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RaySunshine

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  1. April 2032 To strengthen my CL bid, I got in a second heavy hitter from Europe. Bruno Guimaraes was available on a free and, after much debate, I decided to go for him. I'd looked at him previously and thought that his wage demand was just too high. This time, on a free, I thought it was worth the risk. I just hope it doesn't blow open the wage demands for the rest of the team! So April came and our league defence kicked off - not in style though it has to be said! Things did begin well when we played Villa Nova (Wallens 39, Pezzani 64, Ari 90). They got the opening goal of the game to give us a scare but Wallens managed to score just before half time to make things level. My words were ringing in their ears prior to the second half and it worked as we went on to get a two-goal lead to take into the second leg. I rotated about half the team for the tie against Metropolitanos (Adeilson 3, Robert 14, 80, Schultz 69) and, while we didn't get eleven goals this time, a rotated side still managed to put four goals past them and keep us at the top of the group. I decided to try and plan well for our game against Sao Paulo. I came up with a more defensive structure and switched to a 4-2-3-1 to see if a double-pivot would make us a little more solid but still have the threat of four players going forward and Ari playing those DLP balls from deep. We kept them at bay for most of the game even though they had the better of it. Late on in the second half, they got the ball away across the pitch from a throw-in and nabbed the only goal of the game. At this point, I decided to see where I was compared to Sao Paulo and others in the league standings. The results were interesting to say the least! In terms of tranfer spend, we're way out with nothing like the budget of our rivals. We had about £8m to spend at the start whereas the likes of SPO spent seven times that on their squad. Looking further into the numbers, we're way behind on turnover. Despite winning the double and getting to the CL quarters last season, we're only 7th on turnover. I think a major part of that is our TV deal. Each club has their own TV deal and ours was negotiated when the club was finishing 12th and not in continental competition of any kind. We have to wait a season and a half to set that right! In the ongoing battle with the board, we did manage to step up the amount of transfer revenue retained. With half the club now sporting a 'Wnt', this could be vital! We managed to take revenge on Villa Nova (Ari 9, Adeilson 31, Andre Felipe 89) even with a heavily-rotated side. I certainly didn't want to lose to keep morale up for the league as much as to ensure our progress to the next round of the cup. After that tie, we got our Copa America group for Brazil. It feels like there's a good range of ties in here - Mexico for a challenge, Peru down and notch and then Barbados to finish it off. I haven't looked at the schedule yet but it would be ideal to have Barbados last to allow for resting some legs! We returned to league action and took on Fluminense (Pezzani 36, Barraza 80) and found ourselves 2-0 down within 21 minutes! Thankfully, a rocket form Pezzani and a fine finish in the box from Barraza managed to get us back to level points but, so far, its one point from two games... Somehow or other, when we're not in the league, we play well and the same thing happened in the CL against Boca Juniors (Pezzani 9, Barraza 37, Veron 45+1, Wallens 73, Ari 90+3). Here we were in the Bombonera, playing fierce rivals and taking them apart. Yet, in the league, we're really struggling to get going! The league struggles kept going in our game against Internacional (Barraza 67). We fell behind - again - in the first half and, as we laboured away, I feared the worst. We did manage to get a goal back midway through the second half but we could only draw. Two points from three games... So here we are - just above the relegation places. It's not the way we want to start the defence of our title and we need to get things picking up quickly. We haven't even lost any big-name players to use as an excuse for where we are! Recently-promoted Cuiaba are 8th and I hope that they present a good chance for us to get our first league win of the season. We then have Atletico Nacional to finish off our CL group. The rest of the month's league games don't look easy and the presence of Corinthians in particular looms large. In the Copa do Brasil, we face Aparecidense of Serie D. Let's hope that by the time we've finished playing them, we're all up and running!
  2. March 2032 March had two competitions in it - in one we did well and, in the other, we didn't... We started off doing well against Boca Juniors (Pezzani 41, Wallens 61). It began as a challenge when they took the lead but thankfully our dynamic Argentinian duo had what it needed to turn it around and make sure that we came out the winners. And then we didn't do so well! We took onto Mirassol in the Sao Paulo State League QF and completely dominated. What we didn't do though was score. This was until the penalty shootout where we seemed to be scoring for fun and let them score plenty too before they eventually sneaked one ahead of us and we were out. We took out all our frustration on Atletico Nacional (Pezzani 23, Marquinhos 32, 45+2, Veron 52). They helped but getting a man sent off within the first ten minutes but it did take a little while for us to get into it and start to score the screaming goals - all four were big belters and it's not a bad way to win! Finally, we had our absolute goal-surge - getting eleven - read that again - eleven against Metropolitanos (Ramon 16, 65, Khellven 41, Lichnovsky 52, Schultz 53, 84, 88, Pezzani 55, 59, Adeilson 80, 82) . The team scored for fun against the Venezualean side and they got two players sent off into the bargain in the second half - frustration was flowing! We break a CL record that has stood since 1970! Remarkable stuff indeed! All attention then moved on to Brazil. Paraguay got one to give us a bit of a scare early on but we then scored four within fifteen minutes of it! That wasn't the case against Chile though. We could have been any number of goals up before they got their penalty but they were chances that we let slip by. Frustrating stuff! Our defence of the Serie A begins in the earnest in the next month and we open against our bogie-side of Sao Paulo. Fluminense are not a small side either! We face Boca in the CL which the fans consider fierce rivals and we have Villa Nova of Serie B in the cup on top of that! Our Serie A odds have slipped slightly. Corinthians and Sao Paulo are now slightly ahead of us. Can we rein them in?
