MarcxD

Summer 2042 While normally a first transfer period at a new club can be quite hectic and busy, it actually was one of the calmest transfer periods of this save. This was all due to getting to the club more than a million (p/a) over the wage budget and even with a negative transfer budget, which I don't remember seeing before. I sold one player, one of the highest earning players, a Russian central midfielder. He'll go to the league below us, where clubs apparently do have money. The only player I signed was a young Serbian right back who'll be a back up there. Otherwise the squad, or at least the first team, isn't that bad and we should be able to at least compete - but injuries could be really bad. Even so, we are predicted at the tail end of the league - while for any that read this that are familiar with the Belgian league might be surprised at the clubs who are predicted to battle for the title. Westerlo got a tycoon in 2038, but Sint-Truiden just built themselves up. It is of course 20 years in the future. From the first friendlies it seemed we weren't doing great, but actually looking at the game stats and xG we were unlucky to not get more from those games, so I wasn't that pessimistic about going into the regular season. I was right to think that way, as we have done pretty well so far, although inconsistent. Especially the 4-0 against Kortrijk was a crazy result, as they hadn't been beaten at that point. Interestingly, all the clubs already have dropped quite a few points, so perhaps it will be a tight league. As far as Gent is concerned, I really don't have any particular goals outside of seeing how well we'll do and staying clear of any relegation danger.

A new club, a new country... I had wanted to manage in a league slightly higher up than the Polish one and not return yet to the Netherlands and Germany, so it really was a choice between Belgium and Denmark most likely. Looking at the map on the first page, Gent was one of only a few cities actually eligible in Belgium for this save, so I took the chance immediately after they sacked their previous manager after he finished 12th. Right now the club is 2M in the red, and on the lower end of the table. The squad is quite young and mostly filled with Belgians, so it will be interesting to see if I can morph them into a squad fit for my needs. With the club not doing great financially there won't be much room of doing much transfer business in the first season(s) I expect. For the somewhat longer term of course once again I will try to make the club a force to reckon with nationally, and with Belgium being 6th in the coefficients table right now, if we make it to the European places we should also be able to do something of note in Europe. I will continue to try and focus on young European talents like I did with Lechia.

Resignation, overview Domestically it was a highly successful stay. Irritatingly, I managed to only win one cup. Europe was a tough nut to crack and apart from one year where we made it to the EL final, it wasn't that much to write home about. It is hard for a club of our size - we easily make it to the CL groups each year but we just are hopelessly outclassed there. Financially I leave the club in a fantastic state, with great facilities as well and the stadium in our own hands. Former club watch After I left Köln, Klopp and Zidane were my successors, and they kept the team right up there as the strongest team in Germany, winning more titles than Bayern. It's not too often you see the AI actually continue on from what you've built, so that's great to see. VVV has been pretty stable in these last eight years, not quite being where I put them as close contenders behind Ajax & Feyenoord for the title, but still strong sub top to high mid table contenders. But now on to my next step...

April - May 2042 Good enough in the league, but sadly we did not do a repeat in the cup. Another convincing title win, but compared to some previous seasons we perhaps did not do quite as well. Taking into account another fourth place in the CL, I think this is as far as I'm going to be able to take Lechia. One of the problems is highlighted in the squad screen: it's hard getting further with the Polish rep - pretty much my entire team is wanted by clubs abroad and the player values are really low. On the other hand it is an exciting young team, but it will be impossible to keep them together.

January - March 2042 Moravec sadly left for his limited fee, but otherwise the team was kept intact. Genchev is a direct replacement for Moravec, so a new central defender. The grade of our intakes is now very strong year after year, although the stars may flatter somewhat seeing as some of them have poor determination this year. Anyway, I shall not be using them as I am pretty much set on leaving after this season now. While we did lose to the #2 in the league, Lech Poznan, we are certainly headed for another title.

September - December 2041 Can't really be happy as we were once again outclassed in the CL group. We also had a bit of a blimp in November in the league, losing points in 3 of the 4 league games, with the Radomiak game being the worst of all having three of my players getting red cards... Even so, we are still very comfortable in the lead. A huge offer, but not an option. With only six months on my contract remaining, however, I am now looking more seriously at jobs that come up, as I feel I've kind of plateaued at Lechia.

