setzel Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Midtable first season yikes hope board is patient Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kris0710 Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Nice and easy title success i the end, congratulations. Not bad summer signings either given the lack of funds, i'm sure you can get your aim of top 14! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 6, 2014 Author Share Posted November 6, 2014 Good luck in the top league just hold on this season and the money will start pouring in.You have a tight squad, but that's not bad at all. I always aim for a squad of 22/23 + youth. How come you spent so much on a striker (maybe all your transfer budget?) on a striker when Brandy had a decent season? Is he losing the starting spot immediately? It was the position I needed to improve on most - since I'm playing two up top, I was left with Brandy and Nemec (who was third choice last season). I would have signed Koby but I didn't have the money to sign him when his loan was expiring so I couldn't. The other positions which needed strengthening would have cost too much, hence using loans for the most part and then splurging on one player. It's bad transfer business but I'd rather have a solid striker and loads of loans than loads of average cheap players So yeah, Brandy is still first choice Congrats on securing the title and the best of luck in the Bundesliga Thank you! I'm going to need it, I can tell. Midtable first season yikes hope board is patient What can I say? I'm adventurous I think that as long as I avoid relegation I'll keep my job. I've been untouchable since we won the 2.BuLi title. Nice and easy title success i the end, congratulations. Not bad summer signings either given the lack of funds, i'm sure you can get your aim of top 14! I hope so! The first thing that has become immediately obvious (and I will cover it later on in my August update) is that the team is really crap at taking their chances... but nevertheless, if we manage to get steady opportunities and take even half of them, we'll do well I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 August 2015 2.Bundesliga Results The season couldn't have started any better to be honest - a home tie against a side we thumped 3-0 at home last season and fellow newly promoted hopefuls? Yes, please! It was an understandably cagey affair as both sides looked to win their opener of the season. We prevailed and came out with a win which, quite frankly, I'm over the moon with. More now than ever do I want to win in any way possible. Whether that's via scrappy 1-0s or epic 6-5s I couldn't give a ****. A deserved 1-0 and a great start to life in the new division. Next up was a tough trip to Bremen to take on the side which finished 8th last season. The affair was cagey again, especially after Bremen lost their opener, and in the end it was decided by a certain Kobylanski... gutted isn't the word. If I could have, he'd have been with me again this season. Instead I've had to let him stay with Bremen and he's scored against us. It was pretty heart-wrenching as he's a player I have a lot of time for... wish he'd have been burying the winner for me instead Still, plenty of fight in this team as shown by this game. Third of the season was our second away trip of the campaign, a trip to Koln. We could learn a lot from Koln - last season they survived the drop fairly comfortably in 12th place, which was their first season back in the top tier of Germany. I would take that now. But I don't want them to finish 12th this season...if they don't mind finishing below me, that'd be great haha. They didn't play badly, but we handed them the victory. So many chances, not enough, though. We gifted them a draw with a goal in the final few minutes which honestly felt like a loss. We deserved so much more than one point. If we want to stay up, we have to start winning games like these when the opposition lets us have as many chances. Poor performance but a point at Koln is not a bad point to take, I suppose. Prior to kick-off I'd have happily taken a point, so I can't complain... too much. Anyway, it left the table looking like this: DFB-PokalResults A solid opener of the season against a side a few divisions below us. A routine victory where I rested more than a few of my players and the team did well. A couple of good strikes and a morale booster heading into the match against 1860. Overall Thoughts Not a bad month by any means - two wins in our first four games, a draw at Koln and a narrow loss to a good side. I couldn't have asked for much more. It places us nicely in the table and gives us hope that this season won't be as hard as I first thought. However a lot of the teams below us won't stay there, so we have to get back to winning games if possible. The cup went well and ahead of us now lies a home tie v Mainz, so that'll be interesting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 September 2015 2.Bundesliga Results And like a hard slap across the face - reality hits! Dortmund at home, never easy... we started off great and had a shot cleared off the line, but then we got slaughtered for 90 minutes. We hit the post and we also hit the bar, meaning we really could have had three goals, but in the end Dortmund breezed to victory with a staggering 35 shots to our 8. Not pretty, not surprising, not worrying about it either. We will lose these games, I know that, so I tried to keep the lads' heads up and moved on to the next game... ...which wasn't too bad, actually. We did well, but after we took the lead Freiburg threw everything at us. They ended up with a large amount of shots (25) before finally finding the net from a setpiece. Gutted. We tried to find a reply but just couldn't get out of our own half. Freiburg had a man sent off with 3 minutes to go but we couldn't make it count as we managed to hold on just for the one point. Not a bad point though, not by any means. A home tie v HSV was kinda enticing to be honest - I fancied our chances against them as they're not exactly a top side and we're a decent home team by all accounts. Even Dortmund would testify to our toughness and ability at home. Unfortunately, Hamburg had other plans - they scored inside a minute and then played a possession game. We couldn't get the ball and when we managed to get it we couldn't get it into their half. We struggled and we huffed and we puffed until the final few minutes when Hamburg walked through our knackered defence to find the net. A disappointing defeat and a worrying one - we now had one win in our first six. Ouch. Things were beginning to look nasty. That is, until we turned up to Nurnberg - bottom of the league with 1 win in their first 6 (same as us), we had to win this. It was, as they say, 'a relegation six-pointer'. At the very least, we had to avoid defeat. I made a somewhat brave decision - Damir Kreilach would come back into the team. We had been missing someone of his quality and despite our fallout, I knew he'd be professional enough to put in a performance for