[FM13] CD Constancia: Trading places

[Northwood_dk]

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

I say that we simply didn’t have the talent needed to stay alive in the LIGA Adelante.

I think this was the first time in FM history that CD Constancia was playable out of the box. Unfortunately that will not be the case next year as they were relegated back down to the local leagues again after a loss last week.

[Northwood_dk]

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.

Thanks a lot for reading and the nice comments cerud

I have read you story managing Extremadura U.D. with interest.

In game I am currently in 2021 and I have the story fully written thru 2020 so I have plenty left to post.

I have no intention trying to be an full fletched LLM story. I just want to write an interesting FM story.

[Northwood_dk]

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

Keep it up .

I am not going to poke the bear.

Thanks for reading SRL88

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 23 Back on the horse

When I sat down in the summer of 2015 and looked back at the last twelve months, I had survived a takeover and a relegation and still I now found myself as manager of CD Constancia, right back where I started in the third level in Spanish football with a team that once again was predicted to fight against relegation

After last year’s debacle in the Liga Adelante (Segunda División) I was terrified that the players would be traumatized from last years’ experience and that the poor play would carry over and continue in the new season. However, already in the friendlies leading up to the season it became clear that the players suddenly felt more secure and had taken the bad beating form last season as a learning experience.

In the run-up to the season, I was pleased to see a team that were not only able to hold on to the ball but also a team that were able to score goals.

After only scoring 31 goals in the forty-two games last season I was left with a group of striker’s completely lacking self-esteem and who had to be taught who to score goals once again. I could either dump them and try to go out and buy new and better strikers for money I did not have or try to build their confidence back up.

I decided to give Igarki another chance. He only scored six goals in the preceding season but considering the number of chances he had and the help he got from the midfield it was hard to fault him for that. He had worked tirelessly the entire year and did not complain.

To back him up I decided to also keep Dani Lopez. He had not scored a single goal in his just ten appearance’s last season but the coaches kept praising him in practice and his attributes rating still indicated that he could be a good player.

That left Ruben Casanova as the odd man out. I took a lot of heat from the front office for letting him go on a free transfer to C.D. Haro but he just never made the impact I hoped he would.

For Mateu we decided that the ride was finally over. It was a tough decision to let him go. He was not only a local, born and raised in Inca, but more importantly he was the man who started it all with his goal deep in to overtime that secured the promotion to the Second Division B back in 2012.

Before the season started, there were other tough decisions to make, as it was time for other well-known names to leave Inca.

First, it was time to say goodbye to CD Constancia 2013 "Supporters Player of the Year" Juan Vich. The year in the League Aldente had been a catastrophe for him. The slide from player of the year to now not getting his contract renewed had happened in less the two years. Vich was one of the first victims of our early success and I was left with a feeling that his career would have turned out a lot different if we have not been promoted the year before.

We also decide to let midfield Juanfer move on with his career somewhere else.

Even after being relegated, we still came out of the prior season with a profit of close to £1.5mil. Most of that money was used to cover previous year’s debt and that left precious little money on the transfer budget.

The few players we did manage to attract was all free agents from around the league.

The most interesting of the players was Jorge Miramòn who came from La Roda C.F., but also had two season in the Spanish top division for Zaragoza.

Jorge would take over the right midfield after Juanfer.

[soccer.joel]

Very high quality and informative updates. Unlucky with the relegation

[Animosama]

Think you are going to bounce back up easily

[cerud]

Too bad to see Vich so, but if can't hack it at this level, then it's time to move on.

[Northwood_dk]

Very high quality and informative updates. Unlucky with the relegation

Thanks for the kind words Joel.

Not much to say about the relegation. We simply didn’t have the players to compete.

Think you are going to bounce back up easily

I hope so. The team is starting to resemble a real football team slowly but surely

Too bad to see Vich so, but if can't hack it at this level, then it's time to move on.

His development simply stopped. He got plenty of playing time but looked overwhelmed and never showed the potential he did in the first two seasons.

But you never know. He might show up again one day…..

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 24 Up and running

The first two months of the season were close to perfect. The status report after ten games said eight wins, one loss and one draw.

The one imbacering loss came against another Mallorca team At Baleares.

We had the league’s best goal differential and found ourselves in first place two points clear of the nearest rival Ontinyent FC from Valencia.

The first real bump in the road came in the middle of October when David Karg had to be carried off the field in a game against another Valencia team, C.D. Alcoyano. When he came back from the hospital, the result was devastating. A damaged cruciate ligament with a recovery time of ten to twelve months was the verdict from the doctors.

That was a huge blow for a young player rapidly improving and with a bright future in football, possible on a higher level than what CD Constancia would be able to offer. Several scouts had mentioned his name already and the board talked about being forced to sell him at New Year’s transfer window if the price was right.

That talk stopped now.

