[FM21] I did not write half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed

[scarp]

Hello guys, after finally finishing youth only challenge with Brora Rangers I am back to do what I love the most - finding fantastic players that bring me glory  

This will be a journeyman save in Europe and there will be a lot of randomness in where my next steps will go. As I am surely a competitive person and I love the idea of "finishing this country and moving forward", the ultimate goal of this save (that will never be reached) will be to win CL/EL/EC in following nations:

CL - England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Russia, Belgium, Austria, Scotland, Ukraine, Turkey, Denmark & Cyprus

EL - Serbia, Czechia, Croatia, Switzerland, Greece, Israel, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Belarus, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania & Luxembourg

EC - Bosnia, Ireland, Macedonia, Armenia, Latvia, Albania, Northern Ireland, Georgia, Finland, Moldova, Malta, Faroe Islands, Kosovo, Gibraltar, Montenegro, Wales, Iceland, Estonia, Andorra, San Marino

Reaching semifinals in the competition tier up marks the challenge completed as well. For example, reaching CL semifinals with serbian team complete the Serbia nation even if I did not win EL yet.

I will randomly select 5 nations through random.com that will be made playable at the start of the save. As soon as I complete a nation I will randomly choose a new nation through the same tool. 

At the start of the game I will choose manager's reputation and badges based on the middle league outside of the five selected. I will start unemployed and wait for offers to come.

There's one more rule to make things spicy - if I am currently unemployed, I can't refuse any offer. 

Starting nations were selected randomly and the result is - Armenia, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece & Poland. That means I will start with badges and reputation of average polish team's manager.

I will use Daveincid's Increase Realism and Around the Globe - Megapack by DaveTheEditor, as well as some data update from earlier this week.

Edited July 17, 2021 by scarp

[scarp]

I decided to keep Spain, England, Italy & Germany on at all times to enhance the realism of the save. First leagues only as I am not very interested in playing in lower division in this save.

This is my manager.

 

[Rikulec]

Best of luck with your new adventure!

[scarp]

Jagiellonia Białystok

[scarp]

We join the team as we are on 8th position. The date is 23rd December 2020.

[scarp]

Jagiellonia Bialystok - 2020/21

Lets see how the team stacks up at the moment.

Goalkeepers: 

Very old number one goalie and decent number two. I immediately promoted Dziekonski from u18 and may look to give him the spot.

Defenders:

A lot of CB options but we are missing decent wingbacks.

Midfielders:

Quality not really there in midfield.

Attackers:

Bartosz Bida looks really good.

Key players:

Taras Romanczuk

Dani Quintana

Michal Pazdan

Xavier Dziekonski

Bartosz Bida

Overall the team does not look bad although most of the key players are a bit too old for my liking.

[scarp]

February 2021

Started pretty well but then we lost three in a row and are out of FA Cup. 

[scarp]

March 2021

Not the best results so far during my tenure.

Youth in-take

[scarp]

April 2021

Continuing with terrible form, I feel like I am about to be sacked 

[scarp]

May 2021

Horrible results continue, lets see if we can sign some players to help us next season.

[scarp]

Jagiellonia Bialystok - 2020/21

Somehow managed to get even worse than 8th. Lets make a rebuild.

Edited July 17, 2021 by scarp

[scarp]

August 2021

Great start to the season! Looks like i am safe from the sack at least for now 

 

Transfers

I always need at least one preseason to get to know the team and bring in some new faces. I let go of some old players that were on high wages and all in all our net spend is only -50k. Amine Essahel joins for free and I hope he can become our key player as soon as possible. Grabowski and Aioani are probably gonna be starters as well. Serpezis will provide depth in the midfield and Stewart & Brugger will be backups.

Amine Essahel

Dimitris Serpezis

Layton Stewart

Yannick Brugger

Marcin Grabowski

Marian Aioani

 

[scarp]

September 2021

Continuing with decent form, we advance to second round of domestic cup.

[scarp]

October 2021

Not the best results in league and we drop to second place. 

[scarp]

November 2021

Some decent results but we drop points against Bruk-Bet in a match we really should have won.

 

[scarp]

December 2021

Started fantastic but in the end we lost against 1st and 3rd teams from Ekstraklasa. Game against Rakow especially sticks out as we had to rest most of our key players. Legia looks to be running for a title and we will fight for second.

Youth in-take preview

[scarp]

February 2022

Great month up until the very last fixture where we lost against Pogon after missing a penalty. 

[scarp]

March 2022

We advance into Cup semifinals as well as secure our 2nd position in league table. With 8 games to go we are sixteen points ahead of Rakow. Legia is nine points above us so title is very unlikely.

 

Youth in-take

[scarp]

April 2022

Very busy month for us. We managed to reach Cup finals where we lost to Legia so we can't celebrate the first trophy under my wing. In league we also lost twice but we are still comfortably ahead and will finish 2nd.

[scarp]

May 2022

Two losses but we managed to hold onto 2nd place. Unfortunately I did not realize just how bad Poland's coefficient is because 2nd place means Europa Conference 

[scarp]

 

Jagiellonia Bialystok - 2021/22

Definitely happy with team's performance this season, especially after horrendous last year.

