[FM13] CD Constancia: Trading places

[Northwood_dk]

C.D. Constància: Trading places

I had seen it so many times before, driving right past it on my way from the airport in Palma to the holiday resort in Alcudia passing Inca every time. But never had I noticed the football stadium and never had I dreamt that this was the place where I was to find my place in the world of football.

It all started back in 2012, first by an accident and then by a misunderstanding. When the rental-car ran over a rabbit on the way back to the hotel from a lazy golf round on one of Mallorca’s many golf courses I found myself in an Inca gas station just outside the practice field of Incas football team CD Constancia. I soon after found myself sitting in the shade watching the small group of players practice on their own. Even with my Spanish being very limited I had no problem following the flow of the practice.

I guess I should have stopped the misunderstanding right there and then, but for some strange reason I decided to play along. When Mr. Antoni Ramis came up to me and presented himself as Chairman of CD Constancia and invited me in to his small office I should told him, but I didn’t. Mr. Ramis excused many times that they had not been able to find me in the airport. What happened next was like a dream and a nightmare happening at the same time. After some small talk about the stat of Spanish football (very good back in 2012) and Danish football (not that great), a paper was put in front of me and a pen in my hand just like that I had signed on as the new manager of the CD Constancia with a monthly salary of € 1.300.

The club president had no problem understanding that I had to leave right away. He also liked to get unpacked before starting a new job and we agreed that I would start my new job the next day at 9 o’clock and get to meet the staff and be presented for the players. In hindsight I guess this would have been another great time to come clean and explain the obvious misunderstanding. But once again I didn’t.

Try to explain to you wife when you get back from a round of holiday golf, that by the way I just got a new job as manager of a small Spanish football club and we need to move to Mallorca for the next year. Of cause I didn’t go down that road and instead lied about another golf round the next morning. That didn’t go over well with the wife either, but at least there was no blood.

[Northwood_dk]

CD Constancia: Story time

A FM13 LLM dynasty

With the wife upset over tomorrow mornings “golf-round” I used the nice warm Spanish summer night alone on the balcony with a good glass of Spanish red-wine, reading up on the history of the team I was going to lead in practice for the first time in just a few hours.

CD Constancia was the local team from the small city of Inca. Inca is located in the center of the Spanish island of Mallorca and has a population of close to 26.000.

The football team from Inca was founded all the way back in 1922 by a local aid-group who also wanted to play football. The team played in the regional league on Mallorca for the first years of their existence, but after the Spanish Civil War, CD Constancia benefited from the absence of teams ready to play organized football and was awarded a slot to play in the second division, debuting in the 1939/40 season.

The team finished the season with 6 wins, 2 draws and 6 losses and were relegated but moved back up in 1941/42 season and managed to remain on the second level for another four years.

The team had their best finish in the 1942/43 season when they finished 3rd in the second division and earned a playoff spot for promotion to the best division. The game was played in Estadio Chamartín, the home of Real Madrid before they moved in to Santiago Bernabéu, in Madrid. CD Constancia lost 0-4 to Deportivo Coruña and that was the closest the team ever got to play division one football.

After the 1945 season they were relegated to the 3rd division and remained there until 1961/62 when the team again appeared in division two. This time they stayed up for six seasons but never made it in to the top-10.

Since then CD Constància played all there football in the Third Division Balearic group, except from short periods of time in the Second Division B in 1987/88 and the regional league in 1969/70 and 1990 to 1992. In total they had spent 52 seasons on the 3rd level in the Spanish league system, and before the 2011/12 season they were working on a 24-year streak without winning promotion from the Tercera Division.

In 2011/12 the team won the Tercera Division group XI with 5 points to spare, in front of neighboring city Binissalem in second place. With the 17 other group winners in the Tercera Division from around the country, CD Constancia earned a playoff spot to next year’s Segunda División B. As group winner they were entered into a two-legged series where the nine winners were guaranteed direct promotion.

They were drawn against CP Villarrobledo from the Albacete province. They had won their division by a solid 19 points. The first game was played in Villarrobledo and the Mallorca team was lucky to come away with a 0-0 draw.

In the return leg a week later in Inca, Bernardo Alomar gave Constancia a perfect start with a goal after just 11 minutes. The Constancia team who had only allowed 21 goals in the 38 group matches held on until just 10 minutes were left on the clock at "Nou Camp Inca". CP Villarrobledo equalized and now they were the team ready for the 3rd division on the rule about away goals. Many of the 1000 people watching the game had given up when 5 minutes in to extra time Mateu Ferrer scored the game winner for the Inca team.

[video=youtube;LsrYsbv9Ix4]

After the surprising promotion the Inca newspapers were full of praise for the team and its manager xx xx. But a few weeks after the triumph the story turned serious when the xx-year old manager was hospitalized with a serious heart condition. Mr. xx survived but it quickly became clear that he was I no condition to coach the team in the upcoming season and the team needed a new manager to lead them in to new life in the Spanish 3rd division.

Over the next days the local newspapers mentioned several names as possible candidates for the job as new CD Constancia manager but no matter how much I looked I was not able to find any news confirming the hire of a new GM. Finally I gave up and went to bed.

[Northwood_dk]

CD Constancia: Let’s go to work

A FM13 LLM dynasty

In a pair of brand new football boots picked up the night before in the local sporting goods shop in Alcudia, the first practice was easy. It was not very different from all the practices I have had with my 12-year old son’s football team back in Norway. I could use the same drills and just like when coaching the kits it didn’t take me long to get a feel for the team. Who was the leader of the group, who was the natural scorer and who was inn over there head. Unfortunately there was hardly any in the two first groups and the last group was running the asylum.

When club president Mr. Antoni Ramis called me in to his office after 1 ½ hours of practice I felt pretty good about my first morning as a football manager. I handed over the team to my assistance for rundown and stretching and walked to the office

Mr. Ramis was sitting behind the desk looking serious when I dropped down in the chair. He looked at me and said

“I need to know the truth…” –

My heart almost stopped and I could feel the sweet on my forehead. What had I done? What had I said to blow my cover? Had the “real” manager finally showed up and claimed his team? Had my bluff already been called?

Why now when I was just starting to enjoy myself.

Before I had a chance to start to explain that it was all just a huge mistake he continued

“how bad is it?”

“Do we have a chance to stay up this season?”

My heart did a double take and I had to take an extra breath before answering. First I was just glad I was not busted (yet!). Secondly I suddenly grasped how unprepared I was. Most of the teams we were going to play in a few weeks I had never heard of before, must less watch play. How was I supposed to judge our chances?

Instead I told him what I had seen in practice. That we had a keeper with problems catching the ball, a defends with more holes then, well you know the joke and a midfield as thin as paper. The strikers were solid as long as no one expected them to score goals but beside of those minor details we had a solid team ready to go.

I decided to press my luck and said

“I think we need to buy at least two or three new players before the start of the season”.

Mr. Ramis looks at me and started to laugh. He said

“This is not FM13 where you can just go out and pick up every player you want”.

