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

[Jogo Bonito]

Just catching up on this, really making great progress 

[karanhsingh]

4 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Just catching up on this, really making great progress 

Thanks! Just got smashed 4-0 by lyon though. Every once in a while we just forget to turn up. 

[Hootieleece]

Wow, Red Star doing well....KUTGW!

[karanhsingh]

13 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Wow, Red Star doing well....KUTGW!

Thanks!

[karanhsingh]

November & December update

It's a 2 month update this time. Things have continued to go well, save for the big home defeat against Lyon. We somewhat made up for that with a huge away win at Angers, while the game vs Rennes was particularly exciting with the drama of a stoppage time equalizer for them AND winner for us.

This is what the updated league table looks like, we are still hanging onto 3rd place for the moment. While it will be tough to stay there, I do want to qualify for Europe anyhow as that would be the boost required for the club finances. Even after half a season in Ligue 1 we are still in the red, and unable to make any improvement to training facilities as a result which is frustrating.

The player stats as well so far: best performers have been Ambrose up front, Lihadji on the right wing and Solet at the back. Biggest disappointment so far is club record signing Tramoni who is yet to score.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Gong very well indeed. I'm pleased to say I only have one player that is in your squad (although the two loan guys were both on my shortlist). I recall managing Jerome Prior some years back, he was reasonably rated back then and being young and French was a sensible transfer. It looks like he is still up to the job for you.

[karanhsingh]

17 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Gong very well indeed. I'm pleased to say I only have one player that is in your squad (although the two loan guys were both on my shortlist). I recall managing Jerome Prior some years back, he was reasonably rated back then and being young and French was a sensible transfer. It looks like he is still up to the job for you.

Thanks! Prior has been doing OK, definitely a step-up to the guy who was in goal prior to him 

I'll get my coat...

[karanhsingh]

Jan & Feb 2022 updates

Been a couple of tough months to be honest. We have only managed to pick up 3 wins in the league in the last 8 games. The away defeat against Monaco also saw them leapfrog us into the 3rd and final CL spot, which I don't see us getting back. However now the aim is to finish in the top 5 and qualify for European competition. 

The last game was particularly annoying because Nimes are now officially our bogey team, and Moussa Kone their striker just cannot get enough of scoring against us. We have conceded 11 goals to them in the last 4 fixtures, no less than seven of those scored by Kone. Have tried hard-tackling him, closing him down, standing off, nothing seems to work. In this particular game we even took the lead through a stunning Lihadji goal, before the Kone show started. So frustrating! 

I should also mention that there were no significant transfers in the January window, only a few youth players. We will have a full review of the youngster development at the end of the season.

I have also promoted the promising young striker Tituoan Roger to the first team now as he's been banging them in for the U19 side and recently turned 17. He scored the winning goal at home against Strasbourg which was fantastic, and I am hoping this will aid his development some more. Not too sure whether to keep him playing games at a lower level, or keep him around in the first-team squad, or even whether to loan him out next season. Here he is as of now:

Anyhow, here is the updated league table going into the final stretch of the season:

[Jogo Bonito]

34 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

Thanks! Prior has been doing OK, definitely a step-up to the guy who was in goal prior to him 

I'll get my coat...

I see what you did there 

Roger looks to be a good prospect, could be useful for you.

It's interesting how some teams do that, and some players. Perhaps a pre-game buttering up ahead of the next time you face Nimes and Kone might work. Reverse psychology?

[karanhsingh]

Just now, Jogo Bonito said:

I see what you did there 

Roger looks to be a good prospect, could be useful for you.

It's interesting how some teams do that, and some players. Perhaps a pre-game buttering up ahead of the next time you face Nimes and Kone might work. Reverse psychology?

I could try that, for that I would have to not let my ass. man handle all press though  that's one of the reasons I am getting through seasons faster since I stopped doing all of this stuff

Yes excited about Roger, he also just came on in the last game and earned us the winning penalty

[karanhsingh]

This Bosnian/ Luxembourger striker just arrived in my youth intake! Now we're talking 

[OlivierL]

U are going fast great job .  PSG looks to strong (not unrealistic..)

