A Dutch Rebuilding - An FC Twente Story

[leckuno]

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I've decided to give managing in Holland to try and bring back a country with a history of beautiful underachievers; lets not forget Cruyff's total football of 1974 or the late golden generation of the 90's, Berkamp, Davids etc. Yet this nation that produced great footballers time after time had only1 title to call their own, the 1988 European championship and they have failed to qualify for the last Euro and World Cup. Holland is a faded footballing titan and its time to bring it back to former glories.

Football Club Twente are a professional club from the city of Enschede, a city located in Eastern Netherlands. The club were formed in 1965 and play their home games in the De Grolsch Veste also known as The Grolsch Fortress.
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Twente’s stadium, De Grolsch Veste, has a capacity of 30,000 people and is named after the alcoholic beverage Grolsch who’s headquarters are located in Enschede. FC Twente have only ever won the Eredivisie title once back in the 2009 – 2010 season when former England manager Steve McClaren lead them to glory by just a single point over Ajax.

Notable former players for FC Twente include ex-Spurs winger Nacer Chadli, who won the KNVB Cup in his first year with the club, the late great Cheick Tiote who went on to make 52 appearances for the Ivorian National team before his death in 2017 and also Dutch national team player Eljero Elia who spent a couple of years at the club before moving to Hamburg and then to Juventus back in 2011.

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During the 2014–15 Eredivisie season, Twente found themselves in financial trouble again, forcing the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) to deduct the club three points from the side in March 2015. Club President Munsterman, who had announced to leave the club at the end of the season, then already quit the club on 1 April 2015 over allegations of financial mismanagement. The team fired 18 employees and stopped with their scouting department after they received a second three-point penalty in April 2015. They also decided to withdraw Jong Twente from the Eerste Divisie for the 2015–16 season and the women's professional team was relocated in a separate foundation. On 18 May 2016 the KNVB declared its intent to relegate FC Twente to the Eerste Divisie. This was however still subject to appeal by FC Twente and on 17 June 2016 the KNVB appeal committee decided that Twente can remain in the Eredivisie. At the end of the 2017–18 Eredivisie season, Twente relegated to the Eerste Divise by finishing at the bottom of the table at the end of the season, after having fired two managers that season.

Finances

So to make this save even harder the clubs finances are in no great shape and it will take a few seasons to be able to make any real signings unless we get a ridiculous offer for somebody. the transfer and wage budget little to be desired as well and there will be no real signings to made this year.

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Board Expectations

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Luckily we aren't expected to win the league and only reach the play offs as the second string teams for PSV and Ajax are both favourites for the league and will be tough to beat depending on who gets dropped down for those games.

The aim of this save is going to be to try and get Twente back to where they were 10 years ago with using youth to try and get them all into the Dutch team and to get them back on top as well. Whenever the Dutch job comes up I will keep trying for it until I get it to try and win a major honour with them.

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[Jedd95]

I have thoroughly enjoyed managing in Holland, very exciting league. I've also enjoyed smashing Twente so good luck ! Ha ha

 

[leckuno]

Squad Overview

Goalkeepers

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In goals Joel Drommel will be my number 1 and at only 21 he should be with the club for a while even if he becomes number 2 after a couple of years.

Defenders

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In defence we are ok with Gonzalez being our strongest CB. We will need to strengthen over the next few years though to compete. Van de Lely will be staying with us as the leading RB with Ramos being the understudy. At LB we are very short with only 33 year old Ricardinho coming in during the summer. We will be looking to the loan market at first to bring in some cover.

Midfielders

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In the middle of the park Javi Espinosa will be key for us playing as a play maker to link up with the strikers and create chances for them with Wout Brama playing just behind him to soak up any loose balls and to help out with the defence. Down the right Aitor Cantalapiedra will be key with Dylan George as his back up. Down the left we will be utilising Zekhnini until Assaidi comes back from his injury in 6-7 months.

Strikers

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Up front we are lacking with Tom Boere being our best option. I will be looking at the loan market to try and bring in 1 or two strikers to take over.


All in we have a pretty good squad and should make the playoffs comfortably in our first season and I will be hoping for promotion. I will be looking at the loan market to bring people in as I just don't have the wages to sign anybody permanently yet.

My tactics will all depend on who we're able to attract over the transfer window​

 

[leckuno]

Transfers and Preseason

So for the transfers we've had to be very smart as its been very difficult due to having no money for wages. With this in mind I used the transfer budget to pad it out to try and bring some players in for free but nobody decent was wanting to join so we looked to the loan market. The issue with this again came down to the wage budget and not being able to offer the wage contribution the clubs were wanting. So with this in mind every player we have bought in on loan is having 100% of their wages paid by their respective clubs.

