text:
congrats on a second promotion. From what i've seen previously in Scotland you should do pretty well. Teams seem to move through quick. Pepper is a great player for you - keep hold of him!!
good luck next season.
congrats on a second promotion. From what i've seen previously in Scotland you should do pretty well. Teams seem to move through quick. Pepper is a great player for you - keep hold of him!!
good luck next season.
Mid season update, since there's so little action in here.
We're sitting 2nd in the table at the moment, 6 points behind Hamilton who are looking very strong and 5 points clear of Iverness CT which is a bit of a surprise. Iverness is the favorite to go back up having relegated last year. I think we are overachieving at the moment so I don't have much hope for promotion this year. Hamilton have players like Robert Snodgrass on a £2,000 p/w contract. That's 50% of our entire budget.
We do have a decent squad though, but there's been lots of injuries so far. Pepper have been out 2 times already for 4 and 7 weeks. The main reason we're doing so well is that two of our new attackers have been very good so far. Juan Jose Rossello and Nikola Saric (another Liverpool reject) have scored 39 goals so far between them.
We also have a young Scottish player coming in January that I'm excited about. Alan Robertson is just 17 years old and looks very promising. My scouts say leading first division player, but they're not amazing at judging potential so who knows. He looks good for 17 at least. He's gonna cost us £100k though, our biggest fee yet. But it's a monthly payment deal so we can handle it. Our average attendance this year have more than doubled so far, so we got a very decent income.
Oh and we won a cup, but only the crappy one. Challenge Cup Champions 2012!
Of all the games for my strikers to miss every sitter! 5-0 clear cut chances, 2-1 loss
And that apparently ruined our morale totally as we've now lost 3 in a row. No chance of promotion now, time to look forward to next season.
Last edited by Ohanzee; 17-03-2010 at 16:22.
After my Dafuge Challenge game went tits up, I've decided to start this in Germany, and have plumped for VfB Lubeck, whom I remember managing back in FM 2007. Here is my profile.
Last edited by Crispypaul; 17-03-2010 at 20:18. Reason: Vfb, not l
Albion Rovers 2012/2013
3rd in Scottish First Division (pred: 10th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph
The League
It started pretty good and we where top of the table after 6 games, but it became apparent pretty fast that there's some teams in this division that are way better than us. Hamilton and Iverness CT both where predicted to finish 1st and 2nd and they are just bigger clubs than us. We where 2nd for most of the season, but a bad spell towards the end made Iverness fly past us. 3rd place is still great and we have several teams behind us that probably aren't happy being there.
The Cups
We had a good run in a couple of cups this year. The Challenge Cup in particular where we beat both of our league rivals to go on and win it against Partick Thistle. I guess it's what you'd call a Mickey Mouse Cup, but a trophy is a trophy. In the League Cup we once again went out early as St. Johnstone (who at that time was leading the Premier League) beat us 3-2 in the 2nd round. I was still pleased that we managed to score two goals against such a good team. The Scottish Cup went a little better as we managed to get to the quarter final where Celtic beat the crap out of us at our own ground. 3-0 loss, but a good run.
The Players
At the back this year we found a partner for Paco Borrego as ex-Man Utd Tom Thorpe had a decent season. Not playing at Borregos level, but above 7.00 for 46 games is pretty good. One of few players that was rarely injured as well. Sadly, even though we had two consistent center backs, our fullback positions where never of the same quality and we lost goals almost every game to their mistakes. The same can be said for the goalkeeper position where we tried 2 new Spaniards this year but none of them where consistent enough.
In midfield no one really impressed either this season, but Peter Leven was fairly consistent. He also got the most assists, but 8 of those 18 came in the first 7 matches of the season (and 9 was in the cup) so he didn't create enough against good teams. Could really use a few really good central midfielders.
The attacking triangle up front was amazing though. Adam Pepper, even though he was injured a lot, had another good season. We always looked more dangerous when he played. In front of him we had Nikola Saric and Juan Jose Rossello. Saric was released by Liverpool like Pepper and even though he had his ups and downs (including 10 hours without a goal at one point) he was very good. The real star was Rossello though scoring 36 goals in his first season, very impressive. He also had some really bad games against good defenders, but he was probably our most vital player this season.
The Finances
Another good season there. We're still making more money on gate receipts than we spend on wages. Not really a surprise as our average attendance more than doubled this year from 575 to 1164. We might have to expand the stadium very soon if this keeps up. Sadly we are still not a professional club, but I have given anyone that matters pro-contracts anyways to make sure they train well.
The Top Level
Interesting season at Rangers finish second and Celtic third. And it is the surprise from last year Dundee United that take the title. Those three are still in a league of their own up to with 12 points down to fourth placed Hearts.
In Europe it was a sad sad season for Scottish football as both Celtic and Dundee went out in the qualifying rounds for the Champions League. Dundee didn't even make it to the EURO Cup group stages, Hearts and Rangers finished bottom of their groups, and Celtic fell to Greek opposition in the 1st KO round as Panathinaikos where to strong.
The Future
I didn't realize that there was only one spot for promotion (and no playoffs) in this division. This annoyed me a bit, but I guess this means we'll just have to think of this whole division as a playoff and keep improving until we can beat them all. I really doubt it's gonna happen next season as Iverness is still here and we also get the other Dundee to fight with. I hope some of their best players leave cause they don't wanna play in a lower division, but if they can keep most of their team they should go straight back up.
Bring on the summer, my favorite time.
Code:CLUB HISTORY SEASON LEAGUE POS. S-CUP L-CUP EUROPE NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/11 3D 1st 4th round 1st round - Promoted 11/12 2D 3rd 4th round 1st round - Promoted through playoff 12/13 1D 3rd Qtr final 2nd round - Won Challenge Cup -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good luck in Germany Crispypaul
welcome and good luck Crispypaul.
time to see if i can get a win for Venezia tonight... not had one for a few days!!
good season Ohanzee and congrats on cup win. Hopefully you can further strengthen and give Inverness a run for their money next season.
with 6 games to go Venezia have had their relegation confirmed..... time to think about rebuilding...
Renato Curi Angolana - Serie C1/B - 2014/15
Our precarious position at Christmas time
After the horror run of 8 games without a win the last thing I was expecting from our trip to mid-table Grosseto was our first away victory of the season but, pleasingly, that is what occured. We then followed that up with our first ever victory over Spal, a strangely facile 3-1 win. And then we went draw crazy, 3 straight 1-1s, all of which were mildly acceptable. A 0-0 at home to unbeaten Sorrento was followed by a horrible horrible match against relegation-threatened Monopoli, 14 shots in the first half, none on target, 11 more in the 2nd, 2 on target and unsurprisingly 0 goals. 8 games unbeaten but unfortunately only 2 wins meant that we were still not really that far away from the playouts.
Thankfully a dire Potenza side visited and were duly thrashed, as were Manfredonia who we visited and then a great performance overturned 2nd placed Crotone. Much better and we were now closer to the playoffs than the playouts. One draw later and we were 12 games unbeaten. That run and any idea of promotion got brought to a halt by Gallipoli as we suffered our first home defeat for 6 months. And then we were horrific at Bassano and deservedly suffered our worst ever league defeat (0-4). After a third straight goalless defeat, an embarrassing one at home to playout-bound Varese's goalkeeper, I was a bit concerned although we had probably put enough space between us and the playouts. We did score in the next match but suffered another defeat, but results elsewhere meant we were safe. 4 points from the last 2 home games finished off the season.
So we finished very mid-table in 10th place, you can see where it started to go a bit wrong here and despite the 12 match unbeaten run, the draws meant we never pulled that far away, in fact we were between 9th and 13th for the last 22 matches. 3 points less, 2 positions lower, 21(!!) less goals scored, 11 less conceded compared to last season. Not very entertaining, 1 goal per game less exciting. We were worse at home and mildly better away. As you can see, the main problem was goals, we did not score very many (only the bottom 5 scored less), no idea why but it is slightly disconcerting given the lack of changes made to the team.
This has very little to do with our season, but have a look at this screenshot from our old Serie C2 division with only 1 game left , there are 5 points between 5th and 14th (ie. from the playoffs to the playouts), don't know the final fixtures but it is possible there were certain clubs playing for promotion and trying to avoid relegation at the same time!
In any case, the final table looked like this.
Finances - only reason we are not deep in debt is because of investments made by the new board, we are losing £100k a month otherwise and this will continue until next Summer when the new stadium is (theoretically) ready
Transfers - not many and only Vonk was a great success, Tacchinardi was not that good but he is doing great in training so hopefully will be better next season, Tricarico was a distinct failure and is leaving in the Summer and Promes is promising Dutch GK who will be Remy's backup next season, the other 3 are backups who playing (thankfully in Beghouli's case) irregularly, Antonucci has some talent though
Few performed that well but the better players were:
Best GK - Fabian Remy - still has the rushing out problem but I saw no ill-effects this season, performed very well, lots of clean sheets, getting better and is already probably one of the better GKs in this division, hope I can hang onto him, half of the Swiss Super League made offers for him last season but he made no complaints when I turned them down and he has signed a new contract
Best Defenders - Jean-Martial Kipré and Mijat Maric - my fullbacks were considerably better than my DCs this season, 3rd season in row that Maric has averaged over 7, no goals or assists but generally good all-round performances, was also suprisingly the Player of the Year, I had wanted to replace Kipré last Summer but failed, he performed very well this season so may well stick with him, a goal and several assists (principally as he takes our corners), to be honest, I think I can do better than both of them and I have a new DL coming in but no issues if I have to play them both again
Best Midfielder - André Martins - 2nd season here after joining from Sporting and started it on fire, slowed down a bit as the season went on but still did very well, that all being said, not sure I will keep him, I have 2 very good MCs coming in and as he will probably no longer be 1st choice I would quite like to get his high wages off the books, there are clubs interested so I will see what happens...
Best Winger - Hein Vonk - basically the only shining light from the season, a very good winger for this division, generally performed very well in nearly all games, could possibly have done with more assists but that is more down to our strikers than him and also, often he was involved in goals but did not get the final assists, should have been Player of the Year, more of the same please
Best Striker - Aiman Napoli - even more frustrating than usual, twice went over 600 minutes without a goal but also went on a 5 game 6 goal spree (right between these goalless runs), with any consistancy he would be fantastic, still he scored a third of our goals and he is our best striker (well, Tacchinardi is, theoretically, better but has yet to show this) so his contribution is very important, more goals and less barren spells is all I ask...
I do feel we have the basis of a good squad here, it just needs some rounding of the edges and some better tactics. I will have a look at the latter whilst hopefully the 5 players already coming in (2xMC, a D/M L, an AM/F C, an FC) will help the former. I am very aware that these will take me way over the current wage budget and with the debt and monthly losses I doubt said budget will be increased. Hence to have any chance of making any more signings some players are gonna have to go. 2 are already going to leave at the end of their contracts but there are several on high wages I will try to dispurse of whilst some youngsters are worth 6 figures and might be sacrificed. The only issue here is that £100k is only one month's debt and the board seem perfectly happy to make investments so not sure getting rid of players solely for the money is really needed. Suppose it will depend on who and how much...
Best 11
Overall Best 11
10/11 - Serie C2/B - 7th
11/12 - Serie C2/B - 13th
12/13 - Serie C2/B - 2nd (promoted via playoffs)
13/14 - Serie C1/B - 8th
14/15 - Serie C1/B - 10th
Team I Would Like To Play Every Week - Manfredonia - H2-1, A3-1 (13th)
Team I Would Not Like To Play Every Week - Gallipoli - A0-3, H0-1 (3rd)
Last edited by ghostwriter; 17-03-2010 at 22:49.
That's to bad rlipscombe. Did you at least get some financial benefits out of a season in the top flight? I'm confident you'll bounce right back up, you do have some good players already.
Solid season ghostwriter, and good read as always. Crossing fingers for a playoff spot next season. (Some of your screens aren't working for me. The two in the 4th paragraph and Jean-Martial Kipre)
I think I should fire my assistant manager. I keep using him to filter out unrealistic targets, but I had trouble finding any players that would improve our midfield. So I decided to just offer the best contracts I could to some players I didn't think would even consider joining us. And now we got this guy. Another Liverpool reject. They may as well become our parent club at this rate.
I've been checking, but I can't find a better assistant atm. I got this guy last year, Rab Douglas. He's good at motivating which is what I really need since I hate doing press conferences. I dunno what attribute makes an assistant good at filtering unrealistic targets either.
Anyways, we got several other players in that are close to Spearings level now, just can't find any fullbacks. I'm optimistic for the season though, but probably jinxing myself saying that.
Good Progress here by everyone except Rlips, thats not the best way to go about top flight. Hopefully you can improve on the cheap over the new season and bounce straight back up. I hope to be back to Evora this weekend as I end my Softies run
I'm having an amazing season so far in the league. Top at the moment and both offense and defense doing amazing. Starting to think promotion might be a reality.
Only bad part is our disciplinary record, worst in the league by far. And against Rangers in the League Cup we managed to get 4! players sent off in extra time!! I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Crazy game. I blame all the Liverpool rejects. 3 of them got sent off that game, and Spearing didn't even play. He's the worst of the lot. But I don't care, as long as they keep it tight at the back and put the goal in the back of the net.
Ohanzee - that Rangers game was something else!! Dirty, dirty Albion Rovers!!
The Participants Update
Well this time around I have cut out those who haven't updated in the last five pages, with exceptions given to those who have completed the challenge. It is ordered as always by closeness to the Completion.
