L'Etoile Rouge // Red Star FC : Mission Paris

[karanhsingh]

The French clubs certainly seem to be "en vouge" these days. It had been on my mind for a while to try and take down the universally hated PSG using one of their city rivals. Although I use the term rivals loosely here considering none of the Paris clubs have even been in the same league as PSG since a very long time. 

On reading about both Paris FC and Red Star, and inspired by the story of @MarcxD's own adventures with the team, I finally decided on Red Star FC. 

Red Star is the second oldest French club after Le Havre so definitely a long history. It was actually founded by Jules Rimet, who of course is better known for having the FIFA World Cup trophy named after him. Red Star was one of the founding members of Ligue 1 and also have 5 Coupe de France titles to their name, although more recently have fallen upon tough times. 

Also found this on Wikipedia about them which sounds pretty exciting: While the club have enjoyed only modest success on the field, the club is widely recognised for its distinctive social culture. Red Star supporters are strongly identified with their support of left-wing politics, social activism and party atmosphere of the club's matches.

We play in the Stade Bauer stadium which has a capacity of only 6,656 seats, although that is sufficient for the small (but passionate) current fan-base. Facilities as expected are pretty dire, below average training and basic youth facilities which means there is a lot of work to do long-term.

The youth academy was once very productive, and as a matter of fact some star players like Alex Song, Moussa Sissoki and Abou Diaby came up through the club's youth system. For the purpose of this save I will be assuming the moniker of Abou Diaby, who will be hoping that his managerial career is luckier than his playing one, which of course was blighted by injuries. Diaby starts the game with a National C license hoping to make his way up the badges ladder as well.

We start down in the National division which is the 3rd tier, having just been relegated. However the aim is to definitely get promoted at the first time of asking, and hopefully make it to Ligue 1 before too long. From there would begin the process of seriously challenging PSG for the badge of best club in Paris and indeed all of France. However that is still a ways away.

[Jogo Bonito]

Bon chance mon ami 

I can't see in the intro where you talk about the relocation from Belgrade though 

[Hootieleece]

Good Luck from Clermont....

 

At least your stadium isn't under construction for the next 3 years! Even though I can't fill the stands that are left open.

Edited May 20, 2020 by Hootieleece

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Yeah good luck with Red Star. I have Red Star as one of my affiliates on my save with FC Metz. I wish you luck buddy.

I am enjoying all of these French career threads pop up.

[karanhsingh]

51 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Bon chance mon ami 

I can't see in the intro where you talk about the relocation from Belgrade though 

would be cool to face them in Europe at some point! Battle of the Red Stars

[Jogo Bonito]

2 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

would be cool to face them in Europe at some point! Battle of the Red Stars

Indeed that would be cool. Perhaps aim for a derby against Paris FC first eh 

[karanhsingh]

12 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Indeed that would be cool. Perhaps aim for a derby against Paris FC first eh 

That was an epic fail. We got promoted in the first season and these useless guys got relegated from Ligue 2 

[karanhsingh]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

Good Luck from Clermont....

 

At least your stadium isn't under construction for the next 3 years! Even though I can't fill the stands that are left open.

Haha I saw that post in your thread. But it's still a decent capacity though. However yes 3 years is very questionable! 

Thanks and wish you the best of luck as well  

[Jogo Bonito]

1 minute ago, karanhsingh said:

That was an epic fail. We got promoted in the first season and these useless guys got relegated from Ligue 2 

You've completed a season already? 

[karanhsingh]

Just now, Jogo Bonito said:

You've completed a season already? 

Two seasons 

updates coming up soon. I wanted to complete some before I started the thread. 

I work in live events we don't have too much going on these days 

[Jogo Bonito]

And i haven't even picked what league or team to go with yet. You're probably in Ligue 1 and playing in Europe by now, and if not, you will be by the time I start 

[karanhsingh]

Thanks a lot guys! 

I've also decided on a couple of things, to make things more interesting. One is to only purchase players of French nationality or from the Francophone African nations. The only exception would be new-gens from other nationalities who pop up in academies of French clubs. The other thing is to not sell a single player to PSG at any point, unless of course the Board goes over my head in doing so. 

Overall club development, and specifically youth development will be a big part of this save hopefully. So I also plan to do a spotlight on the youngsters we bring in and track their progress over time.

