Riebow

Lewes FC Season Review (23/24) League: Quite a surprising first season, where we sometimes seemed to score at will, but concede just as easily. We massively overachieved and against all odds we were competing for the title in our maiden season. We started the save with 17 players and lost 2 before the actual season began, which gave us 15 fit bodies to take on the Vanarama National League South. We finished 3rd behind Havant & Waterlooville and Barnet. In the Play-offs semi finals we etched out a win against Dover, before falling to Barnet in the Playoffs final. To be honest, we have no business going up. We need a couple of seasons of growth in the vanarama south for our youngsters to find their legs. FA Cup: No big away day for us this season as we were knocked out by Torquay in the 4rd preliminary round. FA Trophy Some minor success in the FA Trophy, where we beat Vanarama National team Dag & Red, before falling to Solhull Moors on penalties. Meet my HOYD Meet Bobby Mimms, 19 WwY, 15 YPA and 15 PP and, oh yeah, Model Citizen personality... In the Vanarama National League South... And he's on a non-contract earning... 0 Intake: Not the intake I was hoping for. A good defender prospect in Charlie Beadle, but not that much to talk about. We'll give them playing minutes, because we have to. It's remarkable how in the English 6th tier with Limited Youth Recruitment I get players from Holland and Norway, while in my Iran save I could barely get players from around the block with Exceptional Youth Recruitment. YR makes no sense at all. Charlie Beadle: I'll be playing him as a Ball Playing Defender and he's probably already my best centre back. Finances and upgrades We get some nice home attendance, resulting in some positive net income each month. We currently have about 344.085 euro in the bank. A good season also means that our board was more willing to upgrade our facilities. We ended up improving our Youth Recruitment to Fairly Basic from Limited and our Academy Coaching to Good from Fairly Basic. Transfers Nothing in, nothing out Next Season Next season we start from scratch. Despite our good season, some players seem to have lost 2 attribute points across the board, despite being in their mid twenties. We will have to play our youngsters, of which a 2,5 silver stars goalkeeper. Luckily our board doesn't have big ambitions and we only need to stay up.

And we jump straight back in: We have 16 players, nicely divided across all positions. First season(s) is all about staying up.

Oghab Tehran Season Review (34/35): The End! We've done it! Rejoice boys and girls, because after a dominating season we won both League and the Champions League, bringing this challenge to a rewarding end. Asian Champions League: After a disappointing early exit last season, our lads had something to make up. And make up they did! Because we didn't win the title last season, we had to play a qualification game to enter the group stage. Hutteen out of Syria didn't prove to be too much of a challenge. In the group stage we were drawn with Tishreen (Syria), Al-Ain (UAE) and Al-Duhail (Qatar). We finished with a perfect 18 out of 18 and qualification to the 2nd round. There we had to take on... Al-Duhail again (somehow I believed only the group winners advanced, but apparently I was wrong...). After already beating them twice, I didn't have much worries and we dispatched them with a 4-1 home win and a 2-2 tie. The quarter finals saw us drawn with our old nemesis: Shabab Al-Ahli out of UAE. The past two seasons they were our road block to continental success. I didn't need much to rile up the boys. Take revenge I said, and that they did. We pounded them with a resounding 5-0 home win, exorcising any demons there might have been left. The semi's gave us Al-Shabab (KSA), a team we jostled with a couple times before. They also were no match, as the boys were aching for a final. As with the previous challenger, they fell to us 5-0 in the first leg, making the 2nd leg all but obsolete. We finally made it the finals! In the finals waited Asian behemoth: Melbourne Victory, 3 times winner out of the last 5. A strong home leg gave us a 2-0 advantage, surely nothing could go wrong now? With a 2-0 lead in our bags, we took the long flight to Melbourne. The game was a slug fest, they were by far the best team and all we could do was hold on for dear life. They took the lead in the 61st minute and it was squeaky bum time. Things didn't improve as our American Michael Don Draper took a direct red card in the 72nd minute. Playtime was over, we put everyone behind the ball, and put on our best impression of 1980's Italian football. They hit the crossbar in the 93rd minute, I almost collapsed, but when the final whistle rang, we could finally let out a sigh of relief: Champions of Asia! League: A dominating season, culminating with a 7-0!! victory away at Persepolis. Cup: The only disappointment this season, as we forgot to score against Nassaji in the 1/4 finals and lost on penalties. Best XI The real heroes of this save. Maziar Motahari rotated with Hojat Kazemian and probably would have become our starting GK if this save continued. Michael Don Draper remains our best defender, while Soheil Mirdoraghi developed into our best wing back. In midfield Amir Rezazadeh came out of nowhere to become our best midfielder. In offence both Majid Abedzadeh and Mehdi Zare had amazing seasons and were a big part of our success. What's the point of Youth Recruitment? Every single one of our players was Iranian, with 4 players having dual nationalities. The fast majority coming from Tehran or the surrounding suburbs. I have no idea what's the point of Youth Recruitment... Shouldn't you expect more players from different parts of the country or even the region with Youth Recruitment maxed out? The future? I wanted to find a way to complete this challenge, so I picked a country where I hoped it would be a bit easier than one of the European ones. Iran has a pretty good youth rating, resulting in decent talent through the intakes. The squad was ridiculously strong to start with. I made it to the top division without having to use any youth players. The competition in Asia is also not comparable with Europe, and after a couple of seasons we were competing with the top teams. So for people who desperately want to finish this challenge I can only recommend to take a stab at the middle east. I really want to do a save in England now, so I'll be on the lookout for a nice little team to take over, preferably one that hasn't been completed yet by other members of the forum (so no South Shields or FC United). Fin

