Back to Africa - Les Astres FC

[ToMexico!!]

Cameroon

A French and English speaking former German colony that is bordered by Nigeria to the North-West, Chad & Central African Republic to the East and Gabon & Congo to the South. Its capital is Yaounde but its in Douala which lies on the coast where I begin my quest for dominance in Cameroon and then the continent as a whole. 

Les Astres FC de Douala

More commonly known as just Astres the club find themselves in the 2nd tier of Cameroonian club football along with the likes of Renaissance and Yafoot. After finishing 7th last season in the top flight they were somehow relegated to the 2nd Division and the club are predicted to finish higher up in 3rd place, which if achieved will mean promotion back to the top flight. 

The club play their home games at Stade de la Reunification, which is owned by fellow 2nd division side New Star. Facilities are as expected, quite poor with Below Average training & Basic youth facilities. 

Facilities

This is the first team squad, which is quite an ageing squad. The better players are below.

Mangolo | Bassama | Essombo

Finances are listed as Okay.

We have a small transfer budget which I may use but we have no wiggle room in the wage budget for any new signings yet. 

Tactically I want to try something different, to mould a team into a tactic not sign players and keep swapping their roles about. I've never used proper wing backs in this game, nor have I ever used a Segundo Volante properly. This will be an experiment. 

This could go horribly wrong. 

There is some room to bring in some new staff. First and foremost a HoYD. Then a coach and scout. 

I'm looking forward to seeing where this one goes, hopefully as far and successful as my Ashanti Gold save from yesteryear. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

First Season Deals - Sept 2019

With an unfamiliar tactic set to be deployed I needed to bring in some players in what were key positions that we were lacking quality in. 

Lets talk about the outs first, Megonte was out first despite playing AMR, a position we would use, he was pretty useless. Menjengoue (37) was another surplus player who was wasting wages, alone he must bring the average age down by 2 years . Deffo and Wamou were both 3rd choice in their positions, freeing up wages as they go. Nsombo left on deadline day, the central midfielder offered nothing defensively to contribute at DM nor would he get ahead of the two youngsters who will rotate in AMC.

Mba joins on loan and slots straight in at AMR. Chimene was signed to be first choice as the anchorman but has been dropped to the bench already with the arrival of Perfection who was signed on a free after his release from Roma. Mvoue will be first choice AMC, the 17 year old signed from Azur Star Inter who only have youth players. Ele will be first choice CB and to the right of him will be Kong after we spent £26.5k on him to make him our RWB, he drops down a division to sign. Albouy was the new HoYD signing and lastly Pouaty joins to become first choice GK. 

[ToMexico!!]

2nd League Game of the Season - Oct 2019

So, the first two games of the season were pretty uneventful...

A straight forward cup win against lower league opposition then we faced the club top of the league (they'd played two games already), we drew. Then...

Yep, that's right 13-0. Let it be said that Universitie Ngaoundere aren't great, they probably have one player who could get into my team but christ on a bike. Mangolo smashes in eight for himself whilst Essombo bags three and assists five. 

This could be fun!

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - Feb 2020

Not sure what to make of this, a potential golden generation. We must remember we have Average academy coaching and Fairly Basic youth recruitment. With our tactic we need defensive midfielders, wing-backs, wingers and attacking midfielders; of which we have no real prospects coming through. 

[cerud]

Fun idea managing in Africa! Are you planning to try can take Les Astres to the heights of African football or is this more of a journeyman career?

[ToMexico!!]

11 hours ago, cerud said:

Fun idea managing in Africa! Are you planning to try can take Les Astres to the heights of African football or is this more of a journeyman career?

Purely taking Astres to the heights of African football and to improve the national team as much as I can. I did it back on FM19 with Ashanti Gold in Ghana where I got to 2044 before stopping. I was selling players to Premiership clubs for £20-£30m each.

I don't plan to make this a youth only save but mix it up to make the club self sustaining through youth academy product sales. 

I've nearly finished my first season already but need to go out for work today so a season review will be up later today. 

[ToMexico!!]

2019/20 Season Review - Cameroonian 2nd Division

What a season, I'm not sure if we've stumbled across some sort of super tactic (I doubt it) or we're just so vastly better than other teams (probably). The season is 28 games long and we managed to scored 140 goals and concede just 14, complete the season unbeaten and yet we only finished 5 points clear of second placed Unisport. 

League Table

We had some cracking results this season, above you can see what was just our 3rd competitive game of the season. We also won games 12-0, 11-0, 10-1, 8-0 and 7-0 along with numerous other games where we scored four or five goals. Most of these goals were down to one man, Aime Mangolo who scored 62 league goals in 27 (1) games and also scored eight goals in the Cameroonian Cup. Francky Essombo also contributed hugely with 23 goals and a whopping 34 assists in 32 appearances. On loan winger Mba also hit double figures for both goals and assists whilst wing-backs Kong and Dourwe made 20 and 15 assists apiece. 