  3. How often has anyone managed to create their own coaching staff? As a Spurs fan, I'm certainly aware that Redknapp, Poch, Conte and Postecoglu had/have coaching staffs that follow them wherever they go. I've never managed to create that on FM.
  4. Thank you for the head's up. Sometimes these things aren't easy to find! There's no-one on my dev list so that shouldn't be the reason that loans are cancelled for me! Any other ideas?
  5. February 2032 Most our games were pretty straightforward in February and we got the result we wanted in all but one of them! First up were Novorizontio (Brenner pen 45, 50, Barraza 66). Despite putting out a strong XI, we went a goal down early own with shot that took a cruel deflection to beat Andrew on it's way in. It took until just before HT for us to win a penalty and level things up. Brenner then got another and Barraza finished off the scoring to secure the three points. Barraza's presence was made all the more important by the fact that Ari would be missing for the rest of the month. Game two was Sao Bento (Felipe 10, Lichnovsky 12, Adeilson 15, Fabio 53) and the reserves showed the first team how it was done - getting to 3-0 within fifteen minutes! Next up were mighty Sao Paulo (Wallens 28, 68). I thought things were going well when Wallens put us one-up but, by the time he got his second, they'd scored four and still had one more to go! They're fast becoming the team I want to beat the most and it feels like they have our number. I must be careful not to be Conte v Chelsea with them but I need to plan it carefully when we play them next. The team redeemed themselves in the next tie when we played Santo Andre (Wallens 1, Ramon 3, Lichnovsky 10, Khellven 70, 85). It's always impressive when your RB is the top scorer and there was not a penalty in sight! The lower league Botafogo (Felipe 8, Adeilson 36, Auero 52) were the next fixture and the team showed once again that they could breeze past them and on to the last. That was Portuguesa (Adeilson 4). We only managed a single goal in this game. Their keeper had the game of his life and repelled everything that came at him after letting in our first shot. Thankfully, they couldn't net anything of their own to level things up. Our month's results were enough to get us top of the group and on into the quarter-finals of the State League - a competition that I haven't won yet! Some really interesting ties start to come in next month. Our Copa Libertadores group begins and we face Boca and Metropolitanos at home and play Atletico Nacional away. In between all that, we play Mirassol in the State Quarter Finals; it's going to be a busy month!
  6. How do I view the development list? I thought I'd taken him off it but still nothing is going through! The plot thickens...
  7. January 2032 Last season was a very strong season for the team and it's been hugely pleasing to see this season carry on the same way so far. Game one saw us take on fellow heavyweights Corinthians (Lichnovsky 5, 75, Schultz 68). CB Lichnovsky opened the season's scoring with two corners headed home. LW Schultz got the other and we strolled to the 3-1 win. Recently-relegated Ituano (Wallens 11, Ramon pen 15, Dantas 24, Nascimento 34, Barraza 56) were up next and we simply blew them away. The most pleasing goals for me were the first goal of his career for young Dantas who started at RB, another goal for RW Nascimento and a first strike for big signing Barraza. After the game, our Copa Libertadores group was drawn. Familiar foes Atletico Nacional were drawn from Colombia and then the headline tie was against Argentinian side Bocca. Finally, Metropolitanos of Venezuala round out the group. We also said goodbye to Iranian Gohardani at this stage. Fellow Serie A side Vasco da Gama were willing to pay £5.25m for him so we wished him well and sent him on his way. A Serie C side were up next and we took on Oeste (Adeilson 41, Wallens 80, 86). It wasn't a simple game though! I completely rotated the side and they struggled. We let a goal in in the frist minute with a ball over the top and it took until just before HT for Adeilson to level it up. I had to bring on the big guns to get us over the line and Wallens' two goals were needed as they scored one more to give us a scare late on! I risked the same XI in the next game against Ponte Preta (Adeilson 17, Nascimento 21). This was a much smoother ride with us taking a 2-0 lead early on with goals from Adeilson and Nascimento. They did get one back at the death to give us a scare but the youngsters saw the game out this time. The next game certainly required us to put out the starting XI again and saw us take on Santos (Wallens 7, Ramon 77). We scored in all the sevens this time around and goals from Wallens and Ramon kept our winning run going. That all ground to a halt on the following Wednesday when we took on Bragantino (Ramon pen 25). When Ramon scored his penalty mid-way through the first half, I thought we'd carry on our winning run well. Bragantino had other ideas though and two goals in the second half meant that we suffered our first defeat of the season. We stepped out the State Championship for our next tie and took on Corinthians (Wallens 26, 31, Barraza 70) and I couldn't believe how we cruised to a win! Wallens got two in the first half and Barraza carried on his fine introduction to life in Brazil with another goal! The first trophy of the season was ours! As is a European star! I wouldn't normally go for a player of this age but with his quality, experience and being available on a free and reasonable wages, I'm very happy to have him! He'll join us in July. We're presently second in our group and third in the league overall. The top two progress from the group so we're in a comfortable position but I'm still looking to overtake Mirassol and finish top! We begin February by playing Novorizontino who are in Serie C. That's followed by a game against Sao Bento who are a Serie D side so another one for the youngsters there! We then have our heavyweight tie of the month where we play Sao Paulo before taking on Santo Andre of Serie B. Finally we play Serie C Botafogo before finishing February against Portuguesa in Serie C.
