Build a nation. Latvia. FS Metta.

[Barneyinglis]

On this years game I noticed a new league I have never seen before on FM the Latvian Higher League or Virslīga. A league with only 7 teams in the league (10 after one season), there wasn't a large variety of team to choice from, however one team stood out to me: FS Metta. FS Metta were officially founded on May 2, 2006 and in 2007, FS Metta and the university of Latvia (Latvijas Universitāte) merged as a senior professional team and participated in the Latvian Championship first division (2nd tier). With the backing of the university the club were provided with extra funds and the ability if the players wished, too send there players to the university. The clubs youth philosophy really interested me, though a professional club, Metta retained the prefix FS (Futbola Skola), since their policy is to invest in youth players and In 2020 FK Metta were the youngest top-tier team in Europe, at the end of the season, the team's average age was 19,5. This was the perfect team in this league to start a build a nation save. The club at the start of the save are expected to finish bottom and having never finished higher than 7th in the top division, it could be a while before we become the best team in the nation. 

Goals

1. Become the best team in Latvia. 

2. Become a regular in the Champions League.

3. Develop quality players for the national team. 

4. Take over the national team and become a regular in World/European cup competitions. 

                                                                                         

Edited July 25, 2022 by Barneyinglis

[Barneyinglis]

The team. 

At FS Metta at the start of the save there are some pretty nice young players but the squad is really lacking a GK, wingers and a striker. The teams best players Yunusa Muritala is on loan at Riga FC, with no option to recall him, this is a great shame as he is by far the best ST at the club. The best/most promising players at the club are Baba Musah (CB), Dmitrijs Zelenkovs (CM), Rihards Ozoliņš (DM) and Iļja Korotkovs (CB). Emīls Birka (LB) and Lūkass Vapne (CM) are also two very promising young players, who we hope we can develop, the only oldish player is Gļebs Kļuškins a CM providing us with some much needed experience. 

(Player stats are from the 2025 season as I have played a few seasons before starting this, so there will be some spoilers if the players have moved on 😅)

Edited July 25, 2022 by Barneyinglis

[Barneyinglis]

[Barneyinglis]

[Alma Mater]

A Latvian save, nice!  I started my journey(wo)man career there, with Valmiera, so I'm familiar with the league. I recognise the name Emils Birka well, as a player I tried - and failed - to recruit for my team.

[Barneyinglis]

21 hours ago, Alma Mater said:

A Latvian save, nice!  I started my journey(wo)man career there, with Valmiera, so I'm familiar with the league. I recognise the name Emils Birka well, as a player I tried - and failed - to recruit for my team.

Nice how are you finding the league? Birka was a good player for me, but the board sold him and I didn't get any say in it. 

[Barneyinglis]

Season 1

The board and the media didn't except much from us in the first season, bottom of the 7 team table is where we were except to finish and with no relegation first season, there was no pressure. Some new additions were needed, 5 new players came in, with Kristaps Zommers (GK) being the best of the new players brought in. Zommers was a really good addition as the team is lacking any quality in goal however this transfer wasn't at the beginning of the season so some sloppy goals were let for the first part of the season. The rest of the signings were, Alans Siņeļņikovs (LW/LWB) a experienced LWB, Junior Kingue (CB) French CB to be the 3rd CB in a back 3, Jurijs Haļimons (ST) a experienced ST which I thought would add goals to the team but turned out to be a bit rubbish, Didine Mohamed-Djouhary (CM) from Réunion look like he would be one of are better players but never turned up and just complained a lot. 

We set up the season in a 5-3-2 formation with a more defensive style of play, tried many different roles for players but never really got the team playing nice football. The season to my surprise went very well, we were able to finish second. This was mainly down the scoring from set pieces and being relatively well set up at the back. Dmitrijs Zelenkovs was the only player in a forward area who could say they have a good season, Yunusa Muritala coming back from loan next season will add some much needed fire power to this team.   

Plans for next season   

1. Improve the squad, especially up front. 

2. Try to find some talented youngsters. 

3. Play a more attractive brand of football. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by Barneyinglis

[Barneyinglis]

[deltablue]

Yep, the Latvian league is new for this version.

