2011/12 Haladas – Hungarian First Division
Coming off my 5th place finish, the expectations were high. Board and fans wanted a top half finish, and even the media was on board, with a 5th place prediction. The bookies, however, were not impressed and had us down as 100-1. Brought in a few players including
Nasty Winger who regularly scored against us. With very few good players willing to
come to Haladas, I spent most of the transfer money stocking up on young players, one of which,
Oft-Injured Defender, was picked up on a free and broke down in training on his first day at the club. Still, I had a solid squad and high hopes for making the bookies pay!
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Prediction – 5th (of 16)
<LI>Board/Supporters – Top half
<LI>Finish – 13th W7 D12 L11
<LI>Cup Final– Debrecen 1, Haladas 0</UL>
We were actually a pretty good team all year, but had the annoying habit of turning wins into draws.
Old Brazilian started acting his age and didn’t make a first team appearance after October. None of my strikers scored much, so we were surviving on scraps.
Fast Striker showed why he’d been in the reserves, and even
Flashy Polish Striker had a long goal drought. The team was held together by
Serbian Playmaker and
Classy Polish Sweeper who chipping in enough defense and scoring to make us respectable.
Most unexpected was our cup run, built almost entirely on draws and penalty shootouts. The Cup Final was a tense affair decided by a late long-ball after we’d dominated most of the match, at least in possession.
Flashy Polish Striker finished with 11 goals, while
Boring Midfielder won Fans
Player of the Year again, by repeatedly chopping down opponents and not picking up cards.
Highs: 5-5 draw with Soroksar in which both teams came from two goals down.
Lows: 0-1 loss to the perennial relegation candidates REAC
Hungary: D1: Oroshaza (!!); D2E: Felcsut; D2W: Dunaujvaros
Around the world: CL: Atletico; Uefa: Lyon
European Cup: France 2, Croatia 0
2012/13 Haladas – Hungarian First Division Haladas Qualifies for
Europe-"ish"
While the Board and fans were a bit restless, I was somewhat optimistic.
Old Croatian Keeper was allowed to leave and I scraped together enough transfer funds to buy
Montenegrin International Keeper. Fortunately one of my rivals bailed me out by offering 1.9M for
Oft-Injured Defender which my Chairman grabbed before I had the
chance to even hit a button! He even got a 40% of next sale clause. (I wish I could appoint HIM as my AssMan!)
Not-so Young Striker was transferred out as well, while
Slovenian Midfielder refused to sign a contract and eventually retired without joining another club.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Prediction – 13th (of 16)
<LI>Board/Supporters – Avoid Relegation
<LI>Finish – 3rdth W16 D9 L5
<LI>Cup – return to form… sucked</UL>
What a difference a few more goals and a good keeper can make. We spent the season in the top five, with much excitement from everyone except my AssMan, who kept predicting relegation even into the final weeks.
Serbian Playmaker anchored the midfield and even my AssMan admitted he was a "decent player." Even
Giant Winger played well and became part of the first team (although he is still disliked by most of the squad). My scout found a very nifty young Romanian fullback who we signed in the Winter break and claimed a first team spot. Although, we never really challenged Vasas, who was the class of the league, our third place finish was a club best. A slight irritation was that Debrecen's Cup win and low league finish left us in the Euro Spittoon rather than Uefa Cup.
Flashy Polish Striker finished with 19 goals, winning the scoring title and Fans Player of the Year.
Highs: 6-0 win over Soroksar; seeing last year's Champion Oroshaza finish firmly on the bottom of the table after their manager slagged me off after our first match.
Lows: 0-1 loss to rivals Ujpest where we didn't manage a single shot (on or off target)
Hungary: D1: Vasas; D2E: Fehervar; D2W: Sopron
Around the world: CL: Inter; Uefa: Barca :thdn:
2013/14 Haladas – Hungarian First Division Haladas Qualifies for Something I've actually heard of
With the promise of an interesting Summer, I was surprised when the Board warned me for fining players. Of course, when
Nasty Winger missed training the next day, I stood my ground and fined him anyway. Ok, maybe not so great an idea with my contract coming up. I applied for a job or two while I was waiting, which really made the blazers angry.
Finally, with two days left on my contract, they offered me a rolling contract, but refused to upgrade any of the facilities, despite having 5M in the bank. I accepted.
A bit short on transfer funds, I was again bailed out when
Romanian Fullback was spotted by a big money Czech club. As my scout had just discovered another talented Romanian fullback, I used the cash and got
two young fullbacks, and
Speedy Serbian Striker who had some impressive goal totals at lower division clubs.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Prediction – 5th (of 16)
<LI>Board/Supporters – Top Half
<LI>Finish – 2nd W18 D10 L2
<LI>Cup – … mostly sucked, losing in semi-final with my reserves</UL>
The Euro-Spittoon was a bit of a fiasco. As the first match fell right at the end of the players' holiday, I fielded a side of fat guys who hadn't kicked a ball in weeks. To make matters worse, none of our new transfers had been completed, so we were in trouble against a tough looking Bratislava side. We stumbled through the opening match and managed a draw at home on a late own goal by Bratislava (0 shots on target, 1 goal!). Bratislava destroyed us in the return, however, as my keeper needed a man of the match performance to keep the score at 3-0. The real highlight of the Summer was picking up
Brilliant Keeper who I'd been after since he was a youth player. I now had the incredible luxury of two very good keepers.
The league season was a two horse race from the start to the final day. Debrecen had lost only to me in the first half of the season, but was four points clear, yielding only 8 goals in 15 matches.
Serbian Playmaker and my other young midfielders controlled the matches, while my two new fullbacks were a tremendous improvement over their predecessors, who were far more dangerous to my team than our opponents. We were also fortunate to acquire
Skilled Winger who couldn't adjust to life in Prague, :eek: so was happy for a chance to return to Hungary. We made a determined run at Debrecen, but fell a single point short as Debrecen scored a late winner in their final match. Still, second place is another club record, and a place in the Uefa Cup.
Speedy Serbian Striker finished with 20 goals, and
Serbian Playmaker took the Fans Player of the Year.
Talented Fullback was the Hungary's Young Player of the Year.
Highs: Two 3-0 wins over rivals Gyor, who wound up getting relegated.
Lows: 0-0 draw with Fehervar when I had two goals ruled offside (correctly) and a penalty claim denied.
Hungary: D1: Debrecen; D2E: Pecs; D2W: Papa
Around the world: CL: Milan over ManU; Uefa: Roma
World Cup: Mexico
_________________________
My first Uefa Cup qualifier draw is against Derry City, one of my favorite places to visit in real life! :cool:
Hungary or bust... another crappy update 
) into the midfield and promoted Flashy Polish Midfielder to Flashy Polish Striker. The goals started going in and the wins started piling up. We found ourselves in fourth place with three matches to play needing to make up three points. Unfortunately, none of our matches were with the top three, so we had to hope for a slip in their form. Going into the final day, we were still one point behind needing to win, with a loss or tie by form side Sopron. The lads put on a stunning performance and we led 2-0 at halftime. With Sopron down 1-0 to an in-form Heviz, we proceeded to play the worst half of the season as Donaujvaros fired shot after shot off target. Somehow we hung on to win 2-1 and Heviz put Sopron to the sword 2-0. So we finished level on points with with Soroksar, but well ahead on goal differential. (The second time in three years that goal differential decided the division champion.)
:thup:
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