Squad

In the Cameroonian Cup we reached the Quarter Finals where we were knocked out by Canon Spotif de Yaounde (or Canon Sport for short). We beat lower league opposition in AS Belabo, Federal de Noun, fellow 2nd Division side Racing Bafoussam and 1st Division strugglers PWD Bamenda before bowing out. 

With promotion in the bag the board have given me £37k to spend on new players whilst they have increased the wage budget by over £20k p/w from £3,886 to £25,457 p/w. Whilst increasing the wage budget they've increased their expectation for the next season and beyond. 

We're now required to finish in the top half of the table next season and challenge for the title the year after. The board have also added a couple of cultures in playing attacking and high-tempo pressing football which I am doing anyway. 

Youth Intake

We get our intake of new youth players in early May which is after the season has finished.

This is not a great first intake and never a potential golden generation that it was said to be. Definately some work to be done in building up the Recruitment and the Coaching. 

The challenge for the close season now is to renew contracts for the players that I think will be able to compete in the top flight and make the right additions to the squad. My preference is always to sign young players who can grow with the club and potentially sell into Europe. I will be scouring the released players of top European clubs in a bid to bring these young Cameroonians back to their homeland. 

[ToMexico!!]

Squad Strengthening - Summer 2020

After a straight forward promotion last season the boards expectations went beyond what any normal promoted clubs expectations would be. Instead of just avoiding relegation, my board wanted a top half finish. However, they did back me with a mightily increased wage budget from just under £4k p/w to £25k p/w. 

Before I could start strengthening I had to get rid of the dead wood, out with the old before in with the new. I previously said that we had an ageing squad, eight players over the age of 30 left this summer. Although I did bring three players over the age of 30 into the squad I signed a number of youngsters to bring sort of balance to the average age of the squad. 

Most of the transfers happened before the league ticks over into the new season so the screenshots aren't great. But below are all the transfers we made. 

I won't go into every deal but highlight the best deals I made this summer. Landry Choupo, released by fellow promoted side Unisport, he will become understudy to last season goals machine Mangolo. Comora Karamoko is the first foreign player we have signed, the 31 year old was released by top flight side Coton Sport, he will play as rotation at RWB. Kostka Effa was a pre-arranged deal from a month or two prior, capped by Cameroon, he will be first choice Anchorman in the new season. Big Sebastian Bassong, the former Tottenham and Norwich CB at 34 years old he doesn't have the legs anymore but will add a wealth of experience to my side. Ndongo and Chamdjou come in to add quality to either flank, out and out wingers which will have to adapt to the inside forward role. Jonathan Ngock Italeng is an exciting prospect, released by Atalanta, I snapped him up to initially sit in the U19s with the view to promote him next season. 

Squad

We've still got £19k p/w left in the wage budget but I won't spend it unnecessarily and cause the club to have financial problems in the coming seasons.  

[Jimbokav1971]

Phenomenal 1st season. 

But the fact that the Runners Up also smashed teams, (albeit less heavily), suggests that it's not a super-tactic and you are just better than the other teams. 

[ToMexico!!]

3 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Phenomenal 1st season. 

But the fact that the Runners Up also smashed teams, (albeit less heavily), suggests that it's not a super-tactic and you are just better than the other teams. 

Thank you!!

Yeah its not a super tactic  I think the fact we played just two out and out defenders along with the opposition being so poor we had some tremendous scorelines. We're coming up to the beginning of the new season in the top flight, so it will be interesting to see if we can continue the scoring trend and continue to win games comfortably. 

[ToMexico!!]

Read the Rules - Oct 2020

The new season is upon us and I selected the first XI which would take to the field against AS Fortuna in our first league game of the campaign. Well...I introduce exhibit a. 

"the match squad must have no more than 0 foreign players"

Good job I only signed one then, I only wanted to play him as my first choice RWB is injured for the first three games of the season. 

I'm quite pleased with this rule actually. No foreign talent means Cameroon players will benefit thus the National team(s) benefit. Developing youth becomes even more paramount and a good home nation scouting network too. 

Continental competition will differ, foreign players will be allowed to play but whats the point of signing them when they can only play a limited number of games. 

[ToMexico!!]

2020/21 Season Review - Cameroonian First Division

After last season emphatic promotion, the board expected a top half finish, whilst the media fancied us to finish in 3rd place. We strengthened very well in the close season adding a mix of youth and experience. 

Just like last season in the 2nd tier we drew the opening game of the season before going on to smash the opposition in the next game of the season, this time it Dragon de Youande who succumbed to a 8-1 drubbing. From then on in we didn't drop points again until the 24th game of the season, losing to Eding Sport 1-0. We lost twice more in the season to UMS Loum and Fovu Club to finish the season with a record of 29-2-3 and win the league title by 9 points to second placed Coton Sport. By winning the league we take the sole spot in the African Champions League qualifying stage. 