[Barneyinglis]

Youth Intake Season 1

As I've played a few season in i'll keep this short only one player Artūrs Petrovs is still at the club, we had a few others that we thought could be something, but none of them progressed and were not worth keeping at the club.  

Edited July 25, 2022 by Barneyinglis

[Sheriff7]

Zommers is a great Goali. He will help you.

[Barneyinglis]

29 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said:

Zommers is a great Goali. He will help you.

Very happy with this signing, he's been very reliable, are you also managing in Latvia? 

[Barneyinglis]

On 24/07/2022 at 19:58, deltablue said:

Yep, the Latvian league is new for this version.

I've really enjoyed playing in a new league, in which I've never heard of any of the teams, hopefully on the next game there is also a new interesting league. 

[Sheriff7]

21 hours ago, Barneyinglis said:

Very happy with this signing, he's been very reliable, are you also managing in Latvia? 

I managed Ventspils in fm 21.

[Barneyinglis]

Season 2

Transfers

We started working towards the goals for the season with a busy transfer window, with lots of ins and outs. The only out that would be missed was Junior Kingue (CB), who got a better offer from a French tea, however a better CB was brought in as I will explain in a second. The rest of the outs were youth team/fringe players who were surplus to requirements, some of which we were able to get a fee for, the teams which were promoted to make the league into 10 teams seem to be going on a spending spree, but all three of them FK Auda Ķekava, FK Smiltene/BJSS and FK  Smiltene/BJSS transfer dealings were pretty shocking. On the ins Marko Regža (ST) a young promising striker, Artūrs Ostapenko (ST) another young striker who will play as a backup this season, David Titov (RB), young exciting Latvian RB from Met police in England, very excited about this player will slot straight into the first XI, David Akintola Idowu (CB) one of the best CB's in the league excellent signing. The next few players are all youth team players to play in are U21/U18 and maybe get a few first team games. Later in the season we got hold of Axel Óskar Andrésson (CB), another very good CB however we were unable to register him for the season and we got him so late on. Goal 1 and 2 for the season were complete we managed to strength the team and with Yunusa Muritala (ST) coming back from loan we now have 3 capable STs, and we are looking extremally strong a the back. Goal 2 of being able to sign some young players was also complete, Gļebs Žaleiko (CM), Artūrs Bērziņš (CM), Markuss Alpēns (CM) all joined the club. All round very good window. 

[Barneyinglis]

VV

[Barneyinglis]

[Barneyinglis]

Apologies for any spoilers on where the players have been transferred too. I started this after 6 seasons. 

[Barneyinglis]

23 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

I managed Ventspils in fm 21.

Nice how did you get on?, they haven't been very good on this save.  

[Barneyinglis]

Season 2 

The season 

As discussed in a earlier post I wanted to improve the play style of the team, I kept the same formation in a 5-3-2 but switch to the pre set Gegenpress tactic. I've never really used the pre set tactics, but one this occasion to worked a treat Goal 3 check. Basically everyone in the team had a good season, defensively we were amazing and finally having capable strikers Yunusa Muritala (ST), Marko Regža (ST) and Artūrs Ostapenko (ST) were scoring goals for fun, Muritala being the best of the bunch. This turned into a title winning campaign, seeing us have the have the best attack and defense in the league, Dmitrijs Zelenkovs winning fans player of the year for the second time after another excellent season. In the cups we didn't fair to well in the nation cup getting knocked out by local rival Riga in the quarter final, in the clubs first season in Europe we made it to the fourth qualifying round of the conference league before getting knocked out by AEK Athens (Greece) 5-1 over the 2 legs. In the earlier rounds we beat FH (Iceland) 5-1, HNK Rijeka (Croatia) 4-3, NŠ Mura Murska Sobota (Slovenia) 4-3. 

[Barneyinglis]

Youth Intake Season 2

We had a ok intake, but me from the future of the save can tell you none from the intake became first team players, only one survives Rūdolfs Riekstiņš (CM) but he will most likely be on there his way out at  the end of the season.

 

[Sheriff7]

On 27/07/2022 at 18:17, Barneyinglis said:

Nice how did you get on?, they haven't been very good on this save.  

They must have serious financial problems  IRL. In my save we hit excellent progress with many qualifications to European group stage rounds and many upgrades in our facilities. 

