Gundo's FM08 Small club from a small nation European adventure challenge

[real_betis]

FK Radnicki Kragujevac - 08/09

Media Prediction: 18th

Final Position: 1st

So, I've finished my first season with Radnicki (K) and what a good, but at times frustrating and rather nervy, season it was. I was quite pleased in terms of transfers, mainly due to the fact Partizan offered me the majority of their reserve side on loan - which truly helped. Infact, my star player was a loanee by the name of Milos Zivanovic. His 32 league goals propelled us into winning the league and I will definitely be looking to sign him permanently or on loan again next season. I also signed Marko Perovic and Jovanovic for 50k each, which meant I had to adjust my budgets, and this ultimately put me in a bit of debt, but it was worth it since Perovic is by far the best player in my squad and one of the stars of the season along with Ostojic my other winger.

The league was bloody tight though, as you can see from the screenshot and we won on the results we got against Borac, a draw and a win - my board were 'ecstatic' with the win though. Very lucky indeed, especially since my defence was rather poor, and every time we took a lead the other team would usually equalise. I have my attack to thank for winning us the league, as I think we only kept around 5 clean sheets all season and if not for my decent attack, we'd have been consigned to relegation or thereabouts. So, if we have any chance of survival next season, I'm going to have to bring some defenders in. Whether or not they'll be willing to join us is another question. However, being in the Super League will mean we can make the most of our 21,000 seater stadium, which only seems to be attracting 1000 fans at most at the moment - which is predictable, of course.

Awards: Player of the Season - Zivanovic, Top Goalscorer - Zivanovic - 32 goals, Manager of the Season - Niallkov Marshallic, Team of the Season

[Jazzfusion]

Hello!

Due to my lack of interest in FM right now I am going to attempt this challenge, it looks like lots of fun

Manager Profile

I've taken control of the mighty Barn Utd, who the media predict will finish 7th!

Thats all for now, hope to return with a successful season under my belt.

[max1994]

KFUM Oslo 2008-2009 End of season review

Norwegian second division group 4

norwegian cup 1st round

So with 2 sixteen year olds as our only players and no staff I better scour the market and quick.

19 new players came in along with an assistant and 2 scouts.

We played our first friendly against cash strapped jevnaker we dominated the game and this is shown by

A 4-1 score line. Not bad for our first game. Next up was Honefoss of the premier division we were more nervous than a virgin in a brothel in the first 45 going 2-0 down inside 15 minutes. I got the lads in at the break and told them I expect better and to try and catch them on the counter. This resulted in one of my best performances in fm 4 goals in 6mins as we come back from 2-0 to 2-2 and from 3-2 to 3-3 in that short space of time and we were really unlucky not to take the win as Aae rattled the bar from range.

We followed that up with another Stella performance this time a 3-0orsing of Ranheim.

So we went into the first league game in brilliant form however our form stopped there as we had the s*** kicked out of us as we succumbed to my first defeat as manager of KFUM 4-1 being the final score.

We lost our next game 2-1. A week later came our first league point from a 3-3 draw with 12th placed Harstad. What a game this means we rise up a place to the dizzy heights of 13th we picked up another crucial point In our battle against relegation a 1-1 draw.

A change in tactic was brought in for the next match as I changed from a 4-1-2-1-2 to a 4-2-3-1 this proved to be the write decision as we thumped our way to a 4-2 victory over hammer fest my best performance so far as we wiped the floor of them Andreassen goals ever side of half time were crucial as was Skogland’s two.

We were drawn against Lyn in the first round of the cup Anders Hoyum was sent off in the 8th minute which pretty much summed up a diabolical performance we were utterly destroyed 3-0.

We were up against Tromso in the league, I really hope we put that cup result behind us and get on with the job in hand. We dominated everything in the match and if it wasn’t for there keeper we would have won about 8-0 in the end though it was another draw.

We were playing mo in the league and with them playing catch up it was up to us to stop them. Our first half performance left a lot to be desired 3-0 down with 10men inside the first half hour. I told the lads that I expected much better in the second 45. But what resulted was a sensational performance as we came from behind 3-3 game on. And with 5 minutes of injury time I though we could win. But a disastrous clearence from my Centre back resulted in them scoring a winner in the 94th minute. ********.

Drobak/Frogn were our next opponents. I’m glad to say we are back to winning ways as we cruised past Drobak 3-1 Ringstad with 1 goal and Skogland nabbed to real poachers goals. Manglerud Star were our opponents at home. And again our first half performance was shocking however we came back in the second half to win 4-2 and leapfrog them and move up 3 places into 6th 17 points behind 1st

We dropped 2 places to eight after we outfoxed by Tollnes.1-0 defeat.

Sprint-jeloy were next to face us. We managed to fix our first half woes with two spectacular first half goals as we ran out 2-0 victors.

With the other teams behind winning I had to win. But I was playing Tromsdalen who hadn’t lost all season and only conceded 4. Make that 8 as we stuffed them 4-2. After going 2nil down in the first 5 mins I managed to score 3 goals in 10 mins before halftime with Skogland completing his Hat trick 3minutes after the break. What a game. We retain 7th 3 points of 3rd. We faced an easy game which we made so so difficult leaving it very late to score the winner against Stalkam.

1 month later we played our next game and with a chance of nabbing 3rd. We played 2nd place Mjolner we wiped the floor of them winning 2-0 moving into 3rd 15 points behind 1st.

So we played the second fixture against kvik Halden. And I remember the howlers of the first were we slaughtered 4-1. However we gave them a taste of there own medicine. We played one of the best first half’s I’ve ever seen 6-0 up at half time. But the sad thing was that we didn’t add to that in the second 45. A 6-2 victory in the end Great result as we have jumped two places to second, 13 points behind first can we do it.

Shocking performance as we slip to 4th after drawing 2-2 with Harstad. shocking. Absolutely shocking.

So next up were Alta IF who were 2nd we started a bit cagey in the first 10 minutes or so we settled in when Stian Ringstad scored an absolute beauty from the edge of the box. So we hold a 1-0 lead at the break. We started the second half fairly well before Magnus Iversen equalized. We scored again 8 minutes later and then again 3 minutes after that. Surely that’s it. Well no. They scored two in 3 minutes to level it. Oh crap.