  8. Thank you! That sounds very much like what it will be! Is it as simple as taking them off the development list and there's no other side effects as it were?
  9. I've had a series of loans come in recently that have all be cancelled as soon as they've come through but I'm not sure why! I thought that I had the final say according to staff responsibilities. Is there a hidden box somewhere that causes some loans to be cancelled, some to be accepted and some left to my choice without me knowing why!!!
  10. Pre-season Time and tide wait for no person and, before you know it, last season's league/cup win turns into this season's pre-season. All the work needs to be done again to win trophies - most importantly of all that Copa Libtertadores! The first player that I brought in was potential wonderkid Leonardo Coelho from Cruzeiro fror £1.7m. He's a bit of a punt but I hope that I can develop him well. The second was this window's big-money signing in the shape of Guillermon Barraza for £8.5m from Talleres. He has the attributes to compete with the likes of Ari and Ramon and it also provides a certain amount of cover as European clubs are looking at both of those so I would not be surprised if one or the other left for far more than the £8.5m spent here. It would become more important after I asked the board to upgrade the training facilities which they did - with £5.25m of the transfer budget. I hope it's money well spent! At this stage in proceedings, I had to say goodbye to Allen. He wanted more football than he was getting here so he set off to join Portimonense to get it in the Portuguese top-flight. My ongoing campaign with the board carried on and I got another victory to step up the percentage of transfer revenue retained up to 65%. When we expect to have players poached by Europe, we have to be able to recycle the funds to bring the new in or we'll struggle. There are several players, such as Andrew, who I think it would be very very hard to replace if he were taken. Luis is a player who isn't playing often or at all here so he goes out on loan again. This time there's an option for them to take him for £1.5m. At this point, with bids hovering over Falci, we took on Bayern Munich in our sole pre-season game. They dominated the game from the start and, fairly early on, I switched to a double-pivot to help guard the backline. We did a pretty good job truth be told to keep them down to one goal. Not long after FT, the news came through that Man U had managed to snap up Falci for his release fee of £2.4m. It was frustrating that he didn't take the Spurs option as I'd talked them into £2.4m and 50% of future profit but such is life! Gotta watch release fees a bit more carefully. We were robbed here I think. So here is the vision that we're working to. There's a lot to achieve and we seem to be generally on course. My goal, of course, is one particular trophy to achieve stage three of this challenge! So here are our expectations! Getting to the final of the State Championship and winning the Serie A is no small ask to get you going. The semi-final of the cup is added to that as is the desire to win the Supercopa. The board want us to reach the CL quarter-final. I want us to win it! This season, we're made joint favourites to win the league! Let's hope we have the quality to see that out! We start on a big game in taking on Corinthians. We also have Santos and Bragantino who are top-flight. Ituano are Serie B while Oeste and Ponte Preta are both Serie C. There will be chance for some of our youngsters to get minutes in those latter games for sure. Let's go...
  11. Season Review Well here is our season XI. Marquinhos loses out to Nestor and both Estevao and Pezzani lose out to Orellano somewhat surprisingly! The rest is as it should be! Here are our awards and record-breakers. I don't think we've ever broken so many records in one go - well done team! I've never seen this before but I'm very pleased with what we've managed here! And here's the crucial StarStat review. Across the team only two players fail to get 7+ ratings - Abner Vinicius and Marquinhos. I'm looking at replacements for the latter and am keen to see if an improvement for Abner too if they can be found. Other than that, the rest of the team looks pretty awesome. We do have four players at 30+ and another at 29 though so that's worth looking at carefully along with the dreaded list of Wnts alongside most the team. Europe, have your pick...