[JAwtunes]

12 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

They must have serious financial problems  IRL. In my save we hit excellent progress with many qualifications to European group stage rounds and many upgrades in our facilities. 

Ventspils were banned from UEFA comps and two of their staff banned too for match fixing. This might be why they only reappear in the Latvia top flight after a few seasons in game. Perhaps they were relegated by the Latvia FA too, not sure!

[Alma Mater]

Doing pretty well, I see. How did the other clubs do in Europe, do you have that info still?

I noticed one name I recognise in your transfer list - Glebs Zaleiko, who I also picked up, although he didn't play many matches before I moved on from Valmiera. He did well in most of them though, and really did look like he had some potential.

[Barneyinglis]

10 hours ago, Alma Mater said:

Doing pretty well, I see. How did the other clubs do in Europe, do you have that info still?

I noticed one name I recognise in your transfer list - Glebs Zaleiko, who I also picked up, although he didn't play many matches before I moved on from Valmiera. He did well in most of them though, and really did look like he had some potential.

Zaleiko never really developed, I only had him for this 2nd season and he only played 6 games. He has been a first team player in the Latvian league every season since, the issue with him and many other in this league is they want amateur contract so they never train to get better. This is why know I will never sign anyone of a amateur contract unless there like 33+ and just there to help developed players. Riga lost in the Conference league first qualifying round to FK Panevėžys (Lithuanian). Valmiera FC won in there Conference league first qualifing round game to Ħamrun Spartans FC (Malta) before losing to FK Qairat Almaty (Kazakhstan) in the second round. FK Liepāja actually made it to the Conference league group stage before losing every game, a decent showing by the Latvian teams overall. 

[Barneyinglis]

Season 3

Transfers 

Season 3 had are business transfer window to date, lots of ins and lots of outs. The only out of note was Emīls Birka (LB) who the board accept the transfer offer, without he getting a say. Due to this I had to retrain Gļebs Kļuškins one of are more experienced players at LWB as we had a lack of players in this position. The rest of the outs were players from the B and U18 teams which became surplus to requirements. On the ins Ritvars Rugins (LWB) experienced LWB was cover for Birka until the board transferred him. Lukman Zakari (CB) player for the B team. Adam Markhiev (CM) the first player we have bought for a transfer fee, will play as a BBM in midfield. Alioune Ndoye (ST) for the B team. Edgars Ivanovs (CM) for the B team. Dele Israel (CM/ST) good backup player. Matvey Ivakhnov (ST) for the B team. Gbolahan Wilson (CB) for the B team. Valerijs Lizunovs (ST) first team young striker. Gallito Vázquez (CM) a old Mexician midfielder we got from are Mexican scout, backup player. Sergey Zhukov (CB) we hope will develop. Maris Ivanovs (CB) another young player will hope can become a first team player. Diego Ávila (GK) young Argentinian keeper. Juris Ivanovs (CB) young player for the youth team. All in all a good window. The youth teams and B teams now have a lot of players and we can see who develops and if we can use any of them.  

[Barneyinglis]

[Barneyinglis]

Season 3 

The Season

Another title winning season here at Metta, with players like Valerijs Lizunovs and Adam Markhiev really leveling up the team. The overall squad improved a lot too, we always had players to rotate in and bring onto the bench/squad if injuries happened. The issue I had with all the players for the youth team/B team was most wanted amateur contracts and weren't improving as they were not on full time contracts so a thing I looked to do over the next season is get rid of the ones I don't need and get the one's I see with potential on full time contracts. Are success wasn't just on the pitch, but also off of it, with the average attendance now rising to 1,193. In the cups we were actually successful in the Latvian cup for the first time, beating RFS, FK Smiltene/BJSS, Valmiera FC and then a 1-o win against FK Liepāja in the final. The european champion was also a success, AMO Apollon Limassol (Cyprus) were beaten in the Champions league first qualifying round, Ferencvárosi Torna Club (Hungarian) in the 2nd, HJK (Finland), in the 3rd, before losing to Serbian team FK Partizan Beograd in the 4th. Putting us into the group stage of the Europa League. Where we drew PSV (Netherlands), Legia (Poland) and SK Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia). We finished bottom of the group with 4 points a win over SK Slovan Bratislava and a draw with Legia. Plans for next season are to continue improving the team and looking out any gems we can find, while developing the younger players we have here. 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Barneyinglis

[Barneyinglis]

[Hanys]

3 hours ago, Barneyinglis said:

Season 3 

 SK Slovan Bratislava (Slovenia.

