retired_jsimley34

KUTGLosingToTeamsWithStupidNamesLikeAlbinoLeffeAnd GettingPromoted
:thup:

retired_jonnybro509

KUTGW! :thup: congrats on the promotion, all the best for next season

retired_mrsjb

KUTGRidiculouslyLongAndConvolutedKUTGPhrases, McChampman



Oh, and KUTGW, turnip

creative36

Season 6: Foligno, Italy Serie B
San Marino finally broke their goalscoring drought as a new signing of mine scored the only goal in a 1-0 European Championship Qualifying win against the Czech Republic. He and a compatriot of his were among 13 summer signings as my task - find players to help us stay up - was hindered by my chairman's
decision to sell my best 2 central defenders. Thanks, dude. My parent club Torino were kind enough to send a ST and AM/RLC but I still broke the club's transfer record on deadline day, bringing in another AM/RLC from PSV for £800k. My sole allotted non-EU signing was a Sudanese AML I had incorrectly assumed also had a French passport. Oops.

Serie B: Competitive friendlies against Serie A teams suggested we'd probably be alright, but the reality hit home in the opening league match as Atalanta ran all over us for 89 minutes before their defender kindly put the ball into his own goal to let us win 1-0. The first half of the season was cheerfully hit and miss. The low point was an aneurysmic 7-1 loss at Modena, but if 4th place at the halfway stage flattered us we had at least played some good football.
The second half of the season started with some win-lose-win-lose stuff, not helped by injuries and the international call-ups. Even with that, we recovered to be 5 points behind 2nd place with 6 games to go. I completely forgot about the Playoffs, so it was something of a surprise to finish the 42nd match and find out that we weren't in fact finished just yet.
We faced Napoli in the Semi-Final, drew 3-3 away and then 1-1 at home - winning the tie due to our higher league position. Genoa awaited in the Final, and we lost 3-2 in the first leg before another ST injury left me cursing the FM gods. Despite that and 3 players being knackered after African WC Qualifiers, a first-half goal apiece and - crucially - 2 goals in 4 second half minutes, left us with the perfect opportunity to practice a defensive tactic I think our fans will be seeing much more of next season, winning 5-4 on aggregate.
Final Position: P:42 W:23 D:6 L:13 GD:+19 Pts:75 Pos:4th. Promotion!

Italian Cup: Not knowing how tough the league was going to be, I fielded a weakened side and it was something of a surprise it took until the 3rd Qualifying Round to lose, on penalties, against Lecce. Maybe next season I'll care.

U-20s: We were unable to replicate our cup-winning heroics, as Lazio scraped past us 2-1 in the Semi-Final. The league was always a different story though, and we won it with 11 games to spare. My players were clearly bored after that, but even so we passed 100 goals with 4 games to go and 100 points with 2 games left.

OK, getting promoted was ridiculous. Much like our first season, our results were better than our performances by a wide margin. God help us in Serie A.
My star striker tore his calf muscle in November, struggled back into form by the end of the season, only to tear it again in the 2nd leg against Napoli. In his absence, no-one really hit any form as injuries hit hard, the Austrian ST a solid - if uninspiring - exception with 10 goals. Our young DM got his French U-19 call-up (and was Serie B Player of the Season runner-up) and will be my first choice as Valuable DM started whining and losing form. We were rated 'Overachievers' for the season (duh!) and a DC got highest average rating.
The board announced a stadium expansion of 5781 seats and a temporary relocation to arch-rivals Perugia while the 10-month building work is done.

Elsewhere in Europe, Italy win the European Championships and ManUre and FC Bayern are looking forward to a season playing at a lower level.

creative36

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry...

Despite my wage budget going up by £50k p/w - and I've never been the sort of manager who needs encouraging to sign players - the combination of sell-out crowds and TV money is seeing the club's balance go up and up and up.

See other threads for my miseries regarding the absolute battering my players are taking from injuries. But even so we're creeping along in the league, albeit getting spanked by the big teams, and I'm starting to feel like some of the challenge is draining away. Particularly since at this rate we'll have about £10m in the bank by the season's end.

So is it or ?

retired_earlyburd

That's how we like our internationals.

KUTGFormingAustrianPlayersIntoSomethingUseful.

creative36

Season 7: Foligno, Italy Serie A:
18 players signed in the summer transfer window - a number which rose to 29 by the time the season was over. Only 8 played a meaningful part in the season, the rest chosen for their ability to bulk out my U-20s. A few players were farmed out on loan, to various Italian teams and my new feeder club, Stabǽk. The major plus was finding an excellent young keeper (£170k from PSV), but a D/WB RL from Santos (£650k) also has terrific stats, so I can't decide who was the better buy. My non-EU signing was a Bolivian striker for £400k.

