[FM12] One more time - moonwalking my way through 'mo clubs

[noikeee]

Independiente Rivadavia - Youth intake 2023

Best player

Nicolás Casasola (M/AMR)

The others:

Adán Cura (AMR)

Alejandro Solís (ST)

Esteban De Nigris (GK)

Marcelo Russo (GK)

Rodrigo Malentachi (MR)

Silvano De Paulo (ST / AML)

William Chacón (AMC / MC, ST)

This year's intake is pretty crazy, I don't think I've ever seen such a large amount of useful players coming in all at the same time. This is great and justifies our investment in this area over the years, yet I can't help but feel none of them are truly top class. Either way I'm off from here soon so it matters little.

[noikeee]

February-April 2023

Fixtures

The Clausura started with fairly routine wins over Belgrano and Tigre, then the big trip to Boca, where we fared decently enough to nick a 0-0 in an even match. We continued with nice big 3-0 wins over Argentinos and Gimnasia LP then to my surprise and delight utterly battered Lanús by an even bigger 5-1. We could do no wrong and Independiente, Colón were the victims that followed even if neither were entirely convincing matches, until we finally dropped points at Rosario. It was a prelude to a worse result as we were stunned by Instituto away despite having led the game early - our first defeat in the league this season (including Apertura). In-between we got another routine 3-0 wins over Arsenal and Dep. Merlo, as expected since those are some of the weaker sides in the league.

Meanwhile the Libertadores kick-started as well and whilst I wasn't too chuffed about ending up in a group with Santos, Colo Colo and Cerro Porteño, it turned out easier than expected. The Chileans and Paraguayans were brushed aside comfortably before the 2 matches vs the Neymar-led Brazilian powerhouse, and we won those both only by the minimum margin despite being the clearly better side in the pitch. That sealed qualification with 2 games to spare, which were an unconvincing win vs Cerro Porteño and our only conceded points in Chile. Domestic rivals Belgrano line up next in the knockout stage.

We got to play another 2 rounds of the cup too, the tie vs Unión was slightly awkward and we left the whole job to the 2nd half but clinched it there, then next up were 2nd tier Atlético Rafaela who we predictably sliced through 4-1. In the quarter-finals the level of difficulty will be upped a little as Lanús are in our path.

Player on focus

Enrique Moreyra (MC) - Our big signing of the pre-season from Lanús is finally starting to show his worth on a regular basis. The fact he takes the set pieces helps a great deal, but still 18 assists is a very decent number which has already broken the club record - and he recently bagged a brace in the cup tie too.

Another man on great form is centre-back Juan D'Ippoliti, with a sensational 5 goals scored these 3 months.

Competitions

Primera División - Torneo Clausura:

Copa Argentina: into the quarter-finals to host Lanús.

Copa Libertadores:

now facing Belgrano next in the 2nd round.

Summary

This has been a highly efficient showing in all competitions, but I could've done without the slip-up to Instituto which opened up the title fight to Boca and Lanús, both of which have shown high consistency as well (the good news is we've already played both of them so 2 difficult fixtures out of the way). The strong opponents we're facing next in Copa Argentina and Copa Libertadores put me on alert too - indeed I feel this could go both ways, either a fantastic end of season winning all competitions, or just missing the final edge in all of them. If I still had Luis Salinas I'd be a great deal more confident...

[Animosama]

Nice form and intake.

Any idea where you want to go next ?

[noikeee]

Nice form and intake.

Any idea where you want to go next ?

My preference is France or Germany, but could be anywhere in Europe provided it's a club of the right size (big but not too big, it has to be some sort of challenge), and one I find likeable.

I recently applied for the Athletic Bilbao job, would've been interesting with the Basque player restrictions, but they hired Didier Deschamps instead.

[SRL88]

Some nice youth players coming through there.

[deltablue]

Nice having a few good players in the intake.

[noikeee]

Some nice youth players coming through there.

Nice having a few good players in the intake.

It was a very good intake but not exactly something I will benefit from, rather the next manager - however I am doing all I can to secure the club's future and have picked up some cracking players for the next season, more on that later.

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Quarter-Final 1st leg

Sh*t gets serious now son, it's the decisive matches of the season. After breaking past Belgrano in the 2nd round we now face Mexico's Monterrey. Centre-back Juan D'Ippoliti and midfielder Lisandro Recalde are missing both to injury but a more debilitating concern is morale, after we were totally shocked by Vélez 3-0 in the league just a few days before this - risking our title chances.

Our little Mexican adventure turned out to have the most bizarre of first halfs, one single shot attempted (by either team) and it was a goal by our target man Alan Coca. After the break things were more eventful and we added another 2, first a penalty kick converted by Moreyra then a nice combo down the left between Bergese and Morales. Tie over, surely?

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Quarter-Final 2nd leg

No major squad news ahead of the 2nd leg, with D'Ippoliti and Recalde still injured, but in terms of morale we were better after clinching qualification for our first ever Copa Argentina final! (after beating Lanús and River).