  12. November 2031 November was a month of high drama as we put in a serious bid for the Serie A crown. It all began with us playing Vasco da Gama (Wallens 41, Ari 53, Ramon 60). Vasco gave us a scare when they put a penalty away in just the 6th minute. We kept on fighting though and some pretty frequent sources of goals meant that we got away with what looked like a comfortable win. This was followed by the Pan-American Games' final against Chile U22s. We were able to take charge of the game with two goals in the 20s and that then led on to us getting another two before they got one back. The Pan-American games was one of the cups I really didn't expect to win this season but here we are with the medals around our necks! League football returned with the game against Ituano (Wallens 6, Khellven pen 19, Ramon 37, Lichnovsky 44, Vitao 86). We were 3-0 before they got their first goal and at 4-1 before they got their second. We didn't stop scoring even then though and got one more to make it 5-2. I don't know if we'll win the title or not at this stage but I'm pretty proud of this nonetheless! We went into another international window and this time we took on Bolivia. The first half was one of the worst I've ever ever seen. 0.04xG for them and 0.07xG for us. The goals flowed in the second half though! They got the first to give us a scare but overall, in a one half shootout, the three points ended up being ours! We then had another league game in an international window when we took on Atletico Goianiense (Vitao 7, Brenner pen 67, Nascimento 78). Thankfully, one of our regulars still here, Vitao, got us up and running and, in the second half, Brenner put a penalty away and then youngster Nascimento got a goal to make it 3! The positive records keep coming in and I'm hoping that it's looking good for that top prize! The national team then took on Venezuala. Rodrygo and Marques traded goals within the first ten minutes. It took until the second half for Vini Junior and Rodrygo to score and earn us another three points! I knew that before the next game against Sao Paulo, that a point would earn us the league. A point was not what we got though - we got smashed! Sao Paulo took control of the game. They got one in the first-half and, at HT, I was hoping we could turn it around. Three more goals they scored in the second half ended that hope though and so we had to wait... ... but not too long! Corinthians couldn't win their next game and that handed us the Serie A title! Unbeliveable! On a slightly less exciting but still interesting note, I decided to upgrade our coaching team and Troy Deeney was one of those I picked up! It was a formality but we had one more game to play against Fortaleza (Vitao 22, 23, Khellven pen 67 85). The backline came up with all four goals for us and we finished the season with a win! We finish top of the table and six points clear. I really can't believe this! Not a bad selection of awards to collect at the end of the season!
  13. October 2031 There were far fewer games again in October but I'm very pleased with the results we got and where it left us at the end of the month! The month's first game wasn't actually with Palmeiras but with Brazil and it saw us take on Argentina. I thought it would be a hard game but was stunned with how we did! Former Palmeiras boy, Estevao, smashed home his first Brazil goal from the edge of the box and then Rodrygo got two more to leave us three up at HT. Varela did get one back for Argentina but we start qualification with a win. With the internationals taking place, several first-team players were missing against Vitoria (Brenner 4, Khellven 53, Alexandre 67). Brenner showed that he might be a bench option these days but he still knows where the back of the net is and fired home well. In the second half, Khellven shot a rocket home and youngster Alexandre finished the game off with a goal too. Game two with Brazil came up next. This time, we took on Uruguay. This was more of a challenge with us going a goal down just before HT. We did wrestle it back though - substitute Savio got two and then Rodrygo fired home a finisher and made it two wins out of two. It was then back to league action and we took on rivals Flamengo (Pezzani 34). This was a much closer game. Ramon played Pezzani through and his strike took a cruel deflection and pinged in past the keeper. That made it 1-0 to us and that was enough to secure all three points. I decided to take charge of Brazil's U22 side in the Pan-American Games as a tournament I'd never heard of or taken part in before. It's fair to say that we had a comfortable stroll through the group stage and that took us onto the semi-finals which would be played at the end of the month. We had an even more remarkable stroll against Athletico Mineiro (Wallens 1, 13, 15, 27, Ari 38, Lichnovsky 44, J. Nascimento 74, Khellven 87). We put eight past the struggling side with Wallens getting four of them before the half-hour mark. It was very pleasing to see Jao Nascimento get his first goal for the club. He looks like a real talent and I look forward to him developing well. In the run-up to the game against Coritiba (Ramon 12, Pezzani 33), we learnt that Corinthians had drawn their last game so a win would put us level on points with them. We did put two goals past them courtesy of Ramon and Pezzani but we couldn't really break clear and they did get one back in the second half. We then had the Pan-American Games semi-final against Uruguay U22s and, while it took a while for the goals to start coming, we did sail past them and on to the final! So we finish the month top and, even more excitingly, Corinthians have lost their next game so start next month with the chance to go three points clear! Five games stand between us and the title now. We start off against Vasco da Gama who are 6th before playing Ituano in 20th. Atletico Goianiense are 12th. Then there is huge game against fierce rivals Sao Paulo who are 3rd and could consider themselves still in the title race with Corinthians' struggles. Finally, we finish the season playing Fortaleza who are 5th. It's not going to be an easy finish but there is chance to win the title. I can't quite believe I'm saying that! For Brazil, the month begins with the Pan-American Games final against Chile U22s. Hopefully, we'll have won that and then we can focus on getting into the World Cup with the senior side playing both Bolivia and Venezuala in the month.