He continued

“There is only two flaws with you plan.”

“First there is no money left on the transfer budget this year.”

“And secondly we might have a problem with the scouting department”.

To call it a “scouting department” was the overstatement of the year and calling it a problem was the understatement of the century”. In my world a department had to have more than one person employed. Especially when that one person has a hard time walking and chewing gum at the same time. How he every got a job in football and especially as a scout is still one of the world’s great mysteries.

Chief Scout Benjamin Calvo

[Northwood_dk]

CD Constancia: Square peg in a round hole

A FM13 LLM dynasty

The preseason started out perfectly with a 5-1 win and it all looked easy, but then it all started to come apart. On paper we had the personal to play the 4-2-3-1 formation but in real life it was a whole different matter. The next few preseason games we hardly ever had possession of the ball and when we finally got it we threw it away almost straightaway. He could not produce a goal chance and was outplayed and outscored in every game with the moral dropping like a stone.

Under normal circumstances our disaster of a scout would have been the first person shown the door and a new competent person brought inn. But with no transfer budget and hardly any salary budget I didn’t see the point. We were not going to buy any new players this season anyway and Mr. Benjamin Calvo was only under contract for this year anyway so I decided to let leave him alone and promised myself never to listen to a word he had to say.

Of cause that plan soon came crashing down around me as injuries started to mound up almost from day one.

Already in the first pre-season game our goalkeeper went down and was ruled out for 8-10 weeks. That left us with a 19-year old as the only replacement available on the roster and I was in desperate need to go shopping. Without being able to trust a single word coming out of the mouth of our scout it was like shopping for clothe blindfolded. There was no way of knowing what color and style you had bought before you got home. With no money to actually buy players and hardly any salary budget available it didn’t make a huge difference. I was left to look at player reports for young players with no experience or old journeymen not wanted by anyone and other outcasts.

When it was all set and done we had signed three new players. From Espanyol we borrowed a 24-year old Brazilian ML/AML named Elton Martins. Espanyol would pay the salary and we would promise playing time. Not a bad deal for a team without money in the bank.

We added routine in the defends by signing Toni Soldevilla. He was another former Espanyol player with close to 100 games in the Spanish top division. But that was a long time ago and the now 34-year old players came from obscure jobs in cypress and Russia before he had returned to lower league Spanish football three years ago. Toni was a free agent when we signed him and we agreed on a 1-year contract.

The last player we added was keeper Kiko Moreno. The 21-year old player had spent 3 years with another lower league club Ontinyent without getting any playing time. The last year he had been out of football but now he was suddenly the man we had to trust as the last line of defense.

[Big Marv]

Nice read, you probably want this in the 'stories' forum, though?

[Northwood_dk]

Nice read, you probably want this in the 'stories' forum, though?

Thanks for reading Big Marv.

I’m afraid of the 'stories' forum and all there rules :o.

When the story gets to the season I will have a few more screenshots and I don’t think they look kindly upon that in the 'stories' forum.

[Northwood_dk]

CD Constancia: Season start

A FM13 LLM dynasty

For the start of the regular season I saw no other option then to go back to basics. So for my first ever game as a manager we trotted out a team in a formation we had never tried in a competitive game before the start of the season. My only hope was that even this football team would be able to master the 4-4-2 formation.

This was also the first time it hit me how overmatched we were. The fine words to the owner almost two months ago about the “solid team” rang in my head and it was all very clear that this was going to be a 40-game-fight-for-every-point-posible if this team were to stay afloat above relegation.

Surprisingly the first month of the season went way above expectations. We found ourselves as the underdog in almost every game and were firmly outplayed most of the time. The opponents not only hardly ever lent us the ball but we also hardly produced any goal chances the few times we actually got possession. Still we came away with eleven points in the seven games the first month and found ourselves around mid-table.

A few losses in early October brought us back to earth but only for a short while until we went on another winningstrek that took us back to 5th place, just outside the promotion playoff spots.

And then it got bad.

That fact that we were a newly promoted team, predicted to fight for survival suddenly hit us full force. In the next two months we struggled and dropped like a stone in the standing. When we reached Christmas we found ourselves in 14th place just 8 points clear of relegation-playoffs.

This was not the nice and sunny Mallorca I was use to.

[Northwood_dk]

Halfway point

The problems were not only on the field. The board had to pump €70.000 in to the club and we were losing money at an alarming rate. We had nothing to sell and no players were willing to take a pay cut.

Still I decided it was time to act. Despite the terrible economy I actually had a bit of wiggle room in the wage budget and that gave me an opportunity to strengthen the roster with a few cheap free agents. With no scouting help and a very limited budget, I went to work. First, I looked for a scout but was unable to find anyone with the profile I liked, willing to take on the job for the money I was able to offer. Instead, I used €375 a week to add a coach for the rest of the year. This would give me time off from doing the actually practicing with the team every day and instead give me time to prepare for games and work to make the team better in other ways.

Then I went to work to strengthen all three lines. On defends I added a 25-year old Rubén Alba. With good marking and decent speed he was a player I could use in all positions on defends. We agreed to pay him €600 pr week.

On the midfield, I had quickly come to hate our highest paid player Jaime Molina. He had arrived at the club just weeks before I took over as manager after he was no longer needed by R.C.D Mallorca. He was clearly bitter about being dropped by the big team on Mallorca. For the €1.500 we paid him each week he did nothing but complain, getting injured and put up horrible performances. However, he was the only MR I had on the roster and I had been forced to play him.

He was already my main prospect to sell after the season but for now, the only thing I could do was to bring inn a young player named Junafer for another €700 pr week, to compete with him.

Finally, we added a new striker. With no striker on the squad with a finishing rating over 11 (!!) we desperately needed a player able to put the ball in the goal. Of cause not many of these was available at this time in FA and the few we found would rather be unemployed then take the low-ball salary we could afford to pay them. The best we could do was a 28-year old journeyman Igarki Mayor. For his 14 finishing rating we paid the remaining €750 on our wage budget.

Just a few hours after the transfer deadline had come and gone I got a visit in my office by chairman Antonio Ramis. He was not happy and wanted an explanation on why the club according to his finance department was €977 pr week over the agreed wage budget. I was clueless and pretty sure we were exactly at the limit when I had closed the last deal. After a few hours of numbers crushing the mistake was located. We had promised keeper Kiko Moreno a pay raise after 20 games when we signed him just after I arrived and that incentive had now kicked inn. I had just been caught making another rookie mistake and that did not help on the mood around the front office.

[Northwood_dk]

The final stretch

In the end of February, the bank told us that the club was now €500.00 in debt. What was even worse was that we had only won one single game since New Year (1-5-3) and the squad was getting upset.

The perfect cure for that was a game against rival (and perhaps the worst team in the league) R.C.D Mallorca B. For the first time this season the stadium was more than 10% full as 1015 people showed up for the home game.