[Hootieleece]

@karanhsingh: Do you control Individual Training for the reserve team? If so store Titouan Roger there and Train him in the role you want him for or use Complete Forward-Attacker or Roaming Playmaker and try to up more of his stats especially finishing. Next season Loan him out to a team with decent training facilities in the league just lower than you. After loan decide if he is worth keeping.

[karanhsingh]

15 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

@karanhsingh: Do you control Individual Training for the reserve team? If so store Titouan Roger there and Train him in the role you want him for or use Complete Forward-Attacker or Roaming Playmaker and try to up more of his stats especially finishing. Next season Loan him out to a team with decent training facilities in the league just lower than you. After loan decide if he is worth keeping.

Yes I am doing the individual training for all the promising youngsters. Just switched him to CF. All his attributes have gone up this year though except for finishing  but overall he is coming along well

[karanhsingh]

2021-22 End of Season Update

Here is how we got on in the final 3 months of the season.

Again we came up unstuck against the big sides, losing to both Lyon & PSG. There is still a sizeable gulf there, as is to be expected. However, I have to be really pleased with how we performed against the rest of the league, as we were pretty consistent in terms of putting the points on the board. And this is how the final league table panned out as a result:

We were 3rd for a long time, but Monaco were unbelievable in the second half of the season. Once they pulled ahead of us they just kept on winning & winning. At the same time we kept a fair distance to Marseille and the rest, so we comfortably finished 4th in the end. This means a direct entry into the group stage of the Europa League, which I am pretty chuffed about for our first season back in Ligue 1.

Finally, the player stats of the season. Will be doing an in-depth on some of these, particularly the youngsters.

The best performers:

Thierry Ambrose absolutely took the league by storm as you can see, scoring no less than 25 league goals which saw him finish 2nd in the race for the golden boot behind Moussa Dembele of Lyon. A truly unbelievable return from the former Man City man.

Isaac Lihadji continues his improvement and has developed into a super inside forward. He notched up 10 goals and 7 assists in the league, and is now being scouted by Premier league side Fulham.

Oumar Solet was a rock at the back and has really strengthened the side since his move to Lyon, also contributing with a few handy goals & assists.

Special mentions to two people at opposite ends of the spectrum, Loic Puyo at 33 still showed he has got it with some great play-making in the middle of the park, while the young 19 year old Ivorian Frank Zadi showed some real glimpses of his quality and is threatening to oust club favourite Said Arab from the AMC spot.

The disappointments:

Not many really but I suppose if I had to pick it would be the club record signing Matteo Tramoni who just did not work out, scoring only the 1 goal and getting 5 assists all season long. He often threatened but didn't quite have the end product. Let's hope he improves next season.

Save Summary so far (3 seasons in)

Edited May 26, 2020 by karanhsingh

[karanhsingh]

Club Updates

Finishing 4th in the league meant that finally some money comes in! Which means we are out of the red.

Immediately, this was invested into the facilities. After 3 seasons of asking and continuous rejections, Training & youth are both being updated, while we have gone up a level on youth recruitment & junior coaching as well. 

There is also good news on the stadium front, as the board announced that the construction for the new stadium will now get underway. However this will take 2 whole seasons apparently so we will only be able to move in during the summer of 2024. By which time we will probably already need an expansion  That said, I am quite excited about this!

I also convinced them to give me a contract extension with some nifty bonuses  

And finally, with us being in Europe now, I have also been given some money to spend.

Looking Ahead

Even though we now have a decent transfer budget, I am not sure how much money I will actually spend in the summer. The team has performed really well and some of the youngsters have been making solid progress. I will do a full youth spotlight tomorrow and also update me spreadsheet, however the plan is to break in 3-4 of them into the first team squad next season. This means we will probably restrict the summer signings to two or at the most three players. Instead I will use the remaining wage budget to tie in contracts for all our best players.

