jmarchand

The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned, I'll need likely a few seasons before making a judgment call on that. The biggest change is that there are no longer the trickle down from the Champions League to the Europa League. This makes the Champions League harder, but the Europa League a bit easier, I think.

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

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2028-2029 | Season 6 | Turning a corner This season marks what I generally view as the most interesting in any career in FM, which is the first time we qualify for Europe and start playing against sides of a complete unknown strength and, for once, fully appreciate how far we really are from the completion of the challenge. Transfers I titled this post "Turning a corner" and one of the places where this is most obvious is in the transfer section. For the first time, we received a bid which was too good for the chairman and, ultimately, this allowed us to reinvest that money in the club's infrastructure and in other players. Out Baba - MR - 4.7 M€ to Alavés - In the summer, after a very good season in the league, Baba attracted a lowball (1.2M€) offer from aboard, which I promptly rejected. This got him angry and he then told me that he'd be good with a 4.2M€ price and my brain started racing with everything I could do with that money. Shortly after, there came the bid of 4.7M€ from Alavés which was automatically accepted by the chairman and I was almost not even mad. Thank you sweet Baba, you served us well and I'll name a part of our training ground after you. (He is now rotting on the bench in Alavés, 3 appearances as a sub). Ezra Carrington - DR - 1.5 M€ to Saint-Étienne - Our rotational right back for the past year, the offer came in from St-Étienne was really too good to refuse, as I had the plan to feature a bit more our regen Oleksander Matveev in the first team. He's been a non-impact sub in Ligue 1 over the course of the year in half the year and played with the 2nd team half the year, so this was a good profit for us. Vinicius da Silva - MC - 2.1M€ to Bournemouth - At the very end of the transfer window, Bournemouth came in with an offer out of nowhere for da Silva for 1.6M€ upfront and 500k in installments. The board jumped on it and could not do anything about it. He is in their U21s currently, coming in as a sub for 3 matches in the Premier league, averaging a fat 6.4 rating. Lautaro de Leon - ST - 1.7M€ to Puskas Akademia - See José Bica below. I figured that he was not working as well as he should have in our tactic and wouldn't improve much because of his lack of athelticism. So I cashed in and kept him in the country so we can have everyone in the league get a bit better. He went on to score 8 goals in 15 apps for Puskas, so I say that it's a win-win transfer. In Teodor Tanev - MR - 700k€ from Botev Plovdiv (Bulgaria) - With the departure of Baba and Carrington, we were somewhat exposed on the right flank and Tanev appeared as a decent option, very athletic with a good dribbling ability who can carry the ball up and down the field and could also operate lower on the pitch if we were in trouble, as a full back on attack (without actually being good at defence). At 22, he is already a Buglarian international by intermittence. Aaron Ramsey - MC - Free from Aston Villa - With the departure of da Silva along with a bad injury to Yury Titov, we were a bit thin in the midfield and found Aaron Ramsey after he was released from Aston Villa. He fit right up in our tactic, able to plug in as a playmaker in the midfield but also on the left side of the pitch, cutting in. The real stars of this season actually came in at the winter break. I figured out that we needed to push and start invest and sign some real good players, and we found 3 gems. José Bica - AMR/ST - 700 k€ from Académica Coimbra - Our new main man up front, who knows how to put the ball in the back of the net and is a speed demon for this level. He has joined in January and managed to score 18 goals in 18 games in the stretch of the season, including 7 in Europe. He is our highest earner by quite a bit, but so far, he's been totally worth it. Predrag Manojlovic - MR, AMR - 1.2 M€ from FK Vojvodina - I fell in love with this buy as soon as I saw him. A dribbly speedster operating on the right flank, people just can't keep up with him, which enable all sorts of good things to happen after that. At 22, he's starting to earn Serbian international caps and already has score his first goal. Fernando Silva - DC - 1.5M€ from Liverpool FC (Uruguay) - There was a moment in the season where teams were thinking of triggering Kaua's release clause, so I went shopping for a new central defender and found Fernando Silva. Strong, not stupid, can tackle for days and lots of potential. He has however shown some adaptability issues, locking the promise of bringing in a friend to help settle, but then never recommending anyone (and thus he is unhappy). I found a cheap uruguayan keeper to keep him company as a backup who joins in the summer, but I don't know if it's going to be enough... we'll see! Europe - UEFA Europa League We started our European adventure in the Europa League by virtue of winning the Magyar Cup last year and we were slotted in the Second Qualifying Round - League path and were drawn against Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Not knowing at all the level of the team, their individual players looked pretty good, we came out with the full first team and obliterated them 6-0 at home, including 4 goals from De Leon. Not a bad way to start and we went to win it 8-1 on aggregate! Then, a 6-1 aggregate win against Vorskla (Ukraine) got us our first match against a team I recognized, Austria Wien. They came to our home first and were promptly dispatched 4-1, in a very very good showing from our team. The return leg was more conservative and we secured a 1-0 win, dominating the play. And with that, we were onto the Europa League League Stage, in