Oghab Tehran Season Review (33/34) League: No 4th title in a row. Apparently there is something called U23 Asian Cup which takes place in the middle of the season, which took away 5 of my starters. At the same time we were dealing with a bit of an injury crisis which put us behind the eight ball for the entire season. At the end we come 1 point close to succeed ourselves as league winners. Cup: No cup success this season as well. We were knocked out in the 1/4 finals by Tractor on penalties. Champions League: So no luck in the league or the cup, but all we need to finish this challenge is the CL. Surely, we did it this season? Unfortunately, not. We stormed through the group stage, winning every game. In the 2nd round we had the chance to enact revenge on Shabab Al-Ahli, who denied us the final last season. Things were looking good after winning the first leg at home 1-0, but just like last season we bottled it in the return leg and we lose 2-0. Early exit and 0/3 in trophies this season. Intake Not the best, not the worst. As is the theme of this save, we get plenty of offensive talent. Finances and upgrades We keep upgrading our facilities. Both our youth and training facilities are Great, with another upgrade pending for our Training facilities. Transfers No major outgoing transfers. LAFC made a huge bid for our star striker Majid Abedzadeh, but he turned them down. However, we are in danger of losing 2 starters on a free as they refuse to sign new deals. Best XI We might have a competition for our starting goalkeeper spot, with Maziar Motahari (intake of 31) nibbling on the heels of our current starter Hojat Kazemian (intake of 28). We get our first centre back reaching the 60-points mark in Michael Don Draper (intake of 31). Our best midfielder Ali Fazli (intake of 30) is a 4,5 star player, but doesn't want to sign a new deal. Let's hope we can change his mind. Majid Abedzadeh (intake of 31) surpassed the 80-points mark. He scored 35 goals in 32 games this season and is by far our best player. Next season This season was a bust, but our goal remain the same: to win the CL!

Oghab Tehran Season Review (32/33) League: A resurgent Persepolis gave us a run for our money, winning convincingly their first 12 games before they met their city rivals. We beat them 3 times this year, leaving no doubt who rules this division now. We win the league for the 3rd time straight. Did we also had success in other fronts...? Cup: We made the double! We were incredibly lucky with the draw, meeting only one top division team before the final. That team was Persepolis, though, but we beat them at their grounds. In the final we were too strong for Tractor. We'll soon need a bigger trophy cabinet! Champions League: We won the title and cup, but how we did we do in the CL? Did we win the magical treble and finish this challenge? We did amazingly in the group stage, despite being drawn with top teams from UAE, Qatar and Saoudi Arabia. We won our group to advance to the 2nd round, where we challenged Al Shabab (KSA), with the likes of Ferran Torres in their ranks. We couldn't be stopped though, winning both games and advancing to the quarter finals. There we had to take on our Iranian brethren of Fajr Sepasi. I was pretty optimistic, but the result was way closer than expected. We advanced on away goals, drawing 0 -0 at home and 2-2 away. Shabab Al-Ahli (UAE) were our next opponents. We won the first leg at home 2-1 and dreams of champions league glory started to sink in. Alas, it wasn't to be! In a heartbreaker we lost the away leg 1-0. Our right back decided to take 2 yellow cards in a span of 2 minutes putting us down 10 man with 30 minutes to go. Even then, in the closing minutes, our star striker Majid Abedzadeh missed a chance he normally scores with his eyes closed. No final for us this year, but we take heart that we're very very close! Intake: A much better intake than the previous year, with finally some talented defenders! The talent: Amir Hossein Khorshidi (GK): Caveat, at the time of the intake he had 15's for Reflexes and Handling. Even though, this is an amazing young goalkeeper to get through the intake. He's our 3rd best and will get plenty of time to develop. Ali Garousi CB: Driven central defender, just how I like them. NXGN: Amazingly, we have a player on the NXGN list! Majid Abedzadeh (intake of 31) entered the list positioned 43rd. He might be our first wonderkid. How long we will be able to keep him, that remains to be seen, with the likes of Benfica and Porto sniffing around. His stats: Transfers: In what is a yearly tradition, we lose our best players to teams from the Arabian peninsula. Iman Souri (intake of 28), would have become unsettled if he wasn't allowed to speak with Al-Taawoun. We managed to negotiate that he could stay until the end of the season, probably taking a bit less transfer revenue in return. He's leaving us for 400K, but more importantly, a 50% sell-on clause, which will be worth a couple of millions. Upgrades and finances Our 30K capacity stadium is paying off, allowing us to rack in the dinars due to gate receipts. We managed to upgrade our facilities twice, which will bring them both to Above Average (I think, not sure what comes after Average) Best XI Defensively we remain poor and that's probably what's keeping us from winning the CL. Midfield and offence remain very strong, although with the loss of Iman Souri, we'll need some other players stepping up. Next season: Next season we go for all the marbles. It's winning the CL or bust time!