It was also a setback for the title hopes of CD Constancia. David Karg had done an excellent job being the anchorman in the midfield and had a 7.24 overall rating

when he went down.

The injury also raised some interesting discussions in the front office about his contract. Could we afford to give a player with a damaged knee the richest contract the club had ever signed or would we have to let him go?

It was now up to 37-year old Javier Farinós, unproven Jorge Merino or up and coming but also injure prone Cristian Reyes or to step up their game and replace him in the midfield next to Sergi Campoy.

Injuries to keeper Kiko Moreno and new sensation Jorge Miramòn (MR) in the following weeks did not help the mood in Inca.

While my career was getting back on track, the other Dane in Spanish football found himself in a lot more trouble.

After Michael Laudrup finished last season in 4th place with his Valencia team, this year had been a catastrophe. The team not only struggled in the Europa League but had also slumped all the way to 15th place in the domestic league after the first third of the season was over.

A loss to Sevilla in the start of November was the finals straw and Laudrup was sacked after just six month in control. He was replaced by Guiseppe Sannino from Parma.

[Animosama]

man look at your form

[Northwood_dk]

man look at your form

Like a bully beating up on the weak teams in the 3rd division

[cerud]

Clearly the dominant club in the league

[SRL88]

You're clearly to good for this league, but not quite there for La Liga.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 25 Quiet before the storm

We had a very quiet transfer window to start out 2016. We were back to needing cash-inputs on a monthly basis to keep the club afloat and there were no way I was walking in to the office of Chairman Miguel Rubio and asking him for more of his money to buy players.

We were in desperate need for an extra defender. The two players on our roster capable of playing left defender were both hurt. Jesus Toscano who was off to a great start (7.31 rating) to his C.D. Constància career was injured for 3-4 months and just 19-year old Marcos Garcia also struggled to stay healthy and inconsistency.

We settled on a loan deal with Espanyol for another 19-year old in Carlos Nunez.

In the dying minutes of the transfer window, we managed to make a deal with Barcelona to loan Jean-Marie Dongue for the remaining of the season. The young player was on his way back from a dislocated shoulder that had kept him out for almost three months and was just happy to play football again.

Unfortunately, with the deal done, the paperwork to get him registered for the squad for the reminder of the season was late and he would not be allowed to play for us.

Jean-Marie Dongue was on the next flight back to Barcelona. They did not even notice he was back. They were too busy celebrating the signing of Hulk for £24 mil to play next to Cavani.

On the field, it was more of the same. Even with the team winning on a consistent basis it was still the same six to seven hundred people that showed up each time we played a home game. We lost a few road games and rested players in the Federation Cup but stayed neck by neck with Ontinyent FC in the hunt for the league title.

It was building up to another interesting summer in Inca.

[Animosama]

Nice results

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 26 A star is born

With ten games left to play, we were still in a dead race with Ontinyent FC.

The winner of the division would get a chance to play a home-and-away winner gets promoted game against one of the other three division winners. The rest of the teams in the playoffs would need to go thru the gulling three rounds of home and away playoff games to secure promotion.

We were 8 points clear of the number three team but now found ourselves trailing Ontinyent FC bye one single point.

I was not just the league table that was positive reading in Inca those days. The local newspapers had found a new darling in Eloy Àlvarez.

The young player I was ridiculed for buying for €110K the previous season, was now as much a super star as it was possible to become in Inca. The young player had not only secured his place in the starting lineup on the left side of the Spanish U19 team but he was more importantly now rated at the best player in the Second division B3 with a 7.74 overall rating.

The left footed player terrorized opponents with his speed and dangerous crosses but was also a menace when he made the move toward the middle of the field to look for the shot opportunity instead.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 27 Welcome to the future

In the end of mars 2016 we got the first intake of youth players thru the teams brand new youth academy. Sixteen youngsters, mostly Mallorca locals between fifteen and sixteen were selected. At first glance, none of them looked like future world beaters but there were still a few interesting prospects among them.

The season was moving along in a frantic pace with us and Ontinyent FC still locked in to the fight for the first place in the division.

The key game of the season was played at home in Inca in the middle of April against Ontinyet F.C. Both teams had already secured a place in the upcoming playoffs and we had now moved ahead of Ontinyet F.C. in the standing and the chase for the first place in the division.

Before the game, we had a three-point cushion but we had played to a draw in the first game against Ontinyet F.C. in Valencia so a loss would drop us to second with just three games left to play.

Our biggest concern before the game was a steady stream of injuries to a squad without much depth. We once again had to play without a “pure” striker as Dani Lopez (injured) and Igarki (suspended) was still unavailable.

Ontinyet F.C. scored first after thirty minutes of play when we failed to clear a cross. We answered back just three minutes later when Cristian Reyes scored his just second goal of the season. After the break, we took the lead when Carlos Akapo was first on the rebound after a Francesc Fullana free kick that bounced off the crossbar.

