DaneBramage

GKS Katowice - Pre-Season 2029/30 We had three departures from our senior squad this month, two on a temporary basis and one permanently. Janusz Lipka is unlikely to see much gametime after additions to the squad, so he was allowed to go to Slovenia on loan. At 32 and starting to decline Emir Azemovic wanted a new challenge, so he's off to Romania for the year (at which point his contract will expire). I wanted to keep Kaka, but he had a £600k release clause which was met. I tried talking him into signing a new contract, but he was already unhappy at not playing enough as he wanted last year and he wanted out. ----------------------------------- With a transfer budget of £18 million, I've managed to spend nothing this summer. I think I've made three decent signings though Matthew Harper had been on my scout's radar after impressing in a youth tournament, but Liverpool were asking £33 million for him in January. He was coming towards the end of his contract and didn't want to negotiate at that point, but fast forward a few months and when Liverpool released him he was ready to talk. He's yet to make his senior debut but he has bags of potential. Slovenia has been a fertile hunting ground for me, and I've gone back there to pick up Jordan Snajder. He's another lad with a lot of potential, and in his case some of it has already been realised. Three season ago he helped Rudar Valenje get promoted to the top tier, and in the two seasons since he's scored a total of 14 goals. Janusz Cabaj was the best under 22 Polish player my scouts could find available for anything other than silly money, so we took him on loan from Borussia Dortmund for the year. He came through the ranks at Legia Warszawa and has some Ekstraklasa experience, before moving to Germany for £1.3 million. ----------------------------------- The aforementioned Janusz Cabaj should help with having a Polish under 22 player in all Ekstraklasa line-ups, but at the same time Piotr Bajarek has now aged out of being eligible. That leaves us with three players that meet the criteria (plus the reserves and youth-team of course), but I'm not convinced by the quality we have. Thus I've managed to get our junior coaching and youth recruitment improved. It won't help in the short-term, but hopefully will come to fruition in a few years. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - Pre-Season 2029/30 Another approach from Portugal, another interview declined. ----------------------------------- Our success is catching up with us, as a top three finish is now expected. The media predict we'll finish third. After two titles in a row my aim is of course to make it three in a row. And progression from the Champions League, even if it's finish third and drop into the Europa League. ----------------------------------- We made it three Super Cup wins in the last four years with a shootout victory over Legia Warszawa. This also bumped me up a spot in the Polish Hall of Fame. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - Season Review 2028/29 The goals didn't flow as quickly as they did last year, but we still ended up with four players in double-figures. Mohamed Medfai top-scored with 11 goals. Top creator was Uri Bloudek with 13 assists, and with an average rating of 7.37 he was also named the GKS Katowice player of the year, and the Ekstraklasa player of the season. These two both made the Ekstraklasa team of the season, along with Nikola Nenadovic, Piotr Bajorek, Rafal Kozub, Aboubacar Cisse, and Aleksander Lezon. Robert Korosec was named both Slovenian senior and youth player of the year. ----------------------------------- Around the halfway stage of the season I thought we were out of it, I'd written off all hope of retaining the title. The turnaround after Christmas was great though, as out new formation propelled us to 13 wins and 4 draws from 17 games. We ended the regular season in 2nd place, but did enough during the Championship Group stage to make our way to the top. It was also enough to put me into the Polish Hall of Fame. ----------------------------------- Swiss Challenge League: Winterthur managed to finish in 2nd place and reach the promotion play-off, but after drawing with Servette in both legs they lost out on penalties. -----------------------------------

Yeah, I think so. If something interesting comes up I might change my mind, but I'm certainly not looking to leave at the moment.