Oghab Tehran Season Review (31/32) League: We lost our two best players before the start of the season and we had to deal with the Champions League midweek games, which made me believe we should be happy with a mid table finish after winning the title last season. However, we dealt with the extra games well and at the midway point we were only 4 points behind the top spots. With the extra games out of the way we could focus squarely on the league and with 2 games to play we had a 4 point lead. Nerves seemed to take the best of us when we conceded a 94th minute penalty to draw 2-2 in the penultimate game. Luckily for us our closest rival, Fajr Sepasi, drew as well so we could celebrate the repeat! League table, finishing 4 points ahead of Fajr Sepasi. Paykan finished 3rd. The big three - Persepolis, Tractor and Esteghial - seem to be a bit in a slump. Cup: There was no FA cup this season. It didn't happen and you're not going to convince me otherwise... Asian Champions League: Yeah, we won't win this any time soon... At this point in time the teams from the Gulf or Saoudi Arabia are too strong. It also doesn't help they keep poaching our best players. Intake Not as good as previous years, and again mostly offensive talent. We really need some decent defenders. Finances and upgrades We make money! Winning the title has caused a big raise in our average attendance, resulting in a nice monthly profit of 300K. We were finally able to upgrade our facilities again, improving both our facilities to Adequate. Transfers I mentioned before we lost our 2 best players before the start of the season. Gholam Hossein Salehi (intake of 28) refused to sign a new contact, so he left on a free. He eventually signed for Persepolis (traitor). Siamak Kiani (intake of 28) was topscorer and voted player of the season in Iran. He left for 325K and a nice sell-on fee to Al-Nassr in Saoudi-Arabia Kaveh Rahimi (intake of 29). Annoyingly the transfer window in KSA is still open in April and for the 2nd year in a row we lose a great player at the closing moment of the season. He was by far our best defender and I'm very sad to lose him. The deal scattered our transfer record with an outgoing fee of 650K with a 50% sell-on fee The goal is clear: sell players to KSA or the Gulf states, see their values increase massively, sell their clauses and invest the money in the facilities. Best XI: We have plenty of talent in attack and midfield, but we're average at best on defence. Mahmoud Karbalaei is my best hope to become a star defender. Our wing backs are average as well and we need someone to really break through. Ali Fazli is only 17 and an amazing playmaker, however he's already asking to leave with 2 years left on his deal... Majid Abedzadeh is only 16 and already our best forward. Next season: Are we ready for a dynasty? Competing for titles should be a given from now on. The goal should be to be more competitive with the other teams from the Middle East in the Champions League.

Oghab Tehran Season Review (30/31) League: Bolstered with last season's intake and no Champions League football to worry about I had good hopes for a good season. And what a season we had! We took advantage of an off season from Persepolis, winner of 6 of last 7 seasons, to storm to the top of the league. Our biggest competition came, surprisingly, from Paykan. We stayed cool and 3 games before the end of the season we lifted our first trophy. League winners! The table: Cup: Not a great cup run, allowing us to focus even more on the league. Intake: Another intake with full of potential. Personalities are decent, but still not great. Also nice to see that not very common Iran-USA combo :-D. The talent: Mojtaba Peyrovani: 2,5 stars CA, but again that unambitious/Low Det combo.. Majid Abedzadeh: wow, just the perfect striker, with great finising, pace, first touch, etc... He will go straight to the first team. Mahmoud Karbalaei: I desperately need some defenders, although wing backs even more. I love his physicals and he'll get plenty of game time next season. Transfers: We said goodbye to the first prospect to break into the first team and even made it to club captain. Al-Fayha (Saoudi-Arabia) came in with a bid and he was ready to go. We agreed on a 100K fee with a sell-on clause. Next Season: With the challenge half done, our focus will move to the CL. Tractor made it to the final last season, so it seems doable for a team out of Iran. We're at risk of losing our star player Gholam Hossein Salehi (Intake of 28) on a free at the current season. He refuses to sign a new contract. Hopefully the prospect of CL football changes his mind.

Oghab Tehran Season Review (29/30) League: A step back compared to last season, finishing mid table again. We sold a couple of starters, of whom my best prospect to come out of the intakes up to now in Ashan Seifi (Intake of 27). He was my sole decent right back and we struggled mightily early in the season adopting. Combined with the extra games due to the Champions League and we were in and around the relegation spots after 11 games. Just like previous season we came under steam during the months of December and January, winning every single game and suddenly competing again for CL qualification. However, a disastrous end to the season saw us finish in the 8th spot. Cup: We were soundly beaten by Sepahan in the 6th round. Asian Champions League We made it to the group phase, much to my own surprise. We had to beat better teams in Al-Arabi (Qatar) and Sharjah (UAE). In the group phase we were drawn with Al-Gharafa (Qatar), Al-Ain (UAE) and Tishreen (Syria). Al-Gharafa and Al-Ain were too strong, but we did manage a win against the Syrians. Intake: Quite an intake, potential wise! 9 players with 5 stars potential, although some of their personalities give pause. The talent: Ali Mohammadi: 3 stars CA, but unfortunately the dreaded Unambitious + low det combo Ali Fazli: Another midfielder with 3 stars CA (already 3,5 at the end of the season) with a better personality. He will probably replace our current DLP who's still an original. Ali Mehri: Another midfielder, but again Unambitious and low det Finances and upgrades We saw a nice increase in our average attendance, rising to 9603. As a result we start to make some profits each month, which I reinvested in the training facilities. Our board also agreed on a further increase to the academy coaching. So is there money in the Asian Champions League? Yes! Kind of... A draw nets us 10K, a win 60K... Pennies into pounds, etc... Transfers: At the end of last season we sold our all time topscorer: Ehsan Rohani. Some team out of UAE gave us 100K. At the start of this season we also sold Ashan Seifi for the same amount + 35% of profit of next sale. He was in the last year of his contract and didn't want to renew. He's valued between 3 and 6M now, so I'm just waiting to the option to sell the clause. Next season: With no CL to worry about, we can focus squarely on the league. I want to compete for the title next season, but our defence is so poor. We're still relying on our original players and their age is catching up with them. Unfortunately we're pretty talent poor at the back. As you can see we're very talented up front, okay in midfield, but very poor in midfield. Our two best rated CB's are not even CB's! They're central midfielders, who I'll start retraining to ball playing defenders. In goal I wanted to develop our Model Citizen, but he doesn't seem to cut it. Hojat Kazemian (Intake of 28) improved a lot from his loan spell, so he will start taking over from Reza Ahmadi. In midfield we see Ali Mohammadi immediately coming in as our 2nd best central midfielder. Salehi and Kiani are absolute gems on the wings or up front.