10 minutes went past nothing happened well nothing until Ringstad headed on a long ball pinged up the field by our keeper which Ronald Turner ran onto skinned there keeper and calmly slotted it home 4-3 fook yes. Come on.

We played hammerfest next with new loan signing Mikael Olsen marking his debut with a stunning hat trick.3-1.good result.

We played Tromso 2 next and I was felling confident however these feelings went away as we were 1-0 down on 20 minutes anders hokum scoring an own goal. But that seemed to inspire us because 1 minute later Olsen scored. 1-1 at the interval. Olsen scored again as we scored again in the 66th minute. They scored again 4 minutes later. what a game. Olsen scored his 2nd hat trick in 2 appearances as we overpower Tromso

3-2.

So 7 games left 12 points behind Tromsdalen they’ve lost 1 all year and that was two me can I do it?

Our next game was against Mo we went into the break 1-0 up and it was wonder boy Olsen who scored so that’s 7 in 3. Mo equalized shortly after the break and its 1-1 we regained the lead in the 67th minute with an Andreassen header and we never looked back after comfortably winning 2-1. But with Tromsdalen winning earlier there was a 12 point deficit still

We played Drobak/Frogn in our next game and we gave one of our infamous first half performances as we were 2- down inside 5 minutes. We started the second half well with Ringstad playing a slick one two with Olsen as we pulled one back 2-1 game on. 1 minute later new signing El Hafedi put in a quality cross which picked out Olsen’s forehead as he connected perfectly and buried it 2-2.Oslen nearly returned the favour as he played El Hafedi in only for the 18 year old put it wide. Disgusting miss. 2-2 final score.

Tollnes were our next opposition we started slowly lucky not to be 1-0 down as there striker rattled both posts but as the half grew we got stronger eventually taking the lead in the 42nd minute as a Ringstad cross picked out El Hafedi’s back post run and slotted the ball home. We started the 2nd half well before El Hafedi’s through ball picked out Olsen’s run he finished expertly and were 2-0 up nothing else happened as we won 2-0

Sprint-Jeloy were next to face our wrath. A deflected shot that fell to El Hafedi gave us the lead on 7 minutes. They equalized from 12 yards on the 36th minute. Damn were 2-1 down as they score 3 minutes after the break. El Hafedi grabbed his second of the game as we equalized in the 51st minute. Thrilling stuff. Turner linked up with Olsen before playing a crisp pass to Ringstad he rounded the keeper and slotted it home 3-2.

Manglerud star is our next game a boring start until Olsen gave us the advantage on the 31st minute. It stayed

that way all game as we won 1-0.

Stalkam were our next opposition in our penultimate game having lost the title chase the pressure was off. El Hafedi scored a superb header from a corner in the first half to take a Harald Wegge Gundhus added a 2nd 5 minutes later. 2-0 at half time. The second half was a bore until Olsen stepped up and hit a 35 yard sco scorcher from a free kick in the 90th minute.

We played Tromsdalen in our last league fixture we started the game poorly 2-0 down at half time. But with 2nd place already secured it didn’t matter things didn’t get any better after the break as we went another goal down Skogland scored on the 60 minute mark to pull 1 back olsen added another in injury time as we slump to a 3-2 defeat.

League Table

Transfers

Stian Ringstad

The 17 year old had a Stella debut season scoring 10 goals and 8 assists from his twenty three appearances with an average rating of 7.48. He was a key player in my five man midfield and his link up play with on loan striker Mikael Olsen. More of the same next season Stian.

Mikael Olsen

Although not playing all of the games for us in the games that he did play he played fantastically well scoring 11 goals in 10 games with an average rating of 7.80.but even more impressive was the fact that he got 2 hat tricks in his first 2 games. A cracking little player and shall be my leading striker for next season as he is on loan till next august. Great start Mikael.

Ilias El-Hafedi

Another new signing brought in in august playing only six games in a KFUM Oslo shirt he impressed greatly scoring 4goals and getting 3 assists with an average rating of 7.83. He should be one for the future and a quality talent. Well done Ilias.

Signings of the season

This is a tough one as there’s Stian Ringstad’s constant great performances. Or Mikael Olsen for his quality finishing and his hat tricks but I think I’ll have to give it to Stian as he was a constant performer and he’s only a young lad.

Hopes for next season

. Achieve Promotion

. Tighten defence

. Score more

. Enjoy season

Max

[daemonic]

Quacky, quick question. What odds were you to win in your Champions League games?

I've just drawn Fiorentina in the 3rd Qualifying and the odds in the first game are 9-1 against us winning

[ghostwriter]

Wow, congratulations Quacky. Told you would finish the whole challenge before I even got out of the Challenge League .

Clearly Switzerland is not half as difficult as I am making it seem!

Not even going to hazard a guess as to when I will get into Europe, let alone compete with teams there.

First season as Baulmes has finished, as has the Summer after as well to be honest. Will update hopefully tomorrow.

[kurtage]

Ive noticed noone has succeeded in Turkey, but that will chanhge as of now as I shall master my country World domination here I come

[Quacky]

Its just you got well and trully stuck in challenge league ghostwriter, it still took about 5 seasons in Europe and I think I got quite lucky on my run through, could easily have taken more seasons.

I can't see where to find what the odd's were for the games, too many news messages since then on that game, I assume I was quite big underdogs for most the games. I saw a few "expected to pile the pressure on Mendrisio-Stabio" on away games

[daemonic]

I can't see where to find what the odd's were for the games, too many news messages since then on that game, I assume I was quite big underdogs for most the games. I saw a few "expected to pile the pressure on Mendrisio-Stabio" on away games

Thanks Quacky, that news item sounds similar to what I get. Lots of 'No Pressure' team talks in those games seems to be the way to go.

[Gundo]

max1994 Excellent update. It sounds like your really enjoying your time in Norway.

[Gundo]

Originally posted by rlipscombe:

2 things very quickly:

Quacky - big congratulations. proves that it can be done there!

Gundo - good to see the Randaberg save alive again. i was missing your gushing over Ringstad and Myhre... maybe it'll inspire me to dust off my KFUM Oslo save at some point.

What can I say? I've really missed those two gems.

[max1994]

yeh i am gundo and another overly long updat to come when i have done this season.

[ToMexico!!]

Recently got bored with my career save/ accidentally saved over it with a new save for this challenge.

Should finish the season tonight and will post an update.

