FM21 Global (Less England) Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[Thebaker]

5 hours ago, aldojags said:

That’s strange, I remember the name from previous fm’s, 800 seater stadium, what happened there!? Should be an interesting save 👍

Financial problems, they used to play at a 20000 seater ground which their rivals Xerez DFC ( a division lower) now play at

[SolnaRoyal]

FC Karpaty Lviv Season 2023/2024
Introduction - Season 2021/2022 - 2022/2023

End of season recap

A season to remember!

What a season, we went flying right from the start and the combination of us overperforming and our oppents underperforming greatly we have won our first trophy and been promoted the Ukrainian Premier League!
Before the season we were to finish 4th according to the press but they did not see Enete doing another fantastic season with 25 goals in 29 games, only in the last 10 matches did we start to really shake as injury after injury crept up on all of our keyplayers, this resulted in only 3 wins , 4 draws and 3 losses for our last 10 games and Metal and Lviv were closing in fast. 

When we were mathematically set for promotion and 2nd place we could take a breather and figure out how to hold on to the first spot, well we just went on loosing and drawing games but neither Metal or Lviv could keep a winning streak going to catch up with us. 

Our finances at the end of the season was €8 000, but the TV revenue for  the next year will be €2 000 000(!) so there is no need to worry just yet, will keep calm in the transfer market and try to poach free agents and players who contracts are running out as to not send us in to oblivion in case we get relegated. 

 

Spoiler

Transfers In and Out

This season we focused on brining in players on a free transfer that would make an impact / help us reach promotion. And once again the free transfers were the ones really delivering while the expensive players were more an investment for the future.
To keep this part a little shorter I will point out some key signings this year. 

Edo Pedisic an 19 year old RB that was recommended by one of our staff was signed for free as his contract was running out, brought some stability to our defense that we were really lacking the previous seasons. Trying to retrain him to be both a WB and an IWB to be able to move him around a little bit. A little bit worried with the 10 acceleration and 9 pace, but maybe 

Spoiler

Filip Scekic a free transfer from Balkany that was relegated to the second league after a horrible season, a huge loss for them as he is a great CB and one of our most valued players right now. I hope he can shine in the PL but the goal here is be able to sell for a great profit in our second or third season (if we stay up) in the PL. Why sell a good player? Well he takes up a Fgn spot and we will find Ukrainian players that are better than him, we need to save those foreign spots for the best. But for now, he fits right in. 

 

Spoiler

 

Yuuri Matiiv

A young CB that was released by Shakhtar but look at the length! 190cm of pure Ukrainian steel. He got plenty of playing time during this season and is the type of player I want to replace Filip with when the time comes. He is in the starting XI right now but should be able to replace Filip whenever we decide / have to sell him.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Progression

 

 

Season	Predicted	Final position	Cup	Badges
2021/2022	12th	9th	First round	None
2022/2023	7th	3rd	Preliminary round	National C
2023/2024	4th	1st Promoted! First Trophy!	First round	Continental C

 

 Player of the season

9. Joseph Enete
No Questions about it, he is the reason why we are even up here, still has 1+1 years left on his contract. Will have to see how he does in the PL before giving him a new contract.
But boy do I start getting feelings for this player, valued at 425k but with no interest from other clubs to buy him from us yet (thank godness). 
Now that I think about it, he might just a get a new contract anyway. 

 

See you all in the top flight as we fight for our survival next season!

 

[aldojags]

that's great @SolnaRoyalyou have a better goal difference than all but 1 of the teams scored. Total domination. Looking forward to your first season up. 

 

That centre half - thats my ideal CB in FM. high marking tackling heading positioning, if I see that on the attributes, I'm offering you a contract!

[aldojags]

Here we go with this crap again...does anyone follow Italian football? AC & Inter have combined to sign about 8 players from me, and they are jam packed full of Bulgarians, they both sign players from Levski/Ludogorests too, it's strange!

Spoiler

 

[Britrock]

@aldojags I believe there is a setting in the db for which countries other nations are more likely to buy from, maybe Italy has Bulgaria set as a preferred nation? 

Edit: here is an editor mod that updates those preferences to make them more realistic. No use to you now, but it's how I found out such a thing exists https://community.sigames.com/forums/topic/542260-fm21-realistic-transfer-preferences-v20-and-new-league-reputations-by-daveincid-and-majesticeternity-updated-11421/

Edited February 25, 2021 by Britrock

[aldojags]

52 minutes ago, Britrock said:

@aldojags I believe there is a setting in the db for which countries other nations are more likely to buy from, maybe Italy has Bulgaria set as a preferred nation? 

Edit: here is an editor mod that updates those preferences to make them more realistic. No use to you now, but it's how I found out such a thing exists https://community.sigames.com/forums/topic/542260-fm21-realistic-transfer-preferences-v20-and-new-league-reputations-by-daveincid-and-majesticeternity-updated-11421/

Yeh must be that there is something buried in code of game, the minute i have a decent player i get a bid from a milan club, its so predictable 😂

[Britrock]

Olympiakos just exist in a different stratosphere to the rest of Greek football...! My £600k is spread over 4 seasons and basically used all my transfer and wage budget from this season!

[Britrock]

The best thing about this result is that I rested more than half of my usual first choice team because it was a midweek game and we've got the the team that's bottom on the weekend. I figured I could rest my guys against Panathinaikos as I'd get totally pumped and save them for the more important game later. Turns out, we can beat them with a bunch of backups!

