Can I win things in France? Cors-I-Can!

[ToMexico!!]

Affiliate Clubs

We been slowly building up our affiliate clubs over the past few seasons now that our reputation has grown. 

To make it easier to see what each affiliate offers I've created the below table.

Suwon obviously stands out with maxed out facilties across the board, hopefully we can poach a few players over the years from them and ASEC. I've tried renegotiating the terms with both Defence Force and Levski but no luck, they may just end up getting replaced at some point, as will both French clubs. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview

This looks promising, no word of any players coming through affiliates but it may be too early for them to trigger. Most importantly though is thats its my actual HoYD thats doing the assessment. 

[ToMexico!!]

Finally

We've done PSG over for the first time and it was in their own back yard to boot. 

Mbappe was MoTM for two goals for them despite Joe Maggs bagging a hat-trick for us! 

That xG! 

 

[RoguPL]

2 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

Finally

We've done PSG over for the first time and it was in their own back yard to boot. 

Mbappe was MoTM for two goals for them despite Joe Maggs bagging a hat-trick for us! 

That xG! 

 

Well Done !! That is proper FMing haha 6 goals in 11 shots.   but there always has to be the first time ! 
 

[ToMexico!!]

8 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

Youth Intake Preview

This looks promising, no word of any players coming through affiliates but it may be too early for them to trigger. Most importantly though is thats its my actual HoYD thats doing the assessment. 

Youth Intake Review

A quick first look and there's a few things; less second nationalities, we have a player named after the famous boxer brand and a South Korean but he's not come from our affiliate club Suwon despite being from the same place. 

There's some talent here. Stanislas Richard is already 2.5* CA and one of three players with 5*PA, the young goalkeeper has a negative personality but we can work on that. Antoni Emmanuelli is classed as a striker but I don't see it, he's a right footed, left winger which is what I play with. Now, the boxer brand boy; Calvin Klein, a promising winger apparently but I see him as a CAM to utilise that already decent passing and flair. 

Gaetano Canonico - CB - will probably be retrained as a defensive CM

Oliver Forster - ST - another striker with poor finishing, will drop him back to AMC and utilise trait of Tries Killer Balls. 

Claude Chevalier - CB - only 4* potential on initial look, I think he's better than that. 

Kim San-Wong - RB - the South Korean, something to work with here. 

Spoiler

Our first intake where we get no one from Africa but we do get our first Asian. 

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

a South Korean but he's not come from our affiliate club Suwon despite being from the same place. 

I’ve had this before! I set up an affiliate in Poland and had a player travel a thousand miles to my club from that tiny town - yet this was all a coincidence!

Watching the whole affiliate thing closely because I’ve been very disappointed with the lack of (I.e zero) players that I’ve had from my own affiliates in FM21. 

[KlaaZ]

Very jealous of that youth intake, I'm feeding on scraps at Orléans so far but I still have a lot of facility improvement to do. Stupid being in the red.

[ToMexico!!]

12 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I’ve had this before! I set up an affiliate in Poland and had a player travel a thousand miles to my club from that tiny town - yet this was all a coincidence!

Watching the whole affiliate thing closely because I’ve been very disappointed with the lack of (I.e zero) players that I’ve had from my own affiliates in FM21. 

Yeah it doesn't seem right, its like one part of the game isn't talking to the other to tell us that, that player had come through the intake. 

I'm still trying to get more but the board are reluctant at the moment, although what I have seen so far in this save is more variety in the teams available, like I don't think I've ever had the chance of a Caribbean side before and there have been plenty of African clubs and Kazakhstani clubs too. 

9 hours ago, KlaaZ said:

Very jealous of that youth intake, I'm feeding on scraps at Orléans so far but I still have a lot of facility improvement to do. Stupid being in the red.

Thanks, I was hoping for a good one and finally we have it. 

There's some real good depth in there, I just need to get them learning new roles and improving the attributes they need to. 

[ToMexico!!]