What was meant to be a quiet easy ride to the semi-final, turned out a lot more tense than expected. They scored first but we pulled back level soon through a nice placed shot by Moreyra so all seemed still well safe. But then at the end of the first half Mauricio Rodriguez got sent off, they scored from the resultant free-kick, then the pressure was really on us once they scored again. We were down to 10 and Monterrey needed just one more goal, thankfully Moreyra and Morales combined to settle the tie with the final goal for us instead.

Guess who's in our semi-final path? Yeah.

For the 3rd year running it's a Libertadores semi-final vs Lanús - last year we won, 2 years ago they won. We have the momentum having just beat them in Copa Argentina (and annihilated them 5-1 in the league a couple weeks earlier), or is it them as they've just overtaken us in the league table? Massive match either way, a sort of modern classic in my game world.

[Animosama]

Nice win are Lanus now your rivals ?

[noikeee]

Nice win are Lanus now your rivals ?

No but by now they should! We've been crossing each other's paths constantly for a few years. It's a shame dynamic rivalries aren't in FM, basically whatever rivalries are set at the start stay forever and you never get new ones. It's been suggested as a new feature many times in GD.

[noikeee]

Job offer rejected #1

This was tempting but lots of things were wrong. For a start Shakhtar already dominate Ukraine, there's zero domestic challenge there. Then they had a freakishly short squad (some 15 players only in the first team!) and all very very old. I'd have to buy a whole new team and I'm not up for that. And to make things worse this comes at the wrong timing, the Argentinian season is running far too long with still all 3 competitions to be decided, I can't just jump right now. This is ruining the search of my new job as a few interesting teams want a manager but they need him right now.

[Animosama]

Yea good reasons for rejecting.

[noikeee]

Copa Argentina Final

Right, time to play the big match. It's actually the lesser of the 3 competitions we are in (others being Clausura and Libertadores) but the only one we have never won yet. We lineup same as recently, with D'Ippoliti and Recalde still both injured (Musacchio and Rambert coming in). Jorge Correa gets the nod to start as AMC instead of Sergio Palacios thanks to being on better form. Our opponents Belgrano are having a torrid time being currently 15th in the league, but do have the skill to cause us problems. The match is held at River Plate's stadium - the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti.

It couldn't have started any worse as we conceded right at the start in a pinball-esque corner kick that bounced off everywhere, then into the net. We were shocked and spent most of first half utterly uninspired unable to do much. Past the break the team seemed to be progressively getting better but not by much, I risked taking off Morales who was having an uncharacteristic poor match for Gustavo Santa Cruz, and to my delight a little later he scored as the ball fell to him ahead of an empty net in a messy goal as well. In the final minute Enrique Moreyra hit the bar from a freekick, but couldn't avoid the final 1-1: match straight to penalties, no extra time.

It was a pretty crazy shootout. They missed the first, but we missed the first 2 as well and trailed for quite a while, until the final penalty when they had the chance to bury it and missed! Rambert and Cabrera both scored decisive kicks that kept us in the match, then Belgrano go and miss a second in a row, Andrés Fernández kicked in the final decisive one winning the cup for us.

May not have been the prettiest of matches, but we went on and did it - we have now won all possible trophies for an Argentinian club. And if we can get the Clausura and Libertadores now, it's a clean sweep of all of them in a year with a 7-trophy season (the "treble" news screenie ignores the Recopa Sudamericana and the Apertura - we've won 5 already).

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Semi-Final 1st leg

Every match seems massive at the moment, so up next is the re-edition of the recurring match-up vs Lanús in the continental semi-final. Unfortunately this clashed with international fixtures so we're without keeper Bastianini and left-backs Salazar and Bergese (Bordacahar starts on the left), albeit D'Ippoliti and Recalde are finally back from their injuries.

We had conceded an early goal in the Copa Argentina final, what is worse than that? What about 2 early goals? We made stupid mistakes and conceded 2 easy chances which they converted. We did get one back through Correa before half-time, but even then I didn't imagine we'd soon stage a comeback - Alan Coca scored twice within 10 minutes and we were winning! That was all good - then we conceded a penalty, and they tied again. And then they scored in a set piece. Is that all? No. Woosh, here comes Alan Coca getting a header in, in the 92nd minute, completing his hat-trick. 4-4!!!

My dream of a 7-trophy season is looking pretty difficult now, but if we can win at Lanús we can still continue.

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Semi-Final 2nd leg

For the return leg we were almost at full strength, only missing centre-back Mauricio Rodriguez who picked up an injury.

We seem to have developed recently a tendency to concede first, and it happened yet once again as they scored, despite a relatively even first half. As the game went on I was increasingly losing my hopes as we needed 2 goals, but midway through second half, when we had already switched to more attacking settings, a very quick ball isolated Morales who tied the match. And then completely out of the blue, in the 84th, Sergio Palacios who has been having a poor season, scoring a wonderful long shot into the top corner!

It was incredibly tight but we made it and will be facing São Paulo in the final.