 

Key players:

 

[scarp]

Season 2020/21

I decided I'll keep a look at other competitions. I start retrospectively with 2020/21 season.

Premier League

Title for Solskjaer's United! Man City finishes outside of top four and nice surprise by Everton who ends up 4th.

Seria A

Easy win for Juventus, actually nor surprise in Italy, perhaps Lazio's third place finish.

La Liga

Barcelona finishing third as Real Madrid gets a title followed by Atletico. 

Bundesliga

Title for Bayern but Hertha somehow managed to finish 2nd. 

Champions League

Real Madrid beats Barcelona in all spanish final. Lazio managed to reach quarterfinals.

Europa League

Inter beats AC Milan in finals. In semifinals there were three italian teams.

[scarp]

2021/22

Transfers:

Highest fee spent was seen by Liverpool who paid over 170 millions for attacking duo of Dani Olmo & Son Heung-Min. Coutinho joins PSG and Gündogan finds his way to Bayern. Not to be found here but Messi left Barcelona and free and joined PSG. 

In winter Man City bought Lautaro Martinez for 125m. Inter quickly reinvested the money into Dembele & Max (a bit too pricey, aren't they?). Pau Torres leaves for Barcelona.

Premier League

Investment into Son & Olmo pays its dividends as Liverpool secure title. Another fantastic season for Everton who finish third this time. Man City sees its way back to top four. Tottenham only 10th after Son's departure.

Seria A

Another title for Juventus. Lazio finishes second - can they challenge for title in next season?

La Liga

Barcelona without Messi can't challenge Real Madrid. 

Bundesliga

Title for Borussia Dortmund instead of Bayern! Schalke barely misses relegation.

Champions League

Liverpool beats PSG in the finals. Looks like not even Messi can bring the CL glory to Paris.

Europa League

AC Milan beats Real Madrid in the finals. Gent surprising semifinalist.

Europa Conference

Leipzig become the first ever Europa Conference champions.

Balloon d' Or 2021

[Rikulec]

2 hours ago, scarp said:

Unfortunately I did not realize just how bad Poland's coefficient is because 2nd place means Europa Conference 

I'll have you know that we've been ****ing hopeless in Europe for the past few years.

[scarp]

July 2022

We win the Supercup after goals galore and Essahel's hattrick. Later in the month we face Steaua (very strong opponent for this level) and we beat them 4-0 on aggrevate.

Should be easy!

Transfers

We don't really have any money so just signed two players for free. Campbell should be our starting CM going forward.

I also moved following three players to first team from academy.

 

[scarp]

@Rikulec I knew its bad.. I did not think it was this bad  Let's change it though 

[Rikulec]

5 minutes ago, scarp said:

Should be easy!

Legia thought so too in 2018.

[scarp]

August 2022

Busy month. First on the menu was Dudelange and they gave us no problems at all. Following that we had to play against Aberdeen, after securing 2-1 win at home I was slightly nervous coming into the rematch but we managed to beat the scottish team on their own stadium as well. In league we started really well with 2 wins and one draw with Rakow.

Lets battle this out, tough group.

[scarp]

September 2022

What a match it was against Olympiakos! Six goals as we absolutely smash the team coached by Laurent Blanc. We also managed to win in Djurgardens and drew in madrid versus Getafe. Looking good to advance.

[scarp]

October 2022

Not the best month as we lose to Piast and Lech in league, but somehow we are still close to 1st. We absolutely smash Legia though.

Edited July 18, 2021 by scarp

[scarp]

November 2022

We advance in FA Cup and Europa Conference as well as move to 1st place in league.

[scarp]

International window

African Cup of Nations 2021

Nigeria wins ACN. Burkina Faso with surprising semifinals. 

 

European Championship 2020

Norway beats England to secure surprising win in Euro 2020!

Best player: Kane (8.18, 1+3)

Best young player: Haaland (7.75, 5+1)

Golden boot: Haaland (5)

 

Gold Cup 2021

Two in a row for Mexico who once more beats USA!

 

Copa America 2021

Similarly to real life, Messi finally brings the glory to Argentina!

[scarp]

World Cup 2022

Canada with a super surprising advance from group A instead of Switzerland. Italy misses on quarterfinals as Senegal advances instead. Not the best World Cup for South America as Uruguay and Columbia both leaves the Cup after groups and african teams Ivory Coast & Morocco advance instead of them.

Tournament favourites Germany & Argentina both lose to Morocco who makes its way to semifinals where they are eliminated by Spain. After that Spain beats Holland to secure a World Cup for the country!

 

[Isakf]

This save looks amazing. Good luck!

Edited July 19, 2021 by Isakf

[Rikulec]

What the **** happened with all those goals in Group A and Jonathan David scoring 10?

[scarp]

@Isakf Thanks a lot!  

@Rikulec Most likely this 

[scarp]

January 2023

Not the best month as we drew three times during January and drop to 2nd, three points behind Legia. We will also play Dynamo Kyiv in Europa Conference KO Stage.

