FM23 Global (Less England) Small Club to Big Club Challenge

[Rainbowz]

16 hours ago, TsarBombr said:

@Rainbowzsome good signings you have brought in there. I managed to pick up Kambwala in my save, was a bit worried about his lack of heading, but he’s rapid so it sort of makes up for it. He’s been my best defender so far this season. Hope he does the business for you. 

I try to get Kambwala in every save like this I do, he always seems to turn into an incredible CB that's available for pennies. So many times I've missed out on him and he goes on to be a great top-level player.

[DazRTaylor]

We go again in Scotland.

Club Introduction

East Kilbride

The Manager

This is me.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          25 June 2023              31 May 2024         £350 p/w          £325 p/w

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att   Def   Fit   GkD   GkH   GkS   Tac   Tec   Men   WWY   Ada   Det   PlK   YoK   LoD   MaM   Mot
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.25*)     None                 1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     4     1     1     1     4     1     1     1

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Adequate             Adequate          Adequate              Adequate         Fairly Basic       Regional   (1.50*)

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfer Purchase Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Purchased From          Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------


Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     Scottish Cup          Premier Sports Cup        Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                        Cumulative Number of Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by DazRTaylor

[TsarBombr]

On 25/12/2022 at 00:00, Rainbowz said:

I try to get Kambwala in every save like this I do, he always seems to turn into an incredible CB that's available for pennies. So many times I've missed out on him and he goes on to be a great top-level player.

Yeah he's been top drawer for me to be fair. Managed to get him onto a new deal with an 11m release clause. So if a big team does swoop in then I'll get some much needed cash. 

[TsarBombr]

FC Den Bosch 

2024-2025

Eredivisie 

 

Transfers: 

After being given a whopping 400k transfer kitty for our return to the top flight I knew that getting new talent in may be difficult. I managed to jiggle the budgets to give us an extra 40k on the wages and went scouring the free against and loan market for some new recruits

Willy Kambwala

Joined us on a free transfer towards the end of the window after his contract at Manchester United expired. Wanted an extra CB as cover and being absolutely rapid I brought him in. 

Radinio Balker 

Another CB signing joining on a free transfer after his contact at FC Groningen expired. Very happy with this signing he looks solid for our level, is fairly quick, fairly tall and a left footer. Hopefully he will be a good replacement for Tarik Muharemovic whose loan we were unable to extend. 
 

Thibaut Lesqouy

We desperately needed more depth at left back. Thibaut joined on a free to provide competition with Van Der Winden on the left flank. He’s fairly quick, can get up and down the flank all day and can stick a decent cross into the box. Exactly what I was looking for in a new LB.

Abdoulaye Sissako
 

Came in as a future signing in the January window last season after his contract with Belgian Pro League Side Zulte Waregem reached its last 6 months. Really happy with this signing he will add some much needed physicality to my midfield. Capable of playing in the B2B midfielder or deeper as a holding player if we decide to change things up tactically. 

Adnan Ugur

Another free agent signing. Looks a quality player for us will slot straight into our starting eleven alongside Sissako. Hopefully he will add some creative magic to our midfield. 
 

Lenny Joseph

Joined on a free from FC Metz. Looks decent and hopefully he can help fill the void that Turco has left. The Italian unfortunately showing no interest in returning to us on loan or permanently for another season. Instead joining Palermo for 145k. 
 

Leonardo Rocha

Rocha is a bit of journey man striker, we picked him up on a free from the Belgium second tier to add another dimension to our attack. Not as good technically as Turco, but very tall and better in the air. Hopefully he can bag a few goals for us this season. 
 

Kjell Watjen 

Joined us on loan just before deadline day from Dortmund. We’re not paying his wages so now pressure on him to perform. Looks decent and hopefully he can provide some good competition on our existing midfielders. Can play a fair few positions too which I like. 
 

League: 

We started our season with a trip to Willem II turning out comfortable 2-0 victors. However we were brought back to reality with a series of defeats in our next four games to AZ Alkmaar, FC Utrecht, FC Groningen and Heerenveen. We were getting outplayed in midfield our low block 4-4-2 in which we sat off the opposition and allowed them time on ball wasn’t working, as soon as we pressed we were caught out by a ball over the top and the quality of strikers at this level punished us.
 

After 5 games I switched to a 4-3-3 system, moving Sissako to holding midfielder to help provide cover for Kambwala and Balker at the back. Watjen and Ugur became our first choices in front of Sissako providing dynamic running and a spark of creativity. Coeckelbergs was retrained as an IF cutting in from the left flank. With journeyman Rocha coming in ahead of Joseph who couldn’t hit a barn door in the first five games. Results after this were steady, we stopped leaking goals but were fairly toothless in attack as players adjusted to their new roles and the new system. Unfortunately we exited the Dutch cup in the first round getting spanked 3-0, so there was to be no repeat of our run to the final of last year.

Our results gradually improved particularly in the new year as we went on to pick up 2 wins in January, our only defeat was to AZ Alkmaar again falling 3-2. We strengthened in January bringing 20 year old Danish midfielder, Oskar Ohlenschlaeger in on loan. We also made an approach for Andre Leipold  who will be joining us on a free for next season. In February our purple patch continued winning 3 and drawing 1 as we went unbeaten, not conceding a single goal and dismantling Feyenoord 5-0. This result left us sitting in 4th place. Unfortunately we were unable to continue this run of form and started to drop points against teams nearer the bottom. Feyenoord pulled away from us to finish comfortably ahead although we did manage to hold on to finish 5th in the league and therefore qualifying for the playoffs for the final European spot. We tied Willem II who we hadn’t lost too all season. In a tense first leg we drew 0-0. The second leg was 3 days later and unfortunately was a game too far for us as our tired players couldn’t get back into the match after conceding early. Due to injuries I had to play one of my 15 year old youth Prospects at CB for the last couple of games. 
 

 

We managed a club record finish in the Eredivisie and although we just missed out on Europe that was probably a good thing as we do not have the depth needed to compete on two fronts. 
 

Rocha managed to bag some very important goals for us this year and will continue to lead the line next season. Coeckelbergs has finally learnt his new position so hopefully will be back performing to his best for us next season. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by TsarBombr

[TsarBombr]

FC Den Bosch 

2025-26

Eredivisie 

Mid Season Update

 

Transfers

Daniel Anyembe Joined as another option at RB has mostly started ahead of Faris and has been solid so far. 

Denis Vos  Signed as cover for for LB and CB. Found his way into the starting XI after some poor performances by Balker. Been fairly solid and formed a decent partnership with our star CB Kambwala. 
 

Steve Mvoue  Picked up on a free to provide competition in midfield has been solid but not spectacular, hopefully he can add some more goals to his game as he has good finishing. Fairly hopeful that he will become a vital part of our midfield in the future. 
 

Andre Leipold Another free signing from last season. He has been a rotational option providing back up for Coeckelbergs who has been excellent. Scored a couple of nice goals but has been fairly inconsistent.

Nicolas Kristof

Signed on a free in January as Van der Steen had put in a few iffy performances. Has been fairly unconvincing so far, although his rating is skewed by the 5-1 thrashing we were dealt by Ajax.

 

Youth Prospects

 

Bilal Lamnaouar 

Has been at the club since I took over, took a look at him again at the start of the season and he has improved a fair bit. Lacks finishing and technicals however he is rated fairly highly by my staff. He has gone out on loan for more game time. 
 

Chris Meyer

Came through our youth intake, has some solid stats but lacks pace and has some poor mental determination. Hopefully he can develop into a decent prospect or at least someone we can sell on for some cash.

Daniel Bakker 

Another player who came through in the first seasons intake. Will try and find some game time in cups next season but hopefully we can develop him

Gokhan Sol

Looks decent except a little slow. Hopefully he can develop nicely into a useful player will start to see some game time towards the end of the season and into next. 
 

League

It’s been a really close season so far we started very strongly, not conceding to many goals and scoring a decent amount. However after about 10 games we started to leak goals. We have the joint third worst defensive record, but we have been lethal in front of goal scoring the most in the league. With 10 to play hopefully we can sneak a top 4 and manage a European spot, or at the least secure a spot in the play offs for the final European spot.

Below are our remaining fixtures. We play our bogey team in the Dutch Cup Semi final. The winner playing either Ajax or AZ. Hopefully we can pick up five wins from the these remaining fixtures.

 

 

 

 

 

[_JHTB_]

Hogaborgs BK

Season 9 – Allsvenskan – 1^st – Champions!

Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile

 

Overview

Transfer Window:

Incomings: The off season was again quiet in terms of overall numbers of players brought in, but we actually spent more money this season rather than cheap or free transfers. First in was Melberg a Swedish defender who just strengthened our homegrown contingent he came in for £190k. Lund was our next first team signing as we upgraded in the goalkeeping area spending £525k to bring him in – he was our second choice of signing, but the main guy wanted £20k per week on top of the £20k per week the selling club would cover. Penn was our only first team free transfer of the off season, the American Central midfielder bolstering our ranks in that position. Our final money signing was Kallman for £700k a Swedish right back in what was an area of weakness for us coming into the season.

In the mid season window we did bring in a few players to just strengthen our overall squad depth to cover for injuries, suspensions and fixture congestion. Fullbacks Dapo and Jallow both came in with Jallow also being homegrown before I signed Collingwood to provide more depth in the midfield area.

Outgoings: Our first major outgoing was Peacock who we had brought in last season, but we could get some good value out of him as he left for £1.6m. As we had brought in a new goalkeeper we also sold our previous seasons keeper King for £500k. He had actually handed in a transfer request before we’d replaced him so it was a no brainer to sell him and his sale pretty much offset the deal for his replacement. Tannor who had been a good striker for us the past few seasons also left us, he was in the last year of his deal and I wasn’t planning to extend so when he agreed a pre-contract with Empoli I persuaded them to give us £160k for him to transfer immediately – he was replaced my returning loanees.

League: The start of the season was pretty much a carbon copy of last season with us sprinting out the blocks, our only blemishes in our opening 12 games was a 2-2 draw against the team who ultimately finished second in Djurgardens where we went down to 10 men after 20 minutes, and a poor 1-0 loss where we just didn’t take out chances before again being reduced to 10 men only to concede a late goal and lose.

July was when we started to wobble a little as we went through the 4 game month without a win, though only one loss but we soon regained our composure and went back to winning games until we got the dreaded inbox item telling us that we were one win away from a new club record so the next game we lost the lead 3 times in a 4-4 draw and didn’t win either of the next two – drawing one and losing one. This took us into the last game of the season top by one point but playing 3^rd who were only 2 points behind us meaning if we lost we could still yet finish 3^rd. In fact, after a 17^th minute goal for BK Hacken we were 3^rd on the live league table, thankfully in the second half the players started to pick up their performance and we scored 3 with no reply to secure our first top flight title!

Cup: A disappointing exit in the cup but we did get a tough group stage draw with Djurgardens ending up being our other top flight team.

We did get through to the group stages again for next time out following an unconvincing 5-3 win.

Europe: This season we were in the Champions League Qualifiers, facing off first against Dinamo Kyiv, we comfortably beat them in the first leg 3-0 before overcoming them in a tighter second leg 2-1. Our reward was Besiktas where in the first leg we made a bright start scoring early before being reduced to 10 men with only 20 minutes played, we held on to win the first leg but I did think we would likely lose the second. 3 minutes into the second leg we found ourselves 2-0 down on the night with us looking to be in for a long night they got a 3^rd before halftime and looked out of sight but we put in a great comeback in the second half to make it 3-2 on the night and through to extra time. They were again fast starters in extra time scoring to make it 4-3 on aggregate but we equalised in the last minute to take us to penalties which we duly won. We then faced Lyon in the final playoff and were bossed both legs losing 3-0 on aggregate and dropping into the Europa League.

In the group stages I was not sure what to expect, but somehow we managed to overcome Porto in our first game before losing to Montpellier in the second. LASK Linz were are next opponent and we comfortably beat them (both games we had won so far had been our home games) before we had a trip to Greece and Olympiakos. They had started the group stages poorly winning one from 3 conceding 9 goals in the process, we seized on that defensive frailty and managed to record a 5-0 away win. We then took the trip to Cyprus to play a Famagusta side who were last in the table losing all 4 of their games which we promptly made 5. We then welcomed Celtic to Sweden and recorded a comprehensive 5-1 victory.

We do still have 2 games remaining in the groups which are taking place in January for some reason but find ourselves in a prime position to qualify for the next round currently finding ourselves 3^rd in the group.

Next Season/General

We’ve got to look at trying to retain the title next season, since the start of the save no team has managed to win back to back. We do need to bring in some more depth in some areas of the pitch but on the whole I’m happy with how the squad is looking so we don’t need any major changes unless there are any sales.

We are ticking along nicely in terms of facilities upgrades with me mostly focusing on asking for those whenever we have the spare money to do so. I have also asked the board for a new stadium as we’re filling out ours on a weekly basis and it is too small for continental competition, unfortunately, it is planned to be 7k seated which is not going to be big enough for European football anyway, nor, what I hope to be our ever expanding fan base. Our Average attendance this season was 3000 higher than our stadium capacity due to the European games.

[EDIT]

One continue later, we are building a 8.1k capacity stadium, so it will be big enough for European games.

Players of note

Deninho – Picked up where he left off last season, a fantastic year for him averaging a goal a game in the league before picking up a broken toe that saw him out for 2 months. We were getting bids of about £7m for him this season which was a tempting proposition as I would say striker is our strongest position

Sinval Keller -  I had signed Keller 3 seasons since and he’s been out on loan since, including the first half of this season where he was scoring regularly for the team dead last in the league so I recalled him and he had a fantastic impact. He scored 18 goals and 8 assists in 23 appearances in all competitions in the second half of the season including 10 in the league as he pushed himself into the reckoning for first choice striker.

Zarko Maric – Maric has been at the club a while but hasn’t really ever found himself first choice and, in truth, we did rotate a lot this season too but he performed very well for us throughout the season

Paulo Vitor – Vitor again proved his worth this season, 9 goals and 9 assists a strong return for the attacking midfielder, I don’t think it is beyond the realms of possibility for him to take up Swedish citizenship and play for Sweden internationally.

Overview

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by _JHTB_

[jmarchand]

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2026-2027 | Season 4 | First season in the top division

After a very good season in the Second division, things start to get real now and our objective is to consolidate ourselves in the top division in Hungary. After that, we can start pushing for higher up. The board wants to us to bravely fight against relegation... I think we can do better than this, but with the media prediction at 500-1 at the start of the season and being ranked 11th out of 12 in the league, we were bracing ourselves for a long season where we would fight for scraps and narrowly avoiding the drop. 

 

The League

Currently ranked 23rd in the world (one step below the English Championship in terms of reputation, to give you an idea of the level), the OTP Bank Liga has 12 teams and each play each other 3 times. The giant is Ferencvarosi TC, who's been winning the league consistently since 2018, with Fehévar and Ujpest being the usual challengers. In terms of wage budgets, the difference isn't astronomical, with Ferencvaros on a 9M€ budget, Fehévar on 6M€ and us newly promoted on a 2M€ budget. The average attendances are famelic though (13k for Ferencvaros, then it drops to 4k for Ujpest and goes all the way to 1.5k for the last teams in the division... we hover at around 2k currently). 