I am planning to use the below summary format for each season, would love feedback on it if any.

The basic tactical set-up is as below for the first couple of seasons, which is mainly basis the squad that we inherited combined with my usual preferred playing style.

And finally, I have also come up with a list of things that I would like to achieve or tick off over the course of this save, again to just make things a little more interesting. Let's see how fast we can start knocking some of them off!

I have already completed 2 seasons as I wanted to be sure I will be sticking it out with this save before creating the thread. As a result the updates for the first two seasons will be shorter, especially the first one as I of course forgot to take some important screenshots  From season 3 onward will probably go to a monthly update format.

Edited May 20, 2020 by karanhsingh

[karanhsingh]

Meet the Manager: a quick look at Abou Diaby's starting profile for the save

[B.W.G]

Another save with a Paris club who want to overthrow PSG,can't get much better than that  

Best of luck with Red Star  

[karanhsingh]

49 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

And i haven't even picked what league or team to go with yet. You're probably in Ligue 1 and playing in Europe by now, and if not, you will be by the time I start 

LOL you might be right on one of those counts 

[karanhsingh]

1 minute ago, B.W.G said:

Another save with a Paris club who want to overthrow PSG,can't get much better than that  

Best of luck with Red Star  

Agreed and thank you! 

[Hootieleece]

Vertical TikiTaka what is the difference from regular TikiTaka?

Regular TikiTaka seems to kill an opponent by boring them to death with a thousand passes in their defensive zone while walking the ball into it. (Based on watching my Clermont Team)

Usually I am a minimalist on TI's and use Gengenpress as inspiration even though I love the 4-2-3-1 Wide.

Love to see where this goes tactically.

[karanhsingh]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

Vertical TikiTaka what is the difference from regular TikiTaka?

Regular TikiTaka seems to kill an opponent by boring them to death with a thousand passes in their defensive zone while walking the ball into it. (Based on watching my Clermont Team)

Usually I am a minimalist on TI's and use Gengenpress as inspiration even though I love the 4-2-3-1 Wide.

Love to see where this goes tactically.

That was just a base though, it's a pretty customized tactic. To the team that I have, hence for example CWBa on the left and WBd on the right. I like to ensure most of the circles are completely green! 

[karanhsingh]

SEASON 1 REVIEW - 2019/20

So I sometimes like to take over clubs mid-season and hit the ground running if you will. That's exactly what I did with Red Star too, as Abou Diaby was announced as the new manager of the club on Christmas day of 2019. At that point, they were in 5th place so a little behind the pre-season expectations to win the league, but just a few points off the top. 

As mentioned I unfortunately did not take too many screenshots from the first season, because there wasn't actually that much to do. The squad was good as it is, and not like we had any money to spend anyway. Of course I did sort out the back-room staff and training, tactics, etc. One key decision was to play with a 4-2-3-1 and utilize Said Arab in his natural position as AMC, because when I took over he was easily the best (only?) young talent in the squad. 

The only transfer we made in was Diafra Sakho on a free to add a bit of quality up top, he ended up doing quite well scoring 6 league goals in the second half of the season and helping us get a few extra points on the board.

We slowly built our form up and found ourselves in the automatic promotion places going into the final few games of the season. Had a scare though with a terrible 6-2 defeat which saw us drop into the play-off spots with 2 games to go. Thankfully we did the business then on and the teams above us dropped some points, which means we just about clinched the National championship on the very last day of the season. 

For which, we were rewarded with this massive transfer budget 

The next post will be a squad review of the following summer, and a first look at some of the young talent we will be looking to groom at the club  

Edited May 20, 2020 by karanhsingh

[karanhsingh]

SEASON 2 - 2020/21 PREVIEW

Being back in Ligue 2 called for a lot of work to be done on the squad, while we had a good base we still needed reinforcements in several areas. This is how we got on in the transfer market:

The key transfers in for the first team were:

Isaac Lihadji - I was delighted when I saw his contract was up at OM and he was interested in negotiating with us. Promising right winger who seems to have a good amount of potential, hoping he can step up and become a fixture for our side. 

Mamadou Thiam - brought in to play as inverted winger on the left, he makes his return to France after a quiet spell at Barnsley. Either footed player who seems quite dangerous on the ball, but at 25 years probably won't be improving much.

