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With a short break past, the chairman and I started working hard to find suitable players to add to the squad. The chairman made it clear that we had just € 50K in the kitty, so we would have to look for out-of-contract players mostly. That was no problem, I thought. But truth was we were a Montenegro club with little, if any, accountable income and we had to make space for players by actually cutting others off. First offboard was left winger Misic, who agreed to join Bor for next to nothing. Urosevic soon left too, for the same fee, destination Hajduk Veljko. Stepanovic retired, but it still wasn't enough, it seemed.

Next wave of players out were the loaned players, who returned to their respective clubs. These include De La Iglesia, Pavlovic and Lazic. US Virgin Islands Youngster McIntosh was also relieved of his youth contract. Houze' was also let free after he refused numerous offers to extend his contract. With a host of clubs bidding for his signature, it's a possibility that he'll be up against us in the near future. Milan Radojicic left for € 14K, to play with Rudar (P).

With nine players out, we could now start concentrating on who had to come in. First looked at were some reliable goalkeepers, hopefully with a lower wage demand than Trajkovic and Nikolic (both on € 875). There wasn't need for much persuasion to obtain Swedish goaler (who also boasts one cap) Daniel Dahlberg into signing for us. He will earn € 550 weekly. In defence, 17-year-old Marcio and 18-year-old Leandro Fonseca, both Brazilian, agreed to join forces with us too, in the hope of being spotted by a bigger European club. A Ukrainian midfielder, 17 years old, Andriy Kravchenko, also joined on a permanent contract. Cameroon youngster Samuel Ateba will try to replace Houze', but since he is still so young a temporary relief might be brought in, perhaps on loan. Upfront was were the problems were. Nobody wanted to bang them in for us, and that was bad news for us. After weeks of scouting, we finally arrived at the right place. Senegal. And at the right time. Ibrahima Gomis was playing street football. Just luckyily enough we had a pen and paper with us, and an extra airplane ticket. And we were off to Montenegro, all of us. Tomasz Sokolowski joined on loan from Red Star.

The new squad for the forthcoming season is made of the following players:
Goalkeepers - Dahlberg D., Nikolic N., Trajkovic I.
Defenders - Ivkovic D., Nedeljekovic D., Radojicic G., Lazarevic D., Fonseca L., Janev D., Laszlo J., Marcio, Okafor K., Cetkovic M.
Midfielders - Pavic I., Todorovic M., Djordjevic D., Ivkovic S., Kravchenko A., Zdravkovic L., Ateba S., Loncar K., Krstev V., Milosevic S., Spasic D.
Strikers - Jovanovic I., Rankovic B., Gomis I., Misic N., Sarac D., Zivanovic M., Sokolowski T.

With the squad complete (bar a spur-of the moment interest in a player), it was time to fix some warm-up games. To create a sense of team, I decided we would be going on a tour this season. Destination? Well, it was going to be somewhere where we could draw the crowds, but not expensive. We bought tickets for Latvia, where we would face Skonto, RAF Jelgava and FK Riga. In the meantime, left winger Trifunovic was promoted from the youth academy.

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The Latvian tour went on as planned, with the team obtaining good wins on Latvian soil. Skonto were hit 2-0 (Zivanovic, Gomis), RAF 1-0 (Loncar) and FK Riga 3-0 (S. Ivkovic, Gomis, Lazarevic). However, it was our return into Montenegro that would leave me deeply shocked. Whilst having gained D2S football for this season, the FA decided to relegate Petrovac to make space for an extra club that was relegated from the First Division the season before. Translation: First Division cut from 18 to 16 squads, and these two extra squads have stripped us, and Kom too, for some obscure reason, off our rightful and hard-earned place among the cadetes.