If I have missed anyone pop me an update and I will add it in.Code:|------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| | User | Club | Nation | League | C. Season | Last Pos. | |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| | Cookie15 | Pisa | Italy | Serie A | 2015/16 | 1st | Completed 2015/16* | Minisav | Darmstadt | Germany | 1st Div | 2015/16 | 1st | Completed 2015/16* | w.Wonka | Stuttgart | Germany | 1st Div | 2017/18 | 1st | Completed 2017/18* | El sid | Munster | Germany | 1st Div | 2018/19 | 1st | Completed 2018/19* | Daemonic | Montevarchi | Italy | Serie A | 2018/19 | 1st | Completed 2018/19* | Ohanzee | SD Noja | Spain | Liga BBVA | 2019/20 | 1st | Completed 2019/20* |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| | Aof Drown | Elgin | Scotland | 1st Div | 2018/19 | 1st | League 2017/18* | Razer82 | Fafe | Portugal | Sagres | 2018/19 | 1st | League 2017/18* |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| | StellaF1 | Hospitalet | Spain | Liga BBVA | 2019/20 | 2nd |1* | Yababo | Emmen FC | Holland | Eredivise | 2016/17 | 4th |1* | DodgeeD | Bc Branco | Portugal | Sagres | 2019/20 | 5th |1* | LLR | Evora | Portugal | Sagres | 2020/21 | 5th |1* | Paul Hart | FC Libourne | France | Ligue 1 | 2029/30 | 11th |1* | Benjaminoo | Farense | Portugal | Sagres | 2014/15 | 14th |1* |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| | Iacovone | Castillo | Spain | Liga BBVA | 2021/22 | 2nd |1* | Rlipscombe | Venezia | Italy | Serie A | 2017/18 | 2nd |1* | Ohanzee II | Albion | Scotland | Premier | 2014/15 | 1st |1* |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| | G-Wiz | Lubeck | Germany | 2nd Div | 2011/12 | 1st |2* |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| | Ghostwriter| Renato Curi | Italy | Serie C1B | 2015/16 | 10th |3* | Deltablue | RW Essen | Germany | Third Div | 2012/13 | 15th |3* |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| | W.Wizard | Elgin | Scotland | 2nd Div | 2011/12 | 1st |3* | Duccio | Casertana | Italy | Serie C1B | 2011/12 | 1st |3* |------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
Last edited by Lower Leagues Rule; 18-03-2010 at 19:52.
Albion Rovers 2013/2014
1st in Scottish First Division (pred: 8th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph
The League
This was one of those seasons where you just get onto a wave of success and float on it until the end. After 7 games we where top of the table having won every game so far. Dundee had also not lost yet (6-1-0) and we where about to play them away. I was thinking that this would probably be a season where we'd both win almost every game, but Dundee would beat us in our meetings. I'm happy to say I was wrong. We beat them 2-0 in a close game where we created the biggest chances and took them. It took 16 league games before we finally lost, away to Livingston. By then we had a solid lead at the top and we never gave it away. With 7 games left of the season we had already secured the 1st place and promotion!
The Cups
The Challenge Cup was a huge disappointment this year as we crashed out in the first round in a penalty shootout against Morton. Sure, we didn't play our strongest team, but I was really expecting more. Luckily the team wasn't really affected by the loss and hammered Elgin in the next game in the League Cup. We didn't go to far in this cup either though as we drew Rangers in the 3rd round. It was a crazy match where we held on to a draw for 120 minutes before they scored in over overtime. More crazy was the fact that we had 4 players sent off in extra-time. In fact our disciplinary record was worst in the league (and probably every competition) this year.
In the Scottish Cup we once again got to the Quarter final, where just like last year Celtic where to strong. We did however managed to draw 1-1 with them at our ground, and this had a huge effect on our finances. The away game got us around £250k in gate receipts even though we lost it 2-1.
The Players
After such a great season it's hard to pick anyone in particular so I'll show you the regulars.
At the very back we once again turned to Spanish Acoran. He did take one step up this year managing a 7.03 average rating, but frankly with our defensive record this season he should have done better. Still, he was the first choice and never played a horrible game.
Acoran can thank the defense for that. Paco Borrego and Tom Thorpe once again where our solid stopper pair. This year they got more help from the fullbacks though. I wasn't sure Mike Daly (another Liverpool reject) would be up for the task yet, but he sure was. On the other side Chris Craig (released by Arsenal) was also very solid. These four gave us an amazing defensive record this season, even though they picked up 25 yellow and 2 red cards. I guess playing hard is good. I found out why as well, as it turns out my assistant manager was telling my team to tackle hard on almost all opposition players every match. I let him handle that part and even though I don't like getting this many cards I must say I'm impressed at how well it worked. Marek Wasiluk played the handyman role filling both fullback and stopper positions when needed.
In midfield Damien Plessis filled the defensive role. He didn't join until after the season had already started, but he was a instant hit. You can probably guess which club released him. The first choice in central midfield was Jay Spearing and Wayne Brown. Jose Semedo played a big part as well, stepping in on both central and defensive duty. He's been in England and Scotland for 7 season before joining us so he had no trouble fitting in. The attacking man in our midfield once again was Adam Pepper, and he had his best season yet. Might be hard keeping hold of him now that he'll get attention in the top division. Nikola Saric also played his part in this role.
In attack Juan Jose Rossello once again was one of my first choices. He didn't score as many as last year, but he also played a lot less games and only scored 1 in the Cups compared to 13 last year. So he still had a great season. His main partner this year was Polish Lukas Jutkiewicz. He was released by Everton and became our second best goal scorer after Pepper this year. He also had the most assists. Nikola Saric was another handyman filling this role as well as the mentioned standing in for Pepper.
The Finances
Still going strong. Still not a professional club, if we don't become one now I'm gonna cry. The away game against Celtic in the Scottish Cup was the biggest boost. But even without it we'd still be making almost 3x our wage budget on gate receipts. We also got £150k for our finishing position in the 1st division. Average attendance didn't increase to much, but it's now at 1192 (from 1164). Seeing as our stadium can't handle more than 1238 I guess it's time to expand.
The Top Level
Rangers where back on top this year with a big margin. 14 points down to Celtic in second who finished on equal points with Hearts. Aberdeen picked up the 4th spot just 1 point a head of last years champions Dundee United.
In Europe once again no Scottish team made it to the Champions League group stages. Dundee where horrible ambassadors as they didn't even reach the EURO Cup group stages. That's horrible after winning the league. Rangers, Celtic and Hearts got to the group stages of the EURO Cup, but neither managed to get through. Getting a bit worried about Scotland's coefficients now, it's not far down to having just 1 Champions League spot.
The Future
Pre-season will be interesting. Hopefully we turn professional and can attract even better players. Not to mention hopefully being able to scout a bigger part of Europe or maybe even the rest of the world. But even if we can't I actually feel we may have a shot at staying up with the current squad. The system with just 1 team being promoted feels really tough when you're in the First Division, but now that we're in the Premier League it's the other way around. Since we only need to be better than 1 team in the Premier League to stay up.
Code:CLUB HISTORY SEASON LEAGUE POS. S-CUP L-CUP EUROPE NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/11 3D 1st 4th Round 1st Round - Promoted 11/12 2D 3rd 4th Round 1st Round - Promoted through playoff 12/13 1D 3rd Qtr Final 2nd Round - Won Challenge Cup 13/14 1D 1st Qtr Final 3rd Round - Promoted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congrats on Promotion there Ohanzee very good to see. I will also add your inclusion in the top flight into the above table.
My board just gave me these "great" news Not sure whether to laugh or cry now. £7,3M in red. They better refinance this into a loan! I guess a stadium expansion is out of the question to then.
Well that was quick. They already restructured the debts into a "Gift Loan" of £29K per month until 2034. I think this is a loan we only pay when we're not in red as well. The chairman decided to inject £400k to help with running costs as well, so now we got a £20k balance. Busy week.
Last edited by Ohanzee; 18-03-2010 at 20:21.
congrats Ohanzee - thought you might do it.... that's some expensive undersoil heating!!
OMG, we've just won another Serie A match!! 3-2 home win against Parma (so what if they are 19th...). our first win in 20 matches.....
Good job rlipscombe. Finish that season on a high!
I'm having a blast shifting through scout reports at the moment. Only coming to the end of July and I got 50-100 reports to shift through in every country I sent them to. I can scout all of Europe now I think. Bit annoyed though looking at the quality players I could have attracted if we had the money. But we don't. In fact I'm stuck with a £9k wage budget and no transfer money. Trying to sell off a few fringe players so we can offer more wages to better players available on free transfer.
My scouts are having a laugh though. Craig Aitken came into my office today and said "I found this real gem of a midfielder in Italy boss. He's gonna cost us seven million though, so you can probably get him in 10 years time."
Last edited by rlipscombe; 18-03-2010 at 22:52.
On fire rlipscombe! Make sure you save some of that magic for next season.
Got some great news, it looks like that under-soil heating thing includes a stadium expansion for us. The news report didn't say, but the information screen says we're moving back into a 6,700 capacity Cliftonhill in December. Sweet!
Signed 7 new players, no one incredible, but good enough to make an impact I hope. Some half-known names to, like Luke Moore the Aston Villa striker. And a couple of players I at least know about in real life from the Man Utd academy. Joshua King, a very quick Norwegian striker, and Ravel Morrison who I also had in my S.D. Noja team.
Mostly the same first team as last year though. Just hope we're good enough to stay up.
I know posting when you're doing well is a bad idea, but I'll take my chances.
I guess I was wrong. We're more than good enough to stay up. We won 4 and lost 1 of the first 5 league matches. Including a epic win over Celtic at home. Almost the same team as last year to. Pepper was just coming back from injury so I didn't even start him. I guess our draw against them last year in the cup wasn't just luck. Funny how Rossello plays crap, he's scored in every game before this.
great start there Ohanzee!! hope the curse doesn't strike and you can keep that up....
As for Venezia i'm looking forward to a night of off-season planning and restructuring the club. i might even get the season review up, but don't expect one of the usual standard. there ain't much positive to take!!
Well it looks like I am cursed, we are in the worst slump I have ever had, I cannot buy a win 8 in a row without a win. Of course a lot of those are draws including one against Spartak Moscow. But now half the club are worried about the lack of harmony, and the other half about us underachieving.
I am very tempted to sell all bar my top XI and buy a whole new team and see what happens.
Albion Rovers 2014/2015
3rd in Clysdale Bank Premier League (pred: 12th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph
The League
We got off to an amazing start with a 7-2-1 record after 10 games. This actually put us top of the league, but only because Rangers and Celtic had 2-3 games in hand from playing in Europe. We never had a really bad run of form, and when the league split in two after 33 games we where 3rd and within reach of 2nd. We could only find one win in the 5 games against the top 6 though and finished 3rd. Amazing first season!
It's easy to see where our problem lays when comparing our stats to Rangers and Celtic. We scored more goals than anyone else in the league, but we also the 4th worst team when it comes to conceding goals. We actually had 2 teams ahead of us in yellow cards this year, but we beat the crap out of everyone in the red cards stat. 58 yellow and 8 red in the league, a bit to much, but it's giving us success so I'm not sure I wanna change it.
Here's my favorite league result of the season. We hammered them! Not really, but the scoreline was brilliant.
The Cups
We got to the 3rd round of the League Cup where Dundee United hammered us 3-0 in what was really a tight game. They turned out to be our nemesis in the cups this year as they also beat us 1-0 in the Semi Final of the Scottish Cup. That was a big blow as we had already drawn 0-0 at home to both Aberdeen and Rangers only to go away and beat them before the Semi Final. It was still a great run though as the away game against Rangers gave us almost £500k of gate receipts.
The Players
Mostly the same players as last year, just poke if you wanna see anyone in particular. Here's the Team Stats and Sorted by avg. rating.
And here's the new players.
Miquel - Spanish attacking midfielder. Good first season. He may have to step up as Pepper is refusing to sign a new contract.
Ravel Morrison - I know this kid from the Man Utd academy in real life, and I've watched him play a youth cup match in Manchester actually. Happy to see my scouts pick him out again as I had him in my S.D Noja game as well. Didn't play to much this season, but as mentioned Pepper might leave so he'll get his chances.
Jan-Arie van der Heiden - Dutch midfielder and the most used player of our new signings. Experienced and very consistent.
Luke Moore - English striker, fairly well-known to anyone following english football. He had a decent season scoring 9 in the league.
Thomas van der Plas - Dutch defender. Didn't play much, was more of a backup, but I think he looks promising.
Joshua King - Another kid from the United academy that I know of. Him being Norwegian we hear about him every time he scores for the reserves. Didn't start to many league games this year, but he had a decent record. Will try to give him more time next year.
Maikel de Jong - Another dutch defender and he turned out to be our best signing. When Thorpe got injured for 2 months he stepped in and was brilliant, so he kept his place.
Juan Jose Rossello was our top goal scorer and also had the most assists. But, there's a big but, 8 of his goals came in 2 cup games against 2nd and 3rd division sides. Take those away and he's got only 13 goals in 36 matches. That's not good enough. His contract is running out after next season, but no one is interested in him at the moment.
We also have several other players contracts running out in 2016 that don't wanna sign new ones. Chris Craig and Adam Pepper the most important ones. Some players do wanna sign new contracts, but I can't offer them what they want at the moment. I hope our board boost the wage budget since we made a good profit this year.
The Finances
Big boost this year as we earned almost £3M more in gate receipts than the year before. This is of course down to us playing in a 10k stadium for half the season and then back at Cliftonhill which now has a capacity of 6700 after the expansion for the rest of the season. Our average attendance was 6489. Meanwhile we spent a whole of £532k on wages, so if we're only looking at wages and gate receipts we earned £3,2M on that. But of course there's lots of other expenses. For instance we spent more on Match Day Expenses than wages (£680k).
The best news of the season came after the season was over though as we got £1,775M for our 3rd place finish in the Premier League.
The Scottish Clubs in Europe
Rangers did a good job this year as they pulled through the Champions Cup group stages knocking out both Roma and Bordeaux. Juventus where to strong in the 1st KO round though. Meanwhile Celtic got to the 2nd KO round of the EURO Cup where Russian Sparak Moscow knocked them out. Hearts also got to the group stages of the EURO Cup but ended bottom of their group. It was a tough group though with Fiorentina, AEK and Wolfsburg. So a decent season this year after a few really bad ones.
The Future
It looks good. The only problems are players not wanting a new contract. Do I actively try to sell them or just use them for another season? Also squad harmony isn't the best, but to be honest I've never had good squad harmony in any of these saves.
I just found out that we can now scout the whole world as well. And there's room for 4 more scouts, bringing us up to 10. That's gonna be great. I'm sure there's some new Maradona or Pele hiding over there in South America. Hopefully we get a higher wage budget so we can attract some future stars.
For now I guess we'll have to be a feeder club and sell any gem we may find for profit, but the biggest step is done. We're in the top division and already in Europe. I'll be happy if we can just stay in the top 6 next year though.
Code:CLUB HISTORY SEASON LEAGUE POS. S-CUP L-CUP EUROPE NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/11 3D 1st 4th Round 1st Round - Promoted 11/12 2D 3rd 4th Round 1st Round - Promoted through playoff 12/13 1D 3rd Qtr Final 2nd Round - Won Challenge Cup 13/14 1D 1st Qtr Final 3rd Round - Promoted 14/15 PREM 3rd Semi FInal 3rd Round - Qualified for Europe -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pre season is fun. We sold Pepper (£2.6M - AA Gent), and Rossello (£1.1M - Brøndby) and most of our fringe players from last year for under £100k each.