the team. He did just that, popping up with a goal from a DFK inside the first five minutes. It didn't take long for Nurnberg to equalise after the break but it wasn't enough for them and we managed to find the net again ourselves, just shortly after the equaliser went in. A cracking 45 yard pass from Dausch played Brandy in on goal and the hitman smashed it round the keeper to seal us victory. Very pleased to get what will turn out to be a monumental win, I'm sure. It left the table looking like this: Overall Thoughts A pretty crap month ended really well for us as we won away to a fellow relegation battler. I have my doubts over our chances, as we have managed but two wins and both are against the two sides who came up with us. However we will win other games throughout the season so I await with baited breath to see where we get them. Our standing in the table is encouraging - it seems to me that there are definitely sides worse than us, sides who we should beat and finish above at the very least. Oh yeah, and one more thing from this month which was highly encouraging... (I was planning on posting an image of it here but I can't find the damn thing ) - I've been offered a new contract. I'm now with the club until 2017 on 5k per week. Delighted to confirm my future with the club. Makes me more confident that, unless I get relegated, I'll be with this team next season. I was a little worried that failure to achieve mid-table might result in my release, but the new contract makes that unlikely imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rancer890 Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 A solid start to the season. If you get the results you need at home and steal some wins away you will be safe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 A solid start to the season. If you get the results you need at home and steal some wins away you will be safe. Getting the results at home is going to be a tough task though... I'm now almost one-third into the season and I've never been so worried about relegation before. This is an area I'm really uncomfortable with, almost always challenging top halves of tables, not relegation battles. I don't want to go down rancer, help me! Got an ugly, ugly, hideous update coming up shortly... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 October 2015 2.Bundesliga Results Grim reading, huh? Yeah. I know. Off to a great start in the month with a victory over Augsburg - a side tipped to be relegated - which made it two in two for us for the first time in the league this season. On a massive high, we travelled to Wolfsburg and were promptly put ahead by a Sinan Kurt tap-in at the back... ...and then we got destroyed and the month of October is one I want to forget about as quickly as possible Things just went back everywhere they could. We had 4(!) CCCs v Bayern and hit the woodwork twice all before they got their first chance. We miss everything and then they destroy us. Hideous stuff. I know it's Bayern and we won't survive based on our matches against those teams (thankfully), but once again it's a damning example of how refusing to take your chances can leave you looking like chumps. DFB-PokalResults If you didn't think it could get any worse then you're wrong. I rested a few players but, still...come on. Another thing I don't want to talk about. We got destroyed. Three in a row now without as much as a point/draw. Things are getting ugly for us. Overall Thoughts A terrible month with only one slight point worth talking about. Nah that's harsh - it was a huge win for us, really. But we got firmly outclassed in the other games and we have to do much better in the future. Our next game is the one I've been looking forward to most - the Berlin Derby. Much excite. I don't expect a win but if we can get anything from the game I'll be delighted. There are many concerns with the team at the moment. Notably, Gavranovic is yet to find the net in 10 appearances since signing for the club. Adam Nemec is also struggling to score. And we have a crap defence. And goalkeeper. And we can't even score goals because we miss all of our chances... Yeah... In other news: That's something, I guess Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Here's something to give you an idea of what I'm working with... There's teams in the division below me with more than double my SPA... e: My problem here is really, really obvious. My defence can hold its own and my midfield is creative, but my strikers are just awful. Here's their records... Brandy - 14(1) appearances, 5 goals, 0 assists (no goals in previous 7 appearances) Gavranovic - 12(2) appearances, 0 goals, 3 assists Nemec - 3(7) appearances, 0 goals, 2 assists Gallagher - 3(4) appearances, 0 goals, 1 assist Three of my four strikers haven't scored a single goal between them in 18(13) appearances...and they've only provided 6 goals between them in that time. Pathetic. Brandy isn't even doing well. Started the season brightly but has since done very little. All four have had chances, lots of them. Gallagher had a chance one on one with the Hertha Berlin GK and could have tapped it in - instead he smashed the post (on the final minute). It's just so frustrating. Bah. Update coming up shortly... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 November 2015 2.Bundesliga Results Well, all things considered, this was actually a pretty damn good month for us! Things got off to an exciting start with us travelling to the other side of town for the Berliner Derby. My first taste of the match-up and all was poised nicely, with Hertha sitting right beneath us in the table, just one point behind. They got the majority of the ball and saw more of the opportunities, but late in the game I brought on Sam Gallagher to try and turn things into my favour. The Southampton lad was anonymous for the entire game...until! With around 5 minutes left on the clock, Gavranovic played him clean through on goal and...he smashed it into the post! /o\ We didn't deserve anything from the game but to almost win it in the final five minutes was heartbreaking We took a lot of confidence from a point against our rivals and tried to concentrate that on a strong performance at home to Leverkusen, flying high in third place. We tried, but it wasn't enough. An early penalty was awarded to them and they converted. From there, the game was pretty even - in the sense that neither side really had clear chances. We might have gotten a point on another day but it wasn't to be. The search for a goal continues...four straight games without a goal by this point. Would that record end when we visited Gelsenkirchen? Hardly likely! Oh wait, it did? Well, there we go. Was it star signing Mario Gavranovic? Hahahahahahahaha. I'm so funny. No. It was lethal finisher Roberto Puncec, the Centre Back. Fun fact: My two first choice CBs have more goals than my 2nd choice ST, 3rd choice ST AND 4th choice ST...combined. Bahaha. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so worrying. ANYWAY - the game went well. Schalke threatened us often but we held strong at the back and managed to nab a goal shortly after half time. It was enough for the victory and a clean sheet against Schalke was highly satisfying, even if a little undeserved. Schalke are strugglign this season but, regardless, it was a huge win for us - our first in five, actually. Last in the month was Mainz, the side who trashed us only a month prior in the Pokal. This time I had a full strength side out to take them on and it proved the difference - we kept them quiet enough to not concede and despite Mainz being the better side and creating many more chances than we managed, we got a hard-earned point. It left the table looking like this: Overall Thoughts Not a lot of negative things to say that haven't been said already If ever I think things are bad, I just need to look at Bremen... since they beat me on GW2, they've failed to win. Now that's relegation form I doubt they'll stay down there and that worries me. If they turn it around, I'm likely to fall closer towards the drop and that's concerning me. The obvious solution is to get as many points as possible now but that's easier said than done when we're not scoring. The same said of Bremen can be said of Schalke, of Stuttgart and of Hertha (I know they're above me for now, but barely). Nurnberg worry me most though. They weren't supposed to be doing this well Looking ahead to the final fixtures before the Winter break - we have a difficult trip to Gladbach before hosting Hoffenheim and then visiting Stuttgart. I don't know why but I get the feeling we can take at least four points from these three games. If we manage that, I'll be delighted. Most importantly I'm just hoping to get to the January transfer window so that I can try and address my striker crisis. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm going to have to try something... This is costing us. Funny parallel with last season where we couldn't stop scoring or keep a clean sheet to save ourselves. This season we have the fourth most clean sheets in the league but simultaneously have the WORST attack in the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Holding nice and steady. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Good work, keeping your head above water Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Holding nice and steady. Not a comfortable position but it could always be worse and if the season were to end like this I'd take it and run a million miles Good work, keeping your head above water Thank you! Indeed, just about... hoping it continues but I'm under no illusions how difficult it is going to be to avoid the drop. --- [video=youtube;S-cbOl96RFM] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 December 2015 2.Bundesliga Results Talk about missed opportunities! Gladbach outclassed us but managed to only find the one goal - and to be honest, they didn't look like scoring any more than that at any point. I mean, they deserved the victory, undoubtedly, but on another day, they maybe miss that shot and we get a 0-0 out of it. Not a result to dwell on, though. Gladbach have established themselves as title challengers (finished 2nd last season also) and so I'm not expecting to beat them any time soon. Not to say I won't try, but if I lose I won't be disheartened by it. Next up was Hoffenheim. I got horrible news just the day prior that starting CB Roberto Puncec was going to miss the game thanks to a wrist injury. Gutting. Having to go in with Sorenson instead of Puncec was a frightening prospect; the former being awful and the latter being a solid performer for the team. We missed him big time as Hoffenheim scored almost straight away, but after that we settled into the game and managed to battle back into it. It looked as if there was no hope for us until, on the 84th minute, Chris Quiring swung it into the far stick and Kurt made a great, well-timed run to find himself with acres of space to tap it in. Superb cross and finish. Hoffenheim ended the game with 10 men thanks to injury which helped us get the goal...just a shame we couldn't find two goals instead. Would've been nice to get a win/close the gap on Hoffenheim. Third was relegation-zone Stuttgart in a massive match-up. A win for either side would be amazing. A loss for either side could spell disaster. So naturally we drew Puncec out again, I didn't have a lot of confidence up against the speed and trickery of Timo Werner, but in the end he was fairly anonymous. Stuttgart - like Hoffenheim - scored inside the first 10 minutes (this time from a setpiece) but we hit back quickly... GAVRANOVIC SCORED!!! Hard to believe, I know Screamer, too. A shot from about 23-25 yards out. I would record it but I cba atm. Thoroughly deserved, but not enough, there was still another 70 minutes to be played. Stuttgart dominated proceedings - how they are doing so poorly I'm not quite sure - but couldn't find a way through. With just a few minutes remaining, Gavranovic played through Brandy but the out-of-form striker lost all composure and smashed it wide. A real chance to steal a huge three points went a-beggin'. Hey ho, it happens. It left the table looking like this: Overall Thoughts The first half of the season went very well, truth be told. In part that's thanks to how everyone else managed to do so poorly, but it's also because we've risen to the occasion when needed, for the most part. It's not enough - don't get me wrong, I'm not happy - but it's a start. There's a long way to go and I think that, if I can solve my major problem right here (those darned strikers! ), then I can save the side from the threat of relegation. Gavranovic finally found the net and I hope it's all he needed to kickstart his Union career... it's going to be tough and I need as many goals as I can get. I splurged £1.8M on him to get goals and so far he's failed to deliver. I've not got forever so I need him to keep going and hopefully score plenty more in the coming games after the season restarts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Yank Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Time to start selling T-shirts: "I was there when Gavranovic scored!" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Time to start selling T-shirts: "I was there when Gavranovic scored!" A good way of regaining part of the £1.8M I may have wasted, I guess! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Just had Bayern enquire about this kid. Decided to ask for £5.25M and they returned with 500k up front and 4.5M over 12 months, so I changed it to £5.25M up front again and refused to accept monthly instalments and they accepted. He's a highly promising kid, according to my coaches he has the potential to be a star Bundesliga midfielder - and I agree because he looks a real ticket already at only 15 - but for £5.25M I can't really say no. That sort of money might be enough to allow me to sign a couple of very good players/help me avoid relegation! e: Well that's that confirmed. He's off. I spoke to him and said "Unfortunately the club needs money and this offer was too good to turn down" (or something to that effect) and he responded "Hopefully I'm the last man to suffer because this club is run so poorly. What a shambles" He must be an OTF user... Gavranovic is angry that I sold the club's brightest prospect. Wtf, you don't get to be angry at me! I've got over £3M to re-invest now. Probably going to terminate the loan of Gallagher and bring in a new striker if possible. Also look towards a new CB and/or LB. Maybe look at signing free transfers for when their contract expires. Already had a look there but most are way out of our range (Dani Parejo as one example). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjericho Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Gavranovic is angry that I sold the club's brightest prospect. Wtf, you don't get to be angry at me! Expensive, not productive, and whiner. What a signing! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Transfers, ho! Two free transfers agreed for the end of the season, both of which excite me hugely: I also tried to sign Siyanda Xulu now but my inability to compete with CSKA for wages and squad meant he chose not to sign with me. Disappointing but not surprising. The only other target I have right now is Kevin Trapp. The Frankfurt goalie's contract is going to expire in the coming summer and I want him to be my goalkeeper next season. I have tried offering him a contract but he wants 40k which I simply cannot afford (can't come close to it, max I can offer is 24.5k). Maybe if he's still available come the end of the season and I get an early wage budget which allows me to sign him...otherwise, I'll probably not get him this summer. Hannover aren't getting promoted (although doesn't look like Frankfurt will either) though so Ron-Robert Zieler is a potential target in the future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Expensive, not productive, and whiner. What a signing! I sure know how to sign 'em Makes me even angrier that Trimmel not agreeing a contract with Furth cost me my first-choice target of Wurtz. He was literally perfect for what I wanted this season Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 <insert same gif as above> No idea where this has come from. In my last three competitive games, three of my strikers, who are all suffering huge goal droughts, have scored. Only Gallagher left to score now... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Yank Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 See, aren't you enjoying my suggestion now? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 How do you know I'm not losing despite these goals? Will post my next update shortly. Only just got to the end of the next month as I've been at work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 January 2016 2.Bundesliga Results The second half of the season would kick off with a massive match against Werder Bremen who were seated in the relegation zone and in serious danger of going down. We couldn't give them three points as it would be disastrous - thankfully we didn't! Brandy's first goal in...forever? idk. But yeah, Brandy scored and it was great - 30 yards out, bottom corner, lovely finish. Prodl put the ball into his own net later which was pretty much confirmation that we were going to beat them. As it turned out, that's what happened. Brilliant result and moves us clearer of Bremen and towards the right half of the table Following that was a tie against Koln. We handed them a draw last time we met in a match which felt like a loss. Instead we managed to fight back from behind and take a 2-1 win; Brandy netting his second in two games and Nemec popping up with his first goal of the season. Long overdue and MASSIVE for the team. Fantastic goal, fantastic result. Dortmund next. Despite them struggling, they were not going to be an easy team to take on. As it happened, it wasn't. They dominated us from the start with a penalty going in within 10 minutes and from there on we faced a struggle. We couldn't really do anything to get back into it and we succumbed to a loss. Oh well. It left the table looking like this: Overall Thoughts A great two games followed by a hugely forgettable one. An expected loss so not worrying, whilst we took two huge wins. We've managed to put 10 points between us the relegation zone and there's 14 between us and the automatic relegation spots, so this is massive. There's 14 games to go and we might still find ourselves in/around the zone but at the minute we're flying at a mid-table height and I'm loving it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.W.G Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Doing well so far,hopefully you can stay away from any relegation battle! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 Doing well so far,hopefully you can stay away from any relegation battle! Cheers fella! A season long problem has finally reached boiling point it seems - Damir Kreilach has finally used his influence to moan and bitch and get everyone else to moan and bitch. Over the space of one night my squad harmony has went from 90% to 50%. What a ****. He's leaving on a free this summer because he won't sign a new contract with me...the sooner he's out the better for my sake and the squad's sake. At times I feel our togetherness is all that's stpping us from getting pumped week-in week-out, so hopefully this doesn't have too much of an effect. e: Well, Kreilach has just confirmed he's leaving on a free transfer. He wanted to speak to me and I was half hoping it was because he wanted to sign a new contract, but instead he told me he wanted to leave this summer so was letting his contract run out. I had the choices of telling him he'll rot in the reserves or we'll sell him and cash in on him... as if we can do that Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 So I've been sacked. It all started back in the Summer of last season - Damir Krielach was unhappy with my refusal to pay him 25k per week (our finances were dire at this point, remember). He asked to leave and I agreed, so he got TLed and stripped of captaincy. Nobody was willing to sign him and my repeated attempts to get him to change his mind and stay failed. It came to January and he demanded he be sold or he would kick up fuss among the other players. I agreed and tried to sell him. Nobody wanted him. So I tried to tell him to find his own club and he accepted that but didn't manage to find anyone, so he set about ******* off all of my other players and turning them against me. Board gives me an ultimatum - sort this mess out or get sacked. Kindly, they ignored that I got them unexpected promotion and that I also got them to almost guaranteed safety (at time of sacking I was 15 points clear of relegation with 7 games left, meaning just two wins = garanteed safety. Fast forward a month after the ultimatum and we lose 6-0 to Bayern Munchen at the Allianz Arena. I don't know what the board wanted from me but apparently that was the decider in my future as they promptly sacked me after the game, just 6 days before we hosted Hertha Berlin... ungrateful *****, seriously. So pissed off at this. Talk about undeserved... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 FFS. Bloody player power. Just a thing, you kept putting 2.Bundesliga up when it was clearly 1.Bundesliga Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 FFS. Bloody player power.Just a thing, you kept putting 2.Bundesliga up when it was clearly 1.Bundesliga That's what a quick C+P job gets you I guess! Not sure what to do now - just scrap the save/thread and restart elsewhere and with a new thread or try and turn this into something worth reading...maybe just become a journeyman or something similar. I continued a week or so already to see what jobs were available - Stade de Reims the only team that were in the top two divisions of their nation (Ligue 1 fwiw) but they didn't want me. Incidentally - Bert van Marwijk replaced me at Union and they proceeded to lose the Berliner Derby 2-0. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Nah, keep the thread. Become whatever you want! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 I think I will keep it (if I can get a job ) - just got past the start of May and loads of jobs have become available. Applied for plenty, so hopefully I will get one of them... in particular, Hoffenheim seem like an attractive prospect. They finished 12th so sacked their manager. I'd prefer to stay in Germany and show Union what they've lost out on but if I get a good offer from anyone else then I'm probably going to take it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Yank Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 I agree, keep going with the thread. Maybe try to get the Hertha job and smash Union. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 After 5 years in charge, Torino boss Giampiero Ventura has retired from management and the club have started a search to find the new manager of the club. After two weeks of searching for a new manager and considering their options, Torino finally decided to offer young upstart Jordan Downie an interview following his somewhat unsuccessful spell at Union Berlin. The Scot - who managed Berlin for almost two years and managed to see them gain promotion to the 1.Bundesliga for the first time in their history - has been searching for a new job since March of 2016. After a long four months of unemployment, the Scotsman decided to apply for the job in Turin, hoping to finally gain employment after unsuccessful applications for the likes of Hoffenheim, Queens Park Rangers, Lille and Celtic (and many more!). Having agreed to much of the board's expectations, the Toro board decided to offer Downie the job, giving him a rather spectacular £22M to spend in the summer as well as a strong 200k spare wages. For the first time in his relatively short career, Jordan has found himself with money to spend... --- Name: Torino Football Club Nickname(s): Toro, il Toro (The Bull), i Granata (The Maroons) Founded: 1906 Based: Turin, Piedmont, Italy Fierce Rivals: Juventus (Derby della Mole), Sampdoria, Atalanta, Verona League: Serie A Media Prediction: 11th Board Expectations - Achieve Mid-Table Finish - Reach the First Round of the TIM Cup Personal Expectations - Achieve Top 8 Finish - Reach the Last 8 of the TIM Cup The Squad Some really good talent here, which surprised me a little. They're basically a complete team, for me, with the exception of two positions - MCL and ML. I need a 'Dausch' - that is, someone who I feel can control the game, pick up the ball deep and move it up the pitch with ease. I also need one of two things for ML - either a wide playmaker and someone who can cut inside and control the game from the wide area, or an out-and-out winger. I'll have to see what's available first. Besides those two positions (which already have reasonably good players anyway) I am more or less set for the season. And with £22M to spend, I'm going to be able to get in some really good players, hopefully. A wonderful little parallel between Union Berlin and Torino is that I chose Union because I wanted a 'lesser' side of a big-city rivalry and wanted to make them great. I didn't quite manage that with Union, but Torino are much the same - unlike Union they're not an unsuccessful team historically. In fact, quite the opposite. However Turin is of course the home to Juventus, arguably the greatest team to ever play in Italy. So there is that side to the rivalry... With that said, here are my Torino goals (for as long as I can stay with them). Goals For Torino Beat Juventus in the Derby della Mole Win the TIM Cup Finish above Juventus in Serie A Win Serie A Win the Domestic Double (Serie A + TIM Cup) Win the Champions League Win the Treble (Serie A + TIM Cup + Champions League) Establish Torino as a force in both Italian and European football Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 I agree, keep going with the thread.Maybe try to get the Hertha job and smash Union. Haha, I love this idea! Maybe a little bit cheeky, but it'd be nice to teach them a lesson Extremely happy with the Torino job though. Especially with that sort of budget. The prospect is tantalizing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Yank Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Landed on your feet with Torino. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rancer890 Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Sucks JDownie that you ended up with the same problem I had at Sarawak....it's just all so f'ed up with the inmates run the asylum mentality in this game. Good luck with Torino though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 Landed on your feet with Torino. Indeed Sucks JDownie that you ended up with the same problem I had at Sarawak....it's just all so f'ed up with the inmates run the asylum mentality in this game. Good luck with Torino though. Thanks! Agree with your first part - at Torino only a month or so and it looks like I could have the same situation on my hands over Duvan Zapata. He's clearly a great player so I wanted to hang onto him. Milan expressed interest and I told them to gtf - Zapata comes out and says he wants to leave so I said that if they come in for him, I won't stand in his way. Milan don't try to sign for him though. Zapata then comes to me after a month and says he's unhappy he wasn't allowed to leave, so I put him on the TL (his value is £17.75M so I want £20M minimum). Nobody is interested... seems like I'm either going to have to: a) sell him for pittance; b) run risk of keeping him at the club and having a repeat of Union Berlin on my hands. Such a broken system this year. It seems there was either the system that resulted in players never getting angry or the system that resulted in players always getting angry... I know which I'd prefer. So bad atm. Anyway, got a pre-season update (inc. transfers and tactics) coming up and then I'll post my first month in charge Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 Pre-Season So with my £22M and my key positions identified, I had to