GKS Katowice - May 2029 Our first game of May was the massive encounter with Legia Warszawa. To the neutral it was probably a bit of a letdown, as we took the lead early on and restricted them to half-chances, and then we killed off the game in the final 10 minutes. But for us it was a huge result. Our second game was the other massive encounter, with Lech Poznan. Another letdown for the neutral, a bore draw, but it'll do. We had the advantage at this point (Kat 81, LP 80, LW 79), but Pogon Szczecin was a tricky tie. We weren't great by any means, going behind early and struggling to mount any meaningful attacks, but finally a deflected effort from Wojciech Bartoleski earned us a share of the points. Legia Warszawa could also only draw, while Lech Poznan lost, so the missed opportunity didn't punish us. Going in to the final day we knew we needed a win to guarantee the title. A draw would have been enough if neither of the other contenders won, but best to keep it in our hands. So we smashed Lechia Gdansk. The game was done by half-time, we knew the Ekstraklasa was coming our way again. ----------------------------------- -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - April 2029 The draw with Gornik Zabrze was disappointing, we were just misfiring upfront and not looking like scoring. But that was sandwiched with two good home wins, Mohamed Medfai and Robert Korosec the stars of the month with goals in each of these games. And of course the goalie and defence for 3 clean sheets in a row. ----------------------------------- It couldn't be much closer, but we've just about made it into top spot. After the first three games in the Championship Group stage we've dropped a couple of points, but each of our rivals have suffered a loss. We play Legia Warszawa next, then Lech Poznan immediately after. They play each other on the final day. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - March + April 2029 We started March with a top of the table six-pointer against Lech Poznan. They had much more possession than us, but we had double the chances. We were a bit slow in taking them until Wojciech Bartolewski came off the bench to grab an equaliser, and then a stoppage-time winner. While momentum could have swung in our favour, we didn't take full advantage by only managing a draw at Pogon Szczecin next time out. We quickly got back on track though with three consecutive wins to end the regular season. Our Polish Cup campaign came to an end in the semis. ----------------------------------- It's suddenly all very close at the top. We've dropped two points in this period, but Lech Poznan lost twice, to us and Legia Warszawa. The three of us are now split by just two points. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - February 2029 I received a couple of offers from Portugal this month. I turned down the interview from Vitoria (12th in Liga NOS) but attended the one from Sporting (9th). I was tempted with the opportunity to try out another league I haven't played yet in FM20, but with FM23 not being too far away and this probably being my last save in this version, I decided to stay put for now. There's still work to be done in Poland, rather than start something elsewhere I won't have time to do properly. ----------------------------------- With the Champions League money burning a hole in my pocket I splashed out £9.5k a week to bring in Jose Antonio Blanco on loan from Manchester United until the end of the season. Five minutes into his debut he knackered his knee, ruling him for three months and probably ending his season. ----------------------------------- We're not scoring enough goals this season. After 20 games we're at an average of 2.0 goals per game, which is good, but a long way behind the 2.8 average we had at the same time last year. I've switched from our 4-4-2 formation to a 4-5-1 line-up instead. Rodrigo Valente has impressed as a sub, so hopefully he can do the same and more from his preferred starting role. ----------------------------------- The new formation has had an immediate effect, with 13 goals in 5 games for an average of 2.6 per match. Coupled with 3 clean sheets at the other end and we've managed the perfect month. This started with a brilliant 4-0 win over Legia Warszawa, the new tactic took them by surprise and they couldn't handle it. The only game where we struggled was away at Arka Gdynia. We were two-down at the break, but the substitutions turned the game around. ----------------------------------- Legia Warszawa followed up their loss to us with a loss to Stomil Olsztyn, and we've managed to overhaul them. Lech Poznan also dropped a couple of points, so we've brought the gap down to five. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - December 2028 ----------------------------------- We gave it a good go in the Champions League, but ultimately there were just three better teams in the group. We finished in the expected 4th place, but did set the cat amongst the pigeons with wins over Liverpool and Inter. In the Ekstraklasa we're comfortably clear of Lechia Gdansk in 4th, but not looking like we're going to be part of the title race. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - November 2028 From the sublime to the ridiculous. We had an incredible night to remember at Anfield, three times falling behind, three times equalising, and then scoring a 92nd minute penalty to take the lead. Hearts broke in the 94th minute when Liverpool seemingly made it 4-4, but VAR saved the day by spotting an offside in the build-up. We had just as many bookings as we did shots on target (seven of each), but were deadly with our chances. Then we returned to league action against Piast Gliwice, saw Piotr Bajorek get sent-off, and lost 1-0. Infuriating. At least we rebounded with a couple of Ekstraklasa wins and progression in the cup, and Wojciech Bartolewski and Aleksander Lezon both ended a couple of goalscoring droughts (15 hours and 9 hours respectively. ----------------------------------- Our final Champions League group game is against Inter. At this point any outcome is possible - we could end up in the knockout stages, we could drop to the Europa League, we could finish bottom and go out of Europe entirely. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - September + October 2028 We made one signing at the end of the window, under the recommendation of a new coach. Amir Ahmetovic was the first-choice left-back for Legia Warszawa, so hopefully we'll be weakening them while also strengthening our starting line-up. I've only just noticed that he's Bosnian, I'm sure he was Polish when I approved this, don't know that I'd have gone through with it otherwise. ----------------------------------- We've had a good, albeit frustrating, couple of months in the league. Seven games unbeaten can't be scoffed at, but three draws in this time does mean that we've dropped six points. I can't complain about the draw with Lech Poznan, but not beating either of Cracovia or Gornik Zabrze is annoying. Amir Ahmetovic made his debut in the big win over Arka Gdynia. He scored an own goal. In the Conference League we suffered the expected defeats to Valencia and Liverpool, but pulled off a big upset against Inter. They had double the chances we did, but we made the most of ours and Janusz Lipka got on the scoresheet twice. ----------------------------------- The draws show that we're not scoring enough goals. This is a large part of it: 25b Daniel Kowalski isn't holding up his head of the deal, with zero goals so far. This can't continue. I'm not willing to put 25a Pawel Szymanski in goal, he's a long way off the standard of Nikola Nenadovic. And putting Piotr Bajorek at right-back would mean taking out the attacking threat of Luis Pinheiro. So I think I'm going to have put Piotr Bajorek in central defence, which then means I can cycle Aleksander Lezon back in up front. ----------------------------------- Lech Poznan and Legia Warszawa are pulling away. We've won a total of one point from our first round of games against them, I think we need to beat both next time around, otherwise we're out of the title race. I missed taking a screenshot of the Champions League group, but it was Valencia - 7 points, Liverpool - 6 points, GKS Katowice - 3 points, Inter - 1 point. The surprise win means we're not bottom of the group and we've exceeded the zero points I expected, now I just hope we can add to it. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - July + August 2028 Last season I had great success with the approach of playing the first-team in the league, and a completely different second XI playing cup games (an approach stolen from Jimbo). That's gone out the window immediately this year, as the whole first-team was dropped in disgrace after the Rakow Czestochowa game. We should have smashed them, but at the very least it looked like we were heading for a draw. Then we conceded twice in stoppage-time to throw even a point away. Three players lost a week's wages. The second-string took over the league fixtures, and won three in a row comfortably. The first-choice line-up then came back in for the Champions League play-off game, and blew Celtic away in a match I expected to be tougher. They then lost to Legia Warszawa, but it's not the first time we've lost to them and it won't be the last either. The second-leg against Celtic didn't really matter, the commanding lead from the first-leg meant the 1-0 loss had little effect on the aggregate scoreline. We made it to the group stage, and earned a cool £13 million for the privilege. ----------------------------------- We've already given up an early advantage to Lech Poznan and Legia Warszawa, and it'll take a miracle to get anything from this Champions League group. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - July 2028 The season started with the Superpuchar Polski game against Lech Poznan. They had most of the ball but failed to do much with it, while we always looked dangerous in our limited possession without getting the final touch right. Ultimately it went to a shootout, and for the second time in three years we lifted the Super Cup on penalties. ----------------------------------- Just the one change to our first-choice starting line-up from last year, as February signing Rafal Kozub comes into central defence to replace the departed Seweryn Michalski. This eleven will play the bulk of our Ekstraklasa matches. Rodrigo Valente will be on the bench and hopefully get enough playing-time to stay happy, and after a while we can see where he fits in. There are no changes to our second-string, who will mostly play in the domestic cup and in Europe. Again, Rodrigo Valente will be on the bench. ----------------------------------- EDIT: The above line-ups are already outdated, before I've even played the first game. I forgot about this Ekstraklasa rule. Aleksander Lezon had been filling this role, but he's too old for it now. We only have the three players before who fit this role, so I've had to swap 25b Daniel Kowalski into the first-team instead. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - 2028/29 Season Preview The board have taken note of our performances last season, as they've increased their expectations and now want us to finish in the top three. The media don't share the same confidence, predicting that we won't come any higher than 4th. As the reigning champions I'd of course love to retain the title, but at the very least we need to be in the fight. ----------------------------------- After the sponsorship and TV rights money for the coming season were paid out we had a balance of over £10 million, so we used this to improve our youth recruitment to an excellent standard. ----------------------------------- Just the one departure, as Seweryn Michalski was let go when his contract expired. He was a very important player for us over the last four years, making up half of our first-choice centre-back partnership most of this time, but at the age of 33 his physical attributes have rapidly declined and masters football is probably more his speed now. ----------------------------------- I wasn't planning on making any signings this summer. If I added anyone I wanted it to be a Polish player, to have more domestic players in the squad. I was lining up a loan offer for a midfielder from Napoli, but cancelled it on 1st July when this popped up. I don't remember signing Rodrigo Valente, let alone making him my top earner, but it has been a few days since I last played. I'm not sure I want to break up either of my existing midfield partnerships, my midfield playmakers are two of my better players, so I guess I'll just have to go a few months and see where he fits in. The flexibility of also being play up front or on the right should mean he gets chances. -----------------------------------

Thanks! I really enjoyed this season, everything just seemed to click. And the fact that Lech Poznan were also really good and pushed us so far made it even sweeter. Legia lost 3-1 on aggregate to Stade Rennais, who then went on to beat Feyenoord in the final.