Scouting the world is fun as well. Check out the striker the guy I sent to Argentina found, Mario Villa. And he's not even the most recommended in the list. That's Lucas Ruiz Diaz. Sadly Atkin reckons Villa would want £3.4k to £4.7k wages and cost £1.5M. We could actually be able to get him (£1.4M left on budget and can offer £3.7k wages), but I already signed 3 new strikers from England and Czech Republic. Wish I had waited a bit now.
Might do a pre season update once the window is done this year.
Last edited by Ohanzee; 20-03-2010 at 18:57.
Des Tiny's
Lusitano de Evora
End of Season
2020/21 Liga Sagres
What to Call it?
The Current SeasonThe Quick Reference
Predicted: 8th
Actual: 9th
Portuguese Cup: 3rd Round vs Sporting
League Cup: 3rd Round: 2nd Group B
Euro Cup: 3rd Group C
Euro Rank: 107th (up 69)
Finances: 5.5M (10th Por)
Season Tickets: 1078 (+75)
The Squad: Squad 1 & 2
Transfers: 2020/21
The Season in General
For the first time since I took over it looks like there might be an actual profit at the end of the year. In the past we had a 1m pound profit, but that was purely because of the board getting us a 1m pound loan on the last day of the season. This year we have made a profit, given it is only a small one and only because we made it to Europe, but it is a start. I only bought in 5 players this season, plus Hunte on his loan again and changed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 as I realised I had 3-4 very strong strikers and I needed to do that to make the best out of my team as the wingers I could purchase were all quite weak. I am going to this offseason attempt to build the side, my Centre Backs are the first problem I have no one to line up alongside Sanchez, after that I am not sure of my weak point.
The League
Well again we had a poor start to the season, I have no idea what I am doing wrong, but its something. We seem to have truly slumped this season, but I really don't want to change the core of my team, with the exception of a couple of older players most of this squad should only get better as we continue in the league, they are all in their 20s and look good already they are just not yet consistent. We managed a 1 all draw at Porto with Cruz's 50th goal, should've been a 1:0 victory except for a last minute penalty.
Player Stats
The Cups
Well we went out as soon as we entered in both of these so not much of a feature, which is slightly disappointing for us.
Player Stats - League Cup
Player Stats - Portuguese Cup
I was delighted with our presence in Europe, we travelled to Poland & Denmark in the Qualifying rounds and managed to overcome Zaglebie Lubin & Brondby, this made a spot for our club in the Group stages where we would meet Udinese (Italy), Spartak Moscow (Russia) & Legia (Poland). We managed a total of 6 points, but with 4 of them coming against Legia it was not the best campaign. And our league result means no European football in 2021/22.
The Club's HistoryLeague Records
Goals Home & AwayCode:|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------| | Season | League | Final Pos | Playoffs | Achievements | |----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------| | 2010/11 | 2DS | 6th | | None | | 2011/12 | 2DS | 1st | 2nd | Promoted | | 2012/13 | LV | 8th | N/A | None | | 2013/14 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2014/15 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2015/16 | LV | 4th | N/A | None | | 2016/17 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2017/18 | LV | 1st | N/A | Promoted | | 2018/19 | LS | 10th | N/A | None | | 2019/20 | LS | 5th | N/A | Qualified EC | | 2020/21 | LS | 9th | N/A | None | |----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|
Record Home & AwayCode:|----------|----------|---------|---------|-------| | Season | League | Home | Away | Total | |----------|----------|---------|---------|-------| | 2010/11 | 2DS | 36-15 | 18-29 | 54-44 | | 2011/12 | 2DS | 39-10 | 31-20 | 70-30 | | 2012/13 | LV | 33-22 | 20-25 | 53-47 | | 2013/14 | LV | 27-17 | 26-19 | 53-36 | | 2014/15 | LV | 34-16 | 25-21 | 59-37 | | 2015/16 | LV | 41-14 | 20-22 | 61-36 | | 2016/17 | LV | 39-14 | 23-21 | 62-35 | | 2017/18 | LV | 39-10 | 30-19 | 69-29 | | 2018/19 | LS | 18-18 | 16-32 | 34-50 | | 2019/20 | LS | 28-13 | 22-25 | 50-38 | | 2020/21 | LS | 21-14 | 17-21 | 38-35 | |----------|----------|---------|---------|-------|Code:|----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------| | Season | League | Home | Away | Total | |----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------| | 2010/11 | 2DS | 10-03-02 | 05-01-09 | 15-04-11 | | 2011/12 | 2DS | 13-03-01 | 07-06-04 | 20-10-05 | | 2012/13 | LV | 09-01-05 | 03-07-05 | 12-08-10 | | 2013/14 | LV | 07-06-02 | 08-04-03 | 15-10-05 | | 2014/15 | LV | 11-04-00 | 07-03-05 | 18-07-05 | | 2015/16 | LV | 11-02-02 | 04-03-08 | 15-05-10 | | 2016/17 | LV | 11-01-03 | 05-04-06 | 16-05-09 | | 2017/18 | LV | 12-01-02 | 07-05-03 | 19-06-05 | | 2018/19 | LS | 05-05-05 | 03-04-08 | 08-09-13 | | 2019/20 | LS | 07-08-00 | 05-04-06 | 12-12-06 | |----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------| | 1st Ten | All | 96-34-22 | 54-41-57 | 150-75-79 | |----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------| | 2020/21 | LS | 05-07-03 | 04-04-07 | 09-11-10 | |----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|
1st Half vs 2nd Half
Code:|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Season | League | Open | Close | Total | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 2016/17 | LV | 06-02-07 | 10-03-02 | 16-05-09 | | 2017/18 | LV | 07-05-03 | 12-01-02 | 19-06-05 | | 2018/19 | LS | 03-04-08 | 05-05-05 | 08-09-13 | | 2019/20 | LS | 04-06-05 | 08-06-01 | 12-12-06 | | 2020/21 | LS | 04-04-07 | 05-07-03 | 09-11-10 | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
Club Records & Competition History
New Records: Games without Winning - 8, Highest Fee Received: Santangelo 500k, Transfer Income 825k.
All Records: Part 1 & 2.
Competition History: 2nd Division South - Winners 2012, Liga Vitalis - Winners 2018, 3rd 2014,2015,2017, Reserves: Group 3 - 3rd 2017, Group 2 - 2nd 2019, U19s Cup - 2nd 2018
The PlayersThe Squad
Current Teams Stats: This Season & Evora Career.
30. Carsten Littmann - Still a star, but he just let in a few too many goals, the change at about halfway to having Carrera in the starting line-up seemed to work.
33. Oscar Carrera - The new signing took a while to break into the team, but in the end his better GAA (Goals Against Average) is what led to him getting the starters spot. He almost ceded it when he got himself red carded, but Littman had a mare in the next game.
Right Backs
63. Oier Torres - He is still the best right back we have, though his career has started to flatten and he is not really getting any better now. We may need to start looking for a replacement, but in the meantime he is one of the best in the league.
36. Jorge Fucile -
90. Pedro Lopes - The Injury Cover.
Left Backs
62. Benjamin Addo - The only downside to our captain has to be his complete lack of discipline. He has now had more red cards than any other player in our clubs history, not the record you want to be holding. He is very good at crossing and has been nominated for Fullback of the year.
93. Gustavo Frangao - He continues his job as back-up for the left side, hopefully he can continue to do it solid, but not great.
Centre Backs
4. Francisco "Javier II" Sanchez - The runner-up in Player of the Year, and just a superstar all season at the back. I have no idea how Javier II missed out on the Central Defender of the Year award he was clearly the best defender all season. The young man will be the number 1 building block of my side.
92. Romeu Salgado - The true back-up in this role, he is just a poor little player who will only feature when we are desperate.
16. Maurice van Dommelen - He is very poor in his position, we do need to strengthen this area completely.
17. Guglielmo Martinelli - He ended up as one of the starters near the end of the season, he did the job, but in general he is not a central Defender.
47. Matteo Jehl -
55. Alejandro - he had a pretty good season, I am debating whether to train him into a MC or to just transfer list him and try and claim some money for him. I am thinking the later even though he has been very good down the right wing for us.
29. Abraham - Well one of the oldest players in my midfield he is clearly not the player he used to be, but he does provide some experience in a squad that is in desperate need of it.
25. Pablo Cabezas - The star of my midfield, 11 assists which is just into the double figures that I want from my three across the middle. His is one of the first names on my team sheet everytime at the moment. I don't think I need any more midfielders with him leading the line.
24. Sergio Torres - A very solid season, but Torres was not spectacular like last season. He needs to pick up his game or he will just become the reserve for the rest of them.
91. Jose Filipe Areias - No screenshot this season, he still looks the same, but he played no games.
42. Paulo Cordeiro - One of the new signings, he is a youngster with uite a large future in front of him. He spent half his time on the bench, but he still got 7 assists on the season which is great for a young guy.
26. Ernesto Vazquez - 5 goals and 3 assists is an average output, but he is a Defensive Mid so really that is an excellent return. He is definitely playing more of an anchorman role and I am pleased to keep him in te starting line. Cabezas will be there the question is the third slot.
21. Alejandro Hunte - He came on loan from our parent club in France for the second year running. Yes we still have a parent club even after finishing 5th last season. He has been solid both times, but he is not a great player.
38. Hector Cruz - He has to be disappointed with himself for the effort he put in this year, he spent long periods without goals and he also managed to only score 15 goals on the whole game. I may need to strengthen my strikers in January.
1. Alessandro Guerra - He only scored 15 goals, but he is still growing and becoming better, if Guerra can keep improving he will soon enough be a leading star in the Liga Sagres and lead the goalscoring stats across the league.
11. Theo Tsotetsi - The South African Superstar is likely to become one of my go to strikers, but he has to improve his strike rate and start scoring some goals in a desperate effort to keep his spot alongside Guerra & Cruz given the competition.
99. Roberto Martin - The January signing is supposed to be as good as our best three, he will most likely be a bench sitter unless someone hits a slump, but having four to rotate through the three spots is better for us.
The Best of the Best
The 100 Club
Gabriele Federici 203, Matteo Jehl 194, Jose Manuel 179, Carlos Perez Rojo 170, Oier Torres 160, Deigo Galiano 151, Sebastian Visentin 147, Raphael Lopes 146, Alberto Gonzalez 136, Guilherme Afonso 132, Hector Cruz 129, Abraham 113, Jose Maria 113, Benjamin Addo 106, Pablo Canezas 104, Carsten Littman 102, Ander Suarez Rodriguez 100.
The Awards
Liga Sagres
Player of the Month - October: Alessandro Guerra 1st, March: Javier II 2nd, April: Javier II 2nd.
Player of the Year: Javier II 2nd.
Of the Year Shortlists
Fullback: Benjamin Addo
Centre Back: Javier II
Forward: Alessandro Guerra & Hector Cruz.
Fans PotY: Francisco "Javier II" Sanchez
Best XI: Littmann, O.Torres, Addo, Javier II, Martinelli, Alejandro, Frangao, Cabezas, Vazquez, Guerra, Cruz.
Subs: Carrera, Abraham, S.Torres, Cordeiro, Tsotetsi, van Dommelen, Martin.
[COLOR="DarkGreen)"]Overall XI[/COLOR]: A.Martins, Rodriguez, Silva, Franjic, Gailano, Jehl, Lopes, Manuel, Leao, Gomis, Afonso.
Subs: Littmann, Alves, Maria, Perez Rojo, Javier II, Mauro, Wesllem.
Where are they now?
Other Clubs Players:
Other Clubs Staff:
Thoughts on 2021/22
Well the first thing is to strengthen my back line. But I believe I now have a very strong middle starting to form with Littmann [22]/Carrera [20] - Sanchez [22] (Javier II) - Cabezas [25]/Vazquez [21]/Cordeiro [20] - Tsotetsi [19]/Guerra [22]/Cruz [24].
Realistically with them all under 25 if I can build players to support them they could be great in the future. The other members right now are Addo [27] & O.Torres [25] who could have a few more years in them, but I would like possible replacements if I can find them.
Last edited by Lower Leagues Rule; 20-03-2010 at 21:59.
LLR - Well done getting into the group stages in Europe. Sad to see you finish so low in the league though. Hope you can build on that midfield and bounce back up to the European spots next year. I did something like what you considered with selling anyone but the first eleven now. I had a few players that didn't wanna sign new contracts as well though. I rather cash in and rebuild than watch them go for nothing.
Albion Rovers pre-season 2015/16
As mentioned we sold Pepper and Rossello since they refused to sign new contracts. Here's all the transfers.
Balazs Nagy - Hungarian goalkeeper. This is has been one of our weakest positions so I hope this kid can take it to another level. Scouts say his only weakness is his positioning. He's great at catching crosses though which I think will help us since we play a very narrow formation.
Max Hawkins - English striker. He played for St. Mirren in the Premier League last year and scored 10 goals in 9 starts and 10 subs.
Will Reid - English striker. Released by Man Utd and already a leading star according to the my assistant.
Luca Borrelli - Italian attacker. Released by Inter and another leading star if my assistant is to believe. He's already unhappy though as he's having issues settling into life in Scotland.
Martin Necas - Czech Republic striker. End of contract transfer from Brno and another leading star. Was the striker I was most excited about until we found Villa.
David Goikoetxea - Spanish defender and midfielder. End of contract transfer from Osasuna.
Jose Antonio Alba - Spanish midfielder. End of contract transfer from Villarreal.
Ludek Pavlov - Czech Republic defender and midfielder. End of contract transfer from Slavia Prague.
Mario Villa - Argentinian striker. The big signing and our first South American import. Here's the scout report as well, looks amazing. Transfer fee will be paid over 48 months so we'll have no problems. It's a bit crazy that we can get this kid for £1.7M while selling Pepper for £2.6M straight up cash.
The rest of the signings are for my reserve team. It was completely empty after my big clear out, so I decided to pick up any half decent under 20 players my scouts recommended. Brennan (GK), Jung (MC), Jones (DR), Oliveira (DL), Pearson (GK), Berry (DC), and Laursen (GK).
Another reason I'm gonna start filling up my reserve team is that I don't think we can win the Champions League anytime soon in this nation. So I'm planning for the long run here. Also asking my board for a feeder club to start sending them out on loans. Also bugging them about upgrading facilities so we can offer better grounds for development.
