[FM23] Globetrotter

[KlaaZ]

A perfect March, three wins and three clean sheets. The win over America was not only thoroughly deserved, it also means we jump over them to first place in the second stage.

[KlaaZ]

A perfect April as well, which means we finish top of the table in the closing stage, with highest xG for, lowest xG against and as the best team on both ends of the pitch. On to the knockout stage!

[KlaaZ]

Also, some amazing transfer news for next season! Fun fact, we had him on trial in January but he was asking for 90k p/w which we couldn't even get close to. But nobody else was interested and when we came back now, his demands were a lot more modest.

[KlaaZ]

Champions! Apparently, Mexico has two champions, one of each stage. We had a great turnaround against Pachuca, and America took us to extra time in the final (because we just couldn't score), but all in all this is very deserved. Onwards to the North American CL!

[KlaaZ]

Five new signings so far, although there's money for a bit more. I'm urgently looking for quality Mexicans to abide by the registration rules, which explains some of these transfers. On the outgoing side, we sold four players for a total of 9.25M. All of them didn't feature during my reign, all foreign as well.

[KlaaZ]

Meanwhile, we won another trophy, beating America in some sort of Super Cup. The draw for the North American CL has been kind to us.

[KlaaZ]

Two final pieces of business (hopefully). We sign two more Mexicans, with Pablo Escalante being the highlight of the duo. 20-year old wonderkid, international, and destined for a great future. Hopefully, he can grab us some continental silverware! Meanwhile, we're still trying to offload Caceres to Europe for somewhere around the 8M mark as we have plenty of Mexican defenders. There's also interest in our German GK, Lotka, but I'm hoping to keep him on board as I recently promoted him to captain.

[KlaaZ]

A very good start, especially considering we played America, Chivas, Monterrey and Necaxa who were somehow leading the league at that point. The loss against Chivas in the League Cup was unfortunate but it was a close game, these things can happen.

Edited August 29, 2023 by KlaaZ

[KlaaZ]

We're in the beginning of September and flying high. Unbeaten this month, despite five out of six games in short sequence. Very happy with the squad depth now.

On the transfer market, we lost Lotka to Al-Nassr as he wanted to go, in a deal that runs up to 8.5M. We reinvest part of that money in a new goalkeeper, which is actually a bit of an upgrade still. We also pulled off an amazing deal for a young Mexian striker who will join in December from Toluca. He's not cheap as we pay 8M up front and 8M in installments, but we need more depth up front and he looks nothing short of amazing.

[KlaaZ]

Another trophy in the cabinet, we beat New York in the Campeones Cup. It never hurts to win more silverware. The win against Orlando City means we end up top of our group and already qualify for the second round. I think we have a really good shot here to win our first continental trophy and thus scratch North America off our bucket list. I'm really enjoying Mexico as well, it's a very interesting league once you get the hang of it.

 

[KlaaZ]

Mid season update because I've been rather busy, holidays are over so I had to go back to work. That said, we had an excellent three months. Perfect record in the NACL, and an unbeaten domestic season sees us lifting the Opening Stage after beating Monterrey in the final. I've also grabbed my Continental A Licence, but the club doesn't want to fund a new coaching course because they believe it might draw interest of bigger clubs.

The way we are currently playing, I think we have a very good chance at winning the NACL, especially since we're quite comfortably beating teams like Monterrey, Chivas and America domestically and they're the only ones who usually dominate continentally.

 

[KlaaZ]

A longer update will come at the end of the season, but the most important news is that we made it to the final of the NACL, where we'll play Chivas. We had quite a favourable run up there, beating Alajuelense, Tijuana and Necaxa on our way there.

[KlaaZ]

Here we go, coming in on a real high of form. No suspensions, no injuries, the expected line up really.

[KlaaZ]

All square at the break, not our best first half. We started off dominant but halfway through Chivas stepped up and we escaped when Perri saved a one on one and the rebound ended up in the side netting.

[KlaaZ]

A far better second half gives us our just reward at last, when a deflected cross from Escalante hits the bar and Carrillo scores the easiest goal of his career in the rebound! It's happening!

[KlaaZ]

It's done, the first continental trophy is off the list. I'll finish the season and then probably resign, unless I see an interesting job opening before that. Ideally, I now want a shot at the African CL or Asia.

[KlaaZ]

Well, these two years at Cruz Azul really were productive, with this season as the cherry on top. We won both stages (which  counts as two trophies, the Campeones Cup, the Mexican Champions Trophy and, most important of all, the NACL. The latter means we chalk off one of the five long term objectives and  grab our first continental prize.