[daemonic]

max1994

With your FM background picture you really need to mark your posts as NSFW

[Gundo]

Do you guys think that players wanting moves to bigger clubs is over tweaked in FM08? In comparison with real life it just seems overly done in FM. Sure if a player is absolutely quality and much better than the league he's playing in, but even some of my less established or consistent for that matter are wanting out.

So from what I've read in here, it would appear it's much the same for you guys. So with that in mind, how would you feel if I was to start a topic on this in General Questions and would you be able to contribute to the thread?

Regards Gundo.

[max1994]

good point gundo that is somethink si need to fix for the 09 version

[DodgeeD]

I've been thinking the same Gundo. At Blsany I find that players with potential who haven't really become established in my first team want to leave, usually at the first sign of an offer from another club. I think what constitutes a 'bigger club' needs to be looked at too. I have had a few players kick up a real fuss about playing at a higher level and then they go and join mid-table/relegation threatened teams....

[Gundo]

Good stuff, I'll see if I can get something posted up over the weekend then. I'll let you all know in here when I've actually posted the topic.

[ghostwriter]

Baulmes - Challenge League - 23/24

The unexpectedly good situation at the Winter Break

No one came in during the break but I managed to flog my 4th choice striker for £160k and a couple of other players for considerably less. No complaints there.

We opened up with a nice 1-0 win over Delemont and followed that by a draw and a Gossau thrashing. We were just beaten by La Chaux-de-Fonds but then embarked on a 6 game winning streak including a very nice 1-0 win over UGS . We were storming up the table at this point but Schaffhausen brought that rapidly to a halt when they visited. We were 6th, and following the expected thrashing of Bex we were 5th as Delemont lost. We lost the last game but thankfully so did Delemont, so we finished in a very nice 5th place. A bit unexpected, as you can see, we basically got better and better.

The only problem I can see with this is that I suspect it was totally down to the slightly odd formation (wingbacks, 5-2-1-2) that we had to play and no-one had seen before rather than the quality of players. And given the main ingredients of that were only on loan, I suspect things will have to change next season.

But, the gk was good, the defence solid, the wingbacks great, and the strikers awesome...

Meanwhile down in UGS country, during the break the manager sold half the defence and brought in inferior replacements but above all he sold the great DL who had been awesome (as the only option) at ML for little money and brought in an WBL as a replacement . He even resorted to playing right footed MRs there. Unsurprisingly they faltered, am quite happy to have overtaken them already in my first season.

Final Squad

Final Summary

(Some of the) transfers - most of the ins were good, the ones that weren't will hopefully leave, the outs were nice in that they garnered me a bit of money

The stars....

Best GK - Enrico Toma - not bad at all, better than I thought, he won't be good enough to get me out of the division but he will definitely do for the moment, clearly if someone better comes in I won't hesitate in dropping him

Best Defender - Jindrin Kadlec - ex-Czech international brought in halfway thru the season after being released from Basel and he did very well indeed, getting on a bit and a bit slow but should be good for at least one more season

Best Wingback - Joachim Lindner - on loan from Young Boys (where he had played a bit in the SL the year before. Badly), brought in as a DL or ML but with the formation change, he became a great WBL, we were definitely worse without him, as we shall probably be next season as I have an idea he won't be back

Best Midfielder - Andrea Arena - took me a bit of time to realise how good he was, was a back up for the first part of the season, but whenever he played he played great so I eventually got the idea, whatever formation I end up playing next season, he should find a place somewhere in it

Best Loanee - Dominic Graf - as he can't play at MC, I presume he would end up on the wing as AMC did not exist in my initial formation, but when it did, he came alive, was very good, turned several games, but like Lindner his contract is up and I don't really see him either signing or coming back on loan if he stays at Thun.

Best Striker - Renato - Aarau youth product, stunning, did not really know what to expect but certainly not that, started off with loads of goals and carried on, did have a couple of dodgy patches but they did not last long, he does not look that great, but his pace scared the living **** out of many a defence (loads of his goals came from thru-balls or rebounds), more of the same please

2nd Best Striker - very quietly went about his business, scoring goals regularly without anyone really noticing, fought off competition from others to claim the 2nd striking spot which he rarely gave up, presume I will get someone better in during the Summer so he may have to be content with a back up role

Summer will mainly involve me obtaining as many players as possible. The dross that was present when I arrived and that I have been unable to rid myself off will all be out at the end of their contracts so I at least need some backups if nothing else. As my WBs were either on loan or part of that dross, I have no idea what formation I will end up playing especially as the squad will start the Summer with literally no width at all (one average D/WB/AMR who I would not mind leaving and that is it).

Doubt I can get 5th again but you never know, I will content myself with the lower reaches of the top 10 and the flogging of players for large amount of cash.

Best Eleven

UGS

08/09 - 22/23 Challenge League - 3rd-15th

Baulmes

23/24 - Challenge League - 3rd

[ghostwriter]

Oliver Schwarz was the missing 2nd best striker up there. Probably the only time he will appear in this thread.

[daemonic]

I believe this has been discussed a few times and is related to club reputation which has been acknowledged as needing some work.

Basically the player sees a club of higher reputation interested and starts getting itchy feet. The problem is club reputation changes way to slowly and that has definetly been discussed in the bugs and general forums a number of times.

MichaelMurrayUK's game on the Dafuge challenge is a good example. He's dominated England and Europe for years but still loses lots of players to 'bigger' clubs.

[Razer82]

Razer82 – Clough Rangers – 2015 / 2016 – Northern Irish Premier Division

League – 1st Champions!

Champions League – 1st Qualifying Round – Lost 5-3 on agg to Buducnost (Montenegro)

Northern Irish Cup – Winners! Defeated Linfield 3-1

League Cup – Winners! Defeated Portadown 4-0

Antrim Cup – Winners! Defeated Linfield 1-0

All Ireland Cup – Finished 3rd in Group A

Manager Profile

Team Stats

Transfer Summary

Top Scorer

Another short lived European adventure this season as we travelled to Montenegro to face Buducnost. Despite opening the scoring we found ourselves on the wrong end of a 3-1 score line and would have it all to do in the home match. A thrilling home leg saw a number of goals scored but the final result was a 2-2 draw and we were done in the Champions League for another year.