I feel like we have a brilliant strike force, much more depth in midfield, but the same average defense as last year now. And hopefully a much better goalkeeper. Guessing it'll be another season where scoring more than the opposition is the strategy.
We're through the 3rd qualifying round of the EURO Cup, beating Croatian NK Varteks 7-0 over two matches. But we've drawn Spanish opposition in the next round in Real Zaragoza. So I don't have to high hopes of reaching the group stages. No idea how good they really are, but I'd imagine around Rangers and Celtics level. So we'll probably need some luck.
I was rather disappointed with the league finish, good to see you going well though and yes preparation for the long haul is what I do, though of course with the core of my team at 20-25 I am kinda set on the young side of things, I may need some experience to help me out and keep the morale up.
I have 4 signings coming so far in July to strengthen the side as much as I can.
Well my 107th ranking in Europe puts me in between Bursaspor (Turkey) & Stade Rennais FC (France). Pretty happy to have almost made the top 100 already.
That's great. Would think that means the clubs reputation went up a bit as well. Find it a bit easier to attract better players?
We're through to the group stages of the EURO Cup as well. Beat Zaragoza 4-1 home. Very lucky. Our golakeeper would have been man of the match if Villa hadn't scored 2 and assisted the other 2. In the away game it was the other way around as we wasted 5 clear cut chances, but Zaragoza only managed to score one of theirs as well making it 4-2 on aggregate. Mario Villa has already payed off more than half of what I bought him for with that home game performance.
We got Man City, Olympiakos and CFR Cluj. That's gonna be tough. Prepare for double figures against Man City
Wow...just been offered 2.5M for Cruz...he is currently looking like spending a season as a super-sub. Only problem is the offer is from Sporting, no way I wanna give him to the competition, but the money alone is tempting me...might ask for a more...5M? :P
That's a dilemma. I got an offer from both Rangers and AA Gent for Pepper in the summer, although I offered him out, they didn't come and bid on their own. I rejected Rangers and accepted AA Gent. If Rangers was the only bid I would probably have accepted it. As important as Pepper was £2.6M is a lot of money at this stage. You can spend it to buy more talents, or you can turn it into a bigger wage budget and thereby attract better free transfers.
I dunno what I'd do in your situation though. Cruz is good, but I would think you can do better? You have anyone in sight to replace him?
I find that offering players (with the "offer to clubs" option) for 2x their current value straight up in cash is usually a good way to get bids. Also untick the "Transfer list and set player to not needed" box. This seem to make them not get mad at you. At least I've never had anyone get mad at me for offering them out with this unticked. I see it as a safe way to see if you can spike an interest in someone I'm not sure I wanna sell. If no one bids, no harm, he's still a important first team player or what not. If someone does bid you can change his status to "not needed" to ensure he accepts the offer.
Maybe you'd even get a bid from someone that's not a rival.
Yeah I did think about offering Cruz out. I believe he is probably my third best striker right now and given that I have three strikers a little younger than him I would like to see get some game time I may just offer him for 5M and see whaty comes in. Preseason update to come.
Des Tiny's
Lusitano de Evora
2021/22 Liga Sagres
The Signings
The Starters
Andre Santos (MC) - He has been signed to provide an extra Midfielder, and in the friendlies he was on fire finishing with 5 goals from 5 games. He will be starting in our first league game.
Wilson Mateus (MC/ST) - Well he was signed as a back-up, but once I saw him play it was clear that he should be starting and he will line-up with Guerra & Tsotetsi for day one of the season upfront.
Adolfo Silveira Reis (DC) - The newest Central Defender, we seem to be bringing one of them in every season right now. Hopefully this one will be the partner that Javier II needs at the back.
The Cover
Alejandro Etxeberria (DMR) - Not the best right back in the world, but following Fucile's retirement and hiring as a coach we needed a replacement in the subs, I cannot find anyone better than Torres at right back so cover it is.
Jeremiah Okoduwa (DC/DM) - Yes I am paying waaaay too much for him, but my coaches think he can do something, he is really the third member of my Centre Back combos, but he can cover the midfield as well. Useful in a Sub.
The Youth Dude
Luis Constantino (ML) - Well I am no longer playing with a winger, but this was the best player to come through our Youth Academy this season, its at least an improvement over all the Youth prospects soo far.
The Friendlies
vs OCG Nice 1:1
at Oriental 5:2
Javier II, Santos, Tsotetsi (2), Mateus
at U.D.Merida 4:0
Mateus (2), Santos (2)
at Cultural Leonesa 5:0
Guerra, Mateus, Santos (2), Tsotetsi
vs Arsenal 1:1
Well of all the friendlies the best result has to be the 1:1 draw with Arsenal, it was just awesome, we dominated a great team and were unlucky to allow the goal they scored. If we have form like that going into the season we may have a chance.
That's some nice signings LLR. Andre Santos looks incredible, he should lift you up a notch or ten. Why such a short contract though? I'd pay him a huge sign on fee and lure him into a 5 year deal right away.
Here's how our EURO Group matches went
We where very unlucky in the first game. Olympiakos goalkeeper got the MoM award. Then we where a bit lucky to grab a point against Man City at home. The games against Cluj where exactly like the result suggest. And we deserved our win against Olympiakos. The loss against Man City wasn't double figures like I feared, but it could have been to be honest. 8-2 would be a more correct result.Code:Olympiakos A 1-3 loss Man City H 1-1 draw CFR Cluj A 5-0 win CFR Cluj H 4-1 win Olympiakos H 3-1 win Man City A 4-2 loss
We got Monaco in the next round and if we manage that we'll most likely get Chelsea. I'm very pleased no matter how it goes. Especially with how we hammered Cluj.
In the league we're 2nd at the moment. 1 point behind a huge suprprise, Motherwell. They just got promoted back up to the Premier League and I guess they spent their time in the First Division well cause they are flying high. Rangers and Dundee Utd are not far behind, while Celtic are having a crappy season in 5th at the moment.
Mario Villa is still not settled in the area, but he has time to go out and party late night. I had to fine him two weeks wages for his behaviour. He accepted it though and said he'd behave. Dunno if I believe him.
Last edited by Ohanzee; 21-03-2010 at 01:36.
Its a short contract because I had no room under the wage budget, I had no money for a signing on fee and he wouldn't accept any longer
Ah man that's a blow. Hopefully he can help you back into Europe though. He's worth having, even if only for a season in my opinion.
Also had a good laugh at the Champions League Group Draw...check this out for a group of death...
Group E
Brilliant LLR!
And that group. That could actually be the champions of 4 countries. A real Champions League group.
Selling reserves is good to make money. One of those kids I got for free in the summer for my reserve team, Sascha Jung. Celtic just came and offered me £325k + 50% of next sale for him. He's gone. He might be the next Michael Ballack for all I know, but money is money at this point. And I'm no fan of Ballack anyways
Razer82 Associacao Desporitvo de Fafe Portuguese Liga Sagres 2019/2020
Liga Sagres Media Prediction 3rd Actual 1st Champions!
Portuguese Cup Semi Final Lost 7-5 to Benfica
Portuguese League Cup Semi Final Lost 4-1 to Sporting
Portuguese Super Cup Runners Up Lost 2-1 to Benfica
Champions League 1st Knockout Round Lost 7-1 on agg to Juventus
Team Stats
Top Scorer: Jorge Acosta (19)
Top Assists: Adrian Vaquero (33)
After a championship season last year, the pressure was on to show that it wasnt a fluke.
We started the season entering a new competition the Super Cup against Cup winners Benfica & as usual we came off worse but only be a narrow margin.
In the league we played well, showing that one league title was not going to be a one off. A 6 game win streak opened the season before the inevitable fist loss came against Benfica. It would turn out that wed only drop points all season against Benfica & Sporting. Our form against ever other side led us to retain our Liga Sagres title & guarantee our entry in the Champions League group stage for what will be the 3rd consecutive season.
We made good cup runs but were stopped short again by a combination of Sporting & Benfica. Its going to take one of them knocking the other out for us to stand a chance of taking one of these trophies.
A good showing in the Champions League Group qualified us second behind Liverpool, despite heavy losses to them in both games. A good showing in the home tie with Juventus left me thinking we'd have a chance in Turin, but a dominant display from the home side sent us out 7-1 on agg. I think it's going to take some heavy investment in players for progress to be made.
I've got two more completed seasons to update on but may put those up in a shorter form to get everybody up to date.
A very good season there Razer, I am delighted to see Fafe on top of the division. Have you managed to beat Benfica yet? Looking forward to see the next two seasons. Back to Back titles in Portugal is a feat that has not been managed yet.
great progress Des, Ohanzee and Razer.... at least some of us are doing well!! some great signings too.
Renato Curi Angolana - Serie C1/B - Christmas 2015
The first news of the Summer was that the board reduced our wage budget for the 2nd successive year, it is now down to about 70% of what it was 2 years ago. This clearly poses problems in signing new players. Hence I was very grateful that I had 5 of them already signed from January as in came an Argentinian D/WB/M L, 2 MCs (Dutch and Spanish), a Spanish AM/F C and a Senegalese FC. And with their arrival, the maximum I could offer a player was £100 p/w (except key player who had the honour of being offered £325 p/w), clearly there were loads of fantastic players lining up outside our ground wanting those wages .
Even when I had got rid of loads of players (more on that next) I still could not offer any more than that. In the end, I had to give up on any quality control and signed the only players willing to be paid that little; average youth released from Serie A, good enough as cheap backup and you never know they may turn into good players, and if they don't they can always go out on loan or be sold for a profit. 7 came in and so far, one has played 30 minutes and one other has been on the bench a couple of times.
On the way out went the usual useless youth, 2 out of contract players and £325k (and probably around £4k p/w wages) worth of players. Several weren't near the first team and were going to be sold no matter what (including a £70k youth striker I totally forgot I had!) but a couple I had to sell solely because of their wages; namely my best MC (Martins) from last year and Quintero (the Panamanian ST). They might have stayed otherwise.
So, for the 3rd year straight I have been severely compromised during the Summer transfer window (this Summer was by far the worst). The number of players I would have attempted to sign if I could have afforded their wages depresses me. As does the quality of the squad compared to what it could have been...
Anyway, the season started with the Serie C Cup where we remained unbeaten and only conceded 1 goal but 3 draws meant we did not qualify.
I was not that confidant as Sassuolo visited for the first game of the season and even less so when they took the lead after 6 minutes but thankfully they had a man sent off and we dominated from there on in. And we promptly won our next 2 matches as well, including (shock, horror) one away from home . We then visited newly-promoted Alto Adige and were beyond bad, we lost 0-3 and it could / should have been worse. We got back on track at home to Rimini before a 90th minute goal at Grosseto cost us a point. We were still up in the top 5.
Bassano were next to visit and we threw away more points as we dominated but they equalised with 10 men in the final 5 minutes. Another draw followed as we were slightly derailed. Thankfully it was now our turn to score a stupidly late goal as 91 minutes passed before we got a winner at home to Pisa. A snore-fest at Crotone was followed by some sudden form. We were mightily lucky at home to Spal as they totally and utterly dominated the first 45 minutes before we took the lead in injury time with our first shot of the whole match, 2 more in the 2nd half did for them. Mantova were dismissed with shocking ease 3-1 before a 3rd straight win took us to 3rd.
Things then got frustrating; a 2-0 lead at Celano was chucked away (draw), a dire match with a bad Monopoli side ended 1-1, Taranto equalised in the 93rd minute (2-2) and then Manfredonia equalised in the 89th f*&%^%g minute (2-2) . Not amused.
Anyway, this has all meant we are in a very promising 5th, 5 points off the lead. Really I should not complain about this as it is much better than I was expecting but complain I shall. The number of points we have thrown away has been incredible, I have counted and 7 have been lost in the last 5 minutes (even more annoyingly mainly against teams in the top 6 as well) and 13 from winning positions. Aaargh.
On the positive side, our improvement has mainly been down to our defense being a bit more solid and our new signings (the good ones) being, well, good. The only one that has not really done much yet is the Spanish AM/F C and that is mainly because my useless ST from last year who had a lot of potential is now showing this potential; top scorer with 9.
I can only really aim for keeping this playoff place, I reckon it might be possible if we stop conceding late equalisers and keep the core of the side fit.
Congrats on another league title Razer82, well done. Know what you mean about the Juventus game. It's tough when you're dominating in the league but get crushed by the big European teams. But you'll get there. Or maybe you already have
Looking good ghostwriter. Good luck in the second half of the season.
I got done with my season last night, but I haven't had time to do a write-up today. Might wait until tomorrow. It's not overly exciting anyways, although we did win one trophy.
Evora's Mid Season Report
The League
Well the season had a little bit of a down start with only a draw managed against Nacional, but we followed that up with a 5 match unbeaten run which included a result vs Porto 2:0 which is the best victory we have so far. We then lost to Sporting and Academica after that, but have continued to sit between 4th & 6th, we currently are comfortably in 5th spot and hoping to improve if we can.
My Squad
League Table
Player Stats
The Future
Well looking forward I needed to cut wages, and as Guerra was taking in 4.3k a week I decided he was the one to go. He went for 1.7m to Chievo in Italy. I was happy with the price, and he was on his way. Though before he went he was a little bit confused as he wanted to stay, but he was also angry at not being allowed to leave.
Then there are a few players I am looking at to replace those whose contracts are up in the new year.
Ferhat Yildiz (DR) - Is a great looking replacement for Oier Torres, I would love Torres to stay, but he has been a poor performer this season, so I would most likely be dropping him to the bench behind Yildiz if I can get him.
Gabriel Bazan (MLC) - He would be joining a great battle in my midfield, but the addition of him alongside the core of Cabezas & Santos will be excellent for the team. He looks like he could be the superstar we need in the middle.
Pablo Roman (DC) - Another player being looked at for the strengthening of the backline, this guy I have been watching for about 2-3 years at Barcelona and been plotting him coming to the club. He will join the other two DC's I have in being almost unbeatable then.
Well Bazan & Roman have agreed to join Evora in July, and Bazan will now be a replacement for Cabezas not in the line with him as Cabezas would not sign with us, but has gone to Aston Villa on a free...I had been trying for 12 months to offer him a new contract...
Delighted to have made the League Cup Semi Finals, and even more so to actually have a shot at winning it, in Group A we had Varzim knock out Sporting, in Group B I went unbeaten knocking out Maritimo & Porto, while Group C saw Benfica & Belenenses (Runner-up) come through.