The league itself was quite a breeze. We almost tripped over Tigres after that in the Quarter Final, drawing 2-2 away and winning 1-0 at home despite a red for Montecinos around the 50th minute. But we picked ourselves up, beating Chivas in the semis and then driving over América in the final, winning 5-0 on aggregate. 

I'm very happy to move on as it's quite clear that I would lose a few key players, leaving us weaker in the process. Escalante is the biggest fish and is obviously destined for greatness, with interest from the Premier League and Germany. 

I'll now be looking for a job in South Korea or at a top club in South Africa, if all goes well, hopefully chalking off my second objective very soon.

[KlaaZ]

I resigned from Cruz Azul to look for greener pastures, and I now have a bit of a choice to make. Belgium is probably the most tempting of the lot. No More Kevin De Bruyne or Romelu Lukaku, but a lot of fresh talent in its prime (De Ketelaere, Doku, Stroeykens, Lokonga, Debast, Lavia) and judging by the U21 squad values, also quite a bit of upcomings.

[KlaaZ]

Here we go!

[john1]

Superb season with Cruzl Azul Will be interesting rebuild project with Belgium

[KlaaZ]

7 hours ago, john1 said:

Superb season with Cruzl Azul Will be interesting rebuild project with Belgium

Cheers! We just played out first game in the Nations League at home against Germany and I think we have a very balanced team. The striker position is the only part that worries me, with Openda not being of the same standard Lukaku was. There's a 19 year old with a lot of potential, but he's also got a way to go. An alternative would be playing De Ketelaere up front, but I think he's better suited playing behind the striker.

[KlaaZ]

Three games in and it's going well. The wins over Germany and Spain were well deserved, even if we went behind against the Spaniards first. Stroeykens and Doku turned the game around though, with the latter scoring the winner in the 93rd minute. Surprisingly, Norway was the hardest nut to crack.

 

[KlaaZ]

We finish the group stage in first place, barely. The loss in Germany was deserved, the draw against Spain wasn't. We were on top for the entire first half but then started being shaky through the second and in the end, we were lucky to get away with a point. Nontheless, we qualify for the semifinal.

[KlaaZ]

World Cup qualifying draw, should be an easy run.

[KlaaZ]

In other news, we have a new club job. I was hoping to find something in Africa, China or South Korea with a short term line towards continental trophies, but nothing came up. So we head to Argentina instead.

[KlaaZ]

First the good news. The squad is stacked with potential talent, both in the first team and the youth squads. Goalkeeper Tomas Asayag is the standout player, a goalkeeper who could very well end up between the stakes of some top European club. We also qualified for the Copa Libertadores last season, so we may be able to challenge for the continental cup we crave straight away.

The bad news is that we are in a very bad financial position (4M in the red), with a projection to go down to almost 40M in the next three years. This is due to a huge wage bill racking up to 19M per annum, something which I'll try to address. I also noticed that the release clauses on my top youngsters are on the low side (6-7M ball park), which is way too low.

Edited September 20, 2023 by KlaaZ

[KlaaZ]

This will come in handy considering the financial issues.

[john1]

Cracking move to Velez   Decent start with Belgium too!

[KlaaZ]

8 hours ago, john1 said:

Cracking move to Velez   Decent start with Belgium too!

It's going to be a rough ride for a year or two I think. Velez is a big club, but financially completely mismanaged. We were 50% over the wage budget when I arrived (450k pw with a budget of 300k), which was trimmed to 425k with Blas Armoa moving to Brazil for 8.5M. I have weak central defense with four overpaid players between 31 and 35, and no funds to properly replace them. I'll make do for now, and see how it goes. Luckily, the expectations aren't too high, I need to finish top half and reach the knockout stage of the Copa Libertadores. Both are very much doable.

[KlaaZ]

It's early days, but we got off to a flying start at least. The cup win against a second division team was a bit harder than the result makes it look, but the other games have been a breeze so far, with the Boca result being very very satisfying.

21 year old Alejo Grande has been thé man so far, with four goals and four assists in just as many games. He's being followed by Liverpool but I managed to get him on a new deal until the end of 2031 with a 25M release clause. 

[KlaaZ]

However, we now have a very busy month coming up with eight games, including three continental ones, so I'm curious to see how we'll handle the increased load.

[KlaaZ]

Belgium

The selection for the games against Israel and Turkey is in. We're suffering quite a few injuries, especially in central defense. Bornauw, Vanheusden and Debast are all out, and Struyk will be suspended for the first game. We also miss Onana on injury.

