retired_blondielovespink

Season 4-07/08-US Royenne

This is actually a midseason update. I won't normally do these...but this one is warranted.

I had to offload my starting center back tandem. One at the beginning of the season because he decided he disliked me. The other at the January window when his release fee was picked up. As a result, I never had enough depth in the side to really play consistently enough to threaten for promotion. Financially we were in good shape with the sales, however.

The slugs played like garbage in the 7th round of the French Cup and embarrassed me, even if they were just reserves playing.

Wasquehal offered me their job in November, I turned it down. A bigger stadium, but the finances were worse than Roye's.

But on 4 Feb, sitting 8th place with Roye, 6th place Chateauroux offered me their job, along with a 3.8mil Euro budget.

I jumped. :p Final record at Roye- 57/44/49 in 150 games. I take over at Chateauroux 10pts off the promotion pace with enough to play to catch up 'in theory.' More likely we're looking at next year.

KingsbayYHPE

Nice strip, if memory serves.

GL, m'man :thup:

retired_emc580

Nothing like a good spot of ship jumping

GL

retired_blondielovespink

Season 4-07/08 Chateauroux- French National

Took over Chateau to find a squad with some real leftover talent from its 2nd Div days, but no depth. Also found a number of players looking for greener pastures at season's end. Finally, I managed to cause a row with the former #1 keeper when I benched him for being a stiff.

French Cup 10th Round- Lost to 1st Div Reims 2-3. Played largely reserves, of course.

League- Won 9 out of the final 11 matches to put up a strong promotion charge. Last day we had to play Angouleme away and win, then hope either of the teams tied for 2nd failed to get full points. We won a 2-1 nailbiter, and Racing 92 gave us a favor in their final match before relegation to the CFA, drawing the 3rd placed side 1-1. PROMOTION! Final Recors 20/8/10, 68pts, 3rd placed. Roye slumped to 14th in my absence, but was well safe of the drop zone. I finished 2nd in NAtional Manager of the Year voting.

Life will be difficult in Div 2, as most of the players who were dissatisied still wanted to leave, and the board put down a serious wage restriction that will make it hard to resign some of my better players. We received a new 65k sponsership deal, and 3.3mil in transfer funds. Expectations are to battle vs the drop once again.

retired_blondielovespink

Season 5 08/09- Chatteauroux- French 2nd Division

Told you it'd be a while once I had to finish up school again.

League Cup- Lost in 1st Round to 1st Div Nantes. 200k for getting to be cannon fodder.

French Cup- Lost in 9th Round to 1st Div Metz.

League- Finished 8th, 14/13/11- 55 pts. For the 1st time I can recall, I had a side that finished with the best defensive record in the League (30GA in 38 games). That nearly masked the fact we had the 4th worst attack in the League (38GF). I bought my top forward and star MC from Roye (who were relegated this season from the Nat'l). The Frc was top scorer again, with a whopping 8 goals. The MC was a good workhorse, but not terribly creative.

Our starting GK, a star the last two seasons, wanted out to greener pastures. So we acquired 2 quality GKs with the money we got on him. Board upgraded training facilities to 'adequate.' We also invested heavily in AMs and forwards. Will that help? I don't know.

Board and fans expect a safe mid-table finish. And our odds are 25-1, saying we have an outside chance if things fall our way. I think we probably will be about the same as last season, given the time it will probably take for the significant amount of new signings to jell. But a season of consolidating after our changes won't hurt.

retired_ryankesler

A very good update, mate. KUTGW!!

I like managing in France, for some reason, my first real go was with Reims in 00-01 who were at the time in the National. It wasn't until I went looking for their club badge on their website that I actually found out they were a very good team in the 50s and 60s, a bit of a fallen giant.

[/ramble]

Anyway, as I said earlier, KUTGW!

retired_blondielovespink

Thanks. This isn't my first French game. I was a bit surprised when Frank kicked me that way again. Back in 01/02 days, I played Toulouse when they were relegated to the Nat'l for their 'financial irregularities.' Roye was much more of a challenge, and even Chateau is harder than Toulouse was.

retired_blondielovespink

Season 6- 09/10-Chatteauroux-French League 2

League Cup- Beat Angers (League 1) in preliminary round before losing to Montpellier (League 1) in Round 1. 200k to the coffers.

French Cup- Fine run. Beat Nice, Metz, and Bordeaux en route to the Cup Final. All League 1 sides. Used squad players and reservists until the Semi-Final vs Bordeaux. Had my 1st sell-out of our 17k stadium for that match as well. Lost the final 0-2 to Lens. Received 1.5mil to the coffers in prize money.

League- Had a glorious start. Was comfortably in 2nd until a rash of injuries took out most of my front-runners just in time for Christmas and my obligatory February fade. Slid to 5th place, and never really threatened for promotion again. Still, it was the highest ever finish for the side. 16/15/7-63pts. 6 shy of promotion. We had a DMC named star of the league and an AM/Frc named 3rd star of the league. Unfortunately, I had to sell them both. The DMC because his min. was bid by Leverkusen (2.9mil) and the other because he decided he didn't like me anymore.

We made the club 2.1 mil before I made the sales. Then even after spending to bring in new players, I made an extra mil+ ticket sales. We're 'secure' financially. 12-1 odds for promotion. Board and fans have us for a 'respectable finish.' And I shot down a job offer from Nancy.

retired_priyaa_00

I hate it when my teams come down about the same time as the Christmas decorations

KUTGMoneyManagment :thup:

retired_blondielovespink

Thanks, Though I feel like I could hardly take credit for the money management. I bid 300k for the DMC (my first African purchase) at the beginning of the season. He was great al season, had an average rating of 7.8, scored a few goals, dominated midfield.

And, of course as soon as Leverkusen put a 'wnt' on him at the end of the season, he published a news article about how he wanted to leave.