Slovakia. But to make things complicated, Slovaks call their country 'Slovensko' and 'Slovan' means 'Slav', as in the 'Slavic people'.

Congrats on beating them, anyway!

 

 

[Barneyinglis]

On 03/08/2022 at 20:31, Hanys said:

Slovakia. But to make things complicated, Slovaks call their country 'Slovensko' and 'Slovan' means 'Slav', as in the 'Slavic people'.

Congrats on beating them, anyway!

 

 

Thank you very much for A correcting me and B reading the post. 

Edited August 5, 2022 by Barneyinglis

[Barneyinglis]

Season 3 

Youth Intake 

No players of note in this intake only player that looks like they will develop is Marks Tarasovs (CB) and a random Columbian CB, LB, LWB who is terrible but will get game time as he is left footed and can play on the left side of a 3 at the back. 

[Barneyinglis]

Season 4 

Transfers

Another good window, I managed to sort out some key positions, bringing in a actual LB and one of the best midfielders in the league. So first in was Ingars Stuglis (CM) a very good and experinced a this level CM, next was Mootez Zaddem (CM) a Tunisian midfielder we got on a pre contract who was rated in the media dream 11. Darius Kublickas (CK a Lithuanian backup keeper. Marquinhos Pedroso (LB/LWB) as we needed a LB/LWB I decided to spend some of are money on the best LB in the league. Andrejs Kozlovs (DM/RB) youth player for the future. Andris Džeriņš (ST) youth team striker with a lot of potential. Reinis Litvinskis (CB), youth team defender we hope to develop. Lastly Miguel Ángel Ponce and Hedgardo Marín two Mexicans we got through  our Mexician scout both will be used to mentor some of our players till the end of the season. On the outs we just had a load of players from the B team who I was no longer using. 

[Barneyinglis]

[Barneyinglis]

[Barneyinglis]

Player Development 

So Metta have great facilities to develop are younger players and I am always getting in the best coaches I can get and upgrading the facilities when I can. As I keep playing on and getting further away from where I am on the blog, I will show Andris Džeriņš progress at the club as it is everything you could every want. I want to show it before I spoiler lose the player to the MLS. 

[Barneyinglis]

Season 4 

The Season 

Now we are starting to show we are the dominate force in Latvia with another league title, however the season was not as successful as last season. A lower points total, goals scored, higher goals conceded and losing in the Cup semi final, but I do believe the team is strong and we were only just off in all this departments from last season. A possible reason for conceding more goals could of been the season long injury to Iļja Korotkovs (CB) which was very frustrating however we did have Icelanic international Axel Óskar Andrésson (CB) to step in and young Maris Ivanovs (CB) brought last season would also get game time. The tactic stay the same this season as the generic gegenpress 5-3-2. The European campaign I was pretty proud of , well not the first game losing to Football Club København (Denmark) over 2 legs 2-1 dropping out of the Champions league at the first hurdle and going into the Europa league second qualifying round. In the 2nd round we were against Ħamrun Spartans FC (Malta), wining a whopping 13-0 over the 2 legs, next we had Lincoln Red Imps FC (Gibraltar) only winning 4-1 over the 2 legs, in the last round before the group stages came a team we had in the group stages last season Legia Warszawa (Poland), this time we would get the better of them winning both games, 7-3 over the 2 games. In the group we were given a very tough set of teams, Rubin Kazan (Russia), R Standard de Liège (Belgium) and Napoli (Italy). We gave a very good account of ourselves drawing with Rubin twice and getting a famous draw with Napoli and the games we lost the worse defeat was only 2-0 so I was very proud of what we achieved as a team.  Hopefully we can keep pushing on as a team and better this in the next seasons. 

