoring a nice hatrick.

Some not so good news also came from Macedonian FA informing us that Ivan Trickovski was injured in their game and would likely miss up to a month of action.

Serbian Cup Second Round draw occurred on September 10th and Red Star will face Spartak Subotica at home. Not a bad draw for us I think.

Next up for us is another local derby this time against OFK Beograd. They have a pretty good young team that could trouble us if the players aren’t at their best.