Next season should therefore be one of consolidation, we will be competing on multiple fronts but we will look to confirm our status as one of the better teams in the league, while at the same time continue the development & progress of our young & promising squad. At the same time, will continue to invest across all the club facilities to bring them up to speed with our competitors as fast as possible.

[karanhsingh]

Big decision time

So Norwich offered 12 million for my star winger Isaac Lihadji. As a bit of a joke I asked them for 30 million all up front, and they immediately accepted!! Isaac is on 3.9k/ week with us, he still has another 3 years to run on his contract but he wanted 40(!!)k per week when I tried to extend. Now I am stuck and I don't know what to do. In terms of realism, there is no way that a club like Red Star or frankly any French club with the exception of PSG would not take such an offer. It's simply put a lot of money. However it will obviously weaken us. I don't know what to do - am going to sleep on it but if anyone has feedback let me know!

[Jogo Bonito]

Great updates as usual and a fine 4th place, well done.

Good to see the club now progressing off the pitch too.

That's an awful lot of money for Lihadji. As you say, in real life the club would accept in an instant. In your world, it depends if you can find a replacement at a fraction of the cost. And how important is the money? I'd probably sell, but maybe you would go to £40,000 per week or more on a new contract (I wouldn't).  

[Hootieleece]

Great Update. Great Campaign finishing fourth and Europa League Group stage. The stuff of dreams.

I know Lihadji was a great player for you, with the Stadium being built the $30M would go along way to keeping debt down. 

Use the comparison (find comparable players) feature in the player screen and find a comparatively cheap replacement. It might not work out but I think it is worth a try.

I understand why you are hesitant to transfer him out even with his wage demands.

KUTGW!

[karanhsingh]

13 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Great updates as usual and a fine 4th place, well done.

Good to see the club now progressing off the pitch too.

That's an awful lot of money for Lihadji. As you say, in real life the club would accept in an instant. In your world, it depends if you can find a replacement at a fraction of the cost. And how important is the money? I'd probably sell, but maybe you would go to £40,000 per week or more on a new contract (I wouldn't).  

 

12 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Great Update. Great Campaign finishing fourth and Europa League Group stage. The stuff of dreams.

I know Lihadji was a great player for you, with the Stadium being built the $30M would go along way to keeping debt down. 

Use the comparison (find comparable players) feature in the player screen and find a comparatively cheap replacement. It might not work out but I think it is worth a try.

I understand why you are hesitant to transfer him out even with his wage demands.

KUTGW!

Thanks guys. Those are some good points. Especially about the stadium, the board took out a loan of 21 million for its construction so this one transfer would help us pay the entire thing back. 

[karanhsingh]

Thank you Isaac!

And just like that, he's gone. After two amazing seasons at the club which have seen him go from a young rookie to our star player, and indeed also winning the Ligue 1 Promising Player of the Season Award. Isaac scored a total of 19 goals and notched up 14 assists in his 2 seasons with us.

Ultimately though the money was too good to turn down, 30 million and all of it up-front. The money will be re-invested into our new stadium and hopefully better facilities, and of course a little bit in the playing squad as well.

We have since gone on and signed not one but two players to replace Isaac in the squad, one promising youngster and another a very established player who will hopefully give us one good season before he rides off into the sunset. I had to break my unwritten transfer rule to bring him in but for some reason I just wanted to do it, not least because of which club he joins us from. Here he is: (I was surprised he even wanted to join TBH but maybe he just wanted to stay longer in Paris )

[Jogo Bonito]

Sensible sale, if done with a heavy heart. Let's hope the wages are justified for your Angel of Mercy. Jonathan Bakali at Monaco is a similar player to Lihadji, and is one worth keeping an eye on.

 

[Hootieleece]

If Di Maria has a half decent season for you it will be a win win situation.

It also gives you time to find a true replacement.