Oghab Tehran Season Review (28/29) League: A change of tactic brought a huge surge in performance. After a slow start we stormed through the league, at some point winning 11 straight games. We were also very competitive against the likes of Persepolis and Tractor. The title was never really in reach, but we finished on a very deserved 3rd spot, which means Champions League football once again! Cup: A nice little cup run, with the best possible outcome (except for winning the whole thing obviously): an extra home game against Persepolis! We lost, but gained an extra 550K in gate receipts! Intake: I forgot to take a screenshot of the intake, so you will have to do with the excel recap. Best prospect by far is Iman Souri: Iman Souri: Finances and Upgrades Unfortunately there is no price money in this league, which means my only sources of income are sold out stadiums during home games against Persepolis and Esteghial. This season we were lucky to draw Persepolis in the cup as well, netting us an extra 550K. We decided to invest that money in our youth facilities. Next season: I feel we're close to competing with the top teams in the league and our ambitions from now on should be winning the title. It's also our second appearance in the Asian Champions League, so let's pray for a good draw and see if we can make it into the group phase. (Let's also pray there's some money there...)

Oghab Tehran Season Review (27/28) League: A 2nd season of mid table mediocrity. The positive is that some of our youngsters have overtaken some originals as best players. Despite an up and down season at some point we were just outside of the CL places. It's a league where everyone can beat everyone. Cup: We made it one round further this year, getting knocked out in the 5th round. Intake: A decent intake with lots of high potential players. We'll give them plenty of time to develop. Finances and upgrades No upgrades unfortunately. There's no price money, so my finances basically survive due to home games against Persepolis and Esteghial. I wish there was a way to get the attendance grow quicker. Next season It's a very competitive league, so we might find ourselves inside the first 4 spots without really trying to. The focus remains on developing our players.

Oghab Tehran Season Review (26/27) League: As we were possibly overachieving last season by finishing 4th, we came down to earth and finished mid table. Our team still mostly exists out of original players, with some youngsters gradually getting some more playing time. Our best central midfielders are on the wrong side of 30 and their performance fell off a cliff. As a result we were pretty mediocre the entire season, but never really in danger of relegation. I expect a couple of seasons of consolidation, while we try to develop our players and facilities. Cup: A very painful defeat, considering we were up 0-1 and the opposition was a man down. They scored 2 ridiculous goals and we were eliminated again in the 4th round. Europe! Asia! Our first experience with the Asian Champions League lasted 2 games. We defeated Nejmeh out of Lebanon in the first preliminary round, but Al-Wahda out of UAE were too strong. Intake: A much better intake than before with tons of potential ability. I also can't complain about the personalities coming through. The Talent: Javad Rahimi is the best of the bunch: 2,5 star CA. In my opinion better suited as an inverted winger than a regular winger. I worry because he has a Balanced personality and he's constantly nagging about training, which never bodes well. Ebrahim Ghavidel is a pure winger in my opinion, a lot of speed , but not much else. Behrouz Babaei is a technically gifted central midfielder. He could become our future play maker. Ashkan Seifi: a very needed right FB. I was rotating between an ageing original player and a youngster from the previous intake. This guy seems like the real deal Naser Esfandiari: Another technically gifted midfielder, with great passing and first touch. We really need to revamp our midfield, so really happy with the talent coming in. Mostafa Alizadeh: Another GK, 5 star potential. Upgrades 2 more home games against Esteghial and Persepolis paid for an upgrade of our training facilities Also upgraded our junior coaching: Next season: I'm hoping for another season of consolidation and building the team. By the end of next season I would like to have a core of young players ready to replace the old guard.

Oghab Tehran Season Review (25/26) League: A surprisingly good first season in the highest tier, still with mostly my original players! We competed for the Champions League spots (spots 1 - 3 qualify for the Asian CL, plus the winner of the FA cup), for most of the seasons, eventually finishing 4th. Because Persepolis also won the cup, the next CL spot went to us! Cup: We made it to the 4th round again, but lost narrowly against one of the better teams in the nation in Aluminium Arak. Intake: Another mediocre intake due to our poor facilities Mehdi Zare: He seems like the best of the bunch. A quick striker with a good personality. Hossein Dashti: Our central midfielders are getting there in age, so we need some fresh blood. Finances: We started the season with more than a 1M in debt, but luckily for us we possess a 30K capacity stadium. 2 home games against local rivals Persepolis and Esteghial resulted in two sold out stadiums and suddenly we're back in the black! With the finances repaired we even got some improvements approved! A rising attendance should allow us to improve our training and youth facilities over time as well. Next season: My first time in the Asian Champions League, so I'm not sure what to expect... I'm hoping for some extra cash influxes, so that I can get some facilities approved. I also need to get some youngsters in the first team so that we can become an established top division team.

Oghab Tehran Season Review (24/25) League: Well, Iran is fun. 2nd season, 2nd promotion. We're up to the top league, which is named Persian Gulf Professional League (TIL). It appears we have a fairly decent squad, the only downside is that none of our youngsters are good enough for the senior team. Much of the praise and glory has to be bestowed to Ehsan Rohani, who scored a whopping 40 goals in the league. Cup: We made it to the 4th round and were beaten by a top division league team. Intake: Forgot to take a screenshot of the intake, so you will have to do with some excel magic: We have Excellent Youth Recruitment, but apparently we can barely find our way outside of Tehran. Not a great intake again, but slightly better than last year. Finances: Let's hope there's some money in the top division, because my finances are horrific. Upgrades: Nothing, Nada, niente. Despite back to back promotions, we can't get even a coaching course approved. We desperately need some more income. Next season: We're a professional team now, so that will help with development. Let's try to stay up and have some improvements approved.