We once again gave up an early goal. That was a problem we had struggled with all season and it had come to a point where I had put in a special game plan for the first half hour of every game with an extra DMC. We equalized five minutes before the half when Francese Fullana scored his ninth goal of the season.

In the halftime speech, I channeled my inner Al Pacino and gave my best impression of the inches-speeches and it really helped. In the second half, we played the best football we had played all year and easily scored two more goals while for the first time this year dominating the game.

The week after we finally got the snowball rolling and for just the second time, this season won back-to-back games. So with nine games left to play the team found itself 8 points and five spots clear of relegation.

During the last month of the season, the team surprisingly found its winning form and added 16 points in the last seven games. That propelled the team up the standings and when it was all said and done in the middle of May, CD Constancia finished in a stunning 6th place. That was not only a fantastic result but also secured us a spot in next years Spanish Cup competition.

During the second half of the season, the board had to step inn several times and save the club from bankruptcy. Investors injected money to help with the clubs running costs several times and at the end of the season, a total of €625.00 had been pumped in to the team just to stay afloat. Then it did not help much that the team brought inn a new sponsor who was asked to pay the royal sum of €6K for a three-year sponsorship. Luckily, the club found enough money to renew my contract for another year and bumping the salary up to €1500 pr week.

The last thing I did before starting my holiday was to call the entire training staff (all four of them) in to my office and thank them for a great season. When that was done, I told them all that they needed to clean out there offices on the way out as they would not get there contracts renewed for next year. The four men left the office with the knowledge that they would likely never get another job in football.

The next 1 ½ months I used to travel around Spain and watch a lot of football. I concentrated mostly on minor clubs and B-teams, tried to see as many players as possible to be ready, and prepared when the new season began. I also took the time to speak to a lot of staff with the hope that some of them would remember me and be interested when I got back to Mallorca and started hiring.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 8 erase and rewind

The first point on my agenda for the new season was to find new front office staff. Compared to the group we employed last season almost anything would be an upgrade but I still found it a struggle to get the people I wanted. I had hugely overestimated the draw of Mallorca and third division football. Many of the people I on my list as potential future employees of C.D Constancia had very little interest in talking to me and most did not even answer the phone. To get them to come to Mallorca for an actual job interviews was almost impossible.

After countless phone calls leading nowhere and several vast-of-time job interviews, I could finally present my staff for the upcoming season. Four rookie-no-names with huge questions marks on their resume but still much better than what we had the year before.

During the summer, I had also in my head made planes for how I would completely rebuild the player roster for the upcoming season. During the 2012-13 season, we had 31 players under contract. Seven of these players were so poor that they never started a single game or even made the 22-man active roster the entire season. My plan for 2013-14 was to slim the players group to a maximum of 25 players and go with quality instead of quantity.

First, the five players with expiring contracts were all let go without a fight. That meant waving goodbye to among others, GK Gaspar who started the season injured and never managed to challenge Kiko Moreno when he got back. DC Toni Soldevilla who was a disappointment after being brought inn around New year and Brazilian ML Elton Martina (loan) who started all season on the left side of the midfield without impressing.

We managed to ship another four players out the door to other clubs for a small profit of €25.5K. That did not help me much as hardly any of this money was made available to buy new players. What did help me was that one of the players out the door was Jaime Molina and his team high €1.500 per week contract was off my books.

Still that only left me with a transfer budget of just under €4K and €2.5K per week in available salary. That meant that I once again was locked out of the transfer market and instead had to pursue free agents and loan players with low wage demands. The only difference this year was that I at least had a scout I could trust.

When the dust had settled we had added five new players to the roster for the start of the season. We made the defends stronger with Damià and Alex Vallejo, both on loan deals from the evil empire (aka R.C.D. Mallorca). Another loan player was Jean-Luc Gbayara from Villarreal who was bought inn to play ML.

The last two players were free agents. Carlos Akapo was a 21-year old defender from Equatorial Guinea who had played five international games for his country. We also added some experience in the midfield by adding a 36-year-old Siro Darino (Argentina). He had played the last five seasons in the Spanish second division for Las Palmas and we decided to take a chance on him, well aware that he was near the end of his career.

This was not the group of players I had hoped to bring inn before the season but under the circumstances, it was the best I could do.

The most concerning was that we did not manage to find a quality striker. The previous season we had scored just forty-nine goals in forty games. Only three teams scored less than that and they were all relegated.

We had a good preseason with wins against opponents from higher divisions and a 0-0 draw with Barcelona B being the highlight. Still the bookmakers “only” made us 500-1 favorites to win the division and once again placed us in the middle of the relegation fight.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 9 The definition of insanity

I was sitting in my office with just a week to the start of the regular season. I had just put down the phone after listening to yet another agent, explaining me why his client preferred to sit on the bench for a B-team with little or no chance of playing time instead of coming to Mallorca and play for CD Constancia. The latest example was a 22-year old left defender called Borjan from Las Palmas. He had now spent four years in Las Palmas without ever getting close to the starting lineup. Still he preferred to stay in Las Palma and watch them play in the second division this season instead of coming to Mallorca and actually play football for CD Constancia in the 3rd division.

I was looking down at the paper in front of me with the 25 names of my current roster desperately looking for ways to improve it. Then it hit me. What if I instead of trying to spend money on player that would only marginally improved the roster I already had. What if I instead used the money to improve the players I already had. The only way to do that was to hire more staff.

I once again went to my rolodex with the names of staff I talked to in the off season. But this time instead of looking for the potential head coaches with good overall stats, I looked for the outsiders and outcasts nobody else wanted. I was looking for the guy who knew everything there is to know about tactics and I would not care that his other attributes was completely hopeless.

I quickly went out and hired two new coaches. Both of them were obscure for most of the football world but both had very high skills in the few places I needed them.

There was also another reason I was looking at the paper with my 25-man roster. The paper had the expiring date of the contract for all the players currently at the club. What it told me was that three of these were loan players that would be gone next season no matter what. Four players were signed to contracts thru 2015 and the remaining 18 players could walk out the door after this season. I had a huge job in front of me resigning all these players and I had to get them to sign without promising them significantly more money or in other ways put our already fragile economy in danger.

This was a disaster waiting to happen. There were no way I could leave this job to anyone else and I just had to get started.

The last paper on my desk was perhaps the most disappointing, It told me that despite taking the team destined for relegation least season and turning it inn to a 6th place team, only 17 people more had decided to by seasons tickets this season, Up from 300 the season before to 317 this season.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 10 Going international

With a quarter of the season completed (10 games) C.D. Constància found themselves in an unfamiliar position. Second in the league standing just a single point behind league leader Levante B. Even with a humiliating 0-4 loss at home to Badalona in the latest game the mood in Inca was positive.

It looked like the move of adding more coaches had a positive effect on the player group. Each week the coaches came back and informed that several players had impressed during training and were getting better footballers. Especially David Karg kept improving.

Of other good news was that the list of players not under contract next season was getting shorter. Ten players had already agreed to new contracts and that without putting the clubs economy in further danger.