I will face Belenenses at home, while Benfica travel to Varzim. A great draw for my chances of winning this Cup.
Albion Rovers 2015/2016
3rd in Clydesdale Bank Premier League (pred: 7th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph
The League
Another 3rd place although we got 6 more points this season. With the same points total as last year we'd be 6th. We never had a bad slump or a huge run of wins. Mostly a couple of wins, a draw, a couple of wins, a loss, etc. Very boring season really, although we had a small run at the top of the table in the middle. But that was only because Rangers had a few games in hand on us. Goal was top 6 so this is great.
The Cups
We won one. The League Cup. Really pleased to beat Celtic in the final, although they had a bad season for them. In fact we beat Celtic 4 of 6 games this season. They won the last two. We also go to the final of the Scottish Cup, but Rangers is simply to strong for us at the moment. I'm not to worried though, they have much better players. We lost 4 of 5 games against them this season, the last one being a draw.
The EURO Cup (Fixtures | Group Table)
I already posted the results of the group stages earlier, but to make a short recap. We where unlucky not to beat Olympiakos away and then lucky to get a draw against Man City at home. We beat the crap out of CFR Cluj which I was really pleased with. Then we got our win against Olympiakos as they came to our ground, before getting hammered by Man City away.
This put us 2nd in our group behind Man City and we drew AS Monaco FC in the 1st KO round. I thought we might have a slight chance against them, thinking they might be on par with Olympiakos. But I was very wrong. They hammered us 5-2 at our ground and 2-1 at their ground. Looking at their players after the game I can see why we didn't stand a chance. They almost knocked out Chelsea in the next round to, but just almost. I can only imagine what Chelsea would have done to us.
The Players (Team Stats | Sorted by Av Rat)
We had a big clear out of fringe players in the pre-season and not to many new players in. You can see them in the pre-season report further up this page. As you can see our 1st team squad was a lot smaller this season so everyone got a few games. Except Brennan who was the 3rd GK, but he was available for reserves the whole season and is just a hot prospect.
I'm not incredibly impressed by to many players this year, but Maikel de Jong had another great season with Damien Plessis a good number two. Martin Necas did score the most goals (of those left), but he also played more games than any other attacker. I was expecting more of him to be honest. Jay Spearing is now our captain and he had another good season setting up more goals than anyone. Will Reid was maybe our most effective attacker, he might have a good season a head of him.
Sadly there is one player missing from those squad pictures. Mario Villa would have been the real star, but was sold by my chairman when Atletico Mineiro decided to come in with this offer. I have to say I would not have accepted this offer myself. He was on a 5 year deal and he was our best attacker by far. He managed 19 goals and 20 assists in the 34 matches he got to start. Already missing him.
The Finances
Amazing profit this season and there's several sources for that. Players being sold for £5.6M for one, and we still have £160k a month for 22 months to come from Atletico Mineiro for the Villa deal. Our second highest income was Gate Receipts, giving us £5.5M this season. I'm guessing mostly due to playing in Europe and getting so far in Cups. The average attendance was 6363, so I'm considering asking for another stadium expansion. We also made £3.8M in price money this season. Our biggest expense was in fact Tax at £1.6M with player wages a good number two at £1.4M. We have a good margin between wages and gate receipts still. A huge margin in fact.
The Scottish Teams in Europe
Well you know how we did, but this was actually a good year for Scotland as both Celtic, Rangers and Dundee Utd also got through the EURO Cup group stages. Celtic got there by being 3rd in the Champions Cup group though. Dundee Utd even did us all one better and got to the 2nd KO round where Fenerbache was to strong. Celtic lost to Sporting and Rangers to Palermo in the 1st KO round. Also, Rangers lost to At. Madrid in the Champions Cup qualifiers so they where a bit unlucky with the draw there.
The Future
Well we have lots of money, I hope the board will invest so we can improve all sides of the club. They already said they'd improve training and youth facilities. There's 5 players contracts running out after next season, but only Maikel de Jong is very important of those. I'm gonna try giving him a new one, but he's one of few that do wanna leave. I'm gonna try to pick up more hot prospects for our reserve team, and hopefully we can find some real quality for the first team to. I might start looking for a completely new back 4 to be honest. I'm not pleased with the amount of goals we're letting past us.
Code:CLUB HISTORY SEASON LEAGUE POS. S-CUP L-CUP EUROPE NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/11 3D 1st 4th Round 1st Round - Promoted 11/12 2D 3rd 4th Round 1st Round - Promoted through playoff 12/13 1D 3rd Qtr Final 2nd Round - Won Challenge Cup 13/14 1D 1st Qtr Final 3rd Round - Promoted 14/15 PREM 3rd Semi Final 3rd Round - Qualified for Europe 15/16 PREM 3rd Final WINNER 1st KO Round ... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by Ohanzee; 23-03-2010 at 15:59.
Looking promising LLR. In a good position there. Think that's a good deal for Guerra to. Good luck, in all competitions!
Ohanzee - another good season there - looks like it was quite competitive this season. unlucky vs Monaco too but congrats on getting out of the group.
Des - sounds like you've a solid season going there. great result v Porto and i like the look of Roman and Bazan. good luck for the rest of the season and in the cup.
As for my Venezia game, i'm ploughing my way through pre-season. I've sold a number of players and am currently working on finding the replacements. A couple of surprise departures also which i'll highlight in my pre-season review but i am confident they were the right moves for the club. If i can strengthen my defence i think we'll do alright this season
Our board expanded our stadium. That's what they call putting in another 158 seats at least. I already bothered them with a request to expand again and they said there are plans. So I guess we'll get another 200 seats next summer.
I don't wanna say this, but we're the 110th club in Europe. That's behind LLR, argh!!!
We tied up de Jong's contract, so he's here for 3 more years. Trying to find him a better partner and some fullbacks to.
We have 12 scouts now. There's reports from all over the world. I love it. There's even some decent ones from Iran and Saudi Arabia, from covering the Asian Nations Cup last year.
WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!! What a time to get our first ever victory over Benfica. We have defeated them 2:1 in the League Cup Final. We have won our first top level trophy in a spectacular game. Cabezas opened the scoring in the 8th minute, and Hector Cruz doubled that lead after 23mins, and it looked solid even when Elias scored for them in the 31st minute. We managed to hold on including a 88th minute goal for Benfica being turned away for offside and my side getting up and rowdy infront of 51,000 fans. A huge game and a great start to my day...off to work now.
great stuff Des - well done. no better way than to break your duck against Benfica....
Congrats on the cup win LLR! Well done!
Albion Rovers pre-season 2016/2017
Busy transfer window again, even though we didn't really lose anyone big until very late in the window. Chris Craig went to our rival Rangers when they offered £1.2M. I had already gotten a good replacement by then so I decided to accept as the offer was cash up-front and Craig haven't improved at all the last seasons.
Here's all the transfers
Steve Sidwell - Well known experienced midfielder.
Alan Hutton - Well known experienced right back
Joleon Lescott - Well known experienced defender.
Elliot Draper - Young talented left sided defender. Already being tutored by Lescott.
Emmanuel Frimpong - Good midfielder, probably at the peak of his talent.
Paul Spiridon - Very promising attacker who can play several positions. High hopes for him. Only player we payed money for.
Yuri Grimaldi - Defender who can play both fullbacks. Could become a leading star for the division some day.
The rest are again hot prospects for the reserve team. Jack Gaughan (DL), Emanuele Tufano (GK), Andy Wilson (DRC), Henk Piron (SC), and Bruno Bartoli (DC).
If you checked the screens you'll see that Bartoli already played a first team match. That's cause we had 5 defenders out injured in our second leg of the EURO Cup qualification 4th round. Our entire back 4 was out. Tufano will also be kept in the first team as a 3rd choice. He's also one that could become a leading star.
Very happy with getting some experience in, and Lescott and Hutton in particular are much better than our other fullbacks. But I'll probably use Lescott in the center and the kid Draper on the left back instead.
One more player deserves mentioned, Lee Fraser. He joined in after I wrote my season update, but early enough to be on last years transfer history. He was one of those you see in the "Scottish clubs release youth players" news story at the end of each season, and he's had to step up already cause Nagy got a 5 week injury in pre-season. And he's been scary good so far. In fact we would be out of the EURO Cup already if it wasn't for his MoM performance.
We where seeded for the EURO Cup qualification this season, so I was hoping for a easier ride than last year, and I thought FC Zurich would be. But our attackers where hopeless at home and we only managed 1-1 after missing several big chances and a penalty. I wasn't really worried since we had outplayed them, but still very annoyed. In the away match they where all of a sudden a lot better and this is where Lee Fraser got his MoM award. We won 3-1, but really should have lost. It has to be said though that this was also the game we had 5 defenders out injured.
We're gonna be playing Roma of Italy, Chernomorets (Burgas) of Bulgaria and Maccabi Haifa of Israel in the group stages. After the Zurich games I take nothing for granted, but we should be able to fight for 2nd spot again.
We also had a take-over, the most boring one ever. It's been talked about for over a year now and one day I just got this news headline. No transfer embargo, no cash injection, nothing. Just a new boring owner. He said there's no plan of injecting any cash.
some really good signings there Ohanzee. some really good experience which should hopefully help you make up ground on Rangers. good luck.
Carlsberg (Portuguese League) Cup Goal of the Year: Cabezas
Just a short post for now, I will give a proper update once I finish the league...
And on a side note only the top 5 in the league are going to make it to Europe as the Portuguese Cup Final is Leiria vs Leixoes - Leiria are in Liga Vitalis and coming 14th (2pts above relegation) & Leixoes are 14th in the Liga Sagres (Also 2pts above relegation).
Last edited by Lower Leagues Rule; 23-03-2010 at 06:14.
Congrats to LLR for winning the Cup, looking forward to reading the final season report. I hope you'll qualify for Europe
Razer82, nice one retaining the title. Hope you'll post a finances screen soon as I see you spent £7.5M but didn't sell anyone to match your transfer expenditure.
ghostwriter, here's hoping you'll catch that promotion Too bad for that wage budget and goals conceded in 80+ mins problem, probably you tried setting your mentality to 'defensive' or 'counter' and ticking 'retain possesion' and 'pass to feet' near the end of a match. Good luck
Ohanzee, I especially loved your reports (no offence to others) 'cause I love Scottish leagues' format and tend to play a LLM at least once per year (FM year). Congratz for being promoted to SPL and (almost) winning both Cups you took spot in. Good luck in Europe this season also, you have a good chance with Chernomorets and M. Haifa. Too bad for chairman interference with Villa's transfer, but Hawkins and Reid are great back-ups and I hope they'll won't dissapoint you goalwise.
Looking forward to your reports.
croman.TIR669, thanks. To be honest I didn't think I would enjoy the Scottish league format with the split of top and bottom after 33 games, but now that I've played 3 seasons in the Premier League I am. Even the rule that you need to have 3 under 21 outfield players in the starting eleven haven't bothered me at all. And the fact that you get from £800k to £3M in price money for your position in the PL is sweet as well.
I'm done with my season, it was a good one. Will post update soon.
Albion Rovers 2016/2017
1st in Clydesdale Bank Premier League (pred: 5th) | Transfers | Finances | Graph
The League
It was a brilliant run in the Premier League this season. We lost 2 of the first 9 games, but then we went on a 22 game unbeaten run. In the end we had only lost 3 matches all season and the title was already ours with 4 games left to play. CHAMPIONS!!
Looking at the table it's easy to see where the difference is compared to the last two years. We conceded just 26 goals compared to 49 and 51 before. So the experience and quality of the back four was really vital. That said, you can also see that the other teams had really bad seasons. Last year we finished 3rd with 70 points. This year 70 points would have been enough to win the league. Rangers had a horrible season for someone of their quality, it seems who ever wins the league is always doing bad the next year lately. I hope we can prove that theory wrong.
The Cups
Not good. We lost a penalty shoot out against Hearts in the League Cup quarter final. And, even worse, we managed to lose 1-0 at home to Motherwell in the 5th round of the Scottish Cup. I dunno how we managed to lose that game cause we did play a strong side, we just couldn't score. Both Reid and Necas played below 6.0 in the match.
The EURO Cup
As mentioned we barely got through to the group stages beating Zürich 4-2 on agg. with our entire back 4 out injured. We where then entered into a group with Roma (ITA), Chernomorets (Burgas) (BUL), and M. Haifa (ISR).
I was really a bit surprised at how well we managed against Roma. Their best players are getting old, but they are still quality. Vucinic was injured when we beat them, he scored two times in Rome. So I guess he may have been the difference. I'm very pleased with how we got through the group, and as winners we drew Zenit of Russia in the 1st KO round.Code:EURO Cup Grp H (Table) M. Haifa A 2-1 Necas x2 Roma H 2-1 Miquel, Frimpong (pen) Chernomorets A 4-2 Miquel, Spiridon, Necas (pen), Pavlov Chernomorets H 4-1 Miquel, Necas, Reid, Spiridon M. Haifa H 3-0 Lescott x2, Pavlov Roma A 2-3 Reid, Necas
We where really the better team in both games against the Russians. Their big star, 33 year old Alessandro Rosina, did his best scoring 3 goals in the two legs, but it wasn't enough to beat us. 7 different goal scorers for us in the two legs. Very pleasing. I was expecting to play Roma again in the next leg as it was them or Club Brugge. But the Belgian team proved to be really strong.Code:EURO Cup 1st Knockout Round Zenit A 4-3 Lescott, Hutton, Reid, Miquel Zenit H 3-1 Sidwell, Necas, Frimpong
The Players (team stats | sorted by av rat.)
It's hard to pick any real stars after such a good season, but there's no doubt our defense played a big part. Maikel de Jong had another fantastic season and I'm having a hard time understanding why he's playing so well. His technical stats are really quite bad. The new guys Joleon Lescott, Alan Hutton and Elliot Draper all did great, especially Lescott. Tom Thorpe also had another good season, so we had 5 defenders playing really well this season. We also signed one more defender in December as our Central European scout found Iker Garcia. He looks promising.
Emmanuel Frimpong also had a great first season. He was very consistent and never injured, playing both as a defensive and central midfielder. And up front Will Reid and Martin Necas both had great seasons. To bad they where injured in the EURO Cup 2nd KO round.