2029/30 Season Review

Note: This is done via my work laptop so screenshots may look different, no player faces etc

Another solid season in which defied our media prediction and the players' opinion. We opened the season with four wins on the bounce and actually found ourselves top of the table but losses to Brest and PSG put an end to that. We picked ourselves up though with a 1-0 win away in Lyon. October and November were patchy to say the least, we had to battle on both fronts; in the league and in Europe. Whilst I prioritised Europe and rotated more domestically, our league form struggled a little. A better December with wins over Caen, Nimes and Lille but a solitary goal loss to Monaco. 

An unbeaten January and February in the league including that 6-3 humdinger against PSG saw us place a strong foothold in the top six. March was very mixed, losses to Marsielle and Bordeaux were probably expected, our only win that month coming to a poor Nantes side. We opened April with a loss to Nice which saw them leapfrog us into 6th but form turned a corner when our European escapades ended. Troyes, Caen and Nimes all defeated to end April, draws with Rennes and Monaco were followed by ending the season with back to back wins over Lille and Montpellier. We ended the season in 6th place and bagging a Conference League place. 

A poor season in the French Cup, beating GOAL FC in the 9th Round before Reims beat us 1-0 in the 10th Round. 

It was a different story in the Europa League however, we were drawn straight into the group stage in Group C along with Leipzig, Legia and Young Boys. We lost our first ever game in Europe to Leipzig 1-0 but didn't look back after going unbeaten in the rest of the group stage to finish top of the group. We had to wait until March for our next involvement as finishing top it meant we missed the first KO round to enter in the 2nd KO round. We would face another German side in Borussia Monchengladbach. A 3-3 draw away from home was a good result but we went one better in the 2nd leg, beating them 2-0 to go through. In the Quarter Finals we were drawn against another German side, Bayer Leverkusen. We had another crazy opening leg, which we lost 4-5 at home, our chances of progressing were slim at this point. We lost the 2nd leg 2-1 in Germany to bow out of the competition. 

This season was all about one man really, Joe Maggs, the young Englishman has really settled into his role of spearheading the attack. He scored an impressive 35 goals this season, with 31 of them coming in the league in 34 games, which saw him finish 2nd in the goalscoring chart behind Marsielle's Brenner. He was supported well by Bessala on the left, who scored 14 goals and made 19 assists. Perez scored 15 goals from the right but finds his place in the team under threat from summer signing Bruno Cunha. Another new summer signing was Danilo Soca, the Uruguayan CM, he made 11 assists after taking the place of Thomas in the deep playmaking spot. 

Financially, we're good, we recieved another £10m for finishing 6th this season which has covered the majority of our losses from the season. Our wage budget was increased to £300k p/w and is now at £11m for the season whilst our youth setup is costing us just under £500k per month. 

Looking at the squad now we have a few areas we could look to improve if the right player is available, we definitely need a new back up striker but I think I will look to the loan market for that. 

[ToMexico!!]

Windfall

 

Dortmund won the Europa League beating Milan in the final and these two popped up in the inbox. Which means we now have... in the bank. Lets spend some...

 

[ToMexico!!]

Job Interview Offer

Lyon offer us another chance at an interview, no thanks! 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers

A lot less spent this season as we looked to fine tune areas of the squad. 

Richard Ondoua was signed on a pre-contract agreement from fellow Ligue 1 side Montpellier, he will join the first team to act as another option in central midfield. Gianni Conti joins on loan as we use this season to scout for a permenant option as back up to Maggs up front. Robert Slancik was the last first team signing as he leaves his native Slovakia for Corsica, he will slot in as number two in goal. Thomas Monnier was the last summer signing and will join up with the U19s for the season, he joins from fellow French side Saint-Etienne. 

[ToMexico!!]

Drama

Days before the end of the transfer window we were rocked by Arsenal's bid of £32m for Joe Maggs. He wanted to leave, I didn't want to risk him being unhappy, not scoring goals, the squad being unhappy I didn't let him leave etc so I negotiated a deal of up to £40m and put in the 50% profit clause and off he went. 

Replacing him would be crucial, I missed out on a target by a mere few days, his transfer from Athletico Madrid to Getafe went through for a paltry £1.9m. However, I found Marco Giunta in the Juventus U23's and offered him the £12m they wanted. 

I don't see him scoring the same amount of goals as Maggs did last season but he fixes the problem in the short term and is valued more than I paid for him, so if things don't work out we can sell him for a profit. 