look towards who to buy. Immediately there was a massive problem - the scouts are ***** at their job. I looked to sign new scouts but the board blocked it as one of my terms of joining was to not change the backroom staff. When I agreed to this idea I actually thought it meant not to sell anyone... but oh well, I'd just have to use my IRL knowledge and previous FM knowledge to find people worthy of scouting and from there find out who was any good... At the same time, I had the idea of trawling the relegated sides from the major nations. One of those teams was Southampton (they finished 6th in the season prior heh). Notably, they had Dusan Tadic and Diego Poyet both on their books, both unhappy, and both wanting out. Perfect for my system, I tried to sign both. Tadic went into talks with me but ultimately chose to stay in England; Newcastle snapped him up on similar wages so it was nice to see we are being rejected on the basis of the fact we're Italian instead of the fact we're not wealthy English Diego Poyet, on the other hand, was more than happy to sign for me, perhaps as there was nobody else interested in him. So my first signing of the summer was indeed that man, Diego Poyet. Diego Poyet - £20M from Southampton - I know what you're thinking - HOW MUCH?! And to be honest, I agree with you. It was far more than I wanted to pay but a 20 year old (at the time) with lots of PL experience and very highly rated by my scouts...how could I say no? Plus, he was affordable, so I had to go for it. Very happy to get him in the end. Having splurged almost all of my budget on one man, I had to have a sterner look for the elusive ML. Alas, I couldn't find any... I looked at Yehven Konoplyanka, but he wasn't interested in joining me. I looked at Sadio Mané, but apparently Torino is a step down from Southampton (enjoy the championship, you *****!). I tried the usual suspects - Fischer, Depay, Bakkali... all moved to PL clubs, none interested in leaving for me. So my solution was simple - move my back-up MR onto ML and sign a new MR, of which I had actually scouted a few decent players. So that's what I did, and this is what I found. Agustín Jiménez - £2.5M from Huracán - Young and inexperienced...mentally very suspect, also. But highly talented and, on the ball, he's up there with the best for any 18 year old (well, he was 18 when I signed him). I'm looking forward to his development... I think he can become something special. Despite my dealings being done as far as I was concerned, I couldn't help it when others came in for my players. Inter made an appalling bid of £5M for Josip Radosevic, my best MC (well, before Poyet signed). I negotiated to £20M, expecting to just scare them off, but they matched it. £15M up front, 500k for each of his next 10 league appearances, 20% of any profit of his next sale. That was too good to turn down, so I said yes. Josip Radosevic - £15M (plus future incentives) to Internazionale - undoubtedly a class player but at that sort of price I couldn't say no. Besides, I managed to put some good use to that money and brought in some real talent, two-fold. First in was the direct replacement to Radosevic. I was willing to spend next to all of the £15M I paid for him, but it didn't come to that. Instead I paid a relative pittance for a quality player that most will know both from his Europa League exploits and from his fame of FM14... Mohamed El Neny - £6M from Basel - Very happy to have signed the Egyptian midfielder. He's highly talented and suits my swift passing style that I hope to implement in Turin. Alongside Poyet, he will form my midfield duo which will hopefully be tough to break down and quick to go forward. A cracking little buy, especially at that price, in my opinion. The remainder of the money from these deals went into purchasing my fourth and final deal of the summer... Ron-Robert Zieler - £4.4M from Hannover - a player I had hoped to sign at Union Berlin this summer but one I didn't get a chance to. The other player I looked towards was Kevin Trapp - both players dwelling down in the 2.BuLi - but he had signed a new contract recently so Frankfurt wanted a lot. Instead I opted for Zieler - just as talented if not more. He'll play as my first choice from the off as a Sweeper Keeper. At only 27 I've got a top class goalie for the next 10 years at least, so I'm very happy. In total we have spent £33.4M, whilst raking in £22M for ourselves, both of which represent records for the club, I think. The Tactics Yeah, this again I'll keep it simple (without screenshots) because it's not too dissimilar to how I played with Union Berlin - it is still a 442, afterall. Roles: GK - Sweeper Keeper/Defend RB - Wing Back/Support RCB - Central Defender/Defend LCB - Central Defender/Defend LB - Full Back/Attack MR - Wide Midfielder/Attack MCR - Central Midfielder/Support MCL - Deep-Lying Playmaker/Defend ML - Wide Midfielder/Support STR - Deep-Lying Forward/Support STL - Advanced Forward/Attack General: Mentality - Standard Team Shape - Structured Shouts: Short Passing Push Higher Up Close Down More Concept: The idea is simple to be honest, as all of my tactics are (for the most part). Look to win the ball back quickly and higher up the pitch, then set about controlling our attacking play (not controlling play, not that viable in a 442). At the same time I want the play to be somewhat stylish and worth watching. It's still early doors so it's not easy to say if I'm succeeding at that but, definitely in our opening Serie A game, there was plenty to be pleased about. That nice little segue leads me to my first monthly update as il Toro boss Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 Serie A Results Just a short month, then But what a performance! The game went much better than I could have ever expected. And with a missed penalty, too haha. Things got off to a flier with Sala finding himself on the end of a rebound from a tight angled shot by Zapata (iirc). On hand to pass it into a net, Sala scored his first ever goal for the club. Our quick, urgent style of play remained as we quickly sought another goal - and we got it. On just the 16th minute, much-scorned (I don't know why) winger Sanchez Mino popped up with a stonking drive into the near post which the goalie just couldn't keep out. It was a powerful strike and enough to give us a well-deserved 0-2 lead at Udinese. That wasn't enough, though, as Zapata and then Quagliarella both popped up with clever finishes (the former a 12-yard strike into the far post; the latter a cute little tap-in from a Mino cross). At 0-4 up in the first 26 minutes, you might excuse the team for letting off a bit. They chose not to - Mino once again popped up to score a magnificent goal from 35 yards out; a neatly placed free kick curling into the far corner and nestling in the back of the net. The second half started with much less drive, rather unsurprisingly. I've never been good at keeping the team motivated to keep going when already leading by big scores... I don't know why, I just can't do it. But 0-5 ain't too shabby, I