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FM15 'Big' Euro Challenge


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Martigues got promoted in one my other attempts. They're actually a fairly solid side rep-wise but this is the first time in about 10 attempts that they've come up and I have their badges + their kits are quite cool, so I'll go for them.

I also noticed that Ali Benarbia played for them and is actually their record holder for appearances made, which is awesome! 'Only' played 252 times but still, Benarbia :cool:

I googled Martigues (the place) to see what it was like as it isn't a part of France I'm familiar with and the minute I saw it, I decided I wanted to take over them. Looks like a beautiful place. So yeah, will take over Martigues and will post the required info soon-ish (gonna do an FMCU thread based on my Martigues experience like Paul does with Pau).

e: holy crap, Eric Cantona played for Martigues as well, although he was only loaned there for half a season and played 15 times so not quite a remarkable story or anything :lol:

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Club: Profile | General | Facilities | History

Manager: Profile | Information

I'm a handsome bearded fellow, I know... Okay, it's actually Jean Dujardin, but whatever.

The club's centenary anniversary is in six years time, so I want to mark that year with something worth marking it with. Be it silverware, an historic win, promotion to Ligue 1, whatever. I want it to mean something though. It would be a nice little touch to do so.

I arrive at the club in decent conditions. Not in bad shape overall to be honest, finances are okay, facilities are fine for the level we're at. Squad is alright, but a bit light in defence.

Speaking of squad, it needs work to suit the formation I plan on using, which is 352. I've never used 352 before to any real extent so I want to add an additional little side-project to the main project which is to try out a formation I have very little experience with. It might morph over time to have a sweeper or wingbacks or DMs or CAMs or whatever, but for the start I'll stick with a flat 5 in the midfield. Having said that, I won't hesitate to drop the shape if I can't get it working.

That's all I've got to say tbh. If I've missed any important information, let me know and I'll add it in. But I think I've got it all right... So yeah, there we go.

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Whilst not every tie was as easy as Santa Coloma - we have managed to qualify for the Europa League Group Stage. Our toughest tie was Omonoia in the Playoff but thanks to the substitute Soumah we scored a late winner to avoid going to extra time and potentially penalties.

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I'm not too sure what to expect from the Group Stage as I haven't followed European football that much so have no idea if Fiorentina, Bilbao or Metalist are any good. Just on name alone I would expect us to at least finish above Metalist. I don't really know what level we're at compared to European sides though so is anyone's guess how we get on in the other games.

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Batman PetrolSpor 2024/25 Update

The Club

Manager Profile | Staff | Team Report | Information | Facilities | Finances | Transfers

Our late surge of form basically rescued our finances, which have since shot up to £15M due to our new sponsorship deals. My manager profile is also looking really good now due to obtaining two licences in a year.

Spor Toto Super League

Predicted finish: 6th

Actual Finish: 2nd

League Table | Graph | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

We began the league campaign with a couple of wins, before we started drawing so much it felt like being in an art class. Our form was pretty poor until late january and we were sitting in 13th place in the league table, when, inspired by the signing of Daniel López, we destroyed Karsiyaka. Even though the Argentinian winger got injured for three months soon after that, he had helped set the wheels in motion and our form was dramatically improved in the second half of the season. In the end we somehow managed to qualify for the Champions League on the final day of the season, due to our direct competitors all dropping points.

Ziraat Turkish Cup

Winners!

We repeated the feat achieved two seasons ago, this time beating one of the Istanbul giants in the final. King Konuk scored a brace to allow us to lift the Turkish Cup Trophy for the second time.

Europa League

Group Stage

After ruthlessly seeing off our opponents in qualification, we were drawn in a very tough group. We had a chance of qualifying, but #OverheatGate put an end to our hopes.

Squad

Squad Screen 1 | Squad Screen 2

Most Appearances: Yiğit Konuk (47 starts, 2 sub)

Top Goalscorer: Yiğit Konuk (35)

Most Assists: Yiğit Konuk (12)

Highest Average Rating: Daniel López (7.63)

7.00 and above club: Ali Taş, Atınç Nukan, Nelson Delgado, Werner Markovic, Sertaç Fırat, Abdurrahman Aksu, Muzaffer Emir, Kemal Efe, Muhammet Cenk Güzel, Salih Uçan, Jules Ebwelle.

Konuk was dominant this season and was rightly named Super League Player of the Year, Super League Striker of the Year andZiraat Turkish Cup Player of the Year, but his best form only came after López joined and gave the team the confidence to start beating teams again. Konuk and Bülbül were named in the Super League Team of the Year, while Bülbül also won the Super League Goalkeeper of the Year award.