[karanhsingh]

3 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Sensible sale, if done with a heavy heart. Let's hope the wages are justified for your Angel of Mercy. Jonathan Bakali at Monaco is a similar player to Lihadji, and is one worth keeping an eye on.

 

Thanks i will check him out 

3 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

If Di Maria has a half decent season for you it will be a win win situation.

It also gives you time to find a true replacement.

Hopefully! I did get in a good youngster as well so I will probably rotate and hopefully ADM can also be a bit of a mentor. 

I need to make my youth development progress post and also the summer business update - hopefully both will follow tonight. 

[karanhsingh]

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT UPDATE - JULY 2022

So I have updated my spreadsheet, I have now split it into two blocks - defensive & attacking players. I am tracking most of the attributes for all the players on an annual basis to see how they are changing/ improving. This is the first time I have done something like this and it is indeed very interesting & useful, there is a lot of stuff that I would otherwise be missing out on. Without further ado, this is how the youngsters have been getting on.

Defensive players

We saw some improvement finally in Hamache & Simakan, along with Solet in his first season with us. This is encouraging as they are already all established players who seem to have further room for progress. However what is more encouraging is the far more rapid improvement of the two new-gens who were both out on loan for the season - Djedje and Dao. I have now promoted them both to the first team squad for the upcoming campaign. Here are screenshots of their current profiles:

Youssouf Djedje - he will be our rotation LB this season

Aruna Dao - listed as LB but I plan to use him almost exclusively as a CB

Attacking players

Slow but steady improvement in our home-boy and academy product Said Arab. Lihadji as has been documented did come on a lot again this year and has shown the most improvement overall in 2 seasons. However he is now at Norwich and we wish him well. Tramoni was very disappointing with both his form and his development as you can see.

On the flip side are the new-gens again, with 3 of them making very solid gains, namely Roger, Zadi and Kouanda. Zadi already played a squad role for us last season while both Roger & Kouanda were on the fringes, however this year I plan to give all of them a lot more game-time. The only disappointing one was Diogo Matos which makes me think maybe his potential is not as much as earlier anticipated. 

Titouan Roger - will be used as a rotation option for both AML & SC

Franck Zadi - will continue to rotate with Arab at AMC, he is also now a French U20 intl.

Abdoulaye Kouanda - will be back-up for Ambrose our main SC

These 5 players above have all come in for a grand total of under 400k in transfer fees during the last 3 seasons, all direct from Africa except for Roger who joined from Tours at age 15. They all show up as 4 gold stars and 1 black for potential, and I am really excited to see how they progress especially with more first-team football!

[karanhsingh]

THE SUMMER OF 2022

Honestly this is where the really hard bit begins. It's one thing to get promoted and then even to qualify for Europe with a half-decent squad. However then to go to a regular Champions League team, to competing for the title, to actually winning a title against an all-star team like PSG. You need serious quality to do all that. But how do you get there? Do you replenish the squad every year? Do you sell off the players who have done so well to bring you to this level? This is something I have always struggled with.

I had decided that this summer we would not make whole-sale changes, instead only a couple of players in for the first team at the most. Look at it as a season of consolidation and hope to repeat a top 5 finish again. Also let it be a season for our several talented youngsters to get some more game time and hopefully continue their development. I believed this to be the best way forward for us. When the Lihadji sale happened, this further reinforced my outlook that it will be a season of consolidation & player development. Top 5 this season with hopefully strong showings in the cups, and then have a go at qualifying for the UCL next season.

The Transfers

We still did bring in a few players, mind. But first the sales.

The big one of course was Lihadji for 30 million, all up-front, as has already been documented. Thiam, Haugel, and Pendant were departures from the first-team squad, to leave spaces open for some of the youngsters profiled earlier. Sao has served us well but had to be moved on when we ended up signing 2 replacements for Lihadji. A number of our young players such as Matos, Jaby and Kone went out on loan as they had become too good for the U19 squad but weren't good enough for our first team squad yet.