July - August 2041 Generally a promising start, although I would've liked us to deal with Slovan Bratislava a bit more convincingly. We were in pot 3, but as we got Chelsea in pot 4 it didn't really help us out. My stay in the Polish league has certainly been one of some surprising ups and downs for the other teams, but Legia being in last place is a bit much.

Summer 2041 Well, this was a pretty crazy summer! CM Horvat, AML Vesely and DR Matkovic all sold for 15m+, with a couple more sales worth more than 10M. New record sale. Obviously I needed to spend money in the light of these transfers. Pantovic is a new midfielder; Torres and Kwitonda new GKs; Perrone a very talented but still young central defender; Casado a young right back and Kasia finally another central defender and a Polish one at that. He was signed as a replacement for Abdulahi who left at the very end of the transfer period.

April - May 2041 We finished the season off convincingly and finally there's a first cup win as well! With all the other teams still being very much inconsistent and a match for each other by far the easiest season yet. I will be looking to sign a new GK as Terry was only a stopgap for this season really. I suspect I will lose Boye after one season due to his limited fee and hope Moravec won't go. With many clubs being interested in other players I could see some big sales happening again. I have a contract of one more year currently - I have not completely decided if I leave afterwards, but I am considering it. I will have stayed longer at Lechia than any of the previous teams and I've established domination in Poland - just a little bit in-between in Europe right now.

Intake 2041 Another very strong intake on the whole, but perhaps not quite wonderkids.

March 2041 This came out of nowhere, as I haven't gotten any club offers here yet. I did consider applying, as London is named on the map in the first post. I however eventually decided not to, as I would want to join a club a little bit lower if I go to England. It has definitely made me realize I've been here in Poland for a long while already though - this is my seventh season here. Not exactly sure how long I will stay here but I am going to think about the next step. Another sale after the transfer period ended... bought him for 500K so a good profit and he was already kind of replaced by new signing Moravec. Perfect month.

January - February 2041 Two big sales! Mebrahtu was a great buy for us after all as a striker, scoring lots of goals. As we paid 2.4M for him that's a nice profit. Saric was a sell I was less happy with, but I couldn't really keep him anymore with clubs like Man Utd going after him. I had agreed to let Novakovic for if a club paid 2.8m; not ideal that it was another Polish team, but I did let him go. Thorsen is a new rotational option as AML; and I bought back former youth product Kostyrka, after selling him to NEC for 8.5M. Perez a new right back; Moravec a new central defender and Moreira a new striker. Jacobsen is a new AMR but maybe he won't be ready for the first team quite yet. Not hugely impressive in form, but really we should just finish out this season and win the title easily - and try to go for a cup win.

September - December 2040 And on and on we go... Sadly I was right and it's another fourth place for us. We need to have some luck in the CL draw to get a third place and a good EL run (like two seasons ago) as it's hard to improve so much to be able to really compete with the best of the best. Although after starting with 4 points after our first two games I was hopeful but sadly reality kicked in. The league however is just about showing up and trying to give rotational minutes when possible. It is remarkable to see different clubs almost every season being our closest competitors, this year's surprise being Cracovia. Not really great for the Polish success in Europe if the other teams are so hit and miss.

July - August 2040 A perfect start to the new season - another supercup win, and back into the CL groups again. The easiest qualifying so far. Not that we had much luck again with the draw. I'm afraid another fourth place is quite likely. Really, the league should now be a formality.

Summer 2040 Interesting. 48.5M is a lot to repay but we certainly can... and owning the stadium should be great for the club in the long term. A few pointed signings: Diaconescu a new midfielder (back on loan for this season, however); Cirovic a new AMR; Boye a new central defender; Matkovic a new RB; and Terry a new GK. Outside of Terry they are all young but go straight into first team rotation (except for Rizzo who is a B team player for now). What I was afraid of happened: Hernandez and Devetak left for their limited fees. I also decided to sell Pereira Luiz for almost 10M and let Petkovic, my current 1st choice GK, go.