[SolnaRoyal]

@Britrock What a roller coaster of a first half. I might have punched the monitor. Great comeback!

[SolnaRoyal]

Nothing to see here, just Enete shooting us to the semi final in the cup during injury time. 👀

 

[jmarchand]

So this just happened. 

 

And this is why this is such a big deal to me. 

Full report coming soon.

[SolnaRoyal]

@jmarchand nice! nothing like beating a run like that. How have Dinamo been doing in Europe, are they filithy rich now or is it still possible to start running away with titles every year for you now?

[aldojags]

Yes @jmarchandi knew it was only a matter of time! Superb!!

 

and hopefully @SolnaRoyalcan make it a double whammy with more silverware 😀

[Biscotti]

9 hours ago, Britrock said:

The best thing about this result is that I rested more than half of my usual first choice team because it was a midweek game and we've got the the team that's bottom on the weekend. I figured I could rest my guys against Panathinaikos as I'd get totally pumped and save them for the more important game later. Turns out, we can beat them with a bunch of backups!

I have a theory that on occasion a rotated squad will go above and beyond because the players are eager to prove they merit the step up to first-choice.

[jmarchand]

One thing to note in Croatian football is that there is no prize money for league finish, contrary to what I've seen in Italy where I managed last year. This "somewhat" levels the playing field in the sense that it's harder for a given team to snowball away. That being said, Dinamo has been the prime side in Croatian football for the better part of the last 3 decades as you can see... 

Over the last few years, they've been consistently getting hammered in the Champions League Group stage. This year is the first year they've finished above 4th, in a whooping 3rd place. They've been getting a win and a draw here and there, but nothing that really mounts a credible challenge. This year, they got to the second knockout round of the EURO Cup, losing 0-5 to Sevilla. 

In terms of European coefficients, actually Hajduk is higher than them at the moment thanks to a dream run in 24/25 in the EURO Cup and Dinamo getting quite consistently beaten in the group stage. 

[Biscotti]

Maybe I should have given this guy a debut sooner than 3 games before the end of the season...

[Britrock]

This one is going to sting for a while!

[jmarchand]

    

Season 8 - 2028-2029 | Ending Dinamo's dominance

Squad | Transfers

We've been progressing swiftly. Second last year again in the league, but with lots of draws. but we had been steadily gaining places in each of our seasons in the First League, there was only one spot left...  A second place got us qualified for the Champions Cup League Path again, but I had the hopes of qualifying for the group stages again after last year's surprise result. As a reminder, here are the goals I had set for ourselves at the end of last season. 

Goals for this season:

1. Get more depth in defence
2. Reach the Champions Cup Group Stages. Stretch goal, win at least a game. 
3. Challenge for the League title again
4. 15 points against Hajduk and Dinamo (only in the league)
5. Get more goals from set pieces, I think I'm neglecting this part of the game and it will serve us well in Europe. 

 

Champions Cup

Compared to last year where we were drawn with Dynamo Kyiv and Ajax, this year wasn't kind on the draws. The first round wend against Young Boys from Switzerland, where we tied 2-2 away in the first leg. We were confident of making it through on the second leg, and the guys pulled in a convincing 3-1 win.

The Playoff round (the last one before the group stages), saw us drawn against Borussia Dortmund (yikes). An even first leg at home resulted in a 1-1 draw. Suddenly, I was quite nervous to travel to Dortmund and face them on their pitch. It wasn't pretty football, but Daniel Matas threw in a striker masterclass in the first half and we barely held on in the second half en route to a 3-1 win. 

Next up was the Group stages. We got drawn against our buddies from Manchester City, Bayern Munich and AS Monaco. Tough group, but I was hopeful of getting something against Monaco. 

Turns out that it went very well! 

One loss at Man City (5-2, it wasn't even close), but then a draw at Monaco and at home against Bayern and WINS against Monaco at home, Man City at home (3-1, with a hat trick from Sipos!) and a clutch 5-4 wins at Munich where the winner of the match would take 2nd place in the group. Contrary to the second game against Dortmund, we really took the game to them and was on a rollercoaster of emotions. Ultimately, we were saved by Daniel Matas (who else!) who completed his hat trick at the 81st minute to send us on our merry way to the First Knockout Leg. 

And then it was too good to be true, we couldn't keep this run going on forever. We got PSG'd. 

 

Still. Very proud of the boys. Matas rose up there in the scoring charts, so unless Gabriel scores 7 goals in the Final, Matas will finish as the top scorer in the competition, which is pretty awesome. 

Our aerial defence also came out great, with both my main central defenders Pérez and Paintsli finishing on top of the standings in the Key Headers department. 

This made us a fair amount of money (15 M€ in group stage prize money, 2.5 M€ per win, close to 1M€ per draw and 9.5 M€ for getting clobbered by PSG). A+++ would Champions League again. 

Objective 2:  Reach the Champions Cup Group Stages. Stretch goal, win at least a game - Overwhelming success! 

 

League Performance

As you've seen in the post just above, our season went pretty well...

Dinamo started super strong though, with 11 straight, very convincing wins in which we were the only ones to score against them (in a 2-1 loss). Then, as their involvement with the Champions Cup Group started to pick up, their form slowly started to drop and we were able to catch up. With 6 games left, we were tied and I had the advantage on goal difference. 

In the end, they slightly fizzled out, with two draws in their last two games and we edged them out by one point, giving us the title, even though we lost the last game. Nailbiter for sure. 