[Barneyinglis]

[Barneyinglis]

Season 4 

Youth Intake 

By far the best intake I have had so far, we got some players I actually think I'll be able to use and have in and around the squad. We only really have a few players who were from the youth team before the save started and only Artūrs Petrovs who came from the season 1 intake coming from our youth team on the save, so it will be nice to some more boys from the Metta football school at the club. Boriss Jagodinskis (GK) a excellent young goal keeper will become the back up keeper and play in the B/youth team. Gļebs Kalniņš (ST) a striker who maybe after a few seasons will be around the first team. Uģis Bondars (RB/CB) full back that like Gļebs will be in and around the first team in a few seasons.

(photos are from a few seasons ahead)

Edited August 17, 2022 by Barneyinglis

[Barneyinglis]

Season 5

Transfers Ins

This season is the first season we were able to attract players from further than in Latvia. Although due to being in Latvia and it not being the most attractive league we were not able to get ahold all the players we wanted. First in Toluwalase Arokodare (ST) Nigerian striker who has 17 strength and 18 jumping reach perfect for our target man role coming in on a free from Valmiera FC. Mamuka Adeishvili Georgian (ST) another target man style player and probably are best striker.  Sergejs Ivanovs (CB) young CB with bags of potential and one of the best young defenders in the league, however with low determination in stat and personality I don't think he'll make it. Jake O'Leary (CM) from Ireland bench player with some potential. Wilfried Traoré (CM) from the Ivory Coast a excellent attacking midfield can't really defend but I'm very excited about this attacking ability, and coming in for a record fee of 12M Nok (£1M) i still think it's a steal and he'll probally go for a profit in a year or 2. I use NOK as I am English but I live in Norway for anyone interested.  Aleks Novak (ST) yes another target man from NK Maribor in Slovenian, came in at the half way point young player would will be in the B team and should get some first team minutes. Souleymane Kassi (DM) BWM will be starting in the DM position and like Wilfried Traoré comes from ASEC Mimosas. Lastly we got Éver Banega (CM) who once played for Valencia and Inter cam in on a armature contract won't play maybe games at 37 but will help some players growth. 

[Barneyinglis]

[Barneyinglis]

[Barneyinglis]

Season 5 

Transfers Out 

This  transfer the board got involved in a few transfers and we lost youth academy players/first team players Iļja Korotkovs and Rihards Ozoliņš for 1.95m NOK and 2.3M NOK (£169,845 and £200,330). This was a great shame but we had no choice as the board approved it. Luckily I think will we pretty well set up to replace this players. The biggest lose was Mootez Zaddem who was bought for this release clause. This was not ideal but Wilfried Traoré will hopefully bring the goals/assist from the midfield. 

[Barneyinglis]

Season 5 

The season

Ohhhhh wow are we good now, we are now far too good for the other teams in this league. With are new additions upfront we are a goal scoring machine. This season i changed things up with the tactics we are still not using wingers but now we have an extra body in midfield. We are also now using 2 CM's on attack duty as I have seen a lot of people using them and having great success, we have 2 versions one with a DM on BWM and one with an extra striker as we have a lot of people who can play up top. The lines have also been dropped, soaking up pressure and then counting on teams. We almost went the season undefeated, but Riga are local rivals had other ideas, beating us 2-1 and at home. In the cup we didn't do very well, losing 1-0 to FK Liepāja in the fourth round. Valerijs Lizunovs (ST) winning fans player of the year with 23 in 24 league games and are top goalscorer. While Dmitrijs Zelenkovs (CM) for the 3rd out of 5th year got the most assists. 

[Alma Mater]

Nice tactic! When you move the DM up to striker, do you change any duties on others to compensate, like WBs to support or similar? Or maybe you just use that version when you expect to be dominant?

Auda has been doing well for years now in your save. I like when the smaller teams creep up the table like that.

[Barneyinglis]

On 06/09/2022 at 22:21, Alma Mater said:

Nice tactic! When you move the DM up to striker, do you change any duties on others to compensate, like WBs to support or similar? Or maybe you just use that version when you expect to be dominant?

Auda has been doing well for years now in your save. I like when the smaller teams creep up the table like that.

No roles change we only use it against the smaller teams in the league/champions league and it's only really used to keep all the strikers happy. At this point in the save we played with a TM and support rather than a PF on support, so when we went to 3 up top, we have 2 TM and one AF. Auda has done really well always seem to be top half every season and have won the cup once and been runners up once. 