Previous Season Goals

Qualify for Europe - Success

Continue developing the club's infrastructure - Success - Improvements to youth and training facilities, as well as an increase in investment in junior coaching.

Continue developing a homegrown spine for the club - Success

Next Season Goals

Be more convincing in the league - I don't want us to drop into the lower half of the table at any point next season. If we can turn some of our draws into wins I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be competitive at the top of the table.

Don't get embarrassed in the CL - The Champions League is a completely different beast from the Europa League, so we'll do well to keep scores down if we're drawn up against a tough team (I think we start in the Best Placed playoff).

Keep our key performers together/replace them adequately - This one will be really tough. Ebwelle will probably not be renewing his contract because of his wage demands, while Markovic has attracted the interest of a number of English and German clubs.

Career

|  Season  |    League    |  Position   |     Cup     |    Europe   |  Avg. Att.  | Season Tickets (Change) |        Achievements       |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  15/16   |    2L Red    |     7th     |   2nd Rnd   |             |     959     |        623   (+90)      |                           |
|  16/17   |    2L Red    |     1st     |   3rd Rnd   |             |    1053     |        645   (+22)      |   Promoted as Champions   |
|  17/18   |    PTT 1.    |     2nd     | Group Stage |             |    2671     |       1527  (+882)      |          Promoted         |
|  18/19   | Super League |    18th     |   4th Rnd   |             |    6698     |       4570 (+3043)      |         Relegated         |
|  19/20   |    PTT 1.    |     1st     |   3rd Rnd   |             |    4447     |       3934  (-636)      |   Promoted as Champions   |
|  20/21   | Super League |    10th     |   4th Rnd   |             |    7545     |       6640 (+2706)      |                           |
|  21/22   | Super League |     7th     |   4th Rnd   |             |    7559     |       6741  (+101)      |                           |
|  22/23   | Super League |     8th     |   Winners   |             |    7807     |       6890  (+149)      |   European Qualification  |
|  23/24   | Super League |     3rd     |  Qtr Final  |  EL 1st KO  |    8095     |       7104  (+214)      |                           |
|  24/25   | Super League |     2nd     |   Winners   |  EL Group   |    9542     |       8742 (+1638)      |      CL Qualification     |

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Congrats Paul. Solid season finishing 10th and a lovely little adventure in Europe so far!

JDownie - great decision on Martigues. HUGE fan of those images of the harbour, looks stunning :cool:. Also a big fan of you trying to get a 3-5-2 to work. Intrigued to see how that works out for you. The main issue I can think of at that level will be finding suitable wide players as they're essentially the most important players you have in the system. Bon chance!

As for Machico....this made me laugh. Don't think this youngster will be playing much for me:

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I wasn't given much of a transfer budget so I had to make do with a cheap buy and a couple of free transfers. Michal Vyskoc has come in to be first choice RB and CB cover, Marius Kichenin is our new backup GK and Robert Watson joins from Australia to add depth to our CM and CAM positions.

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A decent start to the Euro Cup Group Stage with a 2-0 win over Metalist at home and a narrow away defeat to Fiorentina. It looks like the Euro Cup is proving a bit of a distraction for us as in the league we've not been thaaat great. Just a lack of goals everywhere aside from a decent game against SM Caen and ESTAC Troyes we've not scored more than 1 goal a game domestically - though both of those teams are awful. Jardin's had a terrible season so far - 1 goal in 8 league games - though due to the garbage Europa rounds he still has like 14/15 goals overall in October :D

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Got a game in hand on most sides but its against FC Nantes so we probably wont get anything out of it anyway.

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Paul winning 28-0 on aggregate in his opening Europa League qualifying tie :applause: Remarkable stuff. Even if they are a total diddy team, that's still an insanely good scoreline. Especially considering you're 'only' a midtable Ligue 1 side.

Cheers iacovone :thup: Before i went off last night I created the preliminary tactic and made sure I had players to fit into it and...well, they sorta did. Main problems: Only have four CBs, one of which is actually an offensive RB who can fill in at CB. I only have four MCs (playing a flat five across the middle) and the fourth is terrible...like, I wouldn't even want to give him a minute on the pitch tbh. On the flanks the players are fairly decent. Not the best defensively but going forward should be able to cause trouble and as long as we can score I'll be happy. ST is the only position we're good in. Two quality strikers for the level we're at and one decent striker.

