FM 11 - Sportklub Rapid Wien: Die Grün-Weißen

[SMPL]

History

Rapid Vienna) is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won 16 national championships and 16 Vienna-only championships before 1949, as well priding itself as the only team from the former Ostmark, part of the German Reich, to win the German war-time league in 1941 - during World War Two. It is one of the two best known sides in Vienna, the other being Rapid's eternal rival, FK Austria Wien with whom they compete the Wien derby. The Rapid squad is often known as the "Green-Whites" for its team colours or as Hütteldorfer for the location of the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium, which is in Hütteldorf.

SK Rapid Wien was founded in 1898 (en:First Workers' Football Club of Vienna). The team's original colours were red and blue, which are still often used in away matches. On 8 January 1899 the club was re-named, taking on its present name of Sportklub Rapid Wien, following the example of Rapide Berlin. In 1904, the team colours were changed to green and white.

One of the best teams in early European football, Rapid became a dominant side during the years between the world wars, when Austria was one of the leading football nations on the continent. After the Anschluss of Austria to Germany in 1938, Rapid played in that country's Gauliga Ostmark along with clubs such as First Vienna and Admira Vienna (playing then as Wacker Wien and Admira Wien). Rapid would be the most successful of these clubs. They won the Tschammerpokal, predecessor of today's German Cup, in 1938 with a 3–1 victory over FSV Frankfurt, and topped that with a German Championship in 1941 by defeating Schalke 04, the most dominant German club of the era. The team was able to overcome a 3–0 Schalke lead to win the match by a final score of 4–3 through strength and endurance – the traditional virtues of Rapid players known as the Rapidgeist or "Rapid Spirit".

Almost since the club's beginnings, Rapid fans have announced the last fifteen minutes of the game by way of the legendary "Rapidviertelstunde" – rhythmic clapping at home or away no matter what the score. The first mention of the practise goes back to 1913, and in 1919 a newspaper wrote about the fans clapping at the beginning of the "Rapidviertelstunde". Over the decades, there were many instances where Rapid managed to turn around a seemingly hopeless situation by not giving up and, with their fans' support, fighting their way to a win just before the final whistle.

Although Rapid is by far the most popular club in Austria, other teams like Red Bull Salzburg or FK Magna are able to spend significantly more money every year as they are owned by investors/billionaires. Rapid is trying to compensate for this lack of financial funds by supporting young and talented players.

Honours

National Austrian Championship (16):

1951, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1981-82, 1982-83, 1986-87, 1987-88, 1995-96, 2004-05, 2007-08

Viennese Championship (16):

1912, 1913, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1929, 1930, 1935, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1948

Austrian Cup (14):

1919, 1920, 1927, 1946, 1961, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1976, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1995

Rapid have twice competed in the now redundant Cup Winners cup final, the first time in controversial circumstances following a high profile game at Glasgow Celtic where they were 4-3 down on aggregate in the last 16 game and With 14 mins left of the match, Rapid conceded a penalty, after Reinhard Kienast punched Burns on the back of the head whilst a corner kick was being taken. Rapid players, opposing the decision, crowded around the referee and linesman, close to the Celtic fans. Rapid defender Rudolf Weinhofer then fell to the ground, and claimed to have been hit by a bottle thrown from the terracing. TV pictures showed clearly that the bottle which was thrown onto the pitch did not hit the player. After a delay of some 10 minutes, the penalty was taken by Peter Grant, and he struck it wide. The match finished 3–0, giving Celtic a 4–3 win on aggregate. However, Rapid appealed to UEFA for a replay, and both teams were fined. The replay appeal was turned down initially, but Rapid appealed for a second time. On this occasion, Rapid's fine was doubled but UEFA also stipulated that the game be replayed 100 miles away from Celtic Park. The game was held on 12 December 1984 at Old Trafford, Manchester and Rapid won 1–0 through a Peter Pacult strike.

In the final Rapid lost to Everton 3-1. Eleven years later they reached the final again,this time in less controversial circumstances losing 1-0 to Paris Saint Germain in Brussels.