[noikeee]

Right, how's this for a end of season calendar:

Mental fixture congestion, even more so considering this is the situation in the league - I'm gonna have to rotate a lot yet would have to win every game to become champions, basically:

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Final 1st leg

We come into yet another continental finale slightly low on morale, after tiredness took the better of us and we lost both league matches to Unión and Godoy Cruz - gifting the Clausura title to new champions Boca. So the dream of a 7-trophy season is over, but we can still make it 6 if we beat São Paulo in this final - we are on near maximum strength, with youth academy graduate Osvaldo Yurié taking over the injured Mauricio Rodriguez at the back, and the fresher Gabriel Cabrera instead of Raúl Santos in midfield.

Guess what happened - yet another early conceded goal, a through ball to their star forward Robertinho expertly finished. But we equalized quickly, a nice play down the middle ending with Correa assisting Morales. We had the upper hand now and even more so after Lisandro Recalde slalommed in midfield then hit a fierce low shot putting us ahead - but São Paulo equalized too with a nice play down their right. A cracking 1st half ended with 2-2 at half-time!

However São Paulo came at us pretty strongly after the break and hit another goal through Moisés. We had two chances in set pieces but Alan Coca hit the woodwork in both, then Moisés scored another and it looked as if it was all over. Yet Coca finally got one right and headed in the final 4-3 result. It had been yet another crazy Libertadores match and to be frank the right team won.

I am pretty worried as we are not used at all to losing 3 matches in a row and are having quite the mini-crisis - but still retain a more than decent chance of turning the tie around in the 2nd leg. That will be my final match for the club, will I go out with another Libertadores trophy?

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Final 2nd leg

Here it is, my final match in Argentina after almost 6 years managing this club - with the chance of going out on a high as South American champions. Daniel Rambert and Raúl Santos come in for the midfield in exchange for Gabriel Cabrera and Lisandro Recalde, whereas club captain Sergio Palacios replaces the injured Jorge Correa as AMC.

São Paulo entered the match very dangerously but we were the ones to score first, as Bergese's cross from the left hit the head of Alan Coca - we were winning on away goals already! Right next we had a penalty kick but Enrique Moreyra missed, then minutes later saw a straight red card! Disastrous game for the talented midfielder. This prompted me to replace Palacios for the less attacking Lisandro Recalde, and Recalde minutes after coming in scored an insanely good goal - dribbling past several players then a missile to the top corner! We could not breathe for long though as São Paulo scored too. 2-1 at half-time, still leading on away goals but with 1 man less.

After the break we entered a prolonged period of agony - São Paulo seemed the better side but we were hanging on. Until a cross from the right hit Moisés' head, it went in and we were now losing on aggregate! It seemed like all hopes had died, but Recalde and Morales were both having a cracking match and combined for the young forward to slot a goal for the 3-2. Was this yet another miracle coming our way? No, we couldn't have our slice of the luck forever - just 3 minutes later Robertinho scored a long shot belter for São Paulo and silenced the stadium. We tried for the final 10 minutes but couldn't score our 4th, and São Paulo were champions.

This isn't really the way I wanted my last match for the club to go, losing a continental final at home, but have to accept we couldn't have gone riding on our luck in tight situations forever. It was still a memorable season for the club - the Recopa Sudamericana, Apertura, Copa Sudamericana, FIFA Club World Cup and Copa Argentina were all ours. I can leave happy in knowing I've pushed this club as much as I could.

[Animosama]

so close man

[noikeee]

May-June 2023

Fixtures

This incredibly heavy part of the season started with our Libertadores tie vs Belgrano, in which we struggled away but then hammered them at home. This was followed by a quarter-final vs Monterrey which went pretty much the opposite way - mega win in Mexico, then a major scare at home. We nevertheless made the semis where we faced Lanús as always. A spectacular 4-4 result in the first leg forced us to get a result away and somehow we did it winning 2-1 with 2 goals in the final 20 minutes. We were now up against São Paulo in the final, and it would be 2 utterly spectacular matches, as we lost 4-3 in Brazil but then led the tie on away goals during most of the return match, but it eventually ended up 3-3: São Paulo lifted the trophy in our stadium.

Amongst this we were having another cup run, domestically, the Copa Argentina. Lanús were in our path in this too but we beat them 2-0 fairly easily in the quarters, qualifying for a semi-final vs a 2nd tier River Plate. We struggled in that match but eventually scored a lot of goals at the end and won 4-1, qualifying for our first ever cup final. This was against Belgrano who we had beaten in the Libertadores, but we conceded a goal in the very first minute and could only managed to take it to penalty kicks - where the luck was yet again with us. INDEPENDIENTE RIVADAVIA WIN THE COPA ARGENTINA!

This review would not be complete without going through our calamitous failure in the league, as this was where our tired legs played against us. We were at the top of the table when we suffered a shock 3-0 defeat at Vélez, and this set the tone for the remaining matches. Wins over Racing Club and Banfield only prolonged our distant hopes as Boca and Lanús now had points advantage, and our title run was over when we lost consecutive matches to Unión and Godoy Cruz - Boca being crowned after that. The final 2 fixtures vs All Boys and Newell's merely served to rotate players.

Player on focus

Norberto Morales (ST) - It's pretty impossible to pick a consistent player over this crazy run of 18 fixtures in 2 months - but Morales scored 10 goals in them so I think that's a good choice.