Always take the promotion imo. It will be better for your players development. Chances are you will have a better team at the end of next season than at the start.

Oghab Tehran Season Review (23/24) League: Expectations were sky high for this newly promoted team. The board wanted us to finish in the top 2 places, while the fans plainly demanded promotion. Only 1 teams goes up to the First Division (2nd tier). I had no idea how to estimate the strength of my squad or of the league in general. With these kind of expectations, this could end up being a very short challenge. In the end I didn't need to worry. The squad was more than strong enough to compete for the title and that we did! Champions in our first season in the 2nd division and promotion secured! Cup: We made it to the 5th round, where we drew a home game against Persian juggernaut Persepolis. As this was also a local derby, we had a whopping 27K attendance, compared to our regular 700 in league games. This was a very welcome financial windfall. We obviously lost, but the money was more important. Intake Not great for a first intake... The squad is already very good for this level, so it was to be expected. Luckily the current squad is also quite young, so I can manage with the current players for a while. Behnam Nami: Best of the bunch, he will rotate in the senior squad next season as I don't have much dept in central midfield. Hossein Espandar: Centre back with a lot of potential. Mohammad Hosseini: Diminutive left back, has the wretched low determination + unambitious personality combo. Finances (or lack thereof...) I guess one of the issue with using a custom database is that there might be balancing issues. I'm just haemorrhaging money, despite not spending even half of our wage budget. As as result the board doesn't want to expect any improvements to our facilities nor can I go on any coaching course. Most teams in the First Division are professional, but it looks like we'll have to stay semi-pro for the time being Next Season: Hopefully we only have to stay up. We did beat a First Division team in the cup last season, so it shows we can compete. Let's also hope there's some money at this level...

I'm putting my Arras save on a hold for a while and I'm moving to the Middle East. I'm taking over Oghab Tehran out of Iran who got promoted to the Iranian Second Division (3rd tier). Expectations are high, as the board expects us to achieve a top 2 finish and our fans wants us to see promoted to the First Division. Our coaching attributes: Our facilities: Nice 30K stadium and excellent youth recruitment to start with.

Arras FA Season Review (42/43): Les Boyaux Rouges League: In a season where we beat PSG twice and were leading at the half way point we disappointedly finished 3rd, mainly due to a poor end of the season (only 1 win in the last 8 games!). Nîmes has surfaced as a new super team in the French league, pouring 100's of millions of transfers each season. They finally managed to buy themselves a title! The main difference between us and PSG/Nîmes is that they absolutely batter the smaller team, while we occasionally drop points. Just look at the gap in goal difference! Last 8 games... not pretty. Only win against PSG is kinda funny :-D. Cup: We finally did it! We reached the final of the French cup, where we inevitably faced PSG. We were the better team and should have won in the regular time. Unfortunately, they scored out of their only chance, and we managed to equalize in the 2nd half. We conceded a red card just before Extra Time, which meant all hands on deck to get to penalties. Ibrahima Ngom (intake of 28), oldest player on the squad, missed the first penalty and that was that. PSG didn't miss a single penalty. We lost on penalties 5-4. Another season without silverware. Europe (why do we bother?) This competition is not for us. To be honest, we play a mostly heavily rotated squad, as I want to focus on the league first. We only managed 1 win and 2 draws and didn't make it to the play offs again. Intake: A better intake than the years before, with 4 Elite talents. 2 of them goalkeepers though. The Talent Giovanni Capurro: GK n1, unambitious personality combined with low determination doesn't spell much good, but we'll give him a shot. Aldrich Ikanga: I need more depth in central midfield, so this is nice addition. Although he's more of a water carrier type than a creative outlet Hicham Nemdil: GK n2, he's um ... tall? Rajab Sulieman: all the way from that well know football talent factory called Eritrea! He's supposed to be the biggest talent of the intake. He has good stats for a winger, so we'll see how he develops. Wunderkind? Wonderkind? Wonderkid? Kyian Neff (intake of 38), joined our stable of Wonderkids. His emergence had repercussions for another former Wonderkid... Transfers In the winter mercato I decided to sell Jean-Marc Gérardin (intake of 37) for a measly 17M... Not sure if this was my best decision. According to my coaches he was full to close potential and it looks like previously mentioned Kylian Neff has a higher ceiling, so I decided to let him go, This guy could be special: Nicolas Savelli (intake of 37) is my best player, a leading player in the Ligue 1 with 4,5 stars CA. Most importantly: his potential is through the roof. According to my coaches he could still improve significantly! He generally plays as a Segundo Volante of Box to box midfielder. Will he still be here next season, with half of the premier league sniffing around? Next Season Existential questions: with the emergence of Nîmes, winning the French league has become even harder. Not to mention, we still seem a decade off from winning the CL... I'm pondering to put this save on hold and try somewhere else... More updates to come soon!