Just ten minutes away from almost guaranteeing the division title, we once again failed to account for everybody on a cross and the game was back to level.

That was the way it ended and we found ourselves with a three-point lead with three games to go and everything up to ourselves.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 28 Going up or staying down?

We stumbled in to the playoffs with a win, a draw and a loss in the final three games. Luckily for us, Ontinyet F.C. did not do much better and we hung on to win the division by a single point.

The division title guarantied us at least two shots to win promotion back to the LIGA adelante. First, we would have the chance in a home-and-away cup game against one of the other three other division winners. The two winners would win direct promotion while the two losers would be entered back in to the playoffs together with the teams from the four divisions that finished the regular season in second to sixth place.

In the direct playoff game, we were drawn against S.D. Eibar S.A.D. They had won the Second division B2 by an impressive thirteen points in front of Alaves S.A.D.

For the first game at home a record 8982 people showed up, adding another much-needed £85K to the clubs empty bank account.

The game, as it was becoming a tradition when playoff football was played in Inca, was a poor showing. We had to play the game without our best player Eloy Alvarez who was late returning from an international with the Spanish U19 team.

S.D. Eibar looked to be satisfied coming away with a draw in the away game and we struggled all day to get quality shots on goal.

The game ended in a 0-0 draw.

In the return road game, we had Alvarez back on the left midfield but were now without our creative mastermind and playmaker Fullana who had picked up a yellow card in the first game that gave him a one-game suspension.

The start of the game was not good and we were down already after twelve minutes after a defensive blunder. Instead of folding up we came right back. First Igarki scored his 25th goal of the season on an easy header on a perfect cross from Eloy Alvarez. Then after thirty minutes of play Cristian Reyes, who was replacing Fullana scored his fourth goal of the season when he caught the S.D. Eibar keeper outside the penalty box.

The remaining of the game we played excellent counterattack football. The entire team finished the game with a rating over 7.00 and when the 90 minutes was up the score was still 1-2 and we were back in the LIGA adelante.

[Animosama]

NIce title win though even though it was by the skin of your teeth

[cerud]

Nice job on the league title! Hope the promotion playoff goes well

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 29 Order restored

In the summer of 2016, the order in the world of football was restored when Spain again could raise the trophy as European Champions after their collapse in the last World Cup. In the final, they beat a surprise Slovakia team that had made the final after quality wins over Belgium and Italy.

It was Spain’s third European Championships in a row and the fourth overall.

The player of the tournament was Bayern Munich’s Fernando Llorente who scored nine goals in seven matches including both goals in the final.

Teams that did not have a good tournament was Holland who finished last in there group with Romanian, France and Bulgaria.

Denmark also failed to make it out of the group stage and Morten Olsen was promptly sacked. The hottest candidate to take over his job, as the Danish national coach was no other then Michael Laudrup.

In Inca on Mallorca, there were no time for champagne and campaign.

First, there was the matter of my contract. That was easily done and I signed a new contract worth €3.000 per week.

We had finished the previous season with a €1.3 mil deficit in the budget. That was almost equal to the total salary cost (€1.25mil). It did not help that the governing body in Spanish football (RFEF) decided that we had to improve our stadium even more. This time to add even more seats and a new balcony. This time we did not have to move to another stadium while they were building.

The irony was that while we kept improving and expanding the stadium, the people of Inca still stayed away for the most part. Only 782 seasons tickets were sold of a budgeted 1300.

The price for the latest rebuild of the stadium was expected to be close to €500.000. That was money that could have been well used in the transfer budget instead. Now we were left with a transfer budget of just €40K. We did have some leeway in the salary-budget but once again we were very limited in our ability to attract new quality players.

In our pervious visit to the LIGA adelante, our main problem had been creating chances and scoring goals. Our first two signings was there for both offensive minded players. Juan Antonio was a fantastic young prospect at AMC who could also substitute as striker while César Valenzuela was a pure AMC brought in to relieve Fullana when he needed rest.

We also added four new defenders and a goalkeeper in Jesùs.

The only player of significance we lead go was now 38-year old Javier Farinos. The board would have liked to keep him around for another season. He got a better offer from Benidorm and with his skills rapidly declining, I decided to let him go.

The last player inn was perhaps the most interesting of all the signings this pre-season. Andrea Orlandi arrived the day after the season kicked off. With a career including appearances in both La Liga (Barcelona) and the EPL (Swansea) Orlandi had now decide to return to Spain and we hoped he had still something left in the tank. Hopefully his presences would help push Eloy Alvarez in his development and Orlandi could also replace a struggling Sergi Compoy in the middle.

[Animosama]

Should be an interesting season back up

[Northwood_dk]

Should be an interesting season back up

We have a team much better prepared this season and the goal will be to stay up this year.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 30

I already had a starting lineup laid out in my head. My plan was to play the 4-4-1-1* again. That formation had won us the Spanish third division the year before and the players knew the formation well.