Serie A: I started off defensively (which was hopefully understandable) and general crapness was the result. Once the team started playing some football, results improved and we sat 12th at the halfway point. We weren't exactly great, but we beat the teams who were worse than us and eked out some wins and draws against the teams who were better than us, so that we actually had an outside chance of getting 7th place and the Euro Vase place. The injury-racked first team slumped, but we were never in danger of relegation and our dinky little stadium re-opened in time to see us beat Udinese 2-1 on the final day. My proudest moment of the season was beating Milan 2-0 at home (or at least at Perugia's home) - undeserved but sweet as hell.
Final Position: P:38 W:15 D:8 L:15 GD:+1 Pts:53 Pos:11th.

Italian Cup: My Reserves played away at Carpenedolo in 40 degree heat. I raised the temperature afterwards as they lost 2-0 in the first qualifying round.

U-20s: A 5th Round tie snuck into the schedule during the winter break and I mistook it for a league match. Losing 2-3 was annoying. In the league, we battled with Inter and Milan for most of the season, but we beat Inter 2-1 with four games remaining and pulled away to win it.

My young keeper - 18 at the end of the season - was great, although seemed a little burned-out towards March/April. The D/WB RL was also very solid in his 20-odd matches, even if he was played out of position an awful lot. A large number of the youngsters brought in look very promising, but I was rather deflated to see that my Bolivian ST - who despite having a solid first season, I wasn't 100% convinced by - was tagged as a Wonderkid by the end of the season. Talk about making my mind up for me. Young DM spent nearly 3 months out with various injuries (including one of 3 broken arms our first-team players suffered) but was still solid. I couldn't sell Valuable DM so kept him there for cover and Wicker Man re-enactments.

ManUre go straight back up, but FC Bayern finish mid-table in the Second Division. How the mighty... etc.

creative36

Season 8: Foligno, Italy Serie A
Wonderkid ST left to no-one's great surprise - although the £7.5m Betis paid was quite a bit higher than anyone else offered, and hardly good value for the 2 appearances he made all season for them. My main mistake was bringing in players who weren't quite ready for Serie A, and as usual I brought a lot of them in; 17 in the summer transfer window alone. My main signings were Dutch kids, although my non-EU purchase was a Malian ST I'd trialled previously. The other 50 clubs who were keeping an eye on him missed out on the £20k price tag.

Serie A: Dismal stuff. We played some very nice football which combined with some truly woeful finishing. Injuries didn't help, but I swear I could have converted more chances than the 7 full international strikers in my squad managed. Eventually Inter released a striker who I signed with little hesitation and we started climbing out of the hole we'd dug (from kicking divots, presumably). We officially avoided the drop with 4 games to go, which was just as well, since the injury stick was beating down again...
Final Position: P:38 W:9 D:13 L:16 GD:-6 Pts:40 Pos:15th.

Italian Cup: We won in the first qualifying round, but lost straight afterwards as Serie A whipping-boys Parma strolled all over us.

U-20s: Our early season form was poor and we went out in the Cup early as a result. We recovered from this to win the league with 5 games remaining; the highlight being a 10-0 demolition of Chievo.

My new star striker played like a donkey so he inevitably wants away. If any interested parties can stump up the £5m+ I want, they can have him; a young Hungarian is inbound (for free) who surely can't play any worse and is only going to improve, much like most of my current squad, actually. We may have struggled for goals, but the football was largely good and the defensive calamities are beginning to slow down in frequency. If I can find a striker to match Inter's freebie for class, we should have a better season. If Young DM (now a Wonderkid himself) can stop getting injured, that would help, too.

Moment of the season: Malian striker taking the ball straight from the kickoff, dribbling past 2 players and scoring within 12 seconds.

Around Europe: the Premiership is almost back to normal, Braunschweig win the Bundesliga (!) and Celta drop down to the Second Division B.
The French championship went down to the final round where Marseille crushed Bordeaux to overtake St Etienne, who made no effort to beat Rennes.

retired_mrsjb

Good Work, turnip. :thup:

creative36

World Cup 2014, Spain
Final:
Switzerland 2p - 2 Russia
A good game that ebbed and flowed. Russia's main man, who bagged both their goals, was the only player to miss a penalty. Magnificently cruel.

3rd: Mexico
4th: Spain

losing Q/Fs: France, Italy, Ireland, Egypt
losing 2/Rs: England, Japan, Paraguay, Portugal, Germany, Holland, Algeria, Chile