But, the real star of the season was in my eyes Miquel. In his 4th season at the club the Spaniard finally is starting to show his real potential. Of course that also means that he now wants to leave. He thinks he's to good for us now, and he's still mad at me for not letting him talk to Zenit when they offered £1.7M for him. Yea, that's the Russian club we hammered twice. Silly Spaniard. Anyways, he's got 4 years left on his contract so I'm not letting him go cheap. I set a £10M price tag on him, but my board will probably accept much less. I probably will to. At the moment only M. Haifa and Tenerife are showing any interest in him though.
The Finances
Still going strong. We didn't spend much on players so I was kind of hoping for a bigger profit than £2.9M, but we didn't really sell much either so. What annoys me is that we're paying £3M in taxes now, that's almost twice as much as last year. Player wages also almost doubled, but it seems we can handle it. We actually got less from gate receipts this year though, even though our average attendance went up to 6552. And I know why, it's the damn season tickets. As more people buy them we get less gate receipts. And we make a lot less selling season tickets than we would have done selling single tickets. Oh well. We are now the 3rd richest club in Scotland after Rangers and Celtic. Still £44M behind Celtic though.
The Scottish Teams in Europe
Rangers got to the group stages of the Champions Cup where they ended last in a group with R. Madrid, Porto and Standard (BEL). Dundee Utd got to the group stages of the EURO Cup, but went out just 1p behind 2nd place in their group. Celtic did a bit better, getting past the group stages and then beating Twente in the 1st KO round. They followed that up with beating Werder Bremen in the 2nd KO round. And they didn't stop there either, as they beat the club we couldn't, Club Brugge, in the Quarter Finals. Sadly in the Semi Final Sporting CP (POR) was to strong, but it was a great run for Celtic which should help Scotlands coefficients.
The Future
A few contracts are running out after next season, but it's mostly the old guys. Lescott, Sidwell, Hutton. I will not offer Lescott and Sidwell new ones, as I think they are getting to old. Hutton I'm not sure about yet. The others running out are Thorpe, Pessis and Alba. I might try to offer Thorpe and Alba new contracts, but Plessis I will most likely let go of now. I should probably try and find another good striker and at least one center back for the future to. I hope we can keep all the first team players, but I'm worried Miquel might leave. If he does Ravel Morrison will have to step up. He's happy now, after a season of moaning and I still think he can make an impact.
Code:CLUB HISTORY SEASON LEAGUE POS. S-CUP L-CUP EUROPE NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/11 3D 1st 4th Round 1st Round - Promoted 11/12 2D 3rd 4th Round 1st Round - Promoted through playoff 12/13 1D 3rd Qtr Final 2nd Round - Won Challenge Cup 13/14 1D 1st Qtr Final 3rd Round - Promoted 14/15 PREM 3rd Semi Final 3rd Round - Qualified for Europe 15/16 PREM 3rd Final WINNER EC 1st KO Rnd ... 16/17 PREM 1st Qtr Final 5th Round EC 2nd KO Rnd Champions! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A very good season there, Congrats on winning the Prem League, that puts you halfway to completion, now hopefully you can make a difference in Europe next season. I have solidified my starting XI this morning and am in the middle of my end of season report for the latest season, its going to be a big one...And then there is a mini World Cup update to follow that, including the two of my players who made it there. And then a Pre-Season update as well, hopefully I can get it all done tonight.
Sounds good LLR. I won't have time to play until very late tonight myself now. Looking forward to reading your update. Bet you're excited about next season to, being back in Europe.
well done Ohanzee - i knew you'd win the league with your summer signings. Unlucky against Club Brugge - i'd have had you down to win that one - they must have some good scouts. Looking forward to your CL participation next season.
Great season there, Ohanzee! Congrats on winning the SPL (former SPL, now CBPL...), you had pure domination. Too bad for dropping from League and Scottish Cup, you'll win it next year I suppose. Good luck in that, as well as retaining Premier League.
I told you you'll pass the group, you did a great job. Shame for Club Brugge, after you won against Roma and Zenit... Also, that de Jong bloke... How could a DC with marking and tackling 10/11 (not excluding off the ball 8) be so good in a TOP10 European league?
Good luck in the future
RIP respectable defensive record
You would not think that Pisa are 3rd bottom and had the 2nd worst scoring record in the division . And, of course, Lazarevic is one of our ex-players as well.
Every single on-target goal in that match resulted in a goal. In one fell swoop we now have conceded more goals than 2 out of the bottom 5.
Despite that, we are still 6th and only out of the playoffs on goal difference. 8 games left.
Des Tiny's
Lusitano de Evora
End of Season
2021/22 Liga Sagres
Winning the Carlsberg Cup
The Current SeasonThe Quick Reference
Predicted: 10th
Actual: 5th
Portuguese Cup: 3rd Round vs Maritimo
League Cup: Champions vs Benfica
Euro Rank: 114th (v7) [7th Por]
Finances: 7.75M (6th Por)
Season Tickets: 1050 (v28) ??
The Squad: Goalies/Defense & Midfield/Strikers
Transfers: 2021/22
The Season in General
Well this season was always going to be about getting back to the spot I had been, and I acheived it by a few good signings in the offseason, some good tactical work with a new 4-3-3 installed, some interesting work in keeping it all going, and good rejecting of contracts. Morale was what lost it for us last year, and this season I worked at keeping that up early. Jorge Fucile left us for the Academica Managers job after I said no. Other teams also wanted Des Tiny to take over, they included, Belenenses and Nigeria.
The League
Well we started excellently in the league this season, for the first time in years we played better at the start than we did at the end. And there were two results that really pleased me above all the others. We won at Sporting 1:0, for our first victory over them, and we also managed to defeat Porto 2:0, this was our first of two victories over them this season. a huge delight as we took the form from these games to push ourselves back into contention for Europe, of course our league position ended up not mattering.
Player Stats
Team Stats
The Cups
Well the Portuguese Cup was a complete disappointment, as for the second year running we drew another top 5 team in the 3rd round and went out straight away.
Player Stats
The Story of the League Cup Victory
Well this was going to be the story of the year for Evora, we first went into the Second Round drawing ourselves against Olhanense & Feirense, and that round was the closest anyone got to us all season as we only just took out that group.
vs Olhanense 5:0
at Feirense 2:2
Second Round Group F
Well we qualified through following a win and a draw to get into what looked like the toughest of all the groups, Maritimo & Porto would both have to travel to us and as that was the case it was going to give us a shot. Well we took it as we went through undefeated, grabbing our 2nd win over Porto, our 3rd ever win over Porto and a good away victory over Beira Mar to pass through.
vs Maritimo 2:1
vs Porto 2:1
at Beira Mar 2:0
Third Round Group B
Next up we had Belenenses coming to visit, as the easiest draw we could've had I was looking forward to passing through to the final. Well we did just that as Cabezas scored the goal to take us through.
Semi: vs Belenenses 1:0
Then it was onto the final at a neutral ground where we would face Benfica, a team we had never defeated, but knowing we had beaten Porto & Sporting for the first time ever we had a chance, so I went out there to attack, first Cabezas gave us the lead with what would be the goal of the season and then Cruz doubled our lead. At this point I thought we should pull back and defend a bit, well they managed to get one through, but after that we really shut up shop and it was ours to be won, the fans were estatic as we took the victory.
Final: vs Benfica 2:1
Win Cup
Euro Cup Qualifying
Player Stats
Well not even making it to Europe sucks.
The Club's HistoryLeague Records
Goals Home & AwayCode:|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------| | Season | League | Final Pos | Playoffs | Achievements | |----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------| | 2010/11 | 2DS | 6th | | None | | 2011/12 | 2DS | 1st | 2nd | Promoted | | 2012/13 | LV | 8th | N/A | None | | 2013/14 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2014/15 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2015/16 | LV | 4th | N/A | None | | 2016/17 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2017/18 | LV | 1st | N/A | Promoted | | 2018/19 | LS | 10th | N/A | None | | 2019/20 | LS | 5th | N/A | Qualified EC | | 2020/21 | LS | 9th | N/A | None | | 2021/22 | LS | 5th | N/A | Won Lg Cup | Qualified EC |----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|
Record Home & AwayCode:|----------|----------|---------|---------|-------| | Season | League | Home | Away | Total | |----------|----------|---------|---------|-------| | 2018/19 | LS | 18-18 | 16-32 | 34-50 | | 2019/20 | LS | 28-13 | 22-25 | 50-38 | | 2020/21 | LS | 21-14 | 17-21 | 38-35 | | 2021/22 | LS | 21-13 | 20-20 | 41-33 | |----------|----------|---------|---------|-------|Code:|----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------| | Season | League | Home | Away | Total | |----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------| | 2018/19 | LS | 05-05-05 | 03-04-08 | 08-09-13 | | 2019/20 | LS | 07-08-00 | 05-04-06 | 12-12-06 | | 2020/21 | LS | 05-07-03 | 04-04-07 | 09-11-10 | | 2021/22 | LS | 08-04-03 | 05-04-06 | 13-08-09 | |----------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|
1st Half vs 2nd Half
Code:|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Season | League | Open | Close | Total | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 2018/19 | LS | 03-04-08 | 05-05-05 | 08-09-13 | | 2019/20 | LS | 04-06-05 | 08-06-01 | 12-12-06 | | 2020/21 | LS | 04-04-07 | 05-07-03 | 09-11-10 | | 2021/22 | LS | 08-02-05 | 05-06-04 | 13-08-09 | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
Club Records & Competition History
All Records:
New Records: Highest Attendance: 13299, Avg Attendance: 7534, Highest Fee Received: 1.7M (Guerra), Total Income: 1.3M.
Competition History:
League Cup - Winners 2022
Liga Vitalis - Winners 2018, 3rd 2014,2015,2017
2nd Division South - Winners 2012
Group 3 - 3rd 2017
Group 2 - 2nd 2019
U19s Cup - 2nd 2018
The PlayersThe Squad
Current Teams Stats: This Season & Evora Career.
30. Carsten Littmann - The back-up covered for 5 games while Carrera was injured and conceded at 1 goal per game. Very happy with his effort, he is now clearly behind Carrera, but I am delighted by his efforts.
33. Oscar Carrera - The number 1 keeper just seems to get better as the season continue. He concedes at just over 1 goal per game, and he gets a clean sheet in every third game. He has made a few spectacular saves and he will continue as the starter.
Right Backs
63. Oier Torres - Well Torres was in dispute with me all season, and he refused to sign a new contract, he was on the transfer list and no one wanted him either, so he left on a free on July 1st. His actual play on the field was brought down by the poor attitude as well.
80. Alejandro Etxeberria - He was brought as cover for Torres and did well in that job, so he will continue as a back-up in the new season behind our new signing. He is solid when he plays, but never great.
Left Backs
62. Benjamin Addo - A great season from the Evora Captain and really I could not ask for more, a season rating of over 7, even if he only made half of our games because of a mid season injury. Addo is one of a kind and made a trip to the World Cup in June.
93. Gustavo Frangao - He was only slightly better than Paixao, we really need to improve the situation, I did bring in one other left back so its likely these two could go.
98. Carlos Paixao - Well he was disappointing, he was signed as my Addo back-up, but he was so poor he played only 1 game and Frangao took the place back again.
2. Peter Cooper - When Addo got injured I made an impulse purchase to cover the spot, and this was the guy I picked. He ended up playing really well over his games. A good effort and he will stay as our cover.
Centre Backs
4. Francisco "Javier II" Sanchez - With more goals than Cruz or Tsotetsi this year he was good from the spot, or off the corner. Javier II will continue to lead our defense and alongside the players I have added to him. I have no doubt he will be a star for a long time.
92. Romeu Salgado - He was barely needed and as such will probably leave in July when his contract expires.
17. Guglielmo Martinelli - Having dropped to just 11 games he is near that point of being sold on, but he is still good cover on the defensive side of the ball and is on reasonably low wages.
5. Adolfo Silveira Reis - He came in to join Javier in my back line and he ended up havng a lot better season than I expected. Good tackling and a great pass completion rate, he managed a 6.88 rating over the season.
47. Matteo Jehl - Yes he is still around, I have been trying to sell him for 3 seasons now, but only been able to get him out on loan. Hopefully he will go in July.
29. Abraham - He made it further up the 100 Club this season, and with just 17 games in the whole year he would be a little disappointed, but he is clearly the 4th best MC.
25. Pablo Cabezas - This one was the biggest loss of the whole lot, he was a superstar for our club all season, he scored a goal in the League Cup final which was the League Cup Goal of the Year, he got double figures of assists, and a rating of 7.28. He is one of the best around, but he would never renew his contract.
24. Sergio Torres - Most of his games were off the bench and his stats reflect this. He will continue to cover the strikers and the midfield into the new season.
42. Paulo Cordeiro - Our only Portuguese player with a chance at top team experience on a regular basis, but he really is just not good enough. His skills don't seem to show up on the park and because of this he has just been used as cover behind the midfield.
26. Ernesto Vazquez - He has really shown that my faith was not unwarranted, he showed great skill as the anchorman in the middle. I am pleased with this young guy and without a doubt he will be a starter in the new season.
21. Alejandro Hunte - For the third season in a row our parent club sent him to us on a loan in January, he got a few games and was solid once more, but he is a level below our stars and will probably get no game time if he comes back again.
Andre Santos - He went all the way to the final game without missing a match and then damaged his neck just prior to our final league game. With the loss of Cabezas he will be looking to become the leader through the middle, he looks good on the ball, he can score goals, and he is very strong. A great player and almost played every game.
38. Hector Cruz - This season the Vice-Captain let us down a bit as his production dropped to 9 goals all season. I am hoping I can turn this around into the new season. He seemed to just go on and off the boil a lot.
11. Theo Tsotetsi - The young South-African only scored 9 goals in the entire season, this was a little bit of a disappointment. I will be hoping that the few small changes to my tactic will create more chances for those boys at the front.
99. Roberto Martin - He spent most of the season as the fourth back, and he was very disappointing across the board. Without scoring a goal in 15 games he was the worst of our lot by a long, long way. He will continue as a back-up, but thats about all really.
84. Joao Cruz - One of the youth players who will just get a game here and there when I need a sub to cover injuries.
10. Wilson Mateus - He was the top goalscorer on the season with 12, but that was also disappointing, he was the 2nd of our players to make it to the World Cup, and hopefully he can use that experience to come back and score goals for our club.
