Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 Really looking forward to this one! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - December 2036 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa Our winning run has come to a screeching halt. Nevertheless, we head into the winter break top of the table with a nice seven point advantage over Widzew. Puchar Polski Turns out I needn't have worried about this game. A slightly rotated squad did a professional job. In the quarter final we travel to a I Liga side Ruch. UEFA Europa Conference League We won where we should have and lost where there was hardly any chance of getting anything, however the Sociedad game was much closer than the scoreline would suggest. What matters though is that we're through to the next round. Sadly Jagiellonia didn't make it, but look at RFS. They've finished above us! Transfers He was a bench warmer on £16K a week. Good bye and good luck elsewhere. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 A fantastic achievement for the young lad, remember he's still only 19! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 Well **** me. The board have just decided to... I don't really know. Screw us over? Maybe, but given our situation just six months ago you could argue that this might be somewhat of a final act in the process of getting out of financial trouble. I'm so pissed to have lost Bukowski, but on the other hand this transfer just seems to make sense in the grand scheme of things. It's a massive, record-breaking fee and we got that for a player in his first proper season as a first team starter, having returned from loan to Zrinjski. I guess I'm going to have to live with it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 The upfront fee is record-breaking already and I'm sure we're getting at least £4,1M more here. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 We've invested some of the money immediately. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - January 2037 - Lech Poznań Friendlies Not a bad set of results, a nice big win over LASK in there. Transfers Three more sales apart from the big one, none of which were starters. The transfers into the club will be shown in the February update since that's when the Polish transfer window opens. Mateusz Wasielewski and Sebastian Stępień have been promoted to the first team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - February 2037 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa A good month if you ignore the first domestic home defeat of the season. You'll also notice plenty of new names on the scoresheets. Puchar Polski It wasn't without a fight, but we managed to get past Ruch thanks to two goals from our 17-year-old academy graduate striker. In the semis we've got a derby against Warta Poznań coming up. Interestingly enough, we're the only Ekstraklasa team left in the cup. UEFA Europa Conference League We got the worst possible draw here. The home leg was actually good and Cherkaoui's goal had us in the lead and dreaming, but we got brought back down to earth rather quickly. The return leg was just a spanking. Transfers I had no intention of selling Jajkowski (well, at least not in this window), unfortunately he had a release clause and there was nothing I could do. Miłosz Niewiadomski - his contract at Dortmund was running out and I wasted no time snapping him up immediately. He has some big boots to fill as he's the supposed replacement for Bukowski, so it's good that he seems to have hit the ground running. Aleksandar Ivanov - already capped for Bulgaria, hopefully the youngster has some bright future ahead of him. Zbigniew Mazurek - a hopeful punt, but also a player that will probably get some minutes this season. Tomasz Kosiński - I had already secured a deal for a striker joining us in July before selling Jajkowski, so we needed a stopgap signing. He should do the job for us. Michal Kubala - we took full advantage of a release clause here. I have some big expectations for this lad playing alongside Niewiadomski in our refreshed midfield. Marcin Banek - another release clause coming into effect. He's immediately jumping in as a starter despite being only 19. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 Picking up exactly where Bukowski left off! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 8, 2023 Author Share Posted December 8, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2037 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa Smooth sailing. We're now ten points clear of Widzew and, given that we play all the big guns in April, could celebrate the title soon if things go our way. Youth Intake The strikers have some really nice starting attributes and positive personalities as well. I like it! Dawid Zagórski Piotr Borowski Cezary Gumny Jakub Jędrzejewski Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 8, 2023 Author Share Posted December 8, 2023 We have three players on the list, all of whom have been brought to the club by me (even if Horny is only here on loan and probably won't be staying). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 8, 2023 Author Share Posted December 8, 2023 And we've got even more awards. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertpeet27 Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Fantastic, love the progression of the save from Latvia u19s to Lech, think you chose the right moment to move on every time! What are your targets with Lech before moving on? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 11, 2023 Author Share Posted December 11, 2023 1 hour ago, robertpeet27 said: Fantastic, love the progression of the save from Latvia u19s to Lech, think you chose the right moment to move on every time! What are your targets with Lech before moving on? Thanks, I'm really glad you've enjoyed the journey so far. I'm also happy with how it's gone, it feels like a more or less realistic path and I also think that every step forward so far has been justified. As for my aims with Lech, I outlined them after I took over: On 01/12/2023 at 15:59, Rikulec said: Another thing is the long-term project I mentioned above. Yes, I want to stay at Lech for a few years and not allow myself to be tempted by clubs from stronger leagues should things go well. As I've already said, Lech is a club I support in real life and I feel they have the potential to become one of the biggest clubs in this part of the world, a local dominant force with a strong presence in Europe (think FC Copenhagen or Dinamo Zagreb). Moreover, I also feel Poland as a country should be way stronger than we are now. I mean, an almost 40 million country in the heart of Europe really should be doing better. Therefore, I'm setting myself the following aims for this part of the save: - have Lech become the highest ranked and most reputable out of all Central European clubs (and throw in ex-Yugoslavian for good measure); - have the Polish league become a top 10 European league both in terms of reputation and the coefficient ranking, also higher than any of the other nations falling into the above categories - only sign players from Central European, Eastern European/ex-Soviet, ex-Yugoslavian, or Baltic countries. Let's turn this place into a real powerhouse! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertpeet27 Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 34 minutes ago, Rikulec said: Thanks, I'm really glad you've enjoyed the journey so far. I'm also happy with how it's gone, it feels like a more or less realistic path and I also think that every step forward so far has been justified. As for my aims with Lech, I outlined them after I took over: Dont know how i missed that! 😂 thank you and good luck!! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 11, 2023 Author Share Posted December 11, 2023 1 hour ago, robertpeet27 said: Dont know how i missed that! 😂 thank you and good luck!! Haha, don't worry about that. Cheers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 11, 2023 Author Share Posted December 11, 2023 We've beaten Warta in the Poznań derby in the cup semi final, which has set up a very interesting final. While Wisła Kraków are a 2nd tier team at the moment (both in game and in real life), they're a big name and a club that dominated Polish football in the 2000s. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 We've set a new club record with four league games still left to be played. The league record is 98 goals scored though and we're not going to get anywhere near that this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 And so, here we are. A chance for me to win the first trophy for Lech and also my second Polish Cup in a row. As nine-times winners of the competition we face Wisła Kraków, who have won it four times before falling on more difficult times in the late 2010s and especially early 2020s. On paper it's a game we should be comfortably winning, however we all know that cup finals like to write their own stories. Let's make sure that it's a dull win for the favourites this time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 Well, you could say I got exactly what I wanted! We controlled the game from start to finish and barely allowed Wisła to have a sniff of the ball. A quickfire double in the second half sealed the win for us, Kosiński's goal a beautiful display of technical quality. One more thing left to win for us this season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - April 2037 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa Widzew knew the stakes and gave it the absolute best in our clash against them; in all fairness, they probably deserved a win more than we did and we should be happy to have escaped with a draw. The other games were proper dominant performances from us though, the huge win against our fiercest rivals and league title holders Legia being by far the most satisfying one. We just need one more point to secure the title. Puchar Polski We played a rotated squad against Warta and had to work pretty hard for the win. Wisła, as you know, was a professional job. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 Should I already be preparing to sell Niewiadomski for £20M in the summer? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 Well, that was a bit anticlimactic as it was Widzew losing to Radomiak before we could step out on the pitch on matchday 31 that sealed the league win for us. Nevertheless, we've broken Legia's six-year stranglehold to clinch our first title since 2030. Now it's time to prove ourselves in the Champions League qualifiers next year and perhaps give some valuable minutes to some of our most promising youngsters in the remaining league games. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 One more notable achievement as the Ekstraklasa win puts Laizāns above the long-time RFS boss Viktors Morozs and has him become the best Latvian manager in history! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - May 2037 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa Four more wins to round off what has turned out to be an absolutely dominant season. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Review - 2036/37 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa Results (Jul-Oct) - Results (Nov-Mar) - Results (Apr-May) Competition Performance: Winners We took some time to properly get going, but once we did, there was absolutely no stopping us. 85 points is just three short of the all-time record and it gives us a massive 22-point advantage over 2nd placed Legia. After the winter break we only drew once and lost once, winning thirteen games. A team like Lech was always going to be a title contender, but I certainly didn't expect such domination in my first season here! Puchar Polski Competition Performance: Winners There seems to be a weird tendency for most top teams to get eliminated from the cup early on, which results in relatively easy runs. This time we actually got some more difficult opponents in the earlier rounds and then we just played against lower league teams right until the end. UEFA Europa Conference League (Jul-Dec) - UEFA Europa Conference League (Feb) Competition Performance: Knockout Play-off Round We did well to navigate through some tricky draws in the qualifying rounds and then squeezed through the league phase, only to get an impossible draw in the next round. Happy to have brought in some money and coefficient points though. Squad (1) - Squad (2) I guess we're almost at the end of the big squad rebuild that was necessary when I came to the club. Now we have a very young squad full to the brim with potential. What's even better, there are some academy graduates that I think could really make an impact. We still need to sell a bunch of high earners, but the main part of the job is almost over. Transfers (1) - Transfers (2) - Transfers (3) - Transfers (4) - Finances An incredible turnover of players with eleven new faces and a staggering twenty six people leaving the club, bringing in over £50M in player sales with us spending under £10M at the same time. We've brought in some amazing talent as well. What an amazing transfer period for us. From a dangerous debt to over £20M in the black. We've done one hell of a job sorting out our finances, slashing the wage bill almost in half. Really happy with this. Player of the Season 1st - Stefan Bajić - probably our most consistent performer. 19 clean sheets in the league alone is a great testament to our defensive quality, but many times it was also down to our goalkeeper putting in saves that some other guy wouldn't have been able to make. He's 35 already and I've got a replacement lined up, but what a great way for him to bow out. 2nd - Miłosz Niewiadomski - I'm absolutely lost for words here. When we sold Bukowski, I had no right to expect we'd replace him so easily and seamlessly. What's more, Niewiadomski actually scored more goals than his predecessor despite not being the designated penalty takes. 11 goals and 6 assists in 15 league games would be great for any player, but for a midfielder those are absolutely mental numbers. 3rd - Mehdi Cherkaoui - one of our most dangerous players throughout the season, but at the same time also a bit of a frustrating player who'd often make a lot of noise, but without the final product to show for it. His return in terms of goals and assists is still fairly decent, however with out transfer policy he's going to be sold and replaced going into the next season. Next Season Domestically we're going to be in the spotlight, which is certainly more challenging than trying to break through. That means we're going to have to assure our dominance while also doing our best to reach the league phase of the Champions League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 We've set a couple of new records. A bit surprising that we'd set the average attendance record now, maybe it's down to our attractive style of play? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 We sweep up the awards for May... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 ...and also pick up a bunch of end of season awards. Unusual for Niewiadomski to come out empty-handed! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Preview - 2037/38 - Lech Poznań Board Expectations: PKO BP Ekstraklasa: Top three finish Puchar Polski: Reach latter stages Superpuchar Polski: Be competitive UEFA Champions League: Be competitive My Expectations: PKO BP Ekstraklasa: I don't know why the board seem to lack ambition so much. I want to win the thing. Puchar Polski: Same here, let's just win it. Superpuchar Polski: Win it. UEFA Champions League: I want that big fat league phase payout. Budgets: Transfer: £16,779,880 Wage: £261,056 (currently spending £233,450) Balance: £25,402,848 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 Well well well, looks like the club has been doing a wonderful job including some big clauses in the outgoing players' transfer deals! I don't think I've ever seen such massive buyouts, they were real no-brainers. Amachi is 29 already and Geerts and Hamzić are hardly getting any game time at their respective clubs, so I don't think we could make any more money out of those. And don't forget about Bukowski's deal, we just need him to play seven more league games for Standard to get another £4,1M. Would you believe we were £3,5M in the red and £60K p/w over our wage budget just twelve months ago? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Here's my first interview offer from a top 5 league then. Zaragoza have just finished 8th in La Liga and... honestly, I wish there was more for me to say here. They just don't appeal to me as a club in any way and as you know, there's still plenty of work to be done at Lech. Interview rejected. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Pre-Season - 2037/38 - Lech Poznań Friendlies Just the two friendlies in a short pre-season. Transfers Six in and seven out, including some high earners in the latter column. Ryszard Ryłka - I couldn't pass up the opportunity to sign a talented Polish player from a top academy. Anatoliy Burak - quite a big gamble here, but I'm willing to trust him as a first choice striker. Mateusz Pączko - he has a wonderful attribute spread. If he develops, he's going to be an absolute monster. Maciej Nowak - he has a very good chance to break into the starting XI on the left wing. Nikita Ivanovs - a player who I love and who I've wanted to sign for years now. Some fantastic mentals there, and he's Latvian! Adam Olszewski - another gamble here, buying a goalkeeper from a team that got relegated and making him first choice. I do believe in him though! In addition, Mateusz Mazurek and Adam