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[FM17] Rapid Chisinau - Home is where the heart is (youth only)


LPQR

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So, it has come to this. Considering the timing, possibly my final long-term career in this year's FM, after the Sparta & Artium saves have both reached a somewhat natural finish point. We managed to achieve complete domestic domination as well as reach the CL final with Sparta with a team full of academy products and we climbed our way out from the 6th tier of Italy all the way to a Europa League win with Artium, all done with Italian u21 signings only. Both incredibly enjoyable and challenging, both clubs created from scratch in their respected nations.

So, as a somewhat tangible pattern emerges, and as I quickly get bored with traditional FM saves, I've decided there's only one thing I can do to motivate me enough to play FM17 anymore: a youth challenge in my home town - Chisinau, the capital city of Republic of Moldova. And yes, with a created club :)

Here it is in all its' glory (view from the south city entrance, 'Portile Orasului')

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Chișinău - population 700,000

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Population - 3,5 Million

 

The story is one that reflects the dire situation of Moldovan football since, well.... forever. We've barely had a team reach the CL or the Europa league groups in our entire history and football is practically non-existent in a competitive, healthy format. Much like any other branch of the sports & culture infrastructure, football is completely disregarded and underfunded by the government. The biggest two clubs are Zimbru Chisinau and Sheriff Tiraspol. The latter is based in Transnistria, a semi-autonomous region to the east of the country and quickly reached a dominant position domestically after investment from seriously questionable figures (*coughs* ex-KGB bosses living in Tiraspol *coughs*)

Their only goal is reaping off the few million Euros the club gets every year for making it to the CL playoffs and their club policy is, well... all about the money again. In the last 10 years, Sheriff have brought in at least a few hundred U16 Brazilians in the hope they can have a new Ronaldinho with a Moldovan passport. Their entire team is made of naturalised foreigners and they have no interest in developing local talent. As for where the Moldovan NT and local leagues stand... well...

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It's a shite state of affairs to be in, Tommy,

With that in mind, here comes Dorin Ciobanu - failed professional Moldovan player (thanks to a corrupt system and a greedy f*** agent) invests all his personal savings in creating new club in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.  With the aim of running an honest, progressive football club and helping his home nation escape the obscurity of football, Dorin travels around Moldova for two months and convinces a few dozen local u21's to join him in his revolutionary project (players added via the editor with max PA of 100).

 
Goals & Rules

- only Moldovan players brought into the club via the academy can play for the club

- develop the Moldovan league & national team standings (main)

- conquer Europe (secondary)

 

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credits to the Pixar design team for their help with the logo (just kidding, my non-existent artistic touch again)

 

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With the help of some rich friends in Italy (his mom and dad), Dorin invests about 4 million Euros into the club's youth & training facilities. The sum is added to the club's debt and will be gradually repaid once the club is profitable. We've also managed to rent the republican stadium for 10k a year, which is nice, considering that stadium has only been used a few times in its' history and a 13,000 capacity is the stuff dreams are made of. Poor pitch, poor conditions and corporate facilities, but hey... it's Moldova.
 
 
 
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high quality seating at 'The Republican'
 
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So here we are. We're all set to re-dignify our small and not-so-proud nation. Well, being the poorest country in Europe and with an average wage of just under 200 quid a month, we can at least try to give them something to be happy about, at least in football.
 
*I'll be updating the thread with new posts from my blog about the progress here plus some exclusive sporadic banter*
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Glad to see you back here, your careers are some of the finest in this forum. :thup: You've given yourself an absolute massive challenge here, though, given how hard capped the generation of youth is in FM in "lesser reputation" nations. But if there's any manager that can do it, it's you.

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17 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

A different save!!Good luck mate are you going to get national job too??

hopefully! so far it seems like Dobrovolschi is here to stay...

Image result for igor dobrovolski

Interesting facts about Mr. Igor - apart from being a Zimbru legend and Moldova's NT manager, he actually founded a club called Academia Chisinau in 2006 that made commitments to develop local youth. They're doing alright so far - consistent performances in the top flight....  This is good news for Moldova, I didn't know about that until just recently. Hopefully they can join us in providing some decent talent to the NT.

