Having taken a break from this for a while I've decided to come back and crack on in a different League that I've never played in and try and replicate Hampus's success that he's had in Ireland.
Sparta Prague- An Overview
AC Sparta Prague is a Czech football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in Central Europe, winning the Central European Cup 3 times as well as having reached the semifinals of the European Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) in 1992 and the quarter finals of the European Cup Winners Cup 3 times. Sparta have also been successful on the international stage, winning the Pequeña Copa del Mundo de Clubes (predecessor to the FIFA Club World Cup) in 1969. Sparta have won the Gambrinus Liga a record 35 times, the Czech Cup 27 times, also a record, and the Czech Supercup once. Sparta was long the main source for the Czech Republic national football team, however lately this has ceased to be the case, as the best Czech players almost all now play in higher-paying foreign leagues. There are a number of outstanding players who have played for the Sparta over the years.
Famous Players
Pavel Nedvěd
Tomáš Rosický
Petr Čech
Jan Koller
The Stadium
Genrali Arena
Year Built:1969 Capacity:19,794 Tennants: Czech Repulic National Team/ Sparta Prague
Brief History and Team Records
• Founded by the three Rudl brothers and their friends, and named in honour of the Spartans of Greek antiquity, Sparta earned a goalless draw against local rivals SK Slavia Praha in their first official game in 1896. A decade later, their club president Dr Petřík returned from a trip to London with a red Arsenal FC jersey, Sparta subsequently adopting similar colours.
• The "Iron Sparta" side of 1919-23 set new standards, winning all but one of their 59 competitive games in that period to dominate the predecessor to the first official Czechoslovakian league; Sparta also won Central European Cups in 1927 and 1935 to emerge as one of the continent's strongest sides.
• Sparta have always been the most popular Czech side, edging out Slavia, but in the years after 1945 they failed to translate that into much success, even being relegated for the only time in their history in 1975.
• However, from the mid-1980s, a Sparta side featuring the likes of Jozef Chovanec, Tomáš Skuhravý and Ivan Hašek kick-started a massive upturn in the club's fortunes: the 1983/84 title was the first of 19 successes in the course of 26 seasons.
• The 1990s Sparta sides boasted the talents of Pavel Nedvěd, Michal Bílek and Tomáš Rosický, and while the club have never reached the final of a UEFA club competition, they came closest in 1991/92, finishing second behind eventual winners FC Barcelona in the European Champion Clubs' Cup group stage, equivalent to a last-four finish.
Club records Most appearances: Josef Chovanec (743) Most goals: Oldřich Nejedlý (183) Record victory: Sparta 15-1 Kovo Děčín (Czechoslovakian Cup, 1965) Record defeat: SK Slavia Praha 7-0 Sparta (Czechoslovakian league, 7 December 1941) Sparta 1-8 SK Slavia Praha (Czechoslovakian league, 15 March 1942)
So the aim of this season is just to compete at the top end of the table and finish within the European places which at this moment I'm not sure where that it is but since they finished 5th last season I'm hopeful it should be reasonable. In the Europa League the aim is to make it through to the group stages and then see what the team can do.
The board want us to win the league which might be a bit of a stretch but we will certainly try our best and hopefully we can match the other expectations as well. This gives us a great budget to play with to try and improve an already good squad for the league.
Transfers
Through the pre-season matches we brought in 5 players with none leaving the club. Everybody brought into the club is for the long term and will improve the playing squad even if Morilla and Joveljic are still young in this league they will still get games and improve with us looking to cash in on them in the future. Palacios and Okore will be walking straight into the starting XI with the aim of selling them both for profit in the future to bring in new and exciting young players.
In the future we will be looking to snap up young Czech talent to build a team of Czech players like the teams of old.
Pre-Season
Working with players who I'd never managed before we didn't get off to the best starts as we struggled through the first 3 games but after that we really kicked on and won the next 5 with a good win against Dynamo Kyiv which gives us hope for the Europa League.
