DaneBramage

NK Dornava - September 2033 3. SNL Five wins, three losses. The losses were expected as two were to sides I'd picked out as being amongst the strongest last year, and the other was to a newly relegated team. It doesn't look like we're going to be in the mix this year, too many losses this early will have us on the back foot and I doubt that the other contenders will have as many issues this time. Immediately losing to most of them has shown they're definitely better than us on their day. I forgot to take a screenshot of the league table at this point, but I believe we were in 5th place. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A mostly rotated XI easily beat a lower division side. 30n David Oblak scored the first goalkeeper goal of the season. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2032/33 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities We secured our highest ever finish (for the tenth time in 11 seasons), and I would have snatched your hand off for 2nd place at the start of the year. Given how close we were though, even as late as mid-March, it did hurt a bit how badly we fell out of contention for promotion. Five losses in nine games took us out of the mix, though four of these were to the other contenders, so at least it was losses to good competition rather than the also-rans. The proposed takeover of the club fell through, but the owner is still looking to sell. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats Goalkeeper goals have slowed down, with 30n David Oblak only netting two penalties this year. Doing his actual job, he was generally impressive with 15 clean sheets, including 12 in the first 14 games. When he did concede though he often conceded a lot, letting in three goals twice, four goals twice, and five and six goals once. 30a Sandi Grbec was named fan's player of the year for his 10 goals and 8 assists in 21 games, mostly coming in the first half of the season. He was less productive after Christmas, and an injury finished his campaign early. 29k Thomas Brauner was top scorer again, but down on last year's tally. Goals and assists were pretty well spread over our wingers and strikers, but the rest of the team didn't contribute much in this regard. The majority of the first-team squad will be having their contracts renewed, but the back-ups whinging about wanting pay increases will be given the boot, both for annoying me and so we can trim the squad. Our U19 squad currently has 44 players in it, including overage players, so that's obviously too many. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - May 2033 3. SNL The loss to Brezice meant the title race was over, and Rudar Velenje were crowned champions. With the pressure off, we turned into world-beaters for the final three games, just smashing through the opposition. 29k Thomas Brauner and 31a Stefan Karjnc each used this as an opportunity to fill their boots. My pessimism in the last update was unwarranted. While we did drop down to 5th after the loss to Brezice, each of the three teams that finished below us dropped points over the final three games, meaning we rose back up to 2nd. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - April 2033 3. SNL Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. We got absolutely smashed by Rudar Velenje. Men against boys. After half an hour we were down to ten boys, but at that point it was already 3-0. We didn't stand a chance. It was truly pathetic. And then it got worse from there. We lost 4-3 to Krsko, despite allowing them an xG of just 1.00. Despicable. Over the course of these two games 29l Slavisa Bezjak made four mistakes leading to goals being conceded, so he was fined a total of four weeks wages. I dropped all of the defensive line and the goalkeeper for the Ljubno game, but the replacements were just as bad and we slumped to a third loss in a row. I put the AssMan in charge of team selection for the final game of the month, and we just about scraped a narrow victory to at least stop the rot. 32a Sandi Grbec (8 goals and 8 assists in 20 appearances) tore his knee ligament in this game though, ruling him out for the rest of the season. Well off the pace now. I'd be surprised if we keep a hold of second place, wouldn't be surprised if we dropped down to fifth. ------------------------------------ This came in after the Krsko loss. I'm not looking to move, thinking of this as a one club save, but I did half consider it due to my bad mood at that point. They're six points adrift at the bottom of the 1. SNL though, so probably a bad idea anyway. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - March 2033 Facilities I put in another cheeky request and it was accepted without much hassle. The board are currently looking to sell the club so I thought it would be rejected for that reason, but I guess they figured they'd just approve it now for an easy life and then the affect on finances will be someone else's problem. I'd really like to improve our youth facilities, but the option to request this has literally never been available. Hopefully it will trigger at some point and it's not some kind of bug. ------------------------------------ Incomings I brought back a right-back who'd previously been stolen away by Rudar Velenje. He didn't play much in his five years there, playing more while on a couple of loan spells, but did benefit from their better training facilities. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL We were missing our best two players against Sostanj, following a couple of knocks they'd picked up in the winter friendlies. Luckily the opposition was rubbish, and 32e Senad Omladic grabbed a double on his debut. Tehnotim Pesnica have been underperforming this season, but they had enough about them to beat us in a disappointing home loss. Before Christmas our defensive record was impeccable, but it's been dodgy since returning to action. We beat Peca pretty easily, but still somehow managed to concede three times. We temporarily jumped above Rudar Velenje, but then dropped back below again after our loss. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2033 Youth Intake A golden generation! 13 players from this batch were kept. Three players were ditched for crap personalities, and a few others were lucky that their starting CAs were a bit higher otherwise they'd have been joining them. Just the one additional nationality this year, a lad from the Faroe Islands. In the tryout match the youth candidates beat our U19 team 7-1. 33m Damjan Buzinel scored a brace and was immediately rated as the third best striker at the club. ------------------------------------

Wow, that's quite the dramatic (and traumatic) couple of months. Incredibly harsh firing from Envigado. Definitely something off with the rules of the league not being understood by the board when managing expectations. The less said about the second job the better. I'd well and truly be binning off Colombia for a bit now.