With all the money I asked the board for a couple of things and got told no for all except...

They've said around the 22k capacity mark. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview

I don't think this will be as good as an intake as last season. 

I did change HoYD towards the back end of last season too, although whether he has had an impact on this group of players. 

[KlaaZ]

Normally, the HOYD doesn't really influence the quality of the intake apart from the very rare freak newgen. What he does influence are 1) the positions of the players coming through and their style/starting attributes) (check his favourite formations and style of play), and more importantly their personalities. That's why it's so important to get a HOYD with a good personality, like model citizen/model professional/professional/...

[ToMexico!!]

11 minutes ago, KlaaZ said:

Normally, the HOYD doesn't really influence the quality of the intake apart from the very rare freak newgen. What he does influence are 1) the positions of the players coming through and their style/starting attributes) (check his favourite formations and style of play), and more importantly their personalities. That's why it's so important to get a HOYD with a good personality, like model citizen/model professional/professional/...

Thats what I mean on the impact on the players, the positions/personalities etc. He has a worse personality as such with it being Driven. Preferred formations are 4-4-1-1 so a defensive formation along with 4-3-3 DM wide. 

Thomas Caers' preferred formations were relatively the same but had Perfectionist personality. 

 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Winter Window

We entered the winter transfer window with a number of players wanted; Patrick (RB), Prso (CB), Roa (CB), Soca (CM) and Amrani (CM). It was the Chinese clubs that were circling, I fended off bids of up to £18m for Prso, who normally I would sell for that price but we've had injury problems at CB and a few players away at the AFCoN. I accepted a bid of £8m + clauses for Amrani as his form this season has been poor and ability had stalled but he rejected the opportunity at a payday, I didn't mind too much. Late into the window I rejected £30m for Soca, the Uruguayan CM who has had a quieter season but has continued to develop well. 

I made three signings; Iselin from Young Boys, Owens from Man Utd who I then sent back out on loan to Bristol City in the Championship and Enow from Lens. All three are for the development squads with Owens the most likely to make the initial move to the first team. 

[RoguPL]

24 minutes ago, ToMexico!! said:

Winter Window

We entered the winter transfer window with a number of players wanted; Patrick (RB), Prso (CB), Roa (CB), Soca (CM) and Amrani (CM). It was the Chinese clubs that were circling, I fended off bids of up to £18m for Prso, who normally I would sell for that price but we've had injury problems at CB and a few players away at the AFCoN. I accepted a bid of £8m + clauses for Amrani as his form this season has been poor and ability had stalled but he rejected the opportunity at a payday, I didn't mind too much. Late into the window I rejected £30m for Soca, the Uruguayan CM who has had a quieter season but has continued to develop well. 

I made three signings; Iselin from Young Boys, Owens from Man Utd who I then sent back out on loan to Bristol City in the Championship and Enow from Lens. All three are for the development squads with Owens the most likely to make the initial move to the first team. 

Really nice pickups ! Futureproof. Also congrats on the new stadium. What attendances are you getting ? 

[ToMexico!!]

5 minutes ago, rrozek93 said:

Really nice pickups ! Futureproof. Also congrats on the new stadium. What attendances are you getting ? 

Thanks. Yeah despite decent-ish intakes overall we need to supplement the 2nd and U19 squads. 

The stadium hasn't been built yet but its looking like it will be around 22k in capacity. 

[ToMexico!!]

18 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

Youth Intake Preview

I don't think this will be as good as an intake as last season. 

I did change HoYD towards the back end of last season too, although whether he has had an impact on this group of players. 

Youth Intake Review

A much poorer intake than last season but that was to be expected, although we do have a couple of decent players in there. 

Yaya Cherni - the promising striker mentioned in the preview, again can't finish so will probably train him for left wing as an inside forward.

Lorenzo Leblanc - a right winger with some good pace/acceleration already, has some good stats in the right places elsewhere.

Spoiler

We get our first player from Togo and another from Ivory Coast, incidently from Koumassi which is a district of Abidjan, which is where ASEC Mimosas our affiliate club comes from. 

Spoiler

 

[ToMexico!!]

Upgrades

With the facilities now at a good level I didn't want to stop there. 

 

[deltablue]

That PSG win must have been so satisfying.