Striker:

Igarki Mayor

Igarki had scored twenty-five goals the previous season when we won our first ever trophy (I never mentioned that we beat F.C Cartagena 4-2 in the two games played for the overall division three title) and would get another chance even if he struggled mightily the last time we played in the LIGA adelante.

Igarki was also getting up in age and even if he still stayed in fantastic shape and his attributes did not seem to decline, it was a huge concern that it looked very empty behind in the depth chart.

Attacking midfielder;

Francese Fullana

Francese Fullana would be the player to both provide the balls for Igarki to work with and to move forward and support him when necessary. In the game where Igarki struggled Fullana would be the natural choice to move forward and have César Valenzuela taking charge of the midfield.

Midfield:

Eloy Àlvarez - Sergi Campoy - David Karg - Jorge Miramòn

If we were to stand a chance to stay up this season, I needed the midfield to work. On paper, I liked the chances as we had assembled a good group of players. Àlvarez was still improving by the day and in the middle, Sergi Campoy and David Karg did a good job complimenting each other when one of them had a bad day.

Defenders:

Mossa - Ramon Soria - Carlos Akapo - Moises Jimenez

This was the big question mark. Carlos Akapo was an easy choice in the middle. Ramon Soria had finished the previous season with an AvR of 7.14 and was also given another chance.

On the right and left, it was trouble. We had brought inn Mossa from Girona FC to play on the left and on the right, it would probably be Moises Jimenez for another season. None of them I felt too good about letting loss in the LIGA adelante but I had no better choice.

The warm-up games went relatively well. We won the game we were supposed to win and lost narrowly to Toulouse from the French first division.

* I get ready to start the new season just a few days after one of the new patches is released. I really hope that the new ME don’t screw me over once again.

[chile_paul]

Really liking these updates, it must take you ages to get through a season - forget playing FM, just in writing these updates! A different style to many of the threads in this forum but one that I'm really enjoying and will be continuing to follow

[cerud]

Reiterating what chile paul said. Great story you're creating here.

[Northwood_dk]

Really liking these updates, it must take you ages to get through a season - forget playing FM, just in writing these updates! A different style to many of the threads in this forum but one that I'm really enjoying and will be continuing to follow

Reiterating what chile paul said. Great story you're creating here.

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen.

The aim was to write more of a story instead of just the normal listing of results and transfers. I am very happy if people are actually reading it.

It takes some time but I am enjoying myself. C.D. Constància is still my one and only save on FM13. In the game I am in the start of the 2021/22 season with the story written all the up to the 2020/21 season.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 31 Against all odds

Sergi Campoy and Fullana were the only two players remaining from the newly promoted team I took over back in 2012. That team had just won promotion from the fourth level of Spanish football were they played mostly against other teams from Mallorca and the surrounding islands on pitches of highly questionable standards.

Playing a cup match against C.P Arroyo on a clay / dirt pitch was a huge step back in time for many of the players. It was a long way from the matches we were playing now on perfect pitches with more than twenty-five thousand in the stands when we were playing away from home.

Once again, the raw force and speed of the LIGA adelante almost knocked us off our feet’s in the first month of the new season, and we quickly dropped below the relegation line.

The problem was not creating chances but turning the chances in to goals. We had terrible luck in front of goal.

But then it turned. We still struggled to get the ball over the line but we did a lot better in the other end as well with Kiko still guarding the goal.

We did so good that we went on an unbeaten streak. We did not win all the games, but a few wins and a few draws was a nice change of pace and kept the moral up in the twenty-five man player group.

We even managed to squeeze thru to the fourth round of the Spanish Cup. That is the round when the La Liga team is entered in to the draw and that gave us the first chance in my career to go up against the top-level teams. There were three teams I would have loved to be drawn against.

Real Madrid, Barcelona or Mallorca.

We were not that “lucky” and was instead pitched against Real Sociedad and when they came to Inca in late October we were still undefeated (in now 8 games) and had moved up to 11th place in the table, but only three points clear of the relegation line.

Before the Real Sociedad game, I had to make a tough call. The fourth round of the Spanish Cup is played over two games, home and away, and if those two games were played a hundred times we would win maybe two or three times. Add to that the forty-two games of the regular season in the LIGA adelante.

Could I afford to risk even more injuries and to wear out my already tired starters even more?

So even with Nou Camp d’Inca close to sold out for the first time ever, I made the tough call to sit most starters.

The first twenty minutes was not pretty. The players looked star-struck and Real Sociedad players like Ibrahim Afellay and Siem De Jong was allowed to do run wild. They scored twice in the 20th and 23rd minute and my worst fears looked to be coming thru.

However, after a much-needed talk at halftime we stiffened up in the second half. We still allowed chances but Kiko closed the goal, and the cheer from the close to 8000 in the stands when Christian Reys scored to make it 1-2 with just ten minutes left could be heard all over Inca.