This year, there was really a league within a league, with Dinamo, us and Hajduk way in front of everyone else. By a good margin. The 91 goals for is close to the league record (98), which was established in 1993/94 by Dinamo, so that would be quite the record to beat. 

I had 2 objectives in the league this year: 

• Objective 2: Qualify for the Champions League again.  
  • Success! We even get straight to the group stages this year. 
• Objective 4: Get 15 points against Dinamo and Hajduk in the league
  •  
  • I'm leaving the results against Bayern there just to brag, but it's been 4-1-3 this year, for a total of 13 points. Not success!
• Last year, I had set to get the best goal difference in the league and got only +35. This year, we finished second, but improved by almost 20 goals on that total. Not bad. We can see that in the attacking efficiency, we were clearly way above expectations and super clinical. Yes, our attacking statistics are very interesting. 

 

Croatian Cup Performance

Not much to say here. We beat Dinamo in the Quarter final, but then lost to Rijeka on penalties. We were in the last stretch of the season and rotated the squad a bit more than I should have. Meh. 

 

Notable performances - Transfers

Most of the year, we played in 4-3-1-2 except in a couple of exceptions and I expect that our transition is complete next year. We have played a couple of games with 4-3-2-1 Wide when Patrick Caculovic and Leon Krekovic started to whine a bit about not being used (which I understand completely). Caculovic stepped up during these games, with 8 goals in 14 games. I thought that this would have been enough to gather some interest to sell him somewhere, but it didn't happen. It feels like we're going to lose him on a free at the end of the season, which is a bit of a shame. But it's a consequence of a tactical choice that I've made and I'm at peace with it. 

Daniel Matas - ST - YOUTH! - 49 goals, 13 assists - 7.55 avg. rating

I can say without any doubt that Daniel Matas is the most exciting player that came through my youth academy in any save of FM in my 15 years of playing this game. This year was pretty special and he felt at times like having a cheat code handy. 30 goals in the league, 16 goals in the Champions League and only 3 goals in 2 appearances in the Croatian Cup, when he was mostly rested. he singlehandedly transformed draws in wins and got us the title. Legend. 

He attracted a bid from Liverpool in the Winter transfer window, which I rejected as the bid was lower than his actual value, let alone his 60 M€ release clause. He briefly got mad, then came back to his senses and decided to drop his concerns (and continued to bang in goals in the meantime). 

I know I'm not going to keep him around for much much longer, at the pace at which he's producing. At this point, I just hope that I slap a 50% of next sale clause and wish him the best if he moves to a top club. I'm already thinking of planning for our post-Matas era, which is kinda sad to say, given that the kid is only 19 years old. 

  

Matija Lambulic - ST - 22 goals, 5 assists - 7.15 avg. rating

With only so much goals to go around, Lambulic was a decent second-choice striker. He time-shared with Leon Sipos early in the year and got most of work when Sipos got a 3 month hip injury. He made the most of it and served as a nice sidekick for Matas.

 

Leon Sipos - ST - 15 goals, 6 assists - 7.57 avg. rating

After a somewhat disappointing season last year, Sipos really started strong, with 10 goals in 10 games. Then, he got injured for 3 months and misssed most of the second half of the season. Too bad, I just hope that he'll come back to his former self after that. At 29 years old and after a couple of injuries, I fear that his best years are behind him. I might want to play him well next year and try to move him on during the winter break, should a decent offer come our way.  

 

Samuel Paintsil - DC  - 2 goals, 4 assists - 7.19 avg. rating

Signed in 25/26 when we first got to the First League, Painstil really  stepped up his game this year and became an integral part of our defence. He scored a few goals from free kicks which led to his quite high rating this year, but he was solid at all times in the defence too.

 

 

Aldair Torres  - AMC - 7 goals, 12 assists, 6.93 avg. rating

In his full first season with us, Aldair Torres really was the driving creative force in the midfield. He scored quite a few exciting goals, including one in which he took the ball at midfield and dribbled 3 defenders before blasting it in the top netting. His 12 assists this year was a good mark, but still quite benefited from the proficiency of Daniel Matas in front. When the team scores 91 goals in the league, _someone_ is bound to get some assists...  He's still listed as a 4-5 star potential player, so has quite some room to grow and I expect next year to be also quite good for him. 

 

Péter Albert - DC - NEW SIGNING - 1 assist - 7.05 avg. rating - 12 games

I tried to sign him last year, but he chose to go to Napoli instead. He didn't play much and I signed him for 1.9 M€ in the Winter transfer window and he provided good cover for both fullbacks and even in central defence. Brings in good depth and almost a starting option too. He's a regular Hungarian international too and a typical FM regen, as he's been sporting this moustache since he was 15, probably...  

 

 

Objective 1: More depth in defence: between the evolution of my players and the signing of Albert and a few others I'm not showing here, I consider this a success. 

 

Youth Intake/Progression

This year, I was handed out a golden generation and, as opposed to the times where we were in the lower leagues, our club no longer sucks, so I have high hopes for these youngsters as the baseline for comparison is higher than it used to be. 

Josip Strljic - AMR ST - At 16, he's being said that he could be better than Daniel Matas. I'll believe it when I see it, but he looks promising enough for a full blown screenshot here. 

Max Tauer - AMR - He actually was loaned by HR. Dragovoljac for the second year in a row. This year, they're playing in the Second League and he was more at his level, scoring 7 and racking 9 assists. They're being promoted again this year, so I'm almost tempted to send him again on loan over there for a third consecutive year. 