our first trip to Europe, which is mission accomplished right there. There were a series of tough matches, with defeats against Freiburg and FC Kobenhavn (outclassed 0-3, ugh), but there were some very encouraging results: a 1-2 loss to West Ham at home (we conceded in the 82nd minute) and a good unexpected win against Besitkas. With these good results, we were actually 15th in the league with 12 points, enough to see us through to the next round! We were also ahead of our Senior Affiliate Villareal, which is great in itself! In the Knockout Playoff Final, we drew Qarabag FK from Azerbaijan, whom we had lost to 0-3 in a pre-season friendly. But this time, they were on the receiving end of a José Bica masterclass, who went on to score 4 goals and 1 assist in Azerbaijan in a 7-1 mauling. On the return at home, I actually rotated the team, winning 3-2. In the Round of 16, we were rematched against FK Kobenhavn, and this time, it was a close affair. A solid 2-1 win at home followed by scraping a 3-3 draw in Denmark was the surprise result of the tournament. And with that, we were through again! (and 1.2M€ richer) The Quarter Final is where this ended for us, pitted against Lazio. We were clearly second best, but in our defense they had Immobile (at 39 and he's retiring after this season, but he still scored), Lovro Majer, Milinkovic-Savic and Casemiro in the midfield... I was scared, and rightfully so. 0-1 at home, and then losing 3-1 in Rome. Great effort from the boys. League In the league, we were billed as Top Half, but my secret expectation was to go on and win the whole thing. As it was a bit rough in the early season with injuries and fixture congestion (playing 2 games per week almost non-stop from October until February), our quality showed up and we finished the season comfortably on top, which was a very pleasing sight! I wouldn't go as far as saying that it was straightforward, but we were comfortable in most matches, with the occasional blowout here and there. We had the best offense in the league (73 goals for, next was Fehévar with 55) and the 4th best defense in the league. Still work to do, but certainly trending in the right direction. Magyar Kupa Lucky draws in the cup (Ferencvaros lost to Fehérvar in the 4th round!) saw us go through all the way to the final, despite a little scare in the Semi final against said Fehérvar), which we won 3-2 in extra time, with Nico O'Reilley coming up strong with a 105th minute goal to send us through to crown a 3 goal comeback starting in the 60th minute. Standout Individual performances José Bica - ST - 18(1) apps, 18 goals, 2 assists, 2 PoM, 7.58 avg. rating. The star of our push at the end of the season in Europe. I'm paying dearly for his services, but at this point, he's paying back quite well. Noam Emeram - AML - 22(3) apps, 5 goals, 15 assists, 4 PoM, 7.43 avg. rating. Played only half a season due to a broken ankle which kept him out for 4 months, but he was our most creative player in the first half of the season. His 10 league assists actually made him the league leader, despite only playing 10 league matches, the second in line had 9 in 31 matches. Nico O'Reilly - ST(DLF) - 32(8) apps, 17 goals, 12 assists, 7.39 avg. rating) Our most regular striker operating as a DLF on support, he was very good in coming a bit deeper to get the ball, but was still able to get into good scoring positions and was pretty well rewarded for it. Donat Varga - ST - 25(13) apps, 20 goals, 4 assists, 6 PoM, 7.12 avg. rating Previously on loan with us a few years ago, I was able to bring back Donat with us on a permanent basis on a free transfer on a very reasonable contract (fringe player, 1k€ per week) so he can provide depth. Turns out that he ended up scoring the most goals in the entire squad, with 20 across competitions. Yes, he sometimes started against weaker opposition, but that's still an impressive return on investment. he still can't jump and he can't out-wrestle a 5 year old, but who am I to judge! Dejan Kuzmanovic - DC - 36(5) apps - 8 goals, 4 PoM, 7.30 avg. rating A weapon on set pieces with his 17 jumping reach and still able to calm and anchor our defense, even against stronger opposition. I often rested him in the league so he could be fit when playing in Europe, where he performed very well. He doesn't make many mistakes, is reliable defensively and the goals are a great bonus. Other assorted news. - Finances are doing great now, that turned a corner too. - We're about to lose a couple of good Ferencvaros seasons, if we look at the coefficients, so they other clubs in Hungary really need to step it up if we want to make some progress as a country. I'll soon be in a better position to actually help them. - We were able to invest in the facilities at the club, even without having to bother the board too much about it. There are still things that they don't care much about (we have a sufficient level of youth recruitment... yeah right). - To my previous point, Youth intake this year was beyond crappy. I think I signed 2 players, but just to get boots on the ground, they're never graduate to play with us. - I won manager of the year. Wohoo! Season Summary Year Season League Position Media Pred Points Goal Diff Cup Europe Europe Ranking Avg. Attendance Top Scorer Top Assist Training Youth Junior Youth Rec 1 23-24 DII 9 17 47 -1 5th round NA 796 Zsombor Novak (10) Szablocs Varga (7) Basic Below Avg Average Below Avg 2 24-25 DII 4 6 46 17 5th round NA 861 Donat Varga (19) Szablocs Varga (11) Basic Below Avg Average Average 3 25-26 DII 1 4 62 38 5th round NA 872 Csanad Novak (20) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Average Average 4 26-27 DI 6 11 48 14 4th round NA 2066 Csanad Novak (19) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average 5 27-28 DI 2 10 62 29 WINNERS NA 2684 Nico O'Reilly (18) Simone Pontisso (10) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average 6 28-29 DI 1 3 72 40 WINNERS EL Qtr Final 167 3566 Donat Varga (20) Noam Emeran (15) Below Avg Adequate Adequate Good