In Europe, Ferencvaros has reached the UCL Group stage in 2025 (finishing 35th in the new format), but apart from this has been consistently getting out in the qualifying rounds. The road will be quite long and the hill steep in that regards. 

There are currently 4 European spots, 1 UCL (in the second qualifying round), 1 UEL and 2 UECL, bottom two teams are relegated, without any chances of getting into playoffs. 

There is _some_ prize money, the winner currently gets 422k€ and it goes down steeply from there. Nothing close to the kind of budget needed to mount a European run. To give a sense of scale, in Turkey's top flight last year, we were getting this amount of money for each regular season win. 

There is no registration nor any foreign player rules, but I still need to be weary of this for European competitions when we get there. 

 

Transfer Window

Again, mostly free transfers coming in, but I feel that this blessed time is slowly coming to an end. The board now allows us the possibility of scouting everywhere in the world, which I've taken on on a few occasions, briefly upgrading the scouting package to send scouts this way, but with our finances, having a few folks permanently scouting south america isn't yet a possibility. 

In the Out column, not much to say except that I've been able to get rid of some folks who were never close of making the jump to the first division. One thing to note is the quick flip of Jahmai Simposon-Pusey, who came in as a free transfer released from Man City's academy, but quickly fell behind better options and got unhappy. Still, 300k€ after playing 4 matches for us in less than 6 months is not a bad piece of business. 

in the In column, we can spot someone coming in on loan from our new Senior Affiliate (Villareal!), but don't get too excited, I got him for free to be our backup keeper he didn't get to see any action. 

We can also spot two Brazilians which were signed in January, coming from free transfer from Sao Paulo and Fortaleza after their contract didn't get renewed. More on them later. 

 

League 

I expected a big step up, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected, starting with a 2-2 draw against Fehévar at home. It took a bit of time to really get going, but during the course of the seasons, we found out that we were better than the teams who were at the bottom of the table and not being outclassed by the big teams. We lost a few, squeezed in a few surprise draws and 1 or two upsets to establish ourselves. 

Our defence wasn't great, but somehow we managed to score the second highest amount of goals in the league, finishing with a surprising 6th place! 

We can note the surprise winners were, Kisvarda, who were promoted back to the OTP Bank Liga just last year, after 1 season in the 2nd division. It was also a terrible performance by Ferenvaros, who actually sacked their managers at the end of this season after crashing out in the league and in the cup. This is their worst ever finish since 2012/13, so I can't really bank on this happening on a regular basis... 

Preliminary conclusion: this league will likely be much more winnable than I initially thought... 

 

The Cup

Nothing to write home about. Without too much ambition by my or by the board and with virtue of a bad draw, we were knocked out by eventual league winners Kisvarda in the 4th round, so actually going out earlier than in previous seasons. We were expected to be competitive, so this allowed us to focus on the league more efficiently. 

 

The Team

In the back

Our best defender was Tibor Szabo, who made the jump with us in the first division and featured quite consistently with us and, to date, is the club's biggest signing at 375k€ from Budapest Honved last year. I did however had to promise to improve the training facilities to get him to sign (like the two Brazilians Kaua and Vinicius da Silva) and the board repeatedly refused to do so, so now they're unhappy and I actually might lose Tibor on a free at the end of his contract, which sucks...

We can also spot the problem of Isaiah Dada-Mascoll, who was somewhat mistakenly given a star player ranking. Coming out of Man City academy, I thought he would have been better from the get go (thus with the wage that goes with it), but it turned out that he was a bit earlier on the curve than I had tought and was largely disappointing and fell a bit behind. now he's unhappy too, but I might want to salvage him next year, I think he's got pretty good potential.   

 

In the midfield

We're playing again a 4-4-2, with one of the wingers playing in the Attacking winger position. It's been generally on the left, but we have the personnel able to switch it around and push on the right side instead, or even make it a 4-2-4 when we're chasing a goal. In general, it,s quite an offensive midfield though, which might explain our rather poor defensive record... 

The standout in terms of stats is once again Baba, the Senegalese youngster who operates from the right midfield. He's been great in progressing the ball and getting a cross in the box. Vinicius da Silva came with us in January and fills in the DLP role. A highly technical player with great vision, he is above average at this level and has lots of room to grow. He's on a long-term deal too, so he has lots of time to get over his unhappiness about training facilities not being upgraded by the board yet (I hope). 

 

In front

This is where I will want to strengthen the team during this offseason. We were carried again by Csanad Novak this year (with 19 Jumping Reach, 16 Strength and 15 Heading, he's a real presence in the box, when we can get the ball to him). At 32, he's certainly going to be on the decline soon, but I got him a contract extension for the next two years to keep him in the Target Forward (Support) role and hopefully find him a proper partner in the offseason. 

Révélation

Currently, that partner has been Levente Szabo or Stelian Costea, but buth have been underwhelming. Szabo is just a worse version of Novak and Costea has been constantly underwhelming, despite looking great on paper (and his loan is running out), so I'm really bound to find a better option this summer or next year is going to be very, very long. 

 

The Future

The prospects are really nothing to write home about either, despite our U19 team performing very well in the youth league. But by looking at them., I think it's more a bad tale for the state of youth Hungarian football than anything else, as we've had this guy (Gergely Zimas) tear up the league (25 goals in 17(4) apps), but he's nowhere close to making the step up anywhere... I kinda hope I'm wrong, though... 

 

Other assorted news

• We now have Villareal as our senior affiliate. Looking to make that pay in the future years, although it's starting pretty tamely now. 
• Our prize money for 6th place in the league didn't cover the "standard" performance bonus given to the team. Yikes. 
• As a result, we're now only 48k€ in the black, starting from roughly 500k€. Yikes x2. 
• Projections are looking pretty grim, the only way out of this I see is to push to Europe and a couple of player sales. 

 

Summary Table

Year

Season

League

Position

Media Pred

Points

Goal Diff

Cup

Europe

Europe Ranking

Avg. Attendance

Top Scorer

Top Assist

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

1

23-24

DII

9

17

47

-1

5th round

NA

796

Zsombor Novak (10)

Szablocs Varga (7)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Below Avg

2

24-25

DII

4

6

46

17

5th round

NA

861

Donat Varga (19)

Szablocs Varga (11)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Average

3

25-26

DII

1

4

62

38

5th round

NA

872

Csanad Novak (20)

Baba (13)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Average

4

26-27

DI

6

11

48

14

4th round

NA

2066

Csanad Novak (19)

Baba (13)

Basic

Below Avg

Excellent

Average

Edited January 11, 2023 by jmarchand

[Thebaker]

@jmarchand, i have had to make the improve training facilities promises a lot and broken it every time. I found its best to extend a contact running out in the middle of the season (and long before the promise is nearly broken) so that when the promise is broken they are still there for another year. Generally i apologised and blamed the board, After a few months most of the players got over it and carried on. If a promise is broken or the player is unhappy for any other  reason and the player is out of contract they will leave.

[rlipscombe]

 

Catania – Italian Serie C / C

Season Review 2023/24 (Season 1)

 

League Prediction:  2^nd   

League Finish:  2nd – Promoted via Playoffs

Finances

Squad 1             Squad 2                Squad 3

 

A great first season in Sicily, at the foot of Mount Etna, as Catania secured promotion via the playoffs.  The board wanted a playoff position but the media had much higher expectations as you can see above.  I felt we had a decent squad which, with additions, could achieve  their wishes.  We started the season well, leading for most of the first half of the season.  A little wobble  in early 2024 saw us fall to 5^th, before we fought back to second.  In truth, Catanzaro were always a step too far in front for us to catch them, but we managed to secure second place in the regular season.

 

In the playoffs, we saw off Ancona and Pescara fairly comfortably before facing Ascoli in the final.  An entertaining final saw extra-time after a 2-2 draw in 90 minutes.  In the 110^th minute, young star Cher Ndour scored what proved to be the winner as we secured promotion to Serie B at the first time of asking.

 

In terms of key players, I would highlight the following:

 

GK:  Niccolo Chiorra  -  Niccolo was very much our first choice keeper and was instrumental in our performances defensively.

CB:  Michael Venturi  -  Michael joined on loan from Cosenza, and was a rock at the heart of our defence. 

AMC:  Cher Ndour  -  Cher joined from Benfica, and the Italian youth international was a star in our offensive line.  An Itlaian youth international, he has great potential.

AML:  Giuseppe Giovinco  -  A veteran in a team mainly of youngsters, his assists  were invaluable  in our promotion push. 

ST:  Emanuele Pecorino  -  striker loaned from juventus, his goal ratio was fantastic, and a driving factor in our success.  I’d love to get him back for next season, but time will tell. 

 

Financially, we are in serious trouble as income in the third tier of Italy isn’t great.  Whilst within wage budgets, we did ‘speculate’ a little in the quest for promotion.

 

Onto the new season, which will see us in the second tier.  It will certainly be a step up in terms of quality of opposition, as we will face Palermo, Brescia, Perugia and Sampdoria amongst others.  Lets see how we get on….

[jmarchand]

@rlipscombeGreat to see you out of the potential drag that is Serie C…! Fingers crossed for a good season next year so you can survive in Serie B!

[jmarchand]

Il y a 3 heures, Thebaker a dit :

@jmarchand, i have had to make the improve training facilities promises a lot and broken it every time. I found its best to extend a contact running out in the middle of the season (and long before the promise is nearly broken) so that when the promise is broken they are still there for another year. Generally i apologised and blamed the board, After a few months most of the players got over it and carried on. If a promise is broken or the player is unhappy for any other  reason and the player is out of contract they will leave.

Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind (and improve my contract micromanagement game a bit…)

[rlipscombe]

24 minutes ago, jmarchand said:

@rlipscombeGreat to see you out of the potential drag that is Serie C…! Fingers crossed for a good season next year so you can survive in Serie B!

Thanks. You don't realise how pleased i was to escape first season...  I've seen many a save struggle in Serie C.  I'm  just trying to pull together a squad to compete in Serie B right now.

[Thebaker]

@rlipscombeGood season to escape serie C, i thought there were 2 C level divsions in Italy but it has obviously changed. Hopefully there is more prize money in the new league as those finances look scary.

[Thebaker]

2028

Table | Squad | Transfers

This was such a meh season i forgot to even post about it. Started poorly before a good run of 6 wins in 7 put the team just outside the top 4 by 12 games. Only 3 wins in the last 18 games as poor form and loss of confidence hit and the team managed to finish towards the lower half of the league. Managed a few high scoring draws as the attack was ok but the defence was terrible and hindered by Gk's who kept putting in sub 6 performances every so often.

In the swedish cup the team easily got past a L3 side before meeting struggling Superettan side Sandvikens at home. It took until ET to win 4-3. In the group stages (played in the next season)the team were drawn with Allsvenskan Varnamo and GAIS and Superettan Ostersunds. The team managed a creditable 4 points to finish 3rd.

Finances continue to slowly bleed out although the cup stages netted an extra 35K not shown here to improve things.

Abic up front did well in terms of performance, i also signed Hrgota who had been top scorer in the league below last season and started as backup before taking his chance.

 

2029

Table | Squad | Transfers

 

I started this season intending to change the defence and GK which didn't happen as i could not attract better.  I also realised how tough this league is with 6 professional teams and several of the strongest teams still semi-pro, the Ettan south by comparison has none.

I did start the season with 4 straight wins before then winning in 4 games to fall behind Sollentuna who ran away with the league. Another decent winning run put the team in 2nd at halfway before a 4 game winless run dropped the team down to 4th and behind 6 points behind Sandvikens. I ended the season with 7 straight wins to sneak past them on the last day. In the playoffs the team met Karlslunds and won 1-0 at home and should have had more. In the away game the team were under pressure for the whole game but hit a goal on the break to edge it 1-0 and gain promotion.

In the swedish cup the team hammered fellow Ettan North team BK Foward 4-0 away before facing club rivals Dalkurd at home. In an even game the team drew 2-2 in 90 mins before pulling away to win 6-2 in ET by a hatrick from my RB. In the group stage the team beat Allsvenskan Degerfors before losing to IFK Gothenborg who are the current Allsvenskan champions. A win against Superettan Osters meant the team finished 2nd and so nearly qualified for the next rd as Gothenborg lost after my teams last game.

Finances improved a bit due to the strong cup performances but only games against the top 4 or 5 clubs generate much income. Increased wages meant the team is still losing money.

The team turned pro at the end of the season but this is unlikely to change anything as the existing players want wages way over what i can afford and the clubs low rep and finances means few better players are not interested. I can't even attract staff on pro wages as they want more than i can give.

Key to this season was bringing in Ajrullahu to operate as the defensive CM and move McDaid to the attacking cm, Martin also came in and did well. These gave a screen against the flaky defence which was still poor on occasions.

Hrgota built on last seasons efforts to finish top for goals ans assists.

Season

League

Position

Swedish Cup

Europe

Top Scorer

Top Assists

Attendance

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

Notes

2023

D2 NS

9th

Not entered

N/A

Zetterstrom(14)

Akerlund (6)

219

Poor

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2024

D2 NS

2nd

Not entered

N/A

Zetterstrom(19)

Lindgren(8)

268

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2025

D2 NS

1st

2nd Rd

N/A

Zetterstrom, Smeds(22)

Zetterstrom, Paal(9)

261

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Promoted

2026

D1N

6th

Not entered

N/A

Smeds(16)

Tawfeeq,Thorsson(6)

339

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2027

D1N

8th

1st Rd

N/A

Smeds(20)

Andren(8)

310

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2028

D1N

10th

Group St

N/A

Abic (19)

Hgota(5)

293

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2029

D1N

2nd

Group St

N/A

Hgota(23)

Hgota(10)

394

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Promoted via playoffs

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Thebaker

[rlipscombe]

20 hours ago, rlipscombe said:

Thanks. You don't realise how pleased i was to escape first season...  I've seen many a save struggle in Serie C.  I'm  just trying to pull together a squad to compete in Serie B right now.

There did used to be four levels in Italy on older versions.  I think there has been some restructuring in Italy due to clubs folding, money issues etc.  Makes it a slightly more attractive option for those who can't commit time to the game as much as used to (such as me!)

[jmarchand]

Il y a 4 heures, rlipscombe a dit :

There did used to be four levels in Italy on older versions.  I think there has been some restructuring in Italy due to clubs folding, money issues etc.  Makes it a slightly more attractive option for those who can't commit time to the game as much as used to (such as me!)

Yup, there used to be Serie C1 and C2, but they merged in 2014. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serie_C

 

[jmarchand]

 

It's good to see the wives and girlfriends of my lads travelling with the team (and cheering them on as we go along...)

[Rainbowz]

Season Review 2027-28

Squad | Tactic | Table | Finances

PROMOTION WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

What a season! I knew we had it in us to be contenders for the playoffs, but this year just blew my expectations away! We honestly felt untouchable as we went on an insane run of form. Our best players absolutely shone and our tactic worked perfectly. Ligue 1 here we come!

Results: Aug-Dec | Jan-May

After an average start, we went on an absolutely insane 18 game unbeaten run and clutched out the season in April. Probably one of my strongest seasons in Football Manager ever.