  14. Something that would seem to fit well with Ange's footballing identity:
  15. September 2031 There were far fewer games in September with us having been knocked out the Copa Libertadores but we didn't do badly in the games that we did have! It all began with the Euro/SAM Club Challenge and the game against Benfica (Lichnovsky 64). We knew that we'd be up against it in this game and it started that way with them going ahead with 12 minutes. We hung on in there though and began to dream when Lichnovsky headed us equal in the second half. It didn't take them long to restore their lead though and that's the way the game finished. We took out all our frustration in the game against Botafogo (Pezzani 20, Nestor 23, Wallens 31). Abner hit a great cross over to the far post and Pezzani was there to head home the first. For the second, Nestor was given the ball and the freedom of the Botafogo half for him to stride forward and fire a rocket home. Nestor then turned provider for Wallens to poke home a close finish. Not a bad way for me to mark 100 games! Next up was the first leg of the Copa do Brasil and we took on Cruzeiro (Ramon 30, Wallens 63, 64, 70, Schultz 88). It was a mad, topsy-turvy tie of a cup final! 1-0, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, 5-3 barely tells the story! This game went all which ways but, thanks in large part to Wallens's seven-minute hat-trick, we came away with a two-goal lead going into that second leg. A week later, that second leg against Cruzeiro (Abner 7, Licknovsky 18, Ramon 41, Fabio 65). The opening of the second leg came from an unexpected source with LB and captain Abner firing one home! Licknovsky headed home a second and Ramon also put a shot home. We were secure by HT and could bring on some youngsters. Fabio made the most of his chance and fired a fine shot home. With two super cups, it might be a generous treble. But it is a treble nonetheless! Silverware continues to flow in! Having been given next season's budget, I managed to talk the board into a small improvement in the transfer fee retained. We'll keep chipping away at it! The next youth intake does underwhelm me! The top three get contracts but that's it. The month's final game against Athletico-PR (Wallens 40, Marquinhos 51, Veron 76, Ari 87, Khellven pen 90+1) was another crazy game. By the forty-eighth minute, we were three-one down with them having scored a fluky deflection, a penalty and an own goal. It didn't stop us though as we stepped it up in the second half and got the four goals that we needed to win! Not a bad record to have for the season! And pretty pleased with this too! And so, with two league wins in the month, we find ourselves in a title race. With nine games to go, we're just two points behind Corinthians and one point behind Sao Paulo. We've got to give it all we've got until the end of the season! October's portion begins with a game against Vitoria who are 8th before we play Flamengo in 9th. Atletico Mineiro find themselves 20th so we really need to win that one and Coritiba are 14th. It might need us to get four wins out of four to keep up a title race. Can we manage it? Oh and the World Cup Quals begin with Argentina at home and Uruguay away. Then there's the Pan-American games too. It's not going to be dull!
  16. Nope - only what the roles come with by default. I don’t get into changing the roles that deeply!
  17. I'm not sure how to get you highlights - I'm a bit of luddite really when it comes to all this but here are my results for the season so far in Brazil if it's anything to go by! We're also top in these areas of Serie A which I think Ange would be pleased with: - average possession - goals scored - shots - chances created - high intensity sprints
  18. August 2031 The month of August began with some disappointment - Marcos Leonardo was available on a free transfer after his contract at Newcastle expired. Unfortunately, he declined the chance to return to Brazil and moved down the road to Sunderland instead! In playing terms, the month began well when we took on America-MG (Wallens 8, 37, 45, Vitao 40, Gohardani 46, Nestor 59, Pezzani 75, Veron 79) and managed to eight past them. Wallens scored a hattrick and it was pleasing to Pezzani get in amongst the goals again. He's been intimating that he'd like to leave having not played very much football but a knock will push back any plans for him. A good league performance led into the cup semi-final first leg against Flamengo (Vinicius 48). Vinicius fired a fine effort home just after half-time and I was hoping that it would propel us to a first-leg lead. That didn't happen as they pulled a goal back in 67th minute and we were level going into the second leg. Internacional (Wallens 13, 25, Ramon 16, 51, Brenner pen 48, Schultz 74) were up next and we simply fired goals home. Being able to rest players at HT is always a bonus in such a busy month! That semi-final second leg soon came around and we took on Flamengo (Wallens 16, 44, 83, Vitao 22) and this time the goals flowed! Wallens was the hero scoring a hattrick that sent us shooting into the cup final to defend our crown! He's not been a regular but good squad option Lyanco says that this season will be his last. League action then came up again and we played superstars Santos (Ari 9, 60). We took a lead through a great Ari strike in the first half. They, however, levelled up soon after the break. It didn't stop us though as Ari had another strike in him and that was enough to get us all three points! The CL was up next and we took on Sao Paulo (Lichnovsky 45+1, Ari 49). We took the lead in injury time at the end of the first half only for them to level up the very next minute! Ari struck just after HT though and it looked like the lead was ours until they struck again in the 92nd minute and the scores were level. Things looked good in the league where we played Bragantino (Pezzani 23, 49, Wallens 36). Pezzani has been slowly setting in after his intial brace and it was good for him to get the goal that got us on our way and followed it up with a second too. Things did not go our way in the CL second leg against Sao Paulo though. We simply failed to turn up and they took us apart. Three goals later and we were spent tumbling out of the continental competition. I can't achieve the save goals this season that's for sure! We then finished the month on a frustrating draw with Club Nautico. They're in 11th and we had four goals ruled over the course of the game just to drive us wild! We're still comfortably in the Copa Libertadores places but still comfortably behind Corinthians. Much work needs to be done on this squad to lift us up. Can my scouts find any gems and can I persuade the board to give me some cash??? September begins with an interesting tie in the Euro/SAM Challenge cup against Benfica. We're travelling to Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan in Seville for the tie and we'll see what we can do against our European second competition winning opponents. We then play Botafogo in the league before the two ties of the cup final come up. We'll see who we're playing soon! Finally, a league tie against Athletico-PR rounds out the month!