Competitions

Primera División - Torneo Clausura:

Joint table (Apertura + Clausura)

Copa Argentina: winners after beating Belgrano in the final in a penalty shootout.

Copa Libertadores: defeated finalists after losing to São Paulo in a 6-7 aggregate score for the final.

Summary

This isn't the glorious end I was aiming at, I think the sales of Salinas (AMC) and Contreras (DR/DC) in January really weakened us for a change and that was a major factor. Neither Palacios or Correa were anywhere near the form of Salinas as AMC, and Contreras would've been a pretty big alternative option for my centre-backs as both D'Ippoliti and Rodriguez were injured for a while and our backups (Yurié and Musacchio) were pretty poor.

Nevertheless, cup winners, continental finalists and 3rd in the league isn't by any means a terrible half-season, and don't forget that in the previous half we won 4 trophies. This was still a pretty spectacular year for the club, and I can still feel I leave Independiente Rivadavia on a relative high.

[noikeee]

Season review 2022/2023

Tactics and usual starting eleven

No news, same settings, same shouts, same plan B, I've not really changed anything tactically for a few years now. Swap Palacios for Salinas, and Fernández for Contreras and you'd have our real ideal starting 11 for the season, before those 2 players left in January.

Squad

This screenie is missing midfielder/left-back Gustavo Bordacahar who was sold 2 days before the end of the season. His stats: 12(4) appearances, 2 assists, 6.93 av. rating.

Top 5 key players of the season

5. Alejandro Bergese (DL) - This 5th slot could've gone for either centre-back Juan D'Ippoliti and Mauricio Rodriguez, or keeper Gerardo Bastianini, our mid-season sold full-back Marcelo Contreras. I went for Alejandro instead because of how much he surprised me, I never expected him to overcome Israel Salazar but he has developed immensely during his 2 seasons at the club, far surpassed Israel's ability now and even got a cap for Argentina. 10 assists, and absolute key player.

4. Enrique Moreyra (MC) - Took a little to get going and justify our 6M€ investment in him, but at the end you'd look at his stats and be absolute dead sure he was more than worth it: 11 goals and 21 assists!! For a central midfielder!! Granted a lot of that came from the fact he takes pretty much all of our set pieces, but still a great amount. I could've done without his tendencies for aggressiveness and failing in the big matches - missing a penalty kick then getting sent off in the Libertadores final ultimately cost us the trophy.

3. Norberto Morales (ST) - Gone missing for the first 2 months due to injury, our quick young forward then took a while to stack up a decent amount of goals and seemed not to be at his best. Yet quietly started summing up the good finishes, particularly at the end of the season, and ends on a satisfactory account of 27 goals. Very high ratings as well thanks to his great pace and dribbling skills which often unlocked defences.

2. Luis Salinas (AMC, MC) - Gone in January, we missed him pretty badly the second half of the season as he added an extra dimension to our attacks. His extremely impressive totals of 13 goals and 10 assists in half-a-season were a massive part of why we won trophies like the Sudamericana and the FIFA Club World Cup - indeed, he scored in both games in the CWC finals in Morocco.

1. Alan Coca (ST) - He may not have reached the amazing goals/match ratio of Nicolás Netto last year (by the way Netto had a pretty disappointing season scoring only 14, he has lost a lot of skill to his injuries), but still become a great like-for-like replacement, with great totals of 36 goals, 11 assists and 10 MOM awards. Our most expensive player ever at 6.75M€, yet a bargain.

Career overview

[b]Season   League                  Cups                     International               Notes[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Torns IF (Sweden)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012     Div.2 Södra Göt. - 1st  n/a                      n/a                         Champions, promoted
2013     Div.1 Södra - 11th      Svenska Cupen 2nd rnd    n/a                         Avoided relegation
2014     Div.1 Södra - 1st       Svenska Cupen 1st rnd    n/a                         Champions, promoted
2015     Superettan - 3rd        Svenska Cupen 1st rnd    n/a                         Lost in promotion playoff
2016     Superettan - 1st        Svenska Cupen 3rd rnd    n/a                         Champions, promoted
2017     Allsvenskan - 13th      Svenska Cupen 1/4 final  n/a                         Avoided relegation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Independiente Rivadavia (Argentina)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18  Nacional B - 11th       Copa Argentina 6th rnd   n/a                         Joined in November
2018/19  Nacional B - 1st        Copa Argentina 5th rnd   n/a                         Champions, promoted
2019/20  Primera - 5th / 14th    Copa Argentina 6th rnd   n/a                         Just missed out on continental football
2020/21  Primera - 3rd / 7th     Copa Argentina 5th rnd   Libertadores 1/2 final      Apertura+Libertadores challenges
2021/22  Primera - 5th / 1st     Copa Argentina 1/2final  Sud. winners, Lib. winners  Clausura, Sudam., Libertadores champions
2022/23  Primera - 1st / 3rd     Copa Argentina winners   Sud. winners, Lib. final,   World champions, total of 5 trophies
                                                         Recopa winners, CWC winners 

[noikeee]

Don't cry for me Argentina

Right, it's time to go. I have never imagined I would last 6 seasons at a club again after having already done that for the first time ever in Sweden, and it turns out it was a very fun ride. I'd say it was better than Sweden - the challenge at the start of getting the wingless possession tactic to work was very exciting, as was figuring out all the crazy competition formats, developing so many talented youngsters, rebuilding the team every year after selling key players.