Vice Vukusic - ST - Got sold this year to Osijek for 60 k€. I think he'll be good with them and if it can help bring the stature of their club a bit, then I'm all for it. I couldn't see him being better than the options I already have in front.  

Milan Stojkovic (YP26) - GK - Was the main keeper for our U19s, while training with the main club. Looking good for the future, but he's still a bit off from my current option. 

 

Awards

• Daniel Matas - First League Top Goalscorer (all time record of 30 goals), First League Team of the Season
• Nemenja Mijailovic - First League Goalkeeper of the season,  First League Team of the Season
• Me: Manager of the Year
• Eduardo Pérez:  First League Team of the Season
• Boris Kordic:  First League Team of the Season
• Marin Kuzminski (MC):  First League Team of the Season

 

Finances

I'll let you guess where I got the payments form the Champions League in the graph below. 

 

Goals for next season:

1. Get a star midfielder
2. Qualify in our Champions League Group 
3. Challenge for the League title again
4. 15 points against Hajduk and Dinamo (only in the league)

Other News

• My chairman wants to sell the club AND build a new stadium in their 5 year plan. Hopefully he doesn't name it after him. There has been a takeover attempt this year, but it ultimately failed. 
• I now have 3 affiliate clubs: Kustosija (Croatian Second League) Lokmotiv Sofia (Bulgarian Second Division) and Mura (Slovenian 1st League - who qualified for the Euro Cup in a couple of occasions)
• Dinamo got 6 points in their CL Group stage, but was ultimately not enough to qualify, behind AC Milan and RB Salzburg. 
• Hajduk got a pretty decent European run this year, ending up 3rd in their EURO Cup II Group, in the wrong side of a 3-way tie at 6 points. 
• Sesvete got knocked out in the EURO CUP II 4th Qualifying Round against AEK
• Lokomotiva qualified for the groups of the EURO Cup after their Croatian Cup win, where they got hammered by Celtic, Legia and Sevilla. Heh, at least they got there! 
• European winners: 
  • Champions Cup: Liverpool (third time in a row!)
  • Euro Cup: Bayern (again!)
  • EC II: CSKA Moscow

 

Season Progress

Season  |   League    |  Position (media pred)  |   Croatian Cup   |    Europe     |  Euro Position |  Avg. Att   |  vs. Dinamo/Hajduk |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21/22   |    2nd      |       7th (18th)        |   First Round    |     N/A       |       N/A      |     302     |         N/A        |
22/23   |    2nd      |       1st (18th) - PROM |   First Round    |     N/A       |       N/A      |     342     |         N/A        | 
23/24   |    1st      |       4th (10th)        |    Semi Final    |     N/A       |       N/A      |     817     |    4 pts (1-1-6)   |
24/25   |    1st      |       4th (9th)         |   Second Round   |  EC2 - 1st KO |       271      |    5012     |    4 pts (1-1-6)   |
25/26   |    1st      |       3rd (8th)         |   !! WINNERS !!  | EC2 - 3rd Qual|       218      |    1137     |   11 pts (3-2-4)   | 
26/27   |    1st      |       2nd (5th)         |   !! WINNERS !!  |  EC - 2nd KO  |       112      |    6115     |   10 pts (2-4-4)   | 
27/28   |    1st      |       2nd (4th)         |      Final       |  CL - Group   |       85       |    6973     |   14 pts (4-2-2)   |
28/29   |    1st      |       1st (4th)  - WIN! |    Semi Final    |  CL - 1st KO  |       51       |    8001     |   13 pts (4-1-3)   |

 

 

Edited February 28, 2021 by jmarchand

[Biscotti]

That's a terrific season @jmarchand! I found that knowing that you can hang in Europe is the point where you finally start to feel like the challenge is achievable.

You might want to re-do your maths on points gained against Dinamo/Hajduk, though 😉

[Biscotti]

Francisco | Sestao River Club | Spain | 2034/35 (Season 14)

Back to earth with a little bit of a bump here this season. I didn't expect the heights we reached last season, but even with the board only looking for us to survive I wanted to carry our momentum and look to a top half finish. Unfortunately it seems that last season was partly thanks to momentum, as we had long spells where I felt we weren't good enough. January saw a change in personnel as a couple went out and a couple came in, but it didn't change our trajectory too much and I think we were honestly lucky to avoid being properly in the relegation battle. Still definitely a decent season, which we can build upon. It was a shame to lose Balogun in March, but it was a decent offer, he wanted to go, and I'm confident we can re-invest to get someone on a par with him.

The board have finally decided it's time to comply with the league rules on stadiums, meaning they've started the process of looking for a new site. In the meantime, we'll be renting lower league Eibar's stadium which is almost twice the size of our current home. According to the club info screen, we're looking to build a 14,000 seater stadium, which I think will be a decent level for us to move forward with. There's also a big dip in finances right at the end of the season, as the board agreed to my request to improve our youth facilities at a cost of £1.6m.

Competitions | Transfers | Youth Intake | Fixtures Part 1 & Part 2 | New Records/PotS | Finances | Best XI (All-Time)

Mohamed was our top scorer again, but he really dipped in form at the end of the season. I wonder how much of that was due to having to form partnership with a different strike-buddy? Regardless, right at the end I swapped him out for 4th choice Andrés Garcia, who scored 5 in his 2(1) appearances - I'd best try and rotate him in a little more next season 😅. Ricardo Durán was our assist leader this year and his development has really been promising. I was able to negotiate a new deal with him which keeps him tied down until 2039 and upped his release fee to £5m - if someone wants to pry him away in the next couple of years they'll have to match that as far as I'm concerned. Sitting just behind him on the assist chart, though, is still Gentian Muça in his 6th consecutive loan season with us. Pitching in with 11 assists and also 11 goals, I've already successfully negotiated another season of loan from Hajduk. This has been going on for so long now that I actually see no benefit in trying to sign him permanently - we're on his favoured clubs and favoured personnel anyway, and I suspect even if we did get to sign him he would want significantly more than the £2,600p/w we're currently paying to loan him.