[ToMexico!!]

39 minutes ago, deltablue said:

That PSG win must have been so satisfying.

I mean I had to be satisfied right?!...

[ToMexico!!]

U19's League

Perfect, the under 19's finally topped their division and ended up winning the whole competition. They beat Nice in the semi's and Rennes in the final. 

Lets a take a quick look at some of the standout players for the U19's. 

Stanislas Richard - GK - 16 - Kept 24 clean sheets in 45 games played this season. 

Gaetano Canonico - CB - 17 - made 35 appearances at CB this season. 

Gerard Enow - CM - 17 - signed from Lens this season, only played 8 games but made 8 assists.

Sebastian Iselin - CM - 16 - signed in January from Young Boys, 7 goals and 4 assists as a Mezzala. 

Antoni Emmanuelli - AML - 17 - 18 goals and 13 assists whilst being rotated on the wing.

Oliver Forster - ST - 16 - 27 goals in 20 (4) games, led the line superbly. 

Allan Boyer - AMR - 16 - 18 goals and 14 assists whilst also being rotated on the wing. 

[ToMexico!!]

2030/31 Season Review 

After last season 6th place finish, we looked to try and emulate that finish even with the Conference League to contend with this season. We needed to contend with the loss of Joe Maggs to Arsenal in the huge deal worth £40m but we replaced well with the signing of Marco Giunta from Juventus for £12m, a new club record signing. 

We opened the season with wins over Montpellier and Nimes before the customary loss to PSG, a strong Septmber saw us in and around the Champions League spots. Just one win from three games in October was a small blip but it cost us a couple of places. A perfect November solidified our place in the top 6. The five games in December saw a return of 10 points, the only loss coming to a strong Lyon side. We suffered back to back losses for the first time this season, against Nimes and unsurprisingly PSG. February was another poor month, opening with a win against Saint Etienne before three draws on the bounce which was followed by a loss to last seasons league winners Bordeaux. 

A stronger March with wins over Rennes, Metz and Havre before just two wins from four games in April, losses to Caen and Lyon. A win over Reims kept us in the top 6 but back to back losses by Lorient and Monaco saw us drop down to 9th. We needed and got a last day win over Montpellier which leapfrogged us over Nimes and Bordeaux to 7th place and another Conference League qualification. 

In the French Cup we reached the Quarter Finals for the second time, we beat Annecy, Lens and Reims on the way to a quarter final loss to Nimes. 

In the Conference League we entered in the 4th Qualifiying Round; drawn against Scottish side Hibernian. We beat them comfortably 4-0 on aggregate to advance to the group stages. We were drawn alongside Valur (Iceland), Celje (Slovenia) and Standard (Belgium). I was expecting to go through but maybe no so easily as we won all six games and topped the group. In March we were drawn against fellow group progressee's Celje after they beat Desna in the First KO Round, we demolished them 6-1 on aggregate. In the quarter finals we would face German side Koln, I thought it would be the end of the road for us but a 3-2 away win was followed by a 7-1 hammering at home. Real Betis were up next in the semi finals, our players were rampant, winning 6-1 in the home leg with Bessala, Giunta and Cunha doing the damage. We were into our first continental final which would be played against Spartak Moscow in Belgium. 

We started well, taking a shock 2-0 lead but couldn't hold out until half time with Spartak getting a goal back through Shitov. Despite peppering the goal we couldn't kill the game off and Shitov struck late in the game to make all square and take the game to extra time. The on loan Gianni Conti struck the winner in the 2nd half of extra time and we held out and won our first piece of silverware. 

The £12m was well spent on Marco Giunta as he returned 32 goals in 47 games for the club, hopefully he can make a great return next season like Maggs did in his second season. Wingers Bruno Cunha and Yves Bessala were in fine form also, with the former scoring 26 goals and making 25 assists which has led to interest from Bayern in his services whilst the latter scored 25 goals and made 14 assists. Richard Ondoua, who was signed from Montpellier for free in the summer ousted Amrani from the first XI and made a contribution for 14 assists. 