Club information:

Kits

Home

Away

Legends:

Hans Krankl, Ernst Happel, Gerhard Hanappi, Franz Binder, Josef Uridil, Peter Schottel

Derbies:

Wiener derby (vs FK Austria Wien)

Fierce Rivals:

FK Austria Wien,RB Salzburg

Finances:

Okay

Estimated value:

£12.25M

Continental competition:

Euro cup

Media prediction:

3rd

Season ticket holders:

11,000

Budgets:

Continental qualification via league:

£1.7M/£81k

Title challenge:

£2M/£81k

Winner:

£2.2M/£81k

[SMPL]

Rapid Wien on FM 11

Star players

Before I go on to the team I just want to point out something about the Austrian league. The Austrian league rules state that your wage bill can not be any higher than 50% of your revenue, this means that Rapid's wage bill is set in stone at £81k for the season and transfer budgets can not be moved across to your wage bill which is already at it's limit. To help free wages I released a huge amount of players on frees once I had enough in the bank to cover their compensation fees.

The current Rapid squad is a good one for this level, Hofmann, Hesselink and Salihi are all match winners and with those three you should be able to have a very good attempt at winning the title without improvement, however Salzburg are slightly stronger than Rapid and the four games against them will more than likely determine the title destination.

Overview

The first thing I decided was that a better first choice keeper should be your main target. Both Payer and Hedl are of similar abilities and both are in their 30's. With Payer not only able to command more of a fee due to his age, he is also a high earner in comparison to all but two members of your squad. In two tests I offered him out for £3M and in one save he went for £2.5M and in the other he went for £1.2M, both times to Arsenal.

Itumeleng Khune, Thibaut Courtois, Benoît Costil, Sinan Bolat and Costel Pantilimon would not only end up being your first choice from the off (and the next few years at least)they can all be bought for less than £1.6M and all would accept a wage of at least £2K less than what Payer is/was earning. I went for Bolat though if my scout would have found Khune earlier I probably would have gone for him as a cheap option both in terms of fee and wages.

Defence

I came to the conclusion that for this season at least I could probably get away with not buying anyone here, Sonnleitner is just about your best player, the rest are all of decent enough ability for the time being.

Midfield

Heikkinen and Pehlivan would be your starters here. I have both set as deep lying playmakers (support) and both have done very well for me. Age and pace go against Heikkinen though, Drazan and Hinum are your only real backups here though and whilst Drazan may turn in to a good player Hinum seems nothing more than average to me so this is certainly an area i'd consider looking in to.

Wingers

Hofmann is the stand out player here, though he can also be used as a striker if needed. The rest of your wide men are of roughly the same ability with Kavlac and Drazan being potential stars at this level with games under their belt. For some reason I invested in a few more players here who I felt could be slightly better not only immediately but long term as well, but in hindsight I could have left this position alone for the time being and I suggest you do too.

Forwards

Hesselink and Sahili will be a handful for any defence in the division and if you choose to start with those then they will both pick up more than their fair share of goals. Konrad is next to useless in support, though Nuhiu could prove handy back up. I'd recommend looking at someone being brought in here if you can.

With this squad you have no option but to play some kind of 4-4-2 that has wide midfielders, there isn't really an AM good enough to play from the start there and there is not enough CM's/DM's to have more than two in the starting eleven.

Why should I be Rapid Wien?

Rapid are sleeping giant in European terms at least, though with RB Salzburg's financial power these days they are also in danger of falling behind domestically too. As the manager it would be your job to keep the clubs proud history intact and then try and build on it throughout the continent, that alone should be an incentive, however in my first 7 months at Rapid I have found the league in general to be fun and challenging. There are plenty of goals in the division and whilst you are amongst the favourites for the title there are teams in the division capable of beating you, so you have to stay on your toes at all times, especially if you don't want Salzburg to gain a big advantage over you.

Another thing that has kept my interest is the wage cap, it means all your signings have to be thought through carefully and for the first few years you will not just be able to buy success. Getting to the group stage of the Europa league in this first season is a real must, not only to help improve the reputation of the league but for your financial reasons as well, winning a few games if you get there would also be a huge boost to your long term development. The stadium is close to capacity every game so with any luck a future extension/new ground could be in the pipeline which again would bring in more revenue to help maintain your long term goals.

