retired_tye1234

WHS

retired_rebeldixie

Season 2009/2010


To start out with I’ll get the cup out of the way: First game away to Acadamica, sweltering heat, utterly boring game with no chances, extra time (still hot), eliminated on penalties, half the squad dehydrated, entire squad exhausted, one long term injury. Damn those curs over at Academica! Cups suddenly start to suck arse indeed…

This season I did manage to attract some of the players I wanted (14 players including 5 youth players came in pre-season, and 5 were shipped off. Of my first team only the star left winger attracted interest, but both Benfica and Porto were scared of by my (admittedly steep) demands. The newly assembled team was faced by a tough test right from the go, as my first 5 games were against the best teams in the country (only Benfica was saved for later) from which I managed to scrape a creditable two wins, and against the weaker opposition afterwards it quickly became evident that this season would be very different from the last. After 10 games I had risen to 5th place, and a beautiful away win in Benfica saw me temporarily leapfrogging all teams above me into second spot for the winter break.

This success hadn’t gone unnoticed, and scouts were swarming all over my club, and several players went to greener pastures, most notably my star central defender who hadn’t missed a single game all season. (500k€ to Alaves) A young Guinean sweeper had been developing beautifully though, and after the break he seamlessly took up the job, dominating my defence with his physical presence, and ending up 3rd in the player of the season poll, after only playing half a season. These personnel changes (and resulting change to the ‘standard’ formation) didn’t slow the momentum, and rest of the season was a 4-horse race for the two CL spots after runaway leaders Porto. Maritimo were the first to fall away, and Benfica proved the strongest of the pack, beating Sporting in the next to last game of the season condemning them to 4th place, and utterly humiliating me in the last game (0-4 in a game where I didn’t manage to get a single shot in), claiming second spot for themselves, and leaving me in 3rd. No less than six of my players were elected into the team of the season. (including 2 on the bench)

That exact same day 5! players announced their desire to leave for a bigger club. Luckily I managed to convince most of them to stay on a bit longer, but my left winger, and the Uruguayan striker who had both been with me since second league refused to back down, and well deserved transfers were arranged for them for a combined 3.3M€.

Highlight: The entire season… please don’t make me wake up. The 2-3 away win to Benfica was nice too, showing I could beat the best teams in the country.

Pl32 W18 D5 L7 F70 A36 Pts59 3rd

20 players in for 425k€ (including 8 youth players)
11 players out for 1,2M€

retired_rebeldixie

Even though I'm by now well into my next season the next update might (or might not) be delayed a bit as I'm moving houses next week. We'll see how much this eats into my precious game time. :cool:

retired_rebeldixie

Well, I'm installed in the new place since the end of last month, I finished playing the 10/11 season almost two weeks ago, and today I finally managed to get internet installed (woot! :thup. Time for the update I'd say.

Season 2010/2011

Pre-season was hectic, with more players wanting to leave for bigger clubs, scouts swarming all over the place distracting my players, desperate attempts to get my players to agree to contract extensions and frenetic negotiations with clubs and players to get some new faces in. By the time the dust had settled 12 players had gone, 11 new ones came in, and the club coffers were fattened with no less than 9M€. With so many changes I was not sure how strong we were - though I hoped to reach European football again - but at least I wouldn’t have to fight against unrealistic expectations, as all the board wanted was to remain clear of relegation again.

The first European campaign in the clubs’ history didn’t bring us much joy. In the last qualifying round of the CL we were drawn against later winners Werder Bremen and soundly trounced 5-2 on aggregate, and then in the first round of the Uefa-cup a horribly defensive Marseille team scored from a free kick early in the first leg, and didn’t move out of their own half for the next 170 minutes and that was that . At the same time league play saw us produce some breathtaking attacking football, demolishing all opposing defences like they were mere juniors. (unquestioned stars of the show were the new left winger I got in to replace last seasons star, and a Brazilian striker from the lower leagues, who exploded from game 1) Unfortunately we seemed to be lacking any kind of defensive stability, with a veteran defender not coming anywhere near his level of performance from last season, and all of his partners in central defence inconsistent at best. This lead to quite a few freak results (a 6-3, 4-3, 2-5, 4-2, 2-4 string in October/November for example), but was good enough to propel us into third place again.