We've made great in-roads off the pitch this season with an upgrade to both the training and youth facilties completed and another one each due for completion in pre-season. Facilities

With the sale of Maggs and the Conference League run and win, we had increased the clubs finances to around the £70m mark but the club have decided to pay for the new stadium from the clubs finances and not by sourcing a loan. The poorly named new stadium will be completed in 2034.

The board have made £34m available for transfer funds which I won't looking to spend as I have already made two deals for two new CBs totalling just under £12m. 

[ToMexico!!]

A French Revolution

French teams now hold all three European titles. 

[ToMexico!!]

Job Offer

Manage a national team on less wages than I'm on at Bastia. No ta! 

[ToMexico!!]

Summer Transfers

The window isn't over but barring any exits my business for the summer is over. 

Five players join but only two are for the 1st Team. Leandro Marcos becomes my second biggest transfer, leaving him home nation of Brazil for a fee of £10m. He's by no means the finished article but with plenty of game time he can hopefully improve further in some key areas. 17 year old Serbian, Dusan Nikic leaves Cukaricki in a deal worth up to £1.7m, he has some good attributes already but he's learning to be a ball playing defender and working on his ball control. 

Valdemar Andresen was released by Aarhus for some reason but the scout report back was 5* PA, at 16 years of age I couldn't refuse the potential, into the U19's and working on his attacking movement. Loris Jouve joins on loan from fellow Ligue 1 side Nice, he spent last season on loan at Troyes scoring 14 in 29, he will act as cover for Giunta. Another 16 year old joined in Miloslav Vacha, he was out of contract at Czech giants Sparta Prague, his compensation fee was £50k, a no brainer for a 5* potential player. 

I've also agreed a deal for 18 months time for Nelson De Bruin from South African side Sundowns, primarily a CB, his team work and work rate could see him be retrained to a RB which he is accomplished as. 

Our scouting team are all out scouring the world for new players so the signings may not have ended just yet. 

 

[KlaaZ]

That Brazilian's a very impressive center back already. And yeah, Danish clubs for some reason tend to release very high potential players fairly often at a young age, no idea why. I had the same in my Kobenhavn save where AGF (I think) let a 16-year old go and I lost the contract negotiations to Leipzig. Bought him back five years later for 90M, went on to become a world beater.

[ToMexico!!]

13 hours ago, KlaaZ said:

That Brazilian's a very impressive center back already. And yeah, Danish clubs for some reason tend to release very high potential players fairly often at a young age, no idea why. I had the same in my Kobenhavn save where AGF (I think) let a 16-year old go and I lost the contract negotiations to Leipzig. Bought him back five years later for 90M, went on to become a world beater.

Its all very strange, there was another one again released by Aarhus but he wanted like £5k p/w at 16, no thanks. 

[ToMexico!!]

Beating PSG

What a pleasing result, beating PSG to nil, scoring three goals, limiting them to less than 1xG. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

International Call-Ups

We're beginning to see the fruits of our labour begin to be called up to various nations youth teams. 

Marvin Boyer who came through last seasons intake gets his first call up to the Belgium U18s. Oliver Forster joins up with the England U20's having played for U19s previously, he's played twice in the Europa League this season, scoring on both occasions against LASK and Guimaraes. Stanislas Richard gets another call-up to the French U21's, he's only 17 so he's way ahead of the curve. Five players are called up to the French U18s, Enow, Emmanuelli, Klein, Chevalier and 15 year old Cherni. 

Both Canonico and Selvaggio have chosen to represent Italy ahead of France at youth level. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview

A good full back, a handy winger, two good forwards. 

[ToMexico!!]

Player Recognition

Bruno Cunha is recognised at the World U21 Footballer of the Year. 48 goal contributions in 48 games in the 2031. Interest from Bayern waned as the new season started which was good for us. 

[ToMexico!!]

More Improvements

More improvements for both the training and youth facilities. 

[ToMexico!!]

4 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

Youth Intake Preview

A good full back, a handy winger, two good forwards. 

Youth Intake Review

The full back, winger and two strikers which were mentioned, beyond that there isn't much potential. 

Jacky Prigent - R/LB - an either footed full back

Soussi Adanguede - RW - a winger but I see him more centrally to utilise that passing, will retrain to AMC. 

Yassine Andre - ST - needs lot of work to be a striker

Pascal Ugolini - ST - a striker who can finish and has good pace. 