Arras FA Season Review (41/42): Les Boyaux Rouges League: This was the season we competed with the big boys. With 4 games to go, we were tied at the top with PSG with them having the better goal difference. Monaco followed on only 3 points and also Nimes had an outside chance to the title. The whole of France is cheering for the plucky underdogs against the oil money from Qatar, but can they produce the unimaginable? 2 games to go, both me and PSG win our games (them with a last minute 1-0 victory over Lens), while Monaco is losing points. It looks like a 2 horse race for the title. Unfortunately the goal difference is still very much in their favour. Both schedules are pretty favourable. We play Metz at home (16th) and Nantes away (8th). They play Troyes away (9th) and Chatouroux at home (11th). We manage to squeak a 1-0 victory over Metz while PSG scores 2 late goals to come away with a victory over Troyes. It's all coming down to the wire! 33 games and the only thing separating us and the Evil Empire are a measly 5 goals. Will we achieve the impossible? Will be knock off Mordor and become champions of France? We start our game poorly as surely jitters have an effect on our star defender Sorel Kerim who knocks the ball past our own goalkeeper to give Nantes an early lead after 14 minutes. This is the time to show what we're made of, to display our resiliency and our grit. Sure enough, just before half time Paupol Malango (monsieur 19 determination himself) escapes from the right flank, cuts inside and hits the equalizer. It's 1-1 at half time. Not daring to watch the score of the PSG game, we go into the 2nd half with a new sense of purpose. In the 2nd half we take the game to Nantes, but without much success initially. Until minute 71! Paupol Malango, again, drives into the box, only to be stopped illegally by a Nantes defender. Penalty says the ref and who am I to argue? Basile The fox De Vos is our normal penalty taker, but he was just taken off. The back up penalty taker is... our goalkeeper Kemal Kebbal. They said I was crazy, a madman, for letting our goalkeeper take penalties. The Ass Man pleaded with me, telling me that he was terrible at taking penalties. I said: look, he has 10 for penalties, look around our squad, outside De Vos we have nobody above an 8! He's taking them and that's it! Did he miss a last minute penalty at Saint-Etienne, that might end up being the reason we're not crowned champions tonight? Sure, but let bygones be bygones. I have faith! So with the hopes and dreams of the city of Arras, nay the North, nay the entire country, on his shoulders he kicks the ball in the top right corner. It's 2-1!! Still, 2-1 is still to close to my liking, a bigger lead would give us some more breathing room. Who is there to take away any doubt? It's Sorel Kerim himself who heads a corner in the far corner in the 86th minute. Game, set and match. We're winning the match, but are we also winning the title? ... No, not even close. PSG easily beats Chatouroux and the title goes to Paris yet again. Still, fun season all around. Cup: One day we'll make it to the final. One day! It wasn't this year though, as we were beaten by PSG in the semi's Europe (Champions League edition): Our first time with the big boys and... it didn't go well. We started on fire, thrashing Cluj 7-0. After that, we only managed one more point: a 3-3 draw home against Arsenal. Yes, that's a 1-0 defeat at Admira f*cking Wacker, yikes. Intake: Yeah, not good...With the quality of my squad, I guess at this point it makes sense to have not too many 5 stars PA anymore as this would mean leading Ligue 1 players. Still, the last 3 intakes have been very average to say the least and not many youth players have progressed to the point of competing for senior squad positions. Transfers: Record sale before the start of the season. Axel Gaudry (intake of 35) was sold for 30M and a percentage of next sale to Newcastle. Bon Courage, Axel! Next Season: When you finish the season on equal points with PSG, there's only one way you can do better. After 19 seasons it's time to pronounce the C-word: Champions. That must be our ambition, and if that fails a Cup win would be nice as well.

Arras FA Season Review (40/41): Les Boyaux Rouges League: Our best season to date. Despite a heavy schedule with Conference League games, we were really good before New Year. We beat Monaco, Rennes and PSG at home (for Monaco it was their first loss of the season, after winning the first 12). Our form dropped off a bit after New Year and we lost touch with the big 4. We also dealt with some major injuries. At one point, both my starting wingers and a starting CB were out for months. The Season Review said I qualified for the Europa League, but I just got an inbox message saying that we're going to the Champions League instead! Cup: Knocked out in the 1/4 finals, despite being the better team, but another season without a trophy. Europe (Conference League edition) Played a completely rotated squad for those games and made it easily to the knockout stages. Unfortunately Newcastle was to strong and they ended up winning the League. Intake: What's there to say? Despite millions of euros in investments, complete rubbish intake with poor personalities to boot. The 'talent' Leo Forasacco: Mercenary winger, who might be better suited as a Pressing Forward? Wagner Pelicano (Great name though): low determination is a big red flag Emiliano Parisi: Another Mercenary Wonderkids!! We have 2 more wonderkids in the team! Jean-Marc Gérardin (intake of 37): If he had better physicals he would be super star. Still very good as an inverted winger from the left. Nicollas Savelli (Intake of 37): Really good well rounded midfielder, who's playing as a segundo volante or Box to Box midfielder Next Season: We're expanding our stadium, as our capacity of 14.392 seats is by far the smallest in the league. First time Champions League... I will keep using Europe to rotate my squad and aid younger players in their development until I feel we have a chance of winning it. I want to compete again next season with the big 4 for a CL spot. Do I dare to dream of cup glory?