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The main players to have been brought in are Timothy Weah and Sergio Cordova who will both be spear heading our front line and fire us to promotion. The other notable player is Erik Majetschak who will be adding great rotation option in the centre of the park and is also available to play in the AMC role. Everybody else joining the club is merely in to provide backup to both the full back positions and striker.

Tom Boere was the only one to leave the club and was going to be 4th choice so he leaves for £575,000 and that was too good to reject for somebody not to play especially in our financial situation.

Over the course of the season I'll be looking at the transfer list to see if anybody becomes available in our price range or if anybody decent gets released from their club

Tactics

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We'll be looking to play as a 4-4-2 to give us options going forward and hopefully staying defensively solid as well. With the squad we have I feel this utilises everybody's skills the best.

Preseason

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With new players coming in I decided to try and play plenty of friendlies to get everybody use to the formation and try and get as many players fit as well. A disappointing defeat to Arminia Bielefeld was put right with the last game with a massive confidence boosting win over Schalke 04.


Onwards and upwards now as we take our fight to the league.



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[NashBigginss]

Timothy Weah will tear that league up in that squad, Espinosa is a baller as well! In for a good season

 

[leckuno]

August

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A nice short month since we only had to play half of it with competitive games and we got off to a great start against Sparta and Helmond. Then Came the match against Roda JC.

Then came the match against Roda which with only my third game has reminded me how this game can make you think its a walk in the park and then gives you a fright.

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Erik Majetschak comes in for his debut and gets us off to a great start getting a debut goal. Timothy Weah then scored either side of half time to give us a 3-0 lead. At this stage I think its all over and then Cristian Gonzalez manages to header the ball into his own net from a corner before Simakala bangs a second in for Roda JC with 16 minutes to go. We get battered for the remaining time but manage to hold on to take the 3 points and record a perfect month.

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The draw for the Dutch cup has also taken place where we will meet Almere City at home which should be pretty straight forward and we should make it through to the second round.


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[leckuno]

Timothy Weah will tear that league up in that squad, Espinosa is a baller as well! In for a good season

Fingers crossed both players are able to play to their potential as both are going to be key players

 

[leckuno]

September

To start the month I'd thought I'd try my luck with a couple of board requests to see what happened, especially with the limited bank balance I wasn't sure what they would agree to and it couldn't of gone any better. They have agreed to upgrade the youth recruitment and facilities which I plan of making full use of during this save to get my team to the top.

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We really manage to pull off the perfect month here in the league as not only do we manage to win every match but we go one better and manage to keep clean sheets in every game. Our defence have finally come together and working as an established unit. The only worry just now is the strikers just aren't getting in the goals and most of them are coming from midfield.

For the cup we had a walk in the park and managed to progress with a great win

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Again we looked like we could of thrown this away after being 2-0 up after 9 minutes but thankfully with 20 minute to go we managed to bag another 3 goals to take a comanding lead to see us into the second round where we will come up against FC Utrecht

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[leckuno]

October

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The big match of the month was the cup game against FC Utecht which came after playing against their second team which somehow went better this time around against the stronger team but it sees us progress to the third round to play Heracles Almelo away from home which gives us our first taste f the Twentse Derby.

In the league we played relatively well but drop our first points of the season. Again our strikers are still struggling to finding the back of the net.

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So along came Jong Utrecht and I honestly thought we were going to get hammered after going 2-0 down in 12 minutes thanks to Nick Venema but we managed to keep the score line there until half time. At half time I tore through the lads and we got an instant response with Cordova finally getting on the score sheet to get his first goal of the season. We then get some luck when Lukas Gortler deflects a shot into his own net. We then get a penalty and I think the full comeback is there but our left back Ricardinho puts it wide and we have to settle for a 2-2 draw.

We manage to hold onto top spot in the league as well with holding a 3 point lead and a game advantage.

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As you can see we have already achieved a play off spot as well after 10 games. Its all a bit strange but it seems the league is done in 4 periods with teams achieving play off spots each period.

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November fixtures

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[leckuno]

November

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So another month we go undefeated but in my opinion there were no stand out games here so not going to do a deep dive into one. We have a great result though at home to Jong Ajax who were favourites for the league. We did drop another 4 points though this month which was disappointing but to only concede 1 goal in the month was an added bonus.