The Best of the Best
The 100 Club
Gabriele Federici 203, Oier Torres 198, Matteo Jehl 194*, Jose Manuel 179, Carlos Perez Rojo 170, Hector Cruz 166*,Deigo Galiano 151, Sebastian Visentin 147, Raphael Lopes 146, Pablo Canezas 141, Alberto Gonzalez 136, Guilherme Afonso 132, Abraham 130*, Benjamin Addo 126*, Francisco "Javier II" Sanchez 117*, Jose Maria 113, Carsten Littman 107*, Ander Suarez Rodriguez 100.
The Awards
Liga Sagres
Signing of the Season: Wilson Mateus (120k)
Team of the Year: Javier II (DC), Pablo Cabezas (MC)
Manager of the Year: Des Tiny 3rd.
Young PotY: Javier II 3rd.
Most Assists: Pablo Cabezas 2nd (11).
Player of the Month - Nov: Javier II 2nd, Dec: Hector Cruz 3rd.
Goal of the Month - Feb: Wilson Mateus 3rd
Of the Year Shortlists
Centre Back: Javier II
League Cup
Goal of the Year: Pablo Cabezas - Watch the Goal.
Fans PotY: Pablo Cabezas
Best XI: Carrera, Etxeberria, Addo, Javier II, Martinelli, Vazquez, Santos, Cabezas, H.Cruz, Tsotetsi, Mateus.
Subs: Littmann, Cooper, Abraham, O.Torres, Reis, Fucile, Guerra.
Overall XI: Martins, Rodriguez, Silva, Javier II, Franjic, Jehl, Lopes, Manuel, Leao, Gomis, Afonso.
Subs: Littmann, Alves, Maria, Cabezas, Galiano, Mauro, Wesllem.
Thoughts on 2022/23
Well the board have given me another new contract, with a three year extension. I would like to bring in Tomas, probably more for his fiery red hair than his skill, but he looks stunning. I think in the new year we can push for a top 3 slot, and also get through to the knock out stages of the Euro Cup given the strength of our side. We are definitely one of the best in the league now. Well considering our low wage budget. Given there are 162 players in the world earning more than my entire team.
The Signings So Far
Pablo Roman (DC) - I have signed him as a third option at the back alongside Sanchez & Reis, he is the perfect compliment to these guys, and clearly strengthens my team.
Gabriel Bazan (MLC) - He has been signed as a replacement to our midfield star Cabezas, hopefully with him, Vazquez & Santos across the middle we can run this league. (Brazil, Spain & Argentina)
Ferhat Yildiz (DR) - With Oier Torres refusing to re-sign with the club I needed a replacement and I found him almost straight away, delighted with the signing here. He will compliment our back line and at only 18 he can step straight in and start.
These three signings, plus a few other changes have really removed the Spanish domination of our squad, our starting XI is now: ESP (5), TUR, GHA, BRA, ARG, RSA & COL. And on the bench we have ESP (5), USA & POR.
On a side note, why am I not in the Hall of Fame? New Zealand only has one slot with Ricki Herbert on top, but surely the League Cup should get me a spot?
Congrats again on the League Cup and getting back into Europe LLR!
You got Santos on a 3 year deal, that's awesome! I would consider selling Cruz if he doesn't sign a new contract to be honest. That's two rather bad seasons for him now? I see he's still worth £1.3M with one year left to, if you can get £2-3M for him by offering him out I'd do it, but you know him better than me. The new signings look great to.
No idea about the hall of fame, never really understood that system. :confused:
Congrats for winning the Cup
5th place, nice Yildiz looks great, and you need a good right-back, those two guys are awful compared to him. Good luck in Europe
i echo everything Ohanzee says. well done Des
Realised i forgot to do mt season review so i'm uploading it now....
Venezia - Serie A - Season Review - Season 2017/18
apologies for the poor standard of update, but i want to get the review over with - besides i don't think there was too much worth writing about really........
Media Prediction: 20th
League Finish: 20th Graph
Humiliating.... Embarassing... Demoralising... Three words to sum up the worst ever season on Football Manager. A season which gave me some optimism ended with a dismal return of 3 wins from 38 games ensuring we crashed back down to Serie B with a big bump. A 19 match run without a win was halted only after our relegation was confirmed. I tried everything to halt the run - almost every tactic and strategy was tried at some point, but all were to no avail... It's difficult to make this season sound interesting, so i won't.
Squad 1 Squad 2
I am only highlighting a few players as most of them were awful:
Koke - played pretty well all things considered. He will continue to run the midfield this season.
Camolese - despite all my reports saying he isn't good enough, club captain Camolese was once more one of our better players and coped with the step up.
Cannone - despite wanting to leave, Cannone had another good season. heopfully he's happy to stay again, kind of.
Orosz - Top Scorer this season, Janos was the only striker who adapted to life in Serie A.
Danilo - Broke into the starting line up at the end of the season after arriving at Venezia a couple of seasons earlier, and has secured his future at the club. heavily wanted however, he insists he wants to stay. One to keep an eye on.
Decent profit made due to our top flight status. The figures are skewed a bit by late season player sales. still we're pretty healthy.
- Promotion. despite a busy summer we are still in my opinion capable of promotion so that's the aim.
- that's it
So we are back in Serie B. Can we make it back to Serie A at the first attempt??? Stay tuned folks!
Career History
Code:Season League Pos. Serie C Cup Cup Europe Achievements _________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2010/11 Serie C2/A 2nd group stage N/A N/A Lost in play-off semis 2011/12 Serie C2/A 3rd group stage N/A. N/A Promotion in playoffs 2012/13 Serie C1/A 8th N/A 2nd Qual. N/A None 2013/14 Serie C1/A 1st Winners 3 rd Qual. N/A Serie C1/A Champions, Serie C Cup, Serie C Super Cup 2014/15 Serie B 9th N/A 3rd Qual. N/A None 2015/16 Serie B 9th N/A 2nd Qual N/A None 2016/17 Serie B 2nd N/A 3rd Qaul. N/A Promotion 2017/18 Serie A 20th N/A 4th Qual. N/A Relegated
Last edited by rlipscombe; 24-03-2010 at 21:32. Reason: wrong cup result
Well, too bad for relegation, but when players like Danilo are in your TOP5, then I'd say you should lower your expetations in Serie A. That Hungarian, Orosz, is way better than any other mentioned player and it doesn't surprise me that he was your top scorer. You should bring some new faces in your squad and win your way back to Serie A. Good luck with that
As for new faces there has been plenty and i'll introduce them at the end of pre-season.
Good luck rlipscombe. Hope you can bounce right back up.
I haven't had time to start my pre-season yet myself. Might have a little go now, if I don't fall a sleep.
Ohanzee: Thanks, I was delighted to win the league cup and make it through to Europe. Yeah I managed to sign some long term deals on most of my stars, except Cabezas, Guerra and now Cruz & Abraham who I have shipped out for 2.6M & 1M respectively, they both leave in January. Cruz is off to Turkey, and Abraham is heading to Italy. The hall of fame confuses me, hopefully I can get on there at some point.
croman: Thanks for the Congrats. And a good right back? Yildiz is definitely a huge improvement on what I had, I am now looking for Addo's replacement at Left Back.
rlipscombe: Thanks for the congrats, hopefully I can keep it up. A crud season from your boys there, I really hate it when you have some good players but they just fail to perform as they should. I have just signed a combined 5 Strikers or Midfielders with potential that I am hoping to get one good one out of and sell the rest in 6-12 months time, I need to find that player to line up with Tsotetsi & Mateus. Hopefully you can get straight back up.
Venezia - Serie B - Pre-Season Round-up - Season 2018-19
Having finally made it through pre-season, it is the right time to introduce the new imports who will (hopefully) see us bounce back up to Serie A.
Devis Terranova - Young Italian youth international goalkeeper signed from Reggina for £1.5 million. Despite his tender age, i have decided to give him a chance as he is good enough. He has started the season as No. 1
Full Backs
Carlos Gomes - Portugese youth international signed from Belenenses. Will initially provide cover to Mich McInnes who has stayed at the club.
Antonio Ortega - Young Spaniard signed from Sevilla. One for the future, he will play for the U20s this season.
Rick Ploeger - Having spent all summer looking for a LB, Rick was finally chosen and signed from Groningen. Signed mainly for the future due to his potential, he will provide stiff competition for this role.
Centre Backs
Rasmus Bengtsson - Experienced Swede signed from PSV for some experience. Will mainly provide cover i think and help develop some of the younger defenders at the club.
Adam Magee - Our first American, Adam is another with plenty of potential. Already has a Continental reputation, i think Adam could play an important role for the club for a number of years.
Danny Dannemark - Young Belgian CB signed very much with one eye on the future.
Andrea Adamo - Italian CB signed from Rangers. Ummed and Aahed about signing him, he will provide further quality to our defence.
Ottavio Mattioli - My biggest summer signing, joining for £7.5 million from PSV. Offers real quality already, he could be Koke's midfield partner for years to come.
Umit Korkmaz - Experienced Austrian winger brought in to offer strength in depth and to help develop our young wingers. Could be one of the signings of the season, having cost nothing.
Ronald Lintner - Austrian youth striker signed from Red Bull Salzburg. Good potential, he will provide strength in depth up front.
Cedric Cavada - Another youth international, this time from Switzerland.
Oscar Cardozo - Veteran Paraguay international striker signed on a free. Played a couple of games on trial, i just had to sign him. Wish push Orosz and Danilo for a starting place.
So that's it. You'll notice quite a few players left over the summer, the main players being Menendez, Di Gennaro, Valdes, Yevdokimov and Leandro Lima all after one season. I also took the tough decision to sell all-time top goalscorer Esteban Schmitt as he had one year left on his contract and we had strengthened our striking options. Was a tough call but after last season i have to be ruthless.
Pre-season went pretty well and we have made it to the 4th qualifying round of the Italian Cup. However we have a 0-1-1 record in the league although i'm not too worried as both were tough away games. Hopefully we get our first win under our belt ASAP.
Amazing transfers. Lots of youngsters with a couple of expirienced players. Terranova, Mattioli, Cavada and Cardoso look particulary great. Good luck in your comeback season
Looks good rlipscombe. I like all the strikers a lot. And the youngsters Ortega, Magee, and Dannemark look great for their age. Mattioli looks worth the value as well, especially on a 5 year deal at his age. You should get a lot out of him. Good luck.
we shall see.
FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin, 2029-30, Ligue 1
League Position - 17th: Past Positions
Transfers, part 2
SummaryThis was easily the worst season we've had since being promoted to Ligue 2. We only avoided relegation by one goal, which is incredible when you think about it in depth. The squad is too small but finances at the club are looking very bleak, so whether I'll be able to bring many new players in next season will be interesting and probably quite depressing.
Onze de départ
GK: Josip Grnja, 30, Croatia - The Croatian goalkeeper is of very good quality, the only downside is that he has high wage requests.
DR: Jérôme Hebert, 28, France - FCLSS's own Hebert was played primarily at right back this season, where he played well.
DL: Francisco Arbizu, 26, Honduras - The Honduras international was brought in this season and excelled in his position of left back.
DC: Iker Aramaio, 18, Spain - An absolute steal for what I payed, he has the potential to be one of the best defenders in the league.
DC: Vladimir Stokic, 27, Bosnia & Herz. - A decent season for Stokic.
MR: Brice Toure, 22, Ivory Coast - A new signing, he's a good young right midfielder who booted Hebert out of the MR position this season. He hasn't yet achieved his potential though, which is a slight concern.
ML: Stephen Sharp, 25, Scotland - The Scottish midfielder had a good season for the team on the left side of midfield, he was one of the top scorers of the campaign with 6 goals.
MC: Hakan Koot, 30, Holland - The experienced Dutch midfielder was brought in this year and did a good job in midfield.
MC: Matthieu Causse, 33, France - Appointed captain following the retirement of the legendary Sergio Marbus, Causse did well in the games he featured in this season. He hasn't shown too many signs of getting worse as a player so should continue to play for the club in the next few years.
ST: Donovan Leferink, 25, Holland - He improved on last season but he still was a massive disappointment for the club. I'm very worried about the striker situation at the club.
ST: Razvan Ionica, 32, Romania - Despite being tipped as useless for the last 2 season's by the staff at the club he still comes up with goals. He's not really that great and he wouldn't be playing if I could actually manage to sign a striker who could score goals on a consistent basis.
Official Fans Player of the Year - Jerome Hebert
Unofficial Young Player of the Year - Iker Aramaio
Career Overview
Code:Season League Position Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2010/11 National 4th None 2011/12 National 5th None 2012/13 National 7th None 2013/14 National 2nd Promoted 2014/15 Ligue 2 18th Relegated 2015/16 National 3rd Promotion 2016/17 Ligue 2 13th None 2017/18 Ligue 2 12th None 2018/19 Ligue 2 7th None 2019/20 Ligue 2 6th None 2020/21 Ligue 2 1st Promoted as Champions 2021/22 Ligue 1 18th Relegated 2022/23 Ligue 2 1st Promoted as Champions 2023/24 Ligue 1 13th None 2024/25 Ligue 1 15th None 2025/26 Ligue 1 7th None 2026/27 Ligue 1 6th French Cup winners 2027/28 Ligue 1 12th Champions Trophy winners 2028/29 Ligue 1 11th None 2029/30 Ligue 1 17th None Trophies won: Ligue 2 (x2) - 2020/21 & 2022/23 French Cup (x1) - 2026/27 Champions Trophy (x1) - 2027/28 Unofficial Club Hall of Fame/Alumni: Legends - Joel Kouassi, Sergio Marbus Icons - Paul Hart, Matthieu Causse, Jérôme Hebert, Razvan Ionica Favoured Personnel - Alexandru Musca, Vivaldy Joaquim, Stephen Sharp
Casertana - Serie C1/A 2011-12
Improving the squad
During the previous season in C2 my squad lacked DC's owned by Casertana (except for the veteran Daniele Adani) and I had to rely heavily on loan central defenders. Come the new season I decided to concentrate on finding some decent defenders I could sign:
DC – Riccardo Fissore (unattached)
DC – Luca Nuzzolese (£18K from Juventus – the first transfer where money was involved)
SW D RC WB R – Duccio Innocenti (Empoli)
D WB MRL – Gianluca Galasso (unattached)
In addition I snapped up Swiss/Italian:
DM MC – Simone Grippo (unattached)
All the rest of the new players were loan signins mostly from the parent club Palermo.