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

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2027-2028 | Season 5 | Pushing up! Last season, we figured out that the Hungarian First division was more open than we initially thought and we're right in the middle of it and we start the next part of this challenge, pushing for the top. A mid-table finish last season put us in a hopeful situation and looking forward to improve this year. League It was a season in 3 parts, but it all came out in the end. First, we started with a 10 game unbeaten run, including a 1-0 win against Ferencvaros to open the season and the team went on from strength to strength. At the end of that run, we were sitting comfortably in first place in the league. Then, at the turn of the year, we went into a long slump in November until March, where we had 3 wins, 3 draws and 7 losses, but one of these wins was against Fehérvar away, which was a pretty dramatic victory with a stellar performance by Nico O'Reilly... We then caught up with a 2-1 win at home against Ferencvaros and the team was back on track and finished the season with a 9 match unbeaten run, with only 2 draws. A great end of the season, which saw us climb again in the standings and finish the year in 2nd place! So, in the end, we got through pretty close to first place, with an impressive 71 goals for in the year, which is miles above the other teams which have 47. Our defense wasn't as great as it could have been, but it was good enough at this level and our offense was good enough to compensate. The Cup In all previous installments of this write-up, I've always not cared about the Hungarian Cup, mostly because the board didn't care and we were focusing more on the league. However, this time, we got a couple of great results and somewhat friendly draws to get us to a final without too much drama while being able to rotate the squad healthily. In the final, we were drawn against Frencvaros (who else?!) and the guys put up a great performance to win 2-0 in a very convincing manner. So yeah, after the Second Division title, another trophy!! The Team There were a couple of additions to the team which made a great impact, especially in the second half of the season. They didn't all squeeze in the season's best XI, but that's the reason why I didn't put in the usual Transfer section at the top of this post. Now that we're winning something and that we're going to be in Europe next year, it's probably worth to present in a bit more details the players that actually made it this far. At the back The main keeper of choice this year was Otto Hindrich, who came in on a free transfer from Cluj in Romania. He wasn't a massive upgrade above our previous guy Gergo Racz, but he's 25 and will likely still improve a bit. Without any doubt, the biggest signing is Dejan Kuzmanovic, who came in the winter on a 140k€ transfer from Slovenian side FK Javor-Matis (a yo-yo club between the top and second tier) and walked into the first team lineup right away. He got a 7.53 average rating in 19 games, scored a few goals with his head but more importantly, solidified the defense and provided the presence that we were missing. At left back, I signed Kimberly Ezekwem from Freibug on a free transfer and made him the highest earner in the club during the summer. A quite balanced option, which is able to both contribute offensively and be responsible defensively and can step in the middle should we need cover. The board thinks we're overpaying for him... Possibly, but at the start of the season he was plugging a quite large hole in the squad. It is also worth nothing that our ukranian regen Oleksander Matveev is still rated at a potential 5 stars and is getting regular playing time for us. He was on loan in the first half of the season on an Important Player deal, but they kept playing him at wing-back despite what we wanted, so I recalled him instead and found ways to feature him in the club. In the middle There is a bit of congestion in the midfield. I typically play with a playmaking option (either AP or DLP) coupled with a BWM, either on support or defend duty, depending on the quality of the opposition. In the playmaking role, Vinicius da Silva has gotten over the training facilities not being upgraded by the board and is starting to acclimate in Hungary (side note, Hungarian is a hard language to learn!). He is however not improving at all, which concerns me. He has great technique and first touch, but his palette is a bit limited and might fall off in the pecking order next year in favor of Yury Titov, a talented 18 year old who came on a free transfer from the Russian second league's Tom Tomsk. (screenshots of both players are below, let me know what you think of them). In the Ball winning role, Christian Kouan has been brought in too in the mid-season. He comes from Perugia in Serie B, played in Serie A when they were promoted and was bought by Newcastle for 4.4M€, where he stayed for 4 years (where he rotted on the bench in the last two...). Still, I view him as a quality option in the midfield. Finally, another great season for my right midfielder Baba. He is starting to attract interest from Serie A's Sassuolo. I hope I can hold on to him at least for next year and then get a large transfer fee after he gains the reputation of the European football we're going to get. 6 goals and 6 assists this year, partly because of the long-term injury to Csanad Novak, but a good season for him nonetheless. Up Front Despite the very high number of goals in the league, I think that this is now the weakest part of the team. We've had a 3m-month hip injury to our main tower up front Csanad Novak and we had to adjust a bit how we played, lofting less balls up front to him. When he came back, he scored still a few, but at 33 years old, I fear that his best days are definitely behind him. Our best scorer was Nico O'Reilly, who stepped in a Deep Lying Forward role, who rewarded us with 17 goals in the league. He wasn't the most reliable scorer though, sometimes completely disappearing from matches and sometimes scoring 4 in the same match. To complement him, I was looking for a good finisher/poacher and initially brought back Donat Varga, who was on loan with us 2 years ago. He is a bit of a one-trick pony, but he's got excellent attacking skills, isn't terribly slow and has the right mental abilities where it counts. He rewarded us with an astounding 14 goals in 15(13) appearances, so the return was pretty good. At the end of the year though, I found Lautaro de Leon, who seems to know how to put the ball in the back of the net, has good heading and a great football instinct. He played only 6 matches, but scored on his debut and comes in on a squad player role with reasonable wages. Finances Things are pretty bad financially and the board continuously refuses to upgrade the training facilities even when we had close to 2M€ in the bank. The strategy was to throw this problem farther down the line and hope that European qualification solves all this magically. I hope I'm right. Summary table Year Season League Position Media Pred Points Goal Diff Cup Europe Europe Ranking Avg. Attendance Top Scorer Top Assist Training Youth Junior Youth Rec 1 23-24 DII 9 17 47 -1 5th round NA 796 Zsombor Novak (10) Szablocs Varga (7) Basic Below Avg Average Below Avg 2 24-25 DII 4 6 46 17 5th round NA 861 Donat Varga (19) Szablocs Varga (11) Basic Below Avg Average Average 3 25-26 DII 1 4 62 38 5th round NA 872 Csanad Novak (20) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Average Average 4 26-27 DI 6 11 48 14 4th round NA 2066 Csanad Novak (19) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average 5 27-28 DI 2 10 62 29 WINNERS 2684 Nico O'Reilly (18) Simone Pontisso (10) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average