Squad is threadbare atm, only got about 18 players in total I think. Maybe even less, in fact. Will have to bring in at least three players (cover for CB and CM is vital).

Going to be an interesting challenge. I'll also have an FMCU thread over in that sub-forum where I'll go into more detail (hopefully) than I will here.

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duccio - Welcome, congrats and good luck for next season! Seems like a really successful season and I'm enjoying the layout of your updates.

I'm not one to type long stories on what has happened in my game, so I have to try something to make my reports presentable. ;)

In my previous report I had just had Chieri promoted to Serie B. I have since completed 2 more seasons, and the latter ended in a promotion to Serie A. Additionally the club has begun to build a new stadium with a capacity for 22000 spectators. Very good progress, but it has become way too easily and I think the new stadium is too large for a club from a city as small as Chieri. I think I will be starting over with another club with much lower reputation and possibly more populous catchment area (to provide a real life explanation for the FM phenomena of large in-game built stadiums).

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Two of my first three games in charge have been against Bundesliga side Freiburg and Jupiler Pro side Club Brugge in friendlies... and somehow, these are the results:

v Freiburg

v Club Brugge

If this sort of form continues into the season proper, I could be in for a surprisingly good debut season. I don't care much for friendlies but these are very good results considering. I was expecting to get smashed off of Freiburg, at least.

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Machico Season 11 - 2025-26 - January Update

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With that awful start out of the way, we began to find our footing in the top flight. I put that down to two things: The fixture list eased up and a tactical tweak. In terms of system, we're now using a Second Striker alongside a False 9. How very hipster of us eh? It seems to be working and John Tuijt is thriving as the SS.

I also decided to go full-strength in the cups, despite our evident small squad but it's paid dividends and we've built momentum in each competition. Losses at Sporting (the champions) and Maritimo were expected but cup wins after each helped us recover. Setubal are owned by a mega-rich owner and are one of the stronger teams, so again that was expected.

After that loss we picked up a few league wins to lift us out of the bottom two. The 5-3 away at Boavista was particularly important, while the win over local side Nacional da Madeira was more than welcome. It's not perfect but we're finding ourselves and are still in both cup competitions.

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So we've picked up 13 points and that keeps us just out of the relegation zone. Although it looks a little bit worrying, I'm feeling pretty confident. It's all starting to come together and if we keep on getting points off the teams around us (obviously) we'll be fine. Fingers crossed!

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Two of my first three games in charge have been against Bundesliga side Freiburg and Jupiler Pro side Club Brugge in friendlies... and somehow, these are the results:

v Freiburg

v Club Brugge

If this sort of form continues into the season proper, I could be in for a surprisingly good debut season. I don't care much for friendlies but these are very good results considering. I was expecting to get smashed off of Freiburg, at least.

Well that's quite something. 3-5-2! 3-5-2! 3-5-2! 3-5-2!

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First ten games have gone pretty well:

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Shipping goals like no man's business though. Second worst defence in the entire league. Top scorers is reassuring, mind you.

In the 10th game we kept our first clean sheet of the season. I moved my MR/L to WBR/L and it might have done the world of good as we looked better defensively. Seemed to lose a bit of our attacking edge but we're inconsistent going forward tbf.

Still, 2nd place after 10 games is better than I expected. Will post another update after the 17th game (halfway point). Not played in the cup yet.

I also dropped my MC to DMC because whenever the opposition got past our midfield, the CBs were charging forward, so I put the DM there to try and prevent our CBs from getting out of position too easily. It has sort of worked but we're still **** defensively :D

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Well that's quite something. 3-5-2! 3-5-2! 3-5-2! 3-5-2!

It's morphing into a 532 so far :lol:

Doing well at Machico - doesn't look good if you focus on being just two places shy of the relegation zone but the flipside of that is: you are only five points being comfortably midtable/one place short of the top half.

Setubal top of the league is quite something though! :eek:

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Wow looks fun over at Martiques. That Dunkerque game! Superb entertainment for all involved. Liking the sound of your b*stardised 3-5-2 as well haha. Hope the remainder of the season is as exciting.

At Machico...

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That's now 10 intakes with no-one of note. I know the facilities here are awful but I'm really starting to think we'll need a miracle to find anyone of note on the island - Maritimo get the pick of them.

We have however moved out of Maritimo's stadium and returned to the Estadio Municipal do Machico after the planned expansion was completed. We now have a whopping 5,000 capacity.