Stępiński have been included in the first team squad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 We start the season with the opportunity to add another trophy to our cabinet. Let's go get it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 A game very similar to the Polish Cup final we played only two and a half months ago. We were in cruise control mode and two goals secured the trophy for us. We're the most decorated team in the competition's history, which is nice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Oh ****'s sake, FM, why do you have to be so tempting?! While Zaragoza had nothing they could use to turn my head, Wolfsburg are a proper big name in German football. Their finances are listed as rich and they seem to have some great players in the squad, including one from the Faroe Islands. I'm going to attend the interview and see what comes out of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Up to superb youth facilities. In other news, Wolfsburg have chosen Fernando Torres as the new manager and for some reason I didn't get any message from them at all. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - July 2037 - Lech Poznań Superpuchar Polski A straightforward victory to start our season. PKO BP Ekstraklasa Uh oh, we shouldn't be dropping points in those games. Granted, it was more an issue of poor finishing than anything else, but still. I fully expect us to kick into gear and I'm certainly not panicking yet. However, we play both Legia and Śląsk in August and we better beat them both. UEFA Champions League A professional job against the Hungarian champions. We've got Slovan Bratislava in the next round and then either Malmö or my old friends RFS in the play-off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 This draw away at Odra Opole in the league is the perfect representation of everything that's wrong with us at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 He just keeps making us money. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - August 2037 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa Even though we've got ten points out of a possible twelve, I don't feel like we're playing well at all. It only serves to prove my case that we haven't kept a single clean sheet in the league this month. You also saw what we did against Odra Opole. On the other hand, we've won the two most important games and stopped Legia's perfect start. UEFA Champions League Aaand we **** this up. Big time. When we only won by one goal at home despite dominating, I knew we were in for trouble. Then we conceded in Bratislava, but went 2:1 up before half time. And we still got knocked out, the second half was all about terrible finishing on our part and Slovan's 31-year-old striker banging in goals for fun. A 10,0 rating for the guy who scored all four goals for the whole team and a huge disappointment for us. UEFA Europa League We nearly blew that as well. We actually went 0:2 down in the return leg, thankfully Krajewski popped up with a nice shot from outside the box to save the day. We're not confident at all at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Honestly I don't feel like I've deserved it at all. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 There's definitely some points to win there and we might have a chance of progressing, but we have to be at our absolute best. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 We're upgrading our training facilities to match the level of our youth facilities. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September 2037 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa 22 games unbeaten in the league and that's it. We were awful against Bruk-Bet and lost deservedly. Thankfully Legia have dropped even more points, so things are getting tighter at the top. Also, apologies for including one game played in October. The screenshots didn't save properly after I completed September and I only realised after playing that one. UEFA Europa League A good win against Shakhtar (though of course we had to concede a **** goal out of nowhere) followed by a defeat to Juventus that's made look much worse than it was in reality by the scoreline. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2037 - Lech Poznań PKO BP Ekstraklasa We seem to have improved a little bit, we've even kept a clean sheet! Puchar Polski We played a largely rotated squad here, but still managed to squeeze through after coming back from a goal down. UEFA Europa League A proper European thriller that really could have gone either way. Considering that it was an away game, it's probably a result I should be happy with, especially given that it keeps us in the play-off zone. Edited December 14, 2023 by Rikulec Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 And another interview offer that just feels like the absolute perfect career move at this stage. AZ have become one of the top teams in the Netherlands, finishing in the top three every year since 2031 and having even won the league twice in 2031 and 2035. They're also due to move into a brand new 43,562 capacity stadium next year and they have fantastic facilities as well. As for their league standing, they're currently 12th in a ridiculously tight table where a few good results on the bounce could really fire them up. Of course I couldn't decline the interview, how could I? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 15, 2023 Author Share Posted December 15, 2023 If AZ would be tempting, then how about that?! Ajax are a club that I don't think I need to introduce to anyone. They've just spanked Sassuolo 7:1 in the Europa League and... well, they're Ajax. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted December 15, 2023 Author Share Posted December 15, 2023 Decisions, decisions... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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