Arras FA Season Review (39/40): Les Boyaux Rouges League: A year of consolidation in the Ligue 1. As last year we finished 7 and we qualified for Europe for the 2nd straight year. We're getting more competitive with the top teams, but we're still a few years before competing for the title. In sadder news, PSG is back on top. Cup: A lucky draw saw us go all the way to the semi-finals, where we lost to PSG in a barnburner. I really want to win the cup, but we'll need a lucky result against one of the top teams. Europe (NEW NEW NEW): Because the teams that reached the cup final also qualified for the Champions League, we were moved into the Europa League instead of the Conference League. For our very first game in Europe we were gifted a road trip to Kazakhstan. We mostly played a rotated squad in Europe, which explains the mixed bag of results. We finished 17th in the Group Phase and then easily beat Sankt-Gallen in the Playoff knockouts. We were then knocked out by Aston Villa, who ended up winning the whole thing. I'm more excited about the Conference League next season, as I feel we might have a outside chance of winning it. Wunderkid? Wunderkind? Wonderkid? Three players were given the famed wonderkid label: Michel Loiseau (Intake of 37) No surprise he's been named a Wonderkid, when you enter the game as ligue 1 quality player at age 15. To be honest he hasn't improved much, so it's possible his PA is close to his original CA. Maybe I can trick some team in spending some ridiculous amounts of money on him Sorel Kerim (Intake of 36): Another CB Wonderkid, from the year before Loisseau. He wants to move to a bigger team, so we agreed he can leave if someone gives us 91M... Axel Gaudry (intake of 35) This one is more of a surprise. He was out on loan to Le Mans for the previous two seasons and developed massively. He kept developing his first season back in the senior squad and could still improve significantly. He mostly plays as DM, but can play as a CB or FB as well. NXGN: Those first 3 look familiar... Intake: We have a rather decent squad now, so the intakes might start to look a bit underwhelming. There are a couple of players with potential, so let's hope they develop. The Talent: Next season Compete for the top 5 in the league. Try to win the cup and have some fun in Europe.

Arras FA Season Review (38/39): Les Boyaux Rouges League: Did someone say 'Europe'? We qualified for the Europa League? Although the inbox message says Conference League, the league table has us going to the Europa League... I guess we'll find out next season. Rennes wins the league for the 2nd year straight, which means the dominance of a certain team in the capital is finally over. The gap between the 4 biggest teams and us is still night and day and I don't see how we will close that anytime soon. Cup: Gutted to go out again Brest after being completely dominant the entire game and losing by penalties. Intake: An average intake with some shoddy personalities. Still, there are quite some players with 4,5/5 stars PA, so we'll see in a couple of years. Alexy Langlois is supposed to be the 'diamond in the rough', an attacking wing back. I also like the look of Jawad Vincent, a tall CB. The GK, Mamadou Sylla, also looks exciting. According to my worksheet he's the best rated GK to come out of my academy. Other: There is a limit with 7 domestic loans per season at the same time in France, which is really limiting in trying to develop the players who are not quite ready for first team football. We've finally had the option to select foreign affiliates. I've created affiliates with Virton in the Belgian 2nd division (no language barrier and can send as many loans as I want) and with Cosenza in the Serie B. They join the existing domestic affiliates with USBCO (Nat - 3) and AS Beauvaise Oise (National) Next season: We will say goodbye to some of our veterans who lost playing time to our youngsters. We will also compete in Europe for the first time (and for me personally at least since FM 15, I believe). Competing again for Europe, with an extra focus on the cup will be my goals for next season. If we can make a big sale, that would be the cherry on the cake.

Arras FA Season Review (37/38): Les Boyaux Rouges League: Our best season to date, finishing 8th and just outside of European Football. We had a terrible spell during the months of February and March which knocked us out of contention. This result was mainly due to the emergence of Paupol Malango (Intake of 35), who scored 16 goals in the league. Also, the country of France rejoiced when PSG didn't win the title for once. A Steven Gerrard led Rennes won the league comfortably this season. Game of the season: We slayed the dragon! We defeated Mordor! We blew up the Death Star. Honestly, this was the first time I even bothered playing the actual game. Before I just simulated our games against PSG, because what's the point anyway? This time around we were in pretty good form, so I gave it a try. I put on the game, went for a toilet break and a glass of water. When I came back Ibrahima Ngom was scoring the 4-0 on penalty. In the first half! (full disclosure they beat us 7-1 at home) Cup: We made it to the quarter finals, our best result yet. We were unlucky to draw PSG and this time they beat us comfortably 4-1. Intake: Not as good as previous intakes, but still 6 elite talents. A mixed bag of personalities though. The talent: Kylian Neff: Rated as the best prospect of the intake Ousmane Soumah Evan Maso Steve Ahmadou Basille De Vos: Finally a fellow Belgian! Mousa Tapo: Unambitious + low det.. no high hopes for this one NXGN: We have 2 players on the NXGN, including the winner! No surprise that Michel Loisseau (intake of 37) is on there. He's by far the best prospect to ever come out of our intake. He was already rated as a decent Ligue 1 player at age 15. I'm surprised that Paupol Malango won it though. This was a player I was waiting to develop and I'm really happy it finally happened. Finally somebody who can score a goal. The players: Paupol Malango: Michel Loisseau: Other: In France you can only send 7 players on load to domestic teams, which is becoming quite a problem. However, I don't get the option to select a foreign affiliate. Is this due to our reputation? Can someone shed some light on that? It would be really helpful to have an affiliate in Belgium for example. Next season: As we finished one spot from European football, the next step should be competing for either Conference or Europa League football .

Arras FA Season Review (36/37): Les Boyaux Rouges League: A year of regression. After our 9th place finish last season I was hoping for another year of growth and, more importantly, to see some improvements to our attacking talent. Neither really happened. While we're staying up another season, we struggle to score goals and to keep other teams from scoring (a bad combination most of the times). There are some excuses: we sold our starting GK at the beginning of the season and star player Ibrahima Ngom (2028 Intake) broke his ankle mid season and was out for 4 months. The end of the season was just dreadful. We won 2-1 to Toulouse where we looked fantastic the first 30 minutes, only to finish the game with 9 and barely hanging on for the win. The following games...7 losses, 1 draw and 0 wins. Cup: We lost in the 9th round to Troyes Intake: 3rd excellent intake in a row, with no less than 9! Elite Talents. This far in the save, that's quite good (or maybe it says something about our current level of talent). Our last HOYD was doing a good job, but was mostly bringing in players with good mentals (like work rate and team work), but lacking in technical ability. I made the change and the end of last season to bring in a new HOYD and so far we're getting in some technically gifted players. I'm especially excited about Raymond Fall and Jean-Marc Gerardin. Both have good ratings for Technique and Flair, something we desperately lack. The belle of the ball though is Michel Loisseau. 15 and already rated as a decent League 1 central defender. I can't play him until he becomes 16 in November though. The talent: Transfers: As mentioned above, we sold our starting GK to HSV for 5M, as we have plenty of talented GK's in the pipeline. Next Season: Hoping to once again compete for a mid table position. The last 3 intakes gave us a good core of players to build around, but they need time to develop. It's a fine balancing act between trying to develop your talents and trying to win games.