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Machico Season 11 - 2025-26 - April Update

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After finding our feet in the top flight, it was time to kick on and make sure we didn't get sucked into a relegation battle so a narrow win over Chaves was essential. We kept up our form in the cups, beating Braga away in the Taca de Portugal to earn a two-legged semi-final against the might of Porto. Speaking of Porto...we met them three times this month, losing the lot. The league loss was closer than it should have been but the Taca da Liga 5-3 loss was painful as we raced into a 3-0 lead :(. It meant we exited at the quarter final group stage.

Between all those cup games we secured the best result under my management, beating Benfica at the Estadio da Luz! A real tactical triumph :)

Otherwise, you'll notice plenty of wins in the cups, a few in the league (the Braga and Rio Avewins were particularly pleasing) and a smattering of draws. It's meant we're keeping our heads above water and are sat nicely in 11th.

You'll also see that the first leg at Porto didn't go well. I changed tactic to see if we could shore up the defence and hit them on the break - but we conceded three and had two disallowed goals. We're almost definitely going out; they're too good, but I'm really enjoying the challenge of toppling the big clubs!

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We're 11th with seven games to go and 16 points clear of the relegation zone. I give us a VERY good chance of staying up :). As far as individual performances go, hats off to Ruud Bouwmeester, a superb loan signing and Alfredo Henriques who has finally come to the party, netting 11 goals and collecting 10 assists since mid-December. He CAN succeed at this level!

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IOA - Great job bouncing straight back up! Nice to see your finances sorting themselves out to some extent, the additional income from the Super League should also help in that regard. I saw you mention your youth, has your academy been producing some gems for you?

I'd say the past 2/3 seasons have been producing players capable of playing in my first XI and subs.

PaulHartman71 - Congrats on another sucessful season in Ligue 1 and good luck in Europe!

Romanista1994 - Another superb season, you are getting closer and closer!

Commondore - Good luck!

JDownie - Welcome and good to see you starting well

iacovone - It's looking like a great debut season!

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@iacovone, you say 'exciting', I say 'stressful'. I don't like conceding goals so to have got to the point where we were leading 3-0 and finish 6-5... yeah, I was clutching at my chest :D

Looks like you've done a great job with Machico. Hopefully you can get a top half finish, would be a brilliant finish to the season :thup:

And thanks, IOA :)

Feel this should be shared...

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Six minutes to go and you have the chance to lead the game for the first time...only to miss your penalty, concede on the counter and lose 1-2 :D They deserved nothing though so not like they can have any complaints tbh. We should have scored much more.

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Season 11 Preseason Report

Summer Transfer Window

Transfers

A relatively busy transfer window which saw us sell several youth players, as well as some of our backups. Köse's transfer was mainly because he'd probably have been unhappy if I didn't allow him to leave and the transfer fee could still rise to £1,25M.

Friendly Results

Friendlies

A very short pre-season, not too happy with conceding two goals.

TFF Super Cup

Winners!

Nice to add another trophy to the growing collection and even nicer to do so in style. We dominated last year's league winners Beşiktaş despite a few of our key players being injured, having kept 80% of possession at half time. Veysel Baydemir gave us the lead in the second half, while a late goal from Konuk finished them off.

Champions League

3rd Qualifying Round - Won 3-1 on aggregate vs. Anderlecht

We defeated the Belgian giants at home, while away we managed to hold on to a 1-1 draw with Baydemir scoring on his debut. In the Best Placed Playoff we'll be up against Dortmund, which means we're very likely to go on to play Europa League football.

Current First Eleven

GK: Hakan Bülbül - Starting keeper, coming off the back of a sensational season.

RB: Werner Markovic - He rejected Celtic when I accepted a bid from them, but I can't see us keeping him beyond his contract due to his wage demands.

CB: Özcan Arslan - Should be a great player for us if he doesn't continually get injured.

CB: Nelson Delgado - Solid centreback, his spell away from us on loan did wonders for his confidence.

LB: Sertaç Fırat - Good leftback and now vice captain.

DM: Ahmet Alkan - He's probably slightly better than Aksu at this point, they'll both play a lot either way.

RM: Ali Taş - He's getting really good, but probably fits a more advanced position better as his defensive attributes haven't developed as I would have liked.

CM: Salih Uçan - Getting older, but we have some excellent prospects in the same mould coming through.

CM: Jules Ebwelle - He wants a £40k p/w wage, which I wouldn't pay at this point even if we could afford it, so he'll be leaving in the summer unless someone makes an offer before then.