That was also the final result. It left us with little to no chance to advance after the return leg but that night both fans and players went home happy.

A man not that happy was Danish national coach Michael Laudrup. After taking control of the Danish national team, he had seen it drop to an all-time low 55th in the world in the official FIFA raking. The team did have wins over Lichtenstein and Luxembourg but they still found themselves in all kind of trouble in there World cup qualifying group and were in danger of being knocked out of the tournament before it had even begun.

Another Scandinavian manager but one with success was Ståle Solbakken and his Wolverhampton. After winning promotion to the EPL back in 2013, the team had

lived an uneventful existence around mid-table. But this year was different. After nine games, the Wolves found themselves undefeated and in first place in the EPL, eight points clear of the closest rival, Newcastle, Liverpool and Man U.

[Animosama]

You are okayish in the league

[Northwood_dk]

You are okayish in the league

But a lot better then last time in the LIGA adelante

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 32 Say hallo to and old friend

With the New Year, transfer window not that fare in to the future I got started on something I had put off for way too long. I had to find a new striker.

Our only pure striker Igarki was getting older and no matter how much I enjoyed his performance last season when he scored twenty-five goals in thirty-six league games, he just didn’t have what was needed on this level.

Our other strikers were mostly hybrids between attacking midfielders and strikers and all had a tendency to drop to deep to collect the ball. That was fare form ideal when playing with only one striker.

I needed a pure striker who could operate alone on the edge of the offside.

I needed a player who did not need five, ten chances to score a goal.

I needed a player who had the rare skill of just being in the right place in the right time.

I needed a player with raw goal scoring abilities.

I needed a pure goal scorer.

To find that kind of player in the January transfer window was not easy. Especially when I did not have any money to pay for him. I would have to steal him or find him find him among the misfits without a contract.

We had been granted permission by the board to scout outside of Spain this year, but even looking all over Europe the player I needed would not be easy to find.

We also brought back an old friend. I had never hired a manager for the newly assembled C.D. Constancia U19 team. When I cleaned the desk in my office, I by coincidence came over the phone number for Juan Vichy.

For people that don’t remember, Vichy was the promising right back that was selected “fans player of the year” in 2013 only to completely go in the tank the next season and then end his career just two year later.

When I called him up, he told me that he had taken a coaching license and was looking to get in to coaching.

It did not take long to get the paperwork done and the day after Juan Vichy was back on the practice filed in Inca, now as the U19 manager.

The winning streak was over but we kept picking up points and had some good results that kept us flooding around mid-table in relatively safe distance from the relegation line.

R.C. Celta was running away with the division. We managed to pick up a point against them on the road after what the Vigo-press called a boring draw but was referred to in Inca as a superb display of teamwork and sacrifice.

[Animosama]

looking good

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 33 You have to fight the glide

On January 1 when the transfer marked reopened we were ready with a list of players we wanted to talk to.

Unfortunately, it was the same old story that none of the players we wanted to talk to wanted to meet us and the few who did, came in to the talks with salary demands that ended the discussions before they had even started.

With all the players from our “list” out the window, we had to look elsewhere. One place to look was in the huge number of offers we received on a regular basis from different agents. Most of the players offered by these agencies were not worth a second look but now we had to take the serious.

We found our man in Brazilian youngster Muriel Menestrina Dorigatti.

It was his unusual story that first caught our eyes when we flipped thru resumes and watched highlight videos.

Muriel Menestrina Dorigatti (got to love that name) made his debut on the international football scene on one of the biggest stages when he just 17-years old made his debut on the AC Milan first team.

In Milan, he was quickly forgotten and only got that one appearance before being buried in the reserve/youth team of the mighty AC Milan but it did not stop him from getting five appearances on the Brazilian U20 team.

After the 2015/16 season, his contract was up and AC Milan had long ago lost all interest in the young player and his contract was never renewed. Instead, the now 21-year old player ended up with Italian amateur club Unione Triestina from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. He had scored seven goals in nineteen games when we “found” him.

His agent was looking to get him a contract were he would be paid for his services and we saw enough talent that it was worth paying him €1.600 per week.

One player apparently not affected by all the talk about finding a new striker was now 32-year old Igarki. Instead of getting upset and complaining, he went on a tear and scored five goals in the three first games of the New Year.

At the halfway point, we found ourselves in 10th place with a total of thirty-one points after twenty-one games. That was equal on points with the last of the potential playoff teams, but even more impotent we were nine points clear of the relegation line with eight teams between us and the dreaded line.

I knew I was supposed to look forward but I could not help thinking about that fifteen points was all we needed to be safe.

Fifteen points in twenty-one game.

That was not an impossible goal.

And then again, it was talk like this that were bound to get you in to trouble. Did I not warn the players about getting complacent almost every week?