Thierry Ambrose - 23 year old striker brought in from Man City again on contract expiry, he was on loan last season and playing fairly regularly in Ligue 1. Should be a good option for us and a completely different type of player to Sakho up top.

Maxime Etiun - brought in to provide competition for Roye & Puyo in the middle of the park, capable of playing both DLP and AP roles well. Again probably won't improve much but should be a solid first team player for us. 

The two paid transfers that you can see are both new-gens from Tours FC (who I have noticed consistently seem to produce good young players). In the next post I will be doing a spot-light on the 4 young players to watch out for at the club. 

So all this left our squad as below going into the new season back in Ligue 2:

[karanhsingh]

Youngster Spotlight - Summer 2020

Here we will be tracking the 4 young players that I have highest hopes for currently at Red Star FC. One of these is a youth product from the club itself, Said Arab, while the other 3 have all been brought in during the summer window.

Said Arab

He's been getting a lot of first team action since I took charge at the club and has been doing pretty well. Notched 3 goals and 3 assists last year so hoping he will improve his end product, but he has also been training well and as you can see from the star ratings the back-room staff has high hopes for him. We will be closely keeping an eye on his progress.

Isaac Lihadji

Isaac as mentioned in the last post is a free transfer from OM, a very young inside forward who plays from the right and again seems to have bags of potential. His pace is his best asset while he also has decent dribbling and technique. We will be hoping to give him a lot of football, and also develop him as the season goes on.

Titouan Roger 

Very young Tunisian forward who joins from Tours FC on a cheap deal - he will be spending most of the season with the U19s. Scouts & coaches all rated him very highly and he has already been capped & scored for the Tunisian U20 side as well. His physical attributes already look good, while he obviously needs a lot of work in the technical & mental areas. 

Diogo Matos

Young Portuguese striker, again signed from Tours FC in the summer on a cheap deal. I located him while actually scouting Roger. He's a different sort of player, not much pace but already has excellent passing, vision, free kicks & technique. The game rates him as a DLF, but we will be training him as an AMC. He will also spend most of the season in the U19 squad.

We will report back on the progress of these 4 at the end of the season, along with any other young players we sign. 

[karanhsingh]

2020-21 MID-SEASON UPDATE

As mentioned earlier, I have already played through the first two seasons of the game, so the updates would be a bit shorter as we catch up to where things are at the moment.

The first half of the season could not have gone much better, as the new players quickly gelled with the squad and the tactics continued to work in Ligue 2. Here is how we got on:

This left us within touching distance of the top 2 and a real shot at automatic promotion:

That being said, with January came an injury crisis, as club captain Mendy and first-choice RB Goujon both were hit with serious injuries which would keep them out for 2-3 months. The only "good" thing was that this happened with the transfer window was open, so getting in replacements was necessary, even with zero funds. We had to dip into the loan market.

[Jogo Bonito]

Ticking along very nicely. Having bravely splashed the cash on him, Hauguel will really need to deliver!

[OlivierL]

Good luck. France and Paris are hot this month:)

Great that u decided to sign only French  players or african/french.

[Hootieleece]

Matos should make a great AP-A add tries Killer balls often PPM and tries one twos PPM.  Also might try Arrives late in Box (he is slow)

[karanhsingh]

6 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Ticking along very nicely. Having bravely splashed the cash on him, Hauguel will really need to deliver!

Thank you. Lol yes. I probably could have got him cheaper as well as they accepted straight up 

3 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Good luck. France and Paris are hot this month:)

Great that u decided to sign only French  players or african/french.

Thank you. Yes indeed! Well it's not as restrictive as your policy  but still something 

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

Matos should make a great AP-A add tries Killer balls often PPM and tries one twos PPM.  Also might try Arrives late in Box (he is slow)

Yes training him as Engache right now. Will have to see how he develops. Really excited about these two young lads from Tours! 

[Jogo Bonito]

France really is hot at the moment. I've finally picked my French team too (my 4th and last current save to rotate). 

Good luck in your promotion push 

[karanhsingh]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

France really is hot at the moment. I've finally picked my French team too (my 4th and last current save to rotate). 

Good luck in your promotion push 

Thank you! Which team did you finally pick?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 hour ago, karanhsingh said:

Thank you! Which team did you finally pick?

He wont tell you cos he is such a tease lol.