LM: Daniel López - Very good player, could define our season if he gets back to the form he was in when he first joined.

ST: Yiğit Konuk - Konuk is now our captain and a club legend, but we risk losing him as his wage demands are getting pretty high. Hopefully I can sign him up for a new contract before long.

The board wants us to challenge for the title and reach the final of the Turkish Cup. Luckily, they are pretty happy with the Super Cup win, so my job security should be okay even if we slightly underperform in both competitions.

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Some great results...some not so great results. We're in a fantastic position to be just three off the top and sitting in a promotion spot just over halfway and heading into the new year, but still... Losing at home to Chambly and Boulogne was poor. We battered Chambly and they scored on the counter and Boulogne were fortunate to take all three; a draw would've been fair. Drawing away to Paris was tough too. They beat us with just three shots. We just struggled to hit the target and got nowhere at all. Still, keeping clean sheets, sitting near the top, far more than I thought we'd have at this point :)

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Cup dream is over before it ever really began tbh :D A team in the tier below us, too! We've still got a lot of work to do, clearly.

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Lost 0-1 against Dortmund in the home leg after drawing 1-1 in the away leg, so we're out of the CL and go into the Europa League Group Stage. Tbf, we did make it very hard for them despite me giving an 18-year-old keeper his debut in the second game due to an injury to our starter. Now I hope we get a decent group in the EL, so that we can improve our and Turkey's coefficient. We already contributed to this, as Turkey regained its lone spot in the group stage this season after losing it the year before, but we really need to achieve at least two guaranteed group stage spots for Turkish football and our club to grow.

Edit - Not a bad group considering we were 4th seeds:

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We bowed out of the Europa League after 2 losses to a far superior Athletic Bilbao side, a 1-1 away draw to Metalist and then a somewhat surprising 1-0 win at home against Fiorentina.

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Did find this quite funny though...

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Most ever goals despite going out at the group stage :D That screenshot was taken after we were officially knocked out by drawing 1-1 with Metalist - so we actually ended up with 47 goals :D

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But yeah elsewhere in the league we've been doing pretty well especially considering the European games on top of it. 6 wins from our last 9 games including a smashing of Toulouse and a very exciting win away to Lyon which saw Jardin get a hat-trick. PSG obviously bringing us back down to earth by spanking us in the Coupe de la Ligue but their side is mentally OP.

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It doesn't really feel like we've been thaaaat amazing this season but despite the European distract we've got the same points total at 17 games played that we did at 23 games played last season. I was pretty surprised when I just worked that out. Things are looking pretty sweet at the moment especially with 2 games in hand. I'm not sure if we can keep up this good form but i'm hoping we can at least finish 7th or 8th as it is quite close and I look down below and I still expect Monaco to finish above us based on the talent they have available to them.

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AD Machico | Season 11 -- 2025-26

Primeira Liga

It took us 10 years to climb into the top flight and I was obviously keen on making sure it was more than just a one year stay but the business I did over the summer stretched us more than I intended. We spent big wages on a couple of players who were not quite as good as I hoped and we were left short in certain areas of the squad - no back-up goalkeeper or left back for example.

It took us an age to get to grips with the standard too, losing EIGHT of our first nine games but the decision to use our strongest team in the cups eventually paid dividends with some morale-boosting wins.

A few tactical tweaks along the way - most notably switching the forwards from a false nine - poacher to a second striker - false nine made us a bigger threat and much more compact. January gave me a chance to bring in a few loanees to bolster our attack and that was what ultimately helped us surge up the table and eventually finish 8th.

To finish top half in our first year in the top flight is a wonderful achievement - genuinely right up there for me on FM, I'm usually battling relegation for an age in this challenge.

Elsewhere, we made a good run to the semi finals of Taca de Portugal, predictably losing to Porto over two legs, while it was the same team who just pipped us to top spot in the knockout group stage of the Taca da Liga.

High point: Winning 2-1 at title-winners Benfica

Low point: Eight defeats in the first nine

Squad

Alfredo Henriques took a while to get going but ended the season in the league team of the year and with interest in him across Europe. It means I'll probably have to sell him but the money will be around £5m and that's huge for us. He was also voted fans' player of the year again for his 20 assists and 14 goals in 41 games.

On the other flank Antonio stayed fit for the majority of the season and did well as our wide playmaker, while both were helping supply the ammo for forwards Ruud Bouwmeester and John Tuijt, who faded somewhat, but both were excellent loan signings and Bouwmeester joins us for another season on loan next year. Cocada also looks a talent but he missed three months of the season with a torn hamstring.