Transfers In

DM | Yusuf Al-Amami (£14,000 - Joining in the summer)

Another case of a player being too good to pass up. Libya have been producing some gems in my save, and Al-Amami looks like he could be another. Sadly, he'll count against our non-EU player slots, but even if he's loaned for development, we can easily recoup the costs we paid and then some. Some excellent business for a promising youngster.

Key Players

#1 - Antonio Alexander

I said I was hoping Alexander would step up to be our goalscorer and boy did he deliver. The Spaniard has been on fire this season, bagging 24 goals in 28 games. I'd say he's definitely earned a chance to prove himself in the top tier, we'll be needing those goals if we have any hope of staying up.

#2 - Hermann Tebily

What is with this guy!? Signed as an emergency backup, Tebily has been producing outrageous numbers to the point where he's benching everyone I bring in to replace him. There's nothing overly flashy about him, he's just a solid all-round attacker and that seems to be doing the business. Time will tell if Ligue 1 is beyond him, but he's definitely earned a chance to prove himself.

#3 - Andreson Ghisi

Ghisi had big shoes to fill with the departure of Nyirenda but has stepped up to fill the void massively. He's an excellent creative midfielder and is a key figure of how we play so well. He's also our first player to be considered Ligue 1 quality and will definitely feature heavily for us next year

Next Season's Thoughts

Next season is going to be interesting. I definitely think we can survive if we make some good additions, but one of the biggest challenges with the league is the disparity. We might be able to compete with the bottom half teams, but the PSGs and Monacos of the world will smash us. Survival is definitely still the aim, but I reckon it's an achievable one. We've been given £2.5m and £35k wage budget to bring in improvements, time will tell if it's enough.

Year

Division

Predicted Position

Actual Position

Coupe de France

Trophée des champions

Europe

Top Player

Top Scorer

Top Assists

Avg. Attendance

Finances

Training/Youth Facilties

Junior Coaching/Recruitment

Extra Notes

2023/24

National

15th/18th

10th/18th

7th Round

N/A

N/A

Erwin Zelazny (6.92)

Adama Diakhaby (8)

Jonathan Beaulieu (4)

999

-£292,339

Below Average/Basic

Adequate/Basic

Tough season, losing money badly too

2024/25

National

13th/18th

2nd/18th

11th Round

N/A

N/A

Joe Hugill (7.46)

Joe Hugill (26)

Daniel Menéndez (13)

750

£-622,636

Below Average/Basic

Adequate/Basic

PROMOTION!!!!!!

2025/26

Ligue 2

18th/18th

12th/18th

9th Round

N/A

N/A

Rodgers Nyirenda (7.01)

4 Players (5)

Daniel Menéndez (8)

1,918

£1,057,158

Below Average/Poor

Adequate/Fairly Basic

Solid season, need to build on it now

2026/27

Ligue 2

16th/18th

8th/18th

9th Round

N/A

N/A

Hermann Tebily (7.12)

Saulo (9)

Daniel Menéndez (6)

3,543

£-176,927

Average/Basic

Good/Fairly Basic

We need better players and money

2027/28

Ligue 2

13th/18th

1st/18th

11th Round

N/A

N/A

Hermann Tebily (7.34)

Antonio Alexander (26)

3 Players (9)

4,312

£155,183

Average/Below Average

Excellent/Average

LIGUE 1 HERE WE COME

[DazRTaylor]

End of Season Review

Season 2023/24

East Kilbride

Season Summary

An extraordinary season.  We dominated the league to secure third tier football and enjoyed an exceptional cup run.

Season Details

League Table - We dominated from the start and won the league title and promotion to the third tier by an impressive eighteen points.

League Fixtures 1 & 2 - By winning game after game we were never in danger of not ging up.

Scottish Cup - A fairytale cup run, where we made it all the way to the semi final before losing narrowly to Aberdeen.  We knocked out two top flight sides, Kilmarnock & Hearts, along the way.

Premier Sports Cup - As we lost all four games, we obviously finished bottom of our group and were eliminated.

SPFL Trust Trophy - A decent cup run as we made it all the way to the quarter final before being outclassed by Championship outfit Partick Thistle.

Friendlies - It was a mixed bag of results though we did play some quality sides.

Squad - We are easily the best squad in the division and I think we are strong enough to challenge again.

Squad Dynamics - As lovely as you would expect after such a good season.

Transfers In 1 & 2 - I overhauled the squad as we brought in many players, all on either free transfers or loan deals, most of which are far too good for this league.

Transfers Out 1 & 2 - As a result of so many arrivals, I allowed nearly all of the existing squad to depart, mainly on free transfers, though we did receive one nominal transfer fee.

Youth Candidates - It was a mediocre intake with striker Ian McFadden being the standout player.

Finances - Thanks to the cup run, we made a very healthy profit this year.

Key Players

Zane Monlouis - The central defender was incredible all season and was easily our best player.

Craig Slater - The veteran midfielder added some much needed experience to the squad.

Sam Bellis - It took a while for the striker to cement his place in the starting eleven though once he did, he was in irresistable form, scoring 28 goals in 37 appearances.

Alfie Gilchrist - The centre back partner of Zane Monlouis, he also had a great campaign.

Marley Watkins - Now aged thirty three, the former Welsh international left winger was good enough, though he is clearly past his best.

Next Season

Another promotion is on the cards I feel.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          25 June 2023              31 May 2024         £350 p/w          £325 p/w
2023/24        2 December 2023              31 May 2025         £375 p/w ↑        £325 p/w =

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att   Def   Fit   GkD   GkH   GkS   Tac   Tec   Men   WWY   Ada   Det   PlK   YoK   LoD   MaM   Mot
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.25*)     None                 1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     4     1     1     1     4     1     1     1
2023/24    Minimal = (1.50*) ↑   National C ↑         5 ↑   5 ↑   2 ↑   1 =   1 =   1 =   6 ↑   5 ↑   5 ↑   5 ↑   1 =   4 ↑   4 ↑   5 ↑   4 ↑   5 ↑   6 ↑

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Adequate             Adequate          Adequate              Adequate         Fairly Basic       Regional   (1.50*)
2023/24    Adequate =           Adequate =        Adequate =            Good     ↑       Average      ↑     Regional = (1.50*) =

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24      51        38        4        9         148              60                 +88              74.51%

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24          51        38        4        9         148              60                 +88              74.51%             321 days

Transfer Purchase Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Purchased From          Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 July 2023       Neil McLaughlin           Attacking Midfielder   The New Saints               Wales                           £2,000

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------


Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     Scottish Cup          Premier Sports Cup        Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       cinch League Two                      1st       Semi Final            Group Stage               Promoted as champions.  SPFL Trust Trophy quarter final.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by DazRTaylor

[DazRTaylor]

A cracking season @Rainbowz.  Now the serious stuff starts!

[rlipscombe]

@Rainbowz - Fantasitc achievement achieving pormotion.  Good luck in Ligue 1 - focus on the teams you'll be competing with to survive and win those games and you'll be ok...

@DazRTaylor - fantasti season there - smashed the legue.  good luck next season.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Zeph Calder’s Spanish Adventure
Club Deportivo La Virgen del Camino

Segunda División RFEF 1 2024/25
End of Season Update

Overview
Predicted: 9th
Actual: 8th
Copa del Rey: Second Round  vs Málaga
The Manager:  Jono Capewell - History
Finances: (€237k) [110th Esp (^9)]
Season Tickets: 235 (^31)
The Squad:  First XI,  B Team, Under 19s
Transfers:  Part I, & II

Competitions Update
Segunda División RFEF 4
Table  |  Fixtures 1  |  Fixtures 2

Another great start to the season as we went unbeaten through our first 7 games, but then we didn't win for the next six and never recovered from there, it took the whole season to get the team settled again and have us make it into the top half, we got within 4pts of the playoffs, but were never really in that fight. A final day thrashing of one of the playoff teams was a definite delight though. As was the early season 6-1 win over Salamanca where Hernandez announced himself and managed to score 4 goals in a single game, he managed to get another hattrick at the end of the seson as well. Our biggest issue this season was the attack midfield, our wingers,, and our attack mid were just not consistent, and I kept having to rotate them to get any form at all out of them. None of this will be helped by us losing 3 players in the offseason who never wanted to re-sign with us at all. 

 

Copa del Rey

First Round
SD Borja 0:3 CD La Virgen
Hernandez (49,80), Martinez (83p)
When we drew a team below us in the leagues, I actually expected to lose, and absolutely embarrass ourselves. Going into the dressing room at 0:0 I was absolutely concerned of a goal on the break, turns out I had nothing to worry about as Hernandez scored just after the half and then him and Martinez managed to finish the deal off with 7 mins to go.

Second Round
CD La Virgen 0:4 Málaga CF

I really never expected to have a chance against Malaga, and it showed out in the game as we were never even close to being in tihs one.

Club History

Club Deportivo La Virgen del Camino
		League		Cups	Europe
Year	Division	Odds	Pos	Copa del Rey	Comp	Finish	Season Ticket	Achievements
2023/24	Segunda División RFEF G1	16th	4th	2nd Round	N/A	N/A	204	Promotion Playoffs
2024/25	Segunda División RFEF G1	9th	8th	2nd Round	N/A	N/A	235 (^31)	-

 

Players Update
First Team | B Team | Under 19s | Statistics | Shirt Sales

Transfers
Transfers 1 | Transfers 2

Transfers In
Date	Player	Pos	From	Fee
01.06.24	Kennedy Akumagoa	DC	Free	€0
01.06.24	Pablo Galnares	GK	Free	€0
04.06.24	Alejandro Zekri	DR	Free	€0
05.06.24	Álvaro Martin	DL	Free	€0
09.06.24	Pau Martinez	AMR	Free	€0
12.06.24	Niko Kata	AMC	Free	€0
29.06.24	Borja	DC	Free	€0
01.07.24	Diego Tejerina	DR	CD Tropezón	€0
03.07.24	Abel Peña	AML	Free	€0
28.07.24	Raúl Asencio	DC	Free	€0
30.07.24	Castri	AMRL	free	€0
30.08.24	Juanma Hernández	ST	Free	€0
17.11.24	Santi Figueroa	DR	Free	€0
25.12.24	Matías Cabral	AMC	Free	€0
04.01.25	Pablo Brea	GK	Free	€0
06.01.25	Enol Coto	DR	Free	€0
06.01.25	Ruby	MC	Free	€0
31.01.25	Endika Iregoyen	DL	Free	€0
21.02.25	Javi Vilar	MC	Free	€0
26.02.25	Álex Daza	GK	Free	€0

A few less transfers this season, the last two (Vilar & Daza) will be for next season as couldn't register them, wanted to sign them starting July, but they wouldn't accept that as they had no current team.
First thing to note here is the consistent failure to get a good right back, I wanted to improve this position sooo much after last season and nope, went nowhere, in fact we may be worse than we were the year before at this position. Zekri was pretty bad, but I managed to sell him in 6 months for a very nice profit. Tejerina actually looked the best of the options we brought in, we'll see if he sticks or if someone else takes the spot. 
Next is the GK signings, I am not sure why I kept trying to sign guys here,  Huélamo was fine last year, but I kept getting guys who looked good, and then I signed them, mistakes really. I think the team would've been better with him in all season. Daza on the other hand is going to be excellent as our starter for next season. 
As I mentioned earlier in the summary, Attacking midfield was a real issue. Martinez, Kata, Pena, Castri, Cabral all came in, but none really showed out as stars, I am still looking for more signings for these spots as well. My only signed replacement so far is only a young back-up. I may end up moving the team around just to get some consistency of ball to my striker. My centre back signings on the other hand were excellent, All of them capable of good games and will stick around another season.

Transfers Out
Date	Player	Pos	To	Fee
14.07.24	Francisco Rolle	AMRL	Guijuelo	€7,500
09.11.24	Alejandro Zekri	DR	Diocesano	€25,000
15.01.25	Xiker Arana	AMC	Somozas	€2,500

Made a little money on players who were not good enough. Zekri lasted 5 months and 5 days. 

 

The Squad

Note: Player images are in the tables, just click their names

Goalkeepers

Pablo Huélamo	(GK) [ESP - 21]	Gms	Conc	Cln	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		6 (0)	1	5	1	0/0	7.5
Career		43 (0)	49	17	4	0/0	7.10
Pablo Brea	(GK) [ESP - 23]	Gms	Conc	Cln	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		18 (0)	20	5	0	0/0	6.88
Career		18 (0)	20	5	0	0/0	6.88
Pablo Díez	(GK) [ESP - 23]	Gms	Conc	Cln	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		12 (0)	14	4	1	0/0	6.99
Career		12 (0)	14	4	1	0/0	6.99

 

Álex Daza (22), Álavaro (15)
Just trust your guys, I kept trying to improve and actually made things worse as no one was consistent enough, and no one was actually better than our previous seasons starter. Is Daza just the same mistake all over again?

Fullbacks

Diego Tejerina	(DR) [ESP - 21]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		18 (11)	0	2	0	1/0	6.96
Career		18 (11)	0	2	0	1/0	6.96
Mikel Córdoba	(DL) [ESP - 21]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		35 (0)	1	5	0	5/1	6.81
Career		71 (0)	4	7	1	11/1	6.93
Enol Coto	(DR) [ESP - 24]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		12 (4)	0	0	0	4/0	6.63
Career		12 (4)	0	0	0	4/0	6.63
Santi Figueroa	(DR) [ESP - 25]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		6 (0)	0	0	0	1/0	6.83
Career		6 (0)	0	0	0	1/0	6.83

Jorge Sanchez Rodriguez (DRL-17)
I don't really know what to do at right back, and to make it worse Cordoba is leaving at the end of the season as well, would never even talk about a new contract. I have a pair of replacements coming in, but I am not certain about them either. I am going to possibly give Tejerina a chance to make the role his own early next season. Cordoba had a pretty good season in my books, he got up and down the sideline more like I expected, the change to "Inverted Wing-Back" really helped him to do what I expected.

Centre Backs

Ferney Mosquera	(DC) [COL - 22]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		4 (12)	0	0	0	3/0	7.05
Career		40 (12)	0	1	0	11/0	7.07
Alin Stefan Anton	(DC) [ESP - 20]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		0 (8)	0	0	0	0/0	7.2
Career		9 (30)	1	2	0	3/1	6.89
Raúl Asencio	(DC) [ESP - 22]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		36 (0)	2	0	2	2/0	7.09
Career		36 (0)	2	0	2	2/0	7.09
Kennedy Akumagoa	(DC) [ESP - 21]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		32 (2)	0	0	1	10/0	6.87
Career		32 (2)	0	0	1	10/0	6.87
Borja	(DC) [ESP - 19]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25
Career

 

Gabriel Benítez (16)
This is a spot we definitely improved, with Asencio & Akumagoa being awesome for the team at the back, and Mosquera as a very solid back-up, Borja was signed to be ther other back-up, but was slightly worse than Anton, so he went to the B team for a season, excellent development over there has really made him look competitive for a spot for next season. Mosquera will stay as the main back-up, but I may have to move them around in the 2 DCs this season as there are 4 pretty good players who could all start. No need to look for a new central defender for sure.