Brian Phillip, the author of the in my opinion, best FM story ever written said it best:

Brian Phillip:

"When you’re right on course for a safe mid-table finish, it sometimes feels like there’s not a lot of news to report. A win isn’t a huge story, but then, a loss isn’t a huge story either, and time can slip by pretty fast as you make minor adjustments and chart the weekly ticks in your balance sheet. One game blends into the next, and before you know it, the season turns into a reverie. You’re living life like a Middlesbrough fan.

If you want to be sharp, you have to fight the glide."

From the story Pro Vercelli: the run of play

(I know this is a FM09 story but it’s still a “must-read” for every FM fan)

[Animosama]

Looks like you are gonna survive with ease

[Northwood_dk]

Looks like you are gonna survive with ease

Thanks

Looking much better this season.

Did you get at chance to check out the "Pro Vercelli: the run of play" story?

[cerud]

Like that you brought in an old fan favourite to run the U19s. Like the personal touch.

[Northwood_dk]

Like that you brought in an old fan favourite to run the U19s. Like the personal touch.

He is not the best qualified for the job but with the standard of our youth academy it doesn’t really matter.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 34 The switch

With the construction of the new balcony now finished with 10.000 black and white seats under roof, Nou Camp d'Inca was starting to look like a respectable stadium even for a LIGA adelante team.

It was a totally different story when talking about the pitch. The grass mat in Nou Camp d'Inca both looked and played horrible to the point where it was affecting our play, but the board made it perfectly clear that there was no money available to do anything about it.

With fourteen games left to play, our season was over. We had just lost back to back games to playoff contenders in Real Murcia and Real Unión and were down to 11th place in the standing and in reality out of the playoff picture.

We had also done enough to secure another season in the LIGA adelante unless we were going on an epic meltdown to end the season.

That made it the perfect time to make the switch.

For five years now, since I took over the job as manager for C.D. Constància I had played the kind of football I hated. Lots of players behind the ball, relying on counter attacks, corners and the opponent’s mistakes. Every game was a fight to the last whistle and we rarely won a game by more than a single goal.

I had told myself that this was our only way of surviving with the material I had to work with. But now I had no excuse.

So what kind of football would I like to play?

I spend countless hours in front of the computer, studding the latest trends in football formations. I read all I could find by great coaches like Pep Guardiola (sacked by Arsenal after just 5 months in the hot chair), José Mourinho (still with Real Madrid), and legendary retired Crew manager Anthony McQuillin, trying to figure out what would be best for C.D. Constància.

I had always wanted to play with two strikers upfront to add pressure but I also needed a formation that would utilize my strongest players in Eloy Àlvarez and Francesc Fullana.

I decided to go with a 4-2-2-2 formation with two midfielders doing the dirty work in the middle. Two wingers providing the balls for the two strikers and Francesc Fullana and Igarki up front.

That would put Eloy a little out of his comfort zone on the left midfield but nothing he should not be able to handle. Fullana would play as deep lying forward dropping back to collect the balls from midfield.

The week before the home game against the 21st ranked C.E. Sabadell I gathered the players and coaches and told them my plan and we spend the week on the practice field preparing for the new gameplan. I hoped they would respond positively to the move to more attacking football. Hopefully it would also attract more fans to fill the still empty seats.

We won the game against C.E. Sabadell narrowly 2-0 but it didn’t take many games to show that the new system was a complete disaster for us.

David Karg and Sergi Campoy was constantly overrun in the middle of the field and we struggled to keep the ball within the team. We did create a lot more chances but to very little effect when the defends was letting in goals by the buckets.

After seven games producing just the one win against C.E. Sabadell, two draws and four losses I finally gave up and went back to a more conventional formation the team understood. Once again I decided to go with the 4-4-2.

It stopped the bleeding but the damage was done.

Side note: If anyone likes to read more about the story of C.D. Constància and there stadium Nou Camp d'Inca or other Spanish clubs / stadiums I can highly recommend the page "Estadios de Fútbol en España" created by a guy named Chris Clements.

[Animosama]

Yikes look at that form

[Northwood_dk]

Yikes look at that form

It was brutal. Just lucky that the teams behind us was even worse.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 35 Please end the misery

Even if we were a bit disappointed with the final weeks of the season there was no need to be. We had managed to stay alive in the second best league in Spain coming in to the season as the overwhelming favorites to be relegated. We had done it with a payroll way below the second lowest in the league and with a none existing transfer budget. We had also done it in almost secrecy as nobody except the few hardcore fans came and watched the home games.

In the end, the margin to the relegation line might not have been as big as we wanted but we could still be proud of our accomplishment.

Now we had established us in the LIGA adelante it was time to start looking for bigger and better thing in the future.

For the first time since I took over the team the entire starting lineup except Kiko Moreno in goal finished the season with a rating over 7.00. The biggest concern ahead of next season was the lack of backup and that only three players had scored double-digit goals.