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16 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

Woohoo -- looking forward to this one.  The Republican shall become a fortress.  Loving the Trainspotting gif as well.

jump on board ;) 

 

13 hours ago, noikeee said:

Glad to see you back here, your careers are some of the finest in this forum. :thup: You've given yourself an absolute massive challenge here, though, given how hard capped the generation of youth is in FM in "lesser reputation" nations. But if there's any manager that can do it, it's you.

Ah, thanks mate :) I really should have finished off the Artium one properly given I've hardly written anything about it in 12 seasons, but i just played it waaay to fast :lol: Hopefully we can get somewhere with this! 

 

5 hours ago, Keano16 said:

Excited for this!

;) 

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2016-17

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Promotion!

:) well... the all U21 squad we've managed to put together proved to be quite a strong bunch, after all. With a media expectation of 3rd, we shook off all doubts and clinched the title with a game in hand remaining.

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League Table

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Squad

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Key Players

Both Rosca and Zabun excelled this season. They look like really good players for the top flight already and I'm hopeful we can keep them at the club. 

Mihai Rosca 

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Artiom Zabun

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Youth Intake

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our very first intake and it's an excellent one :) Costea and Mosteanu were promoted straight to the first team and were hugely impressive in the handful of appearances they've managed til the end of the season. Mosteanu has 8 goals in his first 6 senior appearances! Mihalcea doesn't look bad either, although we'll see how good of a wingback he can become, given my current tactics.

Cristian Mosteanu   /  Radu Costea

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Tactical Musings

Ever since my beginnings with Artium Firenze, I've developed a certain addiction for the 3-4-3, in its' many forms, shapes and applications. I never got to write about it simply because of the incredible amount of versions of this formation I have used. One would argue this is more of a 3-5-2 or whatever it looks like on the tactic screen, but if you've read any of my previous stuff you'd already be convinced of how little that matters.

In short and without going into too much detail about the ins and outs of this system, it's a counter-attacking 3-4-3 with the three men up top pressing the opposition high up the pitch and a very flexible bank of defensive players. Key elements:

1. the half-back splitting the CD's wide and providing good cover for the wing-backs that venture high up the pitch in attacking transitions

2. the left wing-back cutting inside and improving possession-based pressing 

3. the defensive forward acting as both, pressing workhorse & pivot for on-running AM and CWB

4. early crosses exploit speed of front three

 

There's a lot more to it, of course, but I don't want to turn this into a tactical post yet :) 

 

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So far we're doing well with this approach and the intake we've had provided us with some excellent potential options for this system. Mosteanu and Costea are perfect for the DF/AM pairing and I'm looking forward to developing them in these roles. 


 

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15 minutes ago, Keano16 said:

What a rapid rise!

aye, the second division is an absolute joke of a league, tbh. we'll see how we do in the national division, although by the looks of it we can aim for a mid-table finish. And when i say mid-table... well, there's only 10 teams in the Moldovan top flight :lol:

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Always loved the names of some of the teams: Speranta Nisporeni, Real Succes, Intersport-Aroma, Trachia Taraclia... and my all time favorite Saxan Ceadir-Lunga. There so much poetry there. Sometimes when I read livescore results of Moldova I feel like listening to this.

I figure you won't have any problems in surviving in a rather poor league and maybe even wining it in around 3 years. But raising the quality of Moldovian (is that right spelling?) football is a pretty darn hard task.

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40 minutes ago, Muttley84 said:

Always loved the names of some of the teams: Speranta Nisporeni, Real Succes, Intersport-Aroma, Trachia Taraclia... and my all time favorite Saxan Ceadir-Lunga. There so much poetry there. Sometimes when I read livescore results of Moldova I feel like listening to this.

I figure you won't have any problems in surviving in a rather poor league and maybe even wining it in around 3 years. But raising the quality of Moldovian (is that right spelling?) football is a pretty darn hard task.

that song :lol: baaai...  genial 

Yeah, the league is a joke, so I expect to get to the top pretty quickly as well. As for raising the bar, well, at least in FM terms this is how it works: do well in Europe. effect A - invest money in facilities & staff and get better local talent. effect B - raise the profile and standings of club and local league. 