Xabier Larrazabal (YP12) has successfully retrained to be able to play on the right, which I felt was important due his left foot being weak, and I think next season he'll be pushing to start games regularly. This year's top academy product was Christian Ochoa (YP14). Nothing particularly stands out as great or bad, but I'm a touch concerned about his unambitious personality. It'll be interesting to see how he's looking after a couple of years with the U19s.

Basque count: 1 player (At least 10 starts, or 20 games overall)

[jmarchand]

7 hours ago, Biscotti said:

That's a terrific season @jmarchand! I found that knowing that you can hang in Europe is the point where you finally start to feel like the challenge is achievable.

You might want to re-do your maths on points gained against Dinamo/Hajduk, though 😉

Thanks! I feel we're getting in the land of "it might be achievable", but we still have long ways to go, as we can see from our PSG beating. At the same time, I'm not sure I can reasonably expect 50 goal seasons on a consistent basis by my top striker, be it Matas or anyone else in the future. 

I corrected the points vs. Hajduk/Dinamo, it was getting late yesterday night...! 

[jmarchand]

Also, interesting detail that I forgot yesterday, Dinamo was seeded 1st in the CL Group draw. I don't know if it's because they had won the league the year before, but I hope the same happens to us this year! 

[jmarchand]

21 hours ago, aldojags said:

Yes @jmarchandi knew it was only a matter of time! Superb!!

 

Thanks! First step in a 30 year title run like Dinamo! 

[Biscotti]

1 minute ago, jmarchand said:

Also, interesting detail that I forgot yesterday, Dinamo was seeded 1st in the CL Group draw. I don't know if it's because they had won the league the year before, but I hope the same happens to us this year! 

League winners from the top 6 nations by co-efficient, along with CL and EL winners get put in pot 1, so as long as the 1.HNL hasn't dropped out of the top 6 you should be in.

[jmarchand]

Thanks for the explanation. I’ll have to double-check as I don’t remember that the league was that high in the standings. Oh well, all for the better if that’s the case though!

[aldojags]

SO Croatia must be top 6 in your save @jmarchand? THat is quite surprising, in my save Croatian prem is 16th in co-efficient! Bulgaria is 24th so I have no chance!! 

 

I just qualified for the CL group stages after missing out last year, wish I hadn't bothered...

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by aldojags

[jmarchand]

3 minutes ago, aldojags said:

 

SO Croatia must be top 6 in your save @jmarchand? THat is quite surprising, in my save Croatian prem is 16th in co-efficient! Bulgaria is 24th so I have no chance!! 

 

Last time I checked, we were at 9th place, but in my save, I’m a few days from the updated rankings, so we’ll see soon enough. 
 

If that’s true, I’d be stoked as 6th place give automatically 2 spots in the CL group stages, so that eases the pressure on the league performance quite a bit. 

[Biscotti]

I just looked it up and I think if the CL or EL winners are also winners of their league they still count and it passes that seeding spot to the next ranked league.

[Biscotti]

Over the summer I was debating whether I could find an upgrade for him, but I'm glad I haven't succeeded:

[jmarchand]

Nope, we're still 9th. 

I don't know what happened last year to Dinamo, then. With @Biscotti's explanation, the best we could be would be 8th, which is still not enough to go up automatically like that. Oh well, let's take bugs that advantage us when we can, I say. 

[Britrock]

Veroia FC - 2022/23 end of season review

A fantastic season where we basically maxed out our potential but ran into the steamrollers of AEK, Olympiakos, PAOK and OFI to mixed but generally bad results. We managed to take down pretty much everyone else in the Super League though, although long term things don't look great because our finances are a complete mess. The Greek league splits into two (top 6 and bottom 8) after everyone has played each other twice and we somehow snuck into the top 6 which meant we were in the Championship Group. That meant we had definitely beaten relegation, but it also meant that we got to play the top 4 teams twice more (Panathinaikos had a bad season and finished 10th). We spent the Championship Group getting beaten every which way, only managing two draws and a win over the team in 5th who were just as surprised as we were to be there (Aris, who had 3 draws and a win in the Championship Group).

Highlights included a 3-0 win over OFI at the end of the league season, a 3-2 win and 0-0 draw with Panathinaikos and a 1-1 draw with AEK. There were numerous games where we were leading or drawing with only a few minutes to go and just collapsed late under a barrage of pressure from players a good few levels above us - a 2-1 lead at 90 minutes slipping to a 3-2 loss against Olympiakos was particularly brutal. There were of course lowlights as well, a crazy 8-3 loss to AEK topping all of them.

Spoiler

The Championship Group kicked off in March at the AEK game if you couldn't work it out from the results!

We were fairly quiet on transfers although we went big on Koulierakis, an 18 year old CB from PAOK. He started all but one game for us with a very respectable 6.93 rating and he will hopefully be at the centre of our defence for a long time. Acampa was someone who I thought I was signing to play up front, but after a while I realised I need a guy who is better in the air (his 5 jumping reach wasn't cutting it), but he found a role on the right wing after that failed experiment and was a solid if unspectacular performer by the end of the season. Neto played the AMC role most of the season, a role which started as a shadow striker but eventually turned into a standard AMCs and was way more effective as a result. I'm hoping he can evolve next season as well. Balogiannis was a backup DMC, signed to be a creator and performed well when called upon.