At the end it kinda dragged out for too long though, and like at Sweden I leave with a feeling that my heart wasn't in here anymore. There were a few reasons for this: for a start the number of fixtures is just insane if you go deep in all competitions, it feels really overwhelming. I'm probably devoting too much time to writing about this too and need to relax. Then the amount of success we've had in the past 2 seasons shocked me and it felt like a bit too easy to be honest (to the point I'm considering scrapping this career and attempting FM13 again). And finally, it's pretty difficult to get excited about FM when I've been having a total nightmare in terms of personal issues these past few weeks, that's not really FM's fault though.

I don't have a new job yet, as to my surprise I was rejected by both Werder Bremen and Toulouse, I thought by now I had the CV to be a clear favourite for either club. I will look around for any openings, but to be honest my motivation is wandering a bit and I am not sure whether I'll commit to this career for much longer.

Independiente Rivadavia 2017-2023 - Achievements

* 2019: Nacional B champions and promotion to the Primera División

* 2022: Copa Sudamericana winners, Argentinian champions (Clausura), South American champions (Copa Libertadores)

* 2023: Copa Sudamericana winners, Argentinian champions (Apertura), World champions (FIFA Club World Cup), Recopa Sudamericana winners, Copa Argentina winners, Copa Libertadores finalists

[noikeee]

Just for the record, before leaving I signed up a handful of exciting players for Independiente Rivadavia's next season, even though I won't be there anymore:

Eder Merino (MC) (325K€)

Eduardo dos Santos (M/AMC) (2.6M€)

Andrés Joao (ST) (free)

Franco Migliónico (AMC/ST) (free)

Julio César Maidana (D/WBL) (free)

Merino and Joao in particular are HUGE players. I also sold Gustavo Bordachar for 3.5M€ to Dinamo Bucharest.

With all of the talent I leave behind, I think I can be sure the club is in good conditions to remain very competitive in the future...

[noikeee]

Bastia, 1st of July 2023

Well, that didn't take long - I accepted a job offer the very next day after leaving Argentina. France was always the preferred option but I am a little disillusioned the club that picked me up is perhaps a little less competitive than I would've wanted - but the likes of Toulouse and Rennes rejected me, so the best I could get was a job in Corsica.

My new employees are Sporting Club de Bastia, Corsica's greatest claim to footballing fame. Being a native of an island myself I can certainly identify myself with them, the siege mentality they have of the big bad mainland clubs vs the Corsican pride, really reminds me of my local best club Marítimo at their best. They are however not hugely competitive, and have not really won anything major in their history. Their greatest break was in the late 70s, as they finished 3rd in the league in 1977 and then reached the UEFA Cup final in 1978, which they lost. Recently, they've been yo-yoing between Ligue 1 midtable and as low as the National 3rd tier:

I am afraid I have paid a price in terms of club dimension in this move to Europe - quite simply Rivadavia were a bigger club than Bastia by now! This club is valued merely at 16.25M€ whereas the Argentinian were now worth a massive 118M€, almost 10 times more. The stadium is slightly smaller at 17800 spectators (20000 in Argentina), and in terms of reputation I also lost out as Bastia have 3* stars whereas Ind. Rivadavia were now 3,5* stars. This is also not a very rich club, just 1.6M€ in the bank when I recall having over 10M€ in Argentina. The one big upgrade is in wages - we are paying 1.3M€/month whereas my previous wage budget used to be around 600K€/month.

The team

I am yet to have a proper look at this but whilst we don't have any major stars, and it's clear I have gone down a notch in the standards of players I'll be managing, at least the squad is fairly young, most in their mid 20s, I doubt I'll make a massive overhaul.

Best players:

Oliver Toukam (DC) - This Cameroonian centre-back is REALLY TALL. I think I can get a few goals in set pieces from him.

Lukas Broz (DL) - Very nice 23yo attacking full-back, I may end up having to sell him under my rule though as some clubs want him already.

Geoffrey Lemaitre (ST) - This appears to be my better forward, he is nothing particularly special but is well rounded, quick, tall and technical.

Goals for this season

Recent history tells me they've been 17th, 14th and 12th the past 3 years, so have been doing baby steps in the league table - I would like to get them a little further up and finish in the top 10. I need to analyse this well first, but another challenge may be the return of a lone striker formation aided by wingers, looks like that may fit this squad better than my Argentinian 4-3-1-2.

[Animosama]

Should be interesting. Are you gonna try raid the former club ?

[B.W.G]

You did very well with Rivadavia,best of luck in France with Bastia.

[cerud]

The move to Bastia may seem like a downward one, but its a higher level league. Build the club and you'll be back

[deltablue]

I had a feeling you'd need a new challenge soon.