The disappointment of an early European exit was swiftly put behind us as we had the League Cup to deal with. We easily topped a group consisting of Larne, Limavady United and Dungannon with 6 wins from 6 games, this led us to a quarter final with Linfield. A nervous 1-0 victory later and we were into the semi finals to face Distillery. A comfortable 3-1 victory saw us through to a final with Portadown who were trounced 4-0 for our 4th consecutive League Cup triumph.

The Antrim Cup began with a comfortable 3-0 home victory over Distillery, this was followed up with a 3-1 away victory over the old enemy Glentoran sets up a semi final with Bangor. A 5-1 thumping later and we’re into the final again. A cagey 1-0 victory over Linfield saw us once again lift the trophy.

This season’s league campaign began with the ending of our 32 game win streak, a 3-3 away draw with Linfield being the game in question. The result was quickly put behind us though and an 8-1 demolition of Coleraine got our season well and truly started. The great start to the season continue with a thrashing of rivals Glentoran 7-0. From this point on we went on an impressive 20 game win streak and an ubeaten season. We scored a record 100 goals, this lead us to securing our 5th consecutive title on match day 26. Our performances also secured the top 3 players in this seasons Players of the Year awards.

The Northern Irish Cup saw us drawn against minnows Oxford United Stars in the 5th round and a comfortable 6-0 victory duly followed. A 3-2 victory over Ballymacash in the 6th round was a much tighter game then it should have been due to the majority of my first team being away on international duty in the Caribbean. Easy victories over Ballymena, 4-0 and Bangor, 3-0 put us into our second final of the year against Linfield. A better game than the Antrim cup final saw us triumph 3-1 for your 4th consecutive tournament victory.

The All Ireland Cup is starting to become a bit on an embarrassment, this season we struggled to a win and a draw with Glentoran we were run off the park in the 4 games against the Irish opposition so as always we finished 3rd in our group. In all honesty just a change in the groups would be a welcome change as we’ve faced Drogheda United and Shamrock Rovers in every group that we’ve been entered into. But all the time the money’s being sent our way we’ll keep turning up.

This was the breakout season for Williams (62 Goals) as it was his first as leading scorer for the team, his final total equalling the club record. Blackwell (49 Goals) was always there when the vital goals were needed. New signing Svoboda (12 Goals) impressed when he was called upon, especially with 4 goals on his full debut. Although an aging star, first signing as a professional club Julio Arca (7 Goals & 11 Assists) ran this year’s midfield with Thomas (5 Goals & 14 Assists) with support on the wings from Welch, Trojan, Redmond and Green. The strength at the back came from Ryan, Baldwin, Saundeers and the departing Donnelly, who is leaving on a free to Southampton.

Now that we were able to scout all of Europe this season’s transfers were dominated by cheap buys from Eastern Europe. I’m hoping that they’ll make the difference when it comes to European competition next season, especially with a number of others due to sign in the off season.

Next season will be out last at The Hill before we move to our new purpose built stadium and with our Facilities being upgraded I’m very hopeful of a successful final season.

As with all seasons my main aim for next year is to make some form of progress in the All Ireland Cup and the Champions League – fingers crossed that this will be the year for that to happen.

Gundo – For your table – 5 Domestic Titles

Coefficients

Club – 0.439 – 496th (Down 1 Place)

Country – 1.333 – 43rd (Up 1 Place)

[ToMexico!!]

This is my first attempt at the particular challenge and decided to choose a nation that i have never managed in before. Iceland was always a nation that intrigued me to start a new save game but never got round to it.

After holidaying the first season i created my new manager, arry carter. The team promoted this season was Grotta. They were founded in 1967 and are a semi professional team. They are situated close to the capital, Reykjavik. The stadium, Grottuvoiler only holds 1500 fans. The have adequate training facilities and also have basic youth/academy facilities. Club Info.

Grotta - 1.Delid Karla - Iceland - 2008

Media Prediction - 11th from 12

Transfer Budget - Zero

Monthly Wage Budget - 10.35k

When i took over in January they had a pretty basic squad and were around 120k under the yearly wage budget. Although no transfer funds to bring in the better players, i would have to scour the leagues with the scouts for the out of contract players. Start Squad

Staff wise, we had none. Set about searching for an AssMan, a coach and a Scout or 2. I successfully signed what i was looking for and proceeded to the task of sending out the scouts for some fresh blood. Looking at the transfer history, the players i had were actually agreed transfers and arrived there before i was manager. So over the month and a half before the cup/league began i shipped in a shed load of players whilst at the same time i sent a fair few packing. Overall i bought in 8 players and released around the same figure. Although the screenshot does show all the tranfers from the previous managers reign. Transfers

I took a look at the oppostion in the league and though to myself i could at least achieve mid table here but also on the other hand i didn't want to set myself too higher target for such a small/new promoted club so i opted for the attempt to avoid relegation option.

This screenshot shows the squad that we began the season with.Squad

We had 5 friendlies arranged before the cup competition started. 2 had already been played. Losing to Keflavik and Por. 3-2 and 3-1 respectively. Then my managerial reign took over and i promptly changed the tactic to my 4-4-2 diamond. Alhtough the squad at the time was a little shaky and lacked the quality offensively and defensively, we managed to score 14 and concede 13 in the remaining 3 friendlies. 5-4 and 4-3 winners over IA and Numi, whilst losing 6-5 to Hammar. So i had something to work with, i knew i could score the goals but we're leaky at the back so i needed to plug the gaps.

3.Delid the Icelandic cup competition was soon under way, being drawn in Group B along with Prottur, KS/Leiftur, Fjaroabyggo, Sindri and Tindastroll. We had the perfect start winning 6-0 away from home. Defensive problems resolved? No chance. We then failed to keep a clean sheet in the next 4 games, resulting in another win, 2 draws and a loss. Finished 3rd in the group, 3 off the top spot.

The other cup competition we entered was the VISA-Bikar, where we were drawn against a fellow 1.Delid club, Grindavik. Score was 2-2 after ET so the match went to penalties. But with the standard of our players, where 8 was the highest penalty taking attribute we lost. 3-2 in the end.