Arras FA Season Review (35/36): Les Boyaux Rouges League: The 2nd season in the top tier of French football was a season of stability. We never really were in a relegation fight and finished comfortably in mid table. As you can see there is huge drop off between the top 8 and the bottom 8. Cup: We were knocked out in the 10th round by 2nd tier team Lorient. Intake: The quality of our intakes has really improved a lot since we're in the League 1. Last season we received some much needed offensive fire power. This intake was more on the defensive side. For next season I'm hoping on some technically gifted midfielders. Personalities are mostly positive. It's nice to see the effects of our Perfectionist HOYD. I did notice that we're getting a lot of players with good Work Rate and Team work, but lack in technical abilities. Maybe a change in HOYD is needed... Sorel Kerim: My very first player coming through the intake with a CA above 2 stars! We really needed some talent at centre half, so really happy with him. His personality has also already improved from Fairly Loyal to Fairly Determined. José Adão: Nice to get some foreign newgens. José is a Portuguese full back. David Diallo: There are very few certainties in life, but churning out talented GK's is one of them. This one is unambitious and has 1 determination though.... Abdoul Ayayi: A central midfielder or centre back from Togo with some nice mentals. Formose Sow: Another full back, this time from Senegal. Other: We got our first player on the NXGN list! Alberto Crescenciano (2034 Intake) entered on the 16th spot. I had a look in the staff search and decided to make a change in HOYD. This one is a Model Citizen with 20 WwY and 16 for Judging Player Ability/Potential. He's 66 though... We'll see if it makes a difference in the type of players we're getting in. Next Season: We've maxed out our Youth Recruitment and Academy Coaching. Our youth facilities are Good, but there's no option to upgrade anymore at the moment. Our training facilities will be upgraded to Great in the off season. We will move back to our regular stadium, which has been expanded to 14 392 seats. Another mid table finish seems realistic. I'm also hoping to develop some of our attackers who came through last season's intake as our top scorer only has 10 goals on the season. I feel we're set up really well thanks to the last 2 intakes and we might be competing for European football in a couple of seasons.

Arras FA Season Review (34/35): Les Boyaux Rouges League: The bookies had us dead last with odds of 1000-1, so how did we do in the end? Did we go straight down or did we manage to stay up? Our first couple of games didn't go too well and that's an understatement. It took us until the 5th game before we could finally score a goal! Game day 6 brought with it our very first win. Victims were FC Metz. Ngom and Vinet gave us the much needed points. Things started to catch on a bit after that. We stole a win in Strasbourg and beat fellow bottom dwellers Brest with 1-0 scores. After logical losses to Toulouse and PSG we beat relegation rivals Grenoble 2-1. We followed that with losses to Rennes and Lille and finished the year with a win against Troyes. At this point we were sitting nicely on a 14th place. In the new year we lost a heart breaker in the cup agains Metz. We were up 3-0 at half time, only to go and lose on penalties. The loss really hit on our morale and our form plummeted. We achieved an unlikely tie at Lyon, but other than that it was just dreadful. Worst was 3-4 loss at Montpellier, where we were up 3-1 at halftime, lose a man with a red card and completely crumble. I had to put the laptop away for a while after that game. Our only win in that period came against Brest who were bottom of the league. With 5 games left to play the battle for relegation was still very much going on. Brest and Grenoble were far behind at that point and would relegate. The only question remaining was who would finish 16th and have to play relegation/promotion playoffs. We started the series with a disappointing tie against Grenoble at home. We then lost against Rennes, who were competing for the title. We finally managed a win at home against Lille, who where having a shocking season. Last two games would see us take on direct rivals Troyes and Sochaux. We lost agains Troyes and they climbed ahead of us to the 15th place, which meant we were now in the relegation playoff spot. One game to go. Sochaux was only 1 point ahead of us, so a win would secure our stay in the League 1. And we did! Milorad Petkovic gave us a very deserved 1-0 victory and another season in League 1. The league table at the end: PSG won the title after close battle with Rennes. At the bottom Brest, Grenoble and Sochaux relegated to the 2nd division. We finished 14th! Cup: As mentioned above we lost a heart breaker in the 9th round after squandering a 3-0 lead. Intake: Finally a decent intake with some wonderful talents. We really need a new batch of players to build around. Paupol Malango: Best of the bunch. Fast and good at the ball, with great finishing. Finally some much needed help for the final third. Stanley Anatol: Another player for the final third. Dominique Aubert: This one has 'ball winning midfielder' written all over him. Diego Minvielle: It wouldn't be an intake without a 5-star PA GK Alex Gaudry: Good defensive midfielder with a great personality. Jessy Charbonnel: and yes another high potential GK... Next Season Ok, this is simply ridiculous! When we were promoted to the 3rd tier we needed to move to a new stadium, so our board moved us more than 700km away to play in 380-capacity stadium. We now have a new stadium and it's already at full capacity so our board wants to expand it, which is all fine. So what do they do? They rent our original stadium which was supposed to be insufficient to play in the National, but apparently good enough to play in League 1???!!! This is another season we will massively miss out on gate receipts. This is really a stupid bug.