DaneBramage Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 (edited) NK Dornava - March 2029 Facilities The improvements to our training facilities that started in the summer have now been completed. Our junior coaching is obviously the best in the division by a long way, and our training facilities are now on a par, but the youth facilities and youth recruitment aren't quite up to scratch. ------------------------------------ Departures We had a bit of a rough time during the winter transfer window. Clubs started sniffing around our players, and although we can offer contracts now, they can get much more elsewhere. One of my starting centre-backs 27o Dejan Pfeifer was stolen away, along with two of my potential stars from the 2028 youth intake. Basically as soon they turned 17 Radomlje and Rudar Velenje were in there before I could do anything. All three of these players are now on £100 a week. The maximum we're paying anyone at the moment is £35, so we didn't really stand a chance. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL Vzhod We got some immediate justice on the first day back, seeing 28m Oleg Bondarchuk in the Verzej line-up, having been sent out on loan by Rudar Velenje. We trailed 2-1 at the break, but turned it around in style during the second-half, picking up a big win and sending him home with a poor 6.2 rating. I have no complaints about the pounding from Tehnotim Pesnice, they're top of the table and looking good for promotion. We led straight from kick-off against Posavje, but when a centre-back was sent off after 33 minutes our afternoon was ruined. Our forward line had a real off day against Polana, not scoring from a combined 2.6 xG. They were rescued by goalie 28o Zan Zizek, scoring from the spot and then adding a stoppage-time free-kick. I think we're doing very well to have a midtable spot at this point, 10 points clear of the relegation area. But the board are currently disappointed with our league performance, so fingers crossed they don't do anything rash. ------------------------------------ International Recognition 28a Sasa Pirc continued to impress for Slovenia U19, with three more goals in two appearances. ------------------------------------ Goalkeepers 28o Zan Zizek had a productive month, with three goals in four games. ------------------------------------ Edited November 17, 2023 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 NK Dornava - 2029 Youth Intake A golden generation! 16 elite talents. A fair few players with good CA that would improve our team immediately, but again we can't use them until they turn 17. On the plus side, we can offer youth contracts now so they won't be poached immediately when they're old enough. Determination levels look good towards the top of the list. Couple of new nationalities with an Austrian and a Kosovan joining our ranks. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 NK Dornava - May 2029 3. SNL Vzhod Ouch. A really poor end to the season, I didn't think we were ever going to stop losing. Luckily Smartno are really bad, and Sentjur had nothing left to play for on the final day. We slipped down another place to end up in 9th. The board are not happy, but I think I'm safe for now. ------------------------------------ Goalkeepers 28o Zan Zizek added two more, both from the spot. He now has a record of six goals in 14 games. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 NK Dornava - 2028/29 Season Review History, Facilities, and Finances I'd forgotten about this. Earlier in the season I'd asked for an upgrade to the youth recruitment and was denied, but after a bit of haggling it was agreed that it would take place if I played enough young players throughout the year. The reward popped at the end of the season. The board weren't happy with our league finish, which is nonsensical given that it's a record high. Regardless, they've extended my contract by another year. Our bank balance is way down due to the money put into improve the training facilities. Otherwise we would have made about £20k profit, so our balance should be positive again within a couple of years. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats No great performances really, the squad struggled in the higher tier. 25h Aleksandar Cerar finished as top scorer, but ended the season on a terrible run of just one goal in 11 games. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 NK Dornava - September 2029 Departures Bummer 28a Sasa Pirc wouldn't even entertain the idea of signing a contract with us, and barely a week after turning 17 he was off to Croatia. Can't really blame him though when you see that he's now on £725 per week, and valued between £450k and £1.2 million. There's nothing on the clauses screen, but I hope we're entitled to some sort of compensation when he next moves. He never played for us, but did have a record of seven goals in 11 games for Slovenia U19 while here. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL Vzhod After our dreadful finish to last season, then losing our next great hope, I entered the season without much optimism. A 3-0 tonking on the opening day had me fearing the worst, thinking this was going to be a long and miserable year. Then somehow we turned good. Like a flip of a switch, it was a complete change of fortunes. Four big wins in a row put us in a much better place. The goals have dried up a little since and conceding in the 89th minute to the only shot on target from Koroszka Dravograd was a kick in the nuts, but we got back into the winning column with a narrow victory over Mons Claudius, one which the stats suggested should have been much more definitive. Blimey, that's already a big gap between 5th and 6th. Let's hope I can stay with the top pack. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije Through the first two rounds, mostly with a rotated team. Both games were against sides in lower leagues, so not the toughest tests, and perhaps we should have beaten Akumulator by more, but the win is all that matters. ------------------------------------ Goalkeeper 28o Zan Zizek is off the mark with his first penalty of the season. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 17, 2023 Author Share Posted November 17, 2023 NK Dornava - November 2029 3. SNL Vzhod I hate this game. ------------------------------------ Goalkeepers 28a Zan Zizek missed his first penalty against Tehnotim Pesnica, but it wouldn't have affected the result. ------------------------------------ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 20, 2023 Author Share Posted November 20, 2023 NK Dornava - 2030 Youth Intake I don't think this group is as good as the last couple of years. Although there are still plenty of players with 2-3 CA stars, since 28a Sasa Pirc left the whole squad was re-assessed and had their CA stars increased. Thus the quality is now being judged against a lower standard. New nationalities: a Norwegian, and a lad representing both halves of Ireland. ------------------------------------ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 20, 2023 Author Share Posted November 20, 2023 NK Dornava - April 2030 3. SNL Vzhod The loss to Peca made it four league losses in a row, and five games without scoring. I made a couple of changes to personnel, bringing in two players from the 2029 youth intake, and was repaid with a win. 29l Slavisa Bezjak (DC) scored just a few minutes into his debut against Bukovci. 25b Primoz Repas was also re-instated back into the starting line-up after mainly being used from the bench this season, and responded with a pair of assists in a MoTM performance. The good times continued with two more big wins, and although the displays were far from our best, a couple of draws made it five games unbeaten. 25h Aleksandar Cerar was really poor against Koroszka Dravograd and earnt himself a fine, but he hit back in the best manner possible with a brace at Mons Claudius. Much happier now than I was in November. The board are too, a top-half finish is well within our grasp. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 20, 2023 Author Share Posted November 20, 2023 NK Dornava - June 2030 3. SNL Vzhod A mixed set of results to end the season. It was a tough run of games though, four of these teams were all higher in the table than us. Our only win was against Posavje, and they were the lone side below us. At least we didn't end the year with a defeat, two goals in the final ten minutes at Rudar Velenje saved a point, and also stopped them from being promoted. We finished below Ljutomer on head-to-head record, as they beat us both home and away. ------------------------------------ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 20, 2023 Author Share Posted November 20, 2023 NK Dornava - 2029/30 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities An eighth straight season of record high league finishes, but it's getting harder each year to achieve this. We made a small profit this year, but remained in the red. I've moaned previously about losing players because of not being able to sign them to contracts, but the flipside now is that obviously we have to pay them. It's only £25-£40 a week for our highest paid players, but it all adds up. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats 25h Aleksandar Cerar was our top scorer for a second time, though he was run close by 28d Denis Vuk, who was also our joint top assister. This was our worst season for goalscoring keepers, with just the one strike this year. After 29i Slavisa Bezjak came into the team we conceded only 10 times in 11 games. I think he was a big part of recovering the season after the big slump in October and November. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 21, 2023 Author Share Posted November 21, 2023 NK Dornava - August 2030 Ex-Player On 17/11/2023 at 18:43, DaneBramage said: 28a Sasa Pirc wouldn't even entertain the idea of signing a contract with us, and barely a week after turning 17 he was off to Croatia. Can't really blame him though when you see that he's now on £725 per week, and valued between £450k and £1.2 million. There's nothing on the clauses screen, but I hope we're entitled to some sort of compensation when he next moves. After a year in Croatia 28a Sasa Pirc has moved on. He never played for Osijek's senior team, but scored six times in 17 games for their second string. Juventus started the bidding at £1.6 million, AZ Alkmaar also got involved, but the winning offer was from Ajax. We're apparently due £48k as a 20% solidarity payment, which will do very nicely. Only £20k has come in for now, so I temporarily added a second manager at Ajax to look at the structure of the deal. It's being paid in three instalments, so I guess we'll be getting another £14k in each of the next two Augusts. There's also another £850k due after 20 league appearances, and 40% of the profit on his next sale. So potentially we could get more solidarity payments on him in the future. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 21, 2023 Author Share Posted November 21, 2023 NK Dornava - September 2030 Departures The problem we're having at the moment is loads of teams asking to take our players, but not actually offering any money to do so. And this then upsets the players when I refuse these derisory bids. The only player I managed to negotiate a fee for was 28o Zan Zizek. £1k is basically nothing, even with a 50% clause on his next sale, but it's better than nothing. 28i David Leskovar wouldn't sign a new contract and chose to leave the club. Both of these were important players and started nearly every game last season. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL Vzhod We're scoring plenty of goals, at least two every game. Unfortunately we're being completely let down by our defence who are conceding almost as many, and it's turned into more losses than wins. This isn't much fun at the moment. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A first round loss to a side in the tier below, despite putting out a full strength team. Great job lads, well done. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 21, 2023 Author Share Posted November 21, 2023 NK Dornava - November 2030 3. SNL Vzhod After the loss to Brezice I got fed up and changed formations to try and provoke something from the team. We went 5-2-3 to try and stop conceding so many, but also leave attacking threats in play. The first game like this saw us pick up a point, it should have been more but we missed a penalty. The positive impact continued over the next three games and we scored maximum points from them. After the missed penalty previously I realised I didn't have my goalie set up to take them, so I put that right and 29p Matic Kastelic scored against Sentjur. He also missed one in the loss to Rudar Velenje, but it wouldn't have affected the result. Top-half at the moment, I'll take it. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 23, 2023 Author Share Posted November 23, 2023 NK Dornava - 2031 Youth Intake A golden generation! We're probably getting to the point soon where I'll stop signing up all youth players. There are fewer now who could make an immediate impact in the first-team, and the wages are adding up. We have another youth recruitment upgrade due at the end of the season (thanks to playing enough young players throughout the year), and hopefully that will start having an effect on the potential column. Everyone listed as 4.5-5.0 PA doesn't give much of an indicator towards who will actually be better than the others. Boring year for nationalities. Bad year for personalities. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 23, 2023 Author Share Posted November 23, 2023 NK Dornava - April 2031 3. SNL Vzhod The 5-2-3 experiment continued to work well through March, making it six wins from seven games. April saw a disappointing downturn though, triggered by a loss to leaders Videm. Apart from the Sampion game we're not scoring enough goals. Our wins have only came when we've kept clean sheets, if we concede then we're out of contention. Only scoring nine times in seven games isn't really good enough, 28l Mitja Buzinel is giving it a good go but not getting enough support from his teammates. We're looking good for a top-half finish, with a bit of luck possibly even as high as 5th. The loss column is the obvious problem. We've won more games than the two teams above us, but have let too many draws slip away. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 23, 2023 Author Share Posted November 23, 2023 NK Dornava - May 2031 3. SNL Vzhod Think it's time to give up on this 5-2-3 idea. We've limped to the end of the season with just two wins from the final nine games. If it wasn't for stoppage-time goals we'd have been three points worse off, and even counting those an average of one game is not enough. We held on to secure another top-half finish. I have no idea how we're ever going to progress and catch up with the leading sides, we're just so far off the pace. ------------------------------------ Facilities We got our reward for playing kids throughout the season. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 25, 2023 Author Share Posted November 25, 2023 NK Dornava - 2030/31 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities This is the first season that we haven't improved our position from the previous year. There were bright spells, but also really poor periods. It feels like we've hit a rut and will probably be in the third tier for a while. Pointing out the obvious here, as it's the thing everybody wants, but could really do with a class striker coming through. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats 28l Mitja Buzinel top scored with 14 goals. A respectable tally, but no one else even getting close to this amount was disappointing. 28d Denis Vuk was next with six goals, plus the same amount of assists. This was enough for him to earn the fan's player of the year award. He's leaving in the summer though, along with 28g Matic Horvat, both off to Krka Novo Mesto. They thought this was a chance to move up the divisions but after their new club's relegation, they'll be back at this level next year. It's a big hit for us, losing both of our starting left sided players and the two best rated by CA. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 25, 2023 Author Share Posted November 25, 2023 NK Dornava - August 2031 Departures Our starting right-back was unsettled by Maribor showing an interest, though their initial approach to just take him for free was swiftly rejected. They then came back offering a friendly only, and we again rejected it. At this point 27m Nino Fink kicked off and said he wanted to leave, and would do so at the end of his contract (one year remaining). So when Maribor came back for a third time offering £7k, we managed to negotiate it up to £25k + 50% of next sale + a friendly. After the deal was agreed, Maribor then asked if we wanted to keep him this year on loan, so we've still got him for another 12 months. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL Vzhod Two good home wins, two bad away losses. Goalkeeper 29p Matic Kastelic was productive in the wins, with a goal in the first and an assist in the second. 29k Thomas Brauner scored in both games to solidify his position in the starting line-up. The losses were both poor, though the stats suggested they shouldn't have been quite so emphatic. We had almost as many opportunities as Technotim Pesnica, but just couldn't put the ball in the net. And three individual errors in defence cost us against Rudar Velenje. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted November 26, 2023 Author Share Posted November 26, 2023 NK Dornava - November 2031 3. SNL Vzhod I usually include a month or two's results at a time, so going three months without posting could mean one of two things. Either we've been playing well and I haven't wanted to ruin that by tempting the FM Gods. Or we've been playing badly and I've been too annoyed to write about it. Luckily, its been the former this time. There's a lot of green on the board here. 29k Thomas Brauner has been in great form with 12 goals in 13 league games, including a brilliant hat-trick against Sentjur. His strike partner 29g Borut Kocar had a slow start to the season, and counting the end of last season too had gone more than a dozen games without scoring. Rather than going with my normal approach of criticism I went with encouragement instead, and he responded with goals in five successive games. Our only losses in this period came to the top two. The draw against Tehnotim Pesnica was the sixth time we've played them, and the first time we've taken a point. Very happy with this. I was expecting a tougher season this year, maybe even a step backwards, but we're surpassing expectations at the halfway stage. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A while back I asked the board for a senior affiliate to try and get a bit of extra cash. They agreed and linked us up with Beltinci. There's no annual fee though, and they've never tried loaning us any players either (that I wouldn't be able to use anyway). The arrangement has been pretty pointless. So that's why Beltinci are purple here. They beat us easily. Our goals came when we were already four down. ------------------------------------ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AM23 Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 You're making some nice progress so far. I guess you now need some time for your players to develop before being able to make the step up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 On 27/11/2023 at 15:53, AM23 said: You're making some nice progress so far. I guess you now need some time for your players to develop before being able to make the step up. Thanks. Part of the problem was that my best players could easily be stolen away, so anyone that did start to develop quickly left. I can offer contracts now so at least I'll be able to keep those who do show some quality a bit longer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 NK Dornava - January 2032 Ex-Player 28a Sasa Pirc is on the move again. He didn't really impress much in the Netherlands, with 6 goals in 37 Eerste Divisie appearances for Jong Ajax (and only three sub appearances for the senior team), but it was enough to catch the eye of some big clubs. Manchester United were scouting him for a long time but didn't make a move, and it was Sheffield United who swooped to bring him to the Premier League for £8.75 million. We're due a total of £176k as a solidarity payment, which would be a massive amount if we received it all in one go. Instead, the transfer has some structured payments, so we're getting £74k upfront then another three instalments of £32k each. The fee could increase by another £3.2 million if he makes 10 appearances, so that could potentially bring in another £64k for us. Spoiler ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 NK Dornava - 2032 Youth Intake A golden generation! What I really wanted from this batch was a striker, but luck was not on my side. 32i Martin Marjanovic looks class though. a lot better than our existing right wingers. When he turns 17 (in just over a year) he'll be straight into the starting line-up. I didn't bother signing two players, due to poor personalities and a lack of ability. If someone's good enough to play for us I can look past the personalities at this stage, but when they have the lowest CA as well it's not worth it. Spoiler ------------------------------------ 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 NK Dornava - April 2032 3. SNL We returned to action with a bore draw against Sampion, then got hammered by Rudar Velenje. None of our goals came until we were already 4-0 down and we'd left ourselves way too much to do. We then laboured to a two-all draw with Ljutomer, a creditable result in the circumstances - after a red card we had to play more than an hour with then men. I held a team meeting before April began to try and bring morale back up, and it worked. We picked up three good wins, and 29k Thomas Brauner was a man on fire. He grabbed a hat-trick in the first win, scored a brace in the next, then provided a pair of assists in the third. We're just about still holding on to 5th place, but the gap down to 6th has shrunk from five points to just the one. Looking down the table, seeing Sampion in bottom spot illustrates how poor the draw with them was. And I like how perfectly midtable Odranci's record is. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 (edited) NK Dornava - May 2032 Facilities While we were on a good run I requested an improvement to our youth recruitment, fully expecting the usual rejection. I selected a different starting argument from normal, and surprisingly the upgrade was agreed straight away without question. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL The sparkling form of 29k Thomas Brauner continued with five more goals in these five games. He was unselfish too, also providing five assists in this time. 28f Rok Oblak was the main benefactor from that, scoring a magnificent seven goals, including a hat-trick against Brezice. While our main striker and left-winger were impressing, our other striker was having a 'mare. We'd rotated players and roles in this position, but it had now been 12 games since whoever was lining up as the left-sided striker had last scored. I changed the role to complete forward, and 28l Mitja Buzinel came in and scored a brace in each of the final two games (his only goals this season). The final day saw an absolute goalfest take place. It was a bonkers scoreline, but we lead from the 12th minute onwards and the result was never in doubt. After the dodgy March it had looked like we might be losing our grip on 5th place, but a strong ending to the season (seven wins from nine) saw us pull away and finish comfortably. ------------------------------------ Edited December 1, 2023 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 NK Dornava - 2031/32 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities I'm very happy with how this year has gone. We've improved our position again, got our youth improvement upgraded (now 9/20), and thanks to the 28a Sasa Pirc money our finances are looking good. Plus there's still more to come from the remaining instalments, and possible appearances clause (currently two of the required 10 games have been met). We've picked up 10 more points than our previous best at this level, and scored 14 more. At no point did we lose two games in a row, our worst run was four games without a win and three of these were draws. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats The season awards were swept by 29k Thomas Brauner. With 23 goals, 10 assists, and an average rating of 7.71 he was the obvious candidate for the fan's player of the year. Our wingers 28f Rok Oblak and 30a Sandi Grbec came on strong in the second half of the season and each made a good amount of goal contributions. Four players from this squad will be leaving in the summer. Goalkeeper 29p Maric Kastelic threw a strop when an offer of £0 for him was rejected during the winter break, and is refusing to speak about a new contract. Right-back 27m Nino Fink will be returning to Maribor once his loan ends. Sub midfielder 29n Goran Gorenc has agreed to join Nafta Lendava once his contract expires. Striker 29g Borut Kocar had one spell when he scored five games in a row, yet managed zero goals in his other 20 appearances. Why did I stick with him for so long?! And he thinks his wage should be doubled! Not happening, jog on sunshine. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 3, 2023 Author Share Posted December 3, 2023 NK Dornava - September 2032 3. SNL We made a cracking start to the season - five games, five wins, five clean sheets. Flying. I started to get my hopes up that this could be our year, and then Rudar Velenje visited and smashed us. Our overall record against them is one draw and six losses, I'm just fed up with playing them. Hope they get promoted this year just so we don't have to play them again next campaign. Then we got battered by Krsko as well, just to make it clear that the bigger teams can stomp us at will. Seven players were fined after that performance. We rebounded with a win over Ljubno, it should have been emphatic but our forwards had an off day. Despite the two losses we're still in the mix, but I'd put all of the other sides in the top five as favourites over us. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije Comfortable win against lower tier opposition. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 3, 2023 Author Share Posted December 3, 2023 NK Dornava - November 2032 3. SNL Wow. Super chuffed. No goals conceded and 16 points from a possible 18. 30a Sandi Grbec is really impressing with two winning goals this month. He's already hit double figures from the right-wing, along with six assists. The star of my 2032 youth intake was a right-winger and I assumed he'd go straight into the first-team, but maybe it won't be such an easy decision to make now. Spoiler Our defensive record is insane. We've only conceded nine goals, and they came in two games. Outside of that we've kept 12 clean sheets, 30n David Oblak already beating the previous record with half the season still to go. Spoiler ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije Higher tier opposition, so I threw in the second-string to rest up the starting XI for the league instead. ------------------------------------ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 5, 2023 Author Share Posted December 5, 2023 (edited) NK Dornava - 2033 Youth Intake A golden generation! 13 players from this batch were kept. Three players were ditched for crap personalities, and a few others were lucky that their starting CAs were a bit higher otherwise they'd have been joining them. Just the one additional nationality this year, a lad from the Faroe Islands. In the tryout match the youth candidates beat our U19 team 7-1. 33m Damjan Buzinel scored a brace and was immediately rated as the third best striker at the club. ------------------------------------ Edited December 5, 2023 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 5, 2023 Author Share Posted December 5, 2023 NK Dornava - March 2033 Facilities I put in another cheeky request and it was accepted without much hassle. The board are currently looking to sell the club so I thought it would be rejected for that reason, but I guess they figured they'd just approve it now for an easy life and then the affect on finances will be someone else's problem. I'd really like to improve our youth facilities, but the option to request this has literally never been available. Hopefully it will trigger at some point and it's not some kind of bug. ------------------------------------ Incomings I brought back a right-back who'd previously been stolen away by Rudar Velenje. He didn't play much in his five years there, playing more while on a couple of loan spells, but did benefit from their better training facilities. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL We were missing our best two players against Sostanj, following a couple of knocks they'd picked up in the winter friendlies. Luckily the opposition was rubbish, and 32e Senad Omladic grabbed a double on his debut. Tehnotim Pesnica have been underperforming this season, but they had enough about them to beat us in a disappointing home loss. Before Christmas our defensive record was impeccable, but it's been dodgy since returning to action. We beat Peca pretty easily, but still somehow managed to concede three times. We temporarily jumped above Rudar Velenje, but then dropped back below again after our loss. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 5, 2023 Author Share Posted December 5, 2023 NK Dornava - April 2033 3. SNL Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. We got absolutely smashed by Rudar Velenje. Men against boys. After half an hour we were down to ten boys, but at that point it was already 3-0. We didn't stand a chance. It was truly pathetic. And then it got worse from there. We lost 4-3 to Krsko, despite allowing them an xG of just 1.00. Despicable. Over the course of these two games 29l Slavisa Bezjak made four mistakes leading to goals being conceded, so he was fined a total of four weeks wages. I dropped all of the defensive line and the goalkeeper for the Ljubno game, but the replacements were just as bad and we slumped to a third loss in a row. I put the AssMan in charge of team selection for the final game of the month, and we just about scraped a narrow victory to at least stop the rot. 32a Sandi Grbec (8 goals and 8 assists in 20 appearances) tore his knee ligament in this game though, ruling him out for the rest of the season. Well off the pace now. I'd be surprised if we keep a hold of second place, wouldn't be surprised if we dropped down to fifth. ------------------------------------ This came in after the Krsko loss. I'm not looking to move, thinking of this as a one club save, but I did half consider it due to my bad mood at that point. They're six points adrift at the bottom of the 1. SNL though, so probably a bad idea anyway. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 5, 2023 Author Share Posted December 5, 2023 (edited) NK Dornava - May 2033 3. SNL The loss to Brezice meant the title race was over, and Rudar Velenje were crowned champions. With the pressure off, we turned into world-beaters for the final three games, just smashing through the opposition. 29k Thomas Brauner and 31a Stefan Karjnc each used this as an opportunity to fill their boots. My pessimism in the last update was unwarranted. While we did drop down to 5th after the loss to Brezice, each of the three teams that finished below us dropped points over the final three games, meaning we rose back up to 2nd. ------------------------------------ Edited December 5, 2023 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 6, 2023 Author Share Posted December 6, 2023 NK Dornava - 2032/33 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities We secured our highest ever finish (for the tenth time in 11 seasons), and I would have snatched your hand off for 2nd place at the start of the year. Given how close we were though, even as late as mid-March, it did hurt a bit how badly we fell out of contention for promotion. Five losses in nine games took us out of the mix, though four of these were to the other contenders, so at least it was losses to good competition rather than the also-rans. The proposed takeover of the club fell through, but the owner is still looking to sell. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats Goalkeeper goals have slowed down, with 30n David Oblak only netting two penalties this year. Doing his actual job, he was generally impressive with 15 clean sheets, including 12 in the first 14 games. When he did concede though he often conceded a lot, letting in three goals twice, four goals twice, and five and six goals once. 30a Sandi Grbec was named fan's player of the year for his 10 goals and 8 assists in 21 games, mostly coming in the first half of the season. He was less productive after Christmas, and an injury finished his campaign early. 29k Thomas Brauner was top scorer again, but down on last year's tally. Goals and assists were pretty well spread over our wingers and strikers, but the rest of the team didn't contribute much in this regard. The majority of the first-team squad will be having their contracts renewed, but the back-ups whinging about wanting pay increases will be given the boot, both for annoying me and so we can trim the squad. Our U19 squad currently has 44 players in it, including overage players, so that's obviously too many. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 11, 2023 Author Share Posted December 11, 2023 NK Dornava - September 2033 3. SNL Five wins, three losses. The losses were expected as two were to sides I'd picked out as being amongst the strongest last year, and the other was to a newly relegated team. It doesn't look like we're going to be in the mix this year, too many losses this early will have us on the back foot and I doubt that the other contenders will have as many issues this time. Immediately losing to most of them has shown they're definitely better than us on their day. I forgot to take a screenshot of the league table at this point, but I believe we were in 5th place. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A mostly rotated XI easily beat a lower division side. 30n David Oblak scored the first goalkeeper goal of the season. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 11, 2023 Author Share Posted December 11, 2023 NK Dornava - November 2033 Takeover and Facilities After a couple of false starts the board have sold up and a new board are in place. No money is being invested so it doesn't really make any difference, but the new chairman is in my good books after approving a youth recruitment upgrade with minimal fuss. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL We scored a lot of goals in our wins this month, though at times we made hard work of it. We had to come back from two-down when we hosted Peca, we kept inviting Sampion back into the game, and the subs turned what looked like a poor draw with Odranci into a big win in the final ten minutes. I can accept the loss to Tehnotim Pesnica, they're one of the teams I identified as being better than us. But the defeat to Sentjur was embarrassing. We had 27 shots (10 on target) and an xG of 4.05 so should have battered them, but somehow lost. And it could have been even worse had 30n David Oblak not saved a penalty. He also scored three of his own this period. We're actually not as far off the pace as I thought we would be, but it's clear to see what the issue is. We've lost more games than any other in the top-half of the table, we need to find a way to get at least a point from those games. We've scored more than anyone else in the division, but have conceded a lot more than the teams around us. We've let in 23 so far, Ljutomer 18, then the rest of the top six have conceded 10-12 each. The top three were also our rivals last year, while the relegated from 2. SNL team Dravinja Kostroj are underperforming. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A rotated side suffered a heavy defeat to 2. SNL opposition. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 (edited) NK Dornava - 2034 Youth Intake A golden generation! Three players with starting CA at 2.5 or above is good. I will always be happy with a new highly-rated striker. Two defenders well over six foot is also something to enjoy. Four different nationalities, the United States, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, and Palestine is a nice surprise. Unfortunately, I'm not signing any of them. Five players are being ditched because of a combination of crap personalities and low starting CA, and this includes each of these three. In the tryout match they beat the U19 team 8-4. ------------------------------------ Edited December 12, 2023 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 NK Dornava - April 2034 Interview Offer I received my biggest invite to an interview so far, at Mura who were 8th in the 1. SNL at the time. ------------------------------------ Departures 32i Martin Marjanovic should have been our next big thing, and he did well after coming in to the team at 17 (4 goals and 7 assists in 18 games). But he had his head turned in the summer, and we never managed to get him back on side. Rather than lose him for nothing in six months I had to get rid now. The initial fee is basically nothing, but hopefully the 50% clause on his next sale should produce something in future. ------------------------------------ Incoming I brought back a previous player, but quickly regretted it. 25a Aljosa Gulic made three appearances, and we didn't win any of these games. His average rating of 6.2 was bad enough, but when he then complained after a team meeting was called to criticise the team, that sealed his fate and he was quickly released. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL As mentioned in the section above, our form after returning the winter break stunk. Before Christmas I'd moaned about needing to turn potential losses into draws, however we struggled to score despite dominating at Mons Claudius and Ljubno and turned potential wins into draws instead. I made a couple of changes to the team in April, and brought in 33m Damjan Buzinel once he turned 17. He contributed almost immediately with both goals and assists and suddenly we were on a four game winning run. It should have been five, we took an early lead over Ljutomer but couldn't add to it despite an xG of 3.93 and ended up only gaining a point. 