The bad news was the economy overall. Apparently it was impossible to get people in Inca to come and watch football. The big stadium Nou Camp d`Inca had still not been 10% full at any time this season despite the team fighting in the top of the league.

One of the few losses had been in the second round of the Spanish cup. That was a mistake as C.D. Constància could have used the money from a game against a big name-team in the 3rd or even 4th round.

The board reminded me daily that money was pouring out (€79K in October) and started to hint that player sale might be the way to ease the financial pressure. Starting to sell off my best players was the last thing I needed now.

It also looked like we had made a mistake with Siro Darino. The 37-year old Argentinian was brought in to bring stability to our defensive midfielder, but at this point he had not delivered. A poor 6.49 overall rating had sent him first out of the starting lineup and to the bench and several poor performances at training was now threatening to send him out of the team completely.

A signing that had worked out was Carlos Akapo. It was a proud day in Inca when they could announce their first ever international call up. Maybe it wasn’t Vicente Del Bosque calling but it was still an international call up. The 20 year old Carlos Akapo was called up to the Equatorial Guinea national team to play Zimbabwe and Togo.

[Animosama]

looks like it is gonna be close

[Northwood_dk]

looks like it is gonna be close

Still a long way to go.

Thanks for reading and commenting Animosama

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 11 Big deal

Just around the winter break when the transfer window had opened again we reached the halfway mark and were still hanging with the best in the league. With 34 points (10 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses) we found ourselves just two points out of 4th place.

I also made my first real transfer deal as a CD Constancia manager. All the players I had brought in to this point were either loans or free agent signings. But we had the royal sum of €5K burning a hole in my pocket so now it was time to make a deal. With Jaime Molina out the door we were dangerously thin at MR but I decided to gamble that Juanfer could keep up his excellent form and stay injury free. Instead I went looking for an AMC.

For most of the season we lined up in a 4-4-1-1 formation with Francesc Fullana playing the role as the AMC. He had done an excellent job both last season and this season both creating assists and moving forward scoring goals. He had easily been our best player and he knew that when we sat down and started contract negotiations. His contract was running out at the end of the season and we had already talked to Fullana and his agent twice without getting close to agreeing on a new deal. His salary demands combined with appearance fee and a loyalty bonus was more then we could afford at this time.

In an attempt to both put some pressure on Fullana and his agent and take our precautions in case we didn’t manage to agree on a deal before the end of the season we signed 20-year old AMC Cristian Reyes from Tenerife.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 12 Enjoying Mallorca in the spring

Before the transfer window had closed I had decided to add two more players to the squad. The smart move would properly have been to save the money but with the injury situation getting critical I felt I didn’t have a choice. We added another striker in what looked like a good prospect in Ruben Casanova and another defender in José Peris. Both were free agents and signed one and a half year deals with under €500 in salary pr week. Little risk but most likely also little reward.

ST Ruben Casanova

DC José Peris

Now we found ourselves with just nine games left in the regular season and still with an outside shot of the promotion playoffs. We had not conceded a goal in six games and found ourselves in 6th place. That could have been a lot better if we had managed to score some goals of our own but three wins and five draws had at least kept us relevant.

Gimnàstic who moved down from the LIGA adelante last season, already looked like a clear winner of the division, nine points out in front. Second and third place was also close to locked up by Valencia Mestalla and Hospitalet. That left just one playoff spot to play for and four teams with a realistic chance. Currently that place belonged to Reus with 49 points with us just one point back. And the team coming to Inca, Mallorca this week was Reus.

This was properly my first must-win game I had faced as the manager for CD Constancia. If we lost this game our season would be close to over. It would be difficult to take back four points on Reus in just eight games and also make sure the other contenders stayed behind us.

It was Reus who came out strong and dominated the ball but they struggled to create chances and instead it was CD Constancia who scored first. On a floating free kick from almost midfield from Jean-Luc Gbayara, Reus forgot to mark Deimà despite having eleven men in the box and the loan player from R.C.D. Mallorca could easily direct the ball in the longest corner with a header for his 3rd goal of the season. Reus came back just two minutes after the break when CD Constancia failed to clear on defends. After one hour of play CD Constancia took back the lead on another poor clearance, this time by the Reus defends. But just five minutes later Reus again equalized, this time after sloppy marking on a corner kick. The game was decided with just eight minutes left on the clock when the Reus defends made a horrible penalty. David Karg stepped up and made no mistakes.

CD Constancia was suddenly in 4th place with just eight games to go and in control of there own destiny.

The bad news. Only 591 people showed up on the stadium to witness it.

[Animosama]

Good job

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 13 Running hot

With the raise in the standing a brand new phenomenon suddenly started too showed up on No Camp De Inca. No, it was not the local population who were still perfectly unaware of our success on the pitch or who just didn’t care about lower league football and supported the evil R.C.D. Mallorca instead.

But a group of people not unaware of what was going on in Inca and not uninterested in making a few bucks was the scouts. They suddenly started to show up for home games and this time not just to watch the opponent.

The person attracting the most attention was a local player from Mallorca 21-year old David Karg. Ever since installing the new coaching regime the name of Karg was mentioned almost every week and his rating was improving bye the day to the point where he was now starting to look like a real footballer.

That also showed on the pitch where David Karg he lead the team with a 7.24 average rating and had earned three “Player of the Match” awards.

I had anticipated this and made sure to renew his contract thru 2016. But with interest from several clubs rising I was afraid that my board would overrule my desirer to keep him and instead sell at the first opportunity to add a few Euros to the empty bank account.

Before the last game of the season we were tied for 3rd place but just a single point in front of Levante B in 5th place.

We traveled to Sant Andreu. Luckily for us the team from Barcelona was in the middle of the table and had nothing to play for.

CD Constancia scored after just 15 minutes when Igarki got in front of a defender for the easy goal. At the half it was still only 0-1 and with the results coming in from the other games we needed a win. After an hour of play it was decided when Igarki scored three more goals in just thirteen minutes. The CD Constancia players had already started to celebrate when Mateu added a fifth goal two minutes in to extra time.

It was the most goal we had scored since the first game of the season when we beat Gava 5-0 in the first round of the Spanish Cup. But this time the win was much more important as it propelled us in to the promotion playoffs together with Hospitalet and Valencia Mestalla.

[Animosama]

This is gonna be a tight finish

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 14 Playoffs football in Inca

Playoff football was what it took to get the people of Inca to come and watch football at Nou Camp d'Inca. There were now just six games between us and LIGA adelante (Segunda División) football next season and for the first playoff game at home against FC Cartagena from Murcia, a total of 6702 people was in the stands. It was not much they got to see as the two teams played to a scoreless draw.

The return game was a different story.

I was not proud to send out the team in a 4-1-4-1 formation with only Igaka with offensive duties in a game were we had to score a goal to advance. Still I felt that was our only chance to get away with a result.