League Table

The board wanted us to go two further this season and reach the final of the Cameroonian Cup. We did just that and went even further by winning the competition, beating Panthere du Nde in final, 4-2. We beat Foke FC, Avion, Foncha, Coton Sport and Racing Bafoussam along the way. 

Cameroonian Cup

Last seasons legend Aime Mangolo declined so much over the course of the summer than he dropped to 3rd choice in the striker ranks, so it was down to newly signed Landry Choupo to fill the void and fire in the goals. In 37(3) games he scored 43 goals and made 10 assists. Back up striker/right winger Aurelien Chamdjou scored 19 whilst arguably my player of the season Robert Ndongo scored 23 goals and made 24 assists from left wing, the 18 year olds form leading to speculation to a full international call up. 

Squad

Choupo | Ngondo | Chamdjou

Off the pitch not much happened, we lost plenty of money over the course of the season despite being around £20k under the weekly wage budget. The finances were recouped by sponsorship deals which totalled £130k. I signed a new contract worth £1.1k p/w. 

Finances

Youth Intake

One player tagged and that's Nelson Esua. Only the top 7/8 will be signed. 

Career Summary

 

[kidthekid]

incredible progress so far. I'll never forget the 140 goals in 28 games, anytime soon.

Edited April 25, 2020 by kidthekid

[ToMexico!!]

35 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

incredible progress so far. I'll never forget the 140 goals in 28 games, anytime soon.

Thanks, its been a bit too easy to be honest but not completely straightforward domestically with the three losses in the league. 

Its the Champions League where it could take a few seasons to even reach the group stages. 

140 goals was pretty immense, its exactly 5 goals per game too  

[ToMexico!!]

Fine Tuning - Summer 2021

After last seasons mass influx of players this season was more about fine tuning the squad to try and fill the gaps. 

The transfer screens are a little messed up so lets take a closer look. Mark O'Ojong is a left mid/winger but I've signed him to become first choice LWB. I purely looked for a left winger that had decent defensive attributes, Mark's tackling, positioning and work rate are pretty decent for this level already. Carlos Kameni, now 37 years old and due to retire when this season is over, he comes in purely to mentor last seasons tagged youth player Esua, thats until Esua has to be in the first team to be mentored, a season too soon really. Frederic Bong is another elder statesman at 34 but he brings more experience having played in France for Niort, Paris FC and Valenciennes (his last season in France was in Ligue 1). Sandio was signed on a free from Portuguese side Condeixa, a recommendation from one of my scouts. He's a regista by trade and his inclusion will bring a slightly more attacking threat from deep. 

Al-Khor came in for Effa and that was that, I renegotiated from the initial offer of 35k to double that plus 50% sell on, a clause which I have already sold for £160k. Karamoko left on a free having played just 6 minutes of football for us in the Cameroonian Cup. With Bong joining I had one too many CBs, Toukam was loaned to Panthere for some valuable first team experience. Djoubairou just didn't fit in, a central midfielder who couldn't adapt to playing a deeper role, nor a more advanced one. Rather than having an unhappy player upsetting the rest of the squad off he went. 

I'm probably one player light with only having one right wing back, fortunately Dourwe is a right footed, left wing back so he can fill in when required. 

[ToMexico!!]

First Upgrade - Oct 2021

The board rejected improving the youth facilities and the youth recruitment before accepting to increase the junior coaching after some persuasion. 

[ToMexico!!]

2021/22 Season Review - Cameroonian First Division

Could we retain the title this season? Could we make it a double-double? How would we fare with the Champions League too? 

We got off to the perfect start in the league, winning the first game of the season for the first time this save. However, we dropped points in the 3rd game against YOSA, it was the same club that was the next to take points off us again as we drew 1-1, we had won every game in between (14 wins in a row). With Champions League involvement the game began to really rack up and with just a days rest in between games sometimes. We really started to struggle at the business end of the season when games came thick and fast, thankfully we had built up a 9 point lead by the time we dropped points against Canon Yaounde, Union Duoala, PWD Bamenda and Unisport in successive games. A win against AS Fortuna gave us breathing room and with a game to spare Coton Sport failed to get the win they needed to ensure we had to win the last game of the season. 

League Table

We won the Cameroonian Cup in straight forward fashion without playing spectacularly. We beat Union Douala in the final 2-0. 

Cameroonian Cup

The Champions League was the competition we needed to concentrate on, we had to gauge how good we were against the elite of African football. The ACL campaign started before the old season officially ended, you can see we beat Likhopo of Lesotho comfortably 9-0 in the 2nd leg (13-0 on aggregate). We were drawn against Tunisian side ES Sahel and to be honest I thought that was the end of the campaign for us, however a 2-0 home win was followed by a 2-1 away loss which sent us through to the group stages. We were drawn against two Egyptian sides in Ah-Ahly and Pyramids FC and another North African side ES Setif of Algeria, a tough group. 