This means we see a few new names. Aster Vranckx will replace Onana, De Cuyper returns from injury and potential debuts for Leonardus Devillet and Utkan Kol.

[KlaaZ]

We survived a busy month of March with only one defeat, at home against Fluminense in the Copa Libertadores, and a draw where we came back from two behind against Independiente. I also looked a bit into the history of Velez and apparently they managed to win the Copa two years ago, when they were lead by an amazing regen striker who afterwards moved to Inter. They're the only non-Brazilian team that won the trophy for the past ten years, with all of the other finals being a purely Brazilian affair even. I'm not sure if Argentina will be the right place to check off this objective because of this, but we'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, the Belgian national team started off well with two wins for the World Cup qualifiers, beating Israel at home and Turkey away. Doku's our best man, scoring twice. We dominated the Israel game but struggled in Turkey, with a good Courtois keeping us from going behind and needing a penalty to crack the Turks.

 

[john1]

Decent month in March for both jobs

[KlaaZ]

21 hours ago, john1 said:

Decent month in March for both jobs

Cheers! Very happy with how we started off because I was a bit worried about the defensive lack of quality but so far, no complaints.

[KlaaZ]

An unbeaten month of April, slightly less busy than March but still six games played. We've already qualified for the knockouts of the Copa Libertadores with a game to spare but as we can't catch Fluminense, we'll probably field a reserve team for the final game. Apart from that, I was very happy to see young Rios score on his debut with Puig and Bonomi both out on injury.

The youth intake wasn't all that bad, although I had expected more from the description. The trio below is probably the pick of the lot, although Ikanga is cursed with low determination.

[KlaaZ]

The bad news is that we're not always very efficient, but this does show that we have enough quality to probably handle the Brazilian teams, and that it's not impossible to win the Copa Libertadores while at Velez. The only question mark is the financial situation and how I'll fix this.

[KlaaZ]

Meanwhile, my three biggest players are making noise about wanting to leave for a bigger club and I've had to tell all three of them that I would considering any incoming bids. Peraggini wouldn't be a drama but Asayag and Grande are just irreplacable at this point. To make matters worse, 0% of transfer revenue will be made available which means that even if someone leaves for big money, I can't reinvest it. 

[KlaaZ]

Harsh, Vasco were last year's winners so this is going to be one tough cookie to break.

[john1]

Such a big shame there isn't any % to invest from players sales Any youngsters that can replace them?

[KlaaZ]

1 hour ago, john1 said:

Such a big shame there isn't any % to invest from players sales Any youngsters that can replace them?

It's possible, but they're always going be downgrades compared to these guys. I'd try to rely on freebies but with us being so much over the wage budget that will also be tricky.

[KlaaZ]

First trophy! We beat Independiente in the final after going behind, thanks to a 91st minute penalty converted by Seoane.

[KlaaZ]

A quick recap before the summer break. Once again unbeaten, five clean sheets and a trophy. Now we just have to hope that I can hold on to my best players until the winter break and then we'll see what happens. I'm also keeping my eye on the job market although I would like to stay here for a bit longer.

[KlaaZ]

[KlaaZ]

Belgium time again! After beating Nigeria 3-1 in a friendly, it's time to face les Bleus, who are ranked second right after Brazil, in the semi of the Nations League. We'll miss Doku, our most productive player, on an injury but apart from that, there are no surprises in the squad.

We start off well and De Ketelaere puts us ahead after only six minutes with a screamer from the edge of the box. France pegs back immediately though when Fofana heads home a free kick from Mbappé. Halfway through the first half, it's again De Ketelaere who gives us the lead, but a clumsy penalty foul gives Mbappé the chance to equalize again. France has the momentum but is cut short when Camavinga earns himself an early bath, but they hold on for the remainder of regular time. In extra time, it is debutant Retailleau, who replaced Doku in the squad, that comes off the bench to clench the winner in the 113rd minute. We're into the final, where England awaits.

[KlaaZ]

Geldof after only two minutes!

[KlaaZ]

Foden equalized right before the end of the 90 minutes, no goals in extra time, so penalties will decide..

[KlaaZ]

Chilwell misses, the trophy is ours!

[KlaaZ]

We'll play ES Tunis and some obscure team from Spain in the Club World Championship.

And start with a bit of a stunt, that could have even been a bigger one if Bonomi's strike hadn't been (correctly) chalked off.

[KlaaZ]

The draw against the Blaugrana proved invaluable because they beat Tunis 4-1, but we absolutely demolished them 4-0 which means we finish on top of our group and head on to the quarter final.

Meanwhile, I'm in talks with SuperSport United in South Africa. Not sure if it's the right move though.