1.Delid had began previously to that the above cup competition, we faired well in the opening game demolishing Sindri 3-0 away from home. A clean sheet in the league! how long would that last? No long we were brought back down to earth by KA, they won 2-0. We managed a small run of 2 wins in a row, 3 undefeated to keep us in the top half of the table before a massive slump of 5 games without a win made us plummet down the table to 10th. A vital win over Leiknir R followed by a 3-1 win over Stjarnan moved us up to 7th, with 5 games to go. 10 points either side of possible promotion or relegation. The firs game was againt Por who had previously beaten us. We were 3-1 down with 20mins left and 2 inspired substitutions remarkably gave us the win, scoring on 81st, 89th and 90th minutes. Fantastic Come Back

Five games to go.

A comfortable victory over KR (3-0), a last minute goal from Fjaroabyggo secured them a draw, another draw followed by a loss left us in 5th place. A position i was very pleased with. Table

Finances steadily grew through out the season, we managed to sustain a average attendance of around half our stadium capacity. Finances

So we made great progression this season and have a good squad basis to build over the close season. Main areas to strengthen are the defensive areas possibly a new back 4 and a DM. I feel our attacking options were good enough for another season at least.

Hopefully this update is sufficient and is all ok.

[Sazchu]

Originally posted by ToMexico!!:

This is my first attempt at the particular challenge and decided to choose a nation that i have never managed in before. Iceland was always a nation that intrigued me to start a new save game but never got round to it.

After holidaying the first season i created my new manager, arry carter. The team promoted this season was Grotta. They were founded in 1967 and are a semi professional team. They are situated close to the capital, Reykjavik. The stadium, Grottuvoiler only holds 1500 fans. The have adequate training facilities and also have basic youth/academy facilities. Club Info.

Grotta - 1.Delid Karla - Iceland - 2008

Media Prediction - 11th from 12

Transfer Budget - Zero

Monthly Wage Budget - 10.35k

When i took over in January they had a pretty basic squad and were around 120k under the yearly wage budget. Although no transfer funds to bring in the better players, i would have to scour the leagues with the scouts for the out of contract players. Start Squad

Staff wise, we had none. Set about searching for an AssMan, a coach and a Scout or 2. I successfully signed what i was looking for and proceeded to the task of sending out the scouts for some fresh blood. Looking at the transfer history, the players i had were actually agreed transfers and arrived there before i was manager. So over the month and a half before the cup/league began i shipped in a shed load of players whilst at the same time i sent a fair few packing. Overall i bought in 8 players and released around the same figure. Although the screenshot does show all the tranfers from the previous managers reign. Transfers

I took a look at the oppostion in the league and though to myself i could at least achieve mid table here but also on the other hand i didn't want to set myself too higher target for such a small/new promoted club so i opted for the attempt to avoid relegation option.

This screenshot shows the squad that we began the season with.Squad

We had 5 friendlies arranged before the cup competition started. 2 had already been played. Losing to Keflavik and Por. 3-2 and 3-1 respectively. Then my managerial reign took over and i promptly changed the tactic to my 4-4-2 diamond. Alhtough the squad at the time was a little shaky and lacked the quality offensively and defensively, we managed to score 14 and concede 13 in the remaining 3 friendlies. 5-4 and 4-3 winners over IA and Numi, whilst losing 6-5 to Hammar. So i had something to work with, i knew i could score the goals but we're leaky at the back so i needed to plug the gaps.

3.Delid the Icelandic cup competition was soon under way, being drawn in Group B along with Prottur, KS/Leiftur, Fjaroabyggo, Sindri and Tindastroll. We had the perfect start winning 6-0 away from home. Defensive problems resolved? No chance. We then failed to keep a clean sheet in the next 4 games, resulting in another win, 2 draws and a loss. Finished 3rd in the group, 3 off the top spot.

The other cup competition we entered was the VISA-Bikar, where we were drawn against a fellow 1.Delid club, Grindavik. Score was 2-2 after ET so the match went to penalties. But with the standard of our players, where 8 was the highest penalty taking attribute we lost. 3-2 in the end.

1.Delid had began previously to that the above cup competition, we faired well in the opening game demolishing Sindri 3-0 away from home. A clean sheet in the league! how long would that last? No long we were brought back down to earth by KA, they won 2-0. We managed a small run of 2 wins in a row, 3 undefeated to keep us in the top half of the table before a massive slump of 5 games without a win made us plummet down the table to 10th. A vital win over Leiknir R followed by a 3-1 win over Stjarnan moved us up to 7th, with 5 games to go. 10 points either side of possible promotion or relegation. The firs game was againt Por who had previously beaten us. We were 3-1 down with 20mins left and 2 inspired substitutions remarkably gave us the win, scoring on 81st, 89th and 90th minutes. Fantastic Come Back

Five games to go.

A comfortable victory over KR (3-0), a last minute goal from Fjaroabyggo secured them a draw, another draw followed by a loss left us in 5th place. A position i was very pleased with. Table

Finances steadily grew through out the season, we managed to sustain a average attendance of around half our stadium capacity. Finances

So we made great progression this season and have a good squad basis to build over the close season. Main areas to strengthen are the defensive areas possibly a new back 4 and a DM. I feel our attacking options were good enough for another season at least.

Hopefully this update is sufficient and is all ok.

Nice to see you did well with tiny old Grótta, first of i would like to say that it's nice to see Amir Mehica in your goal and also a few pointers(not trying to be mean) about the spelling of a few things(two or three).

I saw in your post and have ofcourse seen in many other posts where people don't speak icelandic that the Þ/þ and Ã/ð are written strangely sometimes, but... anyway personally i think it would look better if it were written as closely as possible(can't ofcourse expect non-icelandic people to be able to pronounce those letters).

Examble, Þróttur and Fjarðarbyggð, written in your post as Prottur and Fjaroabyggo, the correct way to write those names in English would be Throttur and Fjardarbyggd, where the Þ/þ = Th and Ã/ð = D/d.

That's all, like i said nice getting the 5th place, alot better than I'm doing with Tindastóll(five games to go and it's not looking good).

[SunDevil]

Ok, after careful consideration and reloading the league 23 times, I have signed up to coach Rosario YC in the Northern Irish Second Division.

Rosario YC Info

Profile

[James.Clench]

Has anyone completed this challenge yet?

If not, whats the closest anyones come?

[SunDevil]

Rosario YC – 2008-2009 – Northern Irish Second Division

Initial Start

Antrim Trophy 2007/2008 - Winner as Amateur Team

Regulation Playoff Game 1 - Victorious

Regulation Playoff Game 2 - Victorious

Initial Team Roster

Initial Financial Summary

Initial Financial Salary

Initial Parent Club

[daemonic]

Originally posted by James.Clench:

Has anyone completed this challenge yet?