Spoiler

 

The star player turned out to be someone who I wasn't expecting to play at all and who spent a large majority of the season on the transfer list by his request! Loukinas was unhappy at not getting playing time early in the year so he kicked up a fuss and demanded to be sold. After the turn of the year however, he found himself starting as my first choice guy was doing nothing. Loukinas ended up 3rd highest scorer in the league with the best average rating in the whole team. And he flat out refuses to sign a new contract for next year! I think there's going to be a lot of movement over the summer, there's a lot of deadwood I'm looking to move on and so I'll need a fair few replacements to come in and hit the ground running.

Spoiler

As noted above, the finances are a mess. We're back down to -£1.5m even though attendances increased 5-fold this season (from 715 up to 3678). I don't entirely know how TV or competition revenue works in Greece, but it appears that you're on your own and the league isn't going to help! There's no reward for finishing higher in the league and I think we just have to work out our own TV deals. I'm hoping next year we can bring in some more money from TV and sponsorship to try and bridge the gap

Spoiler

For next season the hope is our wage bill isn't lowered too much and I can find some players to help push us closer to the top 4. A cup run would be nice too, I went out in the 5th round again this year meaning I'm yet to win a game in the competition in 2 years!

Spoiler

Greece have falledn from 55th to 63rd in the world rankings. Holland won the World Cup beating Colombia in the final who had run, and conquered, the South America gauntlet!

 

[SolnaRoyal]

 
FC Karpaty Lviv Season 2024/2025
Introduction - Season 2021/2022 - 2022/2023 - 2023/2024

End of season recap

Mid-table mediocrity or local heroes? 

Our first year up in the UPL saw us snatching 10th place after winning our two last games moving us up from 12th place, overall a decent season where we were not expected to stay up.  After 9 games or so we did fall all the way down to 14th but most of the season we were hovering around 12th - 10th. Not very exciting to be honest, I had thought we would be in a relegation battle for most of the season. But it seems like there are still worse teams than us in the league. 

The greatest sucess came in the cup where we got very lucky with the draws and managed to reach the semi final before loosing out to Dnipro-1 with a late goal from them in the 80th minute. It would have been fun to reach the finals this early in the save but even if we had managed to beat Dnipro-1 we would have had Shakhtar in the finals (wich we lost against 8-1 in the league).

I also spent about 300k in the transfer window and once again the free transfers were the ones that made some impact, I´m going to stay on that track and skip investing any money if I am not 100% sure that they will be a star player until we can build ourselves a bank here around the middle of the table.

 

Spoiler

Transfers In and Out

Once again the focus was on free agents that could fill out the squad or improve some positions that was not up the to UPL standards (well as good as we can get right now).

Issiar Dramé was our to day most expensive transfer but it paid off as we really needed a good BPD to keep the defensive line somewhat solid, the sale of Vitaliy Dovbysh helped pay for 1/2 of Dramé as once again a team swooped in a picked up a player that has potenial in form of stars but very low determination and the trait "Unambitious". All in all a decent transfer window. 

Spoiler

Issiar Dramé 
Former OL player that never played a game for them, showed up for a total of 27 games and averaged a 6.89 rating. 
Most notable is that our two main CBs are now both 190cm+ wich seem to work wonders against set pieces.

Spoiler

 

Claudio Manzi

Well what can I say, this is a perfect example of why you do not play FM after having far too many beers with your friends. You see Italian, you see born and raised in Napoli and 3 CA / 4PA. BUY HIM!
Sadly we do not use straight up CB, we mostly use BPD and Claudio has never passed a ball in his life and has some of the worst vision I have ever seen. Also he is one of the best payed players on our team right now.
Transfer listed, angry and forgotten. I really hope we can get rid of this dead weight during the next transfer window. 

11 apps and 6.55 rating.

Spoiler

 

We have also brought up some youth that played their first season with us this year.

Eugene Lobay
Currently unhappy since he himself singed a contract with us until 2027 and we declined his request to move to a bigger club. But he is one of our great prospects currently at the club.
22 games, 2 goals and an average rating of only 6.64 , however the kid is only 18 and it´s his first season. We will give him time.

Spoiler

Olexandr Mikheev

Really like this prospect, both with good feet and great overall stats for an 18 year old. Can become a really good player in the UPL and I do not expect him to stay for too long. But with a value of 325k he coud possibly help us increase that bank we need. 

Spoiler

 

Economics

We are sitting on about 970k and the prognosis for the three next years is very positive, I have learned that this is the most important aspect when getting promoted. Keeping yourself above debt by not adding too expensive players. Make sure that the contracts are as short as they can be. (Maximum 1+1 for somebody at 3 CA and 26 years+) even though some Italian already messed up my tactics a little bit it´s not a huge damage yet as we can see.

Keeping players coming up from our youth facilities and selling them is also possible, but Im trying to keep as many as I can for myself.

Spoiler

 

Youth Prospects

I´m thinking about adding this topic here but for now I will simply just show the general status of our youth centers and the prospects we have, as our team is not that good most of the prospects have very high potential (stars) but I don´t think even 50% of them will acually come up as we climb the top league. We currently have excellent youth recruitment but our facilities are average at best. And they will stay average until we can get out in Europe or have a bigger bank as they have been the downturn in my economy in previous saves if upgraded too fast. 