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

Yup, there used to be Serie C1 and C2, but they merged in 2014. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serie_C

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

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

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2026-2027 | Season 4 | First season in the top division After a very good season in the Second division, things start to get real now and our objective is to consolidate ourselves in the top division in Hungary. After that, we can start pushing for higher up. The board wants to us to bravely fight against relegation... I think we can do better than this, but with the media prediction at 500-1 at the start of the season and being ranked 11th out of 12 in the league, we were bracing ourselves for a long season where we would fight for scraps and narrowly avoiding the drop. The League Currently ranked 23rd in the world (one step below the English Championship in terms of reputation, to give you an idea of the level), the OTP Bank Liga has 12 teams and each play each other 3 times. The giant is Ferencvarosi TC, who's been winning the league consistently since 2018, with Fehévar and Ujpest being the usual challengers. In terms of wage budgets, the difference isn't astronomical, with Ferencvaros on a 9M€ budget, Fehévar on 6M€ and us newly promoted on a 2M€ budget. The average attendances are famelic though (13k for Ferencvaros, then it drops to 4k for Ujpest and goes all the way to 1.5k for the last teams in the division... we hover at around 2k currently). In Europe, Ferencvaros has reached the UCL Group stage in 2025 (finishing 35th in the new format), but apart from this has been consistently getting out in the qualifying rounds. The road will be quite long and the hill steep in that regards. There are currently 4 European spots, 1 UCL (in the second qualifying round), 1 UEL and 2 UECL, bottom two teams are relegated, without any chances of getting into playoffs. There is _some_ prize money, the winner currently gets 422k€ and it goes down steeply from there. Nothing close to the kind of budget needed to mount a European run. To give a sense of scale, in Turkey's top flight last year, we were getting this amount of money for each regular season win. There is no registration nor any foreign player rules, but I still need to be weary of this for European competitions when we get there. Transfer Window Again, mostly free transfers coming in, but I feel that this blessed time is slowly coming to an end. The board now allows us the possibility of scouting everywhere in the world, which I've taken on on a few occasions, briefly upgrading the scouting package to send scouts this way, but with our finances, having a few folks permanently scouting south america isn't yet a possibility. In the Out column, not much to say except that I've been able to get rid of some folks who were never close of making the jump to the first division. One thing to note is the quick flip of Jahmai Simposon-Pusey, who came in as a free transfer released from Man City's academy, but quickly fell behind better options and got unhappy. Still, 300k€ after playing 4 matches for us in less than 6 months is not a bad piece of business. in the In column, we can spot someone coming in on loan from our new Senior Affiliate (Villareal!), but don't get too excited, I got him for free to be our backup keeper he didn't get to see any action. We can also spot two Brazilians which were signed in January, coming from free transfer from Sao Paulo and Fortaleza after their contract didn't get renewed. More on them later. League I expected a big step up, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected, starting with a 2-2 draw against Fehévar at home. It took a bit of time to really get going, but during the course of the seasons, we found out that we were better than the teams who were at the bottom of the table and not being outclassed by the big teams. We lost a few, squeezed in a few surprise draws and 1 or two upsets to establish ourselves. Our defence wasn't great, but somehow we managed to score the second highest amount of goals in the league, finishing with a surprising 6th place! We can note the surprise winners were, Kisvarda, who were promoted back to the OTP Bank Liga just last year, after 1 season in the 2nd division. It was also a terrible performance by Ferenvaros, who actually sacked their managers at the end of this season after crashing out in the league and in the cup. This is their worst ever finish since 2012/13, so I can't really bank on this happening on a regular basis... Preliminary conclusion: this league will likely be much more winnable than I initially thought... The Cup Nothing to write home about. Without too much ambition by my or by the board and with virtue of a bad draw, we were knocked out by eventual league winners Kisvarda in the 4th round, so actually going out earlier than in previous seasons. We were expected to be competitive, so this allowed us to focus on the league more efficiently. The Team In the back Our best defender was Tibor Szabo, who made the jump with us in the first division and featured quite consistently with us and, to date, is the club's biggest signing at 375k€ from Budapest Honved last year. I did however had to promise to improve the training facilities to get him to sign (like the two Brazilians Kaua and Vinicius da Silva) and the board repeatedly refused to do so, so now they're unhappy and I actually might lose Tibor on a free at the end of his contract, which sucks... We can also spot the problem of Isaiah Dada-Mascoll, who was somewhat mistakenly given a star player ranking. Coming out of Man City academy, I thought he would have been better from the get go (thus with the wage that goes with it), but it