At the winter break I was forced to let my brand new left winger go (due to a 3.7M minimum release clause), and the Brazilian striker struggled to regain his form after 2 injuries (he scored 17 times before the break, and only 4 after it – still good enough to become topscorer) and the offence normalized a bit (still one of the strongest in the league, just no longer magical), as did the defence (still poor, but now even somewhat above relegation level) but the 3rd place finish never was in any doubt, the distance between the top-4 clubs constantly remaining around 6 points – not the most tense and exiting championship in living memory – but who cares? Uniao proved last season was not just a freak result with a new third place finish.

Meanwhile the cup tried very hard to make up for last seasons disappointment: Some easy opening rounds allowing me to give my backups some match practice – and to earn a record-breaking 11-0 win – an easy 0-3 victory in the quarters against Academica (woot! :thup, and a very solid and efficient performance in the semis, coming back from behind to earn a 1-4 win over Porto and the first cup-final in the clubs history. Pretty sweet in my book. In the finals Sporting proved to strong for us though, deservedly beating us 3-1. (The first normal-time cup defeat since I took charge)

Highlight: Some of the attacking moves in the first part of the season, so breathtakingly beautiful. After witnessing this kind of magic any manager can die in peace, knowing his team contributed to the myth that is football… (Pardon me if the wording here seems a bit over the top... but not even the overthetoppest wording around can even begin to do justice to those magical moments. Damn, I did it again it seems.. )

Pl30 W16 D8 L6 F71 A45 Pts56 3rd

16 players in for 2,4m€
20 players out for 15,5m€

marcus6363

Euro Cups Suck Ass too!!

KUTGW :thup:

retired_rebeldixie

So it seems

At least the domestic cup was nice to me again this season though. As Homer Simpson told his TV once while hugging it: "Let's never fight again"

P.S. In case anyone is intrested: I'm not a mad Simpsons fan, but I did use to flee to the TV in the college dorm when there were books on my desk demanding to be studied.

With hindsight I can say the books were right and I wasn't, but, at least I managed to see a couple of seasons of the Simpsons in the correct order. And Friends. And even some really crappy shows I'm too ashamed to mention. (and/or forgot all about the minute I stopped watching)

retired_rebeldixie

Season 2011/2012

The season started with bad news, when the board let me know that the much-needed stadium expansion they had finally agreed to was blocked by ‘local opposition’, so we continued on with 5000 people squeezing into our little stadium most every game. There were fewer changes to the squad this time around, with only 2 first-teamers leaving (striker and versatile defender), but despite spending a record amount of money on new faces I didn’t feel very comfortable about my squad going into the new season. Rightly, as it turned out, as the start of the season was disastrous: flirting with the relegation spots for several weeks, and with a 9th place after 9 games the players started muttering. In-between we also managed to get a serious spanking from Dortmund in the first round of the Uefa-cup, for a new season without any European glory.

From there on the situation started to slowly improve, with the team managing to grind out some results. Good football wasn’t to be seen yet, but the defence stabilised, the players showed great character to nick many winning goals in the final stages of the match, and slowly, ever so slowly the climb up the table began. After new-year even the quality of play started to reach satisfying levels (though nowhere near last seasons brilliance) and with a last push of 7 consecutive wins at the end of the season we jumped over Braga to the 4th spot, still well behind an aging Porto side (first time in 5 seasons they didn’t win the league). In the cup we succumbed 1-2 to Benfica in the semi-finals.

Highlight: The first cap of one of my players for the Portuguese national team. A very talented youngster who got promoted from our youth academy for the 09/10 season, and forced his way into the first team the season after at the age of 17. This season he developed into one of the best midfielders in the country: hardworking, fast, strong and brilliant passing ability. First cap at the age of 18 (in a friendly). Makes me proud. :thup:

Pl 30 W 17 D 6 L 7 F 61 A 32 Pts 57 4th

12 players in for 8M€
11 players out for 15.5M€

retired_rebeldixie

As an aside a question for the experts: If your stadion expansion is blocked by 'local opposition' as happened here, is that just something that can happen, tough luck, try again next year? Or is that the games way of telling you you'll never get a bigger stadium?

(I'm asking because at the start of next season the same thing happened, and now the board suddenly doesn't think it's needed to expand the stadium anymore )

retired_aprilcox

I would think that if it is blocked bu local opposition then there is a chance that if you keep trying you will be able to succeed. If it is blocked by the council however, then you will never be able to improve it.

KUTGW! :thup:

retired_rebeldixie

Well, no council anywhere in sight when the angry mob (of 7 ppl and their dog I suppose) was barricading the road to the stadium to block the building equipment. :p

I'll just keep trying then.

*Wanders off to kick the board into action again*