[scarp]

February 2023

We started February well by beating Radomiak and Termalica but after that we dropped points at home against Wisla Plock and even lost to Rakow (we always lose to these guys!). Coming into our game against Dynamo I did not give us big chances but we managed to outplay them massively and win 5-0. League is very close at the moment so lets see what happens in March.

 

We beat them before but this time they have a home advantage.

Transfers

We brought in Luka Uzelac for 450k, he's only 17 years old but he may beocme our starting CB very soon. We also let Prikryl go for some pennies as he was out of contract this summer and we did not want to re-sign him anyway.

 

[scarp]

March 2023

Even though we started off really well versus Olympiakos, they were the better team and managed to beat us comfortably. We advance to Cup semifinals. In league we win two games but then lose to lech in very important game that sees us drop to 3rd.

[scarp]

April 2023

Very busy month for us. Lets start with league, we drew against Piast and after that lost to Legia what really hurts our title chances. The league table is still super close and even though we are currently fourth, we are only two points behind the 1st team. In domestic cup we managed to overcome Piast in overtime thanks to Pospíšil's shot outside the box and in the finals we did not give a chance to Lechia and easily beat them 3-0 to secure my first real trophy with the team 

Also this guy got poached by Legia 

Youth in-take

Pretty decent although balanced personalities are the worst 

[scarp]

May 2023

Only one scored goal in three games means not only we lost our title chances but we finished 4th. Thank god we already secured the Cup win so we will still play in Europe next season!

[scarp]

Jagiellonia Bialystok 2022/23

I am happy to bring in the first trophy, hopefully next year we will be able to challenge for a title! Good run in Europe aswell. I might try different tactic to accomodate our strikers as we were kind of struggling during the season.

[scarp]

2022/23

Highest spending fee in last summer was 81 millions paid for Milinkovič-Savič by Barcelona who also bought Brozovič for a price up to 70 millions. Declan Rice join last year's CL winners Liverpool as well as Bastoni going to Real Madrid for 68 milions.

Winter window was rather calm with two exceptions. First one was Kai Havertz's move to PSG for 110 millions and later on Bayern bought Bailey from Leverkusen for 69m.

 

Premier League

Man City with an easy title after they got 98 points. PL looks back to normal with the most known six teams in top6 this year.

La Liga

Atletico Madrid wins a title as Real Madrid drops to third. 

Seria A

Surprise win for Napoli as Juventus does not win title after eleven years of domination! 

Bundesliga

Another title for Borussia Dortmund as Bayern continues to struggle!

Europa Conference

Two greek clubs in semifinals are surely a surprise to most! Atalanta gets the win.

Europa League

Second in a row for AC Milan!

Champions League

A lot of surprises here, one of the biggest probably Lazio reaching the finals and FC Porto just barely losing to Man Utd in semifinals.

 

Balloon d' Or

[scarp]

July 2023

Great start to the new season - we best Legia to retain Supercup and also start the league campaign very well. In Europa Conference we beat Radnicki 4-1. So far 6 goals in 3 games for Essahel.

Coefficient improvement & co

 

Academy graduate

Kowalczyk from our academy definitely deserves a call-up to senior team.

 

Transfers

I decided to sell Pospíšil & Mudrinski as they were aging and it was probably last time I could get a decent fee off them. Stephen also goes since there's just too many talented right wings in the team currently. On the other hand we welcome Rasdan for 500k who should be our starting CM and replacement for Pospíšil. Heidenreich & Musolitin are also on the verge of the starting eleven. Wilson will provide depth on right back and Nikabadze, Klíma & Ziewiec will join our academy for now. All in all I am super happy with the transfer window and we still have plenty of cash to spend should the opportunity arise.

[scarp]

August 2023

We managed to beat Radnički, STVV and Radnik Surdulica on our way to Europa Conference group stage.

Tragedy!

Our best player and only goalscoring player leaves us few hours before the transfer deadline. Thanks a lot, chairman. We have some cash now but I do not want to rush the decisions so we will probably go to the season with what we have and I also promoted Klima from academy to senior team.

[scarp]

September 2023

Great month as we win three out of four league games and get to the top of the table. We also advance to next round in domestic cup and start well in Europe. Following Essahel's departure we were forced to switch from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1 as we no longer have two decent strikers.

This is how our Europa Conference group looks like. A bit hard to my liking but I think we should manage. Would really like a first place this time as it really helps in the one game only format.

[scarp]

October 2023

Great form in league but in Conference we struggle a little bit, narrow loss to Bournemouth and 2-2 draw in Portugal after a penalty and 90+4 minute goal really hurts. So far so good but we have no depth in attacking phase.

[scarp]

November 2023

Good results in November but we only drew in Luzern, meaning we will have to beat Bournemouth if we want to progress further.

[scarp]

December 2023

We are flying through the league! Hopefully new winter signings will provide us with needed depth for Conference aswell. We were super lucky in Conference - even though we lost to Bournemouth, Luzern won in Guimaraes so we advanced through but I am definitely not happy with our performance in Europe so far. In league we are 12 points up on Legia, hopefully it will last.

We need to play better if we want to advance!

[scarp]

Winter Transfer Window

Zavišič, Vučkovič and Alvarez will provide depth in our first team meanwhile Saebo will join our academy for now.