turned out that he was a bit earlier on the curve than I had tought and was largely disappointing and fell a bit behind. now he's unhappy too, but I might want to salvage him next year, I think he's got pretty good potential. In the midfield We're playing again a 4-4-2, with one of the wingers playing in the Attacking winger position. It's been generally on the left, but we have the personnel able to switch it around and push on the right side instead, or even make it a 4-2-4 when we're chasing a goal. In general, it,s quite an offensive midfield though, which might explain our rather poor defensive record... The standout in terms of stats is once again Baba, the Senegalese youngster who operates from the right midfield. He's been great in progressing the ball and getting a cross in the box. Vinicius da Silva came with us in January and fills in the DLP role. A highly technical player with great vision, he is above average at this level and has lots of room to grow. He's on a long-term deal too, so he has lots of time to get over his unhappiness about training facilities not being upgraded by the board yet (I hope). In front This is where I will want to strengthen the team during this offseason. We were carried again by Csanad Novak this year (with 19 Jumping Reach, 16 Strength and 15 Heading, he's a real presence in the box, when we can get the ball to him). At 32, he's certainly going to be on the decline soon, but I got him a contract extension for the next two years to keep him in the Target Forward (Support) role and hopefully find him a proper partner in the offseason. Currently, that partner has been Levente Szabo or Stelian Costea, but buth have been underwhelming. Szabo is just a worse version of Novak and Costea has been constantly underwhelming, despite looking great on paper (and his loan is running out), so I'm really bound to find a better option this summer or next year is going to be very, very long. The Future The prospects are really nothing to write home about either, despite our U19 team performing very well in the youth league. But by looking at them., I think it's more a bad tale for the state of youth Hungarian football than anything else, as we've had this guy (Gergely Zimas) tear up the league (25 goals in 17(4) apps), but he's nowhere close to making the step up anywhere... I kinda hope I'm wrong, though... Other assorted news We now have Villareal as our senior affiliate. Looking to make that pay in the future years, although it's starting pretty tamely now. Our prize money for 6th place in the league didn't cover the "standard" performance bonus given to the team. Yikes. As a result, we're now only 48k€ in the black, starting from roughly 500k€. Yikes x2. Projections are looking pretty grim, the only way out of this I see is to push to Europe and a couple of player sales. Summary Table Year Season League Position Media Pred Points Goal Diff Cup Europe Europe Ranking Avg. Attendance Top Scorer Top Assist Training Youth Junior Youth Rec 1 23-24 DII 9 17 47 -1 5th round NA 796 Zsombor Novak (10) Szablocs Varga (7) Basic Below Avg Average Below Avg 2 24-25 DII 4 6 46 17 5th round NA 861 Donat Varga (19) Szablocs Varga (11) Basic Below Avg Average Average 3 25-26 DII 1 4 62 38 5th round NA 872 Csanad Novak (20) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Average Average 4 26-27 DI 6 11 48 14 4th round NA 2066 Csanad Novak (19) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2025-2026 | Season 3 After a good settling season in the Hungarian second division, this season was the one in which I hoped to step up and mount a credible challenge for one of the two promotion places in the Hungarian Second Division (Merkatil Bank Liga, now that i have installed the Real Name Fix). We weren't too too far last year, but not quite there, so the focus was to change that and definitely challenge for the top. Transfers This man speaks the truth. But I didn't want to just get a chance for promotion, so I really made a push for it. First order of business was getting a top striker, as our previous main man Donat Vargas's loan wasn't renewed (it's much harder to get back-to-back loans this year, which is not a bad thing for realism sake). I even paid real money for one player, it turns out that the finances at Dunaujvaros aren't totally in shambles compared to other lower leagues side, so I was able to shell out some money for a good defender. Comments on most of these guys will come later in the squad of the year section, but we can see that I have secured Fehévar as a Senior Affiliate, so I was abl eto secure a few loans from them (which ultimately did not play a large role in our season). In the Out column, Milan Kovacs was out on a 100k£ deal to Trencin in Slovakia (a 42k€ profit for us), which actually shows that we could sell some players who were somewhat falling out of the club, which is in itself quite a good news, event though Kovacs might be a bit of an outlier... He was good, I just found better players to take his place... Competitions The focus this year was really getting out of the Division II, so I really played a quite rotated squad for the Hungarian Cup, ultimately getting knocked out by Szeged in the Fifth Round, just in line with the board expectations. In the league though, things started great, with a 17-game unbeaten streak to start the season. We were sitting quite merrily at the top of the table, but then January came, where we lost 3 in a row (1 win in 6), but we were able to turn things around and secure the championship with 2 games remaining. As you can see from the number of goals for, there were a few good beatings along the way... 68 goals where the second highest was at 49 and our defense was the third in the league. The Team that made it I'm getting at a point where I feel I can get a bit emotionally attached to these