[noikeee]

Should be interesting. Are you gonna try raid the former club ?

I would if I had the money! Just 2.3M€ for transfers and with all of my wage budget used up, so I'll have to adjust to get more money for wages and less for transfers. It's impossible to buy any of my former players who cost far more than that.

You did very well with Rivadavia,best of luck in France with Bastia.

Tks!

The move to Bastia may seem like a downward one, but its a higher level league. Build the club and you'll be back

Yeah that is very much the thinking behind this move, it's a club in a bigger league and capable of paying much bigger wages if not particularly well of financially. Although I do wonder if I waited for longer, whether I couldn't have got a better job in the same league or similar - I think the reason why Toulouse Bremen etc turned me down was because I was still employed so they'd have to pay compensation.

I had a feeling you'd need a new challenge soon.

Yeah pretty much, there was nothing more to win in Argentina anymore.

[Dexter_Morgan]

You had a fantastic time with Rivadavia but I think with a bit of patience Bastia could be a fantastic little move for you and give you the chance to build another great side from scratch

[AcidBurn]

Great move! You had a lot of success at Rivadavia and moving will give you the chance to build up another club.

There's a lot of different nationalities in the squad isn't there?

[Nobby_McDonald]

Quite a fixture pile up.

Nothing wrong with Corsica, and a nice stadium there.

[noikeee]

You had a fantastic time with Rivadavia but I think with a bit of patience Bastia could be a fantastic little move for you and give you the chance to build another great side from scratch

Tks, I certainly hope so.

Great move! You had a lot of success at Rivadavia and moving will give you the chance to build up another club.

There's a lot of different nationalities in the squad isn't there?

Yeah it's a very diverse cultural mix, I could've done with 1 or 2 nationalities less because the genius of the previous manager bought more non-EU players when we were already at the limit, so I'm being forced to sell players. Thankfully in France half the globe counts as EU (African nations for example - but not South America where by I now have a lot of knowledge about a few gems).

Quite a fixture pile up.

Nothing wrong with Corsica, and a nice stadium there.

The fixture thing was crazy because it happened every year. Argentina is really nice at the start because it's fun to fight for so many competitions, but after years of fixture congestion it gets really overwhelming.

I could do with a slightly bigger stadium, although I suppose its relative small side will keep things challenging financially here.

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2023

Transfers

Business before the 1st of July was the work of the previous manager so in reality I didn't do many moves, constrained by money. These were the 5 players I signed:

Daniel Giacchino (DR) (free) - Decent alternative for the right, seems on par with the other right-back I have (Haythan Suleiman).

Hudson (AMC / MC) (free) - The wildcard signing, one for the future. I had to juggle around the non-EU player spots but this 19yo Brazilian midfielder, who's been through São Paulo and Real Madrid already, has massive potential.

Arnold Collins (M/AMR) (1.1M€) - We were under serious need of wingers, so I splashed most of the cash on one. May still come good but his first few matches have been very disappointing.

Rogério Pereira (ML / AML) (325K€ loan) - I'd have liked to have signed a left-winger permanently, but our limited finances meant I could do little more than loaning in a decent player.

Riffi Mandanda (GK) (free) - Possibly the best value for money signing (despite his huge wages), as this experienced keeper is a big step-up on our previous options.

I got rid of exactly 5 players too: centre-back Pedja Jokic, midfielder/winger Lisandro Nuñez, and forwards Adam Nkusu Landu, Edilson Andino and Joris Correa were all deemed not good enough. I got around 3.3M€ for them so that was a decent operation all around.

Finances

2.5M€ on the bank but losing money at an alarming constant rate. Our very high salary bill clearly doesn't help, as it's currently on 1.5M€/month.

The full squad for the 2023-2024 season

I am not happy at all with this bunch, if I was pointing at a top 10 finish before having a serious look, I may have to revise expectations, this is a bottom half squad. It lacks talent, flexibility, depth, and my transfer dealings weren't able to help a great amount.

Fixtures

Pre-season was hugely encouraging, we didn't meet any truly big sides but still faced a couple competent ones and held on our own remarkably well - the only match we didn't win was vs Frankfurt and we dominated anyway.

Come the league start the spark seemed to fade a little but we were still good, just did enough to beat Le Havre when we went out to St. Étienne for an epic match. Lemaitre had a super day and helped us with 3 goals and 1 assist making the most of a meagre amount of chances, I stood incredulously as we were winning 4-1 and even more with the end: we conceded 3 goals in a very short amount of time, then Lemaitre picked up a mildly serious injury. We seemed to miss him big time as we were uninspired at home vs Valenciennes and suffered unexpected defeat, then had an awful showing at Toulouse where a 3-2 defeat kinda flattered us.

Player on focus

Tommaso Palumbo (AMC) - The Italian midfielder was the star of pre-season as he blossomed in a AM/A role/duty scoring goals for fun, and followed that up with 3 goals in the league.

Winger Serge Bamba has also looked good, spreading the assists in from either flank, whereas striker Geoffrey Lemaitre had a godlike performance vs St. Étienne only to get injured, he will probably only return in October which is a massive loss to us, we don't have any decent backup at all.