In front of 11.975 people the game started out as expected with Cartagena dominating and pressing us back. Still we managed to produce a few good chances on counterattacks and it paid out already after 4 minutes when Jean-Luc Gbayara scored on a perfectly constructed CD Constancia attack. FC Cartagena hit back just 10 minutes later but just 5 minutes before the break, David Karg got his second assist of the day when his pass found Igaka and we regained the lead.

The game took and ugly turn for the home team just two minutes after the break when they had a player sent off after a questionable second yellow card. That opened up for even more counterattacks and in the 55th and 77th minute Jean-Luc Gbayara and Igaka scored their second of the day.

F.C. Cartagena pulled one back late on a penalty but it was all too little too late.

We had not just won, but perhaps given the best performance since I took over as manager. We had been deadly effective scoring four goals on four shots on goal even if we only had the ball for 41% of the time. Two players finished with a rating of nine or better and the teams average rating was a season high 7.51.

We were one step closer to the LIGA adelante

In other great news I was announced at the end of the season that R.C.D Mallorca had sacked there manager Ernesto Valverde. Mallorca finished 16th in the Spanish first division this season just 6 points clear of relegation. His replacement was no other then former Chelsea, Roma and Monaco manager Claudio Ranieri.

[Animosama]

Is that the final play off match ? If not how many more are left ?

[Northwood_dk]

Is that the final play off match ? If not how many more are left ?

The Spanish 3rd level got a complicated playoffs setup with a total of four teams getting promoted each year.

There are a total of four divisions. The four division winners are drawn against each other in a home-and-away playoff game. The two winners are promoted to the second division (LIGA adelante).

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th place teams in the four divisions (12 teams) are drawn against each other home and away, producing six winners.

The six winners plus the two division winners who lost there direct promotion games (6+2 teams) are drawn against each other home and away producing 4 winners.

Those four are drawn against each other in a home-and-away playoff game were the two winners are promoted to the LIGA adelante.

As we finished 4th in our division this was just the first round of potential three to win promotion.

Hope this made sense.

[Animosama]

Yea I understand it basically sucks to be a division winner ,who lost their direct promotion games.

So you advance rounds by wining the tie on aggregate for each round. You are randomly drawn against each time ?

[Northwood_dk]

Yea I understand it basically sucks to be a division winner ,who lost their direct promotion games.

Correct. You can win your division by twenty points and still end up with nothing to show for it.

So you advance rounds by wining the tie on aggregate for each round. You are randomly drawn against each time ?

Correct again. The aggregate win over FC Cartagena was the first round. Eight teams are now left to fight for the two remaining spots.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 15 Playoff football in Inca, Part II

In the second round of the playoffs we were drawn against division rivals Valencia C.F. Mestalla. We played them last just four weeks ago to a 2-2 draw at home.

For the second time in a row we treated the home fans to a horrible display of football in another 0-0 sneezer that was sure to scare the occasional fan away forever. That once again left us with a road game winner takes all.

Getting knocked out of the promotion playoffs on an own goal is a cruel and unusual form of punishment. But for the longest time that looked to be the fortune of CD Constancia. The normally reliable Damià and keeper Kiko Moreno had after 17 minutes of play managed together to fumble the ball over the line for an own goal. After that Mestalla was mostly satisfied in defending and didn’t create much. Even though trying every trick in the book we didn’t produce anything either.

The game was decided after 55 minutes on a bizarre chain of events*.

In an attempt to just create anything we had started to just pump the ball forward to our loan forward Igarki Mayor. One of these long balls from Cristian Reys was being chased down by Igarki. The ball was clearly inside the penalty box and it looked like an easy play for the Mestalla keeper Adrian Martin to collect the ball with his hands.

But instead of picking the ball up with his hands he decides to kick it clear instead.

[Northwood_dk]

The clearance was not a pretty one and drops down in the middle of the Mestalla half of the field.

David Karg don’t need any time to think and first times the ball in the direction of the Mestalla goal.

And with the Mestalla keeper almost as in slow-motion trying to get back to his goal line the ball sails inn for the all-important equalizer.

The next ten minutes is a mess. Both Mestalla players and fans is in a state of chock we are scrambling to reorganize to a defensive formation to protect the result. In the chaos we hit both the crossbar and the upright.

The last twenty minutes is a constant press from Valencia C.F. Mestalla. It almost pays off just two minutes before full time when they hit the upright but the ball bounces our way and we are thru to the final round.

* After watching enough FM13 games I have of cause found out that this is not that bizarre a chain of events, but instead a rather normal behavior by FM13 goal keepers in the early versions.

[Animosama]

What a win way from home.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 16 Playoff football in Inca, The final

The draw for the final round of the playoffs was held the day after the World Cup in Brazil kicked off with the home nation drawing 1-1 with the Ivory Coast in the opening match in front of 76.000 people at the Estádio do Maracanã.

The new world champion was not home nation Brazil as they were knocked out in the quarterfinal by England who got two goals from Rooney who won the Golden Boot with his seven goals in seven games.

The World cup was also the end of the Spanish dominance in world football as they lost already in the first knockout round to the future world champions.

When the team returned home after the tournament Vincent Del Bosque was relieved of his duties as Spanish manager.

He was later replaced by Marcelino G Toral.

Other upsets was that Italia didn’t made it out of the group stage and finished behind Japan and France. An even bigger upset was that Argentina also had to go home after just three games after they failed to finish ahead of Mexico and Ukraine.

Instead it was Africa who finally got there first ever World Cup triumph when Cameroon helped by Etoò (Anji) and Joël Matip (Schalke), beat Germany in the final on penalties.

There was no way we should be playing football at this time of year in Mallorca but together with three other teams we were still alive in the promotion race. It was to be decided between Las Palmas, Alaves, Tenerife and us, witch two teams would play in the Second highest level of football in Spain next year.

We were drawn against Club Deportivo Tenerife.

Tenerife was one of the few Spanish teams I had actually seen live before taking over as manager for CD Constancia now almost two years ago. It was more than 20 years ago, but I still remember the Spanish Cup game played in 1992 between a then Liga BBVA Tenerife team and a FC Barcelona team lead by legendary Danish footballer Michael Laudrup. What made the experience even more special was that I meet the entire team in the airport afterwards and got both autographs and pictures.

The Tenerife team we were to play now had dropped a long way since then. They finished next to last in the top division Liga BBVA in the 2009/10 season and were relegated. The year after they finished dead last in the second division (LIGA adelante) and were relegated for the second straight year. Now they were the only thing between us and second division football in Inca next season.

With two scoreless draws at home in the first two playoff games only 800 people showed up for the home game this time against Tenerife. They were treated to a surprisingly good match. Igarki Mayor was once again the man of the match with two goals in the first half. On both goals he found himself just on the edge of the offside and used his speed when Fullana and Gbayara played the perfect thru-ball.

Igarki Mayor

Despite leaving most of the initiative to C.D. Tenerife in the second half we didn’t give up any chances and only allowed a single shot on goal all match. Unluckily that shot came one minute in to overtime and was impossible for Kiko Moreno to stop.