Midfielders

Francisco	(MC) [ESP - 20]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		36 (0)	3	5	1	5/0	6.93
Career		68 (0)	12	6	2	7/0	7.06
Anatz Elizondo	(MC) [ESP - 24]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		19 (13)	2	3	1	1/0	6.99
Career		19 (13)	2	3	1	1/0	6.99
Mario Ordoñez	(MC) [ESP - 24]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		0 (7)	0	1	0	1/0	7
Career		25 (15)	3	6	2	1/0	7.20625
Ruby	(MC) [ESP - 22]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		17 (1)	2	2	0	0/0	6.92
Career		17 (1)	2	2	0	0/0	6.92

Javi Vilar (ESP-22)
I did make some good signings here, adding Elizondo near the end of last season, and Ruby in January this season, they were both very good supporting Francisco in the middle, while Ordonez managed a good result coming off the bench as well. With Francisco unwilling to sign a new contract I did look for  replacement for his role, and Vilar has joined and will be straight into the starting line-up in 2025/26, I think it will be him and Ruby leading the line, while Elizondo will be the Sub 1. I do want to see a few more goals from this group in the next season but I would also take them actually being able to safely get the ball to the lines in front of them

Wingers

Artai Miraz	(AMRLC) [ESP - 27]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		14 (7)	3	2	0	1/0	6.73
Career		51 (7)	15	8	2	4/0	6.89
David Iglesias	(AMRL/ST) [ESP - 24]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		8 (6)	2	2	1	0/0	6.95
Career		8 (6)	2	2	1	0/0	6.95
Castri	(AMRL) [ESP - 22]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		28 (1)	1	2	0	1/0	6.74
Career		28 (1)	1	2	0	1/0	6.74
Pau Martinez	(AMR/ST) [ESP - 26]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		22 (4)	9	2	3	2/0	7.00
Career		22 (4)	9	2	3	2/0	7.00
Abel Peña	(AMRL) [ESP - 24]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		0 (2)	0	0	0	0/0	6.80
Career		0 (2)	0	0	0	0/0	6.80

Rachid Rami (15),
Pau Martinez was probably our best winger this season, he got majority of his goals from set pieces (Takes Penalties, Free kicks & corners), but he also was always involved. I don't know what to do with the rest of them, but lean Iglesias actually being better than the others to play on the left as well. Miraz will be leaving at the end of the season, and I didn't fight to keep him at all. 

Attacking Mids

Niko Kata	(AMC/ST) [EQG - 32]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		31 (3)	2	6	3	2/0	6.94
Career		31 (3)	2	6	3	2/0	6.94
Matías Cabral	(AMC/MC) [ARG - 25]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		5 (4)	0	1	0	2/0	6.59
Career		5 (4)	0	1	0	2/0	6.59

 

Sergio Burgos (15)
What the hell is my issue here? I can't sign a player who is as good as my other starters, and none of the ones I do sign manage to step up, Kata was good, but he really started to fall over as he declined near the end of the season.

Strikers

Juanma Hernández	(ST) [ESP - 22]	Gms	Gls	Ast	PoM	Y/R	Avg Rat
2024/25		36 (0)	23	4	6	3/0	7.13
Career		36 (0)	23	4	6	3/0	7.13

Andreu Drets (19), Pablo (17), Reuben Morales (16)
I made a huge upgrade at striker and it showed, when the ball got to him, Hernandez was absolute fire, two hattricks on the season, he managed 4 goals in a game, and he really led the way, I have a trio of youngsters who I am hoping will step up for next year and be a serviceable back-up in case of injury.

Records & Awards Update
Records | Awards | Best XI | Overall XI

Club Awards Night
Fan's Player of the Year: Juanma Hernández
Young Player of the Season: Juanma Hernández
Signing of the Season: Juanma Hernández
Goal of the Season: Pau Martinez

Season Records
Most Goals: Juanma Hernández [23]
Most PoM: Juanma Hernández [6]

Career Records
Most League Goals: Juanma Hernández [21]

Player Records
Oldest: Niko Kata [32yrs 123d]
Oldest Goalscorer: Niko Kata [31yrs 314d]

Match Sequence Records
Unbeaten Streak: 13 (07.04.24 - 06.10.24)
Clean Sheet Streak: 4 (15.09.24 - 06.10.24)

Match Records
Most Goals: Juanma Hernández [4] vs Salamanca Club de Fútbol UDS (11.09.24)
Biggest Win: 6-1 vs Salamanca Club de Fútbol UDS (11.09.24)
Biggest Loss: 0-4 vs Málaga Club de Fútbol (14.01.25)

 

[_JHTB_]

Hogaborgs BK

Season 10 – Allsvenskan – 1^st – Back to Back

Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile

 

Overview

Transfer Window:

Incomings: We didn’t have that busy an offseason this season in terms of first team players though we did raid Brazilian side Santa Cruz bringing in 5 players for the future with Carlos Alberto just about forcing his way into first team reckoning towards the end of the season. Omar Lindstrom was the first major transfer of the window, despite coming in for free it took a big contract for us to be able to get him to join but fits well in both defense and defensive midfield. To end the off season transfer window we smashed our transfer record spending £3.4m on goalkeeper Adrian Ene who is now considered a wonderkid. It was a high initial fee but he looks very good.

The only other signing we made in the midseason window was Scott McTominay, he is getting to the end of his career but is still a solid midfielder for our level with good versatility.

Outgoings: With us breaking the bank for a new goalkeeper we had to say goodbye to the goalkeeper we’d bought the season prior as we managed to get £1m for Lund. The other outgoing was not one that we needed to make as he was still featuring often enough but with young players coming through not much worse who can get homegrown I sold Maric for a healthy £1.5m.

League: The season started poorly a 3-1 home loss in the season opener but we quickly shuck that off not conceding a goal in the following 5 winning them all. Despite a few more losses than I would want the first half of the season was very good for us, in fact two thirds of the season in results terms. Though we were playing a little frustratingly making it harder to win games than we should with us missing a lot of chances.

September was where we started to really struggle, we lost 3 of 6 games and went from out on our own for our title defence to being 4 points behind top with 2 games remaining. Thankfully we won our penultimate game with top only managing to draw which meant we had to win and them lose on the final game for us to win the title and, for the second season in a row, the final game of the season had 1^st vs 2^nd in a winner take all match. We started the game pretty shakily before we got a penalty against the run of play which we converted to go 1 up, (we then missed another penalty 2 minutes later). From there we didn’t look back and ultimately went on to win the game 3-0 and leapfrog Djurgardens on the final day to win the league again.

On the balance of the season I think we probably deserved the league, but we so very nearly bottled it. It does mean that since the start of the save we became the first team to retain their league title.

Cup: We comfortably navigated the group stages in the cup before comfortably winning in the quarter final to secure our best ever showing. We followed this by taking till extra time against Elfsborg before Jibuti came off the bench to score a hattrick and fire us into our first ever cup final.

The cup final was a poor affair, we did not show up in the slightest even with them down to 10 men for all of the second half as they won 1-0 with us missing a penalty in the 90^th minute to boot.

Europe:

Europa League We finished off the group stages in the Europa League with a loss against Chelsea before beating Basel 4-1 to finish 8^th in the group stage and secure progression straight to the round of 16. We actually managed to go one further, beating Midtjylland 5-2 on aggregate which saw us pitted against a team who had already beaten us this season Chelsea in the Quarter Final. The first leg completely killed us off as we lost 5-0 on the night, we did save some face at least in our home leg as we won 1-0 but that was the end of our Europa League journey.

Champions League This season, we of course qualified for the Champions League playoff where we beat Basel 5-2 on aggregate to secure our first appearance in the Champions League group stages. It started of fantastically for us as we topped the group after a 5-0 opening day victory against Finland’s HJK. Alas, the fairytale didn’t last so long as Villareal comfortably dispatched of us in the next fixture before we earned an admirable draw against Juventus. We then lost a winnable game against Rennes in which they scored in second half injury time to snatch the win. We did bounce back by beating Shaktar in the next game at least comfortable even if down to 10 men for a large portion of the game. Tottenham beat us handily in the final group stage game before the new year which sees us in 27^th.

We have 2 games left which are tough so I’m not sure our chances of progression really as we face both Liverpool and Bayern Munich in January.

Weirdly, the Champions League rules don’t stipulate a minimum capacity for the stadium so we’ve been playing our home games in our 3.5k capacity stadium which is a shame as it lowers our income from gate receipts.

Next Season/General

Our formation has brought us a lot of success, but I’m actually contemplating changing it and perhaps switching to a formation with wingers/inside forwards. I don’t really have many players in terms of wide players but I want to try and fix whatever is causing us to undershoot our xG. Even if I don’t change up the formation, an area I do want to strengthen is central midfield and perhaps also in the fullback areas. I need to start removing foreign players from the team who aren’t going to improve to the level we need them to be and replace them with youngsters who maybe aren’t as good now, but can be plus can be eventually considered homegrown.

Next season we will have our new stadium as it finishes construction before the new season kicks off. We have also upgraded our youth recruitment, training and youth facilities which is a good step forward. I am hoping that at some point we can have a youth prospect find their way through to the first team squad but no one so far has really been close to trouble the squad.  I hope our new stadium will have expansion capacity as I would not be too surprised if we expand to a point where we're selling it out constantly.

Players of note

Sinval Keller -  By average ratings Keller was our best player, but I feel he was a little underwhelming at times this season, he started like a man possessed but ultimately only ended up with 12 league goals this season, he did chip in with a good few assists but his goalscoring output I had hoped would be higher.

Deninho - He scores goals, he’s rapidly catching Jibuti for total goals for the club but again, I think he had a poor season by his standard, less goal contributions in the league than both his previous 2 seasons. I am tempted to sell him, not because of having a down season, but as he has a high value and he is probably at his ceiling, which is still probably our best player, but I don’t think for too much longer.

Marko Ljubisic – Central defense is probably the position I rotate the most in the team so for Ljubisic to have featured in all but 4 league games means he was doing well (though he did also fill in defensive midfield from time to time). A very good free transfer when we got him and could now potentially be called up for Sweden.

Karoly Varga – Varga had his best season for us this time out operating in central midfield or attacking midfield where the need arose 11 goals and 6 assists in the league and ever improving. He was subject to bids from the big guns of Europe in the mid-season window so I think we will have a task to keep him still.

Overview

[_JHTB_]

@rlipscombe @Thebaker @Rainbowz

Congrats to you all on your respective promotions

[Thebaker]

@_JHTB_ Another good season, with your improved finances you should be able to max out the facilities soon.  I can't believe all the great brazilians you have managed to sign, are any wanted by bigger clubs?

[_JHTB_]

On 09/01/2023 at 09:43, Thebaker said:

@_JHTB_ Another good season, with your improved finances you should be able to max out the facilities soon.  I can't believe all the great brazilians you have managed to sign, are any wanted by bigger clubs?

They've been in 3 phases really, 1st was random agent offers, 2nd was me going through the other players those agents had and scouting and then the latest bath from Santa Cruz came about when I checked the Brazilian U20s and most the players were from there - a 3rd tier team.

Deninho and Keller have both had some interest in them, I think I had a bid of about £8m for Deninho either this season or last but currently the teams interested in him aren't the really big teams, just sort of midtable Premier League and some MLS sides. One of the signings from Santa Cruz is touted to be possibly 'the next Ronaldo' so it might be that I sell Deninho to make space for him in the team (Keller is homegrown in nation).

[jmarchand]

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2027-2028 | Season 5 | Pushing up!

 

Last season, we figured out that the Hungarian First division was more open than we initially thought and we're right in the middle of it and we start the next part of this challenge, pushing for the top. A mid-table finish last season put us in a hopeful situation and looking forward to improve this year. 

League

It was a season in 3 parts, but it all came out in the end. First, we started with a 10 game unbeaten run, including a 1-0 win against Ferencvaros to open the season and the team went on from strength to strength. At the end of that run, we were sitting comfortably in first place in the league.

Then, at the turn of the year, we went into a long slump in November until March, where we had 3 wins, 3 draws and 7 losses, but one of these wins was against Fehérvar away, which was a pretty dramatic victory with a stellar performance by Nico O'Reilly... 

 

We then caught up with a 2-1 win at home against Ferencvaros and the team was back on track and finished the season with a 9 match unbeaten run, with only 2 draws. A great end of the season, which saw us climb again in the standings and finish the year in 2nd place! 

 

So, in the end, we got through pretty close to first place, with an impressive 71 goals for in the year, which is miles above the other teams which have 47. Our defense wasn't as great as it could have been, but it was good enough at this level and our offense was good enough to compensate. 

 

The Cup

In all previous installments of this write-up, I've always not cared about the Hungarian Cup, mostly because the board didn't care and we were focusing more on the league. However, this time, we got a couple of great results and somewhat friendly draws to get us to a final without too much drama while being able to rotate the squad healthily. 

In the final, we were drawn against Frencvaros (who else?!) and the guys put up a great performance to win 2-0 in a very convincing manner. 

So yeah, after the Second Division title, another trophy!!

 

The Team

There were a couple of additions to the team which made a great impact, especially in the second half of the season. They didn't all squeeze in the season's best XI, but that's the reason why I didn't put in the usual Transfer section at the top of this post. Now that we're winning something and that we're going to be in Europe next year, it's probably worth to present in a bit more details the players that actually made it this far. 

 

At the back

The main keeper of choice this year was Otto Hindrich, who came in on a free transfer from Cluj in Romania. He wasn't a massive upgrade above our previous guy Gergo Racz, but he's 25 and will likely still improve a bit. 

Without any doubt, the biggest signing is Dejan Kuzmanovic, who came in the winter on a 140k€ transfer from Slovenian side FK Javor-Matis (a yo-yo club between the top and second tier) and walked into the first team lineup right away. He got a 7.53 average rating in 19 games, scored a few goals with his head but more importantly, solidified the defense and provided the presence that we were missing. 

Révélation

At left back, I signed Kimberly Ezekwem from Freibug on a free transfer and made him the highest earner in the club during the summer. A quite balanced option, which is able to both contribute offensively and be responsible defensively and can step in the middle should we need cover. The board thinks we're overpaying for him... Possibly, but at the start of the season he was plugging a quite large hole in the squad. 

Révélation

It is also worth nothing that our ukranian regen Oleksander Matveev is still rated at a potential 5 stars and is getting regular playing time for us. He was on loan in the first half of the season on an Important Player deal, but they kept playing him at wing-back despite what we wanted, so I recalled him instead and found ways to feature him in the club. 

Révélation

In the middle

There is a bit of congestion in the midfield. I typically play with a playmaking option (either AP or DLP) coupled with a BWM, either on support or defend duty, depending on the quality of the opposition. 

In the playmaking role, Vinicius da Silva has gotten over the training facilities not being upgraded by the board and is starting to acclimate in Hungary (side note, Hungarian is a hard language to learn!). He is however not improving at all, which concerns me. He has great technique and first touch, but his palette is a bit limited and might fall off in the pecking order next year in favor of Yury Titov, a talented 18 year old who came on a free transfer from the Russian second league's Tom Tomsk. (screenshots of both players are below, let me know what you think of them). 

Révélation

 

In the Ball winning role, Christian Kouan has been brought in too in the mid-season. He comes from Perugia in Serie B, played in Serie A when they were promoted and was bought by Newcastle for 4.4M€, where he stayed for 4 years (where he rotted on the bench in the last two...). Still, I view him as a quality option in the midfield. 

