retired_sofialong

KUTGW. :thup:

creative36

Following the World Cup, I cast my eyes around and threw my CV to the four winds. I applied to Russia, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Holland, Portugal, Austria and was finally offered the job of Algeria. Ho hum.

Season 9: Foligno, Italy Serie A:
Malian striker was sold - for £5m in total - although the limited interest in him amused me... until he picked up African Player of the Year at his new club. A DC from Juventus who joined on a free and my non-EU signing - a Bulgarian AM/FC I'd had an eye on since a trial 4 seasons ago, who joined for £650k- were my main signings as I tried to learn lessons from last season and kept the nucleus of the team the same. As a result, most of the signings were back-ups or prospects. Former Inter striker was sold for £5m in January, his replacement cost a little over twice as much.

Serie A: We started reasonably and mostly carried on that way until the turn of the year. Goals were somewhat scarce, so lying 13th come January was no real surprise, but a neutral goal difference tells a slightly better story. 10 consecutive wins against a mix of limp opposition (Hi Parma, Bari, Udinese, Verona, Torino and Bologna!) and good teams playing poorly (Lazio, Inter, Fiorentina, Palermo) saw us shoot up to 3rd before Napoli burst the (orange) bubble at a frosty Enzo Blasone. It all went off the rails from there, an abysmal penalty decision in the 92nd minute against Juventus (my player was at least 5 yards outside our box) merely the tip of the iceberg. And as the players got more and more annoyed, the injuries started piling up, but... two wins in our last two matches saved most of the good work.
Final Position: P:38 W:18 D:7 L:13 GD:+17 Pts:61 Pos:6th. European Qualification! We were also rated 'Overachievers'.

Italian Cup: With our league status seeming a bit more assured, I thought we'd give the Cup a bit of effort this year. Eked a 2-0 against Frosinone - the second a 75-yarder with their keeper up for a corner - then stomped over Parma before a narrow 1-0 against Udinese got us into the proper stuff. 1-2 and 4-1 against Chievo was deserved, as was the 1-1 and 1-0 against Juventus in the Quarter-Final which set up a Semi-Final against Inter. 1-0 at home was a bit lucky, but even a dreadful refereeing display couldn't stop us going through on away goals following a 3-2 defeat at Giuseppe Meazza. 1-0 and 2-1 losses to Roma in the final were inevitable against the runaway league leaders, but their success guaranteed European football next season.

U-20s: Less impressive than in previous years, but a lot of that is due to our best players being taken on loan by needier clubs. We were knocked out of the cup at a relatively early stage, but kept our form steady in the league to win with 7 games remaining.

The main difference this season was clearly having quality strikers. Three players hit the 10-goal mark - including the Hungarian, despite a season of 'I-want-my-mummy' homesickness. Grow up. Most impressive was my replacement for the ex-Inter striker - £8.75m plus future fees from Sao Paulo got me 16 goals in 13 games either side of a month out injured. My best striker since Chupacabras. The defender from Juve played well until the first of many injuries, as did my Bulgarian AM/FC. Also of note is that I've started tying down my better young players to serious contracts. Not my D/WB RL, though, who wanted to move to a bigger club early in the season and sulked thenceforth - he's off to Aston Villa (who qualified for the exact same European competition we did. Divot).


Elsewhere in Europe, Millwall win the FA Cup - while 18th in the Championship - Fulham are relegated to League 1, Marseille leave it until the final day to win the French title (again), Unterhaching become the 4th German champions in as many years and Stuttgart are relegated to the Regionals.

retired_merri13

TG! KUTGW!!

retired_ju89

Finally progressing further than the group stages and even went further than England (whom I bet lost on penalties). Too bad it happened in a computer game.

KUTGW anyway!

creative36

Algeria
African Nations Qualifying: Drawn in a group with Liberia, Tanzania and the mighty Mauritania. Played 6, won 6, qualified. Yawn.