Given that we're going to be massive underdogs there for years to come, this is when my tactics will prove their worth :D Btw, love the current 3-4-3, it's incredibly frustrating for the opposition, I'd probably have a nervous breakdown if someone played like that against me :lol:

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I'm playing my own youth only save in Moldova as Sfintul Gheorghe.  Becoming a top 4 side alongside Sheriff, Zimbru and Dacia wasn't too difficult.  Getting comfortably ahead of Zimbru and Dacia wasn't too bad either.  Sheriff though are a nightmare.  They're so much richer and have way better players than the other teams.

Just like you said in your opening post they like importing players and don't seem too concerned with local talent despite great facilities.  They often loan in great players from places like Bosnia, Ukraine and Croatia too.

I'm in my 12th season and the title race is basically us vs Sheriff, with Zimbru and Dacia way off.  I've won 2 titles, 2 cups, 1 Super Cup and reached the Europa League group stages once, somehow drawing twice with Wolfsburg.

The top flight is a big step up from the 2nd tier, even if most of the teams still aren't great.  One AI team which got promoted was relegated with just 2 points, so there is a gap.  Artiom Zabun should do very well though.  I have a similar player in my squad.

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2 hours ago, Sir_Liam said:

I'm playing my own youth only save in Moldova as Sfintul Gheorghe.  Becoming a top 4 side alongside Sheriff, Zimbru and Dacia wasn't too difficult.  Getting comfortably ahead of Zimbru and Dacia wasn't too bad either.  Sheriff though are a nightmare.  They're so much richer and have way better players than the other teams.

Just like you said in your opening post they like importing players and don't seem too concerned with local talent despite great facilities.  They often loan in great players from places like Bosnia, Ukraine and Croatia too.

I'm in my 12th season and the title race is basically us vs Sheriff, with Zimbru and Dacia way off.  I've won 2 titles, 2 cups, 1 Super Cup and reached the Europa League group stages once, somehow drawing twice with Wolfsburg.

The top flight is a big step up from the 2nd tier, even if most of the teams still aren't great.  One AI team which got promoted was relegated with just 2 points, so there is a gap.  Artiom Zabun should do very well though.  I have a similar player in my squad.

thanks for your post, delighted to hear someone else is managing in Moldova :) aye, the league shouldn't be much of a challenge and I will definitely enjoy our rivalry with Sheriff. Can I ask how come you've decided to play with Sf Gheorghe?

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I've played quite a bit ahead due to how gripped I am to this save - haven't had this feeling in months! One thing I'm thinking already is that I might have made it a bit too easy by having that starting boost for the youth facilities. To be fair though, I hate have to drag 3-4 years just to be able to produce decent enough talent. The same Hagi built his top-rated academy in about a year, so I'm not sure how to morally position myself towards this one :D

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3 hours ago, LPQR said:

thanks for your post, delighted to hear someone else is managing in Moldova :) aye, the league shouldn't be much of a challenge and I will definitely enjoy our rivalry with Sheriff. Can I ask how come you've decided to play with Sf Gheorghe?

I wanted to do a youth only save in Eastern Europe, but not one of the leading nations.  After checking the editor for a team with good youth recruitment in such a country I chose Sfintul Gheorghe as they had one of the best youth recruitment ratings in Moldova.

I deliberately targeted a team with high youth recruitment because that is very difficult to raise in game, so I preferred to start with a higher rating.

My club has developed a rivalry with Sheriff now, and my title battles with them are fantastic, as much as they annoy me.

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1 hour ago, Sir_Liam said:

I wanted to do a youth only save in Eastern Europe, but not one of the leading nations.  After checking the editor for a team with good youth recruitment in such a country I chose Sfintul Gheorghe as they had one of the best youth recruitment ratings in Moldova.

I deliberately targeted a team with high youth recruitment because that is very difficult to raise in game, so I preferred to start with a higher rating.