Squad 2040 Well, with pretty much my entire first team plus a few subs being sought after by other clubs, this next summer could be getting spicy. Hernandez and Devetak are both on low limited fees, so I can't really see them staying unless they agree to new contracts. Some player profiles: Pereira Luiz Hernandez Horvat Wisniewski Sjögren Mebrahtu

April - May 2040 And that is another league win! Outside of Radomiak not much competition this year, and even with the players not performing in the last two matches this was quite clearly the most convincing and easy title so far. 100+ Goals scored as well. Reached icon status at my third club

Thanks! I really don't have an answer regarding Legia, no real clear reason. They did have a takeover in 2038 but they also bought players worth 10M this season (and sold worth 11m). They did just sack their manager Exequiel Palacios who took over last summer (and who actually played for me in 2035 for a few months).

March 2040 / Intake It seems like we are now reaching the stage where we are too good for the league. At least with this form. // Broadly a very good intake, but no immediate superstar potential. Although, you always need to wait and see. The new facilities, upgrades and a new HoYD seem to bear fruit already, though.

January - February 2040 The 40s started with this curious message - seeing as the takeover happened a while ago. I didn't want to spend crazily, but I did spend more than I otherwise would have. A new back (Novakovic), defender (Sinclair) and midfielder (Sjögren). I did overpay for Sjögren, but he is 22 so even if I won't sell him for a big profit at least he should be good enough to stay here for quite a few seasons. Without the new money from the owners I would not have done that transfer. It was party as a result of an outgoing transfer. Namely, I had to sell Bitton due to his limited fee. The young Israeli midfielder did not stay long here, alas. a month after our transfer period was over I decided to sell Janga for my first 10m+ sale here. He has been playing really well for us for many seasons now, and as I bought him for barely more than 50K he is pretty much the ideal transfer, especially in the context of this save. Radomiak dropped a few points but are still there with us. Even though Gornik has lost seven times this season, it is impressive to see them so high up still, whereas Legia and Pogon are still down in mid-table.

September - December 2039 Sadly this time around we didn't manage to do anything spectacular in the CL group, so that's our European season over with. Domestically, however, we are doing well - but we still haven't managed a cup run. Gornik did not keep their start going, but Radomiak is doing incredibly well! Surprising stuff, but even as Legia and Pogon are mid-table at best so far, we still are in a tough title race.

Let's see if Gornik is up to it!

July - August 2039 We won a supercup! I am shocked! Another pretty easy run to the CL Group, and a faultless start in the league for the first time. We are now at a level where we should be dominating the league. Sure, we've won the league a couple of times, but we are still in pretty close title races each year and drop unnecessary amounts of points. Let's see if this season will be different. It'll be interesting to see if we can beat NEC to the third spot. Since they qualified from the pretty strong Eredivisie however, it probably won't be easy. Remarkably, of all teams Górnik also has a perfect start - even without conceding any goals. Legia and Pogon are both having bad starts however, which seems like a good thing for us as they should probably be our main competitors.

Summer 2039 Slowly improving, we need the other clubs to do their part though. And there goes Kostyrka - I wasn't 100% on whether I wanted to sell him but NEC definitely seems to have overpaid. Özcan was a young Turkish midfielder whom I had expected to develop further with the amount of games he played so for a nice million I let him go; Meier was the new AML but I wasn't too impressed so for a small profit he's back to Germany. Kennedy was the second of the two British midfielders the new owners signed two years ago, for a nice little profit he is gone after an okay time here, and lastly Bensabouh has been my first choice GK for a long while but at 33 he wasn't anymore so it's great to still get a nice bit of money for him. Parus is a great get, a very talented Polish striker who should get plenty of game time here, helped by the league requirements (at least one u22 Polish player in the starting 11); Veselý is a new AML; Saric and Milovac new midfielders but Milovac is back on loan at Partizan; and Cetic is a back-up who can play on all forward positions. The loanee Viragh came in to get a back-up GK just for this season. The rest probably won't feature this next season yet.

May 2039 Wow! A shock home win against Juventus made we made it all the way to the final of the EL, where the result was more predictable. In the league we have been dominant and so the title is ours again! We need to do so well, because Legia was really on it as well. With a ridiculous amount of my players being wanted, I worry about the transfer period but we'll have plenty of money to spend and already a very talented and young squad the future must be bright.