guess... But it didn't end like that unfortunately. Belfodil found himself clean through and rounded Zieler with ease and then a botched defensive line allowed Belfodil through one-on-one again. It's clear that defensively we have issues, so I will have to seek to fix these... it looked as if we might get one more chance to make 6-2, as Quagliarella drew a penalty. In the end though, Mino missed it (he stepped up for his hattrick). No big loss, but a hattrick on my debut would've been cracking I guess. That wonderful means the table looks like this after the first game week: TIM Cup Results An easy tie against Serie B Frosinone couldn't have presented a better opportunity for me to win in my first game in charge of Torino... unfortunately it didn't work out like that. The boys were slow to everything, characterised by the third Frosinone goal - a backpass from Milanovic towards Zieler who just stood there instead of stepping up to clear. Pathetic. We took it to penalties and scraped through 4-2, so that was nice I suppose. Still, we have to improve against the smallers sides based on this one game. I won't get carried away though, could just have been rustiness or something like that. Roma await us in the next round...in Rome... yeah, not exactly thrilled with that. But if we want to get far, we have to win these games, so it presents a nice challenge I guess. Hopefully we can take a win from it. Overall Thoughts Not impressed by the way we played in the Cup match, but the match that really mattered, we looked fantastic. An absolutely brilliant match against Udinese which fills me with a lot of hope, especially since they are expected to finish in 10th (one placed ahead of us). Based on that game, we're a million miles ahead The worrying thing for us is that Duvan Zapata looked fantastic...and he wants out. but if he keeps scoring goals (2 v Frosinone, 1 v Udinese, 1 assist v Udinese) and playing this well, we will make an absolute fortune out of him I hope. But yeah - brilliant start to the season and hopefully we can/will go far this season in both competitions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilSaint Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Following, good luck at Torino fella Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.W.G Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Terrible decision by the Union board but best of luck at Torino Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashton321 Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Some huge summer deals. Looks like a very decent squad, if one of the top teams has some trouble you could od very well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjericho Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Torino is a great choice, and they look to be in good shape too! Good luck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizzy Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Couldn't find this thread with the name change Posting to find it easier. Above Juve already JD Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 Following, good luck at Torino fella Terrible decision by the Union board but best of luck at Torino Some huge summer deals. Looks like a very decent squad, if one of the top teams has some trouble you could od very well. Torino is a great choice, and they look to be in good shape too! Good luck Couldn't find this thread with the name change Posting to find it easier. Thanks guy! And welcome aboard to the newcomers Above Juve already JD SOMEONE STOP THE DAMN SEASON! Unfortunately it didn't last because, without wanting to give too much away, I didn't win all of my games in September whilst Juve did... to give some perspective on how tough this cross-city rivalry will be for Toro, Juve are currently Serie A Champions...as they were last year, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before. Yeah, they've got a real stranglehold on the championship at the minute. Five in a row and expected to breeze toward it again. I don't know what shape their challengers are in, but it seems that irl-closest-challengers Roma aren't up to scratch. They've got rid of a lot of their players or they've simply retired/left on frees. Most notably this season, they let go of Miralem Pjanic to PSG for £30M+ but didn't re-invest the money from his sale (sold him right at the end of August, guess they didn't have enough chance). Still a good side, obviously, but it seems like Milan are now the biggest threat to Juve - they've won all but one of their games so far this season (albeit only 5 games in). I'll have some updates later tonight, not got the game open atm but last I played I was just about to move into October Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 September 2016 Serie A Results An undefeated but leaky month. One clean sheet so far this season really isn't good enough, but at least we're scoring. First up for the month we hosted rivals Palermo. I wasn't expecting an easy game but, being at home, I was expecting a win. At HT the game seemed all but won to be honest - cruising 4-1 and Palermo didn't look like they had a chance. Apparently I'm bad at team talks because we proceeded to fall apart somewhat. We were hanging on for dear life for the last 20-25 minutes but we managed to keep them out. Another poor defensive performance though and it's a little bit of a worry... So I made a change or two and...well, damn We couldn't get going offensively and it was like watching Union Berlin all over again. This time though I know I have the quality up front so I'm hoping that I can fine tune things and get a mix of solid defence and great attack... time will tell. Anyway, Avellino are a decent side and they showed it as they managed to contain our attack and look relatively dangerous themselves. Would have preferred to win of course but it wasn't to be. Not a bad result but not great. I tried my balancing act...and I failed Empoli found themselves 3-0 down within 20 minutes with some superb goals. I was hoping we'd keep this up, just in case we collapsed and conceded as we like to do haha. But nope. Empoli scored on 22 and 24, having gone down by 3 goals after just 19 minutes... stupid, awful defending. We got in at half time and I blasted the lads, got them to sort it out, and it worked. We looked good in the second half and we even manage to add to the scoresheet - El Neny scoring his first for the club, a stonking 20 yard strike into the top corner. B-e-a-utiful Last for the month was a tough trip to Sampdoria. To give you an idea of Sampdoria - in the first season of the game they finished 2nd. Last season they finished 3rd. So they're pretty tough... their narrow 433 (3MCs 3STs) provided far more difficulties than it should have. I think they might have had 3 DFs because we couldn't get a minute on the ball in our own half. We went down 1-0 and managed to find the net with a fantastic Quagliarella header from a Jacopo Sala cross, right on the brink of half time. I tried to encourage the side but we instantly went down 2-1, with Sampdoria