The season of 2011-12
Nothing much to say about cups. Got to the 2nd qualifying round of the Italian Cup by beating C1/A rivals Ravenna, but then lost to Serie B Pescara. In the Serie C cup I trounced poor C2/C Prato 0 – 5, but then lost 4 - 0 against C1/A Cremonese. While in the lower leagues I really don't pay much attention to cups and prefere to do as well as possible in the league.
The media prediction was 17th – only one position above the automatic relegation place. I didn't let this sort of silly predictions bother me though the reporter for the local football rag kept on talking about relegation rivals. Somehow he eventually dropped the subject as Casertana never was lower than 4th during the whole campaign. Two teams, namely Casertana and Frosinone, were head and shoulders above the rest and every now and then swapped positions on the table switching between the 1st and 2nd spots. In the end 4 points separeted the teams. Casertana 1st and Frosinone 2nd.
Pavia were the winners of C1/B, so I played against them in the Serie C1 Supercup. Won both encounters of the 2 legged competion. Two titles this season!
I think this is 4th consecutive promotion for Casertana: 08-09 promotion to Serie D (IRL) and then 09-10 to C2 etc. Also the club have not played 2 consecutive seasons on same level since 06-07.
League table | League graph
Transfers | Squad at the end of the season
Roberto Grimaudo – Was good in C2 and performed very well in C1 aswell. Fans player of the year.
Francesco Pittaresi - The top goal scorer
Vincenzo Orlando – 17yr old DM. Could cement his place in the first 11 in the future
Luca Nuzzolese – DC who is young, tall, strong and slow. He began the season as a backup, but towards the end of the campaign played well enough to be in the first 11 with increasing regularity. Looks very promising.
Duccio Innocenti – Experienced player who is natural only at DR and WB R, but played mostly as a DC.
Board takeover - A new board took over the club. Too bad no investments towards the tranfer kitty were made.
Massimo Landro - A mugshot of the new chairman Landro
Freedom of the city - After some success Casertana fans petitioned the mayor to give me the freedom of the city. Have not heard of it since. Either the fans didn't bother with the petition after all, or the mayor didn't like the idea.
I have just been offered 8.75M for Tsotetsi, all by foreign clubs, thats the sort of payment that will completely fix my finances, but he is the best Striker in the league by a long way...tempted to say no, but I know it will annoy him, I just don't know if I can find an ample replacement elsewhere...
Well in the end it didn't matter, the board accepted the offer for me just before the deadline and Tsotetsi is off to Juventus for the new season for 8.75M
£8.75M is a very good offer for that player, mate
You'll find a replacement, he can't be that good (by his screens)
By the way, when can we expect the new report?
Oh my season report is being written as we speak, it takes a while But I am nearly finished...
tough choice that Des but i think i'd have taken it - timing of the move wasn't good though. did you get a replacement in?
unlucky Paul - that's a worrying slump down the league. at least you stayed up.
Duccio - congrats on the title and another promotion. good luck in Serie B. Orlando looks a good prospect.
Des Tiny's
Lusitano de Evora
End of Season
2022/23 Liga Sagres
Breaking Benfica
The Current SeasonThe Quick Reference
Predicted: 7th
Actual: 3rd
Portuguese Cup: 6th Round at Benfica
League Cup: Semi-Final vs Porto
Euro Cup: 4th Qual vs IFK Goteburg - L1 : L2
Euro Rank: 104th (^10) [6th Por]
Finances: 9.55M (5th Por)
Season Tickets: 1089 (^39)
The Squad: Goalies/Defense & Midfield/Strikers
Transfers: 2022/23
The Season in General
Well we made a few transfers that were based on getting money for players who would not sign new contracts. And this helped our balance a little bit, but we were still losing money every month. We did manage to get up to third in the league, and we have a great back row, an excellent midfield and a pretty good striking core, even with the losses of Tsotetsi & Cruz we have good strikers. We just need more money as there are still soooo many players we cannot afford as our max weekly wage is 6k for the best players, and the best want 10-30k per week. Working on it slowly.
The League
We started brilliantly in the league as we led the way early on after a small battle with Feirense at the start and Benfica dropped as low as 12th at one point, and they had to fight back to try and get their top 3 slot back, our final run in confirmed them as 4th behind the excellent Evora season in 3rd. We didn't score as many goals as we have in the past, but without a doubt we have got waaaay better on defense.
Player Stats
Team Stats
The Cups
We were solid in both cups reaching the top 8 of the Portuguese Cup & Top 4 of the League Cup, we also managed to win the U19 Cup this season.
Player Stats
U19 Cup
We were disappointing in our second jaunt into Europe as we dropped out on away goals before making the group stage. Which was my own minimum expectation.
The Club's HistoryLeague Records
Code:|----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------| | Season | League | Final Pos | Playoffs | Achievements | |----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------| | 2010/11 | 2DS | 6th | | None | | 2011/12 | 2DS | 1st | 2nd | Promoted | | 2012/13 | LV | 8th | N/A | None | | 2013/14 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2014/15 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2015/16 | LV | 4th | N/A | None | | 2016/17 | LV | 3rd | N/A | None | | 2017/18 | LV | 1st | N/A | Promoted | | 2018/19 | LS | 10th | N/A | None | | 2019/20 | LS | 5th | N/A | Qualified EC | | 2020/21 | LS | 9th | N/A | None | | 2021/22 | LS | 5th | N/A | Won Lg Cup | Qualified EC | 2022/23 | LS | 3rd | N/A | Qualified EC | |----------|----------|-----------|----------|--------------|
Club Records & Competition History
All Records:
New Records: Highest League Pos: 3rd, Highest Attendance: 13975, Highest Gate: 160k, Games without Conceding: 5, Worst Discipline: Javier II - 11yellow 2red, Youngest Player: Artur Maitas - 16y 361d, Fee Received: 2.6M (Hector Cruz),
Competition History:
Liga Sagres - 3rd 2023
League Cup - Winners 2022
Liga Vitalis - Winners 2018, 3rd 2014,2015,2017
2nd Division South - Winners 2012
Group 3 - 3rd 2017
Group 2 - 2nd 2019
U19s Cup - Winners 2023, 2nd 2018
The PlayersThe Squad
Current Teams Stats: This Season
33. Oscar Carrera - He is the king of the net, playing 44 games for 23 clean sheets is a huge effort by Carrera, he is definitely a large part of the reason we got the league position we did this season. There have been a few prospects looked at as his replacement, but I think with his age he has a huge future as shown by his 2nd place in the Goalie of the Year award.
3. Pablo Roman - He had a great season at the back, our defenders were amazing this season and Roman was just one part of this. The only disappointment on his side of things was the red card which cost us a match in the middle of the season.
4. Francisco Javier Sanchez - Wow Wow Wow, 13 goals, 6 assists, 7 Man of the Match awards, 11 yellow cards, 2 red cards and a rating of 7.68. This guy is a superstar, he is the very best Central defender in the league, and probably one of the best in the world. Even more so when you consider his price tag as opposed to the big names.
36. Ferhat Yildiz - Now this young Turk surprised even me, I knew from his look that he would be good, but this was beyond my wildest dreams, he was one of the best Right Backs I have seen in the history of my days in management. He is only 19 which just makes the whole thing even more incredible.
62. Benjamin Addo - He may be getting on a bit, but even at 29 Addo is the best Left Back around, he can do everything, and in my team that includes running right up to the byline and crossing it to our strikers. 10 assists and 8 Man of the Match awards.
5. Adolfo Silveira Reis - He started the season ahead of Roman, but he didn't keep his spot, but even coming off the bench Reis was one of the best central defenders in the league. Watch for a rotation policy in 2023/24.
63. Peter Kalu - Addo's replacement, he is young, and fast. He has the exact skills that he needs to take the place, but he needs to be satisfied with limited game time until Addo leaves the club.
80. Alejandro Etxeberria - He doesn't play too much, but provides cover for Right back in a solid way.
26. Ernesto Vazquez - Our deep-lying playmaker has some amazing skill he put in some great efforts at the end of the season as he worked towards us finishing third. 6 assists and 2 goals seems low, but he was using his other midfielders for the final pass a lot of the time.
16. Gabriel Bazan - The young Argentinian has put in some great effort this season, he actually ended poorly and his average rating dropped a little because of it, but he is still and integral part of the Evora bandwagon.
13. Andre Santos - The star of our midfield, Santos has shown that my faith in him following the sale of Cabezas was correct, I put him into the main role in the midfield and he showed it was right, 8 goals, 5 assists and a great rating over 7 for the season. He has been saying he may want to leave, but he is contracted for another 2 seasons yet.
17. Guglielmo Martinelli - Another one of the players who have been around for a long time as a back-up he is getting a bit restless, but he is still managing to do a great job for us through the middle. Expect him to stay around for at least one more year.
24. Sergio Torres - He is about to become the player with the most sub appearances in Evora history, but he needs to stick around. He has a huge advantage being able to cover Striker and Midfield. And on top of that he is solid in every game he plays.
42. Paulo Cordeiro - He is the constant back-up in my midfield and he will keep that position going forward unless I can find someone better for a cheaper price. He managed to take the park in 34 games.
10. Wilson Mateus - The Colombian is one of our best strikers, and with Theo leaving he is the best. He will be leading the line into the new season as I look to try and get an increase in goals from him in the new year.
11. Theo Tsotetsi - The Hot Prospect from South Africa is off to Italy in the new season, but he showed this season what he can do, even when he was injured in a reserve game (I made an error playing them all during a 2 week break), and that put him out for the end of the season. I am happy to have got 8.75M for him.
44. Johnny Myklebust - Well this was one signing I made in January that paid off without a doubt, he became the first striker to score on a regular basis from the middle striker slot. He got 7 goals in 11 games including a deluightful hattrick.
1. Haris Zeric - One of our back-up strikers who joined in January, he didn't do anything amazing, but he will stick around as a solid cover.
53. Santtu Haataja - The Finn came in January and he was average to say the least, but hopefully he can put some form together in the new season as he was clearly selected as one of the ones who should stay with the club.
8. Florent Gilbert - He came on loan from January and was one of the better covers we had in the second half of the season, if I can get him to come again he will be here in a flash.
The Best of the Best
The 100 Club
Gabriele Federici 203, Oier Torres 198, Matteo Jehl 194, Jose Manuel 179, Carlos Perez Rojo 170, Benjamin Addo 167*, Hector Cruz 166, Francisco "Javier II" Sanchez 157*,Diego Galiano 151, Sebastian Visentin 147, Raphael Lopes 146, Pablo Cabezas 141, Alberto Gonzalez 136, Guilherme Afonso 132, Abraham 130, Theo Tsotetsi 117, Ernesto Vazquez 114*, Jose Maria 113, Carsten Littman 107, Sergio Torres 103*, Ander Suarez Rodriguez 100.
The Awards
Liga Sagres
Young PotY: Theo Tsotetsi 1st, Ferhat Yildiz 2nd.
Best Goalie: Oscar Carrera 2nd.
Central Defender of the Year: Javier II 1st.
Fullback of the Year: Benjamin Addo 3rd.
Team of the Year: Javier II & Addo.
Player of the Month - Aug: Addo 1st, Feb: Yildiz 1st, Addo 2nd.
Manager of the Month - Aug: Des Tiny 1st, Oct: Des Tiny 1st, Feb: Des Tiny 1st.
Goal of the Month - Nov: Mateus 2nd, Tsotetsi 3rd, Feb: Yildiz 2nd.
League Cup
Most Man of Match: Javier II 1st.
Fans PotY: Javier II
Best XI: Carrera, Yildiz, Addo, Roman, Javier II, Bazan, Santos, Vazquez, Tsotetsi, Cruz, Mateus.
Subs: Paixao, Reis, Cordeiro, Martinelli, Myklebust, Kalu, Martin.
Overall XI: Martins, Rodriguez, Silva, Franjic, Javier II, Jehl, Lopes, Manuel, Leao, Gomis, Afonso.
Subs: Littmann, Alves, Santos, Mateus, Galiano, Mauro, Wesllem.
Goings on Elsewhere in the World
Cristiano Ronaldo has retired to become a Coach at Maritimo, he played the rest of his career out at Real Madrid. The Club World Championship was won by Chelsea, The Euro Cup by Athletic Club Bilbao, Champions League by Man Utd. The World Cup was taken out by France beating Brazil in the final. While Mateus managed to assist Colombia out of the group of death, knocking out Mexico & Holland before losing to Brazil in the Second round, after coming second to France in the Group.
Some of the biggest transfers this season:
Mattia Mella 11.75M (June) - Dinamo Kiev to AZ.
Josep 15M (January) - Villareal to Man City.
Tiago Ferreira 24.5M (August) - Sporting to Chelsea.
Kevin Alfonsi 17M (August) - AS St Etienne to AS Monaco.
Jano Ananidze 17M (August) - Lazio to Arsenal.
Marc Zollner 19.25M (July) - AS Monaco to Man Utd.
Thoughts of the Future
I am hoping to advance to the Knockout stages of the Euro Cup this season, and also to attempt to get into the top 2 in the Liga Sagres so I can actually have a shot at the Champions League. Other than that, I may sell some more stars if I can replace them so that I can get money to improve my squad somewhat more.
Great season Des even with the european disappointment. you've got some really good players there - Yildiz is immense for his age and i like Carrera and Andre Santos. hopefully you can get a good replacement for Tsotetsi and push for a CL place next season....
i had forgotten how frustrating Serie B can be.... After eight games we're 3-2-3 and mid-table. saying that it's really tight so we are in the pack. if i can tighten the defence we could be away.
The Liga Sagres can be the same for most of the season there is only about 5-10 points separating 5th & 14th, it doesn't look like there is a player out there to replace Tsotetsi that will come to my club. I will keep looking though.
keep looking Des - he's out there!!
Well I made just two signings, one Striker, not really a replacement, but someone who will do the job. And a goalkeeper to be a back-up and possibly as a look to the future.
Erik Graziani (ST) - This guy is getting on a bit, but he is definitely very complimentary to Myklebust & Mateus. I think between the three of them I should be in control. Zeric would be the next man down the list.
Pedro (GK) - An 18 year old goalkeeper with tonnes of potential, he will just play as cover as he is cheap.
So having sold 15 players for a total of 9.75M and only bringing in two on frees has meant I was given a 1.8M transfer budget, but that was used to pay the 20% fee on Tsotetsi, but I am still about 25k under my wage budget. And have 75k worth of transfer if I need it. I am going to be patient and just buy when I need to. Target is same as last season Qualify for Europe. We are odds on for 4th= with Maritimo.