guys. Don't get me wrong, they're still expandable if I find someone that kicks the ball better, but I can hope that the grow a bit with the team. So here are the highlights... Defense The real star in defense was Tibor Szabo, whom I signed from Honvéd for 375K€. Yes, he was the one I split some money for and he repaid it very well to us, with 2 goals, but most notably, a 7.41 average rating and a very dependable force in the heard of the defense. His partner in the middle was generally veteran Csaba Bllényesi, who will certainly not make it as a center back in the division above... The hope for the future is regen Olksandr Matveev, who came in through my youth intake last year and made regular appearances this year due to the DII requirement of having 1 U20 player at all time on the field. At the end of the year, he became a regular fixture in the right-back option and is developing quite well at the moment. I'm not sure he'll be able to make the jump next year in Division I (where there is no U20 requirement in the selection), but he'll come useful at some point in the future, I'm pretty sure. Midfield This is where most of the team changed, with quite a few great signings, all on free transfers. Coming on a free transfer at the end of last year after he was released from Shamrock Rovers, Dylan Watts came in to help us and solidified the midfield. A very versatile option who generally got either into a Mezzala (S) or a DLP (S) role, he came in with the occasional banger from the outside of the area and scored 8 goals and 43 assists in 20 games, a very good output from the mdifielder, even if he wasn't signed directly for his offensive contributions. At some point, I was a bit stuck with the U20 rule in the Hungarian DII, so I looked for options abroad who could help me immediately and ease that pressure in the lineup and that answer came in the form of Igor Gaidash, on loan from Dinamo Kyiv. Not the most technically gifted (apart from his passing) or physically, but he was a great presence in the midfield in a support role and made 28 appearances with close to a 7 average rating. He's one for the future where I likely won't be able to extend, but he has amazing mental attributes and I'll certainly keep an eye on him for the future. The guy who suffered the most from the arrival of Igor was Vicente Lopez, a gifted attacking midfielder who will likely get a good chance next year once Igor leaves. Great first touch and passing, good vision and work rate, I really think he can do very good things at our level, but unfortunately got a bit of the short end of the stick this year with the selection rules. Playing wide right, I still had Baba, who is developing well, but unfortunately doesn't count as U20 this year. Ever present on the right part of the midfield, he came in big with 13 assists over the course of the year. He can definitely make the step up to the next division. Up front With the departure of Donat Vargas who led us in goalscoring last year, I knew it was the weak spot of the team. I spotted this absolute lad in the Third Division, named Csanád Novák (he deserves proper accents and a non-spoiler-tag-screenshot). The moment I saw him, it was clear he was an absolute weapon in the right hands at that level. I mean, 19 Jumping Reach. 15 Heading. (that enough should convince you). 17 Strength. A good beard and the ears of Prince King Charles. What's not to love? He was quite inconsistent depending on who faced him, but when he got against some smaller folks, he'd just have a field day. In a 7-0 win, he scored 5 and got one assist. In a 5-0 win, he scored 4 and got 2 disallowed for offside. He's the ultimate lower league striker. Stick a big dude up front, aim for him and he's going to do well. Ironically, most of the time he was in a TF (S) role. I was hoping to have him hold the ball a bit and let the other pacy striker next to him feed off him holding the play, but he often took matters in his own hands and went with it. Other options up front were Noam Emeran, the Rwandan international whom I signed from Slavia Prague B (he's a Manchester United product), where he played in the AML role quite efficiently. Pacy, with good dribbling and crossing, he was a constant threat, which didn't get the level of praise he should have, often getting the "hockey-assist" playing off Novak to lead to a goal. All in all, I still think that this is the weakest part of the team at the moment and one I'll look to try to reinforce over the summer leading to next year. The brightest spot is Stelian Costea, who is on loan from Puskas Akadémia in the First Division until the end of next season. He fits rather well the technical, advanced forward that I like to play and can be a good complement to the tall-dude-up-front-of-the-moment. We'll see how this one goes. Youth Intake We're not at the level where the youth prospects can make a definite impact, but here it is for posterity, in case someone develops like I haven't expected it... Objectives for next season This will be our first season in the top flight, obviously the main objective is to survive there. The secondary objective is to strengthen our goal scoring department and, if we have a bit of cash to spare, start to boost our facilites. Our stadium is already a 10k seater, so this shouldn't be much of a money sink until a few years. Summary Year Season League Position Media Pred Points Goal Diff Cup Europe Europe Ranking Avg. Attendance Top Scorer Top Assist Training Youth Junior Youth Rec 1 23-24 DII 9 17 47 -1 5th round NA 796 Zsombor Novak (10) Szablocs Varga (7) Basic Below Avg Average Below Avg 2 24-25 DII 4 6 46 17 5th round NA 861 Donat Varga (19) Szablocs Varga (11) Basic Below Avg Average Average 3 25-26 DII 1 4 62 38 5th round NA 872 Csanad Novak (20) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Average Average