We went with a 4-2-3-1 through the pre-season and it worked well so we will be taking it forward into the season.
July
We start off with a horrible game with playing out the Slavia Derby in front of our own fans before a trip to Cyprus for the Europa League
We got away with this one really thanks to a very early own goal but it was a bit gutting to concede with 5 minutes to go as I felt we might of been able to hang on but it probably plays put fair as a draw.
Europa League Best Placed 2nd Qualifying Round Anorthosi v Sparta Prague
What a game as we showed our dominance over the Cypriot's with our first half performance. Got to say I was a wee bit disappointed that we took our foot off the gas in the second half though. Morilla gets a goal on his debut to which will give him the confidence to kick on at the club with him getting chances. Plavsic get a great hat-trick off the left wing as well.
Karvina v Sparta Prague
I was starting to worry we were going to get another draw in the league but with two quick goals in the final 10 minutes see us get an import 3 points and makes sure we don't fall off the pace in the league.
League
August
We start to kick on now in the league with 4 games this month along with more qualifiers for the Europa League as well it could actually get quite busy.
Europa League Best Placed 2nd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg Sparta Prague v Anorthosi
We don't pull off another big win here as we do enough to get a good 9-0 aggregate win here which see's us go into the next round with a trip to Scotland to play Hibernian.
Sparta Prague v Sigma Olomouc
With games coming thick and fast we rotate a few players here and they deliver against one of the stonger teams in the league which shows the depth at the club.
Europa League Best Placed 3rd Qualifying Round 1st Leg Hibernian v Sparta Prague
A great win here to give us a great lead going into the second leg. Dockal gets us off to a fantastic start with a goal 20 seconds into the match to get the fastest goal in the clubs history. We leave it late to get the win but the last 5 minutes was vital for us.
Zlin v Sparta Prague
Again we rotate here to keep some of our tired players fresh for the Europa League as frankly making the group stages is more important just now than points but they step in again and get us the 3 points.
Europa League Best Placed 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg Sparta Prague v Hibernian
Again a much harder leg at home here which is a bit strange but again the second half we make it our own and grab another late goal to clinch a game and move into the next round to go to Portugal to face Rio Ave.
Sparta Prague v Bohemians 1905
Srdjan Plavsic is fast becoming a key player for the team in his second season at the club as he has already scored 4 times the amount of goals as last season. Europa League Best Placed 4th Qualifying Round 1st Leg Sparta Prague v Rio Ave
Again we make things hard at home for ourselves but we manage to keep a clean sheet and take a goal into the away leg.
Jablonec v Sparta Prague
A tough match as our players are currently running on fumes this month but with a bit of rotation we manage to hold onto a 1-0 victory
Europa League Best Placed 4th Qualifying Round 2nd Leg Rio Ave v Sparta Prague
Rio Ave just proved too strong here for us as our 9th game in a month takes its toll but thanks to grabbing an early away goal we manage to squeeze into the group stages of the Europa League.
League
Europa League
I feel we have a great chance of progressing from this group with the Braga match probably being our toughest match so top 2 here is a must for us and anything else will be a disappointment. Transfers
So this month we did one final bit of transfer business with bringing in Dennis Man from FCSB for an initial £2.5 million with another £3 million being paid over the next 3 years. I feel he follows the philosophy of buy young and sell high so lets say what he can bring to the club.
September
A much quieter month here where we will look to take full advantage of it.
We suffer our first defeat in the league against a poor team but 4 games in 11 days just proved to much for our squad but we now have 2 weeks off for internationals.
Viktoria Plzen v Sparta Prague
What a game to bounce back from defeat with as we comfortably defeat the defending champions with our midfield showing how pivotal they are going to be this season.
Europa League Group J
Standard v Sparta Prague
We get off to a great start in the Europa League with beating the only other team I feel could push us out of the top two but Morilla strikes early to show how well he's progressing with being in the first team.