We were now heading in to the deciding game on the Canary Islands with the smallest advantage possible.

For the return game at Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López in Tenerife close to 10.000 showed up to cheer on the home team.

Both Igarki Mayor and Fullana had the chance to put the game away for us early and both of them missed badly. That was the only two shots we had toward goal the entire day.

That was not the case for Club Deportivo Tenerife. With a formation looking like a 4-2-4 they pressed on from the start creating several huge chances. But due to some incredible luck mixed with some excellent defensive work we managed to stay clean.

We won promotion.

[Animosama]

Congrats

[Northwood_dk]

Congrats

Thanks for all your comments and support.

You might be the only one reading this story.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 17 Home away from home

At the beginning of the new football-year the TV money for the upcoming season was calculated. With the promotion to the second best Spanish league (and the 34th best league in the world) €1,93M was the take for CD Constancia. That was more than double the clubs entire budget from the previous year. Still the board and chairman Mr. Antoni Ramis decided not to make any money available to buy new players or increase the salary budget.

The fans were not impressed and only 600 fans had bought season tickets for the upcoming season.

The rumors started before we had even played a single pre-season game. At first it was only words flowing around in cyber-space but soon the story began to show up in the Mallorca newspapers.

The story was that a fraction of the fans, lead buy a rich local (still unknown) businessman would try to buy the team. Nobody was talking to me and the current board and chairman was stonewalling me as well.

The papers were talking about hostile takeovers and new owner groups with their own director of football and staff.

Was I on my way out as well? Was this the reward for winning promotion with a team predicted for relegation?

My stomach was starting to hurt…..

In the run-up to the new season the uncertainty did not have a positive effect on the team. I was trying to build a team capable of surviving in the second best Spanish division, constructed out of tape and paperclips. This was a task that looked to big even for MacGyver.

The foundation of the team was the same players that were overwhelming favorites to be relegated from the 3rd best division last year. To that group of players we were allowed to add the usual lineup of outcasts and rejects. And this group of players was supposed to compete with teams like Celta, Barcelona B and Elche FC.

Now I felt sick to my stomach.

With the unexpected promotion came other unexpected problems. One of them was the rebuilding of the stadium to comply with Spanish league rules. 6000 seats would have to be added. That would come with a cost of €868K the club didn’t have and also meant that we would have to play the next 10 months away from home while the building was going on.

Our new “home field” away from home was now Estadio Miguel Ángel Nadal is situated in the city of Manacor, 36 kilometers from Inca. The stadium was the home arena for AE Manacor and has a capacity of 5000 seats. Manacor is known in the sports world for being the hometown of Miguel ”the beast” Nadal and his nephew former World Tennis number 1 Rafael Nadal.

In contrast to last season when I cleaned house after the season, I this year hoped that most of my staff would follow me up a division. It was therefore both a surprise and a disappointment when both my Asst manager, lead scout and head coach did not even want to talk to me after the season. Not because they wanted other jobs. Apparently they were sick and tired of football after just one year on Mallorca and instead decided to sit out the entire season.

Did I mention that I was feeling sick to my stomach?

[Animosama]

Yikes,this is gonna be a rough season. I am starting to think the promotion was more of a curse than a blessing. For the facilities and stadium haven't caught up with the Adelante division in time. So you can't make the average of amount of income this division clubs make to sustain your club. So finances will suffer as a result of this. But knowing you you will find a way.

[Northwood_dk]

Yikes,this is gonna be a rough season. I am starting to think the promotion was more of a curse than a blessing. For the facilities and stadium haven't caught up with the Adelante division in time. So you can't make the average of amount of income this division clubs make to sustain your club. So finances will suffer as a result of this. But knowing you you will find a way.

For a small team like this with a fragile economy I think all promotions are good as the financial impact is so important.

I think the trick is to not overspend the first year up especially on long contracts with big escalating salaries. Those contracts will kill you and set you back for years if you go down again the year after.

The catch-22 is of cause that not being able to spend will seriously affect your chances of staying up.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 18 Takeover

It happened the week before the start of the regular season and the biggest game in CD Constancias’ recent history. The season opener was a home game against one of last years relegated teams from the top division Elche FC but if you looked in the papers, you wouldn’t know. All the newspapers were writing about was the sale of CD Constancia.

The buyer was a consortium led by a Mr. Miguel Angel Rubio aka the secret local businessman.

The partnership was in the newspapers mentioned as a group of the most loyal fans without ever being more specific. The price they had to pay to take over the entire team was not mentioned but it was reported that €375.000 of the total sum was coming from a bank loan the club now had to pay off.

So just two days before the start of the season, instead of being on the practice field with the team preparing for the season opener I found myself in a suit and tie in the office of new owner Mr. Rubio.

The irony that I now had to interview for the job I had been doing successfully for the last three years, after being handed the job by a mistake was not lost on me.

The meeting was brief and to the point. I was kept on as the manager for the time being until the new board have had a chance to evaluate the entire football operation and then they would make a final decision.

This did not sound like good news to me.

Mr. Rubio looked like he was finished talking and as a man who had just received his dead sentence, I started to get up to leave his office. But before I got all the way out of the chair, the new chairman spoke again.

He said,

“How much money do you need this season?”

At first, I was not sure if he was actually still talking to me. But when nobody else answered and he kept looking at me I responded.

“First we need money to renegotiate existing contracts but whatever I can get to sign new players to help improve the teams would be great”.

Mr. Rubio got out of his chair and walked me to the door. On the way out, he patted me on the shoulder and said

“I will find some money to you” “trust me it will all work out”.

And then he closed the door behind me.

I spend the rest of the day preparing for the upcoming game. When I returned to my office late in the afternoon I found an email from the new owner.

Date: 15/08/2014

To: TNorthwood@ Constancia.es

From: MARubio@ Constancia.es

Subject: Dinero

I found some money for you as I promised.

I’m afraid it’s not much but I guess it’s better than nothing. I have made another €1K a week available to you in the salary budget. Hopefully that can help you get some of our key players signed to new deals.

I also made €300K available to you to buy new players.

I’m sure I don’t have to ask you to spend them wisely, it your job that is on the line after all.

Miguel Angel Rubio

I was speechless.

€300K was a huge amount not just for CD Constancia but for most second division teams. Only three teams in the entire league had actually bought players before this season with the rest of the teams relaying on loan players and freelancers to make up their rosters.

With Christmas apparently coming early in Mallorca this year, I sat down the next morning with my Asst manager and my scout to start the search for new players. I felt like a kid in a candy story with the pocket full of quarters.

Being used to having no money, we had spent all of our time scouting free agents and had little knowledge of players of actual value.

Going out and spending big this short before the season was both a scary and dangerous exercise. We looked and talked to several players and agents but I was just unable to pull the trigger.

In the end, I decided not to buy anyone and instead let the money burn I my pocket a little longer. With this being, perhaps the only chance I ever got to spend “big” with CD Constancia I had to make sure I made the correct move, and rushing in to a buy was not the way to do it. Instead I would evaluate the squad until the winter transfer window opened to find out where the money was best spend while at the same time scout players in my new price-range.