We more than held our own against the three sides and ended up finishing top of the group with four wins, losing to Ah-Ahly home and away. We were drawn against Sundowns from South Africa in the quarter final. We lost 3-1 in the away leg but somehow kept a clean sheet at home to advance with a 2-0 win and an away goals victory. However, another Egyptian team Zamalek were one step too far for us and comfortably beat us 4-1 on aggregate. 

African Champions League

Like I said fighting on three fronts meant the squad was overused in places, towards the end of the season player fitness became a real issue but we coped well enough to win the domestic double. Landry Choupo continued his goal scoring heroics with 41 in all competitions this season. He was backed up again by wingers Ndongo and Chamdjou, who scored 26 and 25 goals apiece. Ze Essono, Perfection and Essombo all scored double figures also. Robert Ndongo was also in a rich vein assist form, making 21 assists this season. Sandio, Essombo, Mvoue, Kong and O'Ojong all hit double figures for assists. 

Squad

Off the field we made one improvement to the the Junior Coaching which now sits at an Adequate level. Finances improved considerably due to the ACL involvement, wins in the group stage each giving us £100k and we were also given £600k in prize money for achieving a semi-final finish. Due to the financial situation I have asked the board to make improvements to the youth facilities and the youth recruitment which they eventually obliged to. 

Finances

Youth Intake

Annoyingly another goalkeeping prospect who is probably slightly worse than Esou who came through last season but he does have a better personality. Top 6/7 will be signed. 

Season Summary

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Coaching Course - Sept 2022

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Transfers Update - Sept 2022

With last seasons issue of fixture congestion on my mind I wanted to bulk out the squad a bit more. We were lacking in defensive areas more so than in attack so that's where I aimed to strengthen first. 

We were given near on £200k to spend on new players and had plenty of room in the wage budget. Djombissie was signed first and joins as AMR back up. Djouguela was the first of two RB's to join, he and Willy Ndongo who joined for 25k were both put on wing-back training. Mongolo, Assana and Kenmogne are all youngsters, all three join the U19s for a season or two. By far my best signing was Raphael Anaba, he joins on a free from Lyon. The 22 year old is a full back by trade but will play CB for us, we're paying him £1,000 a week at the minute, how long I can keep hold of him I'm not sure! Last to join was Moukandjo, a veteran winger who can play either flank or up front. The 33 year old had brief spells at Monaco, Nancy and Lorient in his time in France and had moved to Jiangsu in China before returning to France with Lens and Valenciennes.  

I've spent quite a bit of time skimming through squads from England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Scandinavian leagues to shortlist any players that are Cameroonian or have Cameroon as a second nationality. Hopefully then I can pick up plenty of player likes the Anaba signing from Lyon. 

[ToMexico!!]

Facilities Upgrade - Oct 2022

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Facilities Upgrade - Jan 2023

We finally got the board to accept an upgrade for the Youth Recruitment. 

Will be interesting to see how much more per month we will be spending due to this upgrade. We're around half way through the 2022/23 season now and have spent around 75% of last seasons total spend. 

[ToMexico!!]

Facilities Upgrade - Apr 2023

Finances are much better than expected at this stage of the season so I thought I would get an upgrade in to the Youth Facilities. 

[ToMexico!!]

2022/23 Season Review - Cameroonian First Divison

Expectations hadn't changed much from last season; win the league and reach the group stages of the ACL.

Going into the season I felt much better about the quality of the depth in the squad so hopefully we could avoid the blip in form when the fixture congestion really ramped up. All in all it was a barnstorming season we scored 144 goals (in 34 games) winning all but three games. We set records for most number of wins and points for the season whilst we remained unbeaten through the course of the season. However, we did concede 24 goals which was the most in the three seasons in the top flight so far. 

Unfortunately we didn't hit double figures for goals in a game but did have some big wins including 9-1 over Eding, 8-0 twice over Panthere and Bamboutos and we also hit some sixes and sevens against a few other teams. 

League Table

The board didn't care about the Cameroonian Cup and having won it twice already I gave the opportunity to some of the squad players to keep them happy. We beat Feutcheu, Young Boys, National Poltechnic, Sable, Loum and Union Douala along the way to make it a domestic triple-double. 

Cameroonian Cup

We entered the ACL at the Preliminary Rounds again and beat Simba of Tanzania 3-2 on aggregate to reach the 1st Round. We faced an old enemy from my Ghana save in Asante Kotoko, again we struggled a little but won through 3-1 on aggregate. We were handed a group of ASEC (from Ivory Coast), Wydad Casablanca (Morocco) and ES Tunis (Tunisia). We again, like last season managed 4 wins and two losses and topped the group to qualify for the quarter finals where we would face ES Setif from Algeria. We went to Algeria first and took home a 1-0 win and an important away goal only to throw it all away at home and lose 2-1, thus them advancing on virtue of scoring more away goals. 