Competitions

Ligue 1:

Coupe de la Ligue: we enter France's Carling Cup equivalent on the 3rd round to meet Rennes away.

Coupe de France: no news on this front.

Summary

This has been a slightly underwhelming start, I was expecting more from my squad and am also going through the process of re-inventing my tactics once again which isn't helping: after 6 years of playing possession football without wingers, I'm back to a 4-2-3-1 that very much resembles Rafa Benitez's sides - direct, quick, organized and not very exciting. This is similar to what I used to play in Sweden at the start of my career, but slightly different as I started a new setup from scratch and am figuring it out.

I also really really need Geoffrey Lemaitre to get well soon, my feeling so far is his availability upfront makes a huge difference. I think he may be the difference between a safe mid-table year or a struggle for survival.

[cerud]

May take a bit to get a tactic that works, but hopefully performances improve.

[AK22]

Shame that fixture congestion cost you so dearly in your final season in Argentina. Very little you could have done about it, though.

Good luck with Bastia. Should be a decent project

[berty1978]

I was reading down and starting to wonder whether you had moved clubs yet, very interesting choice of club in Bastia. Strange that Shakhtar approached you but the likes of Toulouse and Rennes wouldn't but it's a lovely place to manage and an interesting challenge ahead, tough start but hopefully you can avoid relegation and build from there.

[noikeee]

May take a bit to get a tactic that works, but hopefully performances improve.

It's starting to work, I had to revert to a few settings from the Sweden days back then but I got something sorted out now.

Shame that fixture congestion cost you so dearly in your final season in Argentina. Very little you could have done about it, though.

Good luck with Bastia. Should be a decent project

I think lack of squad depth cost us, not fixture congestion - because that crazy amount of fixtures basically happened every year, it's the same for every club.

I was reading down and starting to wonder whether you had moved clubs yet, very interesting choice of club in Bastia. Strange that Shakhtar approached you but the likes of Toulouse and Rennes wouldn't but it's a lovely place to manage and an interesting challenge ahead, tough start but hopefully you can avoid relegation and build from there.

I'm already being linked back to even bigger clubs like St. Etienne, Athletic (who rejected me a couple months ago!), Napoli and Liverpool, which is even more puzzling, but I suppose it's about timing, reputation, finances of said clubs and whether they had to pay compensation to get me or not.

[noikeee]

September-November 2023

Transfers

The transfer window was shut throughout these months but I picked up 1 player on a free:

Brahim Boudebouda (DL / DC, WBL) - Veteran player but still quite capable and fit enough to play for us, is a strong short term option for squad depth at the back.

Fixtures

On the league - our form was starting to dip in my previous update, and unfortunately it continued with a poor home draw with Nantes then a loss at Lens, we were then down to an alarming 19th in the relegation zone. This was early days though and a strong 2-0 win over Metz put us up only for another defeat to come at the hands of Rennes. Much of this was due to my slow tactical developments and morale, but we were also missing pretty badly 3 key players injured: ST Lemaitre, AMC Palumbo and DC Toukam.

The turning point came home vs Bordeaux, a confident 2-0 win opened up a brilliant run of 4 consecutive wins, as we got our first 2 away wins at Nice and Caen sparked by goalscoring returns from Lemaitre and Palumbo (and a big share of luck too), then had our best performance yet slicing Paris FC apart 5-0. The calendar dropped us a few difficult fixtures next though, so we lost at home to Monaco, were humiliated pretty badly at Marseille losing 6-2, scrapped through a draw at Sochaux but lost again vs Lyon. Back to earth, I guess.

As for the league cup, our campaign ended as soon as it started and pretty abruptly, we were at our weakest form then and got beaten pretty badly by Rennes 3-0.

Player on focus

Geoffrey Lemaitre (ST) - The difference between having him on the team or not is pretty big, it's as if we play without a forward! 7 goals already after a good return from his injury.

Another man that has been showing great aim is young Brazilian midfielder Hudson, he benefitted from Palumbo's absence to shine and score 6 goals, I am pretty shocked by that!

Competitions

Ligue 1:

Coupe de la Ligue: defeated by Rennes 0-3 in the 3rd round.

Coupe de France: still no news.

Summary

It's been a story of ups and downs, we've been mostly poor but when things clicked we seemed unbeatable for a while too and even looked briefly at European qualification places. Now it's far more likely we're looking at a boring safe mid-table position, just need to watch out not to let our latest run of defeats continue for a while, or else we may still well be dragged into a relegation battle.

[cerud]

Still up and down, but it looks as though you may have turned a bit of a corner.

[noikeee]

Still up and down, but it looks as though you may have turned a bit of a corner.

We did! Details soon - not been playing much FM lately, but have just done enough for the next update.

[noikeee]

December 2023-February 2024

Transfers

There was a fair bit of activity in the Winter window this time. For a start we scored a big sale as Brazilian centre-back Guilherme was sold to Salamanca for 3.5M€, unfortunately in monthly instalments when we're needing cash pretty badly immediately. Backup goalkeeper Seth Owusu was also loaned out, to Luzern for 26K€.