At the back Everton stayed fit and was a solid presence, as was captain and almost ever-present Bernardo Costa on the right.

Abner started the season well before fading, while Rafael Matos did the opposite. There are doubts over both of their futures. Finally, Fatih Ugurlu deserves a mention as another loanee scoring goals but I doubt we'll see him back at Machico next year.

****

Squad Stats (sorted by Ave Rating)[/url]

Admin

Firstly. The big news.

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This is a positive BUT that loan is ENORMOUS for a club of our size and with everything considered we owe about £550k per month in loan repayments. I hope my chairman's got a plan here....

Finishing eight gave us huge prize money of £2 million which then led to an initial budget of £1.5m and a £30k per week increase on the wage budget and the finances are looking up for the first time in a decade (despite the stadium burden)

We set a new average attendance record (up to 4,605 from 1,009)

Best XI

All-time Best XI

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Piacenza Calcio 1919

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Piacenza - 2022/23 - Italian Serie A

Squad | Table | Transfers | Finances

Final position: 4th - Champions League qual

Coppa Italia: Semifinal loss to Juventus, 4-1 on aggregate

Best result: 8-1 home win against Torino

Worst result: 2-4 home loss to Atalanta (In round 38 with the 4th place on the line)

Top goalscorer: Izac, 20 (19 in the league)

Most assists: Angel Jacquet, 12 (12 in the league)

Highest Average rating: Ruben Garcia, 7.38(7.46 in the league)

2022/23 Quick takes:

- After a weak first part of the season we played well in the second part

- New winger Ruben Garcia has been a revelation. We would like to see Izac improve to the highest level though.

- Problems with injuries led us to sign 3 players on 3-month contracts.

Players of the season:

D C | Drazen Petkovic | Just gets better and better

AM L | Ruben Garcia | Has done wonders for our offense in his inside forward role.

ST | Izac | We need this guy to perform even better!

2022/23 Quick takes:

- We need to bolster the defence. Especially left and right back.

- We've been hitting on a bunch of younger guys and need to continue to do so. With europe's group stages guaranteed we need depth.

- Take the next step in order to get the reputation up!

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Last year we were knocked out of the euro league qual by Trnava... This year we make a statement by knocking out Manchester City.

And yes. That's 3 goals from DC Jakob Hansen who is starting his 4th season with us. He has scored 3 goals in his first three seasons with us... combined!

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2020/2021 Season Review

To the Super League!

League Table

A really great season for us. We started out losing 2 of our first 3 but then we went on a total tear, going undefeated for 16 games and only drawing four of those. We ended up in a pretty tight three way race with Gaziantep and Ankaragucu but closed it out well by going 7-1-1 to end the season.

Squad

Josep, our young striker from Spain, really exploded on to the scene, scoring 28 goals in all competitions and leading League 1 in goals on his way to winning the League Player and Foreign Player of the year awards.

Vedat Budak was our surprise star, scoring 21 goals with 11 assists while playing alongside Josep in a 4-4-2 formation most of the season.

Our defense was also quite dominant, led by my youngsters Murat Buyukduvenci and Nuri Yildiz. They work together beautifully as a stopper cover combo. Frankly, we didn't miss our goalkeeper, Carre, at all when we loaned him to France.

Turkish Cup

We also had our best ever cup run. We knocked off Super League side Sivasspor (since relegated) 1-0 in the 2nd Round and lower league side Kocaeli Birlik in extra time 3-2 to reach the Group Stage.

Group Stage

We got grouped with Super League sides Besiktas and Alanyaspor as well as League 2 side Hatayspor. Poor Hatayspor got kicked around as the other sides swept all of their home games. We won the tiebreaker over Alanyaspor for some reason, I think because we had the superior goal difference in head to head games.

We then were drawn into an away game at League 1 side Konyaspor, and managed to win 1-0 that put us into the Quarter Final. We faced Fenerbahce and managed to draw the first game at home 1-1 and then took an early 1-0 lead in the second game before our defense collapsed and we lost 1-5.

Youth Intake

We got nothing this year. But we did convince a new board to improve our youth facilities and then, at the end of the season and before that improvement was done, we got another message saying they are improving our facilities. So I don't know if we're going to end up with two improvements or just one.

