A European Challenge...

[LS9193]

Hello everyone.

This is my second story, my first story was the http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2012-stories/93103-birmingham-city-revival.html. But sadly the game crashed last night . I decided that i would go for a real challenge this time, not saying my Birmingham one wasn't but i believe my new story will be a lot harder then my previous.

The European Challenge consists of 3 things

• Starting off as 'Sunday League Footballer' so i can gradually build my reputation
• Starting off in a not so popular country i.e not England, France, Spain etc.
• Being a team tipped to finish in the bottom half of their league

I've never really done a challenge like this before, and i'm not sure if this is in the Challenge section in the forums, Literally thought of the idea earlier on this morning and thought id give it a go! Even if things go **** up i will keep true to my word and stick through it. If anyone else fancies giving this a try, go for it. Im sure it will be a tough one.


The country i have decided to start my story off in first is Romania. Don't ask why as i don't even know myself!
I dont have any knowledge of this league whats so ever, so that is also going to make it tricky for me.

The team i am going to start my journey with are ' Astra Ploiesti '. They where predicted to finish 9th in the Romania League and look like a tough challenge. Here is a look at the league from the 2010/2011 league and they managed to finish a respectable 11th. They are relatively new to the top tier of Romanian football, only having secured promotion in 2009.


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I will update on the months of July & August in the next time, and bring transfer news.​

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[Paul Howard]

Great idea complete faith it will be as good as the Birmingham one Very best of luck sounds like you will need it

 

[LS9193]

Great idea complete faith it will be as good as the Birmingham one Very best of luck sounds like you will need it

Cheers mate, i'll give it my best

 

[LS9193]

July & August


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The first thing i done was access the squad, and i was quite surprised to see how many players i had out due to injury. There where a number of 9 players that are injured and out for around 2 or in some cases 8 months.

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This wasn't helped by the fact that my chairman only gave me £173k to spend in the transfer window. Looks like it was going to be a tough couple of months for us! Especially with the fact that i have no idea about the Romanian league, not a clue the styles of football certain clubs play etc. But its a challenge i relish!



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Not a lot of activity was made in regard to in's and out's at the club this summer. Couldn't bring a lot of players in obviously due to the transfer/wage budget i had received, and no-one was interested in the players i was wanting to leave the club! I couldn't really afford to let anyone leave either due to the amount of first team players injured. Here is who i brought in.
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Pablo Mouche
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If you followed my Birminghm story from the beginning you'd notice that i'd signed Mouche whilst we was in the Championship, he was a success for us then, hoping for more of the same for Astra! Very tricky customer and for 80k cant go wrong.



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Leandro Lazzaro

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Experienced striker, at the age of 37 i'm pretty sure he'll announce his retirement after this year. Brought in on a free and will be mainly used as a back-up for Mouche through out the season.

Would of liked to bring in a few more players, but wasn't possible due to our financial state, hopefully some success this season can help bring in some future cash!



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Liga 1


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Last season Astra finished in 11th, of course we are looking to improve on this position but its going to take a lot of hard work and improvement on the current squad of players we have in my opinion. But from the early signs we have shown this season, we can defiantly improve upon the previous campaign. Here is how we managed during the months of July & August.


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2 defeats and 4 wins. Not a bad start. Having lost the first game at home 1-3 i was worried and had a slight feeling that it could be a long season, but we bounced back tremendously and won four on the bounce. The pick of the games was the 5-3 win at Home against Vointa Sibiu in which Mouche managed to scored 4!


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Mouche has had a great start to the campaign having scored 8 goals in 6 starts for Astra! At 80k he is looking like a great bargain and hopefully he can keep it up!


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All in all a good start to Astra! Sitting in 4th in Liga 1 which of course i am happy about! All down to Mouche really he is smashing in the goals and need this to continue if we want to have a good campaign! Nice start to my European journey. Hopefully some clubs are noticing my potential


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