In return, I hired 4 players:

Souleymane Bakayoko (GK) (65K€) - Hugely promising 20yo Ivorian goalkeeper who my scouts found in Africa. 3rd choice at the moment but could be massive in the future.

Yuri Zabelin (ST / AMRL) (30K€) - Not many people have had their international debut at the age of 17! It's easier when you play for Kazakhstan though (has German 2nd nationality). Has some potential.

Kulubrahn Adem (DR / DLC) (free) - Another young (20) backup who is an international for a dodgy nation (Eritrea). I like his versatility.

John Mensah (ST / AML) (180K€) - I badly needed another decent alternative for Lemaitre upfront as striker, and I found this towering Ghanaian target man. Already scored a brace in the cup, but has otherwise been a disappointment in the league.

Fixtures

Seemed like our awful run in the league would continue when we were 2 goals down at Nancy at half-time, but a great showing by Italian AMC Tommaso Palumbo got us a point, and we beat Lorient next to get our first win in a while. Was a short-lived high as we got destroyed pretty badly at PSG next.

The league stopped for a while as we won 2 friendlies, then we came back on shining form beating St. Étienne with 2 late goals then shocking Valenciennes away 3-1. A defeat at home to Toulouse next was unexpected, but so was a cracking 3-0 win away at Nantes! One of our best showings of the season so far, no doubt. We were looking good at this stage but a fair bit inconsistent still, and lost at home again to Lens. February ended with 2 draws, a very positive one away at Metz then an unlucky one at home to Rennes, after dominating and leading the match for long.

Along our Ligue 1 efforts, we have started our participation in the Coupe de France and have already played no less than 3 rounds - albeit aided by favourable draws. We had no problems beating lower league Villefranche and were then paired at home with fellow top tier side Lorient. I did expect a win but not a 4-0 thrashing! Every shot of ours seemed to go in that day. Next we were again at home, to third tier league leaders Gap, to my dismay we were super uninspired and the game was still 0-0 after 90 minutes. The goals finally came in extra-time and we qualified for the quarter-finals, where we'll face 2nd tier Tours, again at home.

Player on focus

Tommaso Palumbo (AMC) - This part of the season has been all about the goal-happy Italian, who has been outshining (embarrassing a bit, even) the forwards: scored another 6 to increase his personal tally to 11, and is our top goalscorer at the moment.

Winger Serge Bamba has been our other player on impressive form, this guy is all about assists and his tally there is 11, too.

Competitions

Ligue 1:

Coupe de la Ligue: defeated by Rennes 0-3 in the 3rd round earlier in the season.

Coupe de France: into the quarter-finals to face Ligue 2 side Tours at home.

Summary

It's a shame we've dropped the ball in our most recent fixtures because the league table looked nicer - we were 7th for quite a while. We continue set for a comfortable midtable finish then, at a point I thought of Europe, but European qualification will need probably 5th place and that seems out of our reach. The good news is that we're having a good cup run thanks to a series of very favourable draws, and look very likely to at least make the semi-finals.

The bad news is that we're leaking an incredible amount of money - now 4.1M€(!!!) in the red. We'll probably need to sell players and reduce our wage bill substantially next season.

[noikeee]

Bastia - Youth intake 2024

Best player

Patrick Faedda (DM / MC)

My first youth bunch in France is pretty disappointing - there is one promising player in Patrick Faedda but the rest aren't noteworthy. I'm not hugely excited about Faedda because he has a giant way to go to meet his potential (which is kinda natural, given he's only 14 yet), but also because he's not a particularly distinguished player amongst our talented youngsters bunch. I haven't yet shown them here, but here's our brightest players from our current U19 squad which I inherited as I arrived to France this season:

Arsenal have already sniffed around for the awesomely named Bigger Mutombo - I had to offer him a contract to avoid him leaving under compensation, and amazingly, he preferred to stay rather than move to Arsenal! Look at his screenie, now that is an exciting player.

[mariogriffiths]

Yeah Bigger M looks great.

You've done well so far, you did say you wanted top 10, but changed your mind after checking out the squad fully

[deltablue]

Very solid season.

[cerud]

Much better now! Should offer a bit of breathing room.

[B.W.G]

A solid season so far,Bigger Mutombo looks to be brilliant and has a brilliant name too

[noikeee]

Yeah Bigger M looks great.

You've done well so far, you did say you wanted top 10, but changed your mind after checking out the squad fully

Very solid season.

Much better now! Should offer a bit of breathing room.

A solid season so far,Bigger Mutombo looks to be brilliant and has a brilliant name too

Cheers for the comments, "solid" is really the most optimistic I can be about it, it's been a pretty boring season to be honest and I've been losing interest. I'm just finishing it now and will have a go at the Summer transfer window to see if I can recapture the excitement by signing some players, but I'm starting to think I may actually not stay at this club for long - or may need a break from FM altogether instead. Have been spending my home free-time rediscovering my enjoyment of simracing instead which is nice.

[Dexter_Morgan]

That's the problem with a season where not much is happening you lose interest, i've had that a few times on this FM and had to have a week or 2 off.