One player who was inn for a long summer was Juventus F.C. player Arturo Vidal. He had the chance to win the Champions League for the old lady for the first time since the tragic game in Heysel Stadium all the way back in 1985. He “just” had to score on the penalty the team was rewarded 13 minutes in to extra time in the Champions League final against Man City. Instead his horrible penalty was saved by Joe Hart and the game went to penalties were City won easily after Vidal missed his penalty again.

[Animosama]

Top half finish should be the goal next year

[Nobby_McDonald]

Nice job staying up.

[Northwood_dk]

Top half finish should be the goal next year

Might not be another season.

Nice job staying up.

Thanks for staying with the story

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 36 The end?

You are not allowed to complain when you live in Mallorca and get to work with football every day and I had not once in my time in Inca raised my voice when talking to the board.

I had not complained when we had to let players we needed go because we could not afford the salary they demanded.

I had not complained when I was not allowed to scout outside of Spain even when it seriously hurt our chances of finding new cheap prospects for the future.

I had not complained when we got bullied in the transfer marked and missed out on quality players because we could not afford to get inn to a bidding war.

I had not once complained about the lousy facilities.

I had not complained when we were asked to play our football on a dirt pitch because we could not afford a new grass mat.

But before the start of the 2017/18 season I was upset.

I understood that I was a manager of a small club with limited resources and we could not compete on the transfer marked against the big marked, high revenue yielding teams. But the transfer budget I was handed before the new season was a slap in the face.

To get ready to once again fight for survival in the second best Spanish football league I was given a transfer budget of

819 Euro.......

First I thought it was a cruel joke.

When Chairman Miguel Rubio came in to my office later that day to get my signature on my new contract I refused to sign, and demanded more time to think.

I was ready to resign.

In my time with C.D. Constància I had never received an offer from another club but I didn’t care. I was sure there would be a team out there that would appreciate me more than what they apparently did in Inca.

The next week I spend with my family on the beach trying not to think about football.

I was done with C.D. Constància...............

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 37

The next Monday I signed my new contract and was back in my office overlooking the practice field and was ready to attack the new season with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.

Who was I kidding?

There was no place I would rather be then in Mallorca.

It would not happen today or tomorrow. Properly not even before the end of this decade. But some day I would knock R.C.D. Mallorca off their throne and be the best team in Mallorca.

That would only be the beginning of my conquering of the football world.

And I would do it as the football manager of C.D. Constància.

I had a job to do. After a week off, it was all clear to me. The players that have been loyal and helped us get this fare were simply no longer good enough. Players like Igarki, Fullana, Sergi Campoy and Kiko had all done a fantastic job but now they were a liability and I would have to replace them sooner rather than later if I ever were to take this club any higher.

With the total disaster to end the previous season, I needed to rethink the tactic once again. Instead of re-inventing the wheel I took the advice from the Finish manager in Oviedo (that’s a whole different story) and installed the 4-1-2-2-1 for the new season.

Perhaps it was not a good idea to introduce the new system for the fans and players on the first day of the news season in a home friendly against mighty F.C. Inter.

We got absolutely hammered but more then 4000 showed up to see Sneijder and Co.

We played just two more friendly’s with mixed results so I had no clue what would happen when the season kicked off for real.

Even with the tight transfer budget (it was bumped up to 100K a few days after I signed my contract) I was for once happy with the players we were able to bring inn. Especially Teodoro Bañares, Francisco Coloma and Cihan Polat looked like players with potential.

Cihan Polat was a castoff from PSVs youth department. He got six games for the first team in 2016 without impressing anyone (5.97 AvR) and was released. He was picked out bye one of the C.D. Constància scouts due to his high determination rating. He had already played on the Dutch youth national team and he could be used on both the right and left side of the pitch.

That we could have him for free was just an extra bonus.

Teodoro Bañares was another attempt to finally add the striker we had been trying to sign for so long. He came from Villarreal C.F. where he had never preformed on the few chances he got on the first team. But on the Villarreal C.F. B team he had some success. He had scored twelve goals in twenty-three games and had a 7.18 AvR.

Match that with a high determination rating and no transfer fee and he was just the type of player we were looking for.

The last player I had high hopes for was Francisco Coloma. His transfer had been negotiated already back in January when his contract with C.F. Palencia ran out. He was another high determination-player I had selected to play on the right wing.

[Animosama]

The players you loaned out. Is it with the option to buy ? Why did you loan them out ?

[Northwood_dk]

The players you loaned out. Is it with the option to buy ? Why did you loan them out ?

Thanks for staying with the story Animosama

They were all normal end-of-season loan deals.

None of them were near a place in the first team and without a B-team they didn’t improve because of lack of playing time.

Getting ride of the dead salary was also a positive.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 38 Good times all around

The standing in the LIGA adelante after the first eight weeks of play in the 2017/18 season was surprisingly good seen with C.D. Constància eyes. I knew we had a better team this year than what we had been able to put on the field in previous seasons.