The few new players we did add were all mostly roster fill. If any of them saw significant playing time this year I would be in serious trouble.

[Animosama]

Are the finances healthy now ?

Are the new owners like a mini-tycoon ?

What is the owners goal as it relates to the club ?

[Northwood_dk]

Are the finances healthy now ?

Are the new owners like a mini-tycoon ?

What is the owners goal as it relates to the club ?

Its better but not great.

The new own is not close to being a tycoon but a local businessman that had to loan most of the money in the bank.

He did make money available but not the kind of money that can change a club.

No goals from the new owner. The old owners knew we were lucky to be in the 3rd division and hopefully the new owners also know that we at this point have no business playing in the LIGA adelante.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 19 Let the torture begin

It looked easy on paper. They only thing we needed were 50 points in 42 games or two

wins for every five games we were to play. Looking over the table from previous years, that should steer us well clear of relegation.

Only problem was of cause that we would not be favored in a single game all season. In fact, you could not put down enough money to get any bookmaker to take a bet on CD Constancia being relegated.

The over/under on numbers of wins for us was 5.5 for the entire season!!

The starting lineup on opening day looked like this:

Keeper:

Kiko was one of the first players I brought inn when I started my manager job in Inca. At this point, the now 24-year old keeper was perhaps not improving with the pace I hoped. Nevertheless, in a world with weird goalkeeper performances he was surprisingly mistake-free and a solid last bastion. He would be under siege for most of the season and I needed a fantastic season from him if we were to have any chance to stay up.

Defenders:

Juan Vich on DR had been a revelation last season winning the CD Constancia player of the year award. For that he was rewarded not only a spot in the starting lineup but also the job as captain this season despite.

Ramon Soria, a free agent and Equatorial Guinea international Carlos Akapo made up a somewhat shaky center with Ruben Alba on the left.

Going in to battle with this young/inexperienced backline was far from ideal but it was the best we could do.

Midfield:

Midfield was the place we were going to win our games this season. We still struggled to find stable contributors on the left and right but on the center of the field, we looked strong with up and coming David Karg and Sergi Compoy.

Juanfer would line up on the right Jorge Pulido on the left.

The plan was to overpopulate the midfield with five players and in that way keep some control.

Attack:

I decided to go with Francesc Fullana on top. His natural position was AMC but I felt that his ability to create his own chances gave us the best chance to score.

The natural selection Igarki had some horrible performances in the preseason games and struggled with some minor injuries.

Mateu was inn way over his head at this level and was mostly on the team for sentimental reasons now. After all, he was the one starting the adventure when he scored the goal that secured promotion to the third division the year before I arrived in Mallorca back in 2012.

Finally, Ruben Casanova was still unproven even if he had some good performances in the preseason games.

The start of the season was not that bad. In the first game, we played just relegated Levante U.D.

At halftime, the score “home” at Estadio Miguel Nadal in front of 3.189 fans was still 0-0. It was not pretty as we played with 11 men behind the ball at all times and we were not attracting many new fans. In the second half, we tried to push a little forward and were instantly punished with three goals against.

Not the best start to the campaign.

In the next game, we played to a 0-0 draw on the road against Xerez C.D. before getting our first win at home against another team predicted to be fighting relegation in Càdiz C.F.

Still the press called the win a sensation. The lone goal came on a counterattack in the 92nd minute and was our only shot on goal.

Still I was not too worried. We had not dipped in to the €300K and there were a lot of football to be played.

[Nobby_McDonald]

CD Constancia: Story time

A FM13 LLM dynasty

This is not LLM. LLM is a specific style of both playing and posting and the acronym has a specific meaning on the SI forum. I don't know how you are playing your save (which you are entitled to play how you like as it is yours), but your posting is not in the LLM manner.

I'm not having a go at you, just be wary using the LLM term here.

[Northwood_dk]

This forum really goes out of there way to make newcomers fell welcome.

Until now I have had three people commenting on the story.

One has told me I am posting in the wrong forum.

One has told me I am using a wrong title for my story.

Animosama have actually commented about the story but I am just waiting for him to tell me that I am using a wrong Font. :confused:

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 20 When the going gets tough

1.900 people showed up when the mighty Barcelona rolled in to town. It was “only” the B-team but it was still an event in Inca. Among the players, Barcelona brought to Mallorca this day in late October was former wonderkit and AC Milan lent-out Borjan. They also brought one of their new wonderkids from there academy, €10M man Gerard Deulofeu.

Barcelona won the game easily but it did not change the fact that the Barcelona B manager job might be the hardest job in Spain. A few weeks after our game against them they fired there fourth manager in three season.

Not that the CD Constancia job was any easier.

My biggest concern was our lack of goal scoring. After ten games, we did not have any players who had scored twice in the league.

No, I’m not talking about twice in a single game. After ten games, we did not have any players with two goals, period.

The experiment with Fullana playing as the striker was quickly abandoned. Without him at midfield, we struggled to keep control of the ball and create something even resembling a goal chance. Now the goal scoring duty was all up to Igarki, Mateu and Casanova and they had alarmingly few balls to work with.

In the middle of November, we dropped below the relegation line for the first time and it was panic time in Mallorca. We called a team meeting and the response was excellent.

A surprise 1-3 win on the road against Cordoba gave us some much-needed breathing room. Mateu was the man of the match with a hat trick and David Kargs performance was not far behind with three assists. Both players made “Team of the week”, the first time ever that a CD Constancia player achieved that honor in the LIGA adelante.

With the first quarter of the season soon completed, the transfer window opening up in the not so distant future it was time to reevaluate the roster.

The perhaps biggest disappointment this fare had been Juanfer at MR. The 31-year old had done a god job last season in the Second division B3 but now it looked like that the LIGA adelante was too much for him to handle.

The same was the problem for our captain Juan Vich. Where he last year managed to excel despite his questionable attributes, he this year was completely lost, to the point where he had lost his place in the starting lineup.

It was finally time to spend some of the £300K available. It was not £300K anymore. Some of the money had disappeared in to the salary budget where they were needed to get players resigned. The newspapers were speculating if I had perhaps managed to attract an over-the-top big name player to come to Mallorca to finish his career.

It was therefore both a surprise and a disappointment to many when CD Constancia in the middle of November announced the signing of just 17-year old Eloy Àlvarez from C.E. Hospitalet for €110K.

The newspapers hated the move and were not afraid to say so all over the front-pages of the local papers. The fans were not pleased either and told us every Sunday. The once not screaming at me from the stands stayed away as usual.

However, perhaps most worrisome, was the complete silence from the board and owner.

Had I pushed my luck a little to fare?

Was I close to the end?

In the top of the division, Levante U.D. was running away already seven points clear. In the bottom, C.D. Mirandes looked like a sure bet for relegation with only five points after 14 games. Sabadell in 21st place also struggled with just two wins and six draws and they decided to sacked there coach. After that, it was close with no less than 11 teams within three points of the last regelation spot.