Champions League

We added some real quality to the squad this season with the likes of Anaba at CB, Ndongo at RWB and Moukandjo who flittered along the attacking midfield line. Choupo once again scored the most with 38 this season whilst Ze Essono began to fulfil his potential with 27 of his won goals. My top three players for the season are; 

3. Ze Essono - The young winger really took the early chance at AML and made it his own, last season Ngondo scored 26 goals from that position. However, Ze Essono will have to make more of a contribution in his assist play as he only made 9 compared to Ngondo's 21 last season. 

2. Benjamin Moukandjo - The veteran winger was signed purely as a back up but his adaptability to play across the attacking line made him invaluable and he won a new deal a few months back. 19 goals and 9 assists in just 1500 minutes of football is fantastic. 

1. Sandio - our Regista! a role I've never really used before but 11 goals and 21 assists from effectively defensive midfield is fantastic. An average overall rating of 7.90 for the season is colossal 

Squad

Behind the scenes we made plenty of money thanks to the ACL and we began to put that to good use, upgrading the youth facilities and improving the youth recruitment. I also signed another new contract to keep me at the club until the end of the 2024/25 season. 

Finances

Youth Intake

Not the greatest of intakes but some decent players to bulk out the U19 squad. Interesting to see a player with Basque as a 2nd nationality. 

Season Summary

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African Cup of Nations 2023

The only reason I'm highlighting this is because...

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Transfer Update - Sept 2023

Less and less players coming in as we have built a strong squad of players who can't be improved too much upon. We had been given £350k to spend on new players but I felt it was unnecessary to need to spend that money, I may scout the 15/16 year olds that came through in the last intake and cherry pick a few to improve the U19s. 

Cedric Zemba joins after his release from Union Douala, he's in his prime at 28 but will be a rotation player to allow my first choice AMC some rest. Michel Mvondo also joins after his release from a divisional rival, this time Coton Sport. He's a solid DM option despite his age of 30, that now gives me four options in that position. Last to join was Yann Bery Nana, he is quite a coup, signed on a pre-contract agreement from Troyes, he immediately becomes first choice striker despite Choupo recent goal scoring record. 

I also decided to promote three players from the U19s this season Esua (YP21a), Francois Assana and Rostand Kenmogne all link up with the first team squad and will mainly get their chance from the bench and in the cup. 

[Sheriff7]

Good to see Cameroon back to glory days.

[ToMexico!!]

2023/24 Season Review - Cameroonian First Division

We won the league but it wasn't a great season, we struggled quite a bit in places.

After last seasons unbeaten season we lost three games which annoyed me quite a bit, those losses coming against Canon Youande, Union Douala and Unisport. With 8 games remaining we were well on course for breaking our goal scoring record in the league (which is 144) but only to curtail and only score 138 in our 34 league games. However we did get some big wins still; 10-0 over relegated Feutcheu, 9-0 over Botafogo who were also relegated, 8-3, 8-0 and a couple of 7's. 

League

The board don't care about the Cameroonian Cup but we still wanted to do well and reach the final. We didn't achieve that losing in the semi-final to Coton Sport. We did break the record for goals in the competition still, we won 11-0 in the 2nd round against Leopard Douala on the way to scoring 28 goals in the competition (in 5 games). 

Cameroonian Cup

In the ACL we beat MangaSport (of Gabon) 8-1 on aggregate in the Preliminary round. We then beat Al-Merreikh (from Sudan) 8-0 on aggregate to reach the Group Stages once again. We were drawn against ES Setif (Algeria), Sundowns (South Africa) and Petro de Luanda (Angola). We improved our record in the group stages by a point by winning four, drawing one and losing the other. In the Quarter Final were drawn against ES Tunis and won 3-2 on aggregate in a tight affair. In the Semi-Final we were drawn against Egyptian side Zamalek. A 1-1 home draw was over shadowed by absolute drubbing in their back yard, losing 6-0 making it out heaviest ever defeat in all competitions. Shocking. 

African Champions League

We really rotated the squad the a lot more this season some players making as many appearances off the bench and starting and it paid dividends for a while but player fitness became an issue on a couple of occasions where we had to play 3 games in 5 days and 4 games in 7 days. We scored plenty of goals still 193 in all competitions. Top 3 players below;

3. Robert Ndongo - with Ze Essono away on international duty at the beginning of the season, this guy stepped up to retake his AML slot. He finished the season with 17 goals and 20 assists. 

2. Sandio - a really driving force that keeps getting better, 21 assists and 8 goals from DM. Averaged 8.18 rating in the league this season. We knocked back a bid from Al-Hazem a short while ago. 