29k Thomas Brauner was also prolific this period, and became our all-time top scorer with 53 league goals. A placing in the top two has stayed out of reach, we could probably finish up anywhere between 3rd and 6th now. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 (edited) NK Dornava - May 2034 3. SNL I hate Tehnotim Pesnica. We've played them ten times and lost on eight occasions, only picking up four points from them. After that, we ended the season strong. The win over Peca was our biggest of the season, and was a mini six-pointer as they'd have jumped over us in the table if they'd won. Both strikers scored on the final day. We were top scorers in the league with 60 goals, nine ahead of anyone else. But the 39 we conceded was the worst defensive record in the top half of the table. ------------------------------------ Goalkeepers The 8 goals scored by 30n David Oblak is the joint best we've seen from an individual season, and he is now our second highest scoring goalkeeper. He only has half as many as 23a Nemanja Jeric, though the majority of these were scored at a lower level. ------------------------------------ Edited December 12, 2023 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 NK Dornava - May 2034 Morons Apparently I have the stupidest players on the planet in my squad. In my pre-season promises I said the size of the squad would be reduced. 15 players were sold or released, but apparently that wasn't enough. I also said we'd utilise youth players, which should be a given for a youth only save. At least 18 starts were given to 17 year olds and at least 29 starts were given to 18 year olds (and probably more depending on when birthdays were throughout the year), plus loads more for 19 and 20 year olds. Heck, the player that's whinging about it is only 19 and started 22 games. I tried apologising to both as 27h Matej Vidovsek is an important player, able to cover either full-back spot, and 30a Sandi Grbec is one of my best players on the right-wing, but it didn't pacify either and both put in transfer requests. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 NK Dornava - 2033/34 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities This is the first time we've finished lower than the previous year, but it was still a good result. Our youth recruitment is still going in the right direction and at 17/20 there's probably only one upgrade left (am I right in thinking this is the one that can't go all the way up to 20?). Still not able to request improvements for our youth facilities though (is this a bug or does something trigger it?), and training facilities will be expensive. Our bank balance is going down, so we'll have to hope that one of our 50% clauses on next sales come through soon, but nothing's looking promising. Another transfer for 28a Sasa Pirc would also help for a solidarity payment. He's only played three times in two and a half years at Sheffield United, so maybe they'll want to cash in with just a year left on his contract. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats 29k Thomas Brauner was top scorer for a third time. His initial strike partner wasn't up to the task, but when 33m Damjan Buzinel came into the team he also added goals. Despite playing less than half the season he was our top creator. Our wingers both managed a few assists, but both scored more than they created. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) NK Dornava - 2034/35 Pre-Season Departures This was a bit of a painful transfer window as we lost our starting goalkeeper and right-winger on the final day, as well as a back-up forward. All of them were upset about offers being rejected, there were multiple complaints raised, not just from these three but also their teammates, and after a poor start to the season I decided to cut my losses and get rid. Between them 30n David Oblak and 30a Sandi Grbec had contributed 34 goals over the last few years, so this is quite a hit to our squad. Each of the deals include a 50% clause on their next sale. We were actually sent 30n David Oblak back on loan too, but I probably won't be using him as we try to move ahead. ------------------------------------ Ex-Player One of our previous 50% clauses paid off, as we gained £47.5k from the move of 28o Zan Zizek to Celje in the 1.SNL. ------------------------------------ Facilities With that money in the bank a request was lodged with the board, and shortly afterwards they agreed to upgrade our youth recruitment again. This is now rated as 20/20, as good as it can get. ------------------------------------ Edited December 14, 2023 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 NK Dornava - September 2034 3.SNL The new board has high expectations this year. Previously only a top-half finish had been required, but the new guys want us to come in the top three. So losing two games in a row within the first eight days of the season starting wasn't exactly the plan. We were awful, the players were unhappy, goalkeeper 30n David Oblak missed his first penalty after previously holding a 100% record. So just before the transfer window ended I sold the three most unhappy players, in the hope that this would restore good feeling in the dressing room and lead to improved results on the pitch. The loss to Sentjur was dreadful, we barely scraped an xG of 0.30. But other than that, we were much better through September with four good wins. The new goalkeeper and new right-winger in the team have both picked up a couple of goals already, 33l Primoz Furlan scoring twice from the spot and 33b Adrian Prsa grabbing a quickfire double against Sampion. The Sentjur loss was our third in five games, and there was a news item at the time that the fans were possible ready to turn on me. But hopefully they're back on side now. We're not quite in the top three like the board expect, but we're in the chasing pack. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije We allowed the lower division team to take the lead, but after that our second-string proved to be too strong for them and turned it around. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 15, 2023 Author Share Posted December 15, 2023 NK Dornava - November 2034 3. SNL Ouch. I could claim it was a tough run of gamed, and Dravinja Kostroj and Brezice, are both very good teams, but getting walloped at home by Peca is unforgivable. We should beat Ljubno every time too, but the morale hit from the losses affected us and that was more points dropped. Media messages started to circulate again that we were underperforming, and while they're certainly correct to criticise October's form, I would argue that the expectations that we should be challenging near the top are too high. As I normally do when form is rubbish, I handed over team selection to the AssMan for a couple of games. He got us back on track with a couple of big home wins, though we weren't able to build on this momentum as we then went into the ridiculously long four month winter break. It's not looking good for the top three placing the board want. If we don't hit the ground running after the winter break I'm not sure I'll still be in a job come the end of the season. We're just losing too many games. In each of the last two seasons we only lost seven matches, and we're already at six defeats by the halfway stage of this campaign. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A rotated side got smashed by a team from the league above us. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 18, 2023 Author Share Posted December 18, 2023 NK Dornava - 2035 Youth Intake A golden generation! I think the fact that we now have more players coming through with 4.0 and even 3.0 PA is probably a good thing. Not because they're worse, but I'm hoping that it means the quality at the top of the list is increasing instead. Boring for nationalities, the only bit of variety is a Croatian and I think we've seen that before. I've signed every player. Although there are a few with dodgy determination and personality, they're all rated near the top for PA so I can't bring myself to get rid. In the tryout game they beat the U19s 7-2. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 18, 2023 Author Share Posted December 18, 2023 NK Dornava - March 2035 3. SNL 34j Ziga Krivec enjoyed his debut with a goal en route to a win at Ljutomer. A good day for the strikers, with the other starting forward and a sub all scoring. We then suffered the standard loss to Tehnotim Pesnica (10 losses in 12 games against them), though we did get a goalkeeper goal from the spot. At the start of the season I planned to use our own goalie rather than 30n David Oblak back on loan, but given how results had been going I decided to bring him back in. A strong second-half showing saw us get back to winning ways against strugglers Kresnice. Our win over Ljutomer saw us jump them and take 4th place. We're still off the pace of the top three, and the board are still disappointed, but I think I'm out of any immediate danger. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 18, 2023 Author Share Posted December 18, 2023 NK Dornava - April 2035 3. SNL Excellent stuff. Since turning 17 and coming into the team 34j Ziga Krivec has been a revelation, and he had a storming month with seven goals in four games. Spoiler Although we've had a great month, so have the top three. We've well pulled away from 5th place though. The board are still listed as disappointed, though they must have recognised the run we're on now, as they've renewed my contract for another year. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 18, 2023 Author Share Posted December 18, 2023 NK Dornava - June 2035 3. SNL We started May with tough games against the top two. I was happy with earning a point from Dravinja Kostroj, but the loss to Brezice was a blow. Not the result itself, which was expected, but my starting strikers were ruled out for the rest of the season due to a red card (extended to a three game suspension for violent conduct) and injury. That gave 29k Thomas Brauner a chance to come back into the team, and he took his opportunity with a goal in each of the final three matches. We finished in 4th place, not making any gains on the top three but comfortably a way ahead of 5th. The second half of the season really saved us. In the first 13 games we picked up only 19 points, then we won 31 points from the next 13. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Nile Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 This is great, I'm doing a youth only save too in the lower divisions of Argentina. Despite being semi-pro, only thing is we are unable to give players part-time contracts - only youth contracts for under 17 players so once expired most are taken away. Hopefully you make it the top. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 19, 2023 Author Share Posted December 19, 2023 NK Dornava - 2034/35 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities I'm happy with another 4th place finish, even if the board weren't. Maybe that's just recency bias though, due to how strong the end of the season was. If we play that way again next year we'll be in the mix at the top. We've been at this level seven years, so hopefully we've not met our ceiling. Youth recruitment is topped out, and that's probably it for improvements for now. I've still never seen an option to request an upgrade for youth facilities, and training facilities are too expensive at the moment. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats We had joint top scorers, 28f Rok Oblak and 29k Thomas Brauner both scoring 14 times. The former took home the fan's play of the year award. 33m Damjan Buzinel was just behind them with 12 strikes, and was also top creator with 7 assists. 34j Ziga Krivec would have challenged them if he'd played the whole season, scoring 8 times in 9 games after turning 17. ------------------------------------ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted December 19, 2023 Author Share Posted December 19, 2023 (edited) 19 hours ago, De Nile said: This is great, I'm doing a youth only save too in the lower divisions of Argentina. Despite being semi-pro, only thing is we are unable to give players part-time contracts - only youth contracts for under 17 players so once expired most are taken away. Hopefully you make it the top. Yeah, that stage was a pain. Are you allowed to play 17 year olds in Argentina? We can't, so we were losing prospects before they even had the chance to play for us. Mind you, even now we can offer contracts it's just as painful. As soon as clubs from the top two tiers make an approach for one of our players, normally for no fee of course, it unsettles the player and they want to leave. This summer could be painful with all the unhappy players, but I'm not going to accept zero for them. Edited December 19, 2023 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now