[karanhsingh]

2020-21 END OF SEASON UPDATE

Here are the fixtures from the rest of the season.

Which meant that we eventually made it back to back promotions and league titles 

PSG here we come!!

Player Stats from the season:

We also made it to the French Cup QF where we sadly crashed out at home to Nantes on penalties after surrendering a 2-0 lead  The Nantes manager was chatting all sorts of sh*t before and after the game, so he is definitely someone I will be looking to "put in his place" next season.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Well done getting promoted as Champions.

[djiwai91]

Bravo mon pote !

[karanhsingh]

1 minute ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Well done getting promoted as Champions.

 

Just now, djiwai91 said:

Bravo mon pote !

Thanks a lot guys!!

[karanhsingh]

Awards & Other News

We had no less than 7 players in the Stars Team of the Season!

After his amazing exploits and finishing top of the charts for assists, Yanis Hamache won the Player of the Season award for Ligue 2. Happily we have managed to extend his loan for another year, and also included an option to buy him for 800k. 

I also won the manager of the season award, and was promptly rewarded with a new contract making me the highest paid person at the club.

Money is still tight but the Board have agreed to at least invest in the youth facilities.

And finally, we obviously don't have the funds to build a new stadium right now or indeed expand the current one. I am not sure what they will do for the following season as our stadium is woefully short of Ligue 1 standards, I believe we will end up renting out another stadium in Paris for the time-being.

 

[karanhsingh]

Save summary so far:

Achievement Tracking:

[karanhsingh]

Youngster Spotlight

The first update of the young talent watch is here. We were tracking 4 young attacking talents, 2 in the first team (Arab & Lihadji) and 2 in the U19s (Roger & Matos). I also added 2 defenders to the list.

I have started an Excel spreadsheet to keep a proper track of each of their progress over the seasons as well. 

The 4 attacking players have all improved well over the course of the season, most of all Lihadji. Him and Arab have both also become key players for the club. Here is what they all look like at the moment in-game.

Said Arab

Isaac Lihadji

Titouan Roger

Diogo Matos

And here is the spreadsheet, sadly the two defensive prospects didn't really develop despite good form and a lot of game-time, I am not too sure why. But these 4 are going well and hopefully will continue in the same vein!

Any feedback would be great! I hope the text size is big enough. First time doing this.

 

[karanhsingh]

Finally we are in the same division as PSG! Can't wait to play them!

*season fixtures released*

OK, maybe could have waited a bit longer 

[Jogo Bonito]

Mon dieu! A nice easy start then, a great reward for a fantastic second promotion. 

[karanhsingh]

Summer of '22

To say it's been a busy summer would be an under-statement, but we really needed to reinforce the squad to have any chance of competing in Ligue 1. The Board gave us just 3 million to spend, so we had to rely on freebies and bargain basement deals. Here is how we got on:

The outgoings don't cover a few other players released on free transfers at the end of their contracts, sadly including ex-club captain Mendy who suffered from poor form and a bad injury last season. Numbers were required and a total of no less than 11 players were brought in, a combination of first-team ready players and some young talent with one eye on the future. Let's first profile the more "senior" buys. Player images will be in spoilers so as not to make the post unnecessarily long.

Oumar Solet (DC) - we needed a rock at the back and I think/ hope in Solet we now have one. He was transfer-listed at Lyon and we had to make him our highest paid player to get him in at 11k/ week. He is a strong all-rounder with excellent physicals and also will be good on the ball.

Spoiler

Matteo Tramoni (LW) - we had to break the club's transfer record to get the young winger in for 2 million plus some clauses. He's coming off an impressive season for Ajaccio in Ligue 2 and will step in to the IW role on the left flank for us. At 21 he will hopefully still improve, but is already pretty well-rounded without any stand-out attributes.

Spoiler

Jerome Prior (GK) - we needed a better keeper for Ligue 1, so I let our old back-up leave as his contract expired and Charrau will now play a sub role. Prior left Valenciennes at the end of his contract and he honestly seems like a fairly solid Ligue 1 level keeper to me. Hopefully he proves me right!

Spoiler

Rayan Raveloson (MC) - Rayan also joins on a free after a highly impressive season for Troyes in Ligue 2. First time I have ever managed a player from Madagascar! He is comfortable as DLP or also BBM so will give us options in the center of the park. Particularly as both Roye & Puyo are now getting on a bit.