1. Rostand Kenmogne - promoted to the first team at the beginning of the season and took his chance. Made 37 appearances but 14 of those from the bench. 34 goals and 12 assists for the 18 year old means a goal contribution every 53 minutes. 

Other mentions to Yann Bery Nana with his 26 goals in 31 appearances and 31 goal contributions for Hugues Djombissie at AMR, he really stepped up and made that position his own. 

Squad

Off the pitch we made good progress financially with £1.2m in prize money from the ACL. Gate receipts were up despite only a small rise in the average attendance for the season after a drop of over a 1000 the season before. The training facilities are in line to be upgraded, something I requested at the beginning of the season. It will cost £230k for that to be done. 

Finances

Youth Intake

This is a poor intake. I need to make some more improvements to the junior coaching and the youth recruitment. 

And that's what I've gone and done.

Season Summary

[ToMexico!!]

Tactical Tweak - June 2024

There's one position I just don't get enough out of and that's AMC. 11 goals and 12 assists last season from two players just isn't good enough in a team where all we do is create chances to score. Well both those players have been sold. 

We're pushing the AMC forward to have two strikers now. 

We have two good strikers why not utilise both of them at the same time. I've set the wing-backs to stay wider and the inside-forwards to sit narrower, the hope is to feed the ball out wide quickly, the wingers tuck in to the box and that gives the wing-back four players to cross to. That's the theory anyway. 

I now need to look at bringing in one or two back up strikers to alleviate the pressure on the main front two. Ideally I also need to sign another CB and look at an upgrade for RWB. 

[ToMexico!!]

Nicolas Nkoulou Signs - July 2024

OKay, so £1700 p/w seems a lot for this league but when its a player like Nicolas Nkoulou, you pay up. He's only signed for a season as he's looking to retire at the end of June next year, maybe we could persuade him to reconsider. 

120 caps for Cameroon makes him a Legend in my eyes and rightfully he is listed as such on the Cameroon general page along with Samuel Eto'o and Vincent Aboubakar (only mentioned him because he's a free agent) 

At this level he could easily have two more seasons in him and maybe even a 3rd if his physicals don't drop off too much. 

[ToMexico!!]

National A License - Sept 2024

[ToMexico!!]

Transfer Update - Sept 2024

We are now beginning to be limited to who we can bring in to improve the squad, many players in the domestic league aren't good enough, whilst 90% of the Cameroonian players who play abroad aren't interested in joining. Of the other 10%, half aren't good enough either and the other half are on too much money to even try and entice them to the club and back to their homeland. 

So in saying that we signed just three players. 

I've already mentioned Nicolas Nkoulou but what a player he is, I tried to get him to reconsider retiring at the end of the next season but he was having none of it. His physicals have already started to decline. Essomba is a defender who can players across the back line, he's currently being retrained at RWB to offer another alternative. Assana-Bayema is a 18 year old striker who would be decent for most other clubs, he has 4.5* potential and for £250 I couldn't pass. 

Through the course of the season I'm going to try and get another upgrade to the Youth Recruitment and the Junior Coaching ready for the end of season intake. We really need to start producing more of our own players to have a more sustainable future. 

[ToMexico!!]

Takeover Talks - Nov 2024

Pretty out of the blue, the chairman wants out and a local investor wants to takeover. £2.7m is a surprising amount to spend on a club such as ours. We don't even own our own ground. 

[ToMexico!!]

New Contract - Nov 2024

Despite the ongoing talks the current board wanted to give me a new contract. No pay-rise but that doesn't matter, we keep on plodding. 

[ToMexico!!]

Facilities - Dec 2024

We're starting to get to a decent level of facilities. Do we have the best in the league? Lets take a look.

Looking through the facilities history of each club, we are the only club to have improved our facilities so far in this save. Overall we have the best set of facilities and financing towards youth players. Will be interesting to see who is the first other club to make a move to improve. 

[ToMexico!!]

6 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

National A License - Sept 2024

License Complete - Jan 2025

Quite a jump for some stats!

[ToMexico!!]

2024/25 Season Review - Cameroonian First Division

This season I hoped a change of tactic would bring us more goals and thus beating our existing league record of 144 goals (in 34 games). 

We started strongly in the league again, winning our first 13 games of the season before losing to Sable. We drew our first game in what was nearly 50 games when we drew 4-4 with APEJES. Three games later we lost again this time in a top of the table clash against Coton Sport, we lost top spot but did have 3 games in hand on them. A streak of six wins in a row solidified our position at the top of the table before we drew another game, this time 0-0 against Fovu. We sealed the title with a win over Aigle Royal but then got hammered 3-0 by Union Douala. We failed to beat our 144 goal record, only scoring 125 and we had a GD under 100 for the first time since 2020/21 season. 