Révélation

 

Finally, another great season for my right midfielder Baba. He is starting to attract interest from Serie A's Sassuolo. I hope I can hold on to him at least for next year and then get a large transfer fee after he gains the reputation of the European football we're going to get. 6 goals and 6 assists this year, partly because of the long-term injury to Csanad Novak, but a good season for him nonetheless. 

Révélation

 

Up Front

Despite the very high number of goals in the league, I think that this is now the weakest part of the team. We've had a 3m-month hip injury to our main tower up front Csanad Novak and we had to adjust a bit how we played, lofting less balls up front to him. When he came back, he scored still a few, but at 33 years old, I fear that his best days are definitely behind him. 

Our best scorer was Nico O'Reilly, who stepped in a Deep Lying Forward role, who rewarded us with 17 goals in the league. He wasn't the most reliable scorer though, sometimes completely disappearing from matches and sometimes scoring 4 in the same match. 

Révélation

To complement him, I was looking for a good finisher/poacher and initially brought back Donat Varga, who was on loan with us 2 years ago. He is a bit of a one-trick pony, but he's got excellent attacking skills, isn't terribly slow and has the right mental abilities where it counts. He rewarded us with an astounding 14 goals in 15(13) appearances, so the return was pretty good. 

At the end of the year though, I found Lautaro de Leon, who seems to know how to put the ball in the back of the net, has good heading and a great football instinct. He played only 6 matches, but scored on his debut and comes in on a squad player role with reasonable wages. 

Révélation

 

 

Finances

Things are pretty bad financially and the board continuously refuses to upgrade the training facilities even when we had close to 2M€ in the bank. The strategy was to throw this problem farther down the line and hope that European qualification solves all this magically. I hope I'm right. 

 

Summary table

 

Year

Season

League

Position

Media Pred

Points

Goal Diff

Cup

Europe

Europe Ranking

Avg. Attendance

Top Scorer

Top Assist

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

1

23-24

DII

9

17

47

-1

5th round

NA

796

Zsombor Novak (10)

Szablocs Varga (7)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Below Avg

2

24-25

DII

4

6

46

17

5th round

NA

861

Donat Varga (19)

Szablocs Varga (11)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Average

3

25-26

DII

1

4

62

38

5th round

NA

872

Csanad Novak (20)

Baba (13)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Average

4

26-27

DI

6

11

48

14

4th round

NA

2066

Csanad Novak (19)

Baba (13)

Basic

Below Avg

Excellent

Average

5

27-28

DI

2

10

62

29

WINNERS

2684

Nico O'Reilly (18)

Simone Pontisso (10)

Basic

Below Avg

Excellent

Average

 

[Thebaker]

@jmarchand Good season there. The other sides in hungary are never as strong as they should be, its winning in europe that proves hard rather than domestically.

Da Silva and Titov are very different players and would possibly work well together. Da Silva could have reached his potential even though he is still 5 stars, coaches take a while to realise this. He is 2 footed so his attributes will be lower.

[Rainbowz]

Season Preview 2028-29

Well, we're in the big leagues now. We've not been given much money, but we had one of the stronger squads in Ligue 2 by the end of last season and definitely earned our place here. Now we've got to do our best to keep it.

Transfers Out

No major departures! We had a few offers for some players, but the offers weren't good enough. Calvo attracted some serious offers of around £9m, but they were tied up in dubious clauses and installments, so I had to pass. Similarly, Fulham were interested in Jashiashvili, but refused to offer more than £2m up front and £3m over years, which I easily turned down.

Outtara, Ogbaidze, van Sas, Temenuzhkov, Stephen and Gines all leave on frees to balance the wage bill.

Transfers In

This transfer window was a little tough on the ins. We have the reputation to get some better players, but not the money, with players wanting wages far in excess of what I'm willing to pay. Finding improvements to positions we need with a limited budget is tough, but I think I've managed to find a few gems. 

RB | Sasa Protic (£1,700,000)

Oh boy, what a player we have on our hands. Protic was wanted by some big clubs, but we managed to sneak in and get him before they made an offer. Even at just 18, Protic is a Ligue 1 quality right-back and will only get better. There's barely a weakness to his game and I can only hope he has the potential my scouts think he does. For the money, this is a bargain and we could have a world beater on our books.

LB | Thierry Small (Loan)

Regular FM players will know this guy well, as he usually goes on to be one of the best LBs in the world. However, he's not reached near those heights in this save and finds himself on loan at us. That said, there's definitely a player here. Small is a very attacking wing-back so fits my style nicely. He's quick and good on the ball, yet can defend decently. We've got an option to buy him permanently and if he impresses and improves, I just might.

CM | Takuhiro Nakai (Free)

Strong depth is an important thing and Nakai brings exactly that. He's a very gifted midfielder who fits what we want from a CM/CAM perfectly. He's also got bucketloads of potential and is still young enough to see some growth. I've absolutely no worries about this one being on a free and as my coaches seem to think he can be a star Ligue 1 player if he develops, I'm excited to see how he does.

CAM | Emre Demir (Free)

More flexibility in the midfield is never a bad thing, nor is getting a talented player from Barcelona and Emre Demir is both. The technically and mentally gifted midfielder joins us on a free and looks a solid player. He'll likely just be backup, but he can do everything he needs to well and has a little potential, so there's definitely no harm in getting him for free.

RW | Sindre Walle Egeli (Loan)

Though I like Silva out wide, he was probably one of our weaker players last season, so signing Egeli on loan to give him some competition was an obvious move. He does everything he needs to very well and is a capable player at this level. He's certainly an upgrade on what we have and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do.

ST | Joao Costa (Free)

With Alexander carrying the weight of our attack last season, I felt we needed a capable rotation option to ease the burden or step in should he get injured. Costa is a great option up front with excellent stats all-round. He can fill in pretty much any role up front and is a Ligue 1 quality player. Hopefully Alexander keeps impressing at this level, but having Costa to fall back on is no bad thing.

Squad

You might've expected our squad to change a little bit more given that we're in a much tougher division, however our existing squad are already at a decent level and to upgrade them would require me spending money we simply don't have. I'm happy with the business we have done, but without big investments, we're going to have to take our time getting this squad up to the level it needs to be at.

Season Preview

We're predicted last by a large margin which, once again, I feel is a little harsh. We're nowhere near the best teams in this league, but I definitely feel we're better than a couple of teams around us, especially those we beat last season in Ligue 2. I expect us to be around the bottom half, but think we're definitely good enough to avoid relegation.

Results So Far

A surprisingly good start! In fairness, Sochaux and Metz were two of the easier games we were going to have this season, but wins are wins. Unsurprisingly, PSG were far too good for us but we managed to hold Lille to a draw! Whether we can keep this up is another thing, but a strong start gives me hope this league won't be the death trap I thought it would be.

Expected Lineup

Piloto

Protic - Kambwala - Hajdari - Small

Ghisi - Yemeljanov - Nakai

Silva ------------------------------- Tebily

Alexander

In a tougher league, we need to be a bit tighter and less expressive, so I'm packing the midfield and hoping that works. That said, Nakai and Ghisi still have plenty of license to get forward, so we're not exactly parking the bus here.

[Thebaker]

2030

Table | Squad | Transfers

Started the season competing well in games but not actually winning, it took until the 11th game for the first win of the season although the team had drawn 6 of the first 10. This led to a 10 game run with only 1 loss albeit with another 6 draws.

A poor end to the season with an important win over rivals Dalkuld meant the team was in the relegation playoff with 1 game to go. As the playoff games were 3 days and 6 days after the last league game i rested most of the squad. This proved important as the team played Oskarshamns winning 2-1 away with 10 men. The home leg was comfortable until a late sending off but the team saw the game out to win 3-2 and 5-3 on agg.

Overall the team was not overwhelmed by the step up but were still defensively poor and could not score enough. There were a lot of chances in games especially at home and with more luck the team would have been midtable, i was dissapointed that the team could not attract better players although the club rep only went up to regional at the end of the season and i was over the small wage budget which was only a third of the next smallest team in the league.

In the swedish cup the team beat Ettan North Umea 1-0 away. In the group stage the team faced Allsvenskan Hamlstads and Malmo along with Ettan south Orgryte.  A good home win against Orgryte was followed by heavy away losses to the other 2 teams to finish 3 in the group.

Finances went up due to the prize money but not as much as i hoped due to increased costs and wages, attendances did not improve as much as i had hoped either (the playoff game inflated it with 1900) and there are still almost no away fans for games. The board will still not increase any facilities  due to a lack or money or reputation.

Long time players Stals (165 apps 1 goal), Paal (151 apps 14 goals) and favoured personnel Smeds (177 apps 101 goals) all left this season as they were not good enough.

McDaid has been at the club for a while and is now captain, the move to a professional contract seems to have really improve him as well as moving him to a more offensive midfield role.

Kantokoski had a terrible start to the season with 1 goal and an average rating of 6.34 after 9 games. Due to a lack of options he continued to play and turned it around to finish as the 2nd highest scorer in the league.

Season

League

Position

Swedish Cup

Europe

Top Scorer

Top Assists

Attendance

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

Notes

2023

D2 NS

9th

Not entered

N/A

Zetterstrom(14)

Akerlund (6)

219

Poor

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2024

D2 NS

2nd

Not entered

N/A

Zetterstrom(19)

Lindgren(8)

268

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2025

D2 NS

1st

2nd Rd

N/A

Zetterstrom, Smeds(22)

Zetterstrom, Paal(9)

261

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Promoted

2026

D1N

6th

Not entered

N/A

Smeds(16)

Tawfeeq,Thorsson(6)

339

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2027

D1N

8th

1st Rd

N/A

Smeds(20)

Andren(8)

310

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2028

D1N

10th

Group St

N/A

Abic (19)

Hgota(5)

293

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2029

D1N

2nd

Group St

N/A

Hgota(23)

Hgota(10)

394

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Promoted via playoffs

2030

Superettan

14th

Group St

N/A

Kantokowski(17)

Mcdaid(7)

587

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Edited January 14, 2023 by Thebaker

[_JHTB_]

#

Two games on the bounce, my only goalkeeper of any quality, sensational stuff.

[_JHTB_]

Hogaborgs BK

Season 11 – Allsvenskan – 2nd

Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile

 

Overview

Transfer Window:

I’m copying @Rainbowz transfer layout as I like how clear it is

Incomings:

Ari Ikonen (CB/LB) - £425k

Ikonen represented a large outlay in relative terms especially as I’ve only brought him in as a future prospect and he didn’t feature once for us this season. He looks like he could have a bit about him at left back and arguably would have played some part this season if it weren’t for squad registration rules. We may send him out on loan in the coming season ready to make an impact for us in the future.

Wilmar Gutierrez (ST/AML) - £725k

Striker was an area we did not really need strengthening, already with 4 in the first team squad and another out on loan, however, Gutierrez was a player that was too good to turn down. Eventually as part of us altering our tactic he fit into the squad well at left attacking midfield though in the long run I fell he could take the striker spot for his own.

Adam Gustafsson (MC/AMR) - £450k

In all honesty, Gustafsson was a panic buy, we had 4 of our homegrown players injured so we’d have struggled to fill out the squad. But, eventually he ended up being a regular starter for us on the right wing. He was a key beneficiary of our change of shape as he would not be featuring regularly for us at central midfield which is the position he was brought in to cover. 

Felix Eriksson (DR) - £300k

Like Gustafsson a panic buy, but also an area where we didn’t have much depth. I liked his physical attributes and thought he would make a good back up for us which ultimately is what he ended up doing for us, he will likely be replaced before too long but he's content being a backup so I'm happy enough.

Maksym Ivanchenko (AMC) - £900k

Paulo Vitor has been a long standing starter at attacking midfield so I thought it about time I brought in an understudy who will eventually surpass him. I really like the look of Ivanchenko and he has lots of potential to be a very good player for us. 

Catalin Lacatus (MC) - £3.2m

I was generally happy with my midfield, but Lacatus I had been tracking for a year now but he previously hadn’t wished to join so when the opportunity presented itself for us to bring him in I leapt at that chance. Our second wonderkid (both so far have been Romanian).

Outgoings:

Travis Shantz (MC) - £1.7m

Shantz was our first major outlay setting us back £1m at the time when our highest transfer was around £20k and all in all he was a bit of a disappointment, he never really developed much and was a peripheral figure in the team so in the end I was happy to sell him for a profit.

Tom Demitriou (DC/DM) - £775k

Demitriou suffered from the ‘non-homegrown’ curse, he was a good player for us and even though he had dropped down the pecking order a little he was still a very useful squad player as well. He just took up a foreign spot which could be covered by young players who can gain homegrown status.

Scott McTominay (DM/MC) - £165k

A similar story to Demitriou with the added part about him getting ever older and starting to decline as a player. I was happy enough to have him as a squad player but we did bring in Lacatus which gave the greenlight for us to let McTominay go.

League: You could say it was a dream start, 8-0 victory in the opening fixture and me thinking that we were really onto something (I had slightly tweaked my tactic and thought I’d stumbled onto something). I was brought back to earth not long after however, as we lost our next 2. We soon found our rhythm winning the next 4 games with only 1 game us not reaching the 4 goals, but we then dropped points in our next two which prompted me to change from a 4-4-2 diamond to a standard 4-2-3-1.

The change of formation saw us record another comprehensive victory 10-0 this time and generally (though we were hardly in ‘bad’ form before) saw us picking up plenty points. We were scoring goals readily and were strong defensively so it was no real surprise that we were again battling for the title however a few unceremonious losses did see the league fall out of our hands, no game moreso than a frustrating 3-0 loss on the penultimate game of the season which meant we needed to win and Elfsborg in first to lose to retain our title. We did our part, but Elfsborg also won to see us fail to retain our title.

Cup: We smashed our way through the cup group stages scoring 21 times in our 4 games before firing another 3 in the Quarter-Final. We weren’t to make it 2 finals on the bounce though as in a poor performance we were dumped out 2-1 after extra time.

As expected, we’ve eased through to the group stage for next season.

Europe: We left off last season with not much chance of progressing past the group stages of the Champions League and that fate was sealed with a comprehensive 4-0 defeat by Liverpool. We did manage a creditable draw against Bayern Munich in our last game.

Thanks to our coefficient we actually were straight into the group stage of the Champions League and our campaign got off to a flyer managing to beat Napoli 1-0 on home soil. We followed this up with an away victory in Salzburg as RB Salzburg lost 4-2. We made it 3 from 3 as we smashed Dinamo Zagreb before we finally lost, 2-0 to Bayern, a game we were comfortably second best. We recovered to beat Shakhtar in Ukraine before rounding of our season with yet another victory this time against PSV Eindhoven. We’ve already secured progression from the group stages but we could still qualify for a bye to the next round which is way beyond what I thought we could do this season.

Next Season/General

Our squad is starting to take shape with several players becoming homegrown in this season which should allow us to keep strengthening. I need to sort of bring players young prospects in each season now so we’re consistently improving. My main areas I need to strengthen is probably right back and then depth in midfield and goalkeeper but generally, my starting XI is one I’m happy with. This season though, both Ene and Varga were subject to bids of £20m which are tempting offers to take, especially if they increase in the next window.