NK Dornava - November 2032 3. SNL Wow. Super chuffed. No goals conceded and 16 points from a possible 18. 30a Sandi Grbec is really impressing with two winning goals this month. He's already hit double figures from the right-wing, along with six assists. The star of my 2032 youth intake was a right-winger and I assumed he'd go straight into the first-team, but maybe it won't be such an easy decision to make now. Our defensive record is insane. We've only conceded nine goals, and they came in two games. Outside of that we've kept 12 clean sheets, 30n David Oblak already beating the previous record with half the season still to go. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije Higher tier opposition, so I threw in the second-string to rest up the starting XI for the league instead. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - September 2032 3. SNL We made a cracking start to the season - five games, five wins, five clean sheets. Flying. I started to get my hopes up that this could be our year, and then Rudar Velenje visited and smashed us. Our overall record against them is one draw and six losses, I'm just fed up with playing them. Hope they get promoted this year just so we don't have to play them again next campaign. Then we got battered by Krsko as well, just to make it clear that the bigger teams can stomp us at will. Seven players were fined after that performance. We rebounded with a win over Ljubno, it should have been emphatic but our forwards had an off day. Despite the two losses we're still in the mix, but I'd put all of the other sides in the top five as favourites over us. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije Comfortable win against lower tier opposition. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2031/32 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities I'm very happy with how this year has gone. We've improved our position again, got our youth improvement upgraded (now 9/20), and thanks to the 28a Sasa Pirc money our finances are looking good. Plus there's still more to come from the remaining instalments, and possible appearances clause (currently two of the required 10 games have been met). We've picked up 10 more points than our previous best at this level, and scored 14 more. At no point did we lose two games in a row, our worst run was four games without a win and three of these were draws. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats The season awards were swept by 29k Thomas Brauner. With 23 goals, 10 assists, and an average rating of 7.71 he was the obvious candidate for the fan's player of the year. Our wingers 28f Rok Oblak and 30a Sandi Grbec came on strong in the second half of the season and each made a good amount of goal contributions. Four players from this squad will be leaving in the summer. Goalkeeper 29p Maric Kastelic threw a strop when an offer of £0 for him was rejected during the winter break, and is refusing to speak about a new contract. Right-back 27m Nino Fink will be returning to Maribor once his loan ends. Sub midfielder 29n Goran Gorenc has agreed to join Nafta Lendava once his contract expires. Striker 29g Borut Kocar had one spell when he scored five games in a row, yet managed zero goals in his other 20 appearances. Why did I stick with him for so long?! And he thinks his wage should be doubled! Not happening, jog on sunshine. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - May 2032 Facilities While we were on a good run I requested an improvement to our youth recruitment, fully expecting the usual rejection. I selected a different starting argument from normal, and surprisingly the upgrade was agreed straight away without question. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL The sparkling form of 29k Thomas Brauner continued with five more goals in these five games. He was unselfish too, also providing five assists in this time. 28f Rok Oblak was the main benefactor from that, scoring a magnificent seven goals, including a hat-trick against Brezice. While our main striker and left-winger were impressing, our other striker was having a 'mare. We'd rotated players and roles in this position, but it had now been 12 games since whoever was lining up as the left-sided striker had last scored. I changed the role to complete forward, and 28l Mitja Buzinel came in and scored a brace in each of the final two games (his only goals this season). The final day saw an absolute goalfest take place. It was a bonkers scoreline, but we lead from the 12th minute onwards and the result was never in doubt. After the dodgy March it had looked like we might be losing our grip on 5th place, but a strong ending to the season (seven wins from nine) saw us pull away and finish comfortably. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - April 2032 3. SNL We returned to action with a bore draw against Sampion, then got hammered by Rudar Velenje. None of our goals came until we were already 4-0 down and we'd left ourselves way too much to do. We then laboured to a two-all draw with Ljutomer, a creditable result in the circumstances - after a red card we had to play more than an hour with then men. I held a team meeting before April began to try and bring morale back up, and it worked. We picked up three good wins, and 29k Thomas Brauner was a man on fire. He grabbed a hat-trick in the first win, scored a brace in the next, then provided a pair of assists in the third. We're just about still holding on to 5th place, but the gap down to 6th has shrunk from five points to just the one. Looking down the table, seeing Sampion in bottom spot illustrates how poor the draw with them was. And I like how perfectly midtable Odranci's record is. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2032 Youth Intake A golden generation! What I really wanted from this batch was a striker, but luck was not on my side. 32i Martin Marjanovic looks class though. a lot better than our existing right wingers. When he turns 17 (in just over a year) he'll be straight into the starting line-up. I didn't bother signing two players, due to poor personalities and a lack of ability. If someone's good enough to play for us I can look past the personalities at this stage, but when they have the lowest CA as well it's not worth it. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - January 2032 Ex-Player 28a Sasa Pirc is on the move again. He didn't really impress much in the Netherlands, with 6 goals in 37 Eerste Divisie appearances for Jong Ajax (and only three sub appearances for the senior team), but it was enough to catch the eye of some big clubs. Manchester United were scouting him for a long time but didn't make a move, and it was Sheffield United who swooped to bring him to the Premier League for £8.75 million. We're due a total of £176k as a solidarity payment, which would be a massive amount if we received it all in one go. Instead, the transfer has some structured payments, so we're getting £74k upfront then another three instalments of £32k each. The fee could increase by another £3.2 million if he makes 10 appearances, so that could potentially bring in another £64k for us. ------------------------------------

Thanks. Part of the problem was that my best players could easily be stolen away, so anyone that did start to develop quickly left. I can offer contracts now so at least I'll be able to keep those who do show some quality a bit longer.

NK Dornava - November 2031 3. SNL Vzhod I usually include a month or two's results at a time, so going three months without posting could mean one of two things. Either we've been playing well and I haven't wanted to ruin that by tempting the FM Gods. Or we've been playing badly and I've been too annoyed to write about it. Luckily, its been the former this time. There's a lot of green on the board here. 29k Thomas Brauner has been in great form with 12 goals in 13 league games, including a brilliant hat-trick against Sentjur. His strike partner 29g Borut Kocar had a slow start to the season, and counting the end of last season too had gone more than a dozen games without scoring. Rather than going with my normal approach of criticism I went with encouragement instead, and he responded with goals in five successive games. Our only losses in this period came to the top two. The draw against Tehnotim Pesnica was the sixth time we've played them, and the first time we've taken a point. Very happy with this. I was expecting a tougher season this year, maybe even a step backwards, but we're surpassing expectations at the halfway stage. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A while back I asked the board for a senior affiliate to try and get a bit of extra cash. They agreed and linked us up with Beltinci. There's no annual fee though, and they've never tried loaning us any players either (that I wouldn't be able to use anyway). The arrangement has been pretty pointless. So that's why Beltinci are purple here. They beat us easily. Our goals came when we were already four down. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - August 2031 Departures Our starting right-back was unsettled by Maribor showing an interest, though their initial approach to just take him for free was swiftly rejected. They then came back offering a friendly only, and we again rejected it. At this point 27m Nino Fink kicked off and said he wanted to leave, and would do so at the end of his contract (one year remaining). So when Maribor came back for a third time offering £7k, we managed to negotiate it up to £25k + 50% of next sale + a friendly. After the deal was agreed, Maribor then asked if we wanted to keep him this year on loan, so we've still got him for another 12 months. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL Vzhod Two good home wins, two bad away losses. Goalkeeper 29p Matic Kastelic was productive in the wins, with a goal in the first and an assist in the second. 29k Thomas Brauner scored in both games to solidify his position in the starting line-up. The losses were both poor, though the stats suggested they shouldn't have been quite so emphatic. We had almost as many opportunities as Technotim Pesnica, but just couldn't put the ball in the net. And three individual errors in defence cost us against Rudar Velenje. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2030/31 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities This is the first season that we haven't improved our position from the previous year. There were bright spells, but also really poor periods. It feels like we've hit a rut and will probably be in the third tier for a while. Pointing out the obvious here, as it's the thing everybody wants, but could really do with a class striker coming through. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats 28l Mitja Buzinel top scored with 14 goals. A respectable tally, but no one else even getting close to this amount was disappointing. 28d Denis Vuk was next with six goals, plus the same amount of assists. This was enough for him to earn the fan's player of the year award. He's leaving in the summer though, along with 28g Matic Horvat, both off to Krka Novo Mesto. They thought this was a chance to move up the divisions but after their new club's relegation, they'll be back at this level next year. It's a big hit for us, losing both of our starting left sided players and the two best rated by CA. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - May 2031 3. SNL Vzhod Think it's time to give up on this 5-2-3 idea. We've limped to the end of the season with just two wins from the final nine games. If it wasn't for stoppage-time goals we'd have been three points worse off, and even counting those an average of one game is not enough. We held on to secure another top-half finish. I have no idea how we're ever going to progress and catch up with the leading sides, we're just so far off the pace. ------------------------------------ Facilities We got our reward for playing kids throughout the season. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - April 2031 3. SNL Vzhod The 5-2-3 experiment continued to work well through March, making it six wins from seven games. April saw a disappointing downturn though, triggered by a loss to leaders Videm. Apart from the Sampion game we're not scoring enough goals. Our wins have only came when we've kept clean sheets, if we concede then we're out of contention. Only scoring nine times in seven games isn't really good enough, 28l Mitja Buzinel is giving it a good go but not getting enough support from his teammates. We're looking good for a top-half finish, with a bit of luck possibly even as high as 5th. The loss column is the obvious problem. We've won more games than the two teams above us, but have let too many draws slip away. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2031 Youth Intake A golden generation! We're probably getting to the point soon where I'll stop signing up all youth players. There are fewer now who could make an immediate impact in the first-team, and the wages are adding up. We have another youth recruitment upgrade due at the end of the season (thanks to playing enough young players throughout the year), and hopefully that will start having an effect on the potential column. Everyone listed as 4.5-5.0 PA doesn't give much of an indicator towards who will actually be better than the others. Boring year for nationalities. Bad year for personalities. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - November 2030 3. SNL Vzhod After the loss to Brezice I got fed up and changed formations to try and provoke something from the team. We went 5-2-3 to try and stop conceding so many, but also leave attacking threats in play. The first game like this saw us pick up a point, it should have been more but we missed a penalty. The positive impact continued over the next three games and we scored maximum points from them. After the missed penalty previously I realised I didn't have my goalie set up to take them, so I put that right and 29p Matic Kastelic scored against Sentjur. He also missed one in the loss to Rudar Velenje, but it wouldn't have affected the result. Top-half at the moment, I'll take it. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - September 2030 Departures The problem we're having at the moment is loads of teams asking to take our players, but not actually offering any money to do so. And this then upsets the players when I refuse these derisory bids. The only player I managed to negotiate a fee for was 28o Zan Zizek. £1k is basically nothing, even with a 50% clause on his next sale, but it's better than nothing. 28i David Leskovar wouldn't sign a new contract and chose to leave the club. Both of these were important players and started nearly every game last season. ------------------------------------ 3. SNL Vzhod We're scoring plenty of goals, at least two every game. Unfortunately we're being completely let down by our defence who are conceding almost as many, and it's turned into more losses than wins. This isn't much fun at the moment. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije A first round loss to a side in the tier below, despite putting out a full strength team. Great job lads, well done. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - August 2030 Ex-Player After a year in Croatia 28a Sasa Pirc has moved on. He never played for Osijek's senior team, but scored six times in 17 games for their second string. Juventus started the bidding at £1.6 million, AZ Alkmaar also got involved, but the winning offer was from Ajax. We're apparently due £48k as a 20% solidarity payment, which will do very nicely. Only £20k has come in for now, so I temporarily added a second manager at Ajax to look at the structure of the deal. It's being paid in three instalments, so I guess we'll be getting another £14k in each of the next two Augusts. There's also another £850k due after 20 league appearances, and 40% of the profit on his next sale. So potentially we could get more solidarity payments on him in the future. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2029/30 Season Review History, Finances, and Facilities An eighth straight season of record high league finishes, but it's getting harder each year to achieve this. We made a small profit this year, but remained in the red. I've moaned previously about losing players because of not being able to sign them to contracts, but the flipside now is that obviously we have to pay them. It's only £25-£40 a week for our highest paid players, but it all adds up. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats 25h Aleksandar Cerar was our top scorer for a second time, though he was run close by 28d Denis Vuk, who was also our joint top assister. This was our worst season for goalscoring keepers, with just the one strike this year. After 29i Slavisa Bezjak came into the team we conceded only 10 times in 11 games. I think he was a big part of recovering the season after the big slump in October and November. ------------------------------------