If not, whats the closest anyones come?

Yes, check Gundo's table a page or 2 back and Quacky has just completed it in Switzerland.

[Sazchu]

I decided to give this challenge another go, havent tried it for a few months and last time i was relegated so that was not a good season and i hoped to do better this time around.

I created my Manager Kristján Sazchu and took over newly promoted Tindastóll, a team which i had managed in one of my fm07 saves and did okay there though only staying for 3 seasons.

Tindastóll was founded 1907 in the town of Sauðárkrókur which has around 2600 residents, the enthuisiasm for the team in Sauðárkrókur clearly showed when we had amazing 17 season tickets sold

Now to the first season.

We started the season with a friendly against Selfoss which ended with an 0-1 loss, not a bad result in my books since i had just taken over the team and was trying to get in new players(didnt work all too well)

Some time later: Onward to the LLC, we were grouped with Haukar(YAY), Leiknir R, Afturelding, ÃR and ÃH.

Our first game saw us lose to ÃH 1:2 in a game we shouldve won but didnt finish our chances, next we went to meet ÃR in Reykjavík and went away with no points and 3 goals against, a game which we couldve lost by many more goals.

Afturelding came to us next, another 1:2 defeat which reflected exacly how the game was, then it was onwards to our last two games, both away, Leiknir Reykjavík and Haukar Hafnarfirði, the game against Leiknir was our best game of the season in my books, at half time the score was 6:2 for Leiknir R, but in the second half we got 3 goals to Leiknir's one, a Goals Galore that I'm sure the 197 attendaces enjoyed.

The last game was against haukar which was similar to the game against Leiknir R in the way that we conceded alot of goals, the difference between those games that it was pretty even, all the game but we didnt score from our chances so a 6:1 loss was a fact, with that loss our time in the LLC was over, we ended up with 5 losses in those 5 games, and a goal difference of -12.

The transfer market was not where we did best, 8 players in each worse than the next, three of those players on loans, two from parent club ÃA and one from KA, the signing i most liked was Slavisa Mitic, a 31 year old Serb from Víðir Garði(where he actually scored a hat-trick last night) though due to injury he could only play 19 games and in those scored 3 goals and gave one assist.

Visa-Bikarinn saw us meet Víkingur away from home, we went into that game confident, but came away with less confidence than when we went to Víkin, we had 0 chances in the whole game, no shots on or off the target, Víkingur had two shots on target and 3 off target and they managed to make their two chances count to secure a 2:0 victory, Tindastóll was out of the Visa-Bikar.

Finally the most important thing... the league, 22 games to see if the team was good enough to stay in the division or if they would fall down.

we started the First Division off with a home game against ÃR and once again lost, but this time we only lost 1:2, this was not a good sign if we looked back at LLC where we had lost all our games, might the same thing happen in the League? nah, the team isn't that bad, no way they are gonna lose ALL the games.

And so they didnt, but after that 1:2 defeat against ÃR we played a couple of games that i would say our 17 season ticked holders werent happy with, after the ÃR game we went on a 13 game loss streak, sealing it off with a 1:2 loss against ÃR in our second game.

But then there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel, and we played Fylkir, we had lost the first game 0:4 away from home in the 4th game of the league, this time things would be different... the game was pretty equal most the time, we had 6 shots on target they 5, we had 12 shots off target and they had 7 but in the end it came down to a 3:3 draw, some of the 183 who watched that game broke out in extreme happyness, Tindastóll had gotten their first points and it was at home, due to the result of this game the supporters hope that the team can actually being able to do better in the following games.

That wasnt to be though, we lost our 7 last games and in those games we scored 3 goals but conceded 18...

So that was the end of the reign of Tindastóll in the First League in the 22 games of the season we had won no games, gotten one draw and lost the remaining 21, we scored 14 but conceded 64, which gave us an amazing G.D. of -50, we ended 21 point below fellow relegationers, Selfoss, Stjarnan and Víkingur were promoted.

In the end it didn't go all too well, just like my last attempt at this challenge in FM08, but i have decided to giv it another go and am Holidaying through the Hungarian season as we speak, hope to do better there than in Iceland.

[Sazchu]

Originally posted by Sazchu:

I decided to give this challenge another go, blablablablabla.............ason as we speak, hope to do better there than in Iceland.

Forgot the final standings in the League .

[Gundo]

Originally posted by daemonic:

I believe this has been discussed a few times and is related to club reputation which has been acknowledged as needing some work.

Basically the player sees a club of higher reputation interested and starts getting itchy feet. The problem is club reputation changes way to slowly and that has definetly been discussed in the bugs and general forums a number of times.

MichaelMurrayUK's game on the Dafuge challenge is a good example. He's dominated England and Europe for years but still loses lots of players to 'bigger' clubs.

Well if it's been discussed before I'll see if I can track down the relevant topics and add my views rather than starting a new topic on it.

[ToMexico!!]

Nice to see you did well with tiny old Grótta, first of i would like to say that it's nice to see Amir Mehica in your goal and also a few pointers(not trying to be mean) about the spelling of a few things(two or three).

I saw in your post and have ofcourse seen in many other posts where people don't speak icelandic that the Þ/þ and Ã/ð are written strangely sometimes, but... anyway personally i think it would look better if it were written as closely as possible(can't ofcourse expect non-icelandic people to be able to pronounce those letters).

Examble, Þróttur and Fjarðarbyggð, written in your post as Prottur and Fjaroabyggo, the correct way to write those names in English would be Throttur and Fjardarbyggd, where the Þ/þ = Th and Ã/ð = D/d.

That's all, like i said nice getting the 5th place, alot better than I'm doing with Tindastóll(five games to go and it's not looking good).

Thanks Sazchu, will the spellings into consideration will need to look up how to get those letters up on the screen, unless someone wants to post how to heh.

Anyway just starting pre season and getting the squad into shape. Could get another season done today.

[daemonic]

FC Bulle - Swiss Super League 2018/19

We had a quiet transfer window. Our best MC, Jan van der Laan went to Ajax for 2.5m and despite searching I hadn't found a replacement on deadline day and was preparing to do without until Bordeaux made an offer for my other main MC, Alejandro Schneider. I slapped a silly price of 5m + 2.5m after 1 international on him and the chairman accepted.