In terms of the players in, I will profile the 4 players who have been brought in to immediately play a role in the first-team.

Sofiane Alakouch is a French/ Moroccan right wing-back who will give us a more attacking option in that position compared to Goujon. He should definitely add a bit of quality to the team.

Christian Kouan I am quite excited about, a young Ivorian midfielder who joins from Perugia after an impressive season in Italy. We sorely missed a proper BWM last season so he will now slot into that role, allowing Raveloson to take on the DLP mantle which is a better fit for him too.

And now the Lihadji replacements. The first one you guys already know about, none other than Angel di Maria. This is what he looks like these days.

And finally to wrap things up, a hugely promising young inverted winger from the right, Lisandru Tramoni. You may already remember we have his older brother Matteo in the squad who has so far flattered to deceive, but Lisandru is the younger and frankly more promising one. We wanted him last summer but his club was asking 15 million then, they now had him transfer-listed for just 2.8 million with 12 months to run on his contract so we wasted no time in snapping him up. If he can continue his development I do believe he can replace Lihadji for us.

Next up: the youngsters.

[OlivierL]

Wow ! Di maria :o 

[karanhsingh]

To quickly profile the more promising of the youngsters we brought in, who will now be added to my annual youth tracker

Wesley Fofana joins on a free from St. Etienne, he is already 21 but has gone out on loan as we didn't have a CM spot open in the squad for this season. I am hoping he will replace 34 year old club captain Jimmy Roye next summer when he moves on/ retires.

Khadim Diallo - young new-gen Senegalese right back who joins on a free from Lorient. A fair bit of work to do on him but he could develop into a useful option I hope.

Ndiga Diatta is the most expensive and promising one of the lot. Already looks quite good and has the best possible personality as well. We decided to let him stay with Bordeaux (who are now in Ligue 2) on loan for a year to continue his development.

[karanhsingh]

August 2022 update

Our first-team squad going into the new season finally looks like this (23 man squad):

Pre-season friendlies & August fixtures:

It was all perfect until that game against Lens which we totally did not deserve to lose, and they scored from a very weak free-kick which our keeper let in. Ambrose has so far continued his good form from last season, while Roger is showing that he is indeed ready for more first-team football.

The early league table has newly promoted Lens on top which I am sure @smp20 would be happy to see

And finally we got drawn into a VERY hard Europa with Juve, Schalke and AZ  I just hope we can somehow string together some results otherwise it's going to be a pretty short European campaign! 

Edited May 28, 2020 by karanhsingh

[Hootieleece]

Juventus and Schalke...Good Luck! 

What are the Boards expectations for Euro Cup?

[karanhsingh]

15 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Juventus and Schalke...Good Luck! 

What are the Boards expectations for Euro Cup?

Just to be competitive. So basically nothing 

[Jogo Bonito]

Another good start, nice to see the two brothers together in your squad 

[karanhsingh]

9 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Another good start, nice to see the two brothers together in your squad 

Thanks, I am hoping they both now kick on!

[karanhsingh]

SEPTEMBER 2022

I have to be happy with that. Excellent league wins over St. Etienne & Rennes, however we dropped points to Angers. In the Europa league, the stand-out result is the hard-fought away win in Schalke which gives us a shot at qualifying from this group. Juventus beat us as expected however we had got things started well with another battling 2-1 win at home against AZ. Roger has been coming along well and scored a couple of crucial goals, while Thierry Ambrose continues his fine form as well.

Speaking of Thierry's who score goals, please meet our new U19 manager

[Ronaldo Beckham]

6 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

SEPTEMBER 2022

I have to be happy with that. Excellent league wins over St. Etienne & Rennes, however we dropped points to Angers. In the Europa league, the stand-out result is the hard-fought away win in Schalke which gives us a shot at qualifying from this group. Juventus beat us as expected however we had got things started well with another battling 2-1 win at home against AZ. Roger has been coming along well and scored a couple of crucial goals, while Thierry Ambrose continues his fine form as well.