So if you are looking for a decent team with a good history whilst wanting to build success rather than buy it then this could be just the team the team you are looking for.

[Quads]

Every Austrian team should have its own thread, easily the most fun league in FM

[Firesox]

Wow thanks man, I've been literally thinking about a Rapid Wien game for the past two days and then imagine my surprise when I see this guide. I shall definitely start one soon, thanks for this.

[SMPL]

Every Austrian team should have its own thread, easily the most fun league in FM

Rapid edged it because I went to Vienna back in November and went to the game when they beat Sturm Graz 3-1 and was impressed with the support that day I was tempted to go for one of the middling teams but the fact I went there tipped the scales. As you say though this does seem a good league and i've enjoyed it so far (only the second save i've had so far where i've gone past a month or two in game) I think the wage cap helps as it'll keep the league on a decent playing field and stop any stupid spending.

Wow thanks man, I've been literally thinking about a Rapid Wien game for the past two days and then imagine my surprise when I see this guide. I shall definitely start one soon, thanks for this.

Good man, even if you only get 50% of the enjoyment i've had so far then you'll have a good save on your hands.

My save has been mostly positive so far. As mentioned I made a few signings at the start, to do this I sold Payer and made the very tough decision to sell Hofmann. His £19k wages was the deciding factor in this though I really wanted to keep him. I offered him out for £5M and Bayern offered me £4.9M which I accepted. My ins are here.

So far after 30 games I am second the league in the league, two points behind Salzburg with one more game to play against them. We've lost heavily twice out of the four times we've suffered defeat so far, 4-1 at Salzburg and then 6-1 against Mattersburg. Both of those had a lot to do with my strength in depth when I had injuries though (something I can hopefully address in the summer) The other two were by the odd goal.

In Europe I managed a pretty good run and not only managed to qualify for the group stage I managed to get out of it. That was about as far as our luck could manage though and in the first knockout round we drew Arsenal and lost 4-0 both home and away. Hopefully the form we shown up until then will help the league's co-efficient rating come the summer though.

[SMPL]

I was hoping this thread would get more interest, it is a fun league

An update on my save.

After what was a tough 30 games we eventually managed to pull clear of RBS and win the title, it looks like we won at a canter but the truth is if we hadn't have got maximum points from RBS on matchday 32 the momentum would have been with them. We followed that up with the Austrian cup to complete what was a good season for us.

I'm aiming to keep this game as realistic as possible, so even though better players have been available to me I want my transfers to keep in line with the status of the club and division, so armed with a good kitty of £5M for the season I addressed key areas in the squad, Kevin and Alaba have come in and up until January were my first choice pairing in midfield. I have the option to buy Alaba for £8M which will be done later in the season to stop me pushing too much debt in to the club.

Altintop was a surprise transfer after he was offered to me by an agent after he failed to get a contract elsewhere after Bayern released him and he is comfortably my best player and probably will be next season too. Rindaroy was a steal at left back for his price and has gone straight in to my first team. Lacina Traore has been very good up front and he has fitted well in to the target man role.

Amrouche is potentially a better play than Niakhaichyk and i'm hoping he fulfills his potential.

The champions league is going very well so far, we managed to get through the group stages after 2 qualifying rounds and were drawn against Lille, Man Utd and Zenit. Games at Zenit and home to Lille both finished in defeats, but then our fortunes started to change for the better, a late equaliser at home to Man Utd gave us our first point of the campaign and then we followed that up with a sensational victory at Old Trafford (United to be fair had a few injuries/suspensions and are even struggling in the league in 8th place, but it was still a good win for the club) we then won against Lille and Zenit to book our place in the next knockout round where we managed to get through against Leverkusen (screenshots later on once i'm knocked out of the competition)

Domestically this season has been very comfortable for us with RBS seemingly carrying on their collapse from last year in to this, but they've picked up a bit form wise (though I expect to win the title with lots to spare) and I expect them to be a better side again next year.

Training facilities for both the youth and first teams will be upgraded in the summer as I start to hopefully build up a good academy to take us forward. I will also be trying to convince my board to buy a new stadium/expand as the Gerhard Hanappi is full almost every match and i'm sure we could fit more people in for the bigger games now.