Spoiler

Jason Pendant (LB) - while he looks a very solid player, this move was actually a bit of a mistake. I completely forgot to track Djedje (a new-gen we had a fixed transfer for) and so I didn't realize he was actually ready for a first-team role. More on him later. Jason will be sharing left-back duties with POTS last year Hamache. We will give him one season to prove himself otherwise hopefully make some cash on him.

Spoiler

Sacha Boey (RB) - transfer-listed at Rennes, he comes in on loan for the season with an option to make the deal permanent. He will compete with Goujon for the right-back spot, looks solid if unspectacular with hopefully some room for improvement.

Spoiler

And now for the more fun part of this post  We've gone shopping in Africa! Check these boys out!

Youssouf Djedje (DL) - as mentioned earlier we had a deal fixed up for the young Ivorian left-back. He seems to have made a lot of strides in the past year and seems ready for some first-team football already. He has a good personality and is very determined, so I have high hopes of this kid! Decided to send him out on loan for the season to Nancy where hopefully he will get a lot of games.

Spoiler

Franck Zadi (AMC) - another young Ivorian, this time from the ASEC production line. Franck is two-footed, has an amazing first touch and is a free-kick specialist. However he has to work on some areas like passing and shooting. Will be interesting to see how he develops. He will spend this season between the 2nd and the 1st team most likely.

Spoiler

Abdoulaye Kouanda (SC) - I had to take a bit of a punt on him as he wasn't fully scouted yet but his contract was up. However was fairly pleased with what I saw when he joined! Young promising target-man, he is very determined and already has good strength, heading & balance. Also very much a team player. Will give us a different option and again be on the fringes of the first-team squad.

Spoiler

 Cheikh Diakhaby (RW) - the only decent Senegalese my scouts could find, he's a promising IW from the right flank but needs a lot of work still. Best attributes at this point are his pace and dribbling. He will probably start off in the U19s.

Spoiler

Aruna Dao (D LC) - finally one more transfer you don't see because it will go through next month in-game when the boy turns 18. He is rated as a natural LB but we will be converting him into a full-time CB due to his low pace. However he makes up for that with strong ratings for jumping, balance, tackling, decisions and is also very brave & determined.

Spoiler

PHEW - that about covers it. 11 players brought in, transfer records broken. We now have a decent 20 man first team I am happy with, along with a good youth development program (more work required on the spreadsheet!). Next up we will do a quick squad & tactical over-view before we finally hit Ligue 1! 

[B.W.G]

Congrats on the promotion

Looks like you've been busy during the summer,hopefully they will settle in quickly.

[karanhsingh]

Thanks Thomas, can't say the same about you though 

[karanhsingh]

Get in 

[Gonner]

Congrats on the double promotion, and the new stadium ! Seems like parisian clubs are popular here.

[karanhsingh]

17 minutes ago, Gonner said:

Congrats on the double promotion, and the new stadium ! Seems like parisian clubs are popular here.

Yes, except for one 

And thanks  

[karanhsingh]

August 2021 update

We had a tough start to life in Ligue 1 facing PSG & Marseille in the opening games. However we battled bravely even in defeat and almost snatched a point at Marseille despite being down to 10 men. A third consecutive red card followed in the home game against Bordeaux but that man Lihadji came up trumps to grab us the 3 points. A late win at Dijon means we have 6 points from our first 4 games. Also good to see us crossing 10k attendance in the home games (which are taking place at the Stade Jean-Bouin this season.

[OlivierL]

Good job ! u are going fast

[OlivierL]

On 20/05/2020 at 16:05, karanhsingh said:

That was an epic fail. We got promoted in the first season and these useless guys got relegated from Ligue 2 

Whaaaat

[karanhsingh]

September 2021 update

An excellent month, in fact was almost perfect. Happy to also get revenge over Nantes after last season 

[karanhsingh]

21 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Whaaaat

Yes!! Clearly the AI is not half as good as you are at managing them  However they are now back in Ligue 2

[karanhsingh]

October update

Interesting month - we got embarrassed a bit at Reims, but we also staged two separate second half come-backs from being 2 goals down against Nimes & Lille which was encouraging. This leaves us 3rd in the table at the moment, although it's not going to be easy to stay there!