My club has developed a rivalry with Sheriff now, and my title battles with them are fantastic, as much as they annoy me.

aye, that's why I 'invested' in youth facilities straight away in the editor. just a massive pain, really, especially if you have an un-cooperative board. I remember in my Artium save, I've only managed to get training facilities to two and a half stars in 11 years due to how stubborn the board were. Very happy to hear of a fellow youth save in Moldova, let me know how you get on! :)

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17 minutes ago, LPQR said:

aye, that's why I 'invested' in youth facilities straight away in the editor. just a massive pain, really, especially if you have an un-cooperative board. I remember in my Artium save, I've only managed to get training facilities to two and a half stars in 11 years due to how stubborn the board were. Very happy to hear of a fellow youth save in Moldova, let me know how you get on! :)

I'm sure I'll mention bits about my save when replying in here.  My board has actually been very good with facilities though, and just as I saw your post here I got the news message saying my training and youth facilities had been upgraded.  They've agreed to upgrade the training facilities again immediately. :)

Youth recruitment is a different matter though, although I'm not too bothered as it started higher.

I look forward to reading of your progress anyway.  I read your Romanian topic after you'd finished it and enjoyed it. :thup:

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2017-2018

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khm khm.... 

Domestic Double!

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Well... I certainly didn't expect this and neither did anyone else, by the looks of it :) We were predicted to finish 7th at the start of the season so to win the league (and the cup!), even if by one solitary point is a massive surprise. Big credit goes to last year's great intake which provided us with the two players who ran the show this season:

Costea / Mosteanu

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Squad

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Youth Intake
 
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Another intake I'm very happy with, particularly because of George Badea. For the level we're currently at, he looks like the stuff dreams are made of, plus a professional personality and really good determination. Melinte also looks really good and just as last year, both of the best prospects in the intake have been promoted straight to the first team and given some playing time to accelerate their development.

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In other news, we're drawing some amazing crowds at the Republican, and this has been a key ingredient for a nice and stable rise in our finances. Even though we only charge 6 quid for a ticket :lol: 

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Speaking of finances.... we're expected to see them go through the roof after finishing first this season. We've qualified for a Champions league knock-out round spot and we should expect some decent money coming in for a club of our size. I can't emphasize enough how important European football is for any club playing in a league that is as low-rated is ours. To put things in perspective...

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This is the prize money structure for the Moldovan top division. Coupled with the TV rights for our league, this results in just above half a million per season providing you win everything there is to win domestically. Just participating in the CL knock out rounds/playoffs generates 10 times more income. Even if you don't make it to the CL groups, you get 310k for winning a match in the Europa league group stage and the TV rights for any of the CL/EL participation are a mammoth figure for any club in Moldova. 

This is why it is important to develop the local league. This is why we need to raise the bar domestically and inject some home-grown talent in the division. I'm not going to completely deprive myself of credit here but the fact we've managed to get to the top of Moldovan football so quickly just shows how poor the league is, even Sheriff with their supposedly talented foreign region. 

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Well done getting ahead of Sheriff so quickly, it took me a lot longer. :(

The league reputation has fallen heavily on my game, going down to about 96th on the list at its worst.  It's risen a few places this season because I reached the EL group stage.  I think the most frustrating thing about Sheriff on my game is that they have much better players than my team and everyone else, yet don't perform at all in Europe, therefore depriving the league of coefficient points and reputation.  As they win the league most seasons they still get the most European prize money though.

If you can win the league regularly, and perform better in Europe than Sheriff do on mine hopefully you can avoid the reputation drop, and perhaps weaken Sheriff over time (no CL money for them and less reputation etc), because on mine I've won 16 of 18 so far this season and am still only 1 point clear of them (and that's despite me beating them when we played).

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2018-2019

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First European Journey

as we finished the last season as champions, we qualify for the 2nd knock-out round in CL, where we meet Qarabag FK, based in Azerbaijan

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two tense matches see us through to the next round! this time we really are the David and them the Goliath as we come up against RB Salzburg. 

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well... what can be said, overjoyed with that! :) sensational stuff and we almost threw it away in the second leg, having been leading 3-0 at half time. next up is Legia Warsawa, a serious opponent 

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we lose with our heads held up, having made a good couple million pounds profit out of the playoffs and heading straight to the Europa League groups! 

drawn against the likes of Anderlecht and BATE Borisov, we exceed all expectations by qualifying to the next round! 

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we played some incredible matches in the group, including a 5-0 dismantling of BATE and wins against Anderlecht and Braga

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So, yes.... we're through to the next round!!! This is already an incredible performance, as our expectations were to only get to the 3rd qualifying round of the CL. Next up is, well.... Valencia...