League

In the cup we reached the final only to lose 4-2 in extra time against Coton Sport. Rostand Kenmogne had a particular affinity with the cup, scoring 10 goals in 4 (1) games. 

Cameroonian Cup

After a quarter final and two semi-final appearances in the African Champions League we needed to go one better and reach the final. 

We beat Pamplemousses (of Mauritius) 12-1 on aggregate and ES Sahel (Tunisia) 8-4 on aggregate to reach the group stages once again. We were drawn against Enugu Rangers (Nigeria), Wydad Casablanca (Morocco) and Vita Club (DR Congo). We made hard work of the group stage, losing the first two games against Enugu and Wydad. We regrouped and won the next three which saw us gain qualification to the Quarter Finals, we lost the last game of the group to settle in 2nd place. ES Tunis were our opponents for the quarter finals and we easily won home and away to see us through 5-2 on aggregate. ASEC Mimosas were our semi-final opponents, we were away first leg and got battered as we had a sub-par side out. We collected an away goals but found ourselves 3-1 down going into the 2nd leg. With a stronger side we battled to a 3-1 home win also to take us to penalties which we prevailed 4-1 from the spot. We were through to our first final, we had 13 days grace and I sent everyone for a 5 day rest. 

In the final played in Ghana at the Baba Yara Stadium the home Asante Kotoko, we would be up against ES Setif of Algeria. Could we win our first ACL? (i can't add any drama because I use instant result, the scoreline is below)

Champions League Results | Final

A historic day, not just by reaching the final but crowning the day with a win. £1.94m in prize money and our names for ever etched on the trophy. 

With a change in tactic to two strikers we saw more goals from the front two, the pair of Kenmogne and Yann Bery Nana scoring a combined 93 goals in all competitions. This season also saw Nelson Esua (YP21a) take over as first choice GK and go on to make 51 appearances. Sandio continued his stellar form achieving an average rating of 7.97 in the league. 

Players of the Season

3. Sandio - a slight dip in form but stellar form nonetheless, 18 assists this season takes him to 74 since joining, quite a number from defensive midfield. 

2. Kenmogne - 39 goals this season (and 10 assists) as the youngster partnered Yann Bery Nana up top and form a deadly duo.

1. Yann Bery Nana - 54 goals for this man this season, he was a little off the pace last season but came up trumps this season. 13 assists also. Defences are terrified!

Squad

Finances look great at the minute, plenty of Champions League prize money this season which will likely be spent on facilities improvements when we're hopefully been taken over. We've been under embargo now since November because of the pending takeover, I sincerely hope its not bugged. We have been unable to offer any shortlisted players pre-agreement contracts so have missed out on a couple of squad improvements. We have also been unable to improve the Youth Recruitment or Junior Coaching. 

Finances

With our ACL win the Cameroonian League has moved up one place to 15th in the Competition Rankings. 

Youth Intake

Really poor, top 6 or 7 will be signed for depth purposes. 

Season Summary

[ToMexico!!]

Takeover Completed - June 2025

a "local investor"

already invested £300k into the club 

Expectations remain the same as before.

[ToMexico!!]

Taking Advantage - June 2025

 

[ToMexico!!]

Significant Signing #2 - July 2025

Nicolas Nkoulou took the decision to retire at the end of this season and leave me with a hole in my back line. I signed a player I completely forgot was even Cameroonian, he's only played for the national side 27 times and has been criminally underused and underrated. 

Current Liverpool player Joal Matip signs a 1 year deal with us. He was offered to us by his agent. 

33 years old, he has two seasons in him at least. Physicals are worse than Nkoulou's when he joined but this isn't the most physical league in the world. Hopefully we can make the most of his aerial presence and score a few more goals from corners. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfer Update - Sept 2025

This season we'd be armed with some decent budgets, budgets that we would always find hard to spend.

However, we did spend a little bit aswell as bring in some free signings to further bulk out the squad. 

Awono (19yo, LB), Ngan (23yo, CB), M'Barga (20yo, AMR/ST) and Anunga (19yo, D/M/AMC) join to add first team depth whilst Atangana (17yo, CB) joins the development squad. Our biggest and most influential signing was that of Matip on a free transfer. Mentioned above that he fills the void left by the retiring Nkoulou. 

Eight further players from the U19s squad were promoted to the first team on virtue of being too old for that squad. I tried to loan out around 4 or 5 of them but they all rejected the chance to move which irks me. Maybe only two or three will be kept on beyond this season. 

[ToMexico!!]

Scheduling - 2025/26 Season

This is my current schedule for the season without the extra Cameroon Cup rounds or anything beyond the CL Group Stages. It could be save breaking for me, We started pre-season in August and don't started the season until November. Yes we've already played CL Qualifiers with around 14 day gap between each game. 