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Non-story post

So basically I am still manager but we have no league matches this season! Would the AI automatically work out who gets promoted into the D2 next season? Cos I don't wanna spend seasons on end down in D3... :thdn:

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We were indeed unfairly pushed out of the D2S for the 2003/4 season, but while I was in charge, I still demanded serious training from my players. And part of the training was to be friendly matches, some tougher than others obviously, to find us ready for our future matches. Friendlies played along the season include:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> August - December 2003MB Cup (Sf) HDrezga3-1(Sokolowski, Jovanovic, Laszlo)MB Cup (Fi) HBASK3-0(Sokolowski, Jovanovic 2)Friendly HVaolongolongoTGA6-0(Jovanovic 3, Sokolowski 2, Kravchenko)Friendly ASpartak YerevanARM2-0(Sokolowski, Jovanovic)Friendly HDinamo Vranje2-1(Sokolowski 2)Friendly HEl Borac4-1(Marcio, Sokolowski, Jovanovic 2)Friendly ADinamo MoscowRUS2-3(Sokolowski 2)PnM Trophy (Sf) HFC NitraSVK1-2(Sokolowski)PnM Trophy (3p) HUnyesporTUR1-2(Sokolowski)Friendly HRAF JelgavaLVA2-2(Sokolowski, Jovanovic)Friendly HBor6-1(Sokolowski 2, Jovanovic 3, Ateba)Friendly HSloga Petrovac0-1Friendly HZupanica4-1(Jovanovic 2, Ateba, Milic og)Friendly HElektrovojvodina1-4(Kravchenko)Friendly AMetalistKharkivUKR0-6Petrovac - played 15; won 8, drawn 1, lost 6; scored 37, conceded 25 (gd +12); points 25February - May 2004Friendly HDjerdap1-1(Solokowski)Friendly HIMT5-2(Gomis 3, Jovanovic 2)Friendly HBalkanski7-0(Ateba 2, Gomis 4, Jovanovic)Friendly HSloga Petrovac2-2(Gomis 2)Friendly AMikaARM1-2(Gomis)Friendly HGreen GullyAUS3-1(Gomis, Jovanovic, Kravchenko)Friendly HPolet (K)2-2(Gomis, Kravchenko)Friendly HElektrovojvodina3-4(Marcio, Gomis 2)Friendly HGusinje1-1(Rankovic)Friendly HBuducnost (K)4-0(Rankovic, Gomis 2, Kravchenko)Friendly HHull CityENG1-4(Gomis)Petrovac - played 11; won 4, drawn 2, lost 3; scored 30, conceded 19 (gd +11); points 14Total this season - played 26; won 12, drawn 3, lost 9; scored 67, conceded 44 (gd +23); points 39 </pre>

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The 2003/4 season was a strange season for me, the first after years without any league matches and pressure. However, I am a bit apprehensive about when, and how, we'd get to playing football again. With a strong side, which will be further strengthened in the weeks ahead, we could easily estabilish ourselves in the Second Division and maybe attempt promotion in a few years' time. But it all depended on the FA.

Meanwhile, the trophies found their respective places in various cabinets. Partizan won the league with an astonishing unbeaten record. They coupled that to the Cup, winning the double for the second time running. Red Star, the finalists, could only be consoled with their manager's head.

European glory found its way to England, via Man Utd (winners of the UEFA Cup, beating Newcastle Utd in the final) and Spain, with Genk succumbing to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions' League final. Euro 2004 went into the hands of Germany (who overcame England in the final).

The close season saw some changes being done to the Petrovac squad, in hope that we will be promoted to the Second Division. Sarac was allowed to leave on contract expiry, as happened with loaned striker Sokolowski (who had suffered a slipped disc, and is out for nine months, during a friendly match in February) and goalkeeper Trajkovic. Spasic, a fine player but who unfortunately cannot perform well at the club, was allowed to move to Proleter for 22 thousand Euro. I am also hoping to offload Zivanovic, who seems to be a good player, but with Spasic's same problem of underperforming here at Petrovac.

Players going out, players coming in. The squad needs only a few well-thought changes to be able to compete against much stronger sides. A striker, a midfielder and perhaps a consistent defender are all the side really needs. However, two wingers, one for each side, could come in quite handy as the season progresses.

The faces brought in were matched to the squad's requirements, and came in the form of Brendan O'Brien (25-year-old defensive midfielder from Rep of Ireland), Emmanuel Amoako (28-year-old forward from Ghana) and Sergio Cavalcante (17-year-old Brazilian fantasist). Players covering other positions will be sought in the future, as there are no appetizing options at the moment.

However, the biggest change was my resignation, after a few days of deep reflection. In reality, I had got to know that Petrovac were not to be promoted this season, facing another year (at least) in the lower ranches of the Serbia and Montenegro leagues. But that was not the only reason why I decided to call it a day at Petrovac. I was offered another job...