Our form has even managed to get me a new contract all ready which see's me extend my stay until 2020. With the new contract the board has also given me some extra money towards the wage budget which is just in time for people becoming available to sign on pre-contracts in January

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December fixtures

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[dporter8999]

Great start you've had there, and the increase in wage budget will be perfect to snap up players on expiring contracts!

 

[Yeti01]

Quality mate - you look like you have Twente primed for a rebound! Will be following this one.

 

[copeyhd]

Enjoying this mate! Keep it up

 

[leckuno]

December

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Another month we go undefeated as we increase our standing in the league with only dropping 2 points against FC Volendam. In the Dutch cup we even manage to beat our local rivals after an extremely boring game with no team creating any great chances we manage to nab it in penalties to make it through to the quarter finals where we will be playing AZ Alkmarr away from home.

The big match this month was at home to second placed Go Ahead.
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Timoth Weah gets the opening goal to see us off after getting a yellow card and then Ricardinho getting a vital penalty in the third minute of extra time in the first half to send us in with a great confidence boost. Sergio Cordova then adds to the score sheet to boost his confidence in front of goal before Ricardinho gets his marching orders for a soft tackle just outside the box. Jeroen Veldmate steps up to the free kick and slots it home to get a consolation goal.

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We go into January with a 9 point lead at the top of the table and will be looking at the loan market and contracts that are expiring in the summer to see who we can get that will help us stay up next season.

January Fixtures

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[leckuno]

January

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In the league we remain unbeaten with another 9 points taken. In the cup we finally bow out in the quarter finals. Az were just far too good and the gulf of class showed as we threw away a 1-0 lead to lose 3-1.

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Jong Utrecht was the stand out game this month with Haji Wright getting us off to a great start with a goal in the second minute to get us off to the best possible start. Cristian Gonzalez then manages to bag a brace just before half time. Yangel Herrera then slots home from the penalty spot in the second minute of injury time to get himself a debut goal.

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With transfers we were pretty much beaten to every pre-contract due to not being able to offer wages to compete with everybody else. The only player we managed to sign on a pre-contract was Abdou Diakhate from Fiorentina. We even took the chance to sign him now for £215,000 as he will be a great addition in the middle of the park just now.

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The other player we managed to sign on a permanent deal was Javi Jimenez from Valencia for £1,100,000 and he will go straight into the first team as CB.

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The other transfers we made were loan deals to try and fill out the team to give us the best opportunity to complete an unbeaten season to allow us plenty of rotation if its needed.

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February Fixtures

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[leckuno]

February

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A nice shot month here which is helping us recover from a few injuries. We scrape through two games with the biggest let off being against FC Eindhoven where we scored in the 95th minute with the last kick of the ball to beat the team sitting bottom of the league. There was one stand out match this month though against Jong PSV.

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2-0 down after 15 minutes thanks to Horvath and Piroe I thought the worst was going to happen and we were going to suffer our first defeat of the season. Luckily right before half time Alphonso Davies was able to get us back into the game. Ricadinho then manages to bag an equaliser in the 48th minute before Yangel Herrera gets the winner in the 79th minute to complete an amazing comeback from 2-0 down.

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March Fixtures

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[leckuno]

March

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Another month unbeaten to keep our promotion bid on. Our strikers are finally kicking in with some goals which is nice. If we win our first game in April then the title is ours. With it being a short month there have been no games to go into great detail with as even the 4-0 win against TOP Oss was pretty standard against a poor team and we even finished it with 10 men.

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With it being March it also brought the youth intake and we have one stand out player in Roel Sedney who will hopefully be able to make the step up into the first team and be the first Holland great to come through our academy.

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With a great talent coming into the under 19's it also bode's well that this season they won the under 19 league as well

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April Fixtures

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[Hampus Silverholt]

Sedney looks like he's going to be awesome! 17 determination as well​

 

[leckuno]

Sedney looks like he's going to be awesome! 17 determination as well​

Yeah really hope he develops well, going to try giving him a couple of chances in the first team in the last few games of the season

 

[leckuno]

April

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Another unbeaten month meaning we only have 1 game left to complete an unbeaten season. We only concede one goal this month as well which is amazing considering we played 7 games and it was only the final game we conceded. With the league wrapped up we decided to give Roel Sedney a few chances off the bench as well and he's done well considering he's only 16.

The stand out match this month was against 2nd placed Go Ahead

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Majetschak comes back into the midfield to get us off to a great start in the 4th minute. Timothy Weah then gets a massive goal right before half time to send us into the second half full of confidence. He then bags a second goal not long after half time to seal the win to get us a great win. This was also the first match that Roel Sedney also made his first team debut in.

With our win in the first match it was enough to win us the league.

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May Fixtures

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