We have a mid-season break between 14/01 and 14/02 where around 5 games could have easily been played. When we get to April we already have 9 league games without possibly extra cup KO games to be scheduled. One week there we have a game Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Ridiculous. Two home games in 9 in that month too. Even more ridiculous. 

[ToMexico!!]

Whats going on? 

I've downloaded the editor to have a look at when the season should start and this is what I've found...

Clear start date of 10th October and end date of 26th April. Looking at the editor data for the file I used to create the save, this hasn't changed. So, why is the game not using the dates provided to start the league? Our schedule could be eased by around 4 games by starting on the correct one. 

Note - I've never used the editor before, so I'm not 100% sure what i'm looking at really. 

[Guest]

Are you going to keep track of your staff like you did in your days at Sumqayit?

[ToMexico!!]

8 hours ago, Fudal said:

Are you going to keep track of your staff like you did in your days at Sumqayit?

I will if I have some significant movement. With just Cameroon loaded but England, Spain, France, Italy and Germany as view only I don't think many staff will move about. 

[ToMexico!!]

International Call Up - Nov 2025

I doubt he'll play but finally we have some recognition of the quality of our attackers. 

Just noticed his pre-concern. New contract imminent I think then. 

[ToMexico!!]

Upgrades Complete - Nov 2025

[ToMexico!!]

Blistering Start - Dec 2025

8 wins on the bounce before losing to Sundowns in the ACL. 41 goals in our first four games, 69 goals in our first eight games. Yann Bery Nana has 28 goals in 12 games already. 

[ToMexico!!]

2025/26 Season Review - Cameroonian First Division

I alluded to the fixture issues a few posts up and that did prove a problem as we crashed out of the Cameroonian Cup and the African Champions League well before we should have. 

In the league we started on absolute fire, we won our first 13 games in a row scoring 102 goals. We lost the 14th game against Tonnerre and that's where the problems with form started. Eleven players were called up to the African Cup of Nations home grown version where only players playing in Africa play, that was basically my first team called up. We did keep winning games but with smaller margins but we did hammer Union Douala 10-2 along the way. March was the first of two problematic months, we dropped points against Eding Sport before losing to Coton Sport 3-2 and Union Douala 5-4. Things eased as we were knocked out of the ACL at the quarter final stage but that didn't stop us from dropping more points against Dragon de Yaounde, losing 2-1 and drawing with Canon Yaounde two games later. We ended the season on a high and won a sixth straight title with three wins on the bounce, finishing the season off with a 7-1 win over YOSA. 

We ended the season having scored a huge 182 goals in the leagues 34 games. That's 5.35 goals per game. Defensively we did suffer, we conceded 40 goals the most we ever have. 

League Table

I mentioned that we were knocked out of the Cameroonian Cup earlier than we should have. We were embarrassed by Bamboutos who beat us 4-0. 

Cameroonian Cup

In the ACL we really struggled through the whole competition. We struggled to a 7-6 aggregate win over Diaraf but that did beat TP Mazembe of DR Congo 8-4 on aggregate to advance to the group stage. We were drawn alongside Kabylie (Algeria), Sundowns (S.Africa) and Vita Club (DR Congo). We secured a 2nd place finish with 3 wins and a draw as we lost to Sundowns twice. In the Quarter Finals we were up against ES Setif, a 0-0 home draw meant we needed an away goal. We failed to do that as we crashed out 2-0. A poor campaign comes to an end. 

Champions League

As we rained down goals in the league it was Yann Bery Nana, Kenmogne and M'Barga who did most of the damage with a combined 130 goals. Wingers Ndongo, Djombissie and Ze Essono chipped in with 49 goals and 48 assists between them. 

3. Rostand Kenmogne - called up to the National Squad, a new bumper contract and 33 goals. A goal every 70mins for the young striker. 

2. Yola M'Barga - released by Canon Yaounde, this youth took the league by storm. 32 goals and 24 assists in 31(5) appearances. A goal or assist every 48 minutes. Wears number 6 because why not?

1. Yann Bery Nana - has to be him, 65 goals (and 12 assists) this season in just 2986 minutes. That's a goal every 45.9 minutes, crazy numbers. 

Squad

We really improved the facilities this season as both the Training and Youth facilities were improved whilst the Junior Coaching was also improved. 

Youth Intake

Brice Ndzana is the pick of the bunch and will undoubtedly become first choice in a year or two's time. Interesting to see one youth from Milton in Canada. We starting to take players from further afield in Cameroon. 

Season Summary

[ToMexico!!]

Preliminary Squad Call Ups - May 2026

All three of this seasons goal scoring heroes have been called up to the preliminary World Cup squad. 

[ToMexico!!]

International Call-Up - May 2026

Quite shocked that out of the three players it was M'Barga that was selected for the Cameroon World Cup Squad

Gets his debut starting in a 3-0 win over Slovakia in a friendly.