  19. July 2031 If June had been a perfect month, July was much more of a challenge but it did finish with some important hope - more of that later though! I must say that I began by creating my own trouble in the game against Goias (Nestor 40, Brenner 65). I rotated the side heavily and, as a result we struggled to get momentum in the game. Twice we fell behind and twice we levelled up but they finished the game with an injury-time winner leaving us with work to do in the second leg. We got a decent offer for Castro from Goias and, as they'd hit his value, I couldn't say no so off he went to our cup rivals. We improved things in the league against Fortaleza (Felipe 33, Ramon 41, 52). CB Felipe got us up and on our way and then Ramon got goals either side of half-time to secure the result. It's fair to say though that most of the drama took place after the game... It began with the departure of Luca Orellano. Being 31 and getting an offer of his value, it seemed like the right time to let him go. He leaves to go to Al-Ettifaq to play alongside the likes of Demari Gray, Saint-Maximin and Milinkovic-Savic! I then got some complaints about the lack of goalkeepers at the club and the rest of the month would suggest that they had a point. I managed to talk most of them round but not everyone saw my point-of-view! It had to happen and it did - Estevao had his release clause triggered by Fulham and so our star player leaves for Europe for far less than I would have liked. It's fair to say that I might miss the player but it did have a positive impact on the club's finances. We were the 34th richest club when I joined and now we're 5th. I've worked with the board to get the transfer fee retained up from 20% but it was only to 35%. There's a lot more work there to do for sure! With Estevao leaving, we needed a replacement and that came in the form of Guillermo Pezzani. He's been capped five times by Argentina and seems to fit the gap perfectly. He cost us £8.5m from River Plate and I'd expect to double that and more if he were ever to leave! We couldn't register Pezzani for the game against Goias (Nestor 6, Baptista og.8, Brenner pen 60) but a full-strength (or what we had) managed to do enough to get us on into the next round of the cup. Pezzani was able to play in the game against Fluminense (Wallens 12, Ramon 15, 89, Pezzani 24, 42) and made an instant impact! He got two goals on debut as part of the five that we put past our rivals. It's not a bad way to introduce yourself! However, at this point in the month, the wheels fell off proceedings. Our next game against Fluminense was a much more even affair and they managed to pinch this one 1-0. We then got a punishing result against title rivals Corinthians (Brenner 86). They had games in hand against us and also had four goals by the 31 minute mark! We were not in this game by the time Brenner got his consolation and this could have a huge impact on the title chase. Another shock came this time in the Copa Libertadores when we took on Fluminense again this month! We firmly outplayed in this one - we lost 3-0 and Edson, our sub keeper, was our best player on 7.6! Could we be crashing out the CL and my chance achieving my goal this season? I hoped that we'd get things going again in the game against Cruzeiro (Ari 5, Felipe 70). The return of GK Andrew and the opening strike by Ari had me hoping but they had other ideas turning it around to a 3-1 lead. Felipe got a goal later on but we couldn't level it up. Abner Vinicius has been our lowest-rated player in the starting XI so far at 6.87 so when the chance to get Dragos Neacsu in from FCSB for just £4m came up, I couldn't say no! Again the resale potential is highly above but I want the performances first. I feared the worst and dreamed for the best in our CL second-leg against Fluminense (Khellven 52, Vitao 63, Wallens 76). And it was the best we got! It was 0-0 at HT and I thought it was probably too late but the team had other ideas. Khellven hit a low long-range shot home, Vitao headed home a corner and Wallens hit home a squared ball to level things up. Newbie Pezzani then fired home the winning penalty to send us into the QFs where we'll play rivals Sao Paulo! Our mixed month sees us drop to 3rd. We're now five points behind Corinthians and they have three games in hand against us! We're comfortably above the bottom CL place though who are on 34 points and that's vital for rebuilding the club towards challenging for the really big trophies! The months just don't let up here. Each week is a two-gamer and the squad are starting to get tired. Around the league games, we have the Copa do Brasil semi against Flamengo and the CL quarter-finals against Sao Paulo. They're all big games at this end of the season!
  20. I thought I would post up the homage to Ange-ball that I've been using on FM24. I'm sure it's not Ange-ball completely and people can point out where it differs from the famous Austrailian's approach. I've certainly learnt from though and he is the inspiration behind what I'm doing here. Here is the basic shape (Just ignore the myriad injuries!) . In defence, it plays as a 4-3-3 and is pretty conventional. It's when we win the ball that the interesting things happen. The two CBs in the back row become our backline with the sweeper-keeper prowling around the edge of the box. Ahead of them, the two IWBs join the DM to make a midfield three with a defence focus. It's a bit more cautious than Ange's IWBs flying into number ten postions but it helps to produce a good rest defence. None of the roles are too complex. The real focus is on movement. In the next line, the two CMs bomb forward into the attack to create a four with just the striker ahead of them. It should look like this when we have the ball... Here, in possession, we have a 2-3-5. a W of the IWBs, CBs and DM provide our rest defence while the other five players are all attacking their box. Particularly against teams looking to clear long, we're able to pick the ball up with the three 'CM' players and send it back in again. In possession, it's about playing out from the back and being shorter in our passing but it's not very short and low tempo as I don't want to hang around too much. In transition, it's all about the counter and counter-press. The keeper is on short kicks. When we don't have possession, it's all about the press. We press much more often, press their keeper and have high pressing lines. I haven't quite got the confidence to go to very high lines yet! In terms of the press, we have the highest defensive line in the league. We don't have the lowest OPPDA and I don't know if I have to switch to very high lines to do that and whether it's worth it. We're above average in winning the ball and we keep it very well once we've got it. In terms of passing, we pass a lot and pass accurately when we do so. As well as passing a lot, we prevent them from passing much either so our press must be doing fairly well. Finally, the pitch tilt is hugely in our favour with other teams really struggling to get near our box! So here's my tactical homage to Ange. Feel free to fire out any comments, thoughts and questions. I'm still learning to use the data hub so if there are other graphs you'd be looking at in my shoes, let me know what they are!