I want to win back the title next season and I think we stand in good stead. There is a possibility that we end up in the Europa League rather than Champions League which actually, I think could be a positive as we could make a good dent in that competition. We have upgraded our facilities again this season though for some reason we cannot request improved youth facilities which is a shame. We have also had approved our request to expand the stadium as we’re already selling it out having moved into it this season.

Players of note

Deninho – Deninho really enjoyed being a lone striker this season scoring for fun. 45 goals and 10 assists in all competitions including 8 goals in the Champions League. He has taken up Swedish nationality so he may well be firing them in for the national side before too long.

Paulo Vitor – Vitor started the season on fire, scoring and assisting with high frequency before he got an injury which saw him lose his form a little. Still he managed 14 goals and 12 assists which is a strong showing.

Liam Mahachai Kallman – One of only a few real players left in the squad Kallman has been a mainstay on at right back. He is without much of a backup so depending on who’s available he may end up losing out next season if we manage to bring in real quality.

Overview

 

[jmarchand]

 

It's a pretty good start in the league...

[rlipscombe]

2 hours ago, jmarchand said:

 

It's a pretty good start in the league...

can't grumble with that

[Rainbowz]

Season Review 2028-29

Squad | Tactic | Table | Finances

A really solid season! We comfortably survived and seem like we're definitely of Ligue 1 standard. We really struggled against some of the top teams, but that's to be expected. We've got a long way to go until we can stand toe to toe with them.

Results: Aug-Dec | Jan-May

We had a pretty weak start, but turned it around and ended up with a really strong back half of the season

Transfers Out

RW | Daniel Menendez (£900,000)

It's always sad to see a player who contributed so much leaving, but Menendez found the steps up too much, and never really kicked on in higher divisions. He was never the tricky winger his stats would suggest he should be and his development slowed considerably. £900k is a great amount for him, hopefully he doesn't make me look stupid by finally living up to his potential.

ST | Shota Jashiashvili (Free)

UGH. So, this idiot got upset that I wouldn't sell Igor for a paltry amount and refused to sign a few contract. After getting over himself and is willing to agree a new contract, the next day he gets upset at me for refusing to sell Calvo and refuses to sign a new contract. He didn't get over himself this time and Rennes came in and offered him a contract, which he took. He's definitely not the biggest loss, but losing a player with a lot of potential is always sad, especially when he's just going to rot in another team's reserves.

Transfers In

CB | Hassan Subahi (£800,000)

A Sudanese wonderkid! Like most players I sign, I was aware of Subahi for a while, him being a standout in the Sudan national team. I patiently waited until he was willing to join us and pounced as soon as I could. He's already good enough to be a backup in Ligue 1 and his value and potential says to me there's a lot more to come from him. He's definitely one to watch for.

CAM | Jean Firmin Tokpa (£450,000)

When you spot a player this good at ASEC, you have to get him. I've been aware of Tokpa for a while, but was worried with his lack of development at ASEC. However, he's drastically improved to the point where £450k looks a steal. I'm not 100% sure where he'll play for us, he can do a number of things really well, but I'm sure he'll be a success wherever that is. He'll go back to ASEC on loan for the remainder of the season

Key Players

#1 - Antonio Alexander

Alexander started this season slowly, with barely 5 goals in 20 games. However, he absolutely exploded in form in the back end of the season, bagging 12 in 11 games. I was worried I'd have to replace him, but Alexander is cutting it with the best strikers in the division and has made the step up with ease. Hopefully with even better players around him in future, he only gets better.

#2 - Andreson Ghisi

Winner of the European Golden Boy award, Ghisi is showing his talent in this Wasquehal side. Though not the most involved in goals or assists, he's the heart of the team, keeping us moving from defence to attack and getting involved all over the pitch. There are a lot of big teams watching him and he'd be hard to replace, but we'll see what happens.

#3 - Takuhiro Nakai

Ghisi's partner in the midfield takes 3rd spot, with Nakai operating similarly and contributing just as much. His ability to beat players is second to none in this team, and he drives us forward with every attack. Though I expected a little more development, I can't fault his ability here and now as he's become one of our most reliable players.

Next Season's Thoughts

Ligue 1 is tough. Though we massively defied expectations, we're still miles off the top teams in this league and the money available isn't anywhere near enough to challenge them. I think we're going to have to make some hard decisions regarding player sales to get this team levelled up. There can be no sacred cows if we start getting offers in the tens of millions. We've got a little bit of money to play with already, but this next transfer window could be insane in terms of turnover. On the squad front, we have a lot of young gems who have a lot of potential, but also a long way to go. Watching their development over the next season will be interesting.

Actual Position	Coupe de France	Trophée des champions	Europe	Top Player	Top Scorer	Top Assists	Avg. Attendance	Finances	Training/Youth Facilties	Junior Coaching/Recruitment	Extra Notes
10th/18th	7th Round	N/A	N/A	Erwin Zelazny (6.92)	Adama Diakhaby (8)	Jonathan Beaulieu (4)	999	-£292,339	Below Average/Basic	Adequate/Basic	Tough season, losing money badly too
2nd/18th	11th Round	N/A	N/A	Joe Hugill (7.46)	Joe Hugill (26)	Daniel Menéndez (13)	750	£-622,636	Below Average/Basic	Adequate/Basic	PROMOTION!!!!!!
12th/18th	9th Round	N/A	N/A	Rodgers Nyirenda (7.01)	4 Players (5)	Daniel Menéndez (8)	1,918	£1,057,158	Below Average/Poor	Adequate/Fairly Basic	Solid season, need to build on it now
8th/18th	9th Round	N/A	N/A	Hermann Tebily (7.12)	Saulo (9)	Daniel Menéndez (6)	3,543	£-176,927	Average/Basic	Good/Fairly Basic	We need better players and money
1st/18th	11th Round	N/A	N/A	Hermann Tebily (7.34)	Antonio Alexander (26)	3 Players (9)	4,312	£155,183	Average/Below Average	Excellent/Average	LIGUE 1 HERE WE COME
9th/18th	11th Round	N/A	N/A	Antonio Alexander (7.11)	Antonio Alexander (19)	Takuhiro Nakai (8)	5,000	£5,201,696	Average/Below Average	Excellent/Average	Solid season, can't complain one bit

[Thebaker]

@Rainbowz good season, you are raiding the african market well with those 2 signings. I really like the look of Tokpa with some great traits as well.

[Thebaker]

Table | Squad | Transfers

The results and performances this season were very up and down but the club were in midtable by halfway through the season. A poor run of 2 draws in 9 games dropped the club down the table until 4 points against teams in 14th and 15th ensured the team avoided relegation with a game to go.

In the cup the team went past Ettan North Skiljebo 3-2 away to reach the group stages again. Facing Allsvenska Goteborg and superettan sides Vasteras and Brommapojkarna the team were outplayed to finish bottom.

Finances went up a lot with the prize money and i managed with a lot of conjoling to persuade the board to improve the training facilities which wiped out all the money.

The squad is not that bad but i cannot seem to get them playing well enough, defensively they are just poor and i have not found any players better who will join the club. Rapp was my best player in spite of this.

The strikers were short of goals this year although i realised that there were few goals in the league. I'm hoping that Nyberg can build on his first season.

I sold Prekop as he was unsettled by a lot of bids of really small amounts, he never quite managed to deliver on his ability.

My record signing for the club was Widen but he was really underwhelming and i am regretting that he has a 2 year contract.

Season

League

Position

Swedish Cup

Europe

Top Scorer

Top Assists

Attendance

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

Notes

2023

D2 NS

9th

Not entered

N/A

Zetterstrom(14)

Akerlund (6)

219

Poor

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2024

D2 NS

2nd

Not entered

N/A

Zetterstrom(19)

Lindgren(8)

268

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2025

D2 NS

1st

2nd Rd

N/A

Zetterstrom, Smeds(22)

Zetterstrom, Paal(9)

261

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Promoted

2026

D1N

6th

Not entered

N/A

Smeds(16)

Tawfeeq,Thorsson(6)

339

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2027

D1N

8th

1st Rd

N/A

Smeds(20)

Andren(8)

310

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2028

D1N

10th

Group St

N/A

Abic (19)

Hgota(5)

293

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2029

D1N

2nd

Group St

N/A

Hgota(23)

Hgota(10)

394

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Promoted via playoffs

2030

Superettan

14th

Group St

N/A

Kantokowski(17)

Mcdaid(7)

587

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2031

Superettan

12th

Group St

N/A

Nyberg(8)

Nyberg(5)

465

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

[LazgoNNO2000]

i wonder if someone else manage an portuguese small clubs from lower leagues

[jmarchand]

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2028-2029 | Season 6 | Turning a corner

 

This season marks what I generally view as the most interesting in any career in FM, which is the first time we qualify for Europe and start playing against sides of a complete unknown strength and, for once, fully appreciate how far we really are from the completion of the challenge. 

 

Transfers

I titled this post "Turning a corner" and one of the places where this is most obvious is in the transfer section. For the first time, we received a bid which was too good for the chairman and, ultimately, this allowed us to reinvest that money in the club's infrastructure and in other players. 

Révélation

Out

Baba - MR - 4.7 M€ to Alavés - In the summer, after a very good season in the league, Baba attracted a lowball (1.2M€) offer from aboard, which I promptly rejected. This got him angry and he then told me that he'd be good with a 4.2M€ price and my brain started racing with everything I could do with that money. Shortly after, there came the bid of 4.7M€ from Alavés which was automatically accepted by the chairman and I was almost not even mad. Thank you sweet Baba, you served us well and I'll name a part of our training ground after you. (He is now rotting on the bench in Alavés, 3 appearances as a sub). 

Ezra Carrington - DR - 1.5 M€ to Saint-Étienne - Our rotational right back for the past year, the offer came in from St-Étienne was really too good to refuse, as I had the plan to feature a bit more our regen Oleksander Matveev in the first team. He's been a non-impact sub in Ligue 1 over the course of the year in half the year and played with the 2nd team half the year, so this was a good profit for us. 

Vinicius da Silva - MC - 2.1M€ to Bournemouth - At the very end of the transfer window, Bournemouth came in with an offer out of nowhere for da Silva for 1.6M€ upfront and 500k in installments. The board jumped on it and could not do anything about it. He is in their U21s currently, coming in as a sub for 3 matches in the Premier league, averaging a fat 6.4 rating. 

Lautaro de Leon - ST - 1.7M€ to Puskas Akademia - See José Bica below. I figured that he was not working as well as he should have in our tactic and wouldn't improve much because of his lack of athelticism. So I cashed in and kept him in the country so we can have everyone in the league get a bit better. He went on to score 8 goals in 15 apps for Puskas, so I say that it's a win-win transfer.  

In

Teodor Tanev - MR - 700k€ from Botev Plovdiv (Bulgaria) - With the departure of Baba and Carrington, we were somewhat exposed on the right flank and Tanev appeared as a decent option, very athletic with a good dribbling ability who can carry the ball up and down the field and could also operate lower on the pitch if we were in trouble, as a full back on attack (without actually being good at defence). At 22, he is already a Buglarian international by intermittence. 

Révélation

Aaron Ramsey - MC - Free from Aston Villa - With the departure of da Silva along with a bad injury to Yury Titov, we were a bit thin in the midfield and found Aaron Ramsey after he was released from Aston Villa. He fit right up in our tactic, able to plug in as a playmaker in the midfield but also on the left side of the pitch, cutting in. 

Révélation

 

The real stars of this season actually came in at the winter break. I figured out that we needed to push and start invest and sign some real good players, and we found 3 gems. 

José Bica - AMR/ST - 700 k€ from Académica Coimbra - Our new main man up front, who knows how to put the ball in the back of the net and is a speed demon for this level. He has joined in January and managed to score 18 goals in 18 games in the stretch of the season, including 7 in Europe. He is our highest earner by quite a bit, but so far, he's been totally worth it. 

Révélation

 

Predrag Manojlovic - MR, AMR - 1.2 M€ from FK Vojvodina - I fell in love with this buy as soon as I saw him. A dribbly speedster operating on the right flank, people just can't keep up with him, which enable all sorts of good things to happen after that. At 22, he's starting to earn Serbian international caps and already has score his first goal. 

Révélation

 

Fernando Silva - DC - 1.5M€ from Liverpool FC (Uruguay) - There was a moment in the season where teams were thinking of triggering Kaua's release clause, so I went shopping for a new central defender and found Fernando Silva. Strong, not stupid, can tackle for days and lots of potential. He has however shown some adaptability issues, locking the promise of bringing in a friend to help settle, but then never recommending anyone (and thus he is unhappy). I found a cheap uruguayan keeper to keep him company as a backup who joins in the summer, but I don't know if it's going to be enough... we'll see! 

Révélation

 

Europe - UEFA Europa League

We started our European adventure in the Europa League by virtue of winning the Magyar Cup last year and we were slotted in the Second Qualifying Round - League path and were drawn against Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Not knowing at all the level of the team, their individual players looked pretty good, we came out with the full first team and obliterated them 6-0 at home, including 4 goals from De Leon. Not a bad way to start and we went to win it 8-1 on aggregate! 

Then, a 6-1 aggregate win against Vorskla (Ukraine) got us our first match against a team I recognized, Austria Wien. They came to our home first and were promptly dispatched 4-1, in a very very good showing from our team. The return leg was more conservative and we secured a 1-0 win, dominating the play. And with that, we were onto the Europa League League Stage, in our first trip to Europe, which is mission accomplished right there. 

There were a series of tough matches, with defeats against Freiburg and FC Kobenhavn (outclassed 0-3, ugh), but there were some very encouraging results: a 1-2 loss to West Ham at home (we conceded in the 82nd minute) and a good unexpected win against Besitkas. 

With these good results, we were actually 15th in the league with 12 points, enough to see us through to the next round! We were also ahead of our Senior Affiliate Villareal, which is great in itself! 

Révélation

In the Knockout Playoff Final, we drew Qarabag FK from Azerbaijan, whom we had lost to 0-3 in a pre-season friendly. But this time, they were on the receiving end of a José Bica masterclass, who went on to score 4 goals and 1 assist in Azerbaijan in a 7-1 mauling. On the return at home, I actually rotated the team, winning 3-2. 

In the Round of 16, we were rematched against FK Kobenhavn, and this time, it was a close affair. A solid 2-1 win at home followed by scraping a 3-3 draw in Denmark was the surprise result of the tournament. And with that, we were through again! (and 1.2M€ richer)

The Quarter Final is where this ended for us, pitted against Lazio. We were clearly second best, but in our defense they had Immobile (at 39 and he's retiring after this season, but he still scored), Lovro Majer, Milinkovic-Savic and Casemiro in the midfield... I was scared, and rightfully so. 0-1 at home, and then losing 3-1 in Rome. Great effort from the boys. 

Révélation

 

League

In the league, we were billed as Top Half, but my secret expectation was to go on and win the whole thing. As it was a bit rough in the early season with injuries and fixture congestion (playing 2 games per week almost non-stop from October until February), our quality showed up and we finished the season comfortably on top, which was a very pleasing sight! 

