A Greek Odyssey - The 12 Labours of Heracles

Lilywhite96

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Welcome to my incredibly simple, yet difficult difficult Greek journey in FM 2023.
I have always found Greek and Roman Mythology interesting, the elaborate characters, relationships and the tall tales of adventure and heroics. This is my attempt at combining Greek mythology and football (probably not a sentence you thought you would read today...). Heracles (Hercules in Roman terms, yes the ginger one from that Disney film) is the Demi-God, son of Zeus that was famously sentenced to 12 labours as a way to repent for some rather gory activities; those of which I'll let you discover for yourself.
Now of course FM unfortunately won't let me slay massive lions or steel magic apples, but it will let me attempt to take the modern nation of Greece to the top of European football. However, to give the save some symetry, I will be challenging myself to complete 12 tasks of increasing difficulty. They are as follows:

1. Win the Greek Super League
2. Win the Greek Domestic Cup
3. Win the Champions League
4. Win the World Cup with Greece
5. Win the European Championships with Greece
6. Greek National Team Ranked #1
7. Academy Graduate - Greece NT Top Scorer Record
8. Academy Graduate - Greece NT Most Apps Record
9. Academy Graduate - Greek Super League Top Scorer Record
10. Academy Graduate - Greek Super League Most Apps Record
11. Greek Super League Ranked #1
12. Greek Ballon D'or Winner

Bonus Challenge
Successful Full Ancient Greek Squad (Greece, Turkey, Albania, Cyprus, Bulgaria only)

As you can see, some are much more achievable than others, but I'm going to give it a good go!
So, which club is going to be my trusty steed on my journey to the top?

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Athlitiki Enosi Larissas

A largely unknown club to those who havent delve into the history of Greek football.
The only club outside of the major cities of Athens and Thessaloniki to win the Championship; all the way back in 1988. With a couple Greek cups to their name as well, they have largely remained in the top flight until their relegation in 2021.
A humble 13,000 seater stadium and a club badge fitting of their role within this story.
(Fun fact - the wild horse is representative of the ancient greek Thessalian Breed, similar to that of Alexander The Great's horse, Bucephalus.)

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An unwelcome sight from the finance screen, plus the fact we have outstanding debt to the tune of almost £30k every month.

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I wont delve through the squad too much as I'm sure the majority of you, like me, have no idea who anyone is so I'll wait to mention any specific names once they deserve the screen time.
A short note on the tactics side however, I'm going for a bold 3-5-2 formation. I'm determined to make a 3 centre back system work on FM and the inclusion of the Libero is a gentle nod to Otto Rehhagel, who famously led the Greek National Team to their Euro 2004 triumph.

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Lastly, to round of this first post, let's take a look at the starting point for both the National Team and club coefficients.

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Apart from the usual target of getting the club back to the top flight and fighting for the title, the first milestone needs to be aiming for top 10 in the coefficient and that precious automatic UCL group stage spot.

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Nationally the challenge is arugably greater. Starting rank of 47th, soon to be the most feared team in the world.

I'm hoping to update this regularly, but I don't want to slow down the progress of the save too much; I've got a feeling we're going to have to get through quite a few seasons if we wanted to tick off all twelve.

Back to you soon...

(This would be a lot easier if Heracles was German or English...)​
 
A lot of time as passed since my first post, so here's what has happened...

Season 1

After a quick evaluation of our squad, I honed in on a few areas of weakness and brought in the following players;

Souleymane Aw

The Senegalese full back comes straight into the starting eleven and one of our best players. His quality down the left hand side will be crucial to our success.

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J'Neil Bennett

After having him on trial for practically the entirety pre season, he signs for .. Southampton. Luckily he agrees to a loan at no cost so that'll do, i guess...

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Hector Bazan

Another tricky winger to help provide some firepower to our frontlines. Hoping for some good development as well.

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Igor Angulo

A season veteran to lead our front line. We need someone to put the ball in the back of the net. (Spoiler* He didn't do it very often..)

Igor.png



Friendlies

A decent preseason which hopefully is some positive foreshadowing for the season ahead.
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The first half of the season was a bag of mixed emotions. I ahve already had to accept defeat with the Libero, we just don't have the quality required to play that role and shipping 7 goals pushed me over the edge. The typical 4-3-3 has been called upon which has seen an uptick in form. Long may it continue...

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Youth Intake

Our best prospect is Ilias Dimitrakoudis. A very nice "Holy Trinity" as Zealand refers to it. Could become a decent player but i am cautiously hoping we will need someone of a higher quality in the top flight by the time he comes of age.

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End of Season 1

*Sigh*

My hopes of getting out of this division on the first attempt are shattered. 5th place and 12 points off where needed to be. The goal difference tells you all you need to know. We just didn't have enough goals in the team. We will have to go again.

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At least the board are happy?

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Thankfully next season we wont have any outstanding debt, although our finances are getting worse by the day. We needed the boost of income waiting for us in the Super League; fingers crossed for next season.


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We also have a slight issue that the majority of our players are on expiring contracts so we will be having a full reset. My chance to put my personal stamp on the team.

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Lastly, this how the world around has developed this season:

AEK win the Super League without the stress of European football to contend with, pipping Olympiakos by 2 points.

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Olympiakos did represent Greece in the newly licensed Champions League. A tough group and a poor show to be honest; i thought they would be our best bet!

UCL GS.png


Panathinaikos did make it past the group in the Europa, only to be completley outplayed by Kobenhavn. Better than i thought but Denmark are a nation we should be looking to leapfrog so it hurts us.

Europa League.png


PAOK had a tough draw to get into the Europa League, Nice are a good upcoming side and they narrowly miss out.

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However, we do move up a couple spots to 13th. Every little helps!

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Season 2 will soon be upon us and with it new hopes to make it out of this rather tricky division. The fact that only 1 team from each section (North and South) get promoted means we really do need to be far and away the best team. A tough ask on a shoestring budget and not the greatest reputation.

I'll be sniffing for a few loans to help out again as well as digging around the top European teams rejects to help us achieve our goals.
Let's go...​
 
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