 

Spoiler

 

Progression

Season	Predicted	Final position	Cup	Badges
2021/2022	12th	9th	First round	None
2022/2023	7th	3rd	Preliminary round	National C
2023/2024	4th	1st	First round	Continental C
2024/2025	16th	10th	Semi Finals	Continental B

 

 Player of the season

9. Joseph Enete & Issiar Dramé 
You thought I was goin to pick someone else than Enete? Well to be honest he was the reason why we got to the semi finals, the fans love him and he loves the club.
He´s is born and raised Karpaty and with 139 apps, 72 goals and 33 asts with an aaverage rating of 7.09 is is now an icon. He scored 10 for us this year, a lot less than last season but tougher opposition combined with our wingers not being up to standard I still think he can produce some more. 

However I have to add Issiar Dramé here as well since he did 27 apps, scored one goal and averaged 6.89. I hope they both can keep it up for the 2025/2026 season. Enete is reaching his peak potential and I would really love for him to play a few more seasons before we have to let him go. He is only rated as a good first league player and potential to become a "decent UPL player" so we all know were we are going.

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Well, let´s see if we can keep going and maintain a mid-table position or if our overachivments will come to an end next year. I have faith in the team and I will keep the names coming  in quite few if any next season as we want to build a little bank before we go crazy with any transfers.

[aldojags]

@Britrockgreat season, sure you will break up the big teams before long! That centre back looks the part and will only get better with age, and Acampa too looks quality. 
 

The tv deal/prize money is similar to Bulgaria from sounds of it - i get i think its about £100k a year tv, with no prize money. Im totally reliant on selling my top players and European prize money to keep things ticking along. Only 3 european slots for Greece i would have thought theyd get more. I’d recommend Lollujo’s series on youtube the greek oddysey thats a good road to glory set in Greece i always wanted to do a greek league after watching that, i highly recommend it! 
 

@SolnaRoyalsolid first season up. Some good youth prospects there too, and positive financial projection is a good sign. I do like Drame as a ball playing CB, shame his physicals arent a little higher or he’d be a real stud! But still a quality player for sure 😀

[rlipscombe]

some great progress - really good to see.  Still searching for a home should I decide to leave my Owls save behind and come back 'home'.  Currently have potential saves in France, Germany, Italy as well as considering Belgium, Portugal, Norway and Brazil.......  

[Britrock]

@aldojags Greece get 4 European slots but I think the 4th is the cup winner (Panathinaikos won it this year).

Selling players is going to be difficult, no one is interested in anyone I've got yet, unless their contract is running down, and the youth squad has a lot of potential but no actual ability yet.

[SolnaRoyal]

So we just lost 2-4 against our U19 team, I think it´s time for a new fresh tactic. 🤷‍♂️
What could possibly go wrong?

[Britrock]

This sums up the current mountain I have to climb pretty well! I was at £345k last year so we're making some progress at least

[Balahara]

Facilities - League History - Manager Profile - Squad - Setup

Enjoyed reading the stories here and it's inspired me to start an attempt of my own. I don't expect to ever compete with the big boys but I want to see how far I can get a Finnish side in continental competition. Therefore I'm going with FC Espoo, a team in the Greater Helsinki region. As seen on the setup, I'll be playing with a several additional European leagues loaded as I like having a full database, especially one that incorporates all of Scandinavia when I'm playing there.

[aldojags]

Welcome @Balahara👍

[aldojags]

I can't help but think a completion for me is near impossible, when the board insist on accepting bids of £7m for players like this...he is worth so much more than that, if i were playing as a European giant I'd pay £40m for him, but cos im in a minnow nation the board feel obliged to just accept any multi million bid. He had no release clause, plenty years on his deal, wasnt even on that much money. And our bank balance was incredibly healthy...he is out and out my best player...or was! 

 

I paid £6m for him, so I get to make a whole £1m profit! what's the point!!?

Spoiler

 

 

 

In other news, the first player to be sold out from under us, about 4-5 years ago, our at the time home grown starlet Zhivko Tenev, has made nothing of his career, and is coming back to us on a free. It's an amazing sign of how far we've come that he probably wont play much, but he's home grown at club, so it'll be valuable from a European football point of view. Plus I'm an old one for sentiment really, the chance to bring him back was too great to turn down, he left before we got good so i am hoping he can come home and win some trophies as he was phenomenal as a 17yr old for us and i was gutted to lose him! And I still as of yet to my knowledge have to get a home grown prospect a cap for Bulgaria, maybe he'll be my best shot for the foreseeable!

Spoiler

 

[Balahara]

21 hours ago, Balahara said:

Facilities - League History - Manager Profile - Squad - Setup

Enjoyed reading the stories here and it's inspired me to start an attempt of my own. I don't expect to ever compete with the big boys but I want to see how far I can get a Finnish side in continental competition. Therefore I'm going with FC Espoo, a team in the Greater Helsinki region. As seen on the setup, I'll be playing with a several additional European leagues loaded as I like having a full database, especially one that incorporates all of Scandinavia when I'm playing there.

Sacked after 12 games sitting dead last with 6 points. Back to lurking I go, 

1 hour ago, aldojags said:

when the board insist on accepting bids of £7m for players like this.

It does need looked at. Hate to rub it in but he looks incredible and Shenzen don't mind spending a few bob.

[aldojags]

nightmare @Balaharaget back on the horse mate!