That made the next game against Sabadell at home in Mallorca and early must-win-game.

We won the game on an own goal.

[Animosama]

You are using the wrong font

[Nobby_McDonald]

This forum really goes out of there way to make newcomers fell welcome.

Until now I have had three people commenting on the story.

One has told me I am posting in the wrong forum.

One has told me I am using a wrong title for my story.

Animosama have actually commented about the story but I am just waiting for him to tell me that I am using a wrong Font. :confused:

If you actually bother to read my post properly, you will notice two major things that completely contradict what you have just said.

1. I did NOT tell you you posted in the wrong forum. I told you your posting is not in the LLM manner and hence you should not use the term LLM. Is this the LLM forum? No it's not.

2. I said in my last sentence that I am not having a go at you, and earlier that you are entitled to play the game how you wish as it is your game.

I don't see how my first post was in a manner that made you feel unwelcome. All I did was to tell you be careful how you use the LLM term.

Your post in response though hardly makes me want to bother reading your update again.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 21 To hell in a hand basket

When you have lost twelve games in a row it’s difficult to see the positive even when living in beautiful Mallorca.

In the start of March, we found ourselves deeply buried in the relegation fight.

It was all but determined that the C.E. Sabadell was heading down. With only fifteen points after 30 games, they looked doomed. Six teams were fighting to avoid the last three relegations spots.

It was not that I had given up and did not try. We added new players, we tried different formations, we held player meetings, we revamped the training program, and we even brought in a lady physio, but all without any longstanding effect.

Still the results were the same every week.

The problems were all over the place. The most simple pass of the ball were and almost impossible task. We did not create any goal chances. It didn’t matter if we played with three, two, one or zero players up front we did not create anything and in the twelve game losing streak, we had scored a dismal twenty goals.

On the player front we “rented” 36-year old Javier Farinòs for two years.

We tried this approach the year before when we signed Argentinian veteran Siro Darino to help add some routine to the team. Siro Darinos tender with the team had not been successful as he was almost retired before he joined the team and did not add much leadership on or off the field.

We hoped Javier Farinòs would be different. Firstly, we did not sign him to a half-year lame duck contract but insisted that he signed on for next season as well. Secondly, he was a much better player than Siro Darino was when he joined the team.

Nevertheless, there were a few positives.

We still made money. Actually, we made a lot of money. We were on our way to finish the season with close to £1.5mil in profit. If last year’s promotion turned out to be just a one-year wonder, at least we were to go back down with our pockets full. We had not only money in the bank but also a vastly superior group of players then the one we brought up a year ago, even if it didn’t look that way right now.

Even with the season going to hell in a hand basket the new board still looked to be behind me and my job seamed secure. I had even managed to talk the new chairman in to building youth facilities for the first time in club history. The price would be close to £400.000 and be finished at the end of 2015.

[Animosama]

Man i think you go back to the basics. A balanced 4-4-2 with disciplined creative control.

[Northwood_dk]

Man i think you go back to the basics. A balanced 4-4-2 with disciplined creative control.

Only thing that can save this season is properly a 8-8-4 formation and that is frowned upon in this league.

[JerseyShoreDave]

Man i think you go back to the basics. A balanced 4-4-2 with disciplined creative control.

I agree can't go wrong... keep it simple.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 22 Move back to start

When I was called in to the office of Chairman Miguel Angel Rubio after we had lost the first game in the newly renovated Nou Camp d Inca 1-2 to also relegation threatened Girona F.C, I was afraid that my time as manager was over.

It was the first time I had been in the office of Mr. Rubio since the day he had bought the team and had called me inn to tell me that I was allowed to stay a little longer until he had decided my faith. Now I was afraid I had worn out my welcome and the run was over.

I had seen Mr. Rubio around during the season but had always had the feeling that he was more interested in the business of owning / running a football team than the actual football. I had never seen him at the practis falilities and he almost never showed up for games. His first question therefore took me completely by surprise.

Mr. Miguel Angel Rubio asked

“Why are we not playing with both Dani Lopez and Igarki up front?”

When I had recovered from the surprise that he even knew that we had players with the name of Dani Lopez and Igarki on the team I tried to explain.

“We currently don’t the luxury to spend two players up front. We don’t have the talent to controll the midfield and need all hands on deck” “I think we have the best chance when Francesc Fullana plays as……..”

Mr. Rubio cut me off and said

“I love Francesc”.

“We need to make sure he signs a new contract, we cannot afford to lose him.”

The next three hours was fascinating. Instead of being kicked out on to the streets of Inca I spend the time drinking expensive Spanish red win, eating tapas and discussing football philosophy with Mr. Rubio.

He was well aware that we were way overmatched in the Liga Adelante and that promotion had perhaps come too early.

He had his own ideas about how he wanted his team to play football but was also willing to listen to my suggestions.

When we got up from the table three hours later I didn’t know anything more about my future as the manager of CD Constancia. But if Mr. Rubio wanted to kick me out now, I would at least leave with a full stomach.

When I got back to my office and opened the email I found the proposal for a new two-year contract from Mr. Rubio. The 1800 a week would not make me rich but it didn’t really matter as long as I still had my job and could stay in Mallorca.

To celebrate the new deal we went out and beat C.E. Sabadell on the road the week after. C.E. Sabadell was the worst team in the league and was relegated the week before, but we still celebrated our just 8th win of the season like it won us the title.

In the end it meant little. It was too little too late and not enough to save our life as a Liga Adelante team. When it was all set and done we had only managed nine wins and a total of 39 points and we were relegated back down to the Second Division B3.

In the other end of the league, Levante and Valladolid was close to locked inn for direct qualification to the best division next season.

When we used €110K of the transfer budget on a 17-year old Eloy Àlvarez instead of an already established player, a lot of people were shaking their heads. I had made an effort to play him the entire season even when he was struggling to give him valuable experience.

That approach now appeared to be paying off when he was called up to play three internationals for the Spanish U19 team.

Shockwaves was sent thru European football when it was clear who would compete in this year’s champions League final. An AC Milan team who had used just €2.6M on new players before the season would go up against a Galatasaray S.K. team who had knocked out both Barcelona and Manchester United on their way to the final.

I was also no longer the only Danish coach in Spanish football. Michael Laudrup decided to leave Swansea when he was handed the keys to Valencia after Co Adriaanse. In the last three games of the season after he took over he managed wins against both Real Madrid, Sevilla and Barcelona and the team finished in fourth place.

[Animosama]

Relegation *sigh* man would you say it was only a difference in quality why you got the drop ?

[cerud]

Just discovered this career thread. I love your story angle! Don't worry what others say, just keep doing what you're doing. I have learned that calling yourself LLM or referring to it in any form seems to be code for harsh rebuttals, no matter the reason. You are in the right place for this career thread, it's well done, and I hope you continue.

[SRL88]

You are welcome to post here and in the LLM if you wish .

Keep it up .