  21. June 2031 Brazilian football does like its monster months and June carried on. Our monster scoring also carried on and Flamengo (Lichnovsky 18, Veron 21, 38, 59, Lyanco pen 56, Felipe 76, Brenner 84) were the unfortunate victims. This time, we managed to put seven away. - three of them were before half time and we cruised to a win against another big side. The goals also flowed for the first time for me as Brazil boss - the same formation and style suited us perfectly as we took Jamaica, my old employers, apart. Atletico Mineiro (Vitao 22, Brenner 25, Ramon 49). Vitao opened the scoring and Brenner then doubled it up just three minutes later. Ramon's second-half goal then secured the result. Following the game, a bidding war began for GK Andrew. Thankfully, no-one here hit his release value. The question is will they in time? Goals a-plenty kept coming and this time it was Coritiba (Lichnovsky 7, Wallens 32, Veron 50, Brenner 54, Fabio 90+3) on the receiving end of our five goals. I was particualy pleased with the last goal-scorer. The 16yo, 4/5 star potential rated Fabio fired home after Nestor burst into the box and squared the ball to him. Vasco De Gama (Wallens 4) were the Saturday game and it looked like it had started well when Wallens had fired home within five minutes. Alas, we couldn't get another goal and so they levelled it up late on and the points were shared. We did have the goals again in our next game though when we played Ituano (Wallens 3, Brenner 51, Ramon 58, Victor 78). Another youngster managed to get his first goal and this time it was Eduardo Victor. The injury machine sprang into life for the first time this month and leading striker Wallens picked up a month's worth of absences. The youth intake looks promising but then I find that almost all of them do. We'll see what actually comes along! Wallens moved out and the goals moved out with him as we had a 0-0 draw with Atletico Clube Goianiense. It was the same again when we played Santos. No goals were forthcoming. Something was forthcoming though... Injuries - three of them! Our keeper and Veron are both knocked out as is Castro! It felt like any player that we had left had to take on big rivals Sao Paulo (Ramon 3, Estevao 42, Fabio 89). I was worried about how we'd do but Ramon got things going with the opening goal. Estevao, who's release clause has been met by Fulham, got what could be his last Palmeiras goal and Fabio then pressed, made a chance and finished the game. The month ends and we're still at the top of the table. Corinthians have two games in hand and are only a point behind us though. July bookends the month with big games. Goias are our opponents in the Copa do Brasil in the start of the month and Fluminense are our opponents in the Copa Libertadores at the end. We also play Fluminense twice in the league and have Corinthians too so it's going to be important in the league!
  22. Just had a read-through and I'm enjoying your approach so far and especially having to do it while balancing the books - I'm needing to do similar with Palmeiras in Brazil!
  23. May 2031 The mad month of May started off with something of a shock defeat. We took on Internacional and it seemed like Andrew was just determined to let everything past him! We were better on xG but somehow walked away 4-0 to the worse. We rotated completely when we played Caracas (Obando 13, Edmilson 59, Schultz 84, Nestor 90+1) and it led to a dramatic match. We scored four but we had to as they got three. It was all close stuff but it was enough to get a win! Our last result that wasn't a win came against Bragantino (Estevao 1, 7). When we got two early goals via Estevao, I thought we were on our way but Bragantino got a goal either side of half time and the spoils were left shared. The cup came up next and I wanted a win which we duly got against Atlético Goianiense (Wallens 3, Ramon 51, Ari 68). The nature of a 3-0 win was particularly pleasing as it meant that we would be able to rest legs in the other tie. Next up came a storming win against Club Nautico (Vitao 11, Estevao 13, 28, Ramon 17, 23, Khellven 48, Brenner 52, Davysson og 57). We were five up by half time and had scored eight before the 60 minute mark. I did dream of double figures. We didn't quite get that but I'll take an 8-1 win anytime! We followed it up with another good win against Botafogo (Ramon 35, Khellven pen 50, Estevao 80). We got a bit of a scare going a goal down after twenty-three minutes but thankfully we had it in us as a team to turn it around and get the win. The blow was a potential three-month injury to Khellven. Things are starting to get quite thin around here! Athletico-PR (Estevao 2) were top of the table when we took them on. I did wonder how this was going to go but Estevao got the game's only goal after two minutes when he curled it across the keeper from outside the box. It was the only goal but that was enough. Rotation was the name of the game in the cup when we played Atletico Goianiense (Schultz 29, Castro 40, Nestor 59) but our second string looked very comfortable on the pitch and another win with three goals in it sees us on our way into the next round. Next month, Brazil play Jamaica and this is the chosen squad. Ari gets his first call up for me and will play for me for both club and country! There was a final league game against Vitoria (Estevao 4, Veron 34, Brenner 59, Castro 90+1, Obando 90+4) and our goalscoring glut continued. We put home another five and made being at the top of the table look comfortable! Well there we are. We're three points clear but the team below do have just the three games in hand... Another monster month with a range of huge games. Flamengo are 11th and will be wanting to rise up the table with games in hand. Santos are 5th and Sao Paulo are 6th. It won't be a dull month that's for sure!