[Barneyinglis]

Season 5 

European football. 

Thheee Chhhhammmmpppiiiooonnnsss, first qualifying round of the champions league we played FC Besa Pejë (Kosovo) winning 19-0 on aggregate, next up was FC Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova/Transnistria) 4-0 aggregate win, 3rd qualifying round Qarabağ FK Ağdam (Azerbaijan) 4-1 on aggregate, and in the last round to get to are first champions' league group stages we got Fussballclub Admira Wacker Mödling from Austria and we got through 6-3. lettssss goooooo. We did it unbelievable achievement from the boys. We waited anxiously for the draw to see if we come get any of the big boys and that we did Barcelona (Spain/Catalonia) Bayern (Germany) and NK Osijek (Croatia), well this was going to be a tough ask, but we gave a good account of ourselves losing 4-2 to Bayern first game then a 2-0 win over Osijek, then being brought back down to earth at camp Nou getting spanked 5-1 and then 3-1 losing the home leg to the Spanish outfit at home, Osijek beat us at home in a disappoint 2-0 defeat, but somehow we had a chance going into the last game to get Europa league by finishing 3rd and i don't know how but we picked up a 1-1 draw at Bayern to get through to the knockouts of the Europa League. With the league season being a winter league, we would have to wait until next season to play the game. 

[Hanys]

Some outstanding results in Europe, great work so far.

[Alma Mater]

5 hours ago, Barneyinglis said:

Season 5 

European football. 

Thheee Chhhhammmmpppiiiooonnnsss, first qualifying round of the champions league we played FC Besa Pejë (Kosovo) winning 19-0 on aggregate, next up was FC Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova/Transnistria) 4-0 aggregate win, 3rd qualifying round Qarabağ FK Ağdam (Azerbaijan) 4-1 on aggregate, and in the last round to get to are first champions' league group stages we got Fussballclub Admira Wacker Mödling from Austria and we got through 6-3. lettssss goooooo. We did it unbelievable achievement from the boys. We waited anxiously for the draw to see if we come get any of the big boys and that we did Barcelona (Spain/Catalonia) Bayern (Germany) and NK Osijek (Croatia), well this was going to be a tough ask, but we gave a good account of ourselves losing 4-2 to Bayern first game then a 2-0 win over Osijek, then being brought back down to earth at camp Nou getting spanked 5-1 and then 3-1 losing the home leg to the Spanish outfit at home, Osijek beat us at home in a disappoint 2-0 defeat, but somehow we had a chance going into the last game to get Europa league by finishing 3rd and i don't know how but we picked up a 1-1 draw at Bayern to get through to the knockouts of the Europa League. With the league season being a winter league, we would have to wait until next season to play the game. 

Great job! Let's see how the Europa League goes.

[Barneyinglis]

Season 5

Post Season 5 transfers

So, after the 5th season finished, I ended up with quiet a lot of transfer business being done, but all were on the way out. Dele Israel (CM) was the first in the way out back to his homeland, Enyimba International F.C. of Aba (Nigeria) for 420k NOK, a good fee for a backup player. Darius Kublickas (GK) also goes back home to Lithuania for FK Panevėžys, another good fee for a backup player (87.5k NOK). Toluwalase Arokodare  (ST) who we only got a hold of this season was next to go, although he played well when fit, he had 2 big injuries this season and Qatari team Al-Sailiya Sports Club came in for him for 2.15m NOK it seemed a good idea to send him on his way to avoid the player having issue and disrupting the squad. Are other backup keeper Diego Ávila (GK) also goes back home to Instituto Atlético Central Córdoba in Argentina for 177k NOK. The last two transfers we the sad ones, David Titov (RB) left us at the end of his contract to Premier league team Nottingham Forest, which annoyed me one because he's a great RB and two because I hate Forest being a Derby fan. He finishes his Metta career in the overall 11, getting 55 assists in all competitions. Mamuka Adeishvili (ST) one of my favorite players of the season, had his release clause met by Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk for 3.25m NOK. He scored a lot of goals for the club and really help get the team in the champions' league group stages, he will be missed.