Spoiler

We get a second player from Slovakia and more specifically from Zilina but again no mention of them coming through via their club. We also get another player from South Korea but from the capital Seoul not our feeder club city of Suwon but you have to wonder. A couple of African's from Ghana and DR Congo which have been represented before. 

Spoiler

 

[ToMexico!!]

Back-to-back U19 Titles

Our U19 scored a lot of goals, 25 more goals than in last seasons competition infact. 

We beat Lens in the semi's and Lyon in the final. 

Key players for the season were; Iselin (10G/9A), Emmanuelli (19G), Boyer (20G/16A) and Cherni (17G/10A) aswell as Forster (31G) who was promoted to the first team towards the end of the seaosn and Richard who was loaned out to Grenoble for first team football. 

[ToMexico!!]

2031/32 Season Review

We made another step in the right direction this season. 

We opened the season with a win over Montpellier but ended the month with a loss to Rui Vitoria's Bordeaux. September was a tricky month due to Europa League football to contend with but we got 7 points from a possible 12 including a draw with Monaco. We had a fantastic October winning all four league game including against Marsielle and that famous PSG win. Much of the same in November which was unbeaten with two wins and draw. Metz ended our unbeaten run of nine games in December but we made up for it with a 2-0 win over Lyon. Unbeaten again in January but with just five points from nine. We suffered defeat to both Monaco and a resergent Nimes in February but did collect nine points. A poor March with no wins in three games saw us dip slightly down to 5th place but we returned to fine form with four wins from four in April and continued unbeaten in May including a 5-2 demolition of Lyon with Giunta scoring all five to take up the table to finish in 3rd place. An impressive finish to the season and record high for Bastia-Borgo, we will taste Champions League football for the first time next season. 

We had a poor cup competition this season beating Grenoble in the 9th Round before losing to US Orleans in the 10th Round. 

We went straight into the Europa League group stage and were drawn alongside Midtjylland, LASK and Guimaraes. We went unbeaten in the group stage, claiming five wins and a draw to top the group and advance to the 2nd KO Round. We would face German side Gladbach, we won 2-1 in the away leg thanks to two goals from Giunta but a went out on away goals despite another Giunta masterclass, scoring a hattrick in a 4-3 loss which meant we went out on away goals. 

This season was primarily all about Marco Giunta, the Italian forward stepped up another notch this season scoring 38 goals in 42(4) apperances with 30 in the league and ending as the Ligue 1 top scorer. Bruno Cunha (16G/9A) and Yves Bessala (11G/8A) both had quieter seasons which was concerning as we hadn't changed anything tactically. Richard Ondua had a good season from CM scoring nine goals and making seven assists. Leandro Marcos was a revelation at CB, his physicality and pass success rate of 93% was coupled with his expert tackling and success rate made him a beast for us. This season saw Robert Slancik take over between the sticks, he recorded a club high of 20 clean sheets with 16 of those in the league. 

We received £17m for finishing in 3rd place and an extra £9m on completion of the Europa League which was won by Nice. Our expenditure has been quite high in the past 12 months with double upgrades to the facilties, a new stadium and £13m on transfers. We need to look to reign the spending in for a season or two depending on how our debut in the Champions League goes. 

Edited September 10, 2021 by ToMexico!!

[KlaaZ]

Forza Orléans! 

Congrats on the CL! Giunta looks ridiculous.

[ToMexico!!]

1 minute ago, KlaaZ said:

Forza Orléans! 

Congrats on the CL! Giunta looks ridiculous.

Thanks! Yeah I know, booooooo! Had in my head I would post the win 

Giunta is fantastic but he's a wanted man, no bids yet but Bayern and Lyon are sniffing around. 

Post is updated now as I posted it prematurely. 

[ToMexico!!]

Job Offers

France were beaten by England and Holland were beaten by Albania in the 2032 European Championships, which promted the sacking of both their managers. 

[ToMexico!!]

Summer Transfers

Despite the relative success of Yves Bessala at LW, we needed an upgrade as his ability didn't match Cunha on the opposite side. Yves will remain as a good back up/cup option. 