Paniccccccccccccc....A frantic search of my shortlists and scouts ongoing searches yielded a couple of prospects so in came Valdeci Andrade Silva who I hadn't signed before because the scouts thought he was unsporting but beggars can't be choosers. It worked out ok though, he won Young Player of the Season, which again was a clean sweep for Bulle players. I also took a 50k punt on Kara Telelioglu who went on to claim the Foreign Player of the Season award. A couple of players came in in the January window including Swiss DC Marchetti for 650k as I struggle to register homegrown players for continental competitions.

Switzerland

Domestically this was our easiest season yet. We led from the start and had the title sown up with 7 games to play. We maintained our form and were 20 points ahead in the final table. As you can see from the table, the top 5 now qualify for Europe with 2 teams getting Champions League places. The Swiss cup final was lost on a penalty shootout. Dominance was reflected in the Super League Team of the Season

Finances are very healthy despite the 10m spent on a new stadium AND my greedy board helping themselves to 10m in dividends

The Season's Best 11 shows a good average rating for everyone. In the Overall Best 11 not too many of the current players are making an impression.

Europe - Champions League

The Champions League 2nd Qualifying Round paired us with Skonto FC Riga. Pre match odds had it down as an even match but a 5 goal blast in the first half of the away leg meant it was all over. A professional performance in the second league and we were through.

Skonto 0-6 Bulle

Bulle 3-0 Skonto

A tough draw in the 3rd Qualifying as we got Fiorentina. Despite the pre-match pessimism from the fans and odds of 9-1 against we won the away leg by a goal and then proceeded to trounce them in the second leg. Group stage here we come.

Fiorentina 1-2 Bulle

Bulle 6-0 Fiorentina

The group draw wasn't too bad. The immediate danger appeared to be Madrid but Feyenoord and Benfica would be no pushovers either. Again the odds were always against us but 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw meant all 4 teams had a chance of qualifying going into our last game at home to Real. An even game ended in a draw and with other results going our way we were through and Madrid finished in 4th :O

Bulle 2-1 Feyenoord

Real Madrid 3-2 Bulle

Benfica 2-1 Bulle

Bulle 4-1 Benfica

Feyenoord 1-1 Bulle

Bulle 1-1 Real Madrid

The 1st knockout round was as kind as is possible at this stage and we drew Olympique de Marseille. First leg at home and I told the players to go enjoy themselves. They enjoyed themselves all the way to a 5-1 thumping of Marseille. We lost the second leg 2-3 but it was enough and we were in the Quarter finals.

Bulle 5-1 Marseille

Marseille 3-2 Bulle

Next up was Benfica who we had already played in the group stage so I knew we could beat them. We won the first leg at home by a solitary goal so the second leg was going to be tough. Again I told the players to just enjoy the game and it worked like a charm. A 4-1 hammering and we were into the last 4.

Bulle 1-0 Benfica

Benfica 1-4 Bulle

We faced Roma in the semi's and an insane first 45 minutes in the first leg in Rome yielded 8 goals. We added a single goal in the second half and the game ended with a 4-5 loss. For the second leg I piled on the pressure telling the players "I expect a win" and they responded, beating Roma 2-0 and we were into the Final.

Roma 5-4 Bulle

Bulle 2-0 Roma

A quick hop over the border into Austria and the Ernst-Happel-Stadion where we faced Chelsea to see who would be Champions of Europe. We had by far the better of the possession but they had the firepower and the dream was over. Chelsea had won their 4th Champions League title.

Chelsea 2-1 Bulle

European Co-efficients

FC Bulle - 45.067 (63rd uo from 133th)

Switzerland - 24.792 (14th up from 20th)

FC Bulle Trophy Room

Swiss Champions 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/2019

Swiss Cup 2017/18

[Gundo]

Unlucky daemonic, sure many more CL finals to come...

[Suma]

just started in Norway with:

Innstrandens IL

I did a test run before i actually began to test how hard norway and it was damn difiicult to win even one game. to make it even harder for me and a bit more challanging, I choose the weakest team of the promoted clubs which was Innstrandens IL...

season review/end of the year update to come tomorrow...

[Faramir]

Good Luck Suma- playing in Norway as well and it isn't easy

Quick update for Gundo (since my postings in Stories will lag well behind my actualy play)

FC Grorud- started 2nd Division Group 1

2008- Finished 4th overall

2009- Finished 4th overall

2010- Finished 1st and promoted to Norwegian First Division (now the hard part begins...again )

[Gundo]

Faramir All will be present and correct in the next challenge table, congratulations on your promotion.

Suma Best of luck with Innstrandens, I'm sure you'll find Norway very enjoyable to manage in.

[Sazchu]

I'm currently managing in Hungary with Szentlörinc SE being the team i got but there is one thing that really sparked my interest, which is that some teams seem to play quite alot of games, or those that get far in domestic cups, i counted the games that Debreceni played last season and that was 58 62 if i remember correctly which is an amazing ammount.

So if a team in Hungary would ever get the quadruple(sp?) that being the Hungarian Division 1 the Hungarian League Cup, Hungarian Cup and the Champions League or Uefa cup, that could amass to over 80 games, in one season, which in effect would mean that the players would all have to have really good fitness.

Has anyone gotten that good of a record in the Hungarian league ?

Game process: I'm starting my 3rd season with Szentlörinc(2010-2011) after two interesting seasons, I'll probably throw the first season review up tomorrow and maby the 2nd season a day or two laters.

[Fire Bracelet]

What are the odds that every single game in the quarterfinals of a single competition would end with 8 goals being scored. Not only that but each score is different.

[spotg]

Originally posted by Sazchu:

I'm currently managing in Hungary with Szentlörinc SE being the team i got but there is one thing that really sparked my interest, which is that some teams seem to play quite alot of games, or those that get far in domestic cups, i counted the games that Debreceni played last season and that was 58 62 if i remember correctly which is an amazing ammount.

So if a team in Hungary would ever get the quadruple(sp?) that being the Hungarian Division 1 the Hungarian League Cup, Hungarian Cup and the Champions League or Uefa cup, that could amass to over 80 games, in one season, which in effect would mean that the players would all have to have really good fitness.

Has anyone gotten that good of a record in the Hungarian league ?