Banik Ostrava v Sparta Prague
We go in at half time behind and decide to bring on 16 year old Adam Hlozek to make his debut for the club and what a future he has infront of him as he grabs a debut goal to get us back on level terms before assisting Sacek for the winner.
FA Cup 3rd Round Sparta Prague v Lokomotiva Vltavin
Good to see we didn't take our foot off the gas this time as we record the clubs biggest ever win even if it was a non-league team. Plavsic had a cracking game and I fully expect interest in him come January.
Sparta Prague v Opava
We finish the month strongly with a win against one of the newly promoted teams and with the rotation it again shows the depth we have at the club.
We get off to a great start against Braga with a nice early goal which sets the tempo for the game as it never really looked in doubt at all as we have 6 points from 6.
Pribram v Sparta Prague
Sadly we have a bit of a European hang over here and its costs us dearly as we fall to a really bad defeat by a team that we should be able to beat in our sleep.
Sparta Prague v Slovacko
We get back to winning ways with a great all round performance by the team with our midfielders and defenders with the goals. It was exactly what we needed.
Europa League Group J Sparta Prague v CFR Cluj
We keep our 100% record so far in the group stage with a nervy win here. The final 10 minutes of the match was definitely a 5p 50p moment to see if we were going to concede a 3rd or not.
Dukla Prague v Sparta Prague
It looked like we were going to go through the game without scoring even though we absolutely battered them but we got lucky with a final minute penalty to make sure we didn't drop points after Europe again.
FA Cup 4th Roung
Dukla Prague v Sparta Prague
A much better performance here in the cup. Joveljic came on just after half time and scored his first goals for the club and will probably look to give him a run of a couple of games to see how he does now.
We get off to the best possible start for the month with two first half goals. The only worrying thing coming out of these matches though is the lack of goals coming from upfront.
Europa League Group J CFR Cluj v Sparta Prague
An early goal again which was positive for us as we've gone on to win every game where we've scored in the first 5 minutes. This game was even more important as it see's us guarantee a spot in the next round of the Europa League.
Mlada Boleslav v Sparta Prague
A bore 0-0 draw comes from the European hangover again.
Slavia Prague v Sparta Prague
For a change its us who goes behind in the opening 5 minutes but we rally round and fight right until the end and Dennis Man pops up at the back post to knock home to ensure we end the second derby of the season with another draw.
Europa League Group J Sparta Prague v Standard
Joveljic starting to show his worth here as he gets the only goal of the match with 6 minutes remaining to ensure we we will now finish top of the group.
League
December
There was also one other bit of good news this month as the board have offered me a new contract until the end of 2021.
We strike early again which seems to becoming a pattern with us as we hold on for a tough 1-0 victory.
Sigma Olomouc v Sparta Prague
I honestly thought we should have got something from this match especially after going in at half time in the lead but we end up dropping points to the team in second place to close the gap on us.
Europa League Group J Braga v Sparta Prague
We go out and show that we are going to compete in the early stages of these competitions as we make it 6 wins from 6 in the group stage to help bring in a bit of money to the club.
Sparta Prague v Zlin
After the Braga game we rotated some of the squad and Hlozek came in for a start and had an excellent game with opening the scoring in the 7th minute before getting his second in the 69th. He could be a special talent here.
So in the Czech Republic there is a nice 3 week winter break and the transfer window is different so it was a pretty quiet month apart from us selling players. Well that was until the 26th when the Czech transfer window opens and we have a host of new people join.
The Leavers
We ship out 7 players for close to £15 million with everybody being rotational players at best so we were happy to bring in the money and get them off the wage budget.
The Joiners
Sventozar Markovic joins from Partizan for £2.1 million and will be walking right into the first team.
Next in is Luis Diaz from Junior for £850,000 who will provide back up down the left wing with looking to take over the role.
Pedro Diaz then comes in from Sporting Gijon in the Spanish second division for a free as they had transfer listed him for £0. He will provide a good rotational option in the middle of the park.