Looking Ahead

Next year, it's simply about survival. Right now I think we're bring back most of my current squad, maybe adding two new starters. We absolutely have to find a new goalkeeper as no one on our side is Super League quality. And I also want to find a defensive oriented midfielder. My strikers and defenders are all young and have Super League potential. Midfield is my biggest weakness with Dario Capan being the only one I have faith in being able to perform at the top level.

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A great little undefeated spell helps pull us five clear at the top, and it could've been even more if it wasn't for those pesky Tours! :D I'm getting to the point where I expect promotion. It could be a dangerous expectation though, as I've still got games against Le Poiré-sur-Vie, Sedan, Boulogne (who beat me this season already) and Chambly (who also beat me, both these and Boulogne I was the home team, too!).

But yeah, we are progressing immensely well and with eight games to go I am very excited of promotion. Just need to make sure we don't choke. Either way, regardless of what happens, I am looking at finishing top four in my very first season in charge of Martigues, so that's extremely encouraging :)

I got a youth intake but it was appalling. I have the unfortunate problem of being in a small commune just 30 miles from...Marseille! So yeah, my hopes of attracting players of quality over the likes of OM is very unlikely for now, I'm afraid.

Oh yes, and Tony Patrao... he plays quite beautifully, don't you agree? :D

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Yeah, so we totally capitulated to end our season... BUT, promotion! \o/ Disappointed to end the season how we did but I'm not going to complain. Was also bitterly disappointed by the 'reward' for finishing 3rd... got about 200k. We're in about 800k debt so that really doesn't help me at all. :D

I believe I also have to post these:

Transfers

Squad

Will have a more thorough look at things tomorrow and will post quite a bit in my FMCU thread but, for now, this'll do :)

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God damn, that is impressive :cool: it is indeed!

And thanks! Looking forward to Ligue 2 but we're poor and in a bad state so could be very tough for a year or two.

One of my fave Kanye tracks, couldn't let that pass without a stab in the dark! :)

It's nice to have a few years of toiling away in the lower leagues. Makes these challenges what they are IMO

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Yeah you're right, if everyone got into the top tier within two/three season it isn't much of a challenge :D

I'm not sure how Championnat teams survive though, they bleed money, make little in sales and get nothing for league finish. No idea what I would'vee done if I missed it this season...imagine it takes a lot to get out of it, was lucky my tactics were spot on for most of the season.

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iacovone - Good job staying up in your first season in the top flight. That stadium loan is worrying though.

Tecmo - Congrats on the league win and promotion! Seems like you had a great season all-round.

Muggert - Edging closer and closer to your first title, CL football will help you attract better talent to your club.

JDownie - Congrats on the first season promotion, nice to see the 3-5-2 working out for you.

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AD Machico | Pre-Season 2026-27 | Season 12

Primeira Liga

| Transfers[/url] |

We did remarkably well last year despite a squad way below the top half level of quality so I felt confident of improving on last season if I could bring in some top quality. We had about £30k added to the wage budget and a transfer kitty of £1.4m to spend. So off I went.

Michelangelo Cociani (GK) - £215k

Lincoln Cassio (D/WBL)

John O'Reilly (CB) - £73k

Jose Chacon (DLRC/DM/MLRC) - £525k

Marcio Cezilio (DM/MC)

Samir Espinoza (M/AMC)

Horacio Zubar (AMR/ST)

Adam Taggert (AML/ST) - £115k

We'll start at the top where I've improved us in the goalkeeping department by bringing in Udinese's back-up Cociani. My only concern is his pace and rushing out stat but we do play deep and on the counter so it shouldn't be a major problem.

Lincoln will compete with Everton at left-back and they're on about the same level so I don't actually know who's going to get the nod yet. John O'Reilly was spotted in a Champions League qualifier last season and looked a snip at £73k. He becomes the first Irishman to play for Machico.

Jose Chacon is potentially the best player we've ever had. Not only can he play anywhere in defence and midfield, he's got a bit of everything. I think he'll play at the back for now but he can easily slot into one of the wide spots too.

Cezilio and Espinoza add depth to the centre of midfield and both could end up being starters to be honest. Up front it's gonna be a free-for-all between Abner, Bouwmeester and the two new boys. Zubar I've tracked for a while so felt I had to grab him when he became free, while Taggert was spotted at the World Cup and looks a real talent despite being 33-years-old.

Squad Numbers

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Batman PetrolSpor 2025/26 Update

The Club

Manager Profile | Staff | Team Report | Information | Facilities | Finances | Transfers

I am now the proud owner of a Continental Pro Licence. Our finances are screenshotted at nearly £19M, but dropped by £8.5M due to another set of upgrades to our training and youth facilities.