Things went pretty well this year. Still have 2 matches to play in the season, but we're going to the top Hungarian Division next year!

In my previous saves in Italy, it was always a bit of a mess getting out of Serie C, unless you win it outright. It seems that the playoffs drag on and on and on and, in the end, there are so little clubs that qualify through them. Good luck and hoping that you bring the Elefanti back to glory sooner than later!

The league went from 18 teams to 16 teams, so we played 4 less games. It was indeed a better year and I'm hoping that I can push for promotion this year!

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2024-2025 | Season 2 After securing survival last year in the Hungarian Division II, our sights turned towards pushing towards to the top and getting out of this division. That's second part of "let's solidify, get rid of deadwood" and, hopefully, finding a star or two that can drive us towards the top. Transfers There's been quite a bit of action on that front. Last year, I was looking for a good striker and found Stanislav Vavra from Domazlice, a free transfer from the Third division in Czech Republic. He came in big through, but was injured a bit which bit through his playing time. At 31 year old, he'll be good in the DII, but likely won't make the step up. Then, one that will make the step up is Baba, a 19 year old right midfielder which was released from both Real Madrid and ASPIRE Academy (in Senegal). He came in as a free transfer and has loads of potential. Also, in the DII, we hav to keep a U20 player on the field at all time, so with Baba as a starter, that requirement comes in pretty well. Finally, the only player for who I actually paid some money is Milan Kovács, coming from rival Gyirmót for 58K€, plugging a very large hole that we had in the midfield. He did however pick up 2 different injuries missing almost 2 months, but he has the potential to grow and help us in the next division. Competition Review We were expected to land a Top half finish and, in a 16-team league now, we delivered very well, settling on the second best goal difference in the division and comfortably going near the top, but were still quite a little way from the two promotion spots. We were able to get some good results against the top teams. in the Hungarian Cup, we went out on the Fifth Round again, losing against DI side Mosonmagyarovari TE on a pretty good match, losing just 1-2 at home. The Team The star of the year was Donat Varga, who came in on load from DI side Vasas (and they don't want to renew the loan) and his partner in crime was Levente Szabo, whom I signed permanently after he dropped off the team from Féhévar. He came in as a Target Man, with 14 heading and 15 Jumping Reach, scoring goals and bagging a few assists too at the same time, winning the DII player of the season, and deservedly so. For the Future There's not much to attach ourselves too, but one of the best prospects this year is Oleksandr Matveev, coming from Ukraine, a pretty decent full-back who is either-footed... We also have Akos Szendrei, who was in last year's intake, but flew over the team and is a physical monster and will probably fill in our quota for U20 next year at some point... He's technically inept, though. Finally, Tamas Koncz got a few appearances this year, but was sent over to the U19s to ensure that he gets more playing time once Baba came in and we had someone who was regularly filling in the U20 spot. Summary Year Season League Position Media Pred Points Goal Diff Cup Europe Europe Ranking Avg. Attendance Top Scorer Top Assist Training Youth Junior Youth Rec 1 23-24 DII 9 17 47 -1 5th round NA 796 Zsombor Novak (10) Szablocs Varga (7) Basic Below Avg Average Below Avg 2 24-25 DII 4 6 46 17 5th round NA 861 Donat Varga (19) Szablocs Varga (11) Basic Below Avg Average Average