We returned to Brazil for our upgrade and signed Matheus for his release clause of £4.6m. As soon as he signed he popped to a wonderkid and is an out-and-out winger as opposed to the inside forward in Bessala so we need a little tactical tinker there. 

Instead of going out and bringing in some ready made first team players to improve the depth options I've opted to promote from within instead.

Iselin will act as cover for Ondoua at CM(a). Richard will be 2nd choice this season, moving ahead of the ageing Stergiakis in goal. Forster will rotate with Luptak (who I signed in the winter for £1.4m from Slovan Bratislava). Enow will be the depth option for DLP and Nikic will get game time at CB.

I sold Said Benyad to Italian side Inter Milan for £7.5m which was way more than I expected to receive, he did feature in my plans this season after being loaned out for the past two seasons. 

I've also loaned out the above players with the potential for more to go out. Owens is treated as a foreigner in France (Brexit rules) and with Matheus coming in I needed to free up a slot. All the other players have gone out to Ligue 2 teams for first team experience except Boyer who has gone to Ligue 1's Caen but I'm not sure he will get the game time required so I may recall him. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview

 

[ToMexico!!]

Stolen Staff

Been nearly five years since our last staff member was stolen. PSG did try and take one of Boisseau, Iban Cuadrado and Goreux but they all rejected them. HoYD, de Gomez was also subject of a offer from Lyon but he also rejected them. 

[ToMexico!!]

4 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

Youth Intake Preview

 

Youth Intake Review

One 5* player who looks very good, beyond that this is a poor intake in my opinion. 

Jean-Marie El Haouel - MC/MR - best suited as a Mezzala at the moment but I will retrain him to AMC. 

Spoiler

Very French based intake with one other from Italy and two from Northern England. 

[ToMexico!!]

2032/33 Season Review

Another season of progression for the club.

We opened the season with a 6-0 drubbing of newly promoted Strasbourg, well back to Ligue 1. We won another before being humbled by Lens and Lyon. September was a fine month in the league, winning four from four, as was October as we won all four games there too including at home to PSG, those eight wins on the bounce taking us to the top of the table. We smashed Marsielle 5-1 to open up November but Rennes ended our winning streak. December saw a loss to a then 15th placed Monaco who were having a torrid time in the league but we followed that with a 6-1 win over Troyes. A poor January with just one win from three including another loss to Lyon. February saw us collect 10 points from a possible 15 to solidify ourselves in the CL spots. In March, PSG got revenge and thumped us 4-1. A busy April only saw one win which allowed Lille to overtake us in the league and in May, losses to Troyes, Montpellier and Lille saw us fall further behind them however we had enough of a cushion to see us finish 3rd in the league once again. 

The less said about the French Cup the better, out in the 10th Round. 

However, in Europe we really shone. We entered our first Champions League campaign at the group stage and were drawn alongside Leverkusen, Athletico Madrid and Man City, a very tough group. We won three games, home and away to Leverkusen and Man City at home to finish 3rd in the group and drop down to Europa League football. There we faced PAOK in the 1st KO Round and won easily 8-1 on aggregate, we beat Shakhtar 6-1 on aggregate, Sporting 6-1 on aggregate and Marsielle 7-4 on aggregate to reach the final against Liverpool. We drew the game 3-3 after extra time and won on penalties to win our first Europa League title and 2nd European trophy of the save. 

Marco Giunta continued his goalscoring form in this season with 35 goals in 40(5) games. New signing Matheus was an inspiration at the beginning of the season, I think he score nine goals in his first four games but ended the season with 26 goals and 16 assists in 49 games. Miroslav Luptak switched between RW and ST and scored 18 goals and made 11 assists in his debut season with the club. Bruno Cunha had a poorer season only scoring 17 goals. Paul Alves made 10 assists from left back whilst, Danilo Soca made 10 from CM and his midfield partner Ondoua scored 11 goals and made eight assists. 

Finances increased mainly thanks to the prize money from our Europa League run and the 3rd placed finish in the league which netted us £17m. We didn't do any upgrades to the facilities this season but I will look to finish them off this coming season. 

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Stolen Staff

PSG finally steal a staff member from us. Pompilio was a 20/20 scout, so disappointing to see him go. 

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Our Season Wasn't Over Yet

Winning the Europa League meant we were thrust into the Club World Championship at pretty short notice. 