GKS Katowice - 2027/28 Season Review Heroes, all of them. Put up 25 statues. Actually, make that 26. I want one of me too. Erik Ceveli was voted the fans' player of the season after an impressive debut season with 22 goal contributions. Aboubacar Cisse was top scorer with 19 goals, and was equal top creator with Luis Pinheiro on 14 assists apiece. Urh Bloudek won the Slovenian player of the year award for a second time, making it four successes in a row (after two Slovenian young player of the year awards previously). Aboubacar Cisse, Aleksander Lezon, Urh Bloudek, Nikola Nenadovic, Mohamed Medfai, Erik Ceveli, and Jan Barnert all made the Ekstraklasa team of the season. ----------------------------------- We received £1.8 million for winning the league. I believe this is only the second top tier division I've won in FM20 (after Israel). That decision to leave Winterthur looks like a genius move now. For the first time we'll be entering the Champions League next year, in the third qualifying round. ----------------------------------- Swiss Challenge League: Winterthur couldn't put together any kind of consistent form in 2028, and bounced around between 1st and 4th in the table. A win on the final day would have put them into the play-off spot; instead, a loss doomed them to miss out in 3rd. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - May 2028 In the two week gap between fixtures we won a couple of friendlies, while Lech Poznan won the Puchar Polski. Championship Group - Game 4 Balls. A two point gap remains, but we play Lech Poznan next. The momentum has shifted. Our two regular right-backs are injured, a centre-back who can cover and a reserve are injured, and the fifth choice had to go off during this game. We're in trouble. Championship Group - Game 5 Yeah!!! Mohamed Medfai scored the opener with a fine solo goal in the first-half, before Piotr Bajarek (the reserve right-back who'd recovered enough to play) set up the second for Nikodem Zajac after the break. Lech Poznan had more of the ball than us, and were probably the stronger side, but a fine defensive effort stopped them doing much with all their possession. When we got the ball we went forward at all times, and it paid off. Championship Group - Game 6 By my count a point would have been enough to guarantee us the title, but we took all three anyway. A brace from Aleksander Lezon, both assisted by Aboubacar Cisse (who scored the other himself) saw us take the victory and the Ekstraklasa title in style. Championship Group - Game 7 With the league already won, and it being our fourth game in nine days, a mixture of the second-string and whoever was fit took the field for the final day celebration. Fittingly, the first-choice strike pairing of Aleksander Lezon and Aboubacar Cisse scored our final goals of the season. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - April 2028 Championship Group - Game 1 Lech Poznan's game was the day before ours, and a 1-0 loss gave us all the ammunition I needed for my team-talk. Sebastian Milewski put us into the lead from the spot, but we conceded an equaliser shortly after. So we didn't take full advantage of their failure, but still grew the lead at the top by another point. Championship Group - Game 2 Both games were being played simultaneously, and when Lech Poznan scored within the first 10 minutes and we conceded at near enough the same time, things were looking dodgy. That is until Robert Korosec and Joan Andres Escobedo came off the bench and turned the game around. And when Lech Poznan shipped a 93rd minute equaliser an even bigger cheer rang out. Championship Group - Game 3 A 3-0 lead after 24 minutes (strikes from Sebastian Milewski, Erik Ceveli, and Aboubacar Cisse) should have seen a more comfortable win, but despite letting Lechia Gdansk back into the game we held on for a tense final 15 minutes to take all three points. Lech Poznan matched our victory a day later. We have a five point lead with four games remaining. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - April 2028 Our European adventure came to an end as Legia Warszawa got the better of us over two legs. Ultimately I'm not too disappointed about going out; we've had a few injuries over the last month or so and we had to scrabble together a bit of a patchwork side for these two games. But it would have been nice to have at least scored against them - I think these are just the third and fourth games all season that we haven't managed to score a single goal. We continued to go strong in the league, two wins and two clean sheets. ----------------------------------- If only this was it. Lech Poznan could only get a point from Arka Gdynia on the final day, giving us a two point lead. But we now go into the Champions Group, with seven games still to play. We take on Lech Poznan in the fifth of these ties. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - 2028 Youth Intake As normal I left my HoYD in charge of signings, and he picked up 10 players from this batch. Quite a few professional personalities here, and a couple of different nationalities too. The highest rated prospect, 28a Vadym Zharikov, doesn't look bad at all, but as only two graduates have made it into my senior squad so far he probably has a difficult task ahead of him.