But I was also well aware that the team we had beat might not be the top contenders but we were still doing a god job with the teams put in front of us.

A lot of the progress was due to a much improved defends. In the middle Carlos Akapo and Ione Cabrera was doing a fantastic job averaging over 7.5 per game and the young Dutch right back Cihan Polat was not fare behind (7.26).

Teodoro Bañares was off to a good start to his C.D. Constancia career with three goals in the two first games and Fullana was still scoring goals when brought on and not complaining about reduced playing time.

It was good times all around in Inca. How long could it last?

I thought I might had screwed it up when I send the team in to a brawl in a mid-week Spanish Cup game against C.D. Numancia. My first reaction was to just rest some starters and concentrate on the league. With the LIGA BBVA teams joining the Cup in the next round, the competitiveness got the better of me and we played most of the starters.

It was a won the battle, lost the war kind of game. It quickly got ugly. The game did not finish until we had scored two goals late in extra time and had two players injured and another two sent off with red cards.

It was a tired and bruised player group that travelled home from Soria with just three days to prepare for the next game against C.D. Lugo.

We won the C.D. Lugo game but the real reward for all the hard work came when the draw for the fourth round of the Spanish Cup was revealed. With the lower league teams being guaranteed a home and away game against a LIGA BBVA team we once again had three teams on the wish list.

RCD Mallorca

Real Madrid

FC Barcelona

And this time our “wish” came true. Up from the hat next to the name of C.D. Constància was drawn no other then Messi, Hulk, Cavani and the rest of the FC Barcelona super stars.

Close to 4.000 Barcelona fans took the trip to Mallorca and helped set a new attendance record with 8.653 people in the stands of old Nou Camp d'Inca.

The defending Spanish Cup and league winners came fresh from a 6-0 win over R. Racing SAD in the league and started with Messi, Cavani and Hulk on the bench. Instead it was Cesc Fàbregas running the show.

It was no surprise that Barcelona completely dominated the game but it was a huge surprise that the score was still 0-0 at the half way mark.

Twelve minutes in to the second half the fun was over as Barcelona had scored two quick goals by on of the many wounderkits from the Barcelona academy Juan M Martinez.

All the C.D. Constància fans in the stadium did get a chance to cheer when Eloy scored on a counterattack after 66 minutes.

Barcelona added two more goals in the 84th and 87th minute but most C.D. Constància still went home happy.

The return game was not pretty. We played mostly backups and were humiliated 0-6 in front of 93.990 people in the other Nou Camp.

Some of the pain from the defeat went away when I a few days later saw the money transfer from the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF) splitting the gate revenue from the Barcelona game. A total of €2.4 mil was transfer to the C.D. Constància bank account. That was more than half of our entire income the previous season. It not just saved the season but also took the clubs projected balance back to black numbers for the year.

[Northwood_dk]

Chapter 39

Even with the new cash injection we made just two moves at the January transfer deadline as most of the money was used to cover old debt.

Cihan Polat had been a huge improvement at DR since he arrived before the season. Unluckily the young Dutchman didn’t speak much Spanish and struggled to communicate.

In late November AFC Ajax decided to release a young central defender named Raimond Zonneveld after he had struggled to make an impact in the Dutch club. When his agent offered him to us we didn’t hesitate. Even with Carlos Akapo and Ione Cabrera playing very well the just 19 year old Zonneveld looked like a much better long term solution in the center defends with a lot bigger upside and hopefully the two young Dutchmen could help each other adapt to life Mallorca.

The other player added to the squad was a young striker named Jesus. In the last two seasons he had scored 21 and 18 goals for C.D. Numancia B and had an AvR over seven each season. He was a targetman that could hopefully complement Teodoro Bañare nicely upfront if we ever got around playing with two strikers.

The squad was now getting big and with no reserve team we had a lot of players not playing competitive football on a regular basis. We did have four players playing outside Mallorca on loan deals. That made for some tough decision in contract negotiations with some of the players that had contracts ending in another six months.

On the field we hit a rough spot just around Christmas after the heavy loss to Barcelona and we failed to win a game in December and January (0W-5L-2D).

Villarreal was running away with the division but even with the bad results we still stayed in the top six and the fight for promotion.

Teodoro Bañares had cooled off in front of goal after his impressive start to the season. When I decided to give him a rest no other then veteran Igakari stepped inn and provided us with some much needed goal scoring. That still didn’t stop Igakari from announcing his retirement from professional football when the season was over.

A player that had not cooled off was Sergi Campoy. He was as red hot as it was possible to be for a team going thru an ugly-streak. The coaching staff had been worried about his development and performance just a few months earlier and there had been talk about not renewing his contract as he looked overmatched in the LIGA adelante. But now just a few months later he was absolutely on fire like no other C.D. Constància player had ever been before and turned in LIGA adelante Team of the week performances on a regular basis.