First leg of the first K.O. round sees us keep a scoreless draw at the Republican, to my utter disbelief

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What happens in the second leg... is history. Badea capitalises on Valencia's red card and takes a low finish in the dying minutes of the match to send us through to the next round!

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The draw is far from kind on us and we get.... Man City. 

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Destroyed in the first away leg and a more than respectable performance at home against what is pretty much City's B team. The star of the campaign for us has undoubtedly been Badea, who is quickly developing as a star striker for us. Already capped for the NT at the age of 17 and with a goal under his belt in his first two appearances, surely he's one of the best Moldovan strikers around at the moment.

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All in all... I could not have dreamed of a better performance for our first year in Europe. First, I'm sure our reputation will improve after this, and secondly....

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We make a net profit of 11 million pounds and our balance goes up 13 times compared to last season. The money goes straight into new facilities and some increased wages for the staff. Considering we're only spending £9,000 on wages at this point, things are looking pretty f*** good on the finances front. 

 

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37 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

Quiet the start to your European adventures! Well done!

thanks! yeah, i'm pretty chuffed with that. the gap in quality between us and the rest is at least astronomic. teams in sky bet league two have better players than we do

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9 minutes ago, adamdfry said:

The money is rolling in! You must be richer than Epic Sax Guy now!

Moldova GDP - 6.5 Billion USD

Manchester United enterprise value - 3.5 Billion USD

our country is twice as valuable as Man United! if we keep winning in Europe we might just overtake them

NRK P3 eurovision nrk p3 markus GIF

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2018 - 2019

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Season Review

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Key Players

Radu Costea / George Badea

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The terrific duo upfront has been tearing defences apart this year. Plenty of potential ahead and a system that seems to exploit their best qualities are definitely things to look forward to.
 

All in all, only the league win this year, and that by very close margins. our consolation will be the terrific performance in Europe and another good intake:

Youth Intake

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Radescu / Milenovici

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Milenovici was promoted straight to the first team due to how good he is already. hopefully his potential is indeed as high as the scout suggests as we are in desperate need of talent for our defence. 

That's pretty much it for this season. We're quickly establishing ourselves as the dominant force domestically and by the looks of it, we're not going to be challenged much. Hopefully Zimbru & Sheriff pump a bit of money in and recruit some talent, otherwise I'll literally be playing just for the European cups. 
 

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Well done, great progress.

I wish Sheriff would perform like that on mine.  I had to win 28 out of 33 games (I've got 12 teams in my version) to finish 2 points ahead of them.

Badea is fantastic.  He reminds me a bit of my best striker for years, so he should do well for a long time.

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19 minutes ago, Sir_Liam said:

Well done, great progress.

I wish Sheriff would perform like that on mine.  I had to win 28 out of 33 games (I've got 12 teams in my version) to finish 2 points ahead of them.

Badea is fantastic.  He reminds me a bit of my best striker for years, so he should do well for a long time.

aye, he's our best player, no doubt. my only issue is the fact that our squad is very 'undetermined' and that is affecting him and other players with high determination. It's already gone down from 17 to 16 so I don't think we're expecting any happy days about that, given we can't sign anyone

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On 2017-6-26 at 01:24, noikeee said:

I don't understand how good you are at this game. It's like, magic. Bloody hell. Insane scenes here already knocking out Valencia and all.

:lol: thanks mate

On 2017-6-26 at 07:59, Benjoe said:

This is starting out like thunder! Big things coming.

aye, definitely not what i expected, hopefully so!

45 minutes ago, mbowen17 said:

Loving this save mate. Looking forward to reading more. 

good to see you here mate :) and there shall be more, sir.... there shall be more :D

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5 hours ago, LPQR said:

:lol: thanks mate

aye, definitely not what i expected, hopefully so!

good to see you here mate :) and there shall be more, sir.... there shall be more :D

Good to be here mate. First time really in the forums. 😂 

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1 hour ago, ManUtd1 said:

We'll try to go easy on you :lol:

Welcome aboard!

you might as well do! here are the kits the above mentioned gent has designed for us :) 

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everyone give it up for designer-in-chief @mbowen17

 

The Academy Awards oscars academy awards applause clapping GIF

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