GKS Katowice - March 2028 Three wins in the league, and comfortable progression in Europe. Nothing flashy, but it did the job. We won't have far to travel for the Conference League quarter-finals, being draw in an all-Polish clash with Legia Warszawa. ----------------------------------- We had a slice of luck with Lech Poznan losing to Wisla Krakow, but they stay above us on head-to-head record. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - February 2028 We returned from the winter break with a pair of victories, making it 16 wins in a row. The run was ended though away at Stomil Olsztyn, we gave them a battering but they scored from their only shot on target. We also contributed to our own downfall, courtesy of a missed penalty from Sebastian Milewski. The real damage came a couple of games later. We were chasing shadows against Lech Poznan, and never looked like getting anything from the tie. At the time it was 1st v 2nd in our favour, but they were the much better side. ----------------------------------- That loss hurts, and it's seen Lech Poznan climb above us in the table. With the form they're on it's difficult to see them slipping up and letting us back into the race, got to hope someone does us a favour and that we can go back on another streak. ----------------------------------- Accidentally made a signing at the end of the month. Thought I was negotiating for the summer, didn't realise there was an open transfer window underway. Two of our centre-backs are the wrong side of 30, and Seweryn Michalski's physical attributes are starting to decline pretty quickly, so we needed a new face sooner rather than later. Rafal Kozub has several years of Ekstraklasa experience with Piast Gliwice, so I think he'll be going straight into the first-team. He's by far my most expensive signing in this career so far, and has brought the total that I've paid for players almost up to the level of total sales. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - December 2027 Splendid stuff. 14 wins in a row. As our top-earner (£6.5k per week) I had been a little underwhelmed with Erik Ceveli's numbers, especially with Mohamed Medfai leading our scoring charts on the opposite wing, but a hat-trick against Wisla Krakow gave him a timely boost. Our cup side completed the job in Europe with a comfortable win in Finland, and they also got a rare runout in the Ekstraklasa against struggling Wigry Suwalki. Joan Andres Escobedo scored on his first start for the club, after being signed on loan (from Pogon Szczecin) by the DoF to cover the right-wing following the retirement of Alves. ----------------------------------- We overtook Lech Poznan on goal difference after game 19, and their slip-up the following week has given us a slender lead. The win over HJK meant we finished top of our Conference League group, and we now get a bye to the second knockout round. ----------------------------------- Swiss Challenge League - Five wins from the opening six games saw Winterthur take an early lead at the top of the table, but a dodgy Autumn saw them drop a lot of points. Despite this, no one else has taken advantage, and they somehow still retain 1st place going into the winter break. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - November 2027 Another great month, five more wins. The win over Pogon Szczecin saw them ditch their manager in the aftermath, but the following game against Gornik Zabrze was more important. It was 2nd versus 3rd, and they were coming into this tie off a loss in their previous game. I don't think we can quite call it a six-pointer at this stage of the season, but when we scored within 25 seconds of kick-off this rattled them, and there was only going to be one winner from that point. The third league game of the month saw us beat Lechia Gdansk, avenging our only Ekstraklasa loss of the season so far. Several players have hit minor milestones this month, with Luis Pinheiro reaching double figures for assists, Mohamed Medfai doing the same with goals, and Aboubacar Cisse hitting this tally for both. In the Conference League we won both games, but I'm still a little disappointed. Not by the first game of course, when we gave Partizan a second hammering of the campaign. 25b Daniel Kowalski channelled his inner Haaland, smashing home a hat-trick and getting two assists. But the TNS match should have been more emphatic. We still won, but it was pure dominance, 28 shots to zero, 71% possession. The scoreline should have been a lot higher. ----------------------------------- In the league we've dropped Gornik Zabrze and it's very much a top two now, but Lech Poznan stay ahead due to their cracking defensive record. Our dodgy start to the Conference League is in the rear mirror, with qualification to the knockout rounds confirmed. Our final game against HJK will determine who tops the group and gets a bye through the first round. -----------------------------------

GKS Katowice - October 2027 Five wins in a row, got to be happy with that. The goals were all spread around the team, with eight different players scoring in the league. If you include the Conference League game we had 11 different scorers this month, as we absolutely hammered Partizan. So much for my prediction they'd be the strongest side in the group. ----------------------------------- Ridiculously close at the top, there's barely anything splitting Lech Poznan, us, and Gornik Zabrze. We've left the rest behind. Not sure what's going on with the form column though, it's not correct at all for us. The big win over Partizan has put us back on track in Europe. -----------------------------------