I wouldn't go as far as saying that it was straightforward, but we were comfortable in most matches, with the occasional blowout here and there. We had the best offense in the league (73 goals for, next was Fehévar with 55) and the 4th best defense in the league. Still work to do, but certainly trending in the right direction. 

 

Magyar Kupa

Lucky draws in the cup (Ferencvaros lost to Fehérvar in the 4th round!) saw us go through all the way to the final, despite a little scare in the Semi final against said Fehérvar), which we won 3-2 in extra time, with Nico O'Reilley coming up strong with a 105th minute goal to send us through to crown a 3 goal comeback starting in the 60th minute. 

Révélation

Standout Individual performances

• José Bica - ST - 18(1) apps, 18 goals, 2 assists, 2 PoM, 7.58 avg. rating.
  • The star of our push at the end of the season in Europe. I'm paying dearly for his services, but at this point, he's paying back quite well. 
• Noam Emeram - AML - 22(3) apps, 5 goals, 15 assists, 4 PoM, 7.43 avg. rating.  
  • Played only half a season due to a broken ankle which kept him out for 4 months, but he was our most creative player in the first half of the season. His 10 league assists actually made him the league leader, despite only playing 10 league matches, the second in line had 9 in 31 matches. 
  • Révélation

    

     

• Nico O'Reilly - ST(DLF) - 32(8) apps, 17 goals, 12 assists, 7.39 avg. rating)
  • Our most regular striker operating as a DLF on support, he was very good in coming a bit deeper to get the ball, but was still able to get into good scoring positions and was pretty well rewarded for it. 
  • Révélation

    

• Donat Varga - ST - 25(13) apps, 20 goals, 4 assists, 6 PoM, 7.12 avg. rating
  • Previously on loan with us a few years ago, I was able to bring back Donat with us on a permanent basis on a free transfer on a very reasonable contract (fringe player, 1k€ per week) so he can provide depth. Turns out that he ended up scoring the most goals in the entire squad, with 20 across competitions. Yes, he sometimes started against weaker opposition, but that's still an impressive return on investment. he still can't jump and he can't out-wrestle a 5 year old, but who am I to judge! 
  • Révélation

    

• Dejan Kuzmanovic - DC - 36(5) apps - 8 goals, 4 PoM, 7.30 avg. rating
  • A weapon on set pieces with his 17 jumping reach and still able to calm and anchor our defense, even against stronger opposition. I often rested him in the league so he could be fit when playing in Europe, where he performed very well. He doesn't make many mistakes, is reliable defensively and the goals are a great bonus. 
  • Révélation

    

     

Other assorted news.

- Finances are doing great now, that turned a corner too. 

- We're about to lose a couple of good Ferencvaros seasons, if we look at the coefficients, so they other clubs in Hungary really need to step it up if we want to make some progress as a country. I'll soon be in a better position to actually help them. 

- We were able to invest in the facilities at the club, even without having to bother the board too much about it. There are still things that they don't care much about (we have a sufficient level of youth recruitment... yeah right). 

- To my previous point, Youth intake this year was beyond crappy. I think I signed 2 players, but just to get boots on the ground, they're never graduate to play with us. 

- I won manager of the year. Wohoo! 

 

Season Summary

Year

Season

League

Position

Media Pred

Points

Goal Diff

Cup

Europe

Europe Ranking

Avg. Attendance

Top Scorer

Top Assist

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

1

23-24

DII

9

17

47

-1

5th round

NA

796

Zsombor Novak (10)

Szablocs Varga (7)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Below Avg

2

24-25

DII

4

6

46

17

5th round

NA

861

Donat Varga (19)

Szablocs Varga (11)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Average

3

25-26

DII

1

4

62

38

5th round

NA

872

Csanad Novak (20)

Baba (13)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Average

4

26-27

DI

6

11

48

14

4th round

NA

2066

Csanad Novak (19)

Baba (13)

Basic

Below Avg

Excellent

Average

5

27-28

DI

2

10

62

29

WINNERS

NA

2684

Nico O'Reilly (18)

Simone Pontisso (10)

Basic

Below Avg

Excellent

Average

6

28-29

DI

1

3

72

40

WINNERS

EL

Qtr Final

167

3566

Donat Varga (20)

Noam Emeran (15)

Below Avg

Adequate

Adequate

Good

 

Edited January 26, 2023 by jmarchand

[jmarchand]

Quietly hopes for the best. The "easiest" fixtures are at home (Rapid Wien, Sparta Prague), which might help a bit. Also, +14.8 M€ in the bank balance!

[rlipscombe]

3 hours ago, jmarchand said:

Quietly hopes for the best. The "easiest" fixtures are at home (Rapid Wien, Sparta Prague), which might help a bit. Also, +14.8 M€ in the bank balance!

seems an awfully complicated new structure for the Champions League.  Might make completing in Europe trickier....

[Rainbowz]

Season Preview 2029-30

After a surprisingly strong debut season in Ligue 1, we've got the task of trying to better ourselves this season. Thankfully, I think we've had a very strong transfer window to set us up for that, but you can judge for yourself

Transfers Out

Badji and De Poorter were released after being deemed not good enough/wanting to get first team football

RB | Sasa Protic (£19,000,000)

This may come as a surprise given how good this guy looked and how much I hyped him, but he's been a pain while he's been here. He's complained about not settling in France, put in consistently awful training performances, played pretty poorly and hasn't really developed at all. £19m for him despite his ability is pretty hard to turn down given what it means for our squad. Given his attitude problems and sub-par performances, I'm not too devestated. I'm just hoping he doesn't turn it around and end up being a world beater.

CAM | Igor (£1,700,000)

Igor was a solid performer in Ligue 2, but was quickly outclassed by better signings in Ligue 1 and never featured in my plans. Almost £2m was too good an offer to say no to and he moves on.

LW | Shady Salama (Loan)

I don't normally talk about loans, but Salama is a weird one. There's definitely a good player there, but his performances have been woeful. I needed to free up a non-EU player spot, so shipped him out on loan after trying to sell him. Maybe a spell away will help him become the player my coaches think he can be, but this is probably his last chance to impress.

ST | Joao Costa (£450,000)

Never delivered as a backup striker and when Alexander started firing again, there was no hope for him. Nearly mutinied my squad despite not deserving a starting role, so I'm glad to see the back of him.

Transfers In

An extremely busy transfer window with 12 players joining Wasquehal!

GK | Luca Plogmann (Free)

With Badji leaving and not being up to Ligue 1 standard, I needed a new backup GK and Plogmann is exactly that. Not amazing, but good enough and will likely be a solid mentor to any younger GKs we sign. Exactly what I look for in my backup goalie.

GK | Andrej Sipka (£800,000)

One of the best young goalkeepers I've seen through my scouting, Sipka is hopefully our long-term solution for the GK spot. Piloto is doing great things, but with teams starting to take notice, I want someone I can depend on to fill the gap should he leave. Sipka has a bit of growing to do until he's at Piloto's level, but I have a feeling he can get there and even surpass him. For under 1 mil, he's a great player to have

RB | Santiago Ocampos (£275,000)

Rivas (a signing further down this list) wanted a player brought in to help him settle, Ocampos was exactly that. He's definitely not cut out for this level, but he's not a terrible emergency backup option. If he keeps one of my top prospects happy, that's good enough for me.

RB | Garcia (£4,600,000)

With Protic leaving, we needed a new starter at RB and Garcia is the man. He's an incredibly well-rounded right-back in a game where they don't really exist. He can do it all from going forward as a creative threat to defending well. He's definitely a bit of a stopgap until some of the world's better RBs are willing to join, but he's certainly a great RB at this level.

CB | Rogério Pasking (£42,000)

Found in Brazil's u20 squad, Pasking had a lot of interest in him from some top clubs, so I swooped in and grabbed him. For such a small release fee, it was an obvious transfer to make. He'll go out on loan and play for our 2nd team mostly, but he's got some potential and looks a solid player, so it'll be interesting to see what becomes of him.

CB | El Chadaille Bitshiabu (Free)

Another easy signing to make, we really needed another left-footed CB as Hajdari's performances had dropped off, and Bitshiabu fits the bill. Though he's not incredible, I definitely rate him higher than my coaches do and think he's a solid defender for this level. He's strong and excellent in the air, and isn't lacking anywhere important. Plus at 24, he still has a bit of room to grow.

LB | Dragan Nesic (£800,000)

One Serbian full-back leaves, another joins! Nesic may not look as promising as his right-sided compatriot, but he certainly looks good for his age. He's solid going forward, can defend well and has a few standout attributes and of course, room to improve. For his £800k release clause, I couldn't really ask for more.

CM | Kacper Kozlowski (£4,100,000)

Though our midfield is already extremely strong, we're lacking a more well-rounded option there and Kozlowski brings that. You can see just how good he is, with all of the required technically, insanely well-rounded mental stats and solid physicals. He can play just about any role in the midfield to a good degree and for £4m, it's hard to do much better.

LW | Rayan Cherki (Free)

We've got a very exciting one here. Cherki will be familiar to a lot of people as Lyon's biggest talent, someone dubbed a wonderkid from a young age. In FM, he's not quite hit the heights expected of him but still looks an amazing player for us. He's an extremely dynamic winger who'll add something extra to our wide positions and someone I'm certain will be a big success. To get someone of his quality on a free is amazing.

LW/RW | Amourricho van Axel Dongen (Free)

Okay, we're starting to become a home for 23-26 year old ex-wonderkids now, but that's fine by me. Dongen is an excellent player to have, as he has the versitility I love and the ability to play at this level, as well as possessing a bit of potential still. He can use both feet and play on both wings, something we sorely need. I'm happy to bring him in and expect him to be a success.

RW | Celso Rivas (£975,000)

Another case of a wonderkid just too good to pass up. Rivas looks like an extremely exciting winger. His dribbling skills are second to none, he's relatively quick and fairly good at everything else too. He's got a lot of competition for his place, but he's definitely one of the most promising players we have and if he can develop, I see him locking down a spot for a while.

ST | Juan Pablo Rincón (£2,300,000)

We're still light up front with Alexander carrying the attack, so I wanted to get in a young prospect who can deputize. After having my 1st and 2nd choices poached by Chelsea and Man United respectively, I landed on Rincón. You can see he definitely has talent, with some standout attributes but definitely has some improvement to do. Hopefully my scouts are correct and he's got the potential they think he does, if so he could be an incredible striker.

Squad

Now this is a Ligue 1 squad! Plenty of ability, bucketloads of potential and a team who knows the system I want to play well. This squad is quickly becoming something special and though challenging the PSGs of the world is still a while off, I think we can give anyone else in this league a game.

Season Preview

As always, we're underrated by the game's prediction which has us down in 14th. I believe our squad is deceptively good and will only get better as the season goes on. It's hard to say where we'll finish as it depends if the top teams in the league show up, but if things go well I could absolutely see us stealing a Conference League spot. Failing that, a 8 finish would be a good step forward.

Results So Far

2 wins and a draw! We scraped past Valenciennes, but showed our ability by holding an extremely strong Rennes team to a draw, before smashing Brest 4-1 away. It's only 3 games, but if we can keep up these results, we might just surprise ourselves this season.

Expected Lineup

Piloto

Garcia - Kambwala - Bitshiabu - Nesic

Ghisi - Kozlowski

Rivas - Cherki - van Axel Dongen

Alexander

Now this is a squad that's going places. We've got plenty of ability and potential in the team and many players used to being at this level. Though a lot of our players were once touted for much greater things, I expect they'll show their ability here and may still have some development left. We've got some promising players on the bench and plenty of depth to call upon. This is definitely the strongest we've ever been.

[jmarchand]

Le 27/01/2023 à 14:20, rlipscombe a dit :

seems an awfully complicated new structure for the Champions League.  Might make completing in Europe trickier....

The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned, I'll need likely a few seasons before making a judgment call on that. 

The biggest change is that there are no longer the trickle down from the Champions League to the Europa League. This makes the Champions League harder, but the Europa League a bit easier, I think. 

[Thebaker]

Table | Squad | Transfers

Started the season rejecting  low ball offers for all my best players, this unsettled them and they wanted to leave. I agreed to sell them for a pretty small fee which was still not reached for all 6 players.

The net result was a poor start to the season where the team were rooted in the bottom 2 untll the mid point where a brief run lifted them out. A cup loss sent the team back into a tailspin and they ended it with 8 games without a win to go into the relegation playoff.

Facing rivals Dalkurd a 3-2 win away was followed by a 1-1 draw at home to preserve the teams position. The board were getting itchy by the end of the season rating my performance E before beating Dalkurd.

In the swedish cup the team entered and went out in the 2nd rd to Ettan south Norrby losing 1-3 away. This was surprising since they were in poor form and ended up relegated and my team had won 3 of the previous 4 games.

The training facilities were improved but the board will not consider  improvements to anything else. The finances continue to drop off and even the fans are beginning to stay away. This is my typical youth intake now, my ass man suggested i don't sign any of them as 2.5 stars is the highest potential.

The biggest issue is the lack of goals again with the 2 strikers up top simply not scoring, defensively the team are also weak. I managed to sign a swedish u21 but at CB he was a huge disappointment. As a result Karabec was given some games and improved so much as to be my best player by the end of the season.

Season

League

Position

Swedish Cup

Europe

Top Scorer

Top Assists

Attendance

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

Notes

2023

D2 NS

9th

Not entered

N/A

Zetterstrom(14)

Akerlund (6)

219

Poor

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2024

D2 NS

2nd

Not entered

N/A

Zetterstrom(19)

Lindgren(8)

268

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2025

D2 NS

1st

2nd Rd

N/A

Zetterstrom, Smeds(22)

Zetterstrom, Paal(9)

261

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Promoted

2026

D1N

6th

Not entered

N/A

Smeds(16)

Tawfeeq,Thorsson(6)

339

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2027

D1N

8th

1st Rd

N/A

Smeds(20)

Andren(8)

310

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2028

D1N

10th

Group St

N/A

Abic (19)

Hgota(5)

293

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2029

D1N

2nd

Group St

N/A

Hgota(23)

Hgota(10)

394

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

Promoted via playoffs

2030

Superettan

14th

Group St

N/A

Kantokowski(17)

Mcdaid(7)

587

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2031

Superettan

12th

Group St

N/A

Nyberg(8)

Nyberg(5)

465

Basic

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

2032

Superettan

14th

2nd Rd

N/A

Wennerstrom, Anderson(7)

Johansson(5)

565

Below Average

Poor

Fairly Basic

Basic

[_JHTB_]

Hogaborgs BK

Season 12 – Allsvenskan – 1st

Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile

 

Overview

Transfer Window:

I’m just going to cover the incomings that represent a fairly large transfer outlay or are first team candidates.

Incomings:

Stanislav Ballis (RB) - £1.1m

Right back is a position where I’m happy with my starter, but Ballis represented an upgrade on our current back up and has the potential to eventually surpass our current starter. Actually he was my fallback option this offseason but our first choice cost closer to £5m and we would have been fighting with a lot of the bigger clubs and I don’t think he was that much better than Ballis.

Jordi  (AMC/AMR) - £975k

A fairly sizeable outlay for someone even when I put the bid in for him I knew he wasn’t really first team ready. He does have a nice spread of attributes but didn’t really shine out on loan in the second tier this season. I’m hopeful he can at least end up being a strong squad player for us.