scoring on the 48th minute. Thankfully that wasn't enough as we came out and Quagliarella found the net again, this time with an incredible strike from about 35 yards, beating the goalkeeper in the top corner, to take a massive point home. A point away to one of the best teams in the league? Yes, please! So here's the table after the month of September: Overall Thoughts Not much to say that hasn't been said, to be honest. We should have perhaps done better v Avellino and defensively I'm pretty pissed off with how we played all month long, but two wins and two draws is great and continues our unbeaten start in the league. Looking ahead we have Lazio [H], Verona [A], Inter [H], Fiorentina [H] and Cagliari [A] in the month of October. No easy games there, unfortunately. We'll do well to take 10 points I feel (win at least two of our home games, aim for an away win and hopefully get a point away from home also. Inter will be very tough). At a minimum I want 8 tbh. Our job will undoubtedly be made tougher though by the absence of Quagliarella, who got injured mid-way through the Lazio game (I'm slightly ahead in-game than I am in-thread). He's out for 6-7 weeks. Didn't even have long enough to make an impact in the Lazio game either, went off after 27 minutes... Still, I have good depth at the club so hopefully we won't miss him too much, although I do recognise he is probably our most dangerous player so far this season... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
megadan777 Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Horrible treatment you got from Union Berlin Hopefully better at Torino, pretty good start already Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 Horrible treatment you got from Union BerlinHopefully better at Torino, pretty good start already Indeed - and they are paying for it now. After 10 games they're rooted at the bottom of the table, 5 points short of safety already. They have sacked Bert van Marwijk (my 'successor') after only 179 days in charge. By contrast, I was in charge for 1 year and 259 days. He was sacked because they lost their first five league games, scoring once (ironically v Bayern Munchen) and conceding 13. but yeah, I wasn't doing any good for the team Not that I'm bitter or anything I've got an update for the month of October coming up. It's interesting, at least. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 October 2016 Serie A Results So we finally lost...twice. But we also kept three clean sheets and won three games, so there's plenty to be cheerful for. First up was Lazio. As I said before, Quagliarella went off injured in the Lazio game so we look half a team already - our highest rated player, top scorer (at the time) and top assister. Huge miss, understandably. We didn't look much like scoring until Belotti scored from inside his own half, rather ridiculously, to make it 1-0. We could then operate a little more defensively and counter Lazio which we did to perfection, with Zapata popping up late to snatch us the victory. Next we travelled to Verona to take on fierce rivals Hellas. They weren't doing well going into this game but, nonetheless, a rivalry is a rivalry and nothing can be taken for granted. As it happens, the game was extremely quiet until Mino popped up very late to score a wonderfully placed shot from range - curling it out wide and back in low into the near post. The keeper couldn't get close to it. It was a spectacular goal to seal three points with a clean sheet. We didn't play great, but defensively we were excellent and a win is always a good thing against fierce rivals. That win actually put us top heading into the game v Inter - the side placed second in the league. Perhaps I got complacent - perhaps I bought into my own undefeated hype... I'm not sure, but Inter showed us up. I got the tactics all wrong - pushing up when Hernanes is playing through Divock Origi... - and it cost us. By the time I made amends it was too late and we got beaten 3-1. Sala found the net late on with a stunning FK into the far bottom corner but it wasn't enough. We'd finally lost. It shows that whilst we're doing very well, we're not quite a 'top team' yet. But that suits me, I don't want unnecessary pressure on this team. Our plans to get back on track might have taken a fall at home to Fiorentina, but as it turned out, our fine defensive form (barring the Inter game) would continue. Despite Fiorentina having 20 shots to our 9, we didn't once look like losing. We scored fairly early and it settled us brilliantly. As the game wore on, we became more and more defensive and looked towards the counter more as Fiorentina heaped pressure on us. Mino would score a great FK - our second FK goal in two games - before Belotti would pounce on an error from the Viola goalie to score his second own-half-goal of the season (and his second goal ) - once again scoring from 50 yards out. A fantastic win and showing how good this side is; just how capable we are of challenging for a spot in European football next season. But once again we'd be knocked back down to Earth. I have to be honest, I think I could play this game a million times over and never win with a 442 - Cagliari played a 352 on the most narrow pitch I've ever seen. It was long and narrow, too, which made it more awkward. At Olimpico we play the opposite - short and wide (the shortest pitch in the league, actually) - so trying to adjust to this wasn't easy. The shape helped Cagliari massively as they amassed over 500 pass completions to our meagre 230... yeah, I know. Zapata put us to a 2-1 scoreline so I threw everything forward in hope of stealing a draw but it wasn't to be. We lost 3-1, our second loss of the season and our second 3-1 in three games... Regardless, that left the table looking like this: Overall Thoughts Well, I can't complain about our positioning in the table - 4th place after 10 games is brilliant. 4th in Italy only means Europa League these days (as it is irl) but I would still love to finish as high as 4th in our first season. It's perhaps too early to think of that, though, as we still haven't faced the likes of Roma, Milan or our greatest rivals Juventus. However for the first ten games I can't complain. Our defence is steadily improving and we have the third best attack in the league. We are capable of beating anyone I think and as soon as Quagliarella is back - less than two weeks to go (squeeeeeee) - then we will hopefully go back to scoring 4/5 goals per game. Definitely in the likes of the Inter game I feel we missed Quagliarella's influence. He links our midfield and attack brilliantly and his ability to do it all makes him a supremely valuable player in my system. Looking on to the month of November, we've got ties against: Napoli [H], Pescara [A], Atalanta [H] and Roma [A] in the Cup. I am hoping to take at least 7 points from the league games and if we can get past Roma then it'll be lovely, but I don't expect that, of course. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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