Game process: I'm starting my 3rd season with Szentlörinc(2010-2011) after two interesting seasons, I'll probably throw the first season review up tomorrow and maby the 2nd season a day or two laters.

If memory serves, I think that most people who have tried Hungary have given up fairly quickly simply because of the vast number of games that must be played every season.

Look forward to seeing how you get on

[ghostwriter]

unlucky daemonic. some of those results are seriously impressive.

good luck next season

looks like you will finish this challenge before I get out of the CL as well!

[Quacky]

Unlucky daemonic, so close. Did you go with my philosophy of if you think you can't stop them at least bang in a bunch for yourself . Noting the 5-4, 5-1, 4-1, 6-0 etc...

[daemonic]

Not really, just played my normal formation which seesm to be mouch more effective in Europe in terms of getting bags of goals.

I'm into the following season now and we drew Fiorentina in the CL group stage this time...we hammered them again

Managed to qualify from the group with only 4 games played this year

[Quacky]

As for your Hungary discussions Sazchu/spotg that was the first country I tried this in. I ended up with several titles and did do the triple (you can't really do the quadruple since if you win league and cup you don't play the supercup match just win it default).

The main reason I gave up that save is exactly as you say, ridiculous number of games to play. The first half of the season isn't too bad since it would shift all the league games into the winter break. The second half it squashed everything up so 3-4 a week so I would have to use reserves/under 18's in league cup (especially if you have already qualified from the first part of that competition, confidence thing doesnt understand that btw) my players would still be very very tired though. I got just part group stages in champions league I think, its possible to go further if you can put up with buying 2-3 squads of players and taking forever to play out the rest of the pointless cup matches before your next European campaign.

[Gundo]

Just to let everybody know that I may be a little quite on here for the next week or so. I move house over the weekend so Internet access will be lost for a while.

Just thought I'd post this in case anybody thinks I've been by a bus or what not.

[ghostwriter]

Baulmes - Challenge League - 24/25 - Winter Break

Apart from letting go another 15 useless players the first piece of Summer action was a bit unexpected as I sold one of my first choice DCs for £100 to Lausanne, not turning money like that down.

That was the only sale as in came various mainly elderly free transfers from SL clubs; a Czech MR (33), a Polish ST (31), a Belgian ST (31) and DL (33). The only other signings were the great on-loan AMC from last season, another AMC and a new and theoretically better GK.

We had large defensive problems though in as much as by the time the season start we only had 5 of them. In the week after the first game, mad panic loan searching found me another DC and 2 D/WB/AMLs, still left me with only one (not good) DR.

I snared another loanee as well, from UGS believe it or not, even bizarrer was that it was one of my signings, an Italian AMRC that I had brought as a backup 2 years ago and never played. Well, he came in for the season, principally as another AMC.

Upfront we were very good and improved, I had confidence in the midfield as well, but the defence, well...Formation wise we were basically going to have switch between 4-3-1-2 and 3-4-1-2 depending on how many fit DCs I had and how much confidence I had in my DR (little).

We started off with a visit to Lugano which was not ideal (0-2) before beating Fribourg and losing to La Chaux-de-Fonds. We then hit 3 unbeaten before our defence totally fell apart, conceding 15 in 4; a 3-0 defeat at promoted and previously winless Etoile-Carouge was bad, but that was glorious in comparison to a 5-0 home defeat to an average Kriens side .

We sorted ourselves out though and went 6 unbeaten. We then got a visit from Basel in the Swiss Cup 2nd round. They left with an 8-2 victory . And that totally destroyed our defence, 6 games without a win, 18 conceded, finished off the first part of the season. We were as high as 6th at one stage but that run dropped us to 12th place at the break.

As you can see we are highly entertaining, 98 goals in our 22 matches so far. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work out which area of the pitch is causing problems; it only took us 19 games to concede more than in the whole of last season.

Upfront Renato is still as awesome and the new Pole is pretty good, although he had a very dodgy patch and even moaned that I was not critisizing him enough. Never seen that before. The main star of the season has been the UGS AMRC, 16 games, 6 goals and 14 assists is pretty damn good.

We are only 7 points from 7th which is where we would be more or less be but for that run-in. Provided we don't collapse again, top 10 should be gettable....

[Quacky]

Spartak Subotica 2014/15

After Switzerland I had a look around Czech Republic but it didn't realy get going so I went back my Serbian save that was abandoned somewhat after such a bizarre lack of consistency. I joined after I left off in a relegation battle and champions league group stages. Anyway I had a lot of money and so I changed tactics to those that won it all for me in Switzerland and bought in Luiz Carlos and Raymond Langseth for around £2M total at Christmas to go along with the excellent Dejan Musemic . In the tight league we couldn't quite jump up to win it and finished 3rd, only good enough for UEFA cup now the bug that gave Serbia really high coefficients has sorted itself out. We went on a good run in the cup (and got lucky), non league in first round, Partizan (tough) in second round, decent superleague team in quarter final, first league side in semi and relegation candidate in the final so we won it comfortably.

In Europe we faced Portsmouth in 3rd Qualifying winning 6-4 agg. drawing Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Dinamo Kiev in the group. Our ineptness to put away Dinamo Kiev (2 draws) led to us finishing 3rd with 3 points in the group (very brief update some of these games I played months ago). This set up a match against Feyenoord that I really should have won at home but didn't .

2008/09 4th First League

2009/10 6th Super League

2010/11 12th Super League

2011/12 2nd Super League

2012/13 11th Super League

2013/14 3rd Super League

2014/15 3rd Super League + Serbian Cup

Spartak Subotica; 125th, 22.881 Serbia; 21st, 18.071

[daemonic]

Originally posted by ghostwriter:

Upfront Renato is still as awesome and the new Pole is pretty good, although he had a very dodgy patch and even moaned that I was not critisizing him enough. Never seen that before.

That is an odd one alright. What personality type is he.

Did you give him a bollocking after that to see his reaction?

[Quacky]

Has anyone ever had this before, a hat trick of penalties in a game. The result is not too impressive really btw, its only 1st round of the cup against a team struggling in bottom of first league.

[daemonic]

Nepenthez has as part of this challenge link

I think 11-0 is a good result no matter the opposition btw. Damned good return from 15 shots on target.

[Quacky]

Can't compete with his Northern Irish weirdness, so many games, so bad players. Crazy results everywhere