  24. April 2031 The month began with my second game in charge of Brazil against England. It's fair to say that we were well outclassed. Although the goals came in the second half after the raft of subs needed to be made, it's fair to say that we weren't much better in the first - work to be done for sure! Once the international excitement had ended, it was time to get on with club football again. The CL came up first and with with Nacional (Brenner 4, Ramon 19). Brenner was hugely pleased as his poke home in the fourth minute marked his a goal on his return from injury! The win was enough to see us qualify for the next round of the CL - vital in my plan to sort the finances of this club and restore it to giant status! Our league season began with a tricky game against Corinthians (Khellven 90+3). Despite dominating possession, shots and xG, we let Corinthians have two goals and it was only at the death that we got a single goal for consolation. Some rotation in the Cup game against Vitoria (Wallens 41, 63) was inevitable but it didn't seem to hold us back. Wallens got his first by fizzing a long-range effort home from the edge of the box and then followed it with a neat turn and finish. The win came at some serious cost though with two injuries in the same position of RW - not great! Cruzeiro (Brenner 78) was a tight, tough game. Despite dominating the game, it took until the 78th minute for Brenner to break the deadline but cutting in off the left wing and curling home a beauty! Rotation was the name of the game again in the CL when we played Junior FC. They got a goal early on in the game which led to me bringing on some heavy hitters later but we couldn't gain the initiative and lost 1-0. I was pleased to get a record points haul in the Sao Paulo State League but the second part was a little galling! All our frustration was taken out on America-MG (Khellven pen 33, Wallens 37, 83). Khellven got the first with a well-dispatched penalty before Wallens got a brace with Ari and Estevao leading a break for the first and Ramon playing a beauty of a long-range throughball for the second. This led to the cup second-leg against Vitoria (Obando 62) and Obando got the only goal when the ball was played through to him and he just had to stick it into an empty net! In the league, we move up to fifth but the days are so early that you can't make much of it yet. One more point in our CL group secures top-spot in our progress to the knockout stages. A game against 19th-placed Internacional opens May before we have our last CL group stge game against Caracas. Bragantino are 15th and then we take on Atlético Goianiense in the cup. A league triple-header then sees us play Club Nautico (7th), Botafogo (14th) and Athletico-PR (2nd). Finally, the cup second-leg comes in and hopefully we progress on again!
  25. March 2031 March began well when the side took on Novorizontino (Ari 20, 24, Ramon 31, Vitao 87). Ari got things going with his quickfire brace and that set us on to a comfortable win prior to the knockout stages of the state league. We then had all our Copa Libertadores games to play. The first of those was against familiar opponents Junior FC (Ramon 4, Khellven pen 9, Estevao 11, Wallens 23, 42). I wasn't sure how it would go being our first game back and it couldn't have gone better. We were 3-0 up in just over ten minutes and 5-0 up by HT - simple dreamland! Another wage left when Turitsov moved on to pastures new and joined UD in Peru. We then suffered a pair of frustrating injuries - Robert's knock prevents him from gaining minutes while Veron is a first-team regular and finds himself out for the next two months really. My compartive clearout began and this time it's Sorriso. He's leaving to join Elche on the 1st July. It was then time to play another CL game and this time Caracas (Vitao 2, Ramon 10, Nestor 34, Sorriso 69) and once again we had the firepower to blow them away. We might have been away for a while but being back in this competition seems to be suiting us! The game came with another two knocks though. In some ways it's thankful that it was two squad players but I don't to see an endless wave of red crosses appearing next to my squad as the season goes through! Thankfully, it didn't seem to do us too much harm in the game against Nacional (Wallens 3, Khelleven pen 13, Ramon 36). We got ourselves into a 3-0 lead at HT and seemed to be cruising. Letting them get two in the second half added some unecessary worry to things but we did come away with the win. Following that game, it was time for my first Brazil squad and you can see the names above called into the famous yellow shirts. I then had a bit of a squad worry with complaints about the number of quality keepers at the club. Thankfully, they also seemed to forget about it pretty quickly after I refused to promise to bring more in. And then there was another knock - VC and LB Abner Vinicius finds himself out for a couple of months too. State League action came in the form of the QF against Bragantino (Schultz 27). We were depleted by injuries and international call-ups and it showed in the game. We laboured to a 1-1 draw but we had two penalties saved and our normal penalty-king Andrew couldn't save any of theirs to see our trophy chances here end. It was then time for me to take control of Brazil for the first time in our game against Egypt. I wouldn't have said that we stormed to victory but I'm not complaining about getting a win courtesy of Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior. This was another piece of good news. Ari gets top ten in the fifty best wonderkids in world football. The only table we have presently is for the Copa Libertadores and it makes for good reading! April sees the Serie A begin and a huge game against Corinthians is the opener. They're expected to be second and our odds have moved up to third but a step behind the top two of Corinthians and Sao Paulo. The rest of the month then alternates between league and CL. It's going to work what's left of our squad hard!
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