The January transfer window saw a lot of movement, with two academy graduates leaving for £750k and £2.5M, respectively. We brought in a midfielder to act as a future rightback replacement for Markovic should he decide to leave, while we also brought in a right winger on loan to tide us over until a permanent replacement for Ali Taş is found.

Spor Toto Super League

Predicted finish: 4th

Actual Finish: 3rd

League Table | Graph | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

I am very pleased with how our league season went, even though we finished one place lower than last year. We were much more consistent this season (never dropping below 7th throughout the season), despite having an injury-ravaged squad for several months.

Note: I noticed that I included the cup fixtures in the league fixture screenshots, my bad.

Ziraat Turkish Cup

Winners!

Another year, another cup win. We seem to perform very well in this competition and long may it last.

Champions League

Best Placed Playoff

Dortmund were ultimately too strong for us, but we gave them a massive scare and I can't complain about losing 2-1 on aggregate against one of the biggest teams in Germany.

Europa League

First Knockout Round

We got a relatively easy group and qualified in first place. I was very disappointed with how we went out, considering we were leading 3-0 on aggregate before Dinamo Moscow scored their three goals.

Squad

Squad Screen 1 | Squad Screen 2

Most Appearances: Ahmet Alkan (46 starts, 6 sub)

Top Goalscorer: Veysel Baydemir (17)

Most Assists: Daniel López (10)

Highest Average Rating: Salih Uçan (7.34)

7.00 and above club: Hakan Bülbül (Super League Goalkeeper of the Year), Werner Markovic, Samet Bayraktar, Özcan Arslan, Abdurrahman Aksu, Eşref Baran, Kemal Efe, Jules Ebwelle, İbrahim Özdemir, Yiğit Konuk.

Konuk's injury-plagued season meant his backup got a lot more games, and he didn't disappoint, finishing as our topscorer. López was voted as the Super League Player of the Year and four of our players made the Super League Team of the Year.

Previous Season Goals

Be more convincing in the league - Success - See Super League section.

Don't get embarrassed in the CL - Success - See CL section.

Keep our key performers together/replace them adequately - Success - I'm delighted that Ebwelle and Konuk have renewed their contracts and will be staying with us until their early thirties. However, we are still looking for someone to permanently replace Taş on the right wing.

Next Season Goals

Qualify for the CL

Do better in the EL

Strengthen our squad - I expect our expectations to go up again, as we are currently viewed as the second biggest club in Turkey behind Galatasaray and have finally hit 4 stars in reputation.

Career

|  Season  |    League    |  Position   |     Cup     |    Europe   |  Avg. Att.  | Season Tickets (Change) |       Achievements        |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  15/16   |    2L Red    |     7th     |   2nd Rnd   |             |     959     |        623   (+90)      |                           |
|  16/17   |    2L Red    |     1st     |   3rd Rnd   |             |    1053     |        645   (+22)      |   Promoted as Champions   |
|  17/18   |    PTT 1.    |     2nd     | Group Stage |             |    2671     |       1527  (+882)      |          Promoted         |
|  18/19   | Super League |    18th     |   4th Rnd   |             |    6698     |       4570 (+3043)      |         Relegated         |
|  19/20   |    PTT 1.    |     1st     |   3rd Rnd   |             |    4447     |       3934  (-636)      |   Promoted as Champions   |
|  20/21   | Super League |    10th     |   4th Rnd   |             |    7545     |       6640 (+2706)      |                           |
|  21/22   | Super League |     7th     |   4th Rnd   |             |    7559     |       6741  (+101)      |                           |
|  22/23   | Super League |     8th     |   Winners   |             |    7807     |       6890  (+149)      |   European Qualification  |
|  23/24   | Super League |     3rd     |  Qtr Final  |  EL 1st KO  |    8095     |       7104  (+214)      |                           |
|  24/25   | Super League |     2nd     |   Winners   |  EL Group   |    9542     |       8742 (+1638)      |      CL Qualification     |
|  25/26   | Super League |     3rd     |   Winners   |  EL 1st KO  |    9941     |       9024  (+282)      |                           |

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iacovone - great first season in the top flight and exciting news with the new stadium!

Muggert - as an Arsenal fan I can appreciate a 4th place finish when I see one ;)

Tecmo - congrats on promotion and best of luck in the Super League

JDownie - nice job on promotion in your first season. puting the rest of us in France to shame ;)

Romanista - congrats on back to back Turkish Cup wins

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