We entered at the Preliminary Qualification stage against New Zealand's Team Wellington, a tie in which we won 6-1. We were drawn against Dortmund and Gremio in the group stage. 

A 2-2 draw against our German opposition and a comprehensive 6-2 victory over the Brazilians saw us top the group. We were drawn against a familiar foe in the quarter finals in PSG. 

We were hammered but an experience for our young squad all the same. 

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Improvements

The board rejected both of my advances initially but I won them over. Although the start/completion date on them both is questionable. 

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A Look at the Squad

Goalkeepers

I'll begin by saying I'll sort by CA and show the first choice (1), the back up (2) and hot prospect (3) for each position. 

Long term player Antonis Stergiakis is into his last year of his contract, finally means he will leave after offering him out for the past two seasons but no one wants him. 

1. Robert Slancik - into his fourth season with us now after joining from Slovan Bratislava for £800k. He's unhappy as I pulled out of negotiations on a new contract where he wanted £40+K p/w.
2. Stanislas Richard - will get more game time this season as he improves and Slancik plateau's. 
3. Miloslav Vacha - labelled as the next Petr Cech, he was signed for £50k from Sparta Prague. He's joining Jablonec on loan this season with the view of promoting to the first team after. 

Right-Back

1. Daniel Patrick - a solid performer at RB, averaging just under 7 in his time here. A little dry with assists compared to others. 
2. Candra Bagayoko - came through in 2024 so has been with us nearly 10 years. His quality has waned a little as the players around him get better. 
3. Joseph Kambale - according to the coaches he is our best prospect at RB but I don't see it. 

Centre-Back

1. Leandro Marcos - signed for £10m and has done well in his two seasons here so far. Few too many yellows for my liking, 56 in 89 games 
2. Ruben Roa - a solid option but not what I want as a starting CB, will be moved on if there interest. 
3. Nelson De Bruin - only joined in January after signing for us 18 months prior. Is ahead of Roa in the starting line-up despite his inexperience. 

Left-Back

1. Paul Alves - again a solid player but we can do better, only kept because he's from our academy. 
2.  
3. Jacky Prigent - came through in the 2032 intake and promoted to the first team at the back end of last season. Will possible take over from Alves next season. 

Centre-Midfield 

This is fast becoming a weak area of the pitch and I'm looking to upgrade at least one of the two positions if I can find the right player. We use a DLP/CMa combination. 

1. Richard Ondoua - plays the CMa role and contributes well, 25 goals and 31 assists since joining three seasons ago. 
2. Danilo Soca - the current DLP. a freebie from Uruguay has done his bit for the club but should be replaced. 
3. I can't pick one - Adanguede is primarily a winger who I'm retraining to AMC, he could play CM but doesn't have the work rate/team work needed; Cavalli has the work rate/teamwork but not the vision; El Haouel is just 16 but has the makings of a good CM if his vision/passing improve; Marechal is only 15 but need a lot of work to reach the required standard we need. 

Right-Winger

1. Bruno Cunha - 68 goals and 41 assists since joining speaks volume but his numbers have declined last season. Could be due an upgrade. 
2. Francisco Perez - his ability is decling against our other players but he remains a useful player. 
3. Yaya Cherni - he's actually on AF training to increase his ability around the box but will revert to training RW when his shooting pops to double figures. 

Left-Winger

1. Matheus - an excellent signing since joining for £4.3m last summer. 28 goals and 17 assists in his debut season. 
2. Yves Bessala - another academy player who should be upgraded upon. Appeared as a substitue 30 times last season. 
3. Probably Yaya Cherni again

Striker

For this season I've changed from having an attacking midfielder to two strikers in a CF or AF / Poacher combination. 

1. Marco Giunta - what a player for us, 107 goals in 140 games, not bad for £12m. 
2. Miroslav Luptak - the reason for switching to 4-2-4 wide. I have to make the most of this wonderkid whilst I have him. 18 goals last season will be improved upon. 
3. Oliver Forster - I also wanted to give more game time to Forster, the young Englishman wants to leave for first team football. He played 17 times last season scoring 5 goals. 

Edited September 14, 2021 by ToMexico!!