Speaking of Thierry's who score goals, please meet our new U19 manager

Vava Boom indeed. Excellent staff signing. 

Its nice to see your gradual progress with Red Star.

[Jogo Bonito]

Awesome, I looked at Thierry and shortlisted him at the beginning. I'll definitely want to employ him when his contract in Canada finishes.

[Hootieleece]

Thierry Henry is a rival manager. First He was OGC Nice. Got sacked. FC Nantes hired him almost immediately. My team beats his but he is polite in his praise for my team.

[karanhsingh]

Thanks guys, I also got Willy Sagnol as my 2nd team Ass. Man. and he's a great coach for defending. Worth checking out.

[karanhsingh]

OCT & NOV 2022

Only the one fixture in November due to the World Cup so I decided to combine the two months here. The results look decent but in all honesty we are stumbling rather than playing well. We are not dominating games like we did last season, I put that down to missing both Lihadji and Arab. Di Maria has been a MASSIVE disappointment - so far his stats are 0 goals, 0 assists, 1 missed penalty, and 1 red card (against PSG no less!!). The Tramoni brothers are also yet to kick on, despite them finally combining for a goal against Juve. Speaking of which, that result looks better than it is owing to the fact that they played a second team having already guaranteed top spot in the group.

Anyhow, all of that means that we are still 4th in Ligue 1, while we have managed to qualify for the knock-out rounds of the Europa league. Let's hope that we can improve for the second half of the season!

Hoping to see a lot more of this too  

 

[Jogo Bonito]

4th is good (even if Di Maria isn't). I agree on Sagnol, ex-internationals like him are definitely cool to employ.

[karanhsingh]

Boom!

[karanhsingh]

I just confirmed a winter transfer for this guy, after recently reading an article about him on The Athletic and then scouting him. Hoping that he will add some extra quality to our defence.

[Hootieleece]

1 minute ago, karanhsingh said:

Boom!

You won by a landslide!

[Hootieleece]

1 minute ago, karanhsingh said:

I just confirmed a winter transfer for this guy, after recently reading an article about him on The Athletic and then scouting him. Hoping that he will add some extra quality to our defence.

Looks very good...How much was his transfer fee? or was he an End of Contract Signing?

[karanhsingh]

Just now, Hootieleece said:

Looks very good...How much was his transfer fee? or was he an End of Contract Signing?

3 million he was transfer listed at Leverkusen

[Jogo Bonito]

A superb signing. Sometimes I forget this is Red Star 

[karanhsingh]

JANUARY 2023 UPDATE

Well January was a bit like playing PSG away having had 3 games in 5 days with half your team injured... in fact it was exactly that! 

It's been a very busy month (along with the one official fixture from December). Our injuries during Jan have been as follows:

Said Arab (first choice AMC) 5 months out
Sofiane Alakouch (first choice RB) 1 month out
Lisandru Tramoni (first choice AMR) 6 weeks out
Tituoan Roger (first choice AML) 6 weeks out
Angel di Maria (back-up AMR/L) 3 weeks out
Christian Kouan (first choice MC) 3 weeks out

Given that, I feel like we managed to do a good job of holding it together! Even the Nimes & Lille games we should have really won but were let down by our finishing. Obviously we are now out of the cup, but we are still 4th in the league around the half-way stage, and we have a Europa league knock-out tie vs Galatasaray to look forward to soon.

The games continue to come thick & fast with another 8 in February. We REALLY need our players back!

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Very steady form, even better if depleted by injuries 

[Hootieleece]

Still in fine form with all the wins.

What does your medical department look like?

Do you use recovery training after matches and sometimes in between congested fixtures?

[karanhsingh]

2 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Still in fine form with all the wins.

What does your medical department look like?

Do you use recovery training after matches and sometimes in between congested fixtures?

I have hired good physios. Honestly the training I have no idea about I leave it to the staff.