Wuilker Farinez comes in from Millonarios for £800,000 and will go straight into the starting line up and hopefully be there for years to come.
Bohemians 1905 v Sparta Prague
After all the time off we come out and grind out a result here with some of our new signings getting a run out but its now time to get them all fit and use to our style of play.
We get lucky here again with Jablonec getting us back into the game by scoring an own goal before Joveljic gets the winner as the game sort of fizzled out after that.
Teplice v Sparta Prague
A much better performance here aided by Dockal's goal just before half time being a massive confidence booster for the team as they get two quick goals to put the game to bed.
Europa League 1st Knockout Round 1st Leg
Young Boys v Sparta Prague
What a performance away from home as the tie is now pretty much over. Dennis Man scored the quickest goal in the Europa League this season in 14 seconds and after that we just went from strength to strength.
Sparta Prague v Viktoria Plzen
We get a massive win again last years champions at home with Docakl coming back into the team to get us another early goal popping up at the back post in the 2nd minute. After that Joveljic cleaned up and got his first senior hat-trick.
Europa League 1st Knockout Round 2nd Leg Sparta Prague v Young Boys
A boring draw at home after a big win away from home but we progress to the 2nd knockout round to play Anderlecht.
Sparta Prague v Banik Ostrava
Baros causing us all sorts of issues in the opening 25 minutes who at 37 is still a legend in Czech football and put us 2-0 down. Thanks to 2 penalties we rally round and manage to come back and win the match 4-2.
With one eye on the Europa League match coming up we rotated a few tired members of the squad but thanks to Palacios we manage to grind out a 1-0 win.
Europa League 2nd Knockout Round 1st Leg
Anderlecht v Sparta Prague
What a match as we put the tie to bed playing the first leg away from home as we run out commanding winners thanks to two late goals in the final 5 minutes.
FA Cup Quarter Final
Parbudice v Sparta Prague
Well this was a shocker against a team in the league below. With it coming so close to the last game we rotated everybody bar our keeper and it didn't work out as we got really lucky with pulling it back 3 times before finally showing our class in the penalty shootout.
Europa League 2nd Knockout Round 1st Leg Sparta Prague v Anderlecht
We struggle in the home tie again but luckily the 1st leg is enough to see us through to the quarter finals where we will be playing Arsenal.
Slovacko v Sparta Prague
A much better performance after two poor ones where we show what we can really do. It shows how good our midfield is here with all 4 goals coming from there.
Sparta Prague v Dukla Prague
A Prague Derby and again 4 of the 5 goals coming from midfield and the last coming from defence. Who needs strikers when the rest of the players can score this amount of goals.
League
April
Youth Intake
So with March brings the youth intake where we managed to bring through two players who look to have the potential to break into the first team so major credit goes to our Head of Youth Development Andries Jonker.
What a disappointing game here as we suffer a big loss even though we pummelled them. We just couldn't get the ball in the goal though which cost us almost as much as our defence here.
Slovan Liberec v Sparta Prague
We manage to bounce back with a win but it was a poor win as I feel we could of done a lot better here but the 3 points is whats important.
Europa League Quarter Final 1st Leg
Sparta Prague v Arsenal
We have a much better performance here as we get yet another early goal which is just as important as the clean sheet for the 2nd leg in London.
Europa League Quarter Final 2nd Leg Arsenal v Sparta Prague
Arsenal showed their class here as they put us to the sword, we didn't help ourselves by giving away a penalty but our run still gives us confidence for another run next year.
Sparta Prague v Mlada Boleslav
Finally a much better performance in the league which came at the perfect time as it see's us finish top for the league split.
FA Cup
Krvina v Sparta Prague
Our young striker comes on at half time and does the business with two great goals to end us to the FA Cup final where we will meet our cross city rivals Slavia Prague.
Championship Group Mlada Boleslav v Sparta Prague
A rotated squad goes out here after a busy month and we collapse and allow two goals in quick succession. The reserves really need to improve.
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