[jmarchand]

And we get to meet PSG again and Man City for the 3rd time in 4 years. Hopefully we can get some results against AEK and a surprise against any of the others. 

But again. 

Yikes.

[jmarchand]

And the game is throwing me a curveball at the same time. Good thing I have a bit of depth up front, but these are all established first team players that I'm losing for an extended period of time. 

 

<insert sad emoji here> 

[Britrock]

13 hours ago, jmarchand said:

And we get to meet PSG again and Man City for the 3rd time in 4 years. Hopefully we can get some results against AEK and a surprise against any of the others. 

But again. 

Yikes.

Please stuff AEK for me, they're a bit of a juggernaut in my save!

[aldojags]

Not going to have time to play through to the game tonight, but look what we've gone and done!

 

Been in incredible form past few months, Leicester were beating us 3-1 at our place with 10 mins to go in first leg of semi final, wound up drawing 3-3, just knew we'd beat them away. 

 

Salzburg absolutely pumped us in the Europa cup last year so see how we have progressed!

 

I don't get the comment about our riches against their modest budget, their top earners are on £40k per week, our highest earner is £15k per week! They may be referring to the fact that I have £40m in the bank as I just keep selling players to China and Saudi, so I have built up a ridiculous balance now. 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Britrock]

Veroia FC - 2023/24 end of season review

This season wasn't quite as successful as last year, we didn't make it into the top 6 and the Championship group, but there wasn't a huge fall off. In fact we actually ended the season on more points than last year despite playing less games (a benefit of not spending the last 10 games being spanked by the big teams). We even scored the same number of goals and reduced our goals conceded by 17 across the whole season. Overall it was a good year of solidifying our position in the Super League. We didn't start the year too well, but a few tactical tweaks and we ended the year only losing 1 of our last 11 which I was happy with. Gives me confidence going into next year.

Spoiler

We had a busy summer in the transfer market. I let quite a lot of players go at the end of their contracts and spent June/July in-game poring over the free transfer market. We ended up finding 9 players who I brought in and only one of those turned out to be a dud which makes a change! Mbuyi Muamba was the real star, he was released by PSG and we picked him up and he went straight into our starting 11 and averaged 7.21 across the season. Fortuin was found in a random Belgian team and took half a season to really get going but by the end of the year he was playing really well. Santos was in and out of the team but he's a good player in the regista role I'm using in my 4231DM. Ferreira didn't play all too much, but whenever he did he seemed to score a worldy - 30 yard shots and an insane backheel flick among them! Thomsen was the only real let down, but I signed him before the others so he was very quickly overshadowed by the new arrivals. I'll be looking to move him on over the summer if possible.

Spoiler

Overall the squad is pretty strong now. I need a few reinforcements in the AMl/R positions, but generally I'm happy with it until I can find some players that will make a big improvement to the team.

Spoiler

 

Finances are still a mess, £1.7m in the red. I can only hope attendances, season tickets and sponsorship all continue to tick up over the next few years to try and make up the difference.

Spoiler

The plan for next season is to consolidate and maybe get some better results against the top 4. I took a 2-0 lead against Olympiakos in 20 minutes in one game only to blow it and lose 3-2. I've beaten OFI Crete a few times now, but Panathinaikos got their act back together this year so there's still 4 big teams playing in a different universe to the rest of us!

[Biscotti]

Francisco | Sestao River Club | Spain | 2035/36 (Season 15)

We were once again predicted to be strugglers but after last season I was looking for a top half finish to demonstrate some good progression. In the end we only finished one place higher than the year before and with 9 additional points. We were in fact still in the vicinity of the playoffs until about the end of March, at which point our form took a bit of a dive and we only won two of our final eleven. Ultimately, I'm happy enough with that. Next season I think I'd like to be at least in the mix for the playoffs right up to the end of the season, even if I don't get into them.

No sign of our new stadium just yet, but we did set ourselves a new attendance record of just over 12,000 this season. Finances are holding steady at about 5mil, but obviously the stadium will take a big chunk out of that. Trying not to increase my wage bill too much, although it's a little inevitable at the moment that it will go up a little each season.

Competitions | Transfers 1 & 2 | Youth Intake | Fixtures Part 1 & Part 2 | New Records/PotS | Finances | Best XI (All-Time)

We were once again spearheaded by Mohamed although it was a poor season by his standards at only 26 goals. I'm probably going to switch his roles up next season, as Emerson Tudela looks like he'll be a much better fit for the more advanced role that Mohamed has previously occupied - and a bargain at only £17k! Defensively, we weren't as solid as I'd have liked us to be, but Augustín Zorya was still a star for us. I think I need to play around with the roles and instructions at the back for next time around.

Youth intake saw us signing up Mikel Muñoz (YP15) who looks to have some promise, although I feel like it's been a while since we had a proper "top prospect" come through. Xabier Larrazabal (YP12) played most of the season as our first-choice right wing-back, but he didn't really blow me away and I think I'm going to try to find someone else to bring in who he can be understudy for.

Basque count: 3 players (At least 10 starts, or 20 games overall)

 

Edit: so the stadium took more than just a chunk of our funds...

Edited March 4, 2021 by Biscotti

[Biscotti]

Solid if unremarkable season there @Britrock, but it seems like heading in the right direction. Does it feel like you're still a long way from closing the gap to the top teams?

[Thebaker]

@Biscotti- decent enough season there, well done on the new stadium. Munoz looks a really good player at 15, some very good attributes.