World Cup Qualifying: Drawn against Madagascar in the first round; won 6-0 over two legs.
The group stage will see us square up against Botswana, Cape Verde, Libya, Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
Group 5 looks awful, by the way. Egypt, Ivory Coast, Senegal, South Africa, Togo and Tunisia - all fighting for one qualifying spot. Eek.

creative36

Season 10: Foligno, Italy Serie A
The non-EU signing was a Chilean striker who I thought wasn't quite good enough to be a regular starter. I also signed an Italian ST I'd had my eye on for a couple of seasons and subsequently took from Rosenborg for £1.1m. A desperate last-minute £2m went on a DR who didn't quite make the team while Inter again served up a bargain, releasing a DC who (once he got match fit) was probably the most solid member of my defense.

Serie A: We started with some fortunate results. That changed and we had some unfortunate results. Then we had some injuries. Lather, rinse, repeat. The press and some players started muttering 'Underachieving' when we were 11th with 9 games to go and 5 matches without a win, but a club record 6-0 win over Brescia calmed them down as we went 5 games undefeated, to lie 7th with 3 games left. There we stayed, comfortably enough that I could afford to send out a young team for a 1-0(H) over Juventus.
Final Position: P:38 W:17 D:11 L:10 GD:+17 Pts:62 Pos:7th. EURO Cup

Italian Cup: We missed the opening suck-ass rounds and were given some nice easy stuff until the Semis, where we faced Lazio and lost 2-0 on aggregate.

[b]EURO Cup}: Beat Dinamo Moscow 3-0 and 2-0 to reach the group stages. 10 points from a group with Dortmund, Valencia, Legia and, er, Portimonense was good and we followed that up by beating Nurnberg (2-0(A) and 1-1(H)) and Vitesse (0-1(H)and 3-1(A)). The list of Quarter-Finalists was impressive (us excluded) and we drew Gimnastic, who were lying 2nd in La Liga. 3-1(H) and 2-1(A) set us up to play Chelski in the Semi-Finals. 1-0(H) gave us a chance, but a shocking penalty decision (the FA were silent when I expressed my disgust) at 2-1 down in the second leg killed our chances and it finished 4-1(A).

U-20s: We strolled through the U-20s Cup - although playing really bad teams helped considerably - to the final where we faced Modena and strolled equally comfortably to a 4-2 win. 31 goals in 7 games says it all. In the league, Roma pushed us all the way, helped mainly by a German U-21 who scored 40+ for them. We were 6 points clear with 7 games remaining and won our penultimate game 2-0 to clinch our 4th successive title.

The Italian, Chilean, Hungarian and Brazilian strikers all got to the 15 goal mark for the season, even if the latter two (my best) spent 7 months out injured combined. Young DM (now almost 23, so we'll call him Napoleon) is the team Captain these days and he works well with the Bulgarian AM/FC; they can expect new colleagues in midfield next season, as I've got 2 quality wide players inbound. The freebie DC from Inter was Serie A Defender Of The Year runner-up and 3rd-placed Serie A Foreign Player Of The Year. The Dutch GK also got runner-up, while his previous understudy spent the season on loan at Espanyol, after turning down a move to Chelski.
We probably just ran out of steam towards the end of the season - our longest yet, at 59 games. The big clubs are hovering over the Italian and Chilean strikers. I'd like to keep them if I can, but if that's unlikely, I'll settle for making as much money as I possibly can from the sales.

creative36

Having resigned as Algerian national manager back in January (African Nations sucks ass), I applied for the post of Italian national manager following the team's "awful" European Championships - which Portugal won 3-2 against Bulgaria.
3 days later they offered me the job and I accepted.

Oh, and both the Italian and Chilean strikers left. The Italian for £6m + 25% and the Chilean for a flat £9m; not bad for a player bought for £120k a year earlier.

retired_sofialong

KUTGBusiness. :thup:

retired_lohse55

Love it

KUTGW!

retired_rdalip

KUTGW!

Playing in the Italian League as well, just wondering if you had the same experience as me: of major teams offering small amounts for your players and when that is declined they come in with a massive offer a few weeks later?