Jure Peric (DC) - £1.3m

I was very happy with this deal, Peric pretty much straight into the first team in central defense and a full Slovenian international when he joined. He’s developing well and looks well set to be a long term defender for us.

Robin Weberg (GK) - £500k

I needed to strengthen my goalkeeping back up and Weberg present us with a homegrown option who did just that. He looks to be a pretty decent goalkeeper so I was very happy to bring him in to be a back up goalkeeper.

Andres Diaz (GK) - £475k

A case of De Ja Vu, Diaz is another to strengthen our goalkeeping depth. With his arrival it means that we now just have really good depth in the goalkeeper position in case of any injuries. I probably didn’t need him, but I felt it seemed a reasonable fee.

Oliver Fager (DC/DR) - £700k

Central defenders I seem drawn to bringing them into the club. Fager was brought in as a prospect for the future at centre back. However, his attributes do also suggest that he could be a pretty strong fullback and may ultimately end up playing there instead.

Yoni Shemesh (MC) - £850k

Central midfield is one of the areas of the pitch that we are lacking most in terms of squad depth. Shemesh comes with a very good personality and whilst he has a few areas of his game like positioning and concentration he looks like he could be good option for us in the centre in the future. Our coaches do have questions about his overall potential.

Tarek Mahmoud (DC) - £7.75m

I overpaid for Mahmoud, both in transfer fee and wages – I think he comes in as our highest earner and he’s come in as a squad player. I signed him at a time where I was worried that Carlos Alberto might end up being sold (we were fielding offers closing in on £20m which is a very tempting offer). He does look to be a good prospect and does overall strengthen our defensive department but very much overpaid for.

Outgoings:

Finn Collingwood (AMC/MC) - £1.4m

A player who was finding himself drop down the pecking order and, as non-homegrown, not the most ideal player to be a back up in the squad so I decided to cash in on him. He was sold to another Swedish club which will hopefully mean that we are strengthening the league as a whole which is a positive.

Silvio (DC) - £875k

Silvio was barely at the club. He was one of the contingent of Brazilian’s we’d snatched from Santa Cruz last season. Following two loan spells out the club he wasn’t really developing as fast as I would like so I sold him back to Brazil with a 850k profit in a year.

Yehor Borysenko (ST) - £2.4m

Borysenko never lived up to the hype that I had for him when we first signed him. But when we sold him, he’d managed 2 league goals in 2 seasons which whichever way you look at it, is not good at all. £2.4m is very good amount of money to get for him and, like Collingwood, stays in Sweden.

Marko Ljubsic (DC) - £2m

Ljubsic has been a very good defender for us over the years however following new defensive signings he was now back towards being a squad player which he wasn’t so happy with so I agreed to sell him. The best offer we received was the one we took and off he went. 7 and half seasons for a free transfer to ultimately sell him for £2m is business I am happy with.

League: I’m not going to focus too much on the league portion going forward as I feel pretty comfortable that we’ll be in and around winning the title each year. This season we started with 8 wins 1 draw and 1 loss from our opening 10, with the 1 loss being a game where we were the better team just couldn’t score. The next 10 we went slightly better with 9 wins and the 1 loss (again the loss we battered our opponents but contrived to lose). The final 10, another 9 wins and 1 draw, we were just very good this season ultimately securing the title with 3 games remaining.

Cup: We fired our way through to the Semi-Final but a poor performance saw us lose 2-1 as the wait for a cup victory goes on another season.  

As expected, we’ve eased through to the group stage for next season.

Europe:

Last Season - We ended the Champions League Group stage with a loss to Barcelona and a draw against Newcastle which was enough to see us finish 7^th in the group and progress straight to the round of 16 where we drew Benfica. The first leg here we were the team looking most likely before disastrously we conceded a 86^th minute sucker punch as they took a lead to the second leg. Back at home we managed to rectify this with Deninho scoring in the early on the way to his hattrick as we won the match 3-1 to progress.

The quarter final was as far as we made it as we faced eventual champions Dortmund. The home leg we were battered, they were by far the better team and ended up taking a 3-1 lead to Dortmund. The second leg was a very disappointing scoreline for us. In my mind we played really well in terms of chance creation/limitation for them, but somehow ended up losing 7-2 on the night.

This Season - As we didn’t win the league last season we had to go through qualifiers this season which we managed to get to comfortably navigate our way to the playoff. Here we absolutely battered PSV in our home leg to secure a 0-0 draw, I couldn’t believe we’d managed to not take a lead away to The Netherlands. Second leg, we were again comfortably the better team so of course, we lost 2-1 and dropped to the Europa League.

In the group stages so far we have won 4, drawn 1 lost 1 which currently isn’t actually good enough for the top 8, but we have 2 more winnable fixtures in January so hopefully we can achieve immediate qualification for the last 16.

 

Next Season/General

We’re really taking shape on the whole although there are some positions that I want to add better strength in depth to, namely, central midfield, striker and left back but actually I would be happy to play next season with the first team squad as it is currently.

We have expanded our stadium, but before we played any games in it, I got the board to agree to expand it once more which should now be to full capacity. I’m not sure why, but we cannot improve our youth facilities, not even request it, but our Training facilities are now completely maxed out.

I think we will probably win the league again next season, and for automatic Champions League Group qualification it should obviously be a huge aim for us. Within Europe, I’m hoping for this campaign to reach the latter stages of the Europa League and with some good draw luck I think we could actually go pretty far.

Players of note

Deninho – Deninho again being a consistent goal scorer for us, I’m really happy with Deninho, but whilst he’s a good player for us, in terms of European standing he’s probably not quite good enough, so he isn’t completely nailed on to keep his spot. He has now reached 200 goals in all competitions for the club

Adam Gustafsson – Considering Gustafsson was originally brought in to only be a squad depth player he’s turned out to be a fantastic purchase, he hit 12 goals and 11 assists in all competitions which is a strong showing.

Maksym Ivanchenko – Ivanchenko hasn’t actually been a nailed on first choice player this season but considering his output for us this time out perhaps he should be, 9 goals and 14 assists for the season across central and attacking midfield.

Overview

[_JHTB_]

On 30/01/2023 at 15:54, Thebaker said:

Started the season rejecting  low ball offers for all my best players, this unsettled them and they wanted to leave. I agreed to sell them for a pretty small fee which was still not reached for all 6 players.

This is by far the most frustrating thing in these saves. Especially when it ends up on the lines of me buying a player and 6-12 months later a bigger team bids less than half as much as I purchased for and the player gets unsettled.

Hopefully Karabec doesn't fall to the same fate as he looks like he could really help to lift the team up the table next season.

[rlipscombe]

another good season @_JHTB_ - your squad is improving all the time.  Deninho is a great little striker - long may this continue.  Mahmoud was a big transfer fee but i m certain if/when he leaves you'll make that back and much more....  Good luck..

[jmarchand]

 

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2029-2030 | Season 7 | The Invincibles

A great season in the league last year gave us our first ever Hungarian title, with that we qualified for the Champions League. Due to the fact that Hungary is still 20th in the coefficients, we had to go through qualification rounds, and our board was expecting us to reach the playoffs, just before the Champions League League itself. I spoiled it ahead of time earlier, so let's start with that, after all, it's the ultimate goal of this challenge!

Champions League

The qualifying rounds were fairly kind to us, starting with KF Tirana, from Albania. Again, not knowing exactly the level of play that we were going to face, I went all in, but only winning 2-1 at home, despite dominating the match. Someone must have said something great in the flight between Budapest and Tirana, because the guys stepped on the field and never looked back in a comprehensive 6-1 victory. 

Next in line was FK Astana, but the Kazakh never stood a chance and we walked out with two 5-1 wins. 

In the Playoff, we were drawn against Celtic. I'm getting to the point where we're playing against teams I actually know, so that's you know when things are getting real. That and the fact that a win here would get us "what used to be known as the group stage" of the Champions League, So I rotated the squad prior to the match and got a very emphatic 4-1 result at home, thanks to a Manojlvic master class (2 goals, 1 assist). We actually lost 1-0 on the way back, but we were through! 

But yeah, at this point, stuff got real. And by real, I mean 1 win, 2 draws and 5 defeats. A 5-0 hammering by Bayern and 6-2 against Newcastle... On the upside, we got an unlucky loss against our parent club Villareal and we weren't totally outplayed by AC Milan and Monaco. I'm a bit frustrated about the 0-0 draw at home against Rapid Wien which we should have won, but I don't think we could have realistically done much better here.

Révélation

 

So, all in all, we finished 29th out of 36 in the League stage, the knockout rounds are unlocked starting at 24th place, so it's not too too far. 

 

League

I think that this screenshot tells it all. 

 

We got on top of the league and never looked back. We so much never looked back that nobody has been able to beat us, even though we rotated squad to accommodate Champions League fixtures.  

But then, towards the end of the calendar, after most of the fixture congestion was gone and we were still undefeated, I started to think that it could be possible. And the guys held on strong and finished the year with an all-time record of 91 points (the previous was 85, from MTK Budapest in the 90s)

It's one of these dream seasons where 9 of the top 10 players in the average rating standings are members of your team, it means that some stuff has gone right. 

 

Magyar Cup

We won. No drama here. And we even rotated quite heavily. 

 

Transfers

This was a year of continuity and, contrary to last year, there were no obvious holes in the team, so the theme was general improvement. But then, I made a few lucky/genius moves which paid off greatly. à

Révélation

Out

Kaua - 850 k€ to Stuttgart - I convinced him to move from Brazil to Hungary with a 850k€ release clause which I forgot about a bit really, but after the strong season he had last year, teams came knocking in. He actually rejected a few of the offers which met the release clause (which was great for us), but it was just a matter of time before he was off. He's been a regular starter in the Bundesliga II, but has not broken in the first team yet. But he's still being paid 4x what I was offering him in Danuajvaros, so fair play to the guy, the release clause worked great for him. 

Gergo Racz - 69k€ to Szeged 2011 - Not a huge transfer, but a round of applause for our keeper which got us promoted and kept us in the first division initially. He has moved to another team in the first division and we've had the joy of putting 10 goals in 2 games past him after his transfer. 

 

In

Nicolas Gonzalez - GK - Free from Nacional - This was luck/genius. I signed him in hoping to help our DC Fernando Silva settle in the area. He looked like a decent prospect at keeper, but he literally stole the job from Otto Hindrich and never looked back. At 20 years old, he just earned his first Uruguayan cap and has been improving like crazy this year. Looking for more from him next year, but he's now without a doubt our first choice keeper. He now holds the record for the most clean sheets in the league, but was starting only 2/3rds of the season. 

Révélation

 

Karim Konaté - ST - Free from Aston Villa - Without any doubt, the signing of the season. With Csanad Novak falling off the team in the last year, I was looking for a replacement and changing a bit the roles I was playing up front. Karim came from a release from Aton Villa after a loan at QPR and seemed to fit the bill perfectly for a pressing forward I was looking for. And to say that I got my money's worth would be an understatement. 

Initially used in a PF role, I transitioned him to a CF, a role in which he performed equally well. He reminds me a bit of Luis Antonio last year, not appearing to be amazing at anything, but always getting the job done. Turns out he broke the league goalscoring record (held by Novak) by quite a margin. 

He's also our highest paid player by quite a margin, but it's probably where well need to go at some point... 

Révélation

 

Omer Beyaz - MC - Free from Fenerbahçe (by the way of a loan to Stuttgart) - He was the creative force in the midfield that we were looking for. Playing either as a Mezzala, a CM-A or a DLP-S, Ömer really rocked it, as we can attest from his 7 goals and 11 assists over the course of the season. He's also a great force on set pieces, which is sorely lacking in this team. He had U21 caps for Turkey, but couldn't break in the first team and now at 26, I hope he'll get one thanks to our performance, but I'm not holding my breath. 

Révélation

Hakim Zyiech - MC - FREE - This one is a bit of a meme signing, but having a great player on its last years is always fun. I still remember fondly in FM20 when I signed Messi as an assistant coach and in FM22 when I had Cesc Fabregas when he destroyed the Portuguese 3rd division before taking a well deserved retirement. It wasn't quite the same thing for Zyiech, whom I spotted on a free in April during a spell of injuries and was willing to join on Impact Sub at a reasonable wage. Hey, I have 5-6 matches left, it's going to be fun, what do I have to lose. Yeah... First match. misses a penalty, 6.1 rating and he never really got into it. He's calling it a day after this season, which is the sensible thing to do, but it's still worth a good screenshot...! 

Révélation

 

Standout Individual performances

• José Bica - ST - 33(2) apps, 25 goals, 9 assists, 8 PoM, 7.53 avg. rating
  • Initially, he was our main menace up front, but then he was really outscored by Karim Konaté. But that didn't stop him from putting in a great season, scoring 25, assisting plenty and being an all around menace up front.
  • Révélation

    

     
• Predrag Manujlovic - MR -
  • Our star Serbian right wing got a very good season, albeit marked by an injury, after which I felt he wasn't quite the same.  He still ended up with great stats for the season, so I'm hoping that it's just a temporary setback. 
  • Révélation

    

     

• Yury Titov - MC - 28(9) apps, 1 goal, 6 assists, 1 PoM, 7.03 avg rating.
• I'm still unsure about Yury. On one side, he's been good in the matches he's played, but at the same time, he's injury prone (and has a record to prove it) and has missed significant time for us. But with 15+ in every relevant stat category, I still believe that he can be great. 
• Still, there is some interest for him from a few big clubs, I don't know if I should go and take the 3.5-4m€ that they're going to be offering. 
  • Révélation

    

     

Other assorted news.

- With the Champions League money, I got to invest in facilities (both training and youth), so we're getting somewhere. Not there yet, but we're on the way. 

- The other Hungarian sides are doing poorly in Europe, I'm getting close to a point where I should start loaning players to them. 

- I won manager of the year (again!). Wohoo! 

 

Season Summary

Year

Season

League

Position

Media Pred

Points

Goal Diff

Cup

Europe

Europe Ranking

Avg. Attendance

Top Scorer

Top Assist

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

1

23-24

DII

9

17

47

-1

5th round

NA

796

Zsombor Novak (10)

Szablocs Varga (7)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Below Avg

2

24-25

DII

4

6

46

17

5th round

NA

861

Donat Varga (19)

Szablocs Varga (11)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Average

3

25-26

DII

1

4

62

38

5th round

NA

872

Csanad Novak (20)

Baba (13)

Basic

Below Avg

Average

Average

4

26-27

DI

6

11

48

14

4th round

NA

2066

Csanad Novak (19)

Baba (13)

Basic

Below Avg

Excellent

Average

5

27-28

DI

2

10

62

29

WINNERS

NA

2684

Nico O'Reilly (18)

Simone Pontisso (10)

Basic

Below Avg

Excellent

Average

6

28-29

DI

1

3

72

40

WINNERS

EL

Qtr Final

167

3566

Donat Varga (20)

Noam Emeran (15)

Below Avg

Adequate

Adequate

Good

7

29-30

Di

1

1

91

76

WINNERS

CL

League (27)

TBD

3950

Karim Konaté (39)

Ömer Beyaz (16)

Average

Average

Good

Exceptional

[_JHTB_]

So this just happened...

 

[Vakama2619]

congrats @_JHTB_