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2023-2024 | Season 1 This year Daniel Matas is going to Hungary and heading to the hometown of a friend and colleague, roughly an hour south of Budapest. I had to holiday for a loooooong time to get the promoted from the 3rd division, but that's the team I wanted. Hungary The league pyramid in Hungary is rather simple in FM, it's 2 divisions, the top two teams from Division II get promoted to Division I. Funny thing, Division II goes from 18 teams to 16 teams in 2024-2025 and they get rid of the relegation playoff and go straight for a relegation for the bottom 3 teams. (at this time, I don't know if it's a FM23 bug or if they're really planning in shrinking the league...) In the top flight, there are 12 teams, 4 European spots and 2 relegation spots. It is currently ranked 27th in the world, so there is plenty of place to grow. Dunaujvaros PASE (known as FC in the game) The club, founded in 1998 on the ashes of Dunaujvaros FC, which was founded on the ashes of Dunaferr, whose highlight was winning the top flight in 2000 and thus getting in the Champions League Qualification stage in 2001, winning against Hajduk, but then losing to Rosenborg in the 3rd Qualifying Round. After that, it's been a slow downfall, with a stint in the top flight in 2014/2015, but that's it. The game has promoted them back again to the Hungary Division II this year and made them habitable! But then, don't get your hopes up. FM23 gives us a 100-1 odd, with a prediction of finishing 17th out of 18... We were the only side promoted to the Division II this year (that's why I had to holiday quite a few times before getting the result I wanted!) Season overview The first season when taking this kind of team is always to try to survive the first season, weed out the deadwood and build a credible team with a few key players that can carry you out of the division (all while learning a new iteration of the game). This year was not different. Lots of loans in, lots of free transfers which were or were not successful, but in the end, I mounded a credible enough band of misfits to overachieve and get to a 9th place finish, which the board actually considers as top-half. At this point, we're not going to get even remotely attached to these guys. They're expendable, we look only at their current ability and there is essentially no chance that we're thinking of developing players. The season went actually relatively well, but the team fell into a lull around mid-season where we cemented in to a mid-table team and lost a bit of the good wind that we had been building early on in the season. In the end, a 9th place is probably a fair result, but there are noticeable gaps in the team which we'll need to fill in to even aspire to a promotion next season. 47 points? Yeah, that's ok for a first season, but never close to what we need. We'll need to turn the losses into draws and these draws into wins. But it's still 6 places above what was predicted, so it's a moral victory if I can ever find one. The Players This section is going to be short for now, but that's always the fun part of this challenge, getting to unearth Rhys Guppy, Daniel Matas or Sebastian Biver, so it'll always a have a soft spot in my heart. GK - Constantin Frommann I signe the guy on a free transfer from the German league system on massive wages compared to the rest of my team (the next highest earner is on 500 € p/w, to give a sense of scale), but the hole we had at the keeper position was so massive that I didn't mind overpaying for this guy. He was head and shoulders above the current 37-year-old keeper that I had in place, so I'm betting that I can actually keep him and he can guide us for a promotion. Mate Papp - DC One of the stars of the team which we actually have in place is Mate Papp at central defender. I'm including him here only to give you a sense of what a good player at the Hungarian Division II level looks like. He was good for the team, one of the two players to actually come up with an average rating of over 7.00 over the course of the season. He's ok enough, but I have 1-2 years to find players better than him. Zsombor Novak - ST Our top scorer was actually this guy, who got a 6.92 rating and 10 goals across all competitions. As much as I thank him for his contribution, there's no way we're going to make any progress if we can't find someone who can put the ball in the back of the net at a better ration than Zsombor Novak. For the future In the Hungarian Division II, I can't really hope for any prospects in any shape or form. However, this guy Tamas Koncz came in as a winger and was by far the highest rated member of that intake. A bit for the meme, but I gave him first team opportunities at 15 years old and 138 days, making him the youngest player in Division II history, and he got an assist on his debut. I felt like a genius. I think he's going to be good for the next few years then fade off, but let's give him a chance...! Next season objectives: Get a striker who can actually get some goals in the back of the net. Compete for a promotion. Turn negative goal difference into a positive one. Summary Year Season League Position Media Pred Points Goal Diff Cup Europe Europe Ranking Avg. Attendance Top Scorer Top Assist 1 23-24 DII 9 17 47 -1 5th round NA lol 796 Zsombor Novak (10) Szablocs Varga (7)

I'll be starting in Hungary this year. I've been holidaying in